Universal Islands of Adventure & Disney Springs ♥ Photo Diary

Last Thursday through Sunday I was in Orlando, Florida on a family trip. We only spent two whole days in Orlando and spent Thursday and Sunday traveling, I live in Georgia so it only takes 6-7 hours to drive to Orlando so it’s a quick trip. We went during Spring Break and the weather was perfect! Not too hot nor was it cold and it wasn’t humid which is always a big problem when we go to Orlando in the Summer.

Even though we didn’t spend much time in Flordia we packed a lot into two days and I was able to capture enough pictures for a travel photo diary! I was going to split this photo diary into two parts because I had plenty of photos but I’ll save those for my Instagram story. The day this post goes live I’ll also be sharing pictures from my Flordia trip on my Insta story. Don’t worry I’ll be saving the stories afterward so make sure you follow me on Instagram.

In this photo diary, I’ll be going over what we did on Friday and Saturday. On Friday, we went to Universal Island of Adventure and on Saturday we went to Disney Springs.

On Friday, we went to Universal Islands of Adventure which we have never gone to before. We went to Universal Studios over 20 years ago! However, I don’t remember much just that there was a live Barney show and playing in an outdoor water park. haha

Anyway, I forgot to take a picture of the main logo of Universal Islands of Adventure so I can’t show you what that looks like but if you google it you’ll see pictures of it. We started off going to Seuss Landing first. My 4-year-old nephew is a big fan of Dr. Seuss books. He has a decent collection of Dr. Seuss books and loves it when we read to him or when he hears other people read the books via YouTube.

Seuss Landing is very bright and colorful which is fun to see! There are four rides, gift shops, and dining places in this area. The first ride we rode was The Cat in the Hat ride. After the ride ends you are boarded off at a gift shop with a bunch of Dr. Seuss and Cat in the Hat merch. My nephew picked out a book and an ‘only thing’ shirt which he cutely picked out. They had these adorable Cat and Thing 1 and 2 plushies that were probably my favorite items.

The next ride we waited for in line was The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride. This was a quick but refreshing ride. It takes you throughout Seuss Landing and gets you a nice view of the lake view of Islands of Adventure. However, it was a very short ride! haha

After the ride, we were feeling hungry so me and my younger sister got tater tots at the Green Eggs and Ham cafe. I got vegan pizza tots which consisted of plant-based pepperoni, sausage, mozzarella, and parmesan cheese served over tater tots. I thought it was strange they didn’t have healthy ‘green’ veggie tater tots. Nonetheless, the tater tots were a yummy and hearty snack, I’m not a fan of the taste of vegan pork so I didn’t eat much of the pepperoni or sausage bits but I ate up the rest of the cheesey tots. This was the only meal I ate in the park (I only had this and an oat milk latte from Starbucks my entire day!) but it was filling enough to keep me sustain me throughout the day. The rest of my family got meals at the Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoo-pendous, what a name. haha

We spent a lot of time at the Seuss Landing so I have a lot of pictures from this part of the park. haha

Next up, we hit up The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Hogsmeade. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, everything seemed too squeezed in and this was the busiest part of the whole park. By the way, Universal has two parks and two The Wizarding Worlds in each park. You can board a train that takes you to the other side of The Wizarding World section but you need to buy a ticket for both of the Universal parks which sounds like such a ripoff! If I was a Harry Potter fan (which I’m not) I would be livid! I know next to nothing about Harry Potter as I’ve never read or watched anything Harry Potter-related. To be honest, I’ve never been interested in the whole world of Harry Potter and thanks to J.K Rowling opinions I don’t think I will!

We rode the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey first. You “wait in line” by entering the Hogwarts castle but it was so cool that the wait time doesn’t feel that long especially when you enter the castle and inspect all the details. In the actual ride, you are flown across a bunch of scenes from the films. There were dragons, weird black dead ghosts things, strange spider creatures. It was epic! Everything felt so close which was both cool and slightly scary. I was shocked to see such young children riding this ride! Since I don’t know anything about Harry Potter I definitely felt disconnected from this ride but I still enjoyed it. If you’re prone to getting motion sickness it might be best to avoid this ride.

The next ride we waited for was Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. This time, we went in the single-rider lane to save time. The line was over an hour so we thought that by boarding as single-riders we would get to ride quicker. You can choose to either ride on a motorbike or in the trolley, I rode the trolley. This coaster had everything. thrilling speed, it goes backward and even has a drop! This was another epic ride! At one point the motorbike went by sooooooo fast! I swear it’s the fastest coaster I’ve ever ridden thus far! It was worth the long wait! Both attractions at the Wizarding World were amazing!

One thing that I do know about Harry Potter is there are four different houses of Hogwarts. My older sister who has watched the films says that I give off strong Hufflepuff vibes which I don’t mind because I love the name! Their color is yellow, and their mascot is a beaver. I read on a shirt that I spotted at one of the gift shops (lol) that Hufflepuffs are dedicated, patient, and loyal which aren’t bad characteristics to have! haha

Unfortunately, we didn’t spend too much time at Jurassic Park. I didn’t feel like riding the VelociCoaster because I’m not a fan of riding outdoor rollercoasters and I had just ridden Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure so that was enough for me. I did enjoy all the statues of dinosaurs everywhere as they made for fun photo opts. haha

At this point of the day, my parents, younger sister, and nephew had started to feel sluggish so they went off to get some food and drinks whilst my older sister and I went to explore the Marvel Super Hero Island (old school Marvel). We only rode The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man ride, I loved all the theming in the Spider-Man ride so nostalgic! While we were waiting in line the ride kept having technical issues which they announced twice over speakers. We pulled through though and ended up riding the ride. It was cool but if you get motion sickness you may want to skip this ride as well.

We didn’t visit all the lands at Universal Islands of Adventure, we didn’t get to visit Skull Island and Toon Lagoon because we didn’t have an interest in visiting those lands.

After we got off the ride, it was near closing time at the park so we went off to explore Universal’s City Walk where a collection of restaurants and shops are located, think of it as a tiny Disney Springs.

We ended the day by waiting in another line but this time it was for VooDoo Doughnuts! VooDoo Doughnuts is a popular chain of doughnuts (they have a variety of vegan options) that originated from Portland, Ohio. They only have a few select locations and I believe this is the only location available in the South so it was a must! It was a short wait and we got to indulge in some doughnuts afterward! I chose the VooDoo man doughnut which is a vegan jelly-filled doughnut and it was AMAZINGLY DELIOCUS! We got lucky as we got a voodoo man doughnut with two heads!

On Saturday, my family went to the Orlando Outlets in the morning. I’m not an outlet girl so I stayed at the Airbnb and stayed with Lucy whom we brought. I also needed to refuel and charge my social battery from the day before. That afternoon, we went out to eat with my uncle and his girlfriend who live in Orlando. After dinner, we drove to Disney Springs!

When we arrived at Disney Springs it was already 7-8 pm and the first thing my older sister and I did was queue in line for Gideon’s Bakehouse (can you tell we have Taurus in our top 3? haha). This is another huge deal if you have a sweet tooth because their cookies are SPECTACULAR! I went with their monthly limited edition cookie for April which is the White Chocolate Caramel Macadamia Nut Cookie! It was so decadent and heavenly! My problem with Gideon’s cookies is that most of them include some sort of chocolate and I don’t like chocolate that much. Last time, I got their Banana Bread Chocolate Chip cookie and that had too much chocolate for me. However, I loved their White Chocolate Caramel Macadamia Nut Cookie cookie! The caramel was salted which I’m not a big fan of but I think it worked really well with the rest of the ingredients in the cookie.

I also choose their Cookies & Cream nitro cold brew which is vegan and served with oat milk. Last time I was at Gideon’s I had their peanut butter nitro cold brew which I LOVED! So, now my mission is to try every flavor. Their peanut butter cold brew is my favorite but the cookies & cream cold brew was good too. On this trip, not only did I get their limited edition monthly menu and drink holder but my sister also gave me her illustrated collectibles which included a double-sided print and a collectible card. I like to use these in my mood boards because I adore the spooky artwork.

After Gideon’s, we went to the shopping plaza in Disney Springs and visited Sephora and Uniqlo where I bought a few things which I’ll share below. We took a break and indulged in some DoleWhips because it’s a Disney must! Afterward, we browsed some of the Disney stores. They had a lot of cute drinkware. I took a lot of pictures of some cute Disney merch so enjoy! I didn’t buy anything at the Disney stores because this was a Universal trip! haha

I wanted to end this post with a little haul of what I bought at Disney Spring. As you can see not much! I finally got an official Uniqlo round mini-should bag. I have a black knockoff bag that I bought from Amazon last year but I wanted to get one of the pastel bags that Uniqlo sells. However, I wasn’t too crazy about the colors in person. I wasn’t even sure if I should buy a bag but knowing me I knew I would regret it if I didn’t get one. I was drawn to the yellow bag but I opted for the purple bag because it’s the color I wear the most. I also spotted a Moomin shirt! I was so shocked to see this as I never see Moomin merch in the United States so of course I had to buy it!

From Sephora, I bought some skincare. I stocked up on the Azelaic Acid Suspension, this is now my 3-4 bottle of this stuff, and definitely, still my favorite azelaic acid I’ve tried thus far! Before this, I was trying out the Inky List’s azelaic acid for the second time because I was working on a blog post comparing both of these azelaic acid products that will be out sometime soon. I also bought the caffeine eye cream by The Inky List which I’ve been wanting to try.

Overall, I had a joyous time in Orlando, Florida but it went by way too quickly but doesn’t every vacation like that? haha

Have you been to Universal’s Islands of Adventure before?