Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure - 1/18/16

[thegajone]

It's been over a week but I'm finally getting around to writing this up. I want to start by giving a little bit of background on me and my wife, who accompanied me on this trip. I am 31 and she is 29. My wife likes amusement parks in very small doses; she enjoys a Kings Island trip once every 3 years or so, but even on those trips she's ready to call it a day after a few hours. The excitement wears off quickly for her. She likes thrill rides but any attractions that aren't big, fast or intense are lost on her. She's been to Disney a few times, most recently about 10 years ago, and she's just simply not the target consumer. Things like theming and details, she couldn't care less about. She's never been to US so this was a first for her. I'll try to remember to include her thoughts and experiences in this review since she is pretty much a token example of the "general public", and sometimes we forget that park goers like her are far more common than enthusiasts like us.

This was my 2nd trip to US, but first since 2000 when I was 15 years old. I remember loving both parks and almost all the attractions. Our family visited all 4 Disney Parks that trip also, and that was easily my favorite family vacation ever. While I wish I could tell you how this trip to US compares to Disney, I really can't do that since I don't remember a lot of details from my last Disney trip 15 and a half years ago.

I personally am a moderate theme park enthusiast; I'm not one to visit various parks around the country (in fact the only big parks I've ever been to are KI, CP, the 4 Disney Parks and the 2 Universal parks), but I have a great appreciation for rides and theming. Pretty much the opposite of my wife!

For those that pay close attention, I mentioned in my "One day only - Disney or US" thread that I wouldn't be able to ride the intense rides on this trip since I had a pretty major surgery a few months ago, but I called my surgeon and got the OK to ride so I was pretty happy about that.

Sorry for the long intro, but I think it's important to understand the background of someone giving a review because their experience might vary drastically from yours based on their age, personality, number of parks they've been to, number of times they've been to those parks, and about a hundred other factors. You might really enjoy something that I don't because there are certain things you appreciate that I don't, or vice versa. Anyway, on to it...

We got to the park about 20 minutes after it opened. I did not remember them having a parking garage but that's a great idea to not only maximize the limited space you have, but to keep vehicles cool in the Florida heat. Unfortunately it was only about 45 degrees with a forecast high of 60, so that was not an issue for us! Instead I was worried about the possibility of doing the water rides -- more on that later. On the way in you go through a metal detector (which took forever and was quite hectic) and have a decent hike before you get to City Walk, which is then a decent hike to the front gates. Since I'm still recovering from a surgery where 2/3 of my right lung was removed, I knew I'd be walking a lot and that that would be my biggest hurdle for the day, but I didn't expect to walk that far just to get to the front gate! Anyway, I was surprised at the variety that City Walk has as far as food and entertainment options go. I wouldn't hesitate to stay at the resort if I go back. The mini golf course looked legit!

Our plan was to start on the Universal side, make our way around the right side to the first Harry Potter area, ride the train over, do a full loop around IOA, then ride the train back to US and finish out the rest of the rides there. We bought the one-time-use-per-ride Express Passes when we bought our tickets because we only had one day to do both parks and we thought "better safe than sorry". We thought the crowd might be light since it was mid-January, but at the same time it was a holiday (MLK Day) so we didn't want to take any chances. I'll just go ahead and give you the verdict on that now: altogether the EP might have saved us about 2 hours on the day. So it was worth it for us because we needed those 2 hours, but not sure how valuable that would have been to the average person at $80 each. It was certainly disappointing to see that the passes either couldn't be used on rides where the wait was long (Forbidden Journey, Gringotts, train), or that the lines were so short that it gave you no advantage (most rides). There were only a select few rides where the EP actually helped, but on those few rides it did save A LOT of time.

First up was T2:3D, but the first show wasn't until 11. Bummer. On to ET. We only waited about 5 minutes which was actually a letdown because the queue seemed nice! The ride was pretty much what I remember: a solid dark ride that was a little creepy, but enjoyable. I really like the pacing of this ride. You don't blow through each scene too fast which gives you a chance to see everything. My wife couldn't have been less interested, and to make matters worse, the alien at the end said her name wrong ("Jessica" shouldn't be that hard; they at least nailed Ryan though). While it's a neat dark ride, I would appreciate it more if it had a nostalgia factor for me. Like if Phantom Theater was still around at KI I'd still love it because of the nostalgia, but if I was 31 and riding it for the 2nd time, I'd probably think it was kind of lame.

Simpsons 3D was next. First time for me so I didn't actually know what it was going in. For those who also don't know, it's a 3D motion simulator with a bunch of different pods all staring at one huge screen. We were bottom right which I will say did affect the experience a little, but overall was not a huge deal. I enjoyed it, but my wife had to close her eyes halfway through so she wouldn't throw up. I gave her some Dramamine afterwards which helped a little, but I had a feeling she'd be in real trouble the rest of the day. I also enjoyed the Simpsons area. I thought the theming was nice, and the music really added to that. In fact, US did a great job with their music throughout the park. Each area played music that really made me feel like I was in that world, whether it be The Simpsons, HP, JP, or whatever else. Even MIB played music not only from the movie, but from the time period when the movie came out which really fit well with the experience.

Speaking of MIB, that was next. After a short wait with another nice queue (common theme throughout the day), we got on but got stuck about halfway through for 5 minutes or so. This allowed my wife and I to accumulate a ridiculous score, but the problem was that for the rest of the ride, none of the animatronics worked, nor did the screen thing towards the end. Pretty disappointing because before that we actually both enjoyed this one other than the random spin-outs. Why does darn near every ride in this park have a part of the ride with a spin-out element?

From there it was onto Diagon Alley. Having only seen 3 HP movies, I'm not the biggest HP fan but I could certainly appreciate how cool this area is. If I had more time and didn't have someone with me who just wanted to get the day over with, I'd love to spend some time in there and check out all the little details. The first thing I noticed in DA was how it really feels like you're in the world of HP. The second thing I noticed was the crowd. My goodness, there were a ton of people there. I can't even begin to imagine how crowded this area gets during peak season. Not only were there a ton of people, but there were countless groups of people who thought it was a great idea to just stop in the middle of the walkway, creating ridiculous bottlenecks all over the place. There were also a ton of people with cameras bumping into others as they foolishly tried to walk while looking through their camera lens and snapping photos instead of briefly stopping to do so. I very much wanted to fall in love with DA and Hogsmeade, but the crowds made it really difficult to do so. Anyway...

Before riding Escape from Gringotts I had to try a Butter Beer. If you've never had it, it's cream soda that tastes like butterscotch...which is actually quite good and different. I'd definitely try it again. Afterwards we hopped in line for the ride. We waited about an hour but most of that was inside where we experienced what is possibly the most impressive queue I've ever been in. Being in that queue made me wish I had seen all the movies so I could appreciate it even more. The kids in line next to me were excited almost to tears just from the queue. That's how impressive it is. The ride itself? Yeah it's neat, but I don't know, it just didn't really wow me or anything. For those who have never ridden it, it's more or less a mine train-type coaster that comes to several stops and interacts with different 3D screens. At the conclusion of this ride I came to a realization about my own amusement park preferences. I'm more like my wife than I thought. I love real thrills far more than simulated ones. Give me the 300 foot, $25M coaster over the interactive, $100M dark ride. That's not to say I don't still love dark rides; I just like them in moderation. A park with a bunch of coasters and a couple dark rides with excellent theming (especially in the queues) is what matches my interests most.

After FJ we wanted to hop on the train over to Hogsmeade, but I couldn't find the darn thing. When we entered the park I never saw where I could grab a park map, and I didn't see any once in the park. Turns out you have to actually LEAVE DA in order to ride the train. Once again the queue was enjoyable as you had to find and enter platform 9 3/4, with a cool visual from a certain position showing people disappearing through the wall a la the movie. We only waited one cycle which wasn't too bad (foreshadowing....). Once on the train I was surprised and disappointed that you actually ride in cabins and stare at a screen. I'd much rather ride a train where you're exposed to the elements and can see other areas of the park, but I assume there's a good reason why it is the way it is (i.e. there's gotta be something you can see from that train that they don't want you to see). To add further to the disappointment, the dad in the family that we rode in the cabin with sat right next to the screen with his head leaned forward the whole time so that I could only see about 30% of the screen. Between him and the groups of people causing bottlenecks in DA, do people have no respect for anyone else these days? Furthermore I found it very difficult to decipher what the characters outside the cabin were saying despite silence from everyone that was in my cabin. Overall I was not a big fan of the experience.

Hopping off the train, we discovered Hogsmeade was even MORE crowded somehow than DA. Also the Dragon Challenge coasters weren't running so we just decided to leave Hogsmeade and try the rides here later. Exiting Hogsmeade meant entering Jurassic Park -- my favorite area of either park. Once again the scenery and music made me feel like I was there. Before we did anything it was time for lunch. My wife, being a picky eater, opted for the pizza place in this area. It was pleasantly above average for amusement park pizza. I wanted to wait and try Mythos but this was a decent consolation. Not sure that we would have had time anyway.

After lunch I was thrilled to see that the Raptor Encounter was still there despite not being able to find anything about it on their website (though I didn't look that hard, I at least clicked around for a little while and didn't see anything). Speaking of their website, unless I missed it, it makes absolutely no mention of The Hulk being down. It is still listed under the rides section and is still there on their online park map. I didn't know it was being re-tracked until I read it on here the day before our trip. I'm not saying it would have been a deal-breaker or anything, but it still annoyed me. Anyway, Raptor Encounter IS SO FREAKING COOL. I've seen videos of it before, but in person it is even more impressive. And when you stand next to that thing you know it's fake, but part of you is still a little jumpy. The look of it might be a little off compared to the movies, but all the sounds and mannerisms match the movies exactly. This honestly might have been the highlight of the whole day for me. Following Raptor Encounter we continued our way down the path and saw the construction for the new King Kong ride. Holy moly, that building is HUGE. I really can't wait for that one.

Following that it was time for River Adventure, which I remember being my favorite ride in the park. No chance 60 degree weather was going to stop me. I'm not THAT tough though so I did buy a poncho. My wife was kind enough to give me permission to marathon it for 1 hour since she was ready for a break anyway. So I took off my shoes, put on my flip flops, threw on the poncho and was off. I wasn't the only one who refused to be slowed down by the cool temps; there was actually about a 5 minute wait. Coming into the day I was worried that this ride wouldn't be as fun for me as it was as a 15-year old, but I was wrong. I loved every second of it....until we got to the top, that is. The freaking T Rex at the end wasn't working. He just sat there behind the fog, and his audio was off as well. I seriously wanted to cry. I know that during non-peak times, the year-round parks do maintenance and rides tend to be down more, but this was a big letdown. I got soaked too, even with the poncho on (just caught a flood of water right to the face), but it ended up not bothering me at all. But there was no point in marathoning it at this point, so I grabbed my wife and headed towards Ripsaw Falls.

Ok, time to go off on a little tangent here. I know I just said that the JP area is my favorite area in the park, and that RA is my favorite ride, but at the end of the day I'm still a bit disappointed. In my humble opinion, Jurassic Park is the 2nd most valuable amusement park intellectual property behind only Star Wars (and yeah, I'd even put it ahead of HP though I'm sure I'd get a huge disagreement on that). I mean it's a movie about an amusement park with dinosaurs. JP deserves to have an UNREAL amusement park area, or even it's own park, but instead we get this. It's ok, sure, but it should be amazing, and it simply isn't. But I digress...

Like I started to say before my tangent, it was time for Ripsaw Falls. Wifey once again sat out as I got in line. Right before it was my turn to hop on, the ride went down for about 15 minutes. Not sure what happened but everything seemed fine when I rode. This is a fantastic flume ride that almost gives Splash Mountain a run for its money. The one and only one negative is that I found the seating and restraint situation to be pretty uncomfortable. Outside of that I would have ridden it a few more times if we had the time.

I considered trying Bluto's Barges since the poncho was working out pretty well but it was closed. So it was on to Super Hero Island. Once again I loved the theming. Our first stop was getting a Ben & Jerry's soft serve cone, which was well worth the investment. Then it was time for Spider-Man 3D. The first time I rode this ride I thought it was amazing. There was nothing like it at the time and it was one of the coolest rides ever. I was worried though that it wouldn't hold up after all these years, and after riding a few similar rides earlier in the day. Well there was nothing to be worried about. It's still awesome. The queue, as had been the case most of the day, made the wait go by quickly and for the first time all day the Express Pass paid off as we skipped by most of what was a decent line.

Neither one of us had any interest in the Dr. Doom Freefall ride so we headed towards the Dr. Seuss area. I know, you'd never guess this, but I thought the theming was great yet again. Despite not planning on it, we jumped on the Cat in the Hat ride since there was virtually no wait. I'd basically equate this experience to ET: a nice long, well-paced dark ride that unfortunately doesn't hold any nostalgia for me. It gave us a nice break from screens though at least.

I was kind of curious about Poseidon's Fury since I did not remember it from my last trip and I have no idea what the heck it is, but ultimately we passed since...well, I have no idea what the heck it is. So it was back to Hogsmeade. We were hoping the crowds would have thinned a little bit by now, but it was certainly not the case. But the good news was Dragon Challenge was up and running again. So we dropped off our stuff at the chaotic locker area (every locker area in the park was chaotic by the way) and headed over towards the entrance. Someone at the entrance was warning people to make sure they have absolutely nothing on them or in their pockets whatsoever, and I was surprised yet pleased to see how heavily this was enforced when we actually had to walk through a metal detector. You'd be amazed at how many people didn't listen to the person giving the warning and turned to head back out the entrance with cell phone in hand. I wish every coaster had the same procedures! The ride itself was fine; a little short but still enjoyable. My wife really liked it but she has never been on a full circuit inverted coaster before. I told her she'll love Banshee then! The only problem here was the rides didn't race. I really can't fathom why this is the case. From what I remember, half the appeal of the ride was all the elements where it looked like you were about to collide with the other train before avoiding it and entering the next element. Why take this away from the experience?

Man, this is taking longer than I thought. Time really got away from me there and I have somewhere to be now, but I'll try to finish up soon.

[Bennett]

I always find it quite cool how two different sets of people can have such vastly different experiences.

 

For instance, I thought that the Hogwarts Express was super cool, rode back and forth on it 6 times in two days.  That said, I am a HP geek, have seen every movie umpteen times. 

 

Great trip report!  I would be happy just to spend my money, and never leave the two Harry Potter areas.  Just amazingly well done.  You are correct in the theming in the queue of Gringotts.   The bank area is unlike anything I've seen, it is like being on the set of the movie.  

 

Did you get to try a Hogshead Brew?  The actual beer?  Great stuff.  Maybe just the atmosphere, but my favorite day there was drinking ond of those in the park, by myself, at 9:12 am on a Tuesday morning, on the bridge looking at the castle.  A few moments to myself, as I got in a few hours ahead of the family. 

 

You are not alone in your feeling on the Jurassic area.  Needs some love, went there twice in the past few years, and had the same issue on the same ride.  Seems like a missed opportunity to me. 

 

Shame that you didn't get to ride the Bilge-Rat Barges, since you were already wet.  Such a fun ride, though Ripsaw Falls is so great too. 

[MDMC01]

Good stuff; I went to IOA in the early/mid 2000's and had a good time. Since I being a hardcore coaster/theme park junkie would be a few years away for me (I liked rides/coasters, but was still a little hesitant), I only rode 3 rides: Hulk (which I was a bit nervous about, but I loved!), Spiderman (which terrified me then because of the unexpectedness of it, but I feel like I would love it now) and Bluto's Bilge-Rats Barges (which I loved!). I've heard good things about the two Harry Potter areas, and from what I've heard/seen about the Forbidden Journey ride looks disorienting and terrifying (I mean, the first major element whisks you away on your back, c'mon!). And Butterbeer sounds like it would taste good. Might have to go back there sometime!

 

Back to the trip report- did you get to try Forbidden Journey, and if so, how was it? And as for Posidian, I didn't do that either because I was too scared, but I think it's like a walk-through attraction thing with special effects.

[thegajone]

Alright, time to pick up from where I left off. After Dragon Challenge (which was only a 5 minute wait, forgot to mention that) it was time for Forbidden Journey. Once again the queue was awesome and helped the 1.25 hour wait seem not so bad. I will say though that the wait started taking its toll on me. I still haven't even come close to gaining all my strength back since surgery and I really started to wear down while waiting for this ride. However, the ride itself helped give me a 2nd wind because it is AWESOME. My only complaint is that I definitely felt motion sickness bigtime on this one. Not from the movements of it, but from the screen. The screen just seemed a lot closer on this ride than the others. I couldn't watch the screen parts most of the time. But the rest of the ride blew me away. Loved it. Like I said, it gave me a 2nd wind and I was ready to finish out the rest of the day. So we headed to Hogwarts Express to ride back over to the other park...

...and waited close to an hour for it. Major buzzkill. Just as I thought I was gaining steam for the rest of the day, this wait really took a lot out of me. We pushed onward though and went to Transformers 3D next. It was similar to Spider-Man 3D I thought; another nice queue, and another nice ride. Unlike FJ, the screens are far enough away from the vehicles to not cause me any motion sickness My wife disagreed though. She couldn't take anymore. The screens took their toll on her and finally pushed her to her breaking point. She tapped out on screen rides at that point. No mas. And honestly I was right there with her, not from motion sickness but from exhaustion. It was dusk at this point and I actually made it longer than I thought I would anyway. I wanted her to end on a better note though, so I offered up Rip Ride Rockit. She said "sure, but after that I'm finished". Fair enough. Easy Pass really paid off on this one as the 1 hour estimated wait per the sign in front ended up being about 10 minutes for us (I should also mention that EP saved us a good 30 minutes on Transformers as well). I thought one of the draws of this ride was supposed to be the fact that you could pick a song to listen to while riding, but there was no music. It's pretty odd to get on a ride with speakers right by your head and there not be any music. Anyway, I liked this coaster more than I ever thought I would. Not sure if it's because I was sick of screens at that point or what, but I found it to be quite enjoyable in spite of the 4 or so MCBRs. My wife actually loved it. It was her favorite ride at the park. I was glad she got to end on a good one.

She said I could keep going and ride whatever else I wanted to, but I had hit my limit also. I would have tried the Mummy ride if we passed by it on our way out, but I didn't see it; saw Minion Mayhem and Shrek 4D, but no Mummy. Oh well. Maybe next time.

It's a loooooong walk back to the car when you're exhausted. But we made it! Overall I enjoyed the experience. I was glad I chose US over Disney; we got a lot of rides in and there were quite a few new ones that I got to try. I'd like to come back for a Disney + US vacation once Disney gets their Star Wars area finished (whenever that will be....). Next time I'll come with my brother, who has the same enthusiasm for theme parks as I do (and who is a huge HP fan). There were a few things I disliked about it but overall I had fun.

As for my wife, it didn't do anything for her. She'll never go back, lol. But she was a trooper and I'm glad she sacrificed a day of our vacation so that I could do something that I've wanted to do for about 15 years.

[thegajone]

I always find it quite cool how two different sets of people can have such vastly different experiences.

 

For instance, I thought that the Hogwarts Express was super cool, rode back and forth on it 6 times in two days.  That said, I am a HP geek, have seen every movie umpteen times. 

 

Great trip report!  I would be happy just to spend my money, and never leave the two Harry Potter areas.  Just amazingly well done.  You are correct in the theming in the queue of Gringotts.   The bank area is unlike anything I've seen, it is like being on the set of the movie.  

 

Did you get to try a Hogshead Brew?  The actual beer?  Great stuff.  Maybe just the atmosphere, but my favorite day there was drinking ond of those in the park, by myself, at 9:12 am on a Tuesday morning, on the bridge looking at the castle.  A few moments to myself, as I got in a few hours ahead of the family. 

 

You are not alone in your feeling on the Jurassic area.  Needs some love, went there twice in the past few years, and had the same issue on the same ride.  Seems like a missed opportunity to me. 

 

Shame that you didn't get to ride the Bilge-Rat Barges, since you were already wet.  Such a fun ride, though Ripsaw Falls is so great too.

Ah that sucks about River Adventure. Even though I was 15 the last time I rode it and knew it was just a ride, that T Rex still scared the crap out of me the last time I rode it!

I did not try the Hogshead Brew but would love to. I also want to try Pumpkin Juice next time.

[thegajone]

Good stuff; I went to IOA in the early/mid 2000's and had a good time. Since I being a hardcore coaster/theme park junkie would be a few years away for me (I liked rides/coasters, but was still a little hesitant), I only rode 3 rides: Hulk (which I was a bit nervous about, but I loved!), Spiderman (which terrified me then because of the unexpectedness of it, but I feel like I would love it now) and Bluto's Bilge-Rats Barges (which I loved!). I've heard good things about the two Harry Potter areas, and from what I've heard/seen about the Forbidden Journey ride looks disorienting and terrifying (I mean, the first major element whisks you away on your back, c'mon!). And Butterbeer sounds like it would taste good. Might have to go back there sometime!

 

Back to the trip report- did you get to try Forbidden Journey, and if so, how was it? And as for Posidian, I didn't do that either because I was too scared, but I think it's like a walk-through attraction thing with special effects.

Forbidden journey is phenomenal, except for the motion sickness. But even with keeping my eyes closed through the screen parts of the 2nd half of the ride, I still thought it was outstanding. It probably helped not knowing what to expect going in. I had never read or heard anything about it prior to riding.

If things like the plot of a ride matter to you (they mostly don't for me), you might actually like Gringotts more. FJ is pretty much just chaos; if there was a plot to that ride, it was certainly lost on me. Gringotts however had a plot that made sense and was easy to follow, and really fit the ride well. But keep in mind it is more screen-dependent than FJ, although the screens on Gringotts didn't give me motion sickness like the ones on FJ did.

[Delirium13]

Sounds like a good time overall! Very nice of your wife to tag along for the ride even though it wasn't her thing.

 

I had a lot of similar observations from my (first time ever) visit this past fall, but it's sometimes even more fun reading these reports when you know exactly what the person is talking about.

[jcgoble3]

Great report! Now I'm craving a visit to Diagon Alley myself.

 

The only problem here was [Dragon Challenge] didn't race. I really can't fathom why this is the case. From what I remember, half the appeal of the ride was all the elements where it looked like you were about to collide with the other train before avoiding it and entering the next element. Why take this away from the experience?

 

They had an incident (or another dueling coaster somewhere else had an incident; I forget which) several years ago where a loose object was either intentionally or inadvertently ejected from a rider on one train and struck someone on the other train at a high rate of speed. Since then, they are very careful to stagger the dispatches to specifically ensure that the trains do not duel.

[The Interpreter]

...and that incident resulted in a lost eye...

[purdude86]

Great report! Now I'm craving a visit to Diagon Alley myself.

 

The only problem here was [Dragon Challenge] didn't race. I really can't fathom why this is the case. From what I remember, half the appeal of the ride was all the elements where it looked like you were about to collide with the other train before avoiding it and entering the next element. Why take this away from the experience?

 

They had an incident (or another dueling coaster somewhere else had an incident; I forget which) several years ago where a loose object was either intentionally or inadvertently ejected from a rider on one train and struck someone on the other train at a high rate of speed. Since then, they are very careful to stagger the dispatches to specifically ensure that the trains do not duel.

If I remember correctly they actually had multiple incidents of people getting hit by objects. Kept shutting the ride down and inspecting it but everything was fine so was determined that had to be coming from the riders so they stopped the dueling and haven't had issues since with it. Now that they are strict about no items hopefully they will duel them again but wouldn't be surprised if they don't. One plus though is that they can dispatch faster. Can let the train go once it's ready versus having to wait for both to be ready.

 

I agree with everyone as well about the Jurassic Park area. It's a property that has so much potential but doesn't live up to it. The fact that there is just one major attraction and a small very-low capacity and low thrill coaster with a visitor's center type building seems like a waste. There is a lot of unused area, would love to see a Jeep themed ride put in with animatronic dinos in the old Triceratops Encounter area.

And while the Skull Island looks great I'm a little disappointed that it took out space that could have gone to a Jurassic Park expansion. Kind of wished they put it in the area between Marvel's island and the Toon island. It seems like it would have been big enough and filled in a large gap there. Do kind of hope that if the Pteradon flying coaster is a success and popular that they might bring it over to IoA to give another great coaster that is a different experience and a new attraction to Jurassic Park.

[thegajone]

I think our best chance of seeing a JP expansion has likely come and gone with the release of Jurassic World over the summer. If they didn't do anything major then, then I doubt we see anything else down the line which is certainly a bummer. I'm not sure that the JP franchise is iconic enough to get people excited about an expansion 10 or 20 or however many years from now. It is to me, but I doubt it is to the GP like Star Wars and Harry Potter are. At least River Adventure is a decent consolation -- when it's working properly.

Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

[thegajone]

Well it looks like a return trip is happening sooner than originally thought; my parents, brother and I are planning a 7-day Disney and Universal vacation for the first week of May. I was hoping to go back in the fall after the new Kong attraction opens and Hulk opens back up, but the timing is much better for us in the spring. We'll take what we can get! It'll be our first trip together to the Orlando parks since 2000, so it should be interesting.

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[kikid74]

Great trip report! I wonder if they would have done things differently (with respect to Skull Island instead of JP expansion) had they known the Jurassic World would have been as huge at the box office as it was. I agree with folks here. I love the ride and the area, and it feel completely underutilized.

 

If you want to take advantage of the HP stuff on your return trip, I recommend getting there before rope drop, and heading to that area first. If you have a hotel that includes the early hour admission, you can ride the ride in diagon alley twice before the rest of the park opens. We did ride the train once, and thought it was "meh". And my wife and oldest are big HP fans. The overall wait and then lack of visuals I think does it for us, too.

 

Overall, we really enjoy these parks. I think Spider-man is still my favorite of the park, and really love the log ride!

[teenageninja]

You missed on not riding Mummy, it was my favorite ride on the US studios side of the park.

 

Minions Mayhem was really disappointing, like a crappy action theatre.