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Planning a trip to Universal Studios Hollywood is no easy task. You’re gearing up for an awesome vacation to Los Angeles and you realize that theme parks are more complicated than they used to be. Virtual lines, hidden QR codes, early access, and special bands are enough to make your head spin!
In this guide, we share our with you how to do Universal Studios Hollywood in one day including detailed tips, hidden secrets that you’ll want to know, and ultimately, the best way to maximize your time in the park.
Before we delve into all of the juicy details, it’s worth noting the context for this Universal Studios Hollywood guide.
You learn quickly that every group has different needs, interests, patience, and stamina and so we’ll provide a very specific perspective but we want to make clear that it’s not the only way to do the park.
My recent trip (Will speaking here!) to Universal Studios Hollywood was part of a guys trip where 3 of us got time away from our wives and fully immersed ourselves in all things fandom as we started from Los Angeles and made our way down to San Diego Comic-Con.
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Details: The second visit date must be within 7 days from the first visit date (inclusive of the selected first visit date). The ticket is not valid for a 2nd day visit on the following blackout dates: December 26 – 31, 2024.
We’ve compiled a list of the top Universal Studio Hollywood tips you need to know before you go. The good news is that after reading all of this, you’ll be incredibly prepared.
On the day of, you’ll be much less stressed and more capable of handling whatever random other situations come your way. In our mind these are very much essential knowledge for anyone going to Universal Studios, whether new or returning.
Let’s hop right in! We’ve done our best to keep this as chronological as possible so it makes more sense.
The “Super Nintendo World Early Access Ticket” allows you to get a head start by going to Super Nintendo World one hour before the theme park opens. There are no other early access methods for Universal Studios Hollywood (unlike Disneyland which has early access for Disney hotel guests).
Not only should you purchase this add-on, you also need to do this early. As the hottest new attraction, these sell out quicker than you think. We recommend right after grabbing your tickets from GetYourGuide, Viator, or direct, buy your early access ticket as well.
If you happen to be a little late and your dates are sold out, keep checking every day. Tickets do come up randomly (most of the time in singles), but if you’re lucky, there may be just enough for your group.
We highly recommend buying this add-on for any Super Nintendo World fans. It’s insane how fast you can blaze through Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge with that 1 hour. More on that in our Super Nintendo World Hollywood Guide which you don’t want to miss.
Where to buy your tickets?
We recommend Undercover Tourist for your Universal Studios Hollywood tickets because they offer savings from the listed price. They offer the full range of tickets and is accessible to everyone.
If you’re planning to get into Universal Studios Hollywood right when the park opens (times vary throughout the year), you’ll want to make sure that you get to the main gates 1 hour before opening if you want to be at the front.
The part that’s missing in most other guides is that it can take up to 30 minutes (20 minutes with a brisk walk) to get through the following steps:
For instance, in the summer, the park opens at 8AM. This means you should aim to get to the gates by 7AM. In our case, we parked the car at 7:14AM and started lining up at the gate at 7:30AM. At this point, there were easily over 100 people combined in line.
Most of you arriving at Universal Studios Hollywood in the morning will be coming in from the Hollywood Freeway (Hwy 101) which connects to W.C. Fields Drive. There are 5 that that take you into the lot building with the leftmost lane for Valet and the right 4 lanes labelled as “Parking”.
The trick is that you want to take the right most lane. What happens is that since there are 3 lanes that funnel into the lot, it’ll intuitively feel like the better choice but what you don’t see is that the right-most lane opens up 3 more booths.
Most people end up choosing the left 3 lanes and as a result, a longer line up of cars.
While yes, this will only shave off a few minutes, every little bit counts right?
Need a car rental?
Beyond knowing about car rental coupon codes, you should always compare prices against places like DiscoverCars, RentalCars, and Undercover Tourist.
When lining up to get into the park in the morning, don’t just get in whatever line everyone else is joining. There’s a tendency for people to think that they have to queue on the longest line but the secret is that you should look away from the red carpet for shorter lines.
CHECK OUT THIS ARTICLE Top 4 Things To Do In NYC In The SummerOn both sides, there’s a ticket booth building that obscures your view of a significantly smaller line. Squeeze through and you’ll find that there are very few people here.
It’s a small advantage, but hey, every little bit counts!
Toadstool Cafe is notoriously difficult to book and for those that don’t do the research, you’ll be caught off guard by how bad it is. Yes, you can try to wait for a waitlist to open at the entrance but we highly recommend you make a reservation for either lunch or dinner.
What makes it a challenging process is that they want you to scan a QR code at Toadstool Cafe to make a booking but by that point, most popular slots get reserved, and you’ll have competing priorities (i.e. get in line for Bowser’s Challenge).
For a high chance of success of booking Toadstool Cafe, here’s what you need to do:
It’s worth noting that reservations at the land’s only restaurant are free. Also, with a reservation, you can bypass the Virtual Line (if it’s up) roughly 30 minutes before your time slot.
We also don’t believe the browser geolocates you so in theory you can do it from your car or in the parking garage if you’re late.
PRO TIP #1: We go into more detail in our Super Nintendo World Hollywood Guide but expect the service at Toadstool Cafe to be quite slow. Expect a meal to take over 1 hours, and likely close to 2 hours.
PRO TIP #2: Make sure the person registering has a way of receiving text messages, so the one in the group that has a US SIM card or has their international SIM off of airplane mode.
Similar to Disneyland, things get really confusing when it comes to opening times. The official opening time listed is when all of Universal Studios Hollywood is accessible but there are a couple of additional steps that aren’t listed.
These opening times fluctuate throughout the year with 8AM being the earliest in the middle of summer. This is not to be confused with the Early Access Hours which specifically refers to those that have the Super Nintendo World Early Access Ticket.
In the summer, the park is officially listed to open at 8AM but here’s how it actually goes down:
The times above are approximate. In our case, step 2 was 7:44AM and step 3 was 7:56AM.
If it’s your only day at Universal Studios Hollywood, you might not be able to pull this off but in retrospect, we really should have bought our Power-Up Band in advance.
Why? If you rush straight to the Bowser’s Challenge queue and you don’t have a band, you won’t get credit for that ride and score. If you’re like us, you’ll feel the regret and want to ride it again, although we were going to regardless.
Where can you buy the Power-Up Band?
To clear up any confusion you might have, you can do Bowser’s Challenge and you can technically do the mini-games (also called Key Challenges) without the Power-Up Band.
However, without the Power-Up band, here’s what you’re missing out on:
Want to know more about Super Nintendo World?
We couldn’t pack every single detail of Super Nintendo World into our Universal Studios Hollywood tips so we created a separate guide just for it. Make sure to read this next!
While won’t have to obsess over the Universal Studios app as much as Disneyland’s complicated Genie+ system, the app is just as important when it comes to Super Nintendo World’s mini-games, joining the Virtual Line, setting a note for your parking spot, and accessing the map.
The name of the app to look for is “Universal CA” on iOS and Android.
The app is also handy to set a “Wait Time Alert”. If a ride is under a set number of minutes, you’ll get an alert on your phone, which can help you save time.
CHECK OUT THIS ARTICLE The Comprehensive New Zealand Travel Guide - Read Before You GoYou’ll also want to use the map to figure out how bad the lines are for each ride. This tab on the app is also useful to figure out where restrooms are. It’s a bit hard to find but tap on “Change Category” to filter for “Restrooms”.
More on this in our guide to Super Nintendo World but you need the app to the Super Nintendo World to add a band to your account, find your score, locate objects, and check your stamp collection.
This certainly wasn’t the case the last time I was at Universal but with how important the app is to the park’s experience, it makes sense that wifi is free.
The network SSID to look for is “UNIVERSAL”.
I did a quick speed test in the park and I saw 10.9 Mbps down and 30.5 Mbps up which isn’t too shabby.
If cost is not a factor, it’s easy to say that the Express Pass is 100% worth it.
Here’s why the Express Pass is worth it:
Where you can’t use the Express Pass:
The other caveat you need to factor in is that you can only use it to express access each ride once. That said, realistically you likely won’t be doing rides multiple times, and if you are, it’ll be typically at the end of the day when the wait times are short to begin with.
If you buy an Express Pass, they simply print it out at the main gate and hand it to you. That’s why we recommend that you bring your own lanyard that can fit a business-sized card.
You don’t need to go out of your way to buy one but if you’ve ever been to a conference or event where they provide name tags, you might have a few lying around.
This is handy to have around your neck because you won’t need to fumble for it in your pocket, keeps your Express Pass dry, and is less likely that you’ll lose it.
This is one of the most underrated features that’s often buried with many of the other tips. The Single Rider Line is the next best thing after the Express Pass.
The caveat of course is that you likely won’t be able to ride together with your friends but we’re talking about cutting the standard line down to 10-15 minutes.
Don’t be afraid to use it especially if you’re not with young children.
PRO TIP: The Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge single rider line closes at 7PM so don’t expect to use this into the evening.
Need a place to park at the airport?
If you’re driving to the airport, you’ll need a place to park. We’ve partnered with Park Sleep Fly and Airport Parking Reservation to get you $5 off airport parking when you use the code AWESOME7. With Park Sleep Fly, you can get up $7 off packages.
The mini-games, or Key Challenges as they’re called are in different parts of Super Nintendo World. Each has their own line and do not have an Express Pass lane. These are kid-friendly games and you need to complete 3 out of 4 of them to unlock a final showdown with Bowser Jr. to get the Golden Mushroom (a digital stamp).
The thing is, the lines for these can get insanely long, especially after the first wave of people get out of the Bowser’s Challenge ride and the queue starts growing. You might be able to squeeze in one Key Challenge but this soon grows to a 30 minute line, then 1 full hour. In the summer with an 8AM start, I’d say the lines get pretty thick starting at 10AM.
As first timers, you’ll want to finish everything while you’re in Super Nintendo World as we did, but we returned back in the evening and there was practically nobody in line.
Our recommendation is to come back at night to finish the Key Challenges after which you’ll be able to do the final game – and possibly multiple times.
If you’ve never been to Universal Studios Hollywood, it may feel like it’s exaggerated just how far apart the Upper Lot is from the Lower Lot. There are after all, 4 separate escalators you need to take.
When you’re on them, it’ll feel like an eternity as you watch Super Nintendo World get closer and closer. It’s slow but if you time it, the whole journey takes roughly 10 minutes. The problem is when you double that, you’re talking about 20-30 minutes just to get between lots.
For some additional perspective, the morning is usually quicker because people will walk down while on the escalator. For us, it took us 6 minutes to get down to the Lower Lot.
We highly recommend that you eliminate as much traversing as you can (i.e. focus on all of Lower Lot first before doing the Upper Lot).
You’ll notice a dramatic change in crowds during lunch and dinner so it’s best to go against the grain. While there’s a dip in line times, jump in. Conversely, eat your meals when it’s the busiest parts of the day.
Lunch – Early lunch is a good idea as the lines start growing significantly from 11:00AM onwards. That way, you can jump back into line when it gets a little better between 12PM and 1PM. A late lunch also works when it gets really hot
Dinner – We recommend that you have an early dinner to line up with early lunch (i.e. 5:30PM). Alternatively, you can have a late dinner (i.e. 8PM) but this is also the best time to do rides because most families start leaving.
The wildcard in all of this is Toadstool Cafe. When you make your booking in the morning, you may find out that your preferred slot is already gone so you might have to pick a time that is not as ideal.
PRO TIP: There’s always the option of skipping meals and eating outside of the park. You can buy smaller meals throughout the or bring your own snacks. When you leave the park at 10PM, you can find a late-night spot to eat dinner. In our case, we were heading to Anaheim for our next day in Disney and found a gem of a Vietnamese pho place called Soup Shop. The pho with rib bones is ridiculously good.
CHECK OUT THIS ARTICLE 5 Best Toronto Patios This Summer
One of the must-do attractions at Universal Studios Hollywood is the Studio Tour. It’s similar to the Paramount Studio Tour or Warner Brothers Studio Tour in Los Angeles except it’s part of the theme park experience where you get to see their back lot while also doing a few 3D rides.
The efficiency and frequency of the Studio Tour is quite impressive and so you’ll find that their wait times are never really that long. If you use the Universal Express Pass, you’ll pretty much get on the next bus out.
It’s worth noting that you don’t need to seek out specific tour times for the Studio Tour as they run continuously.
When deciding when to do the Studio Tour, just keep in mind
PRO TIP: Make sure to use the bathroom before you get on because it’s a full 60-minute tour/ride.
One really cool site that you can check out is Thrill Data which has Universal Studios Hollywood wait times tracked and plotted on charts, including a ton of historical data.
If we use Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge as an indication, the ride doesn’t dip back under 100 minutes until 6:20PM. Each ride is a little different but there’s a steady drop in wait times after dinner.
The Thrill Data tables stop tracking after 7:55PM but the rides continue running all the way until closing time (10PM in the summer). After 8PM, you’re looking at little to no lines at all.
In our case, to end our night, we were able to enter and exit the Transformers ride in 7 minutes flat. That’s how fast it can be.
As much as you’ll want to be super strategic about your day at Universal Studios Hollywood, your body will at some point tell you to slow it down and that is totally ok.
The beating sun and dehydration really take its toll, especially if you’ve been standing out in the sun for the Super Nintendo World mini-games.
The good news is that most rides lines are indoors or under shade but that doesn’t mean it won’t be hot.
Our Disneyland California Guide
Just like how we break down our day in the theme park here, we do the same for Disneyland while using the Park Hopper pass. We also pass down invaluable knowledge that every first timer needs to know.
To stay hydrated, bring your own water bottle so you can refill it with water throughout the day. The park does a pretty good job of having water stations near the washrooms including the one at Super Nintendo World. The water is totally drinkable and doesn’t taste weird at all.
If you’re a fan of soda, it might be worth buying a souvenir cup. This is a heavy-duty plastic cup that comes complete with a handle, straw and lid.
It’s branded Universal Studios Hollywood and there’s only one design active at a time. This cup is equipped with an RFID chip at the bottom which allows to use the Coca-Cola Freestyle machines that are around the park. It costs $18 and gives you unlimited refills every 10 minutes. If you’re returning to the park with one of these, it’s $11 to reactivate.
These are not the same as the souvenir sippers such as the super cute 1-Up or Super Mushroom souvenir drink bottle at Super Nintendo World. This costs $20 and comes with one drink. Subsequent refills are $1.50 and is only active for the day of purchase.
For reference, regular-sized soft drinks are $4.25 and large ones are $5.00.
There are lots of ways to stay hydrated!
There are two types of lockers available inside the park – free and paid ones, and are located by rides that have tighter bag restrictions and loose articles. These are rides where it’s not possible to put your backpack at your feet.
Revenge of the Mummy – Right before you enter, you’ll see a large room of lockers. There are both free and paid ones here. All of the free ones have a generous 2 hour limit and are the smaller size only (12¾” Width – 11″ Length – 16½” ).
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey – When you enter Hogwarts, you’ll see plenty of lockers to your right. Again, these work the same as at The Mummy.
At both cases, they use your fingerprint as the key to access the locker. Paid lockers have unlimited in/out privileges.
The paid locker sizes and prices are as follows:
When in doubt, ask the staff whether your bag is allowed or not.
PRO TIP: With a 2 hour limit, feel free to explore Hogsmeade more freely without your bags after you finish Forbidden Journey.
The ride, The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash is one of the newer rides in Universal Studios Hollywood and usually has a long line.
To help with this, they activate the Virtual Line whenever the wait exceeds an hour. This means that you won’t be able to get into the queue for The Secret Life of Pets unless you have a reservation.
Through the Universal CA app or at physical machines next to the entrance, you can make reservations for specific time slots. Periodically, they release slots and the idea is that it makes sure that you’ll only have to wait 30-45 minutes for your window.
This is the only ride that uses this system with the exception of Super Nintendo Land where they use it when they are at capacity inside.
In recent years, a few rides have added mesh pockets in seated rides. This is handy if you have items that you’re worried might fly off during a high-intensity ride, whether in your pocket, your hat, sunglasses, or Power-Up Band.
The two rides that have this are Revenge of the Mummy and Flight of the Hippogriff. This is great for any of your loose items. Just remember to take them out at the end of the ride.
The nice thing about Universal Studios Hollywood is that they don’t have a strict policy for backpacks and fanny packs when entering the park and there’s no specific size restriction to enter. Your bag will be x-ray screened and inspected at the security check-point but that’s it.
You’ll see all sorts of bag strategies from guests but we still think that if possible, you really want to go as minimal as possible.
Here’s why a fanny pack or sling is key:
The best type of bag to have for your day in the park is a sling, fanny pack or any type cross body. Many rides allow you to keep them on your body for the ride as it doesn’t interfere with the safety mechanism. Here are a few that we recommend:
What about backpacks? They certainly work but try to bring a smaller backpack. In most cases, you’ll be able to put the backpack by your feet. The exception is The Forbidden Journey and Revenge of the Mummy which is much more strict. That’s why they have complimentary lockers.
If you have an backpack that’s deemed oversized (different for every ride), you simply won’t be able to ride. If you’re used to amusement parks like Anakeesta in Gatlinburg or Canada’s Wonderland, there are no cubby’s on the other side of the ride where you can leave your things.
PRO TIP: If you can, opt to not wear a hat to Universal Studios Hollywood because you’ll have to take it off for the rides. If you do bring one, make sure it can be easily stashed or clipped onto your bag.
As a heads up, the Universal Studios Hollywood bag policy prohibits suitcases, bags with wheels, hard-sided coolers, and large soft-sided coolers.
You’ll be tempted to buy all sorts of goodies whether you’re in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Super Nintendo World, Minion Land, Springfield, Production Plaza, and others.
The problem comes when you buy items that you can’t fit into your bag and thus requiring you to hold a shopping bag the whole time. In most cases, your ride will be able to accommodate the extra bag by your feet but in the worst case, you’ll have to put it in a locker for an extended period of time, which costs money.
A better strategy is to keep track of some of the big purchases you want to make and come back at the end of the day. Most of the shopping can be done in the Upper Lot.
For the Nintendo fans, they also have a Super Nintendo World Store so you don’t have to go all the way back down to Lower Lot.
Unfortunately, Universal Studios Hollywood doesn’t have Hotel Delivery service. This is only available in Orlando.
That said, Universal Studios Hollywood has a Package Pick-Up.
Essentially, this is a service where you can bundle all items that you’ve purchased in the theme park (you’ll need all of their receipts) and they can be held at the store itself or it can be forwarded to another store. This can be done in either the Lower Lot or Upper Lot. All they need is your name and phone number.
When you drop off your items, you’ll need to provide all the receipts of the items (they can be a mix and match from multiple stores), they’ll ask for your full name and phone number, and store you want it to go to. Lastly, based on whether you’re in the Lower Lot or Upper Lot, they’ll give you a time when you can pick it up. For Lower Lot, it takes longer for items to make it up for Upper Lot store pick up.
Tips for Galaxy’s Edge
Don’t be stuck at Youngling level when you travel to the planet of Batuu when you go to Disneyland, become a Jedi Master of Galaxy’s Edge.
It took us awhile, but eventually we figured out where we could get turkey legs at Universal Studios Hollywood. You can find smoked turkey legs at the Studio Cafe which is right across from where Megatron and Optimus Prime do their character meet & greets.
Studio Cafe is cafeteria style where you can pick up food and drink items, put them on trays, and you go to the cashier to pay. All of the seating is outdoors and shared with the other eateries nearby including Panda Express, Studio Scoop, and Starbucks.
You’ll find the turkey legs in the Hot Entrees heat rack in a plastic bag. As of writing, each leg is $13.99.
Did you know that you can take the LA Metro directly to Universal Studios? It’s not something that I instinctively thought of because the subway doesn’t exact have the best reputation but in certain situations, it might actually make sense.
When does it make sense to take the subway?
How does taking the subway to Universal Studios work?
If you’re taking the metro to go home, you’d be doing the reverse.
When to avoid taking the subway
