Before we set off, we had to make some decisions. We had already decided to stay at a hotel that would grant us the early entry to Islands of Adventure. I wasn't sure how busy Universal would be in mid-May, so we wanted to make sure we could ride the Harry Potter ride. We also mulled over whether or not to buy the front of the line perk. It allows you to go into a shorter line for almost every ride in the park. They only sell a certain number of them per day. In the end, we decided to take our chances.*
We set off for Florida after work that Friday. I was supposed to get out early, but fate conspired against me. I got out less than an hour early that day, setting us back.** Once we got going, the drive was pretty uneventful. I did hit a bird and cry about it for twenty minutes, but Mark assures me the bird was a serial killer.
It makes me sad that you can't get your
free orange juice at night.
We arrived at our hotel well after 2am. The check-in process was painless, although we did have to wait for two gentlemen to check in ahead of us. It's kind of funny that we weren't the only people checking in that late. Our room was pretty nice, bigger than most Disney rooms. It didn't have the Disney feel though, so it didn't do much for me.
After getting showered and laying our clothes out for the next morning, we decided to get some sleep. The plan was to be at the park thirty minutes before the resort only early opening. Because I often have trouble sleeping in on my first day of any trip, I was up around 6am. Since Mark was awake too, we decided to just get up and get going. After navigating the suddenly one way road***, we swung through a McDonalds drive thru**** and headed towards the park.
The first thing that I really appreciated at Universal was their parking options. You can pay a few dollars more for preferred parking. We don't usually splurge, but since we were running on about four hours of sleep, we decided to go for it. We were the first ones in the King Kong seciton.
Firsties!
Kong!
We headed left, towards Islands of Adventure. We went to the automated kiosks to pick up our tickets. It was relatively painless. You just have to make sure you have the credit or debit card that you payed with. You swipe it to verify identity.
Tickets in hand, we got in line. We weren't the only ones who wanted to arrive early. The plan was to power walk to the Harry Potter ride and get it out of the way. We figured we could ride it again if we wanted to, as it was early. I had heard horror stories about two hour waits. I knew I wanted to experience the ride, and I knew I wouldn't wait that long. We had a plan, and it was going to work.
Now, this is a problem Disney has, as well as Universal. There is nothing so annoying as standing in line, waiting to get through the turnstiles to open and realizing you're behind the slow people. The people ahead of us were struggling to use their cards and get it together. When they were finally into the park, our turn came. We swiped the cards and went to see Harry.
I'm not a student of Hogwarts, but I have
toured the grounds. I'm kind of a
big deal.
With this particular area, Universal got the theming right. If they could apply this level of detail to the rest of their parks, they might be able to give Disney a run for their money. From the snow capped buildings to the queue for the ride, the entire area is downright amazing. I wish you could just buy a ticket to see that part of the park.
It's not real snow.
The ride itself was neat, but I don't think it's the next big thing in theme park attractions. Now, I was running on very little sleep and was a bit urpy, so maybe this wasn't the best choice for the first ride of the day. It was neat, but I never felt well enough to go on it again that day.
We decided to visit the re-themed dragon coaster to see if it was any good. We hadn't waited for Harry Potter's ride, and we didn't wait for this coaster either. It's set up as a dueling coaster, and you can choose which dragon you want to ride. I think we rode the blue one, and we waited for the front. It made us miss a whole car.
With the dragon coaster, I felt like I was back at Cedar Point.***** The coaster itself was pretty good, but there was little attempt at theming. The ride train was done up, but the grounds under the coasters didn't instill any interest in me.
With our feet firmly on the ground, it was time to wander onward. We didn't have much of a plan past the Harry Potter ride, so we just set off walking. After a detour to the Dr. Seuss area and a single ride on their version of the Peoplemover, we moved on.***** Soon, we could see the Jurassic Park building, which was exciting. I remember really liking the movie, and Mark likes dinosaurs. One would expect that we would both be happy.
You do intend to have dinosaurs on your
dinosaur tour...
Before too long, we had made it to our new destination. We weren't really sure where we were going, so we ended up near the splash down area, where you see the boats come down the big hill. At that point, we were no longer worried about having to wait.
Either the dinosaurs ate the guests or
your average guest has little interest in riding this.
We finally made our way to the actual entrance and saw that we would have no wait. Now, I don't usually get very wet on Splash Mountain, so I figured we would be fine riding this. Maybe we would get some wet spots, but surely, that would be all. I should have realized that wasn't the case when I saw how wet the boat was. By the end of the ride, we were both bored and wet. A ride full of dinosaurs should be more interesting. The pacing and scenery just don't hold up well enough.
Silly people on their phones on
vacation will be eaten!
I don't recall hearing Richard Kiley.
I guessed they cheaped out.
After walking through the Saturday morning comics area*******, we moved on to the comic book area, which features all sorts of Marvel inspired fronts and attractions. There is a Spider-Man attraction and a Hulk coaster, as well as some shops. First, we had to meet some villains.
Mark hasn't paid his back taxes in his
native land, Latveria.
They were fighting over the pumpkin bomb, not dancing.
At least, that is what Mark tells me.
This is another piece of the show that Universal got right. While there weren't really organized lines to see these guys, like Disney has, these particular characters put on a great show. The Hobgoblin had different poses for people, as did Doctor Doom. It was neat to watch them interact with the guests, especially the nerdy ones like my husband.
After Mark vanquished some evil, we decided to ride the Hulk coaster. I was still a bit nauseous from riding Harry Potter********, but I knew we wanted to ride this. I sucked it up and got in line. This was one of the few lines we stood in that day, but it was still under twenty minutes. They were showing the Hulk cartoon while you waited in line, so that was nice of them.
The theming in the ride seemed of a lower quality than their competition over at Disney. At the same time, this coaster is better than some of Disney's. I'm used to lift hills, and I'm also used to the power launch. I'm not used to the combination. As the ride starts slowly up the lift hill, you hear Dr. Banner talking about losing control. When you're almost halfway up the hill, he hulks out, which pushes you into a power launch. It's an amazing bit of theming, a nice tie in. I really liked that coaster. I may have even enjoyed it more than the Harry Potter ride.
Mark, on the other hand, didn't have as much fun. When we got off, he told me that he almost blacked out. He is on high blood pressure medication. He is borderline for needing it. After the ride, he looked online and found out that this is sometimes a side effect. We decided to take it easy and skip the Spider-man ride for the time being.
We knew we needed a butterbeer and to look through the Harry Potter shops, so we headed back that way, passing a weird man on the way.
He is barfing water.
First order of business when we were back near Hogwarts was to get that butterbeer. There was a cart that sold them, but we went into the tavern.
Boar!
The foam tasted good, but the rest was weird.
We got the souvenir cup, which was nice.
The wand shop was really fascinating, as well. We skipped the show because we figured they wouldn't pick an adult to participate. I have since heard that they will, but it wasn't on our list of priorities. I bought my sister-in-law a wand for her birthday*********, and Mark got a hat. I also picked up some postcards, which they would stamp with a Hogsmeade Owl Post stamp. Once again, it was an amazing touch that they didn't even need to do.
Yet another picture of the school. It was impressive
looking and demanded multiple pictures.
The butterbeer is really, really sweet. It has a butterscotch flavor, and we had the non-alcoholic version. We couldn't finish it and decided to pour it out on the curb for our fallen comrade, Cedric Diggory.
Alas poor Cedric. He will go on to be
in Twilight, working opposite a
piece of wood.
At this point, it was time for lunch. We were both dragging, and I was still worried about Mark. We almost ate at the restaurant with the weird puking face outside, but we decided to go back to City Walk and eat at Panda Express We don't have one where we live, so we take that opportunity when we can. We also took a detour to our nearby car to change out shoes. We find it keeps our feet happy to swap half way through each day. It's why I sometimes end up with four different pairs of shoes on a longer trip.
Refreshed, we made our way into the original Universal Studios Orlando park. We hung a right, making our way towards ET. Now, I don't know if we realized that at the time. ET was really, really disappointing. I imagine that someone who was high might really like it, but it wasn't nearly as charming as I remembered. The last time I was to the park, I had to have been maybe twelve. Twelve year old Holly has been known to lie.
Next up, we went to ride the Simpsons ride. I really wanted to skip it in protest of them getting rid of the Back to the Future ride. Yester-Holly's opinion on Back to the Future stands, as I couldn't re-experience it. I didn't really care for the Simpson's ride, as it made me urpy all over again. Mark really liked it. I guess the ride wasn't that bad, but I am not a Simpsons' fan.
After our toony adventure, we decided to ride the Men in Black ride. It was our first experience with another of Universal's smart moves. They have short term, free lockers. If you're going on a thrill ride, they require you to put up your bags, and it doesn't cost you anything.
The ride was actually pretty good. You have to shoot targets, and it's nice that the guns can be moved. The shooting rides at Disney are all stationary with a pivot. You felt much more in the game with the more free moving guns. Additionally, you could turn them sideways, which is a kill shot!**********
Now, we were to the point where we wanted to look around. We had decided not to go back for Spider-Man. We knew we wanted to ride the Mummy, and we were on the fence about the roller coaster at the front of the park.
While looking around, we were offered cash, I think $25, to watch a show and give them our opinion. We got to be a test audience! It was really neat. It took up about half an hour, but it was good, as I needed the break. Little sleep coupled with thrill rides will make you urpy.
With some extra cash in our pockets, we went to ride the Mummy. This is another one of those rides with great theming. It's kind of like a roller coaster dark ride hybrid. Mark had raved about it, and now, I was finally experiencing it. It was pretty good. I was a bit on the nauseous side, which impaired my enjoyment a bit. There was a part with a fire effect, near the end, that genuinely scared me because I could feel the heat so strongly.
Feeling just awful, we decided to skip the last roller coaster we were interested in. Instead, we decided to cut out and head to Raglan Road at Downtown Disney for dinner. While it doesn't sound like we did much, we got to experience the two parks and most the rides we had hoped to see, all by 6pm.
We had to buy something fluffy before leaving and
get the standard photo op picture.
Universal was a fun experience, but I don't need to go back any time soon. Overall, their theming just doesn't live up to what I've come to expect.*********** The Harry Potter area was amazing, and there are a few things Universal does right. Unfortunately, it's not enough to get me coming back any time soon.
*It just seemed wrong to buy our way to the front.
**I just appreciated that they tried to get me out early at all.
***There was some sort of marathon, so they had closed half of the road down, which delayed our progress. It was a good thing we were already running early.
****Mistake.
'
*****Which I love and miss.
******This was where we bought the most expensive tube of sunscreen ever. It was like $13 for a tiny little tube. It was embarrassing, but Mark burns easily.
*******It was just terrible, really. We didn't ride anything there.
********<Snicker snicker>
*********She didn't get it until maybe August or September. We are terrible about mailing stuff. I still have the postcards we bought.
**********It's not really, but it is gangsta.
***********Thanks for ruining other theme parks for me, Disney.
No comments:
Post a Comment