Universal Orlando Trip Reports

[jdawg1998]

Today was my third day of vacation in Florida. Last year my family stayed at the Hilton Bonnet Creek right outside Disney World and we loved it so much we came back - but instead of Disney World, we went to IoA today and are going to the Studios Wednesday. We wanted more of a thrill that Disney doesn't have.

We got there around 9:30 and our plan was to get to Harry Potter & The Forbidden Journey before everyone else...well, that didn't work. We waited around 70 minutes. Emily, my sister, is only 44" so we had to child swap (my mom and dad both rode with me). I love it just as much as last year; the mixture of screens and real life props along with the amazing robotic arms makes a great ride. Somehow though, this year it's not my #1. I think they made the ride movements tamer.

After Forbidden Journey, we took Emily on Flight of the Hippogriff. The awesome thing is, we had Express passes today! The line for a kiddie coaster was 75 minutes but with those passes, there was literally a two minute wait. It's actually not a bad little coaster. I thought it was fun for only being 28mph and 40ft high.

It was already time to eat; our dining took place at Burger Digs in Jurassic Park. It gives you an awesome view of River Adventure's splash. Emily begged and begged to go ride it (little daredevil), so we did. Some of the effects were gone from last year (you don't get sprayed with a fountain of water, and the live raptor box doesn't drop on you), but the drop is still amazing. During the lift hill, Emily was shouting "I'm scared, get me off, get me off!" despite begging to ride it before! You get soaked.

Since we were already wet, it was a good time to ride Ripsaw Falls. Another ride where Emily regretted riding it before the drop. For a cartoon themed ride that's geared towards kids, the drop is intense! Gets you even more soaked than River Adventure!

Toon Lagoon is a really fun area of the park to look around, so that's what we did for ten minutes. Reading the comic strips and shopping in the Betty Boop store were highlights of this. But now it was time to ride one of the best rides ever created - The Amazing Adventures of Spider Man!

For some reason, I liked it better than last year, and it's now my #1 favorite ride of all time (a close first after Forbidden Journey). The fact you can feel the heat, wind, and water along with the spinning, shaking, and dropping makes this ride very intense - but very fun. I can't get out of my head the laughs that Emily made - some of them were nervous but also happy. The best part of the ride is of course when you're "going up". It feels so real and I still don't know how they do it.

I took a ride on The Incredible Hulk with both my dad and mom (child swap).I was the only one putting my hands up on both rides (I mean out of the whole train)...wow, guys. The launch is amazing but the rest of the ride is almost too intense - it never stops and there's constant inversions.It's still very fun, but not in my top 10 coasters.

Even though Emily had been on some good rides, she'd wanted to go to Seuss Landing.This area of the park is colorful and fun. There's a lot of odds and ends and things to play around with. We rode The Cat in the Hat (a cute little ride that follows the story), and The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train ride (gives you great views of the park).

Everyone was tired but I wanted to go to Poseidon's Fury. A lot of people say this ride, show, whatever it is, is dumb and outdated, but I love it. It's scary, funny, and the ending fight between Poseidon and his enemy is awesome. My favorite quote from Emily on this was "this ride isn't good for little kids."

That was all for today; Wednesday we'll be visiting Universal Studios (but without Express passes ).

Ranking the Rides:

• Spider-Man
• Forbidden Journey
• The Incredible Hulk
• Dudley Do-RIght's Ripsaw Falls
• Jurassic Park River Adventure
• Poseidon's Fury
• Flight of the Hippogriff
• The Cat in the Hat
• The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride

Emily's Favorite Rides: (she wanted me to do this):

• Dudley Do Right's Ripsaw Falls (lol)
• Flight of the Hippogriff (again, lol)
• Spider-Man
• Jurassic Park
• Poseidon's Fury
• The Cat n the Hat
• The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride

Islands of Adventure is the best park around, IMO. The theme is top notch. From Port of Entry to Seuss Landing, there is not one missing detail anywhere. There are no rides that are bad or poorly executed. It's honestly perfect. I would go here over every park in Disney World everyday.

[TheCrypt]

Great trip report! Glad you had fun with your sister and hope your trip to Universal Studios will be just as fun.

[jcgoble3]

Sounds like you're having fun on vacation! I was at Universal and IoA at the end of August last year and am already craving a trip back that I know I can't afford right now. Let us know how the Studios is!

[jdawg1998]

Man, this vacation went by fast. Sad face.

Today we went to Universal Studios. The crowd was insane as we started walking in - then we walked past the Express Pass kiosk.That was when my dad surprisingly said, "let's get Express passes again!" Hooray!

The first ride in the park is Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem. This ride was executed perfectly. From the preshow to the ride to the special "dance" finale, Minion Mayhem is truly a great attraction. It's funny, lighthearted, and thrilling at the same time. A must ride (even if you don't have kids)! 10/10

Next we passed by Transformers - it had just opened! 10 minute wait! Transformers has the same ride system as Spider Man but it was different in many ways. It felt very fast and it seemed like there were some G's even though there weren't any - but because it wasn't as "fun" (cheesy, funny, etc,) as Spider Man, Spider Man's still my favorite ride. 9/10

Hollywood Rip Ride, and Rock It had a very long wait but with Express passes we waited 30 seconds, literally. I chose the song Kickstart my Heart and I'm glad I did. It synced perfectly with the coaster. The coaster itself was pretty fun. You get great airtime, but the drop was decent. The real buzzkill for me were the constant brake runs. 8/10

We then went to Twister. Many people give this bad reviews and say it's stupid, but I enjoyed it. It was actually a bit scary in some parts...going back to Emily, of course, she didn't even flinch at the explosions. 7/10

The Horror Make Up Show is a hidden gem - the stage doesn't seat many people and it's not hugely advertised around the park, but it was very funny. It was more of a comedy sketch than a horror make up tutorial, but that was fine with me. There were good jokes, educational fun facts, and was cool seeing how they do everything in horror movies. 8/10

Revenge of the Mummy is regarded as one of the best rides at both Universal parks...huh? It was fun, definitely. But the coaster portion was "eh". The finale sucked and the launch was not nearly as forceful as BLSC (both same speed). The theme saved it greatly, just like Expedition Everest. 7/10

I'm getting bored writing this so I'll just give quick reviews from now on.

Disaster - Family friendly fun that makes everyone laugh. Though when it was just Earthquake, it must have sucked - that part of the attraction was okay. 6/10

Men in Black: Alien Attack - Best shooter dark ride. It would be a good ride without the shooting. I kind of got ticked when I saw I had 5,000 points and everyone else had 100,000, but oh well. 9/10

The Simpsons Ride - This ride surprised me. I was expecting your typical motion simulator, but no.You start in a small room and then your car moves up into a giant IMAX theater. It was humorous and thrilling. 8/10

ET Adventure - I'm not a big fan of slow dark rides, so this didn't appeal to me. And it's outdated. That's all. 6/10

Terminator 2 3D - Another outdated ride, but it was still interesting. The mixture of live action and the movie was cool, but the story suffered with continuity issues and I was kind of confused...6/10

Shrek 4D - This ride can probably go as well, now that there's been a lot more technologically advanced rides created. It's still a fun family ride. 8/10

(I'm going to post another post after this later on talking about Universal Orlando Resort as a whole).

[jcgoble3]

Thanks for the report and reviews! I tend to agree with most of your ratings.

One question: how did you use your Express passes on Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit? When I was there last August, that ride did not accept Express, so I had to wait in the regular queue. (Of course the regular queue those days ranged anywhere from five minutes down to a literal walk-on, so it's not like it affected me. ) Did they change things so that Express is now accepted?

[jdawg1998]

Thanks for the report and reviews! I tend to agree with most of your ratings.

One question: how did you use your Express passes on Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit? When I was there last August, that ride did not accept Express, so I had to wait in the regular queue. (Of course the regular queue those days ranged anywhere from five minutes down to a literal walk-on, so it's not like it affected me. ) Did they change things so that Express is now accepted?

They added Express to it recently.

Please tell me I'm not the only one that thought Mummy was "ok"?

[kblanken]

You aren't the only one that thought Mummy was "ok".

[Big Woody]

I live here and have yet to ride the rip rocket. Every time I've been there the piece o crap has been down. Glad you got to ride it. :-)

[teenageninja]

I rode the Rock'it back in May, 10 minute wait. Thought it was a decent coaster, really loved the vertical lift. 7/10.

I must be crazy, but I hated Minion Mayhem. It was the longest wait of our whole trip (35 minutes) and the ride it self was meh, I was expecting a little more. Not to mention the restraint system I think is very dangerous, I got my arm jammed trying to move a cup (since they told us not to put it on the floor next to our seats) and it was very painful.

[jdawg1998]

I got back from my cruise today; thought I'd post about it here. I'll write a long thing later, just posting this now to remind me.