Christmas in Sunny Florida: A Universal Studios Experience

My family and I spent last Christmas completely different than how we normally do. Our typical Christmas consists of a lot of Mexican and Catholic traditions, such as going to church on Christmas Eve, having tamales and hot punch at one of my aunt’s house afterward, and lazily spending all Christmas day in the living room. Instead, we spent Christmas at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.

I come from a low-to-middle income family, raised in Houston, TX. Taking trips this big doesn’t happen for us. My brother also attends UT, and we both realized we could finally afford this trip, since we both have jobs and could help pay for some of the trip’s expenses. We presented this idea to our parents and younger sister before we left for the fall 2017 semester. They all agreed to make this trip happen for us. Thus, we began saving for our fun adventure.

We drove to Florida the day before Christmas Eve because Google Maps indicated that the drive to Orlando would take about a whole day. We spent Christmas Eve by going to mass and then doing our typical Christmas celebrations at my uncle’s family’s home. They live an hour north of Orlando. Christmas morning finally came, and we began getting ready to go to Universal Studios.

We encountered a Hollywood-themed mini city as we walked through the gates of the park. To my right was a nice looking and packed California-styled restaurant, and to my left was a gift shop. Naturally, we went to the gift shop first since we wanted Universal Studios paraphernalia. We decided to keep walking around and see what attractions this park has once we finished our shopping. We saw a Minion world, a Shrek rollercoaster, a Marilyn Monroe look-a-like driving around, and so much more within a few minutes of walking around. The mini Springdale world of The Simpsons show had several different attractions with shorter lines. We decided to explore that more. We then took pictures next to the “Welcome to Springdale” sign, bought a large donut designed like the ones in the show, and played some carnival-style games. When we finished exploring that area, we went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, where we were going to take a train, the Hogwarts Express, to the other side of the park.

Whenever I read on different social media platforms about how magical the Wizarding World is, I thought people were exaggerating. I saw why everyone thinks this place is so magical and great as soon as I entered the Wizarding World. The world makes many places that were present in the books and movies, like Diagon Alley and The Leaky Cauldron, look so real. Walking around there made me feel as if I was actually part of the series. Additionally, a reenactment of The Tale of the Three Brothers, a fictional story in the series, was done well. The best part, though, was when we took the Hogwarts Express to the other side of the park. It was a short ride, but an experience that made me believe I was really part of the Wizarding World.

Once we got off the train, we came across more of the Wizarding World. This section was designed like the Britain neighborhoods that are present in the Harry Potter movies. We eventually got out of the Wizarding World and saw more attractions, such as a Jurassic Park themed rollercoaster, a Dr. Seuss mini town, Marvel-themed rollercoasters, and more. Eventually, we got tired of walking so much that we left an hour early. We made our way back to our hotel and got ready to start leaving the next day.

We were originally supposed to leave two days after visiting the park, but instead left the next day. We decided to make as many stops along the road as we wanted while we traveled back to Houston since we had extra time now. We stopped in Pensacola, Florida to take pictures by some murals, in Mobile, Alabama to eat at Cracker Barrel, and in New Orleans in Louisiana to have a beignet. We finally got home around 4 am, and thus concluded our wonderful Christmas in Florida. I would recommend this Christmas vacation to anyone who would like to celebrate Christmas differently this upcoming December.