TR: Universal Studios Florida/IOA Saturday 3/27
CoasterKev!
Sandborg, I shall try my best.
Despite having finally gotten to bed around 1 a.m., Ray and I were on the
road to Orlando from our Tampa Motel 6 before 7:30. Smooth sailing on I-4
until around Lakeland, which appears to be growing by leaps and bounds,
considering the freeway road work and new bridges. We pulled into
Universal's non-preferred parking garage around 8:30 a.m. I'm guessing we
were in Ass City, but I have no idea.
Walked through CityWalk, excuse me, Universal CityWalk for you anal types
out there, and to the gates of USF. We had bought a 5 day park hopper
online since it was cheaper than a 2 day park hopper. The first kiosk we
tried didn't work but the second did and, tickets in hand, we headed to the
main entrance. It wasn't yet 9 but they were letting people in, so we
headed to Shrek 4D first, where they were herding people into the pre-show
room. As Dave said, the pre-show didn't seem to have much to do with the
attraction, but it killed the time. We both enjoyed the movie quite a bit.
We took a right and walked along the lake/lagoon until we hit Back to the
Future. No line at all. I can see why. This thing is due for retirement.
All it does is bounce up and down in a rather violent manner. We staggered
out and continued down the road to a "Designated Smoking Area", which for
some reason we called smoking houses for the trip's entirety. Every park we
visited had smoking houses, which seemed quite odd, but perhaps they are
ahead of the times in Fla.
After recovering, we headed to Men In Black. Again, no line. Basically, a
Scooby-Doo shoot-at-the-bad-guys ride, but upsized. It was fun, perhaps
because for once, I beat Ray. I have no idea what exactly I'm supposed to
aim at and everybody's laser beam looks the same, so I can't tell if it's me
or someone else doing the shooting.
Being a Saturday, we had expected huge crowds but there weren't any as of
yet, well, except for the scores of cheerleaders. Apparently, they were
doing a competition at USF. Around the lagoon, we found the Jaws
attraction. Since I had ridden the one at USH, it really wasn't necessary
but since there wasn't a long wait we went on it. I hadn't really
remembered the USH version (that was back in 1981) so it was a fun
diversion.
On we continued around the lagoon. Next up, Earthquake--The Big One.
Again, we were directed directly to the pre-show room, which was lined with
a number of earthquake damage photos. Being the disaster kinda guy I am, I
rather enjoyed this. Having seen the ride on TV, there wasn't any surprise
to be had, but I still enjoyed it. Ray thought it was hokey.
We continued on, passing the not-yet-open Revenge of the Mummy attraction.
Having never been to this park, I can't say whether the outside of the
building was redone or not, but I liked the museum theming. Twister ...
Ride it Out was right around the corner, and surprise, no line. The
pre-show showed Bill Pullman and Helen Hunt talking about the movie. I like
how Universal gets the stars to do the pre-shows, except for no-show Michael
J. Fox on Back to the Ride. It somehow adds to the authenticity. We
entered what appeared to be a tornado-ravaged house which led to a room
where you stand and watch the twister. We were right in the front where you
can feel the wind and rain effects quite a bit.
We wandered around a bit and found ourselves near the front gate so took a
left and saw the next Terminator 2: 3D show was at 11:30. So, into the
pre-show we went. It was basically a huge room, where they showed a
commercial about a Big-Brotherish company that was making a better future.
It was "hacked into" by Linda Hamilton and Edward Furlong, actors from
Terminator 2, warning about how evil the company really was. The corporate
spokeswoman smiled and said "Super!" a lot. The doors opened and we entered
the theater. We really enjoyed this attraction, especially the silver 3D
spider thing and the cool fog effect at the end. Really well done.
We headed right to Mel's Diner (from American Graffiti, not "Alice") for
lunch. The burgers were old-tasting and the fries were just plain
tasteless. We crossed the street to the Horror Makeup Show, which really
didn't inform many about its topic, aside from a couple of blood-squirting
knives. The show was for the most part a comedy act, which was rather
enjoyable.
We headed toward Woody Woodpecker's Kid Zone, which we had missed this
morning. After consulting the wait times for Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse
Coaster and the E.T. Adventure, we decided to hit IOA and come back after
the kiddies had gone home.
Wow, IOA was packed! It's good to see the park finally catching on, though.
We headed through Seuss Landing to The Lost Continent. Poseidon's Fury only
had a 20 minute wait, so what the heck. Even though we did this in 2002, it
was still fun. We stopped at the Talking Fountain and unfortunately he spit
on my shoes. Dragons had a 45-minute wait so we decided to do Flying
Unicorn. Still fun, but the line was slow-moving.
Having heard good things about Mythos, we headed back to check out their
menu. Only the desserts sounded tempting, so we moved on. By this time,
Dragons line was down to 30 minutes so we headed in to the endless queue.
We chose the fate of the Fire Dragon, second row. We really love the
Dragons. The wall on Ice, the pop of air on Fire.
We checked out the food options in Jurassic Park, but we were undecided on
what we wanted. On through JP to Toon Lagoon. We were happy to see Dudley
Do-Right open again, since we had heard it was down. It was cooling off by
this time and we suspected the line was long, so we didn't ride. After all,
there was always Monday.
Finally, in Marvel Super Hero Island we found some dinner. I had chicken
strips and Ray repeated the cheeseburger, which was far and away better than
USF's.
The fries were still crap, though. Must be the oil they use.
We watched Hulk for awhile, but were distracted by a duckling in the water
below. His momma appeared to be looking for him/her, but he just kept on
going to the farthest reaches of the pond. It's amazing how much time one
can fritter away doing absolutely nothing. We then decided the kiddies at
USF had gone home, so headed back. Not exactly as the line for the Nuthouse
Coaster was just as long as before. It only has one train, after all. For
those interested, rcdb.com says Flying Unicorn is nearly 1100 feet long,
whereas Nuthouse is only 680 feet long.
Back to the E.T. Adventure. We were literally crammed into the last two
spots in the pre-boarding room. The doors wouldn't even close behind us.
The doors in front finally opened and we walked down the ramp where an
employee asked for everyone's name and gave them a "boarding pass". The
inside queue is designed to look like a forest. We handed in our boarding
pass, boarded our "bikes" and were off. It was cute, but no big deal. At
the end of the ride, E.T. says goodbye to every person in your car by name,
the reason for the boarding pass.
One last ride for the day: Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast. It was the
longest line of the day. The sign said 60 minutes but it wasn't that long.
It's a bad simulator along the lines of Back to the Future, but featuring
Nickelodeon characters. I couldn't follow the story line at all, either
the volume was too loud or the voices too shrill. The only slightly amusing
part was when the villain got a hold of a magic wand and made us do the
chicken dance.
We had accomplished what we had set out to do: ride every attraction at
least once. But the night wasn't over yet. Universal was celebrating
Mardi Gras and tonight's headline concert was by disco diva Donna Summer.
We had planned USF for Saturday because we expected long lines and it was
open later than the other parks (to stand in said lines). When we
discovered Donna was going to be there, it sealed the deal, since there was
no extra charge for it and she'd been on my to-see list since 1979 or so.
We staked out a spot to the left of the stage and sorta watched the opening
act. Between sets, USF employees came out and threw beads into the crowd.
After several attempts, we finally caught some. Finally around 9:45 the
concert started. She sang most of her hits, including "I Feel Love", which
she doesn't like performing anymore. Of course, the final song was "Last
Dance". Everyone seemed to be enjoying the concert, dancing and singing
along. It was quite special. It ended around 11:30, a much longer concert
than we were expecting but we weren't complaining. Although we did pay for
it with extremely tired feet and aching backs after walking around two parks
all day and standing for nearly three hours and only about six hours sleep
the night before.
Leaving the parking ramp, we were directed the long way to I-4, via
International Drive. The traffic lights in Orlando are oddly timed, so it
took awhile to finally get onto I-4 to our Days Inn a couple of exits away.
Next TR: SeaWorld and Old Town
CoasterKev!
NoGodForMe
You did good by getting there early, but could have done better.
Here's what you do next time.
Drive to IOA/USF even earlier. Arrive the parking garage at 07:45am.
They open at 8am. Be first in line at IOA, wait at the gate. You
get in at 08:45am on busy days. Do Hulk front row, Spiderman, Dr.
Doom, Deuling Dragons (Front both sides), JPRA, Rip saw falls.
Then head over to USF.
But now that you've done USF, it probably won't matter that much to
you, only for the Mummy.
Or, since you've done USF, you could go there first arriving at 8am,
do the Mummy, then high tail it over to IOA and you'd still be there
early enough to take a lap with no waits.
You ate at the worst restaurant in USF, Mel's dinner. The gimmick is
the facade of the building, and singers out front, so they serve
crappy burgers. This has been agreed upon on the dis boards.
There are restaurants in the NY section that serve pasta and a better
burger.
At IOA, Mythos is a fancy dinner, but people wuv it. Some of the
items don't cost that much, but it would take almost 2 hours to eat.
The music is what makes Mythos so special. They play the music of the
band Mythos, and it's like being in a movie. You sit in front of a
giant window and look out over the lake at Hulk and Dr. Doom running.
Burger digs is a good choice for fast food in the JPRA section.
There is a pizza place around the corner. Plus the fast food joint
in Toon Town has good food.
Next time, save up some money and try Mythos or a fancy place. It's
worth it.
Todd Long
<FunRid...@FamilyRidesSuck.com> wrote:
> Some of the
>items don't cost that much, but it would take almost 2 hours to eat.
Never spent more than one hour there. How would you know anyway aren't
you busy making *salads* at one of the Jurassic Park condiment bars?
Todd "going for dinner tonight" Long
Just one of my rave reviews - "what an Idoit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Papa...@aol.com 3/27/04
NoGodForMe
Yes, I do make salads at the Burger Digs condiment bar. But that's
done in the morning. You see, I'm first at the gate, and by the time
I get back there, it's 11am. So it's a good time for a snack. I
order Frings (fries and onion rings), get some mayo, and a few pieces
of salad and tomato make me feel like I'm eating healthy, ya think?
I've told others about my little secret, and they do it too.
They've told me later they've done it.
I've eaten at Mythos many times. Once with my dad, we sat dead
center at the window, then saw the fireworks at 10pm sitting on a rock
out back. Best place to see the fireworks. I've eaten there with
my family twice. And another time with people from the Dis Boards
where the chef gave us a few extra samples of ice cream he made for a
princess who came from far away. The ice cream had a liquor in it,
very good.
I've also eaten at Confiscos Grill a couple times.
And yes, even though I sneak shot bottle of rum in, I still buy long
island ice teas at the bar. I've given them lots of money.
On Sat, 10 Apr 2004 12:37:24 GMT, Todd Long <long...@yahoo.com>
wrote:
Wolf
> Again, we were directed directly to the pre-show room, which was lined
with
> a number of earthquake damage photos. Being the disaster kinda guy I am, I
> rather enjoyed this. Having seen the ride on TV, there wasn't any
surprise
> to be had, but I still enjoyed it. Ray thought it was hokey.
If you looked closely at the photos, most of them were matte paintings. I
thought that was kind of neat.
--
|\-/|
<0 0>
=(o)=
-Wolf
Dave Sandborg
CoasterKev! <coastern...@mindeverspring.com> wrote:
> Although I'm not as erudite as Mark McKenzie or the modern equivalent, Dave
> Sandborg, I shall try my best.
That's a great honor you give me. Thanks!
> I'm guessing we
> were in Ass City, but I have no idea.
King Kong 110 or further back.
> Walked through CityWalk, excuse me, Universal CityWalk for you anal types
> out there, and to the gates of USF. We had bought a 5 day park hopper
> online since it was cheaper than a 2 day park hopper.
Any idea how long they've had this deal on?
> The first kiosk we
> tried didn't work but the second did and, tickets in hand, we headed to the
> main entrance. It wasn't yet 9 but they were letting people in, so we
> headed to Shrek 4D first, where they were herding people into the pre-show
> room. As Dave said, the pre-show didn't seem to have much to do with the
> attraction, but it killed the time.
I still want to know why we didn't get tortured...
> We both enjoyed the movie quite a bit.
It was a lot of fun. I think I mentioned that I haven't seen the
original movie. References were made to it, but there was nothing that
I couldn't follow.
> We took a right and walked along the lake/lagoon until we hit Back to the
> Future. No line at all. I can see why. This thing is due for retirement.
> All it does is bounce up and down in a rather violent manner.
Wasn't this once a highly-rated ride as simulators go? I seem to
remember that from years ago. It goes to show how far the technology
*has* advanced. As a cynic about simulator rides, I still have to
admit that.
> We staggered
> out and continued down the road to a "Designated Smoking Area", which for
> some reason we called smoking houses for the trip's entirety. Every park we
> visited had smoking houses, which seemed quite odd, but perhaps they are
> ahead of the times in Fla.
>
> After recovering, we headed to Men In Black. Again, no line.
Cool! Getting there early paid off.
> Basically, a
> Scooby-Doo shoot-at-the-bad-guys ride, but upsized. It was fun, perhaps
> because for once, I beat Ray. I have no idea what exactly I'm supposed to
> aim at and everybody's laser beam looks the same, so I can't tell if it's me
> or someone else doing the shooting.
I like that you can at least see the beams. You can move yours around
a bit to tell it apart within a second or two. I didn't have that much
luck myself with hitting targets.
> Being a Saturday, we had expected huge crowds but there weren't any as of
> yet, well, except for the scores of cheerleaders. Apparently, they were
> doing a competition at USF.
Sounds like opening day at BGW!
> [Jaws, Earthquake, Twister, Terminator]
I'd like to have had a chance to ride these attractions--just not
enough time in a short day to. On my next visit I'll skip BTTF and the
Nut Coaster to try some other stuff.
> We headed right to Mel's Diner (from American Graffiti, not "Alice") for
> lunch. The burgers were old-tasting and the fries were just plain
> tasteless.
From any Universal people...is there any good food to be had in the
park? I thought there might be seafood in the Amity section of the
park.
> We crossed the street to the Horror Makeup Show, which really
> didn't inform many about its topic, aside from a couple of blood-squirting
> knives. The show was for the most part a comedy act, which was rather
> enjoyable.
Sounds like fun.
> We headed toward Woody Woodpecker's Kid Zone, which we had missed this
> morning. After consulting the wait times for Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse
> Coaster and the E.T. Adventure, we decided to hit IOA and come back after
> the kiddies had gone home.
>
> Wow, IOA was packed! It's good to see the park finally catching on, though.
That's nice to know. It was considerably less crowded when we were
there. Not exactly empty, but not nearly as many people as we'd seen
at the Disney parks.
> We headed through Seuss Landing to The Lost Continent. Poseidon's Fury only
> had a 20 minute wait, so what the heck. Even though we did this in 2002, it
> was still fun. We stopped at the Talking Fountain and unfortunately he spit
> on my shoes. Dragons had a 45-minute wait
Wow! This is a sign of how crowded the park must have been! We had
nothing near that kind of wait. How many trains?
> so we decided to do Flying
> Unicorn. Still fun, but the line was slow-moving.
>
> Having heard good things about Mythos, we headed back to check out their
> menu. Only the desserts sounded tempting, so we moved on. By this time,
> Dragons line was down to 30 minutes so we headed in to the endless queue.
> We chose the fate of the Fire Dragon, second row. We really love the
> Dragons. The wall on Ice, the pop of air on Fire.
>
> We checked out the food options in Jurassic Park, but we were undecided on
> what we wanted. On through JP to Toon Lagoon. We were happy to see Dudley
> Do-Right open again, since we had heard it was down.
It was...
> It was cooling off by
> this time and we suspected the line was long, so we didn't ride. After all,
> there was always Monday.
>
> Finally, in Marvel Super Hero Island we found some dinner. I had chicken
> strips and Ray repeated the cheeseburger, which was far and away better than
> USF's.
> The fries were still crap, though. Must be the oil they use.
>
> We watched Hulk for awhile, but were distracted by a duckling in the water
> below. His momma appeared to be looking for him/her, but he just kept on
> going to the farthest reaches of the pond. It's amazing how much time one
> can fritter away doing absolutely nothing.
I kind of enjoy this. At the Hillcrest event last summer a whole bunch
of us spent too much time watching an ant. Why? Don't ask me. But it
sure beats working!
> We then decided the kiddies at
> USF had gone home, so headed back. Not exactly as the line for the Nuthouse
> Coaster was just as long as before. It only has one train, after all. For
> those interested, rcdb.com says Flying Unicorn is nearly 1100 feet long,
> whereas Nuthouse is only 680 feet long.
Really? I had been told they were mirror images of each other. I
didn't pay close enough attention to tell.
> Back to the E.T. Adventure. We were literally crammed into the last two
> spots in the pre-boarding room. The doors wouldn't even close behind us.
> The doors in front finally opened and we walked down the ramp where an
> employee asked for everyone's name and gave them a "boarding pass". The
> inside queue is designed to look like a forest. We handed in our boarding
> pass, boarded our "bikes" and were off. It was cute, but no big deal. At
> the end of the ride, E.T. says goodbye to every person in your car by name,
> the reason for the boarding pass.
>
> One last ride for the day: Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast. It was the
> longest line of the day. The sign said 60 minutes but it wasn't that long.
> It's a bad simulator along the lines of Back to the Future, but featuring
> Nickelodeon characters. I couldn't follow the story line at all, either
> the volume was too loud or the voices too shrill. The only slightly amusing
> part was when the villain got a hold of a magic wand and made us do the
> chicken dance.
How long has this attraction been there? If it's of the same caliber
as BTTF, you'd think it would be an older ride. But it doesn't seem
like it could be *that* old.
> We had accomplished what we had set out to do: ride every attraction at
> least once.
Something we didn't even come close to doing. But we were on a more
coaster-oriented trip, and spent much more time on the IoA side. I
don't know if I'll ever feel like I have the liesure to spend enough of
a day on the Studios side to try all the attractions there. I'll do
them a few at a time over several visits.
> But the night wasn't over yet. Universal was celebrating
> Mardi Gras and tonight's headline concert was by disco diva Donna Summer.
> We had planned USF for Saturday because we expected long lines and it was
> open later than the other parks (to stand in said lines). When we
> discovered Donna was going to be there, it sealed the deal, since there was
> no extra charge for it and she'd been on my to-see list since 1979 or so.
Heh, we saw the list of bands they had for Mardi Gras, and they were
advertising all over.
> Next TR: SeaWorld and Old Town
I enjoyed your trip report! Judging from the upcoming two parks, you
took a very different approach to your vacation plan than we did. I'm
looking forward to the next one.
--
Dave Sandborg
Remove Spam-away to respond via e-mail.
Robert Ulrich
<sand...@Spam-away.ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>In article <8CLdc.2993$zj3...@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net>,
>CoasterKev! <coastern...@mindeverspring.com> wrote:
[snipped for brevity]
>> One last ride for the day: Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast. It was the
>> longest line of the day. The sign said 60 minutes but it wasn't that long.
>> It's a bad simulator along the lines of Back to the Future, but featuring
>> Nickelodeon characters. I couldn't follow the story line at all, either
>> the volume was too loud or the voices too shrill. The only slightly amusing
>> part was when the villain got a hold of a magic wand and made us do the
>> chicken dance.
>
>How long has this attraction been there? If it's of the same caliber
>as BTTF, you'd think it would be an older ride. But it doesn't seem
>like it could be *that* old.
It's the other new attraction - same age as Shrek, replacing the
original "World of Hanna-Barbera" simulator which was much better
IMHO. I missed Dick Dasterdly and the rubber band lauch (the best
simulator effect I've ever been on), plus a film that actually had a
plot that a) I could follow and b) made sense.
The theater and motion pods have been slightly changed from the
original installation.
RU
Joe Schwartz
> In article <8CLdc.2993$zj3...@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net>,
> CoasterKev! <coastern...@mindeverspring.com> wrote:
>
> > Walked through CityWalk, excuse me, Universal CityWalk for you anal
> > types out there, and to the gates of USF. We had bought a 5 day park
> > hopper online since it was cheaper than a 2 day park hopper.
>
> Any idea how long they've had this deal on?
Since at least last October, when I bought one.
> > We both enjoyed the movie [Shrek 4-D] quite a bit.
>
> It was a lot of fun. I think I mentioned that I haven't seen the
> original movie. References were made to it, but there was nothing that
> I couldn't follow.
The pre-show tells you everything that happens in the original Shrek. In
fact, it's quite a spoiler if you haven't seen the original.
> > We took a right and walked along the lake/lagoon until we hit Back to
> > the Future. No line at all. I can see why. This thing is due for
> > retirement. All it does is bounce up and down in a rather violent manner.
>
> Wasn't this once a highly-rated ride as simulators go? I seem to
> remember that from years ago. It goes to show how far the technology
> *has* advanced. As a cynic about simulator rides, I still have to
> admit that.
BTTF has always been my favorite simulator ride. I agree that it's showing
its age, but it still provides *one* realistic sensation of movement, which
is one more than any other simulator I've been on.
> > [Jaws, Earthquake, Twister, Terminator]
>
> I'd like to have had a chance to ride these attractions--just not
> enough time in a short day to. On my next visit I'll skip BTTF and the
> Nut Coaster to try some other stuff.
Do not miss T2-3D on your next visit! It's *much* better than Jaws,
Earthquake, and Twister.
> > One last ride for the day: Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast. It was the
> > longest line of the day. The sign said 60 minutes but it wasn't that long.
> > It's a bad simulator along the lines of Back to the Future, but featuring
> > Nickelodeon characters. I couldn't follow the story line at all, either
> > the volume was too loud or the voices too shrill. The only slightly amusing
> > part was when the villain got a hold of a magic wand and made us do the
> > chicken dance.
>
> How long has this attraction been there? If it's of the same caliber
> as BTTF, you'd think it would be an older ride. But it doesn't seem
> like it could be *that* old.
The simulator is a couple years newer than BTTF, I think. It used to be
the Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera, which I rode in 1994. They changed
it to Jimmy Neutron sometime after I visited in May 2002.
--
Come visit Joyrides -- www.joyrides.com -- a photo gallery celebrating
the joy and beauty of amusement park rides, especially roller coasters!
Janna Rasmussen
<sand...@Spam-away.ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>> Walked through CityWalk, excuse me, Universal CityWalk for you anal types
>> out there, and to the gates of USF. We had bought a 5 day park hopper
>> online since it was cheaper than a 2 day park hopper.
>
>Any idea how long they've had this deal on?
This deal is for 5 consecutive days. Because we only allocated one
day for both parks, the 2 Day 2 Park deal was best because you can use
your second day whenever you want (it doesn't expire).
-Janna