I Rode 20 Rides in 7 Hours in Universal Orlando — Here’s How It Went

If you’re anything like me, you’ve watched the AllEars team complete dozens of ride races and wondered what it would be like to do one yourself.

I’ve had the incredible opportunity to help the team out with a ride race at the very start of 2025, and between that and watching all the ride races on the channel, I felt I was ready to take on one of my own (just for fun!) when I went to Universal Orlando earlier this year. While I did successfully ride 20 rides in just 7 hours, let me tell you something — there’s a LOT I would do differently, and they’re MUCH harder than you may think.

Back in January, I got to help Quincy with a MASSIVE rides race all around Disney World, and while it was so much fun and I had the time of my life, I also learned a lot! I got to see firsthand just how tiring these races really are, how important it is to strategize, why you need the right shoes, and that you should ALWAYS have a smart watch to track your steps.

I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t start the day off on the best foot, despite how much of a planner I am. The night before, I knew I wanted to head into Universal Orlando to have fun, but I hadn’t planned on doing a rides race. That ended up being a good thing, because I woke up to realize my phone hadn’t charged all night, and needed to stay at my accommodation in order for it to charge fully. That did mean I got to hang out with Hemingway (Quincy’s cat), though, which is always a plus!

Once my phone was fully charged, I headed towards Universal, but decided to stop by the Disney Character Warehouse nearby first, where I picked myself up a mystery Disney Munchling they had on sale. By the time I made it into CityWalk, it was around 11:45 AM, and I knew that it was important for me to eat before I started my day. That’s the first big lesson I learned — you HAVE to plan on when to eat! Even if it’s bringing snacks into the park with you (which I also did), you 100% need to plan time to eat during your park day — yes, even when you’re doing a rides race!

By the time I was actually ready to start my day, and had finally decided on doing a rides race, it was already 12:26 PM, and I had lost valuable time! This was especially true since Universal Studios closed at 5 PM due to Halloween Horror Nights, so I really had to BOOK IT! That’s my second tip here — plan in advance (WELL in advance) if you’re planning on doing a challenge, because every minute in the park counts.

I finally headed into the park and decided to start at the very front with Minions Land since wait times were very low, headed straight over to Race Through New York with Jimmy Fallon (every time I see it, I’m reminded how much Quincy hates it because it’s so motion sickness inducing), hopped over to Revenge of the Mummy, and finished up Transformers all by 2:15 PM! I did this challenge in the middle of the week, and that’s tips number three and four together — Universal Orlando is more of a local’s park, so go during the week if you can for lower wait times, and go in a circle around the park when you can! It helps to avoid backtracking whenever you can.

I saved valuable time going through the single rider queue of Fast & Furious Supercharged (it skips the WHOLE pre-show!), then headed into The Wizarding World of Harry Potter to jump into Escape From Gringotts. I also chose to go with Single Rider here, and that saved time as well, since this also skips the pre-show. There’s tip number five for you — use single rider when you can for not only a shorter line, but also the ability to skip long pre-shows!

I had originally planned to end the park with Wizarding World of Harry Potter to ride Gringotts, then hop on the train last to head over to the other park, but the parade was coming around and blocking my path, so I decided to cross Gringotts off the list, then head over to Men in Black: Alien Attack, Simpsons Land, followed by DreamWorks Land. That brought me to 4:16 PM, and with only one ride left, I was feeling good about completing the park…until I saw the wait time for the Hogwarts Express.

The Hogwarts Express was wildly backed up, and this is where, while it was painful, I learned lesson number six — I had to make the decision to forfeit the ONE ride I had left in this park in order to get more in the next park. However, I wasted TONS of valuable time trying to MAKE this choice, and had I not done that, I could have completed even MORE rides in Islands of Adventure, so next time around, I’ll be ready to make a choice like this sooner.

After walking over to Islands of Adventure to continue my challenge, it was 5:04 PM, and the park closed at 8 PM, so time was ticking! Lesson number six was that since I knew there was no way I’d get all the rides in, I planned to forfeit some of the attractions I genuinely just didn’t want to do, because at the end of the day, this was still for FUN! For example, I knew I’d go without riding The Incredible Hulk, because the last time I was on it, I greyed out (basically, my vision went all spotty), which wasn’t fun, and I wanted to avoid the water rides in Toon Lagoon as much as possible. I’m competitive, even with myself, but since I knew it wasn’t possible to do it all, I chose to leave out the ones I was genuinely not going to be happy with.

At this point, some bad weather was moving into the area that caused outdoor attractions to close, so after riding Storm Force Accelatron, I headed straight to The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, and was so glad I got on before the line got too long (as everyone in line for outdoor rides ran there, which DID happen when I checked out the line after I rode). I passed straight through Toon Lagoon (with a small detour at the Universal Orlando Passholder Lounge, which I didn’t regret a BIT) and headed into Jurassic Park. I attempted to hop in line for Reign of Kong, but when the line didn’t move at all for a solid 5 minutes, I decided to get out of line and move on — see, I’d already learned from my previous mistake!

By this point, it was 6:08 PM, and by the time I finished Jurassic Park River Adventure and VelociCoaster, it was 6:55 PM, and I had just over ONE hour left. By 7 PM, I was in Hogsmeade and rode Forbidden Journey and Flight of the Hippogriff, but chose to forgo Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure due to the high wait time. It has a single rider line, but since this was a numbers game, I knew it would be wiser to head into Seuss Landing and see what I could get done!

It was 7:27 PM as I headed into Seuss Landing, and chose to head straight for the High in the Sky, Seuss Trolley Train Ride since it was the first one I came across. My final ride of the night was the Caro-Seuss-el, because while it WAS a rides race, I had one final thing to do before the park closed. I was off the last ride by 7:54 PM, and then had to speed walk for my LIFE back over to Toon Lagoon to snag some items from the Universal Orlando Passholder Lounge I had seen earlier in the day! I didn’t want to buy them in the middle of my race, since then I’d have to carry them around all day (unless I wanted to pay for a locker, which wasn’t in my plans). That was my final lesson — while it was a rides race and I wanted to hit as many as possible, I also wanted to do other things that made me happy. Since I don’t live locally, I knew it was likely that those items would be gone by the time I was back, and I didn’t want to miss those deals!

I made it just in time, grabbed what I wanted, and then tallied it all up — I had done 20 rides in just about 7 hours, which was a big accomplishment for my first rides race! The full list of the rides I completed is:

• • Despicable Me Minion Mayhem
  • Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast
  • Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon
  • Revenge of the Mummy
  • TRANSFORMERS: The Ride-3D
  • Fast & Furious — Supercharged
  • Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts
  • MEN IN BLACK Alien Attack
  • The Simpsons Ride
  • Kang & Kodos’ Twirl ‘n’ Hurl
  • Trolls Trollercoaster
  • E.T. Adventure
  • Storm Force Accelatron
  • The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man
  • Jurassic Park River Adventure
  • Jurassic World VelociCoaster
  • Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
  • Flight of the Hippogriff
  • The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride!
  • Caro-Seuss-el

At the end of the day, I had TONS of fun, but wow, my legs were killing me, and I immediately sat down to eat one of the granola bars I had in my bag! While I was leaving the park, I also stopped by Menchies (my FAVORITE) to grab some frozen yogurt and celebrate a successful challenge. If you’re planning to do a challenge like this, definitely do some research ahead of time to know what you’re getting into, and get ready to be TIRED! As always, be sure to stay tuned to AllEars for all the latest Disney and Universal challenges!

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