Universal Studios, HHN and Clearwater, FL 2025
- Becca & Andrew
- Sep 27
- 4 min read
We traveled to Orlando to experience Universal Studios and Halloween Horror Nights with plenty of beach time at Clearwater Beach and relaxing pool time at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge!
As always, links to all the fun things we did will be at the end of this blog!
Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge
We are DVC (Disney Vacation Club) members and used vacation points (kind of like a time share) for a week-long stay in a beautiful 2 bedroom, 3 full bathroom villa with a Savannah view! The villa included a living room area and full kitchen, perfect for making breakfast every morning and hanging out together! What's a "Savannah view" you might ask? See below for some shots from our windows and balcony!
It was so amazing to wake up every day to giraffes, zebra and a handful of other African animals and birds right outside our balcony. This is one of our favorite Disney resorts! We spent a ton of time at both pool areas with full service pool bars/restaurants and waterslides! The kids liked to wander around the resort checking out the walkway areas near the animals. The main lobby is awe inspiring and was host to our first meal of the trip! JIKO is a fancy $$$$$ restaurant with African inspired dishes. Although it was pricey, it was delicious and worth every penny!
FUN FACT! Once we start full-time RV life we'll be able to use DVC points to stay at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort in our RV!
Universal's Volcano Bay
Our first theme park stop was Universal's Volcano Bay water park. This place is quite possibly the best water park we've ever been to! It has a laid back, tropical island vibe with plenty of slides, a wave pool, a lazy river, an action river and more! Once inside, they give you a smartwatch style "TapuTapu" band to use for the virtual lines. No more standing in line! Just tap the kiosk at the entrance of the attraction and your band displays a return time to ride! All of us rode Ko'okiri Body Plunge, a drop style waterslide where you stand in a tube and the floor drops out from under you, followed by a 125-foot drop. We all hated it and loved it! It's one of those experiences that was amazing, but we would probably never do it again... if that makes sense? Other favorites included Krakatau Aqua Coaster and the action river.
Overall, it was an amazing day! The weather was mostly perfect and we were able to ride all the slides and do all the things we wanted to do in about 5 hours! We would definitely return and we highly recommend this water park for all ages!
Universal's Islands of Adventure
Up next was Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park! This park offers several uniquely themed lands. Jurassic Park, Toon Lagoon, Marvel Superhero Island, Hogsmeade and more!
We were able to ride everything with the use of an Express Pass! Favorites include The Hulk Coaster, Velocicoaster and the award winning dark ride, The Amazing Adventures of Spider Man! We got absolutely soaked on Jurassic River Adventure and then completely waterlogged during an hour-long Central Florida downpour! It didn't stop us from enjoying our day and making memories that will last a lifetime! Lunch at 3 Broomsticks in Hogsmeade was delicious and bri-ish! And just imagine in your head the image of 6 grown adults riding The Cat in the Hat dark ride together!
Halloween Horror Nights
We started our evening with an amazing, chocolate inspired dinner at The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium. The theme of this restaurant alone is worth the visit! We didn't get many pictures during the HHN event because we were so into the theming and non-stop action! 10 world-class, movie quality haunted houses and we saw them all! This year's lineup included Terrifier, Fallout, Five Nights at Freddy's, WWE's The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks, Jason Universe and five other original haunted houses. We started our horror-filled journey by going though The Horror's of the Wyatt Sicks. As none of us are WWE fans, we thought we would "knock this one off the list first" because we didn't know anything about it. That house ended up being the favorite of the night! Galkin: Monsters of the North was our favorite original house! We were also able to ride all the rides with time to spare thanks to our Express Pass!
Clearwater Beach
On our final day in Florida we packed up early and made the 2-hour drive to Clearwater Beach. We spent all day on the beach soaking in the sun. We rented a couple of umbrellas and chairs and just chilled for the day. We had lunch and drinks at Frenchy's Rockaway Grill. Their crab fries are delicious!
We had dinner at Marina Cantina and then made the 2-hour drive back to Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge to pack up and get ready to fly out the next day.
Overall, this was one of the best trips we've had so far! Packed with plenty of fun AND relaxation, it was the perfect mix of activities in the warm Florida sun. It was also nice to get all of Becca's boys together on this trip... especially because Andrew had a very important question to ask them... more on that coming up in our next blog!
Grab the same "BIG WEEN ENGERGY" Halloween shirts and hoodies we were wearing at Halloween Horror Nights by clicking the images below!
Links to the Fun Things We Did
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