We visited the park on a Monday in early June. We boarded the shuttle from the nearby Hilton Universal Hotel at 7;30 am, were dropped off near the NBC Sports Grill & Brew on the Universal City Walk, and walked to the entrance. After going through security and scanning our early entrance ticket, we proceeded to the left side of the red carpet where they scanned our general admission ticket then we headed to the lower lot which took us a good 15-20 minutes. There was already a 20 minute wait for Bowser’s Challenge. At least there were great things to see while waiting in line. We finished the ride at 8:50 am, bought a couple items in the gift shop and hopped back in the single rider line before the general admission people arrived at 9:05 am. The early admission ticket was worth every penny because we were able to do the Transformers ride, the Jurassic Park ride twice, and the Harry Potter Forbidden Journey ride before 11 am so we could use our early entrance pass to avoid the line on the 60 th anniversary Studio Tour. After the tour we had lunch at Three Broomsticks, which was delicious (see separate review) and went on the second Harry Potter ride, the Flight of the Hippogriff. We hit most of the things we wanted to see by 2:00 pm.
One thing to take note of, be careful if you have vertigo. Many of the rides can trigger this. The Bowser’s challenge was fine, you can always close your eyes near the end if the effects bother you. The Transformers ride was a little rough, I wouldn’t recommend it because of the speed and the amount of spinning. Jurassic Park was fine. The Flight of the Hippogriff was very short but did cause us all to feel dizzy and have some nausea. The Forbidden Journey is not recommended as the effects plus the movement also caused both nausea and dizziness for all of us although it is a really cool ride. You can walk through and exit before boarding if you’d like to see everything but it is extremely dark.
The studio tour was interesting and has several new attractions. Again for those who have vertigo issues there are three sections that may bother you, #1 King Kong: the tram shakes violently and effects are fast moving, I had to hang on and close my eyes through most of it. #2 Earthquake: I was able to keep my eyes open but it did shake quite a bit, it was minor compared to the King Kong experience. #3: Fast and Furious: it appears as though you are going very fast but the tram isn’t going forward, I had to shut my eyes for a majority of the event. I did survive and didn’t get a vertigo episode but I did feel slightly dizzy the rest of the day.
Kids would really enjoy the Super Silly Fun Land and the Minion section, make sure you bring a bathing suit for them. We had a great time, I recommend it!