30 Best Things to Do at Universal Studios Hollywood (2026)
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Universal Studios Hollywood is a small park by Orlando standards, and that is exactly why it works. Everything on this list fits inside one long day, and the list has a new number one now that Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift is open.
If you only have time for three things, ride Hollywood Drift, take the Studio Tour and eat at Toadstool Cafe.
| Top 10 | Where | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Ride Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift | Upper Lot | Included |
| 2. Take the Studio Tour | Upper Lot | Included |
| 3. See the Wand Choose the Wizard | Wizarding World | Show free |
| 4. Eat at Toadstool Cafe | Super Nintendo World | Extra |
| 5. Skip the Lines With Universal Express | Every ride | Extra |
| 6. Ride Revenge of the Mummy | Lower Lot | Included |
| 7. Meet a Universal Character | Upper Lot | Included |
| 8. Get Wet on Jurassic World | Lower Lot | Included |
| 9. Play With a Power-Up Band | Super Nintendo World | Extra |
| 10. Photograph Hogwarts Castle | Wizarding World | Included |
1. Ride Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift
📍 Where: Upper Lot
💰 Cost: Included with park admission
⏱️ Allow: Longest queue in the park at first
Hollywood Drift is Universal Studios Hollywood’s first outdoor roller coaster and opened to the public on 16 September 2026. I rode it twice in preview two weeks before opening, and it is the most intense ride in the park by a considerable margin.
It goes upside down, the restraint is an over-the-shoulder harness, and it is smooth enough that I came off without a hint of motion sickness. The whole ride lasts just over a minute, and Universal’s own figures put it at up to 72mph on 4,100 feet of track with 360-degree rotating cars.
Expect the queue to be the longest in the park for its first few months, so make it your first stop, ahead of every other ride at Universal Studios Hollywood.
2. Go Behind the Scenes on the Studio Tour
📍 Where: Upper Lot
💰 Cost: Included with park admission
⏱️ Allow: Roughly 60 minutes on the tram
Universal Studios Hollywood is a working film and television studio, and the World Famous Studio Tour takes you through the backlot on a tram with a live guide, and it is the one thing here that no other theme park can copy.
The sets you pass depend on what is shooting, but the fixed scenes on my September 2026 tour were:
- The Bates Motel and the Psycho house
- The War of the Worlds plane crash
- Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives
- The flash flood, which comes far closer to the tram than you expect
- Jaws
- King Kong 360 3-D, the only 3D segment left on the tour
Fast & Furious: Supercharged, which used to close the tour, shut on 10 March 2025 and has not been replaced. During Halloween Horror Nights season parts of the backlot are closed for the event’s houses, so the daytime route runs shorter.
The last tram leaves well before park close. On 1 September 2026 the board already showed the tour closed at 5:14pm with the park open until 6pm, so ride it in the morning.
3. See the Wand Choose the Wizard at Ollivanders
📍 Where: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
💰 Cost: Show is free, wands are extra
⏱️ Allow: 15 to 20 minutes including the queue
Ollivanders in Hogsmeade is a shop with a show attached. A Wandkeeper picks one person from each group let inside, and the wand chooses them in front of everyone. You are under no obligation to buy the wand afterwards, even if you are the one chosen.
The shop sells character wands and interactive wands that trigger effects around Hogsmeade. In September 2026 the counter also carried a personalisation sign, so you can have a wand engraved on the day.
4. Eat at Toadstool Cafe
📍 Where: Super Nintendo World, Lower Lot
💰 Cost: Extra, see the menu on the day
⏱️ Allow: 45 minutes to an hour, plus the virtual queue
Toadstool Cafe is the best place to eat inside Universal Studios Hollywood. It sits inside Super Nintendo World, serves American-Italian food with a Mario twist, and mixes quick-service ordering with table seating.
It runs a virtual queue rather than a walk-up line. Join it on the app as soon as you enter the land and ride Mario Kart while you wait, because the return times run away from you after midday.
5. Skip the Lines With Universal Express
📍 Where: Every ride, one use per ride per day
💰 Cost: Extra, on top of admission
⏱️ Allow: Saves hours on a busy day
Universal Express is bought on top of park admission and gets you into a shorter line once per ride, attraction and seated show each day. It now covers Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge, which it did not when the ride opened.
Whether Universal Express is worth the price depends entirely on the day. On the quiet Tuesday I visited in September 2026 most rides were posting five-minute waits, and Express would have been wasted money.
6. Get Lost in Revenge of the Mummy
📍 Where: Lower Lot
💰 Cost: Included with park admission
⏱️ Allow: 5 to 30 minutes in the queue
Revenge of the Mummy was the scariest ride at Universal Studios Hollywood until Hollywood Drift arrived, and it is still the one to build up to if you are nervous. It is an indoor coaster in the dark that runs backwards for a stretch and reaches 45mph.
7. Take a Photo With a Universal Character
📍 Where: Upper Lot, opposite the Wizarding World entrance
💰 Cost: Included with park admission
⏱️ Allow: 10 minutes per character
The main meet-and-greet spot is across from the entrance to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and characters also roam the park. Depending on the day you can find:
- The Minions and Gru
- Shrek, Fiona and Donkey
- Optimus Prime and Bumblebee
- Hello Kitty
- Scooby-Doo
- Beetlejuice
- Marilyn Monroe and the Hollywood glamour characters
Inside Super Nintendo World there are separate meets with Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toad, and those queues move fast because the photos are quick.
8. Get Wet on Jurassic World: The Ride
📍 Where: Lower Lot
💰 Cost: Included with park admission
⏱️ Allow: 5 to 45 minutes in the queue
Jurassic World: The Ride is the only water ride in the park. The boats drift through the dinosaur enclosures until an Indominus rex gets loose, and it ends with an 84ft drop into a pool while the crowd on the path watches you get soaked.
Ride it in the afternoon rather than first thing. You will be wet for an hour afterwards, and the Lower Lot is the warmest part of the park.
9. Collect Coins and Stamps With a Power-Up Band
📍 Where: Super Nintendo World, Lower Lot
💰 Cost: Extra, bands are sold in the land and the Studio Store
⏱️ Allow: As long as you like
Power-Up Bands are wristbands that turn Super Nintendo World into a game. Tap them on the question blocks to collect coins, play the five key challenges, collect stamps and save your Mario Kart score to the app.
You do not need one to explore Super Nintendo World, and adults without children can skip it. With a child of six or over it is the best thing you can buy in the park, because it gives the land a purpose beyond one ride.
10. Take a Photo in Front of Hogwarts Castle
📍 Where: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
💰 Cost: Included with park admission
⏱️ Allow: 5 minutes, longer if there is a queue for the spot
Hogwarts Castle is the most photographed thing in the park. The classic angle is from the bridge at the far end of Hogsmeade, with the castle above the Forbidden Journey entrance.
Go as soon as the park opens if the photo matters to you. By mid-afternoon on 1 September 2026 there was a steady queue of people waiting for the same spot, and the light is better in the morning.
A Butterbeer in hand or a Hogwarts robe from the shops in Hogsmeade makes the photo, and the robe photo is the one people ask about.
11. Chat With Donkey
📍 Where: Upper Lot, outside the Wizarding World
💰 Cost: Included with park admission
⏱️ Allow: 5 to 10 minutes
Donkey from Shrek sits in a window outside the entrance to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and he talks back. The responses are live and often very rude, which is why clips of him keep going viral.
12. Watch a Film at CityWalk
📍 Where: Universal CityWalk, outside the park gates
💰 Cost: Extra, cinema tickets
⏱️ Allow: Two to three hours
Universal CityWalk is the free-to-enter strip of restaurants, bars and shops between the parking garages and the park gate, and it has a Universal Cinema AMC with IMAX screens. It is the obvious way to end a park day if your feet have given up.
You do not need a park ticket to get into CityWalk, so it also works as a rest-day plan if you are staying at the Sheraton or the Hilton next door.
13. Enter the World of Despicable Me Minion Mayhem
📍 Where: Upper Lot, near the entrance
💰 Cost: Included with park admission
⏱️ Allow: Longest posted wait on the Upper Lot most afternoons
Despicable Me Minion Mayhem is a motion simulator inside Gru’s house and one of the best rides for kids at Universal Studios Hollywood. You are turned into a Minion and sent through Gru’s laboratory with Margo, Edith and Agnes.
It drew the longest posted wait in the park on 1 September 2026, 55 minutes at 4:45pm while most rides showed five. Ride it first thing or in the last hour.
14. Drink a Duff and Eat a Krusty Burger
📍 Where: Springfield, Upper Lot
💰 Cost: Extra, see the menu board
⏱️ Allow: 45 minutes
Springfield is the most detailed land in the park for food. Krusty Burger serves the burgers from the show, Bumblebee Man’s taco truck is parked outside, and the Duff Brewery across the street pours Duff on draft.
The menu boards inside Krusty Burger list six burgers, the Clogger Burger among them, plus Squishee frozen drinks, and there is a mobile food and drink pickup counter if you order on the app.
15. Help Protect the AllSpark on Transformers
📍 Where: Lower Lot
💰 Cost: Included with park admission
⏱️ Allow: 5 to 30 minutes in the queue
Transformers: The Ride 3-D is a 3D motion simulator on a track that tilts, slides and spins. You ride in EVAC, an Autobot, while Optimus Prime fights to keep the AllSpark away from the Decepticons. It is a known motion-sickness trigger, so ride it before The Simpsons Ride, not after.
16. Make Friends With Max, Duke, Gidget and Snowball
📍 Where: Upper Lot
💰 Cost: Included with park admission
⏱️ Allow: Standby or Virtual Line, whichever is shorter
The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash is a slow dark ride through the streets of New York and one of the best rides for little kids in the park. You board a pet carrier and try to get adopted, with Max, Duke, Gidget and Snowball cheering you on.
It runs a Virtual Line through the app, but on 1 September 2026 the standby queue was open too and posted at 15 minutes. Check the app when you arrive and take whichever is shorter.
17. Drink a Butterbeer
📍 Where: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
💰 Cost: Extra, sold from carts and the Three Broomsticks
⏱️ Allow: 10 minutes
No visit to The Wizarding World is complete without a Butterbeer, and Hogsmeade sells it cold, frozen and hot, plus Butterbeer ice cream. The carts outside the Three Broomsticks are the quickest place to get one.
Unfortunately, your refillable cup will not get you one. Butterbeer comes in its own souvenir cup, or in a plastic or metal stein if you want to take the mug home.
18. Try Indoor Skydiving at iFLY
📍 Where: Universal CityWalk
💰 Cost: Extra, booked separately
⏱️ Allow: About an hour with the briefing
iFLY at CityWalk is an indoor skydiving wind tunnel. You float on a column of air with an instructor for a minute or two at a time after a short briefing, and it needs no park ticket, so it works on an arrival or departure day.
19. Eat at the Three Broomsticks
📍 Where: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
💰 Cost: Extra, see the specials board
⏱️ Allow: 45 minutes
The Three Broomsticks is the pub-style restaurant in Hogsmeade, and the specials board on 1 September 2026 listed fish and chips, a herb-roasted chicken platter and shepherd’s pie. The Great Feast platter is the one to share between four.
The interior is the reason to eat here rather than at a cart. It is dark, timbered and cool, which on a hot Los Angeles afternoon is worth the queue on its own.
20. Meet a Velociraptor at the Raptor Encounter
📍 Where: Lower Lot, outside Jurassic World: The Ride
💰 Cost: Included with park admission
⏱️ Allow: 10 minutes per appearance
Several times a day a very convincing velociraptor is walked out of its paddock next to Jurassic World: The Ride, and you can get close enough for a photo. Small children either love it or need carrying away, so read your child before you join the queue.
The DinoPlay climbing area is next to the paddock, which is the place to leave a dinosaur-mad child while the rest of the group rides.
21. Watch WaterWorld
📍 Where: Upper Lot
💰 Cost: Included with park admission
⏱️ Allow: 20-minute show, arrive 15 minutes early
WaterWorld is the park’s big stunt show, set in a flooded world where the survivors hunt for dry land. It has jet skis, fire and a seaplane crash, and the front rows get very wet on purpose. It was still running daily during my September 2026 visit, although I swapped it for the Halloween Horror Nights show that evening.
22. Upgrade to the VIP Experience
📍 Where: Private VIP entrance next to Guest Relations
💰 Cost: Extra, priced well above admission
⏱️ Allow: A full day, roughly 9am to 4pm
I did the full VIP Experience on 2 September 2026, and it is the only way to see the parts of the studio the tram never reaches. Here is what it actually included on the day:
- A private entrance and lounge with breakfast pastries and coffee
- A guide and a small group on a private trolley
- Front-of-line access on every ride, and reserved seats for shows
- An extended backlot tour on foot, including soundstages and the prop department
- Lunch in a private dining room with a buffet
- Branded sunscreen and hand sanitiser to keep
The lunch is the part people underestimate. It is a proper dining room above the park with a hot buffet and a dessert counter, and nobody outside the VIP Experience ever sees it.
It is expensive, and I would not do it on a first visit when the standard park is new to you. On a second or third visit, or if you care about how films are made more than about rides, it is the best day you can have here.
23. Get Wet at Super Silly Fun Land
📍 Where: Upper Lot, next to Minion Mayhem
💰 Cost: Included with park admission
⏱️ Allow: As long as your child lasts
Super Silly Fun Land is the Minion-themed play area next to Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, with a splash pad, a dry playground and the Silly Swirly Fun Ride, the only ride in the park with no height requirement.
Pack a change of clothes. The splash pad soaks children to the skin within minutes, and the Upper Lot has no lockers nearby.
24. Eat a Voodoo Doughnut
📍 Where: Universal CityWalk
💰 Cost: Extra
⏱️ Allow: 15 minutes, longer at weekends
Voodoo Doughnut at CityWalk sells the oversized, over-decorated doughnuts the Portland original is famous for, from the voodoo doll with a pretzel stake to the bacon maple bar. It is open late, so it works as the walk-back treat after Halloween Horror Nights.
25. Dine at Toothsome Chocolate Emporium
📍 Where: Universal CityWalk
💰 Cost: Extra, book ahead
⏱️ Allow: 90 minutes
Toothsome Chocolate Emporium & Savory Feast Kitchen is the steampunk restaurant at CityWalk, and despite the name most of the menu is savoury. The milkshakes are the reason people queue, and they are a meal on their own.
It is the most popular table at CityWalk, so book before your trip. Walking up at 7pm on a Friday means an hour on the bench outside.
26. Watch Kung Fu Panda at the DreamWorks Theatre
📍 Where: Upper Lot
💰 Cost: Included with park admission
⏱️ Allow: 15 minutes, per the Studio Directory board
DreamWorks Theatre Featuring Kung Fu Panda is a seated show on a 180-degree screen with wind, water and smell effects. Po and friends fight to protect their home, and the story stands alone, so you do not need to have seen the films. It is also one of the anchors of my list for anyone who does not like rides.
27. Shop the Universal Studio Store
📍 Where: Upper Lot, by the park entrance
💰 Cost: Extra
⏱️ Allow: 20 minutes
The Universal Studio Store is the big round-fronted shop by the entrance, and it carries the widest range of merchandise in the park, from retro Universal T-shirts to Super Nintendo World jackets and the current refillable cup design.
Shop on the way out rather than the way in. Everything sold in the lands is also here, and you will not carry it around the park all day.
28. Eat a Lard Lad Donut
📍 Where: Springfield, Upper Lot
💰 Cost: Extra
⏱️ Allow: 10 minutes
Lard Lad Donuts in Springfield sells the pink-frosted giant doughnut from the show, and giant is not an exaggeration. It is the size of a dinner plate and needs two people, or one very determined child.
Hold it next to your head for the photo before you cut it. Nobody believes the size otherwise.
29. Go to Halloween Horror Nights
📍 Where: The whole park, after close on event nights
💰 Cost: Separate ticket from park admission
⏱️ Allow: From event opening until you have had enough
Halloween Horror Nights turns the park into a set of haunted houses, scare zones and shows on select nights from early September to early November. I went on opening night and the night after in September 2026, and it is a different event from the daytime park, with its own ticket, its own Express pass and its own food menus.
The houses are the point. The Terror Tram runs the backlot in the dark, the scare zones fill the main paths, and the daytime rides that stay open have short waits because everyone is in a house queue.
This is not the family-friendly park. I would not take anyone under 16, and the scare actors do not ease off for nervous adults either.
30. Upgrade to an Annual Pass
📍 Where: Ticket booths inside the park
💰 Cost: The day’s ticket price comes off the pass
⏱️ Allow: 10 minutes
If you think you will be back within a year, upgrade your day ticket to an annual pass before you leave. The price of the ticket you already bought comes off the pass, and it has to be done on the day of your visit.
I have done it twice at the Box Office Front of Line booth inside the park and it has never taken more than 10 minutes. Whether it pays off depends on how many visits you will make, and one day is enough for most first-timers.
Frequently Asked Questions
The questions I get asked most about what to do at Universal Studios Hollywood.
What is new at Universal Studios Hollywood in 2026?
Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift, the park’s first outdoor roller coaster, opens to the public on 16 September 2026. I rode it in preview and it is now the most intense ride in the park. Universal Express also covers Mario Kart now.
Is one day enough at Universal Studios Hollywood?
Yes. The park is small enough to do every ride and the Studio Tour in one day if you arrive for opening. Add a second day only for Halloween Horror Nights or the VIP Experience, which are separate tickets.
Do you need a park ticket to visit Universal CityWalk?
No. CityWalk is the free-to-enter strip between the parking garages and the park gate, so the restaurants, the cinema, iFLY and Voodoo Doughnut are all open to you without admission.
Is Halloween Horror Nights included with a day ticket?
No. Halloween Horror Nights is a separate evening ticket with its own Express pass, and the daytime park closes early on event nights. It runs on select nights from early September to early November.
Is the Universal Studios Hollywood VIP Experience worth it?
Not on a first visit, when the standard park is still new to you. On a return visit it is the best day you can have here, with a private trolley, soundstage access, front-of-line entry on every ride and a private lunch.
What is the best thing to eat at Universal Studios Hollywood?
Toadstool Cafe in Super Nintendo World, followed by the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade. Toadstool runs a virtual queue, so join it on the app as soon as you enter the land and ride Mario Kart while you wait.
