Florida Trip (Plus Dollywood & SFOG) - Trip Notes

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Overview:

 

My friend Dave and I have been to just about all of the major parks east of the Mississippi River over the course of the past five years.  We talked about new places we might be able to go or places we hadn't been to in a while, and the one area that neither of us had been to in the last 20 years was the Disney World complex.  We ultimately decided that we were going to do a one-week long blowout trip that included:

• Dollywood
• Six Flags Over Georgia
• all four Disney parks
• both Universal parks
• Busch Gardens Tampa
• Sea World
• the two Fun Spot parks in Central Florida

To save everyone's sanity I won't cover each park or trip day in detail.  This will be written as a highlight report, just covering anything noteworthy.

 

Things that Underwhelmed:

• The Disney parks except for Animal Kingdom.  Dave and I both felt that the Disney parks simply lacked the "magic" we were both expecting.  Dave's last visit was in 1985 and mine was in 1993, and we both walked in to our first Disney park - the Magic Kingdom - with extremely high hopes.  While we both loved the attention to detail and the great theming in each of the parks, we simply felt that (1) none of the rides at any of the parks there - with the exception of Toy Story Mania and Expedition Everest - were worthy of re-rides, and (2) there wasn't enough at the parks to do that would be worthy of staying at any of the parks for a full day.  Disney really needs to install more attractions - particularly at Epcot, the Studios and Animal Kingdom.
• The Incredible Hulk at Islands of Adventure.  I love the layout of the coaster, but even after they rebuilt the coaster from the ground up and have brand new trains on the ride, the ride is still just as rough as it was on our visit five years ago.  Universal really needed to install the vest restraints on this coaster, because the headbanging on the old-style OTSRs was constant.  It was perhaps the most disappointed I've ever been after getting off of a B&M coaster.
• Escape from Gringotts at Universal Studios.  The ride itself is fun and the graphics are really cool.  Unfortunately, the ride didn't have a real plot that I could follow, which made it difficult to put the ride into proper perspective.  We rode it twice as a walk-on both times and never cared to re-ride it after that even with short waits.  They had a hard act to follow with Forbidden Journey, and it just didn't have the same "wow" factor as Forbidden Journey.
• The food at both Disney and Universal - Mythos excluded.  The meal we had at Mythos was very good, but the food we had at the Disney parks and at Universal was incredibly average.  We tried everything from burgers to pasta to dessert, and except for Mythos everything else was shockingly forgettable.  Very few parks do food well and these two parks aren't part of that group.

Things that Surpassed Expectation:

• Transformers at Universal Studios.  Universal Studios 3D rides are all very good, but Transformers was amazingly well done.  The scenes there were just action-packed, the storyline made sense, and the graphics were just incredible.  If it wasn't for Forbidden Journey it would be the best dark ride in the US.  We both absolutely loved the ride.
• Animal Kingdom as a park.  There's not a whole lot to do at Animal Kingdom, but I absolutely loved the feel of the park.  It is definitely the most "immersive" of any of the parks in Orlando because of the way the whole park feels like an actual tropical park.  I really liked the Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest, but I'll remember the way that the park immerses you more than the attractions.
• Toy Story Mania.  What a great ride!  I thought that the small rope/button combination instead of the normal trigger was a bit odd until the first shot.  After the first shot and seeing the clear way the shots were shown on the screen, all I could think of was "why aren't all other interactive dark rides using this technology?"  It is the best ride of its type hands down and is way more fun than I ever expected.  I absolutely fell in love with this ride.
• Mako at Sea World.  I love the B&M hypers and I went in with high expectations, but I was absolutely shocked by how powerful the airtime on the pre-MCBR section of the coaster is.  It has the most powerful airtime of any B&M hyper, particularly if the trim brake is off.  The section after the MCBR is just OK, but the first half of the coaster more than makes up for it.  I've ridden all but four B&Ms in North America and it's probably my second favorite B&M coaster after Fury.  If you're in Central Florida you definitely need to check out Mako.  It is fabulous.
• The Royal Pacific Resort at Universal.  The room rates there were high ($185 per night even with a Universal annual pass), but I was extremely impressed with the resort. It's close to the action - about a 10-minute walk to CityWalk and another 5-minutes to the parks - and even have water taxis that you can use to save the walking part.  The rooms were very nice and the pool there is just fantastic.  The rooms come with the Universal Express line-skip passes for everyone in the room and one hour early entry to one park.  Crowds for our trip were really light and didn't really make these perks that helpful for us, but they would both be incredibly helpful on moderate to busy days.  I highly recommend a stay there.

Just a few other notes:

• Montu moved ahead of Banshee as my favorite invert.  They are really close, but the thing that separates the two for me is the Montu zero-g roll.  Banshee's zero-g roll just doesn't have the snap that Montu's does, and Montu rides smoother even though it's 20 years old this year.  Both coasters are awesome, but Montu is just a tad better IMO.
• The Pop Century hotel at Disney is nice.  It's categorized as a "value" resort, but it was more than adequate.  We got a nice deal (about $100 per night for two nights) and we thought it was a great value for what we got.
• Disney Transportation is nice, but I was glad that we had our own car.  Pop Century has bus transportation from the hotel directly to each park, but honestly, you're probably still better off driving around property with your own car.  Your mileage may vary.
• Lightning Rod at Dollywood is still a great ride.  It's definitely a top-5 wooden coaster.  It looks like the reliability is improving and they're running two trains more often now, but the load times on the coaster are still making for long waits.  Those of you going down over the next month need to get rides first thing in the day, or you're likely looking at wait times of 30 minutes or more even on moderate days.

Thanks for reading!