Pictured above: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™ at Universal Studios Florida
By: Mary Moore Mason
Can three generations of one family, each with different interests, visit five Florida theme parks in the middle of a major US holiday season and keep on speaking terms?
That was the challenge my Virginia-based son, Mark Redfern, his wife, Wendy, my 12-year-old granddaughter, Rose, and I faced when we headed at short notice to five Florida theme parks.
As their work and school schedules mandated travel during the Thanksgiving holiday season when flights, rental cars and hotels were both expensive and heavily booked, we headed by family car about 760 miles south to Orlando, staying in pleasant but inexpensive motels along the way.
Luckily, theme park tickets had already been secured but accommodation had been in doubt until the last minute when the helpful Experience Kissimmee tourism office found us a holiday home in their area’s Reunion Resort & Golf Club.
We also needed to factor in co-ordinating our plans with those of Wendy’s mother, Pat Lynch, who was visiting her Florida home in Cocoa Beach and wanted to join us. In fact, that diversion proved to be a bonus – we spent some time at the wide, sandy beach her condo overlooked, Rose and Wendy went on a thrilling kayak excursion, and we enjoyed a delicious, waterfront seafood meal with some of Pat’s friends. (Both Mark and Rose are vegetarians, the rest of us are not, so throughout that presented a few dining challenges.)
And then, on short notice, we were joined, but only for Universal Studios Florida and the adjacent Isles of Adventure, by Pat’s Florida-based great-granddaughter, Emmy, 14, and her aunt, Jessica. How would Rose and Emmy, who scarcely knew one another, get along?
That question was soon answered when they were happily photographed together with their heads in the mouth of a massive model of the shark from Jaws. The companionship continued as we headed toward the domain of Harry Potter and his mates in picturesque Universal Studios’ Diagon Alley, arriving just in time to view the fire-breathing dragon at the top of the Gringotts Wizarding Bank.
First stop – Ollivander’s Wand Shop, where a young girl, selected from the crowd by the host wizard, was mysteriously linked up (after several tries) with just the right wand. Rather than being gifted to her by the wizard, as we anticipated, her parents were immediately presented with a bill. We can only hope that the wand will prove to be extremely useful in the years to come.
While Mark and I wandered around the buzzy area of shops and restaurants, sipping the creamy Butterbeer so popular with Hogwarts students, Wendy and Rose headed off to take the 3D Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts ride through the vaults of the namesake bank.
Then, joined by Mark, they headed for an indoor E.T. Adventure sky ride on a bicycle-inspired rollercoaster that ended in ET’s magical Green Planet homeland. I was sorry I hadn’t joined them after hearing their enthusiastic description of the adventure inspired by Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial – and the only ride remaining from the park’s 1990 opening days.
Instead, I moved on to the Isles of Adventure’s Marvel Super Hero Island, enjoying a cone of technicoloured ice cream while watching a Spider-Man lookalike pop into the building that houses The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. Nearby, Captive America was signing the autograph book of a young fan while a mini parade passed by, which included such colourful Marvel characters as Storm and Rogue, later photographed with Rose.
And nearby was a whole new Harry Potter fiefdom that included awesome, multi-turreted hill-top Hogwarts Castle, Hogsmeade Village and several themed rides, the most thrilling, according to Rose and Wendy, being Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure.
Moving on, we confronted a rip-roaring King Kong and a ferocious dinosaur as we rode expedition vehicles through Skull Island: Reign of Kong. Then it was time to return to Universal Studios to enjoy jukebox oldies and hot dogs and hamburgers (vegi for Mark and Rose) at 1950s-style Mel’s Diner, inspired, we were told, by the drive-in in the 1973 film American Graffiti.
The evening ended with a return to our holiday home, set in the middle of a well-landscaped complex of vacation villas, which also encompassed three golf courses, a hotel, Water Park, tennis courts, fitness centre and six dining venues (one of which later in the visit was the site of our delicious Thanksgiving buffet dinner).
As soon as we opened the door of our two-storey villa, we were greeted by white marble floors, soft, relaxing lighting, tasteful furnishings and an array of culinary treats displayed on the open-plan kitchen counter – plus a bottle of white wine in the fridge. Up the handsome staircase were four bedrooms, each with an en suite bathroom and TV, and, best of all, on the back patio was a private, heated swimming pool with a plunge pool by its side.
It was there that Pat felt particularly comfortable, having at the outset explained that, being Florida-based, she had escorted numerous children and grandchildren to the theme parks over many years and felt no need to revisit them. I then confided that I had no wish to indulge in any death-defying theme park rides but welcomed the rest of the experience. (Later in our visit, Pat and I relaxed on sun loungers in the resort’s Water Park while Rose and Wendy floated in inner tubes down the park’s Lazy River.)
The next morning we headed to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where we began our visit at Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular!, inspired by the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark and featuring the daredevil adventures of Indy and his lady friend, Marion, as they escaped from assassins via a small plane.
Mark and Rose then headed off to hurtle through hyperspace on the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, to be joined by Wendy and me at Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Mark’s favourite ride. Greeted by rows of menacing, white uniformed and helmeted Storm Troopers we then went on a wham-bam battle with the baddies, which I must admit I enjoyed in spite of my no-such-ride vow.
Time for liquid refreshments – and quite exotic they were – at the Star Wars- themed Oga’s Cantina, and then off to Muppet Vision 3D, where insufferable Miss Piggy got her comeuppance not once but twice, Statler and Waldorf sat above us in a balcony heckling the show and we met some other animatronic characters. Alas, the attraction, long a mainstay of the park, is expected to be replaced by a Monsters Inc. ride. However, elsewhere a former rollercoaster ride associated with the band Aerosmith is being rebranded into one themed with the Muppets.
Among the dining options we checked out was the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant, where you can enjoy hamburgers, hot dogs and other typical American treats while sitting in a car-shaped booth watching such films as Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.
Next day came the Magic Kingdom – nostalgic for me and perhaps for Mark as I had taken him there when he was only four. It still exuded the same magic. We took selfies at Cinderella’s Castle, a boat tour past It’s A Small World’s animatronic tableaux and then went underground into the lair of the Pirates of the Caribbean, where our craft cascaded down a spine-tingling waterfall. On her own, Wendy braved Outer-Space-themed Space Mountain, the updated version of Florida’s oldest rollercoaster, which she said was “really scary”.
And, of course, there was the absolutely splendid night-time Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade, complete with marching bands, costumed stilt walkers, various Princesses, Peter Pan, the Little Mermaid and the traditional stars of the show, Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
Then, on our final day, came EPCOT, the big surprise of our visit. I had visited ‘The Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow’ years before, finding it beautiful and, because of its national pavilions, culturally interesting (although its name was a bit misleading) but devoid of any major exciting activities. Wendy, too, had visited it as a child, recalling it as “beautiful and pleasant to wander around as the sun went down over the lake”. But now she proclaimed it “the highlight of our Florida trip”, with its Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind rollercoaster adventure “the most fun ride I’ve ever been on my entire life”. Rose agreed that its scenes of galactic battle were thrilling – and, as a great fan of Anime cartoons who is also learning Japanese on Duolingo, she was intrigued by the Japan Pavilion, spending much time viewing its exhibitions and much pocket money in its shop.
Meanwhile, Mark and I headed for the China Pavilion with its spectacular recreation of the Temple of Heaven and its Circle-Vision 360 Reflections of China film, which includes scenes from both ancient and modern days. And we all agreed that the pizza we munched on in the Italy Pavilion was outstanding.
Then, while the others were further experiencing various death-defying rides, I sat sipping a pint or two in the garden of the United Kingdom Pavilion’s Rose and Crown Dining Room overlooking a thatched cottage in one direction, and a sparkling lake in the other. Later, as the sun went down, the lake became the stunning setting for a spectacular, music-accompanied fireworks extravaganza.
When I asked Wendy to have the final word on our Florida holiday, she replied: “Experiencing these parks with multiple generations and multiple interests worked out perfectly. It seemed like everyone was taken in by the magic and there was something for us all.”
PLANNING YOUR TRIP
- Other related theme parks: In addition to those described, Disney’s Animal Kingdom offers animal encounters, safaris, themed lands and other attractions, Universal’s Polynesian-themed Volcano Bay features water-based thrills, and, on May 22, 2025, Universal will open its nearby, and massive, five-section Universal Epic Universe.
- Admission costs: These vary considerably based upon the size of your group, how many parks and attractions you want to visit, if a hotel in your chosen theme park is included, the time of year (try to avoid main holiday periods) and whether you want to pay extra to avoid the queues at all or some attractions. Consult your local travel agent/tour operator, then check out Universal Studios (universalorlando.com) and Walt Disney World (disneyholidays.co.uk), noting that when we went to press AttractionTickets.com was offering a summer 2025, 14-day Disney and Universal Combo Ticket from £1,049 per adult and £1,015 per child aged 3-9, including all theme and water parks, among them the new Universal Epic Universe.
- Getting around: When timing your travel to the various parks, note that the motorways, some of which charge tolls, can be quite busy, particularly at rush hour, and there are also charges for parking at the theme park lots. However, there are free buses, boats and monorails between the Disney theme parks and their hotels and Universal Studios has a similar arrangement.
- Accommodation: Both Universal Studios and Walt Disney World offer many holiday-stay options and there’s also a wide choice of other less-expensive hotels and motels away from the parks, some of which offer shuttle-bus transport. We found our ideal accommodation in Kissimmee’s Reunion Resort & Gold Club (reunionresort.com), six miles from Walt Disney World and 30 miles from Orlando International Airport.
- The nearby host communities: Orlando (visitorlando.com), which promotes itself as ‘The City Beautiful’, is not only home to both Universal Studios and SeaWorld but also has lovely park-surrounded Lake Eola, lots of restaurants and dinner shows, lively entertainment and shopping areas and concerts in the architecturally- and acoustically-stunning Steinmetz Hall. Kissimmee (experiencekissimmee.com), 22.1 miles (around 37 minutes) south-west of Orlando and promoting itself as ‘The Vacation Home Capital of the World’®, is not only 11.4 miles and 23 minutes from Walt Disney World but is close to other lesser-known theme parks as well as good shopping in centres, malls and boutiques. It has a balmy average year-round temperature of 71.75 degrees and is 25 minutes from Orlando International Airport.
LOOKING FOR MORE FAMILY FUN?
Then head west of Kissimmee to Central Florida’s Polk County (visitcentralflorida.org). Not only is Winter Haven home to the LEGOLAND® Florida Resort, which features 50 shows and rides, and the world’s first Peppa Pig Theme Park, but Lake Wales is the site of lovely 250-acre Bok Tower Gardens, and Lakeland of the Safari Wilderness Ranch, where you can view ostriches, camels, zebras, lemurs and more.
Image Credits: Dan Cutler, Universal Studios Florida, Kevin Sarduy, Mark Redfern, Universal Islands of Adventure, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Disney’s Magic Kingdom, Brian McGowan, Wendy Redfern
