“Jenn, you just completed your fifth Marine Corps Marathon and twentieth marathon overall – what are you gonna do next?” Baby, I’m going to Universal Studios Florida for Halloween Horror Nights! You know I’m all about theme park life.
That’s right – while the rest of you lucky suckers are running Wine & Dine Weekend races, I’ll be getting my heart racing in an entirely different way. It’s been five years since my last Universal trip, so I’m pretty psyched.
Indeed, in five years much can change in a theme park, especially one as high-caliber as Universal Studios. (As an aside, I cannot WAIT to see what Epic Universe pushes Disney to create. I’m hoping for a battle royal wherein the fans are the true winners.) With that in mind, I thought I’d throw together a little trip to-do list as I have sometimes done in advance of my Disney travels.
Here are my Universal goals:
UNIVERSAL TO-DOs
• Ride Velocicoaster! Very important. Half the reason we’re going as far as I’m concerned.
• Ride Hagrid’s Magical Motorbike Adventure! Or whatever it’s called! I can never get it to stick in my head. At any rate, I’ve only ridden it once, and I’d like to change that.
• Ride Revenge of the Mummy! I have ridden Revenge of the Mummy several billion times and it is my FAVORITE. Needless to say I am packing my The Mummy shirt. Brendan Fraser is on it and everything.
• Go through the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Horror Nights haunted house! Pat loooooves Ghostbusters so this is the other half of the reason we’re going. I hear it’s got plenty of callbacks to the originals, which I’m looking forward to.
• Check out the Dementors in Diagon Alley. I am Harry Potter-neutral at best, but Diagon Alley is undeniably awesome. Adding Dementors should enhance some already nifty atmospherics.
• This one’s a maybe, but I’d love to check out Toothsome Emporium if I can. I’m not sure if this trip group is quite as enthralled with that kind of theme park tomfoolery as I am, so I’m not sure it’ll happen; still, I may as well throw out the bullet point and hope for the best, no?
GOT ANY UNIVERSAL SUGGESTIONS?
As I said, it’s been a minute since I visited Universal Studios. If you’ve got any suggestions, lay ’em on me! Don’t forget to follow along on Instagram for my doings as well as my Universal trip wardrobe (yes, my Mr. DNA dress will make an appearance). And of course we’ll all meet back here for my inescapable trip report. See you there!
Don’t forget, you can follow FRoA on Twitter @fairestrunofall and on Instagram @fairestrunofall. If you have any questions or thoughts, leave a comment or email fairestrunofall@gmail.com. See ya real soon!