Secret Entrances & Shortcuts You’re NOT Using at Universal Orlando

[@ThePughTwo]

What is the most steps you've ever taken in a single day while at the parks?

[@natethegreat5656]

Just did 23k at HHN . They really make you walk for those mazes lol 😆

[@tabsamnic]

I averaged between 25-30k last trip! My feet were killing me! I'm so glad that we can slow down and relax a bit more this trip!

[@mikedittenber5271]

I think I was close to 30k HHN opening night… even with the hour rain delay! LOL

[@Eddytainment]

dont remember the steps, but i think it was just over 20 miles or something crazy

[@TheBirdBabe817]

27,884.. some were in the rain & my feet were 🔥🔥🔥🔥the next day! 🤣😭

[@krystlenickerson504]

So, not only do I also LOVE Port of entry, because there's so much to look at, but hearing that cat meow ever few beats is just so cute. Also, the Diagon Alley 3rd entrance I've used to leave, but never to enter ha ha! Thank you for another great video!

[@ThePughTwo]

Port of entry is seriously the best! We absolutely love it! The cat is awesome. We love the people in the gambling hall haha! Thank you for watching!

[@ThousanWhite]

If you were doing this video again, I would suggest inserting a few clips and zoom-ins of these secret entrances and shortcuts as they exist on the park maps themselves as well.

[@ThePughTwo]

That’s a great suggestion, thank you!

[@shannonelledge1313]

Love it! I've gotten the opportunity to help a few folks find their way into Diagon Alley a few times now. Quite fun. As always, you guys rock!

[@mikedittenber5271]

I was walking behind a group last week that were walking by Diagon Alley and were like “what’s this?” as they walked through. So fun to see their reactions when they walked in!

[@ThePughTwo]

Thank you so much Shannon! We have helped people, but we always enjoy listen to them say things such as " IT SAYS ITS RIGHT HERE!" 🤣🤣

[@ThePughTwo]

That sounds incredible.. I bet their minds were absolutely blown!

[@jenifermac-5150]

Good to know! I can't wait to go back there!

[@ThePughTwo]

Us either! We miss it every time that we leave!

[@VerbilKint]

Was waiting to see Dr Seuss shortcut. One of our favs. But then you miss Snookers and Snookers. You have to get their cotton candy at least once.

[@ThePughTwo]

We always take that shortcut.. and we have some bad news.. the cotton candy room is gone. They no longer serve the giant cotton candy 😭😭😭

[@VerbilKint]

What! I'm about to go full Karen! Can I talk to a manger please?

[@dtruckenbrod]

Love this! There's a few I have to look for next time. A few I've found thanks to info from previous videos (maybe livestreams)

[@ThePughTwo]

Thank you David! We love searching around and finding new things! Even with how often we have been, we find new things everytime! Thank you for watching!

[@largol33t1]

There's one that few people use and it's in front of them. If leaving the San Francisco section of Universal and you are next to the lake, you can save a bit of time by walking between the buildings where the Blues Brothers perform. It's a neat looking alley that feels like it was lifted right out of a 1940s detective story. It saves you a few steps if you want to make a beeline straight for The Mummy because it's right in front of you when you come out.

[@ThePughTwo]

Sting alley is another great shortcut! We love walking through there when the parks are busy because most people don’t know it actually exits somewhere!

[@mikedittenber5271]

The 'secret entrance' I discovered this last trip was the back entrance to Borgin and Burkes... If you take the entrance to next to the Fountain of Fair Fortune into Knockturn there is a hallway to on your right just as you are entering that winds back to B&B.

[@ThePughTwo]

Love the back way. People seem to gather at the entrace just past leaky cauldron, however when you enter from back there you typically have it all to yourself!

[@lourdesaponte5810]

Me too! We love to hang around that area!!

[@ThePughTwo]

@@lourdesaponte5810 Lourdes we were still so excited to meet you!!

[@jwiley5288]

Love the videos guys! Knockturn Alley is one that I missed multiple times but mostly because I never finished watching all of the Harry Potter movies. Once I finished those it clicked I had seen the sign but never went down the path so we did last time we were at the parks. Keep up the great work. Can't wait to start seeing content from Epic Universe from you guys in 2025.

[@ThePughTwo]

Thank you!! That makes sense about not knowing what knockturn alley is lol we’re so glad you got to experience it finally, though! It’s so cool!

[@tabsamnic]

I can't wait to get videos on the bridge!!

[@ThePughTwo]

The bridge is so beautiful! It was much needed and has helped the traffic in Hogsmeade slightly!

[@largol33t1]

1:50 - LOL, the boy and his big sister fighting as you walk in the back entrance of D.A.!

[@ThePughTwo]

Haha we will have to watch it again!

[@tracyz9155]

More useful information. Headed to the parks for the first time soon so Thanks.

[@ThePughTwo]

We hope you have an incredible first trip to the parks! We are so pumped for you! Thank you for watching!

[@Julia-re3xq]

What I never ever knew that I just head straight to the rides lol still love your videos so much

[@ThePughTwo]

Thank you so much Julia! We are always trying to ride ride ride as well!

[@Julia-re3xq]

@@ThePughTwo right lol ride as much as you can :)

[@robynwood550]

We found one on our last visit. There is a little alley that is behind Walgreens that dumps out by the Blues Brothers show. I always assumed it was a dead end and was shocked it went all the way through.

[@ThePughTwo]

Sting Alley! We thought about adding that one and we probably should have. we just didn't really know what it was a shortcut to or from!

[@kuestersteffen]

I go to universal alll the time and i still miss one or two of these. So thanks for the help. Just had to book my next trip in December since I’ve been home for a couple weeks and missing it.

[@ThePughTwo]

Haha we are the same way! If we are there we are happy, and if we aren't there, we are planning our next visit! Thank you for watching!

[@samanthaedmonds3219]

I like the walkway that continues past the lockers at Hagrids and dumps you out by Hippogriff. If you want want to get to FJ quickly, it makes it so much easier than trying to navigate those Hogsmeade crowds.

[@ThePughTwo]

Haha we thought about adding that one, but we weren't sure if TM's hated the fact that people did that and cluttered the locker area walking!

[@natethegreat5656]

Just used that entrance to Diagon Alley! Loved that it is a shortcut to the hopping pot. Ended up going to the fountain of fair fortune since the line was a bit better. We used your route for HHN and it was awesome! We had express and queued up for Welcome to Scarey and we hit that and wicked growth , and puppet theater all by 630. Thanks for all the tips!

[@ThePughTwo]

Haha yeah you can save sometime running back to the Fountain of Fair Fortune. Its almost like people forget that it exist! That is so amazing to hear! Thank you for watching. Glad the tips helped you out!

[@richardvogel1195]

Great info. I'll use that next month

[@ThePughTwo]

Thank you so much! We hope you have a great trip!

[@TripNWithRed]

I do wish they would use the secret entrance more or always. We've never seen it open and it would be a perfect way to save tired feet and precious time.

[@ThePughTwo]

Oh you're not kidding! There are so many times we want to go to Hogsmeade from Studios and the Express is like a 90 minute wait and we just dread the walk haha! The path would make it so much easier!

[@Claudia_from_Germany]

Great info as always! Thank you! Btw, how long does it take to walk to Hagrid's from the park entrance?

[@ThePughTwo]

Hey Claudia! Thank you for watching! We would guess the walk from the gate to Hagrids is about 8-10 minutes. We've never tracked it but that would be our best guess!

[@lindseyjones8201]

Honestly, no one told us that Diagon Alley was hidden and it took us forever to find it our first time at Universal....which was also HHN and dark so by the time we found it was almost the end of the night lol.

[@josejesussosa7539]

You can save so many steps and time if when your coming from toon town to velocicoaster you just go down the steps at the discovery center instead of walking to where the wait time sign is by the watering hole.

[@ThePughTwo]

This is an incredible one and one that we simply didn't think of! Thank you so much for the suggestion!

[@briansikeshowe]

Hotel related shortcut we found on the walking path to Hard Rock Hotel from thr parks was to walk through the butterfly garden. Not super hidden like most of these things but it is harder to see at night. We pretty much never saw anyone else use it except for one person which was how we found out about it in the first place! We likely would have walked past it as well otherwise. 😆

[@ThePughTwo]

We love the butterfly garden! That is actually where we were staged for our wedding! It does save a bit of time!

[@harrywashburn7524]

Thanks this really helped

[@ThePughTwo]

Thank you for watching! Awesome to hear that it helped!

[@jinoratheairnomad9777]

The true secret passageway is to use Floo Powder to skip the lines.

[@ThePughTwo]

Shhh! You can’t tell everyone what we do 🤣!

[@jgaldos123]

If there was a love button I’d give it a tap. But only a thumbs up lol.

[@mikedittenber5271]

Me too @jesse galdos… KZbin needs to up their available reactions!

[@ThePughTwo]

Haha thank you so much! The Pugh Crew is always so supportive!

[@ThePughTwo]

💗💗 Yall are the best!

[@lissetteventura9439]

I heard you guys mentioning that you went to the Orlando Informer Meetup. It would be interesting to see a video where you guys talk about your experience doing it👀

[@ThePughTwo]

We might do that as the event gets closer! We have a video from the last event... however we must warn you.. some of our older videos are hard to watch LOL 🤣🤣

[@bungleeee]

you can use the alleys behind the stores in hogsmead to get around, you can also find a park to park in lost continent, and you can get through the long path to dudleys by going through the store

[@ThePughTwo]

We love the one in Hogsmeade especially when its busy! Thank you for sharing!

[@johnh8546]

I was also a bit surprised at the number of people that didn't know about Knockturn Alley. My 5 year old's favorite thing in the park is there. It's in Borgin and Burkes its on the spiral staircase on the left after you enter and it is a bird skeleton in a clear box. I make no joke to say we have to ride the Hogwarts Express to Diagon Alley to see that bird as basically the first thing we do.

[@ThePughTwo]

Haha that's so cute! We're always surprised about it, too, but we can see how it would be easy to miss. I don't think we've ever noticed that bird, so we're going to have to look for it next time we visit!

[@johnh8546]

@@ThePughTwo can't post pictures on KZbin but we have pictures of him with it. We had recreate it fir his Harry Potter themed bed room.

[@dratelectasis]

Before Hogwarts express or Forbidden Journey offered express passes the best way to get passed the line was to just sit and talk to the employees. For example, for forbidden journey (been going to Universal since the early 90s), I would talk to the employee at the front for about 30 min about different cool trivias for the park as well as just he park itself. I asked him "is there a way to get in front of everyone?" and he said, "yeah, just go up to the castle and when you see the next team member, say (his name) sent you". Worked the first time and I just made it a habit afterwards to look at the person's name at the front, walk up to the next TM and say "so and so sent me" and I'd ALWAYS skip the line. Now that obviously is useless because of the fast passes (might work if you don't have one, but I always have one due to the onsite hotels). For hogwarts express, I had been drinking and saw that one of the team members was from Miramar FL like me and asked him, "hey, as a fellow man from Miramar, can you help me get in front of the line?" and sure enough, skipped a two hour line.

[@ThePughTwo]

Haha that’s a fantastic story! I think we might be too afraid we would get caught, but that’s a nice trick to have. Especially with the Hogwarts express, even the express line can get wild! You’ve been going to the parks for so long we’d venture to say you could teach us a few things!

[@karricompton]

I literally just watched a video like this from FullTimeCoasterTour and used his two suggestions when we were in UO and IOA yesterday and today. I did not notice your Diagonal Alley ones. We didn’t have time to play around. We were on a mission to do rides!

[@ThePughTwo]

Thats awesome! We need to check out that video sometimes. We hope you had a blast and got to ride EVERYTHING!!

[@karricompton]

@@ThePughTwo We MADE time for everything that was important. Hagrid’s was so amazing! Only got to do it twice. Line was usually an hour long. I chickened out in Velocicoaster, but my hubby and daughters loved it!

[@ThePughTwo]

@@karricompton YES!! That is awesome! Hagrids is simply the best isnt it? Like we could just ride and ride and ride that attraction! Velocicoaster is really intense, but we are happy that your husband and daughter enjoyed it!

[@crystalfarley7359]

Had my first visit to Diagon Alley this past week. We got ALL the butterbeer at the Hopping Pot, and FROZEN is for sure my favorite. Regular is also delicious! Also.... got my robes! And wand! Plus all the cool Ravenclaw accessories. 😁 Had such a great time. Thanks to you guys for all the awesome tips! You for sure made my trip easier. Pugh Two Protip honorable mention: single rider line saved me SO MUCH TIME riding Escape from Gringotts and The Mummy! It made them basically walk ons. Thanks for that one! Regarding steps.. we did HHN 3 days, and Universal one FULL day + HHN that night... so basically about 3 million steps. 😂😂

[@ThePughTwo]

Oh my gosh! We are so excited for you! The frozen is AMAZING and we can't believe you just got to experience it all for the first time. There is nothing quite like gettings your robes in diagon alley! Such a treat. Thank you so much for watching! We are so happy to hear that our tips helped you out! At least 3 million.. bare minimum lol.

[@lourdesaponte5810]

The only one I haven't use is the one by Blue Man Group. Great video as always!!

[@ThePughTwo]

Thank you Lourdes! We used to enjoy it when it was open!

[@dratelectasis]

The hidden entrance at the front of Universal opens at 10:00 (blue man group). That's why you usually won't see it if you arrive early. But it's always open (only at that time). Funny because I saw a snake there once

[@ThePughTwo]

We had no clue that it was always an option! We get there too early i guess haha. Hmmm Anna is going to lose it when I tell her someone else saw a snake there 😂

[@belladaqueen2089]

They had that walkway between IoA and universal open for my gradventure a couple of years ago. I had no idea that it existed even though my parents work there 😂

[@ThePughTwo]

It’s so convenient! We wish they would open it more often!

[@robertnorris7176]

Will y'all be in the parks this weekend

[@ThePughTwo]

Unfortunately we will not! We live in TN and only get down a limited number of times a year!

[@toniechouteau3866]

I'm a first timer with only one day to do both parks. My plan is to ride haggard and velocacoaster 1st. Please tell me the fastest way there.

[@ThePughTwo]

That’s a great plan! Just go right once you get to the end of the port of entry in Islands. When you see the big green eggs and ham building, go left of that, too!

[@sassylinda4617]

GREAT VIDEO. PLEASE TELL ME YOU GUYS WILL BE AT ORLANDO INFORMER IN NOVERMBER? I WOULD LOVE TO MEET YOU BOTH THERE.

[@ThePughTwo]

Hey Sassy! Thank you so much! Unfortunately, we will only be at the OI meetup in December. 😢

[@brianberry5772]

speaking of shortcuts, can i get an uber over to get off on hollywood way and walk up the entrance to the park and come in by margaritaville? i like that short cut!

[@ThePughTwo]

Haha we have no idea! I'm not sure you can just Uber to a random spot, and I probably wouldn't suggest it either! The drop-off really isn't bad, I had to uber to the parks the other day!

[@jasonwalker8574]

We’ve found that king’s cross station, even with express, saves steps but never much time. One of the rides that express is not too beneficial.

[@ThePughTwo]

Yeah it isnt really a time saver at all, its more just a step saver for sure! Express does cut down on wait times there pretty decently, sometimes it does get backed up though!

[@desertpinevintage]

Ok guys I cancelled my Disney trip in Feb and now I’m going to Universal. Throw out your food must haves. Besides butter beer of course. 😜thx.

[@ThePughTwo]

We have some videos coming out about just this topic!! Welcome to the dark side haha!

[@hvllxwxxn]

the first time i went, the bypass next to rip ride rockit was open. so the next time i went i asked a team member if it was open again and they never even heard of the bypass. i questioned my sanity.

[@ThePughTwo]

Haha you are completely sane! It is so great when its open. We really wish they would realize how much it actually improves customer experience in the parks!

[@donaldbright9310]

You missed the secret entrance off to the right in front of studios. On some days (HHN) if you are staying onsite your hotel key will give you access.

[@ThePughTwo]

That’s a good one! Since it’s only open for HHN typically, we kind of forgot about it! Thank you!

[@karijobishop212]

You two seem to get to Florida frequently, I was curious, do you travel outside of the parks and resorts for restaurants? What is one you'd recommend?

[@ThePughTwo]

We actually don't spend much time outside of the parks or the park bubble. We are going to fix that soon, but for now we really don't know much about the location!

[@karijobishop212]

Thanks guys. I think you've missed out so I hope you do start going outside the bubble. I love visiting Florida and touring around outside. If or when you ever venture out, downtime Disney, as well as I drive have so much to offer for food and entertainment.

[@ThePughTwo]

@@karijobishop212 We are so excited to check it all out!

[@melymel1253]

The guys at the bridge 😂

[@ThePughTwo]

Lol we hadn’t noticed!

[@BXNG_GHOST]

Hi I'm going to universal studios for three days and I wanted to know if you guys think the crowds are going to be low or high

[@mikedittenber5271]

Not sure when you are going, but Personally I think it will be a bit higher than normal once international travel opens up in November… the Orlando Informer crowd calendar is a great resource and I’m sure they will take the borders opening into their predictions. orlandoinformer.com/universal/crowd-calendar/?month=nov&yr=2021#crowdCalendar

[@BXNG_GHOST]

Thank u

[@ThePughTwo]

When are you going? If you are going IN 3 days, the crowds should be on the lower side! Let us know and we will try to help!

[@ThePughTwo]

Thanks for linking this Mike! Always a great source!

[@BXNG_GHOST]

We are going November 3rd 4th and 5th

[@galena52761]

I need you to know that gate and blue building where Blue Man Group was is the old Nickelodeon Studios building and that's what you should call it :p

[@ThePughTwo]

We will call it the Nickelodeon entrance for you! Tyler was in a game show there once!

[@galena52761]

@@ThePughTwo that's awesome and I'm super jealous! I would have traded anything to go when it was still booming

[@Ariadne147]

Is Nocturn Alley new? I've been to the park so many times and never even knew it was there! I feel so dumb! LOL

[@ThePughTwo]

It’s not new, it’s been there ever since they opened diagon alley! It’s okay, there are a lot of people who have never visited it at all! We can’t wait to hear what you think about it!

[@franknixon4784]

9:24 why do I feel like I’ve never seen that awning

[@ThePughTwo]

Lol it’s on the Velocicoaster bridge! They built it when the coaster was being built because the track goes over right there. Unless you’ve taken the shortcut from the lost continent to the Velocicoaster, you probably wouldn’t have seen it!

[@lindsaydrew56]

We’ve never seen the passage b/w the parks at Despicable Me open. Though we’re never there at busy times I suppose.

[@ThePughTwo]

Its so convenient! We really do wish they would just have it open more often than not! All the extra walking makes for tough days at the parks!

[@lindsaydrew56]

@@ThePughTwo we go back and forth between the parks a lot every day. It really would be a great option!

[@ktpaladino]

We were there in April and I couldn’t find the footpath between the parks to save my life! Maybe it wouldn’t have even been open, but it certainly is hard to find! I agree that they should have that open more…at least on the weekends. And we also passed by the Diagon Alley entrance twice. We kept looking at the map and scratching our heads 🤣 I kind of like that it’s a little bit hidden on purpose.

[@ThePughTwo]

Yeah they should 100% use it on weekends at least! That is so funny. We see people do it all the time and we think that it adds to the emersion and makes the experience that much better!

[@MissMyMusicAddiction]

wait? titleist? what the heck happened to BPS?

[@ThePughTwo]

lol this is an older video, before the bass pro hats!

[@dane4073]

Sad blue man group closed

[@ThePughTwo]

Yeah, we are sad as well, however we are excited to see what takes its place!