Disneyland® Resort and Universal Hollywood Trip Report From a Mouse Master

By David Platt, your Mouse Master specialist

I just recorded a podcast detailing my family's recent trip to Disneyland® Resort at Holiday Time, complete with a surprise side-trip to Universal Studios Hollywood for my Harry Potter-obsessed daughter. Take a listen here.

Our trip began with a Universal Studios day, where we splurged on a VIP tour to ensure we saw and did everything. Our focus was definitely on the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but we got to see a lot of other fantastic stuff too, including the Universal backlot. We even got to walk around the outside sets for one of our favorite new shows, The Good Place! The Wizarding World of Harry Potter certainly lives up to the hype. Just like with Cars Land at Disney California Adventure® Park, it literally feels like you're walking into the books or movies. The walk through Hogwart's is amazing, and it has the added bonus of culminating in a ride on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey! And where else can you walk around Hogsmeade, sipping on butter beer?

We then drove down to Anaheim and spent five days at the Disneyland® Resort, exploring all off the new Holiday Time offerings detailed in my previos blog entry 2016 Holidays at the Disneyland® Resort Dates and Events Revealed. Highlights included seeing a brand new holiday World of Color (even splurging for the Dessert Party so we could sit down for the show!), experiencing the Disneyland® Park Christmas Fantasy Parade for the first time, and exploring the fantastic new food booths at the Festival of Holidays at Disney California Adventure Park. We also finally got to ride the brand new Soarin' Around the World for the first time (yay!) and ride The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror™ for the last time (boo!). 

All-in-all, it was a fantastic trip, It amazes me that after dozens of Disney trips, we can still fill a trip with surprises and find at least one new thing to experience every day we're in the parks. Of course we're already planning our return. Next up: the fourth annual 'Disneyland Daddy/Daughter Trip' this spring, followed by a long-delayed return trip to Walt Disney World® Resort in August.  

Listen to the podcast of my trip report