featuring Italian furnishings, a Mandara Spa and fitness center, three themed swimming pools, and dining including the BiCE Ristorante, Trattoria del Porto, Mama Della's Ristorante, and more. The resort is also the only of three onsite hotels to have villas.[citation needed] Hard Rock Hotel Orlando

nsists of six themed areas – Hollywood, Production Central, New York, San Francisco, World Expo and Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone.
Universal's Islands of Aniversal Store offers merchandise from both parks.
CityWalk features shopping, nightclubs, dining venues, an AMC Movie Theater, and a Blue Man Group show. There are many night clubs at CityWalk including Groove, Latin Quarter (open Thursday through Saturday), Red Coconut Club, and Bob Marley-A Tribute to Freedom (both a night club and restaurant). Some notable locations are Hard Rock Cafe, Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, NASCAR Sports Grill, Emeril's, NBA City, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, and Pastamore. Casual dining places include: Moe's Southwest Grill, Burger King Whopper Bar, Panda express, Fusion Bistro Sushi & Sake Bar.
Resorts[edit]

The resort features three official on-site hotels: Loews Royal Pacific Hotel, the Hard Rock Hotel, and Loews Portofino Bay Hotel & Spa. All three hotels are located in close proximity to the Universal Orlando theme parks. The hotels offer guests free water taxi or shuttle bus service to the Universal Orlando theme parks. Another benefit is that the guest room key works as an Express Pass, allowing the guest to bypass the Stand-by line at participating attractions. Theme park guests who are not staying at the Universal official hotels are able to purchase Express Passes at an additional cost.[5]
Loews Portofino Bay Hotel[edit]
Main article: Loews Portofino Bay Hotel
Hotel guests use rooms featuring Italian furnishings, a Mandara Spa and fitness center, three themed swimming pools, and dining including the BiCE Ristorante, Trattoria del Porto, Mama Della's Ristorante, and more. The resort is also the only of three onsite hotels to have villas.[citation needed]
Hard Rock Hotel Orlando[edit]
Hotel guests use a white sand beach pool, rock n’ roll memorabilia, the legendary Palm Restaurant, The Kitchen, and more. The hotel offers Kid Suites and several other standard amenities such as a fitness center and some conference space.[citation needed]
Loews Royal Pacific Resort[edit]
Hotel guests use one of the largest lagoon style pools in the Greater Orlando area, accommodations with "modern conveniences", a fitness center, a conference and business center, and a variety of restaurants such as Emeril's Tchoup Choup, Islands Dining Room, Jake's American Bar and more. The resort also offers a white sand beach and a luau, occurring select nights of the week.[citation needed]
Loews Cabana Bay Beach Resort[edit]
Announced in July, 2012, a new on-site hotel to open in 2014.[6] Cabana Bay Beach Resort will feature a "hip, vintage look" and offer rooms for guests, made up of 900 suite style rooms that sleep 6 and 900 traditional style rooms that sleep 4. The hotel will be built on a 37-acre site within Universal Orlando and adjacent to Universal's Islands of Adventure – just off Hollywood Way and Turkey Lake Road. Construction is already underway.
Events[edit]

Halloween Horror Nights[edit]
Main article: Halloween Horror Nights
On select evenings nights, Universal Studios Florida theme park is transformed into a Halloween event. Halloween Horror Nights is one of the largest Hallowdventure[edit]
Main article: Islands of Adventure

nsists of six themed areas – Hollywood, Production Central, New York, San Francisco, World Expo and Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone. Universal's Islands of Adventure[edit] Main article: Islands of Adventure

The resort is directly accessible from I-4 eastbound via Exit 75A onto Universal Boulevard, and I-4 westbound onto Hollywood Way.
Universal Orlando is served by LYNX buses (links) 21, 37, and 40.
Theme parks and attractions[edit]

Universal Studios Florida[edit]
Main article: Universal Studios Florida


Panoramic view of Universal Studios Florida's lagoon
This combined film production studio and theme park features is composed of themed areas and attractions based on the film industry. Visitors enjoy themed dining and shopping, a variety of special events throughout the year, and may even catch an actual film crew at work on the backlot. The original theme park in the resort, Universal Studios Florida opened on June 7, 1990, as a theme park that lets visitors "Ride the Movies." The themes of Universal Studio's are targeted at making guests feel like they are in a movie set with rides, shows, and attractions inspired by popular film, television, and music productions. The park consists of six themed areas – Hollywood, Production Central, New York, San Francisco, World Expo and Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone.
Universal's Islands of Adventure[edit]
Main article: Islands of Adventure


The Pharos Lighthouse marks the entrance to Islands of Adventure
Universal’s Islands of Adventure, opened in May 1999, is a theme park composed of seven distinct "islands" that are themed to various forms of adventures. Visitors start off in the Port of Entry and make their way through the various islands – Marvel Super Hero Island, Toon Lagoon, Jurassic Park, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, The Lost Continent, and Seuss Landing. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, based on the popular Harry Potter franchise, is the only island added after the park opened; it opened to the public on June 18, 2010.
Wet 'n Wild Orlando[edit]
Main article: Wet 'n Wild Orlando
Wet 'n Wild was founded in 1977 by SeaWorld founder George Millay as one of the first major water parks. In 1998 Wet 'n Wild was acquired by Universal Parks & Resorts, adding it to Universal Orlando.[4] There are eighteen water slides and attractions at the water park. Popular attractions include The Storm, Bomb Bay, Disco H20, and The Surge. Wet 'n Wild is located at the intersection of International Drive and Universal Boulevard, about half a mile south of the Universal Orlando parking garage.
Universal CityWalk Orlando[edit]
Main article: Universal CityWalk Orlando
Universal CityWalk in Orlando opened in 1999, over the former parking lot and entrance, as part of the expansion that created the Universal Orlando Resort.
Guests arriving at the resort park in one of two multi-story parking structures, then travel via covered moving sidewalks over Universal Boulevard into CityWalk. From there, guests can proceed into either of the theme parks, Universal Studios Florida or Islands of Adventure. The U

ay 1997 replacing the Screen Test Home Video Adventure. It was meant to give visitors a preview of the upcoming Islands of Adventure park, along with the rest of the resort. As the new theme park was under construction several new attractions were being built and opened at Universal Studios Florida. Among those new attractions was Woody Woodpecker's KidZone which opened in the Summer of 1998. Attractions such as Men in Black: Alien Attack and Animal Actors (formerly Animal Planet Live) also opened during the expansion phase. On May 28, 1999, Isl

5 Other Services
5.1 Universal's Express Pass
5.2 Universal Meal Deal
5.3 Blue Man Group
5.4 Character Dining
6 Transportation
6.1 Universal Transit
6.2 Universal's Super Star Shuttle
7 Gallery
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
History and Location[edit]

Originally, Universal Orlando opened in 1990 with a single theme park Universal Studios Florida. It was opened as a joint venture between NBCUniversal and The Blackstone Group, the latter sold its half in early 2011. Universal Studios Florida opened in direct competition with Disney's Hollywood Studios. Over the years, the park saw various changes, however its largest change was the opening of its sister theme park Universal's Islands of Adventure. In 1994, executives met to discuss a possible expansion of the resort. It was decided that the current theme park would undergo a series of construction projects transforming it into a multi-day vacation destination. In late 1995, Islands of Adventure broke ground and construction immediately began. The Islands of Adventure Preview Center opened in May 1997 replacing the Screen Test Home Video Adventure. It was meant to give visitors a preview of the upcoming Islands of Adventure park, along with the rest of the resort. As the new theme park was under construction several new attractions were being built and opened at Universal Studios Florida. Among those new attractions was Woody Woodpecker's KidZone which opened in the Summer of 1998. Attractions such as Men in Black: Alien Attack and Animal Actors (formerly Animal Planet Live) also opened during the expansion phase.
On May 28, 1999, Islands of Adventure opened to the general public. It featured six themed 'islands' including Seuss Landing, The Lost Continent, Jurassic Park, Toon Lagoon, and Marvel Super Hero Island. Several new attractions were closed shortly after the opening of the park, such as Island Skipper Tours, due to lack of attendance. Although the park opened to mediocre attendance, the park's attendance sharply improved making it the only theme park in Orlando to have had an increase of attendance following the September 11 Attacks.
Along with the new theme park, the resort also opened a Florida version of Universal CityWalk from Universal Studios Hollywood. CityWalk Orlando, however, differs from CityWalk Hollywood in many ways such as the venues and design. Universal also opened the resort's first onsite hotel in 1999. Loews Portofino Bay Hotel (originally Portofino Bay Hotel, a Loews Hotel) was operated and partially owned by Loews Hotels but was also partially owned by Universal and The Blackstone Group. The two theme parks, CityWalk, and the hotel were branded as Universal Studios Escape, however the name was quickly changed to Universal Orlando Resort. In December 2000, Hard Rock Hotel opened as Universal Orlando's second onsite hotel. Despite the name, the hotel is owned by Loews Hotels just as Loews Portofino Bay Hotel is. Following that, in 2001, Loews Royal Pacific Resort opened. In the midst of all these openings, two parking garages were constructed and the popular water park Wet 'n Wild Orlando was acquired. On June 18, 2010, the newest 'island' at Universal's Islands of Adventure, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened.
The resort is within the city limits of Orlando in Orange County, Florida. It is located north of the International Drive resort area, where many of the resort's 'Partner Hotels' are. The resort is located on a piece of land framed by Interstate 4 to the south, Kirkman Road to the east, Vineland Road to the north, and Turkey Lake Road to the west.