Universal Orlando Trip Report

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As you may have read, Coaster101 recently returned from a trip to Florida where we visited Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure Theme Parks. Here are a few pictures from the parks along with some of my random thoughts about the resort. I already posted a review of HRRR and an update on Harry Potter construction so I won’t be covering that here. Video coming soon too. Enjoy the pictures!

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The Simpsons Ride is a big improvement over Back to the Future but the actual ride experience is still a bit lacking. It’s still a little nauseating and the film is a lot of the same motions over and over again.

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Dr. Doom is a typical S&S tower ride with a partly enclosed station. I think the smaller S&S towers are better than the bigger ones.

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B&M need to make more launched coasters, though do I do realize the electricity needed to launch those heavy trains is enormous and therefore probably makes the price tag too high for the average amusement park.

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If the park is being listed as opening at nine o’clock then it better open at nine o’clock, and that includes all of the rides, otherwise what is the point? It was annoying to go find half the rides in the park closed in the morning.

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On one hand it is good to not have to wait in any lines but it is also a bad thing. By not waiting in line you lose out on the buildup and back story to the attraction. That may not be very important to some people but I enjoy looking for all of the little details hidden in the queue lines. No waiting also does not give your eyes enough time to adjust to the dark. I thought many of the rides at USF, including the Mummy, were a little too dark which made it hard to see the scenery. I finally figured out why while at the Magic Kingdom a few days later. We had the opportunity to ride Pirates of the Caribean twice: once with no wait and once with a 15 minute wait. The first time around without waiting I thought the interior of the ride was much too dark and scenes were hard to view. The second time around later that day, after our eyes had a bit of time to adjust to the darkened queue I thought the lightening was perfect. There really was a noticeable difference.

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What really amazed me and had my jaw dropping at USF was their projection technology. I didn’t realized how advanced it was. The one ride in particular is Disaster (which used to be Earthquake the last time I visited). I don’t want to give away any spoilers, and if you’ve done the attraction you know what I’m talking about, but the Christopher Walken projection is absolutely insane. You really think that he’s standing right there in front of you, it’s that realistic. And to help with the illusion he interacts with live actors and the environment.

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What happened to the spinning water tunnel in Poisedon’s Fury? You walk through it still but there is on water. Was it just turned off on my visit or is it that way permanently?

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I like the locker policy at Universal Orlando (with one exception). Any ride that does not allow carry-ons (all the roller coasters) has lockers outside of the ride. These lockers are free for a certain amount of time, usually found to be about twice the length of the listed wait time. There are no deposit or anything either so provided you return within the allotted time they are absolutely free to use. There are no keys to have to worry about either, you simply scan your finger on the fingerprint scanner to open and close your locker. How awesome is that! Now the problem I have with the system are every locker was free except for the ones next to the water rides, you know, the rides where you actually want to stow your stuff in a locker. I could also foresee problems on a busy day with running out of lockers, congested locker areas, or even running out of time before returning and having to pay to get your stuff out. We had good experience with them for our trip.

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The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman is one of the greatest rides of all time. I truly hope they use some of that same technology on the new Harry Potter attraction.

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I think Dudley-Do Right is my favorite water ride. Splash Mountain has better theming and story but Ripsaw Falls is much more thrilling. Air time on a water ride, how awesome is that?!PIC_0013

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