It’s never too late to re-cap and reflect on an amazing vacation, friends! My trip with one of my sisters to Universal Studios in August 2025 came about over a shared love of something very, very special. Travel? No. Harry Potter? No. Motherhood? No. Zachariah Porter, of course! My sister and I love Zachariah Porter and if you are not already following him on Instagram, you need to! His impressions always crack us up so much and when we saw he was doing live shows, we knew we wanted to go. At that time, his Boston area shows were selling out so quickly that we didn’t get a chance to get tickets, so we decided to look at seeing him elsewhere. Lo and behold, he had an Orlando show in late August and the date worked well for us to make a long weekend of it. When tickets went on sale, I jumped on them immediately and our plans to do a long weekend at Universal with an evening of Zachariah mixed in spilled out from there.
Initially I looked at booking us in one of Universal’s premier-level hotels, specifically looking at Loews Portofino Bay. In addition to their great proximity and transportation options to the parks, the main draw was that those hotels include express pass as part of your stay, which allows you to wait in a shorter line for select attractions at the parks. We ultimately decided that the cost difference wasn’t worth it to us, and we felt that the crowds would probably be low enough that time of year that we could either wait in standby (especially knowing we wouldn’t have our kids with us who may have had a harder time waiting) or if it was really busy, we could always decide to buy express pass later. We ended up deciding to stay at Loews Sapphire Falls and we were happy with this choice. Luckily, wait times at the parks were very manageable our entire trip. I booked a hotel package for us with two nights at Sapphire Falls and 1 day, park to park tickets plus 1 day at the new-ish Epic Universe.
We flew out very early on Friday morning and decided to rent a car the Orlando Airport. If we were not going to have to leave Universal for the show, we would have probably taken a transportation service from the airport to hotel but a small car for three days was reasonable enough. Upon arriving in Orlando it promptly started pouring buckets! It was actually crazy. There are many great things about visiting central Florida that time of year but for sure, bring your ponchos, friends! We drove straight to Sapphire Falls to check in. This hotel is beautiful and immediately inviting with its expansive lobby and windows showcasing the amazing pool with waterslide. I can see it being ideal for everyone from families with young kids to couples. The check-in process was so easy and the counter to pick up your park tickets is right in the hotel lobby too! Yes, they’re actual park tickets versus on your phone. It’s a bit different from Disney hotels in that way since the hotels are not technically owned by Universal.
We ate lunch at the hotel’s Amatista Cookhouse, which was great and easy to get a table at. They also have a couple other dining options including Strong Water Tavern, which I’ve heard great things about but we didn’t get a chance to try. After lunch we headed to our room, which was well decorated in kind of a beachy décor style and appeared very clear and fresh with plenty of space. We had a slight view of Islands of Adventure from our room. The beds were so comfortable I was couldn’t resist falling asleep for a few minutes before we headed out to the pool area. Luckily the rain had subsided, and we were able to enjoy some time outdoors. We checked out the very cute poolside Drhum Club Kantine for cocktails, which were very fun and delicious. The hotel and pool were lively but not at all crowded and we had no trouble finding a couple of well positioned lounge chairs.
Friday evening was Zachariah’s show, which was so.much.fun. Seriously, our cheeks hurt from laughing so much. We headed back to the hotel to get a solid night’s sleep before the start of our Universal fun! On Saturday, we didn’t want to have a super strict schedule but I knew I wanted to start at Islands of Adventure and try to rope drop Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, which neither of us had ever done before. We took the water taxi from Sapphire Falls over to the park, which was so lovely and probably took less than 10 minutes. We had enough time to stop at Starbucks at CityWalk and then headed to where crowds were lining up for park opening. We made friends with two other gals in line who kind of took us under their wings as they were also there to rope drop Hagrid’s. Once that rope drops it’s on and people start power walking in all directions. You really kind of want to have a game plan! Once we got in line for Hagrid’s we still had to wait probably about 40-45 minutes but it was well worth it! That attraction is absolutely thrilling and probably top two roller coasters for me (tied with Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind).
I really loved the theming of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter so much. I got fully in the spirit with a frosty butterbeer, which was delicious and we took the Hogwarts Express over to Universal Studios, which was very cool. We did several other attractions including Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, Revenge of the Mummy and Transformers. We were pretty much done with attractions by mid afternoon and one of the things I love about Universal is how close CityWalk is – it’s literally right there. We were able to walk over and grab a late lunch at The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium. We also went to the very popular VooDoo Doughnut and they were every bit as good as they look. Since Sapphire Falls is so closeby, we easily took the water taxi back to rest for a bit and then went back out later on to check out a few more attractions but we chickened out on Velocicoaster and The Incredible Hulk.
Our last day, Sunday, was our Epic Universe day! I was super excited to check out this new park for the first time. It’s not walkable from most hotels, including Sapphire Falls, so we took a bus over which was super easy and quick. Epic is a beautiful park. It definitely looks shiny and new. We started our day as the very first people to ride one of the most thrilling rides at the park…Constellation Carousel. Obviously kidding, but it is seriously a beautiful carousel, and we had a good laugh over our rope drop “strategy”. Most people seem to beeline it for Super Nintendo World, so we checked that area out next. It’s for sure very visually cool and the attractions were fun, but not our favorite. We both actually loved Dark Universe the most, especially Curse of the Werewolf. It’s short but we had so much fun on that ride. Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry was opening a little after the park itself, so once the time came we headed there because I knew I wanted to try to get on. We waited maybe 35-40 minutes or so but the queue is so amazing it was honestly delightful. We both enjoyed the attraction a lot but wow, the queue is just next level immersive.
That pretty much wrapped up our sister trip at Universal! If you can believe, I was in Orlando and didn’t even set foot on Disney property (though we considered a quick trip over to Disney Springs). I definitely want to go back with my family and I think my husband would appreciate some of the more thrilling rides, while I know my girls would love all the Harry Potter theming. Not to mention the amazing pool at Sapphire Falls, which any kid (or kid at heart) would absolutely love. If you’re interested in booking your sister, family, couples, ANY trip – I think Universal is a great option and I’d love to help! Thanks for reading and happy travels!