Looking to plan the perfect day at Universal Studios Florida? Well we’ve got the plan for you. In our Universal Studios Florida one day itinerary, we’ll take you step-by-step through a full day at the park!
About This One Day Plan
Not all guests are going to spend a full day at Universal Studios Florida. We advise spending a full day at both of Universal Orlando’s parks, though, and so this one-day plan is built with that in mind. We also have a one day itinerary for Universal’s Islands Adventure. The most common reason to split your day between the two parks is to focus on Wizarding World, and we’ve got a one day plan for that if Harry Potter is what you’re here for.
This post covers fourteen (14) attractions at Universal Studios Florida (if you filter the Universal app to rides in this park, you’ll see the list of 14). This post does not go in-depth discussing the different rides. For more information, we have a Guide to the rides of Universal Studios Florida. Also, your day may be greatly helped if you have Universal Express Pass.
This post is largely based off a day when crowds were at level 8 out of 10 by Touring Plans measurements. The afternoon has been tweaked significantly to emphasize the importance of flexibility, priorities, and “building” your own day. It’s important to remember that things like weather or unexpected ride closures can throw a wrench into your day.
This plan is not based on visiting with a small child and does not use child swap, which allows parents to swap supervising a child who does not meet a height requirement without waiting in line twice. If you do use child swap, your day will move more slowly as you have to wait for two people to ride each ride.
Finally, while this plan covers until the 9PM hour, the park won’t always be open that late. During off season, or when evening events like Halloween Horror Nights dictate, the park may close as early as 5PM. Be sure to mind the hours for the day of your visit.
Early Park Admission
Every day, at least one of Universal Orlando’s two parks has Early Park Admission. This perk, primarily for guests of Universal’s hotels, allows guests to enter the park one hour early to enjoy select rides. Early Park Admission alternates between Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure, but it will often only be at one park for weeks or months at a time. Check the website for future updates.
This post starts with two sections—one for guests with Early Admission, and one for guests without Early Admission and days without Early Admission. Our advice for guests without Early Admission winds up being the same whether or not Early Admission is available to other guests. For the rest of the post, we’ll generally be assuming there is no Early Admission (so guests who had Early Admission are just ahead of our outlined plan by a ride or two).
Guests With Early Park Admission
As covered more in-depth in our Early Park Admission post, guests with Early Park Admission will ideally visit both Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts and Despicable Me Minion Mayhem during Early Park Admission.
Arriving 30 minutes before the beginning of the early hour should be sufficient to fit both of those in most days. If you can only visit one, we learn recommend visiting Despicable Me Minion Mayhem early and saving Gringotts for later because Gringotts has a really enjoyable queue and is located in a more remote section of the park.
Guests Without Early Park Admission and Days Without Early Park Admission
Also as covered more in-depth in our Early Park Admission post, guests without Early Park Admission will probably just want to ignore both Escape from Gringotts and Minion Mayhem until the afternoon.
Heading to Minion Mayhem after riding Rip Ride Rockit is maybe okay if it has a low wait, but the lengthy experience on Minion Mayhem encourages us to punt it until later in the day.
This is the same strategy we recommend everyone follow on days without Early Park Admission.
Morning at Universal Studios Florida
This post is written based on a 9AM official open (Early Park Admission would start at 8AM). Always check the park hours for the specific hours on your visit. 8AM opens with 7AM Early Park Admission happen fairly regularly.
On busier days, upon starting your day, you’ll want to check the Universal app to see if any rides are using a “Virtual Line.” If so, you’ll want to grab return times for the afternoon. Virtual lines are rare, but it costs nothing to quickly check to see if any rides have a “virtual line” indicator where their wait time should be.
We recommend grabbing them for times that will allow you to ride both between 5PM and 6PM. You can modify them later (as long as there’s availability), if your plans change. Don’t grab them for the exact same time slots.
The immediate priorities for the morning are the following five rides: Rip Ride Rockit, Transformers, Revenge of the Mummy, The Simpsons Ride, and MEN IN BLACK. These aren’t necessarily the most popular rides in the park—Gringotts is missing, for example. But the goal is to quickly get these done to free up the rest of your day.
In a perfect morning, you’ll walk onto all five of those in that order. If the waits are at or under 15 minutes, you should just proceed through them in that order. If a wait exceeds 15 minutes, consider skipping that ride and coming back later. Your goal is to walk on to as many rides as quickly as possible before settling for waiting in any lines.
Arrive about 30 minutes before the park opens if you don’t have Early Park Admission. Whether you’re coming from Early Park Admission or starting without it, your first priority is Rip Ride Rockit.
A good target is to be on that ride at about 9:12AM. If you do have to pass on Rip Ride Rockit for now, be sure to pay attention to the weather. Don’t get stuck in a situation where afternoon thunderstorms keep you off the ride.
Rip Ride Rockit is also a finicky ride. It might open late due to scheduled or unexpected downtime. Check the app for any information on delayed opening. If the ride is scheduled to open later, plan to come back at that time. You can also use the app to set an alert for when the ride opens, particularly useful if the status is simply “Delayed.”
9:12AM Rip Ride Rockit
The other four rides—Transformers, Revenge of the Mummy, The Simpsons Ride, and MEN IN BLACK—are the core of the morning. If you get through these quickly, you’re in great shape for the rest of the day.
These four should have waits of 15 minutes or less. If you’re behind schedule, or the waits are getting bigger than 15 minutes, it can be a good idea to push Transformers or Revenge of the Mummy later into the day.
Because The Simpsons Ride has a dull, outdoor queue, it’s a good idea to avoid having a long wait on that one. Transformers and Revenge of the Mummy, by contrast, both have themed indoor queues—good for a break from the Orlando afternoon weather.
Here’s what a good schedule for boarding these four looks like:
9:20AM Transformers
9:33AM Revenge of the Mummy
9:57AM The Simpsons Ride
10:17AM Men In Black
There’s two rides left on this side of the park that you might want to quickly fit in: Kang and Kodos Twirl ‘n’ Hurl and ET Adventure. ET Adventure is a higher priority, both because of ride quality and typical wait times. That said, if you can hop on Kang and Kodos while walking by, it makes sense to just get it done.
On a good day you can squeeze these two in by 11AM:
10:30AM Kang and Kodos Twirl ‘n’ Hurl
10:55AM E.T. Adventure
Trollercoaster is near E.T. Adventure, and if you’re looking to get on every ride then now is as good a time as any to ride it. If you have a small child, you’ll probably want to spend significant time in the land later in the day, so it’s okay if you pass on the ride now. If you don’t have a small child and you aren’t a completionist, you can probably skip Trollercoaster.
If your morning went perfectly without Early Park Admission, you should have seven rides done by 11AM. With Early Park Admission, the count is at nine. Things won’t always go perfectly, but we encourage you to try and have at least seven attractions done before you start thinking about lunch, entertainment, or characters.
Afternoon Planning at Universal Studios Florida
Around 11AM, it’s time to start thinking about entertainment, lunch, and your afternoon.
There’s no perfect way to balance entertainment, character greetings, and rides in the afternoon. It’s nearly impossible (if not actually impossible) to fit everything in just because of conflicting show schedules.
And if you pushed a lot of rides into the afternoon, you’ll have more lines to wait in. This part of the day is just about priorities. Hopefully your morning went as well as possible so you have fewer decisions to make.
Afternoon Rides
Following this itinerary, you should have between five (if you started with Early Park Admission) and seven (if you missed Early Park Admission) rides left. Let’s talk about them…
Two are the Early Park Admission rides—Escape from Gringotts and Despicable Me Minion Mayhem. There’s no perfect time for these, you’ll just have to try and find space for them in your afternoon if you missed the extra morning hour. Gringotts—the better of the two—is probably somewhat easier to fit into your day because we highly recommend dedicating a good chunk of your afternoon to Diagon Alley.
Two are mid-priority rides—Fast & Furious and Race Through New York. You shouldn’t have much trouble fitting them into your afternoon.
Two are low-priority, in my mind. Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast is only worth a 10-or-fewer minute wait, and probably only if you’re already in the area (for Minion Mayhem or on your way out of the park). Trollercoaster is a fine kiddie coaster, but it’s still a kiddie coaster. If you’ve got a small child, it’s worth fitting in, otherwise I wouldn’t stress about it.
Hogwarts Express is tricky. Remember, you need a park-to-park ticket to ride this one. As we cover more in the evening section, we recommend riding Hogwarts Express near the very end of your day (read more about it below).
Afternoon Entertainment & Characters
Universal Studios Florida has more entertainment than its sister park, Universal’s Islands of Adventure. It’s unlikely you’ll catch everything, but we always strive to catch as much as possible.
The park has basically two types of entertainment—stage shows and streetmosphere.
Stage shows are (as they sound like) performed in larger theaters and occur less frequently through the day. These shows are usually about 20 to 30 minutes long. The stage shows are: DreamWorks Imagination Celebration, The Bourne Stuntacular, Animal Actors on Location, and Horror Make-Up Show (we recommend skipping).
Streetmosphere occurs at select spots in the open areas of the park, and usually consists of 5 to 15-minute shows more frequently throughout the day. The current streetmosphere lineup consists of around five shows, including things like The Blues Brothers, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and Vamos Bailalo.
You should always check the most recent entertainment schedule (it’s on the app or you can get it at guest services), don’t rely on the times here, which are just provided as an example.
Although not strictly entertainment, we do recommend you try and plan for about an hour to explore Diagon Alley. There are two pieces of streetmosphere entertainment in Diagon Alley, each 15 minutes long and typically held one at the top and one at the bottom of the hour—The Tales of Beedle the Bard and Celestina Warbeck and the Banshees.
As of this update, Universal is running the Universal Mega Movie Parade. Parades are not as big a staple of the day in Universal as they are in Disney parks. Check the app to see if there’s one running during your visit (we’re particularly fond of the holiday parade, for what it’s worth).
The same flexibility applies to the nighttime fountain show. The current one is CineSational: A Symphonic Spectacular, but check the app to see if a show is running during your visit. Keep in mind that if you’re planning to finish your day with a Hogwarts Express ride out of the park, you might have to miss any nighttime entertainment.
Finally, on their app, Universal categorizes characters as a type of entertainment. Make sure you know what characters you want to meet and where and when they’ll be greeting. Besides standard character greetings, there are a few more interesting character experiences, like Po Live! where kids can received a Kung Fu lesson.
Example Afternoon at Universal Studios Florida
We’re going to build this afternoon bit by bit with some commentary. Let’s start with lunch and the first few hours.
We aren’t big foodies, so we just stick to quick service lunch. The most options are found in Fast food Boulevard, in Springfield. This spot gets incredibly busy midday, though. Even using mobile order, I waited about 20 minutes for my order to be ready one afternoon.
If you’re game, we recommend mobile ordering pizza from Louie’s Italian Restaurant. This puts you near a variety of streetmosphere that you can slip in before, after, or during your meal. You’ll also be close to a few of your remaining rides.
If you’re prioritizing Wizarding World, you could have lunch at Leaky Cauldron to kick off your time in Diagon Alley. I prefer to get a little more done in the rest of the park before heading to Diagon Alley, but you can make this earlier visit work, too.
Try to go to at least one stage show in the early afternoon. You can’t push all of them late in the day because the limited, overlapping showtimes cause conflicts.
If your morning ran late, you might have a quicker lunch, skip the streetmosphere, or skip a stage show. You could also prioritize a remaining “must-do” ride here if you’re concerned about your evening being too busy—just push one of the stage shows later in the day.
Here’s a look at an early afternoon schedule that focuses on stage shows:
11:00AM Streetmosphere, Lunch at Louie’s
12:45PM Bourne Stuntacular
1:30PM Animal Actors on Location
Next up, we head to Diagon Alley to check off up to three boxes there—two shows and a ride. If the timing here isn’t perfect, that’s alright. Some extra downtime time to explore Diagon Alley with a butterbeer is awesome part of a day at Universal Studios Florida.
This is the sort of block you can shift around your day depending on how much you want to be sure you get some other attractions in. It’s common for both Diagon Alley shows to run later into the day than the other shows.
If you’re worried about rides, you might prioritize rides, planning to visit those two shows in the evening hours before hopping on the Hogwarts Express. Just check the schedules in the app, first. Also, be sure to catch the dragon blowing fire every ten minutes (usually on the 10s of the hour).
2:45 Escape from Gringotts (Approx. 60 minute wait)
3:00 Celestina Warbeck and the Banshees
Most shows will stop around 4PM, and that’s when you just need to start dealing with any remaining rides. Pushing too many rides this late is a risky endeavor, though, which is why we mentioned above that you could also have prioritized rides earlier.
4:15 Despicable Me Minion Mayhem (Approx. 45 minute wait)
4:45 Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast (5 minute wait)
5:20 Race Through New York (15 minute wait)
6PM Fast & Furious (15 minute wait)
Evening at Universal Studios Florida
Following our itinerary, the only ride left is the Hogwarts Express. With the parade and nighttime spectacular no longer showing, your evening should be pretty simple. The only decisions you have to make are (1) where you want to eat dinner and (2) how you’re going to handle the Hogwarts Express. These are related…let’s explain…
Evening Rides on The Hogwarts Express (Some Options)
Now, you noticed by now that we still haven’t covered the Hogwarts Express. Well, you need park-to-park tickets to ride the Hogwarts Express, and each ride is only one way. To come back, you’ll have to wait in line at the other park. So you’ve got a few options.
First, you could have dinner at Universal Studios Florida and then ride over to Islands of Adventure. Just make sure there’s no issue with Islands of Adventure closing before Universal Studios Florida (Hogwarts Express closes with the earlier of the two parks). Second, you could ride over the Islands of Adventure and have dinner there. But we have a third option we prefer…
Third, you could ride it to the other park (Islands of Adventure), and then watch their nighttime show, usually a Hogwarts projection show (exact show/title varies). This is generally our preference.
Dinner at Universal Studios Florida?
Board Hogwarts Express to Islands of Adventure
Dinner at Islands of Adventure?
Nighttime Lights at Hogwarts
Either way, this wraps up your day at Universal Studios Florida!
Complete Example Itinerary
In case you jumped here, this is a reminder that this is a sample itinerary. It notably does not include any character interactions, so you may shuffle things around to fit those in. It is based on a day with park hours from 9AM to 9PM.
While the core of this itinerary is a full day spent at Universal Studios Florida with high crowds, significant changes were made to the actual itinerary to more sensibly organize things and to emphasize (as we did throughout the rest of this post) flexibility and weighing your personal priorities.
7:30AM Arrive for Early Park Admission, if applicable
8AM to 9AM Early Park Admission
8:30 Arrive for Regular Park Opening
9AM Scheduled Park Opening (check your visit’s actual hours)
9:12 Rip Ride Rockit
9:20 Transformers
9:33 Revenge of the Mummy
9:57 The Simpsons Ride
10:17 Men In Black
10:30 Kang and Kodos Twirl ‘n’ Hurl
10:55 E.T. Adventure
11:00 Streetmosphere, Lunch at Louie’s
12:45PM Bourne Stuntacular
1:30 Animal Actors on Location
2:45 Escape from Gringotts (Approx. 60 minute wait)
3:00 Celestina Warbeck and the Banshees
4:15 Despicable Me Minion Mayhem (Approx. 45 minute wait)
4:45 Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast (5 minute wait)
5:20 Race Through New York (15 minute wait)
6PM Fast & Furious (15 minute wait)
Dinner at Universal Studios Florida?
Board Hogwarts Express to Islands of Adventure
Dinner at Islands of Adventure?
Nighttime Lights at Hogwarts
All Your Other Universal Orlando Planning Questions Answered
Don't be overwhelmed by Universal Orlando planning! Take a second to check out our most important content!
Just starting out? Start with our Universal Orlando Resort planning guide! If you’re considering a Universal hotel, read our Review of Universal’s Aventura Hotel!
You’ll want to know what rides the parks offer, so we’ve got a Universal Studios Florida Rides Guide and a Universal’s Islands of Adventure Rides Guide. And to know how to get on them without the long waits, read all about Express Pass at Universal Orlando Resort.
If you’d like an idea of how to plan a day at these parks, we can help there, too. Our One Day Universal Studios Florida Itinerary covers a full day at the original park, and our Universal’s Islands of Adventure One Day Plan covers that park.
Early risers always have the best theme parks days (well, we think so). Read about Early Park Admission at Universal Orlando to learn how to get an extra hour in the parks. And read about rope drop at Islands of Adventure, including getting on the brand new Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure.