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Florida 2015

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Universal Studios Orlando October 2015


Cal

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So we get of the Hogwarts express and arrive at Kings cross. It's crazy, literally just like a London station. The posters on the walls, to the bins, the constant train announcements, and they even had buskers!? It's just themeing to a whole new level.

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We then walked out of Kings Cross to enter Diagon Alley. You turn a corner around a brick wall and then boom. There it is, Diagon alley.

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Literally one place everyone has there phones out taking constant pictures. So real, just like the movies. Every little detail thought about. And same with the Wizarding world, such an amazing atmosphere, the music is perfect and has live performances. This area seems a lot more immersive with it being smaller, and the fire effect going off ever so often as well is cool.

Escape from Gringotts

Yes the whole experience starts from the queue with a lot of rides at Universal, but this whole queue is seriously amazing. Whole queue is well themed and has lots of entertainment, including 2 pre-shows! The single rider queue skips all of this out, so make you sure you go through the main queue once to see it all!

Onto the actual ride, again, its amazing! Beaten by the original FJ and Spiderman in my opinion, but the quality of the 3D on the ride is amazing. It does have quite a few rollercoaster elements in there as well which is cool. It was my brothers favourite ride ever.

Revenge of the mummy

Had no idea what to expect for this one. Walking through a very dark and atmospheric queue line. It ended up being one of the rides I rode the most at universal, most re-rideable, so so fun. More of a rollercoaster than a dark ride, it starts as a slow dark ride but soon turns into more of a rollercoaster. Really good theming, and the fire effects are amazing. Loved it <3 No 3D involved.

Twister

Very very dated, but it still had some pretty cool effects and is pretty interesting. The main part of the ride was over very quick though, did expect it to go on for longer. Good decision for it to go if I'm honest, it is very dated compared to the rest of the park and I'm sure Jimmy Fallon will be a lot lot better.

Hollywood rip ride rocket

Was really good, such a fun and unique coaster. Did find it slightly rough in some places, but it was nice having just a lapbar because of the freedom and found the seats pretty comfortable. Music made it really unique and it had quite a few near misses.

Men in black: Alien attack

So men in black was a shooter, competing with only dual and tomb blaster this is my favourite shooter. Again this was all proper theming, no screens involved. The ride system was pretty cool, lots of spinning round which actually had a bit of force to it :lol: Just a fun ride, I liked it.

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Simpsons ride

Next up was the Simpsons ride, and yeah, It was alright. It was one of worst rides I did at Universal but that doesn't mean it was bad, it's just it was competing with some amazing rides. It basically lifts you up into like a curved Imax screen and you go on a rollercoaster journey, with 2 pre shows before the ride as well. I would of loved to of ridden it when it was back to the future.

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The Simpsons building and whole area is amazing, the Simpsons theme gives it such a good atmosphere. It also has buildings you can go in like the Kick-E-Mart or Moe's as well as Simpson meets and greets.

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E.T Adventure

Next up was ET which was an old dark ride with all proper theming, no use of screens. You sit on a bike which is pretty cool which is suspended from the roof (a similar ride system to Peter pan at Disney from what I remember) At the end of the ride is says goodbye to each individual rider, as you give your name before you get on the ride. Whilst it is a good ride, it is dated and is a ride I could be seen used for development (similar to Twister and Disaster.)

In between ET and the Simpsons there is a childrens area home to Woody the Woodpecker coaster, a barney show, a curious george play area and another play area. Maybe it's just because it was quiet while we were there but this area was always completely dead, and didn't really have a lot there apart from the coaster. It would be nice to see this area updated similar to Seuss Landing in IOA, or even a major ride put in there.

Transformers 3D

The moment you walk in the queue for this you know it's a new ride, and know its going to be a good one. Using the same or very similar ride system to Spiderman at IOA, it didn't disappoint. Not a lot to say about it really except it was very good, and that it used a good mix or real theming and screens similar to spiderman. Do prefer the previous 3 dark rides I've mentioned but this was really good.

Shrek 4D

Pretty good bog standard 4d cinema, very similar to Angry birds. Not a lot to say about it really, but it was good, and pretty funny :)

Terminator 2: 3D

Really didn't expect a lot from this, just a 3D cinema but was actually pleasantly surprised, it was very good. After a pretty long pre show (with live actors) we then got rushed in to a massive 3D cinema/ theater which was a mix of live action and 3D and loads of effects. Very impressive :)

Thats pretty much it for Universal, unfortunately we didn't get on Despicable me Minion Mayhem the whole time we were there as it always had a high queue time, wether that was because it has a low throughput or the fact its right next to the entrance I don't know?

I really liked Studios, and same with IOA, I loved the whole layout around the lake. I do however prefer IOA with it having my 2 favourite dark rides, better coasters and fun water rides.

City walk is such a nice area, and has some nice restaurants as well, although they are pretty pricey :P It's such a nice way to link the 2 parks as well, it takes less than 5 minutes if you are at one of the entrances.

Single rider queues are so so good, normally at least half the wait of the normal line, if not you get on pretty much instantly. A lot of times we got with people in our group as if they can't find a party of 2 quick enough they'll just shove 2 single riders on. Operations on all the rides are seriously faultless.

Thought it was worth mentioning that the drink capsules are really worth while here as well. You pay a higher price the first day for the cup but once you have a cup it's only $6 for unlimited refills all day. There are coke freestyle machines literally all round the parks which scan your cups automatically to see if they're active.

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I've done a review of Busch Gardens Howl O scream if you haven't seen it already, and they will be a Universal Halloween Horror Nights one soon to compare :)

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Great reports, really hyping me for my trip in August! 

 

Islands is my favourite park ever. Yeah it's had 17 rides (or there about) for the 18 years its been open, but it doesn't need loads of rides. You can wonder around the areas (especially Hogwarts and JP) for ages! It's amazing what they do sometimes, especially when you consider when most of those rides were conceived! Didn't realise the re-ride thing was still around on Dragon Challenge :o didn't see it in 2013, will have to keep an eye out this time! Did you get to see Sinbad and Poseidons Fury?

 

Studios is a park that still needs some major work. It got hit pretty badly in the 2000-2009 era with rides just overlayed (BTTF becoming Simpsons) and some needing updates that never happened (KidZone being one of the most dated areas ever). Good thing Nintendo will replace Kidzone by 2018/19. And they are working hard on Studios, and fast. Whereas Islands can just sorta sit there because it was a quality product from day one. 

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Thanks Adam :) Jealous of you getting on Mako and Kong :o Have a good time.

 

I see what you mean, there is much to do which you don't even know about, like we were walking round the Jurassic park area and came across some like water/play area and loads of kids were spraying us haha. I really wanted to go on that flying thing but you have to have someone small with you :(

 

Yeah we watched the stunt show which was pretty good and had such a cool stage/set, but unfortunately didn't go in Poseidons Fury. I knew it was there but just completely forgot about it! What is it like, it looks pretty good from the outside!? We also watched animal actors at studios, but didn't really think much of that!

 

Yeah the re-ride thing is still there, once you get outside its on the right :) It takes you to the front of the building so you still have to walk around the whole building again, but it misses out the first chunk and the queue for the metal detectors as well! 

 

Studios is a good park, but just no where near as good as IOA. I knew Nintendo land was happening, but didn't know it was going where Kidzone is! That area seriously looks pretty awful.

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Poseidons is interesting. It's got some clever stuff in it and is a different type of attraction for sure, but it is quite dated now and will be on Creative's hit list without a doubt. 

 

Creative are aware of the issues with Studios and Islands. Studios needs new stuff to replace the hugely dated areas, but the park needs capacity too so they can't close too much. Twister and Disaster is okay as they never got huge queues anyway and their replacements will help. KidZone is a big plot of land, something they don't want to lose just yet. And then there's Shrek... and the whole entrance where you are like straight into the park with no build up. Plus DM is there... so SLOP might go there too so they have an Illumination themed area kinda. Although that's rumoured to be Toon Lagoons replacement but it doesn't seem logical with DM in Studios. With $500 million being invested into both Hollywood and Orlando each year they can basically build and build. Space then becomes an issue, so hello 3rd gate. Taking it Kong is costing possibly more than Gringotts did, plus rebuilding a B&M in the same year, money won't really be an issue.

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Universal Orlando just sounds an amazing place to visit with the likes of Potter, The Mummy & Transformers.

Really do want to visit here one day as the park just looks amazing.

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