Our Fall Break 2025 trip was a big win — three full days exploring all three Universal Orlando parks, soaking up the Florida sun, and walking enough steps to justify every butterbeer and pretzel along the way. We’re heading home with tired feet and so many fun family memories.
We stayed at Loews Royal Pacific Resort, which turned out to be the perfect home base. The perks were hard to beat — early park entry, a quick 8-minute walk to Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios, and CityWalk, and a pool that felt like vacation magic on its own. The kids and I arrived about seven hours before Jeff (who flew in straight from a work trip), so we kicked off our stay poolside, soaking up that Florida sunshine and waiting for Jeff to join the fun.
Outside of the nice hotel and easy commute, the real perk was the early park entry. Combine that with our Express Passes (an absolute must), and Jeff — our resident planner extraordinaire — built a schedule so we could check off every single box on our Universal wish list. Each park got a full day, every ride was conquered, and by the end we were practically Universal insiders. Here’s our official Kladder Must See-Do List:
Hagrids Magical Creatures at Islands of Adventure
Jurassic VelociCoaster at Islands of Adventure
Stardust Racers at Epic Universe
Escape from Gringotts at Universal Studios
Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry at Epic Universe
Honorable mentions included:
Curse of the Werewolf at Epic Universe
Hiccups Wing Gliders at Epic Universe
The Bourne Stuntacular at Universal Studios
We were constantly blown away by the detail and design of the parks, but a few moments stood out: rounding the corner into Diagon Alley (that dragon!), descending into Super Nintendo World, and entering the Ministry of Magic through the floo network. Every inch of those worlds was pure storytelling genius.
This trip was extra special because it wrapped up a two-year family project: reading the entire Harry Potter series together. Visiting Universal wasn’t originally part of the plan, but the timing couldn’t have been better. We’d just finished the last movie the week before the trip, so everything was still fresh in our minds — and hearts. Watching the kids light up in the Wizarding World felt like closing a beautiful chapter.
Now we’re debating our next series: Percy Jackson or Lord of the Rings. (Suggestions welcome.)
To prep for Universal, we also squeezed in all the Jurassic Park and Men in Black movies. Somehow, we missed E.T., Transformers, and Fantastic Beasts, so we’ve already added those to our next family movie night lineup.
At ages 10 and 8, the kids are at such perfect travel ages — old enough to walk miles without complaint, brave enough to tackle big coasters, and still young enough to grab our hands without hesitation. Sure, we may have overdone it a bit that last night — after 12 hours in the park followed by a 9 p.m. dinner reservation, Thomas literally fell asleep at the table. Whoops!
Other things I’ll remember is the massive amount of soft pretzels we consumed. Our visit to Ollivanders Wand Shop when both kids got picked for the demonstration. And then using those wands throughout the trip to make the bits of magic happen throughout the park. Also worth mentioning is the fact that Thomas still isn’t sure if the Goblin from the Money Exchange is real or fake. Same story with the baby Velociraptor they took a photo with in Jurassic World. Natalie insisted on touring every souvenir shop we passed. And we did. We said ‘yes’ to all the sugar requests (our own included) and one of the nights at dinner we all took the official Hogwarts House Sorting Quiz and found that Natalie is a Hufflepuff, Thomas is a Ravenclaw, and Jeff and I are both in Gryffindor.
As we packed up our bags and said goodbye to Universal, I couldn’t help but feel grateful — not just for the rides and the laughter, but for this stage of life with our kids. They’re still wide-eyed enough to believe in magic, yet old enough to stay up late chasing it with us. Someday they’ll outgrow holding our hands in theme parks, but I hope they’ll never outgrow chasing joy together.
