Florida October 2010 Trip Report

We left on 1st October, Friday two weeks ago.

 

The flight went well. I watched The Karatae Kid and also a little bit of The Last Airbender. The inflight meal was butter chicken - a curry. It was surprisingly enjoyable.

 

We reached Florida and we picked up our rental car. A gushing gush of relief overcame me as my sister said she didn't have a credit card. Turns out a debit card is fine.

 

 

 

 

 

We then reached the hotel and at this point it was dark and reasonably late, so we just familiarised ourselves with the room, and decided to order pizza from "Flippers" as it sounded good.

 

Were we right....?

 

 

 

Yes. The pizza was delicious. I love pizza. We had pepperoni, obviously. The first "day" in Florida was over. We went to bed. It was hot and adjusting to the time difference was difficult, so I woke up several times.

 

We woke up and I was excited. I had wanted to go to Islands of Adventure for over a decade, desperate to experience the joys that it held. For breakfast we ventured to McDonalds. I hate eating in at McDonalds....the only way to enjoy McDonalds is in your car or in the cinema (preferably on your own) but the chicas wanted to eat in and I was outnumbered.

 

The menu was daunting....it had pictures but it wasn't entirely clear "McGriddle" the fuck is a McGriddle I pondered.....well I took the plunge and I ordered a McGriddle. (Apologies for the multiple typing of McGriddle, but wow...it is fun to say....say it out loud now...) It arrived, and I sat down. I instantly thought I had the McGriddle sussed out when I gazed upon the sandwich itself. I was wrong. It appeared to be basically a McMuffin but instead of Muffin a pancake. I bit into it.

 

Sweet Christmas! I was half right. It was a pancake....BUT IT HAD TINY HIDDEN POCKETS OF MAPLE SYRUP HIDDEN INSIDE THE PANCAKE! Wow. Best McDo breakfast ever! I took photos of most of the food, but alas I must not have gotten into photo groove at this point of the holiday so no pics.

 

Then we left for Universal Islands of Adventure! Woooooo!

 

 

We saw the park from the road and I squealed. I then squealed more when the car park was in the opposite direction to the park and I began scratching my head. Regular parking was $15 and preferred was $20, so we did preferred for the two metres closer to the park it gets you :p (I actually don't know how far regular parking was away)

 

ZOMG! Arrived!

 

 

I had a voucher printed out for the tickets so I queued up for the entrance. Jesus. Bad experience straight away which was a bit annoying. Basically each queue bit had like two ticket windows. I then chose one that I didn't realise at the time but only had one person working it. And he happened to be either new or a complete idiot and in addition to that the people in front of me in the queue were morons. I could have just gone there, picked up my tickets already paid for and boom, but no. As an example, the family directly infront of me were making me want to punch them (I'd have been less stressed if I was in a normal moving queue) but my eyes rolled when I heard the attendee explaining the difference between Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure as soon as they got to the window, and they just couldn't seem to grasp that there were two different parks.

 

Sigh.

 

Anyway I finally got in and jumped up and down. We headed straight to Marvel Super Hero Island (eeeek) and the huge Hulk overshadows the area.

 

 

 

 

 

The plan had been for (weeks) to go to Spider-Man first, as our first ride of the holiday, then over to Hulk. So we went over to The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man.

 

 

I was delighted to see no queue (well virtually no queue, about a dozen or so people in front of us in the batching area) and I had a giant smirk/smile on my face the entire way through the queue (being a HUGE comic book addict, Spidey being one of my favourite heroes, AND being a coaster enthusiast....it couldn't really be more aimed at me) loved the walk through the Bugle office, and was just loving life.

 

Then we got on the ride, and I had high expectations that were absolutely met. The ride is incredible. A 3D simulator, with screens and an actual moving vehicle on a track. Just brilliant. You help Spider-Man battle through several villains, and I just loved it.

 

I then wanted to go on Hulk but Claire is not a huge- big coaster fan so she wanted to do other things before going on a big ride, so we headed for Toon Lagoon/Jurassic Park.

 

We walked through Toon Lagoon, having a peak at the rides. We had pre-decided to do them later though as I had read (and could clearly see) that these rides got you soaked. As in ~you might as well have a bath because that is how wet you are going to get~ but they looked great. So we went through to Jurassic Park. I started singing the song, and then when we got closer we heard the song coming through the speakers.

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see there was a "5 minute queue" for Jurassic Park River Adventure. This actually turned out to be walk on, so again I was chuffed, however I knew exactly where everyone was in the park, as there were certainly a heck of a lot more people at the entrance than where we were.

 

So we went on River Adventure and I found it thoroughly enjoyable. In the blazing heat of Florida the vegetation and theming just feels very immersive. The dinosaurs do look a tiny bit dated for the most part, but its still very good and the ones that aren't upto scratch just seem quite charming really.

 

So great ride, with an excellent indoor section and finale, I would just say it is a little bit short. But thoroughly enjoyable, and an excellent idea for a ride.

 

Considering the only other ride in Jurassic Park is a ride that you have to have a child to go on with (and unfortunately I couldn't find any unattended children to steal) we left JP and went onto...dun dun dunnn...Teh Wixarding Hax of Bloggy Pottwin. I mean...The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. On the walk over we saw what I assumed was the queue for The Forbidden Journey....because it was a queue....and most certainly not walk-on. :p

 

Hogwarts looks extremely impressive from below. (and indeed from the road. It is the first thing you see of Universal)

 

 

 

Hogsmeade looks enchanting.

 

 

 

We walked around for a little bit and just generally took in the sights and atmosphere. This area of the park was absolutely rammed. Like...ridiculous. :p

 

The queue for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey was 1 hour, so we decided to wait and see if it went down. And by wait I mean, go on Dragon Challenge/Duelling Dragons.

 

 

Not sure exactly what it was like before, but apart from the Ford Anglia the HP theming isn't exactly mind blowing in the area. I mean the theming is all very good and fairly gothic but for the most part it just doesn't scream Harry Potter. The queue at the beginning said it was 30 minutes. Not too bad I thought to myself, considering we were at probably (one of) the busiest tourest attractions (in terms of people) on the planet, at that moment.

 

Which is why I started to get rapidly pissed off. Queue was reasonably unbearable. There is pretty much nothing more demoralising than having to stand still and not move for ages at a time. And this is what was happening to us in the queue. Dark and hot down there, it was boiling with little ventaltion/air con. Coupled with the Express Fast Ticket Queue or whatever and then to my absolute freaking horror....when we got into the batching station and could see the track(s) I was disgusted to see them running 1 train. 1 train on a large layout B&M at the busiest must-be place on the Earth, add to that the fact that its a dueller so it has to leave at the same time as the other train, so if theres a problem or slight delay in loading the trains that delays BOTH coasters. WTF. It pissed me off immensely. So I can't say I enjoyed the queue at all. It was well over 30 minutes. More like 45/55, so it annoyed me that they under estimated the queue also, and I just couldn't understand why they were only running one train.

 

(Claire decided not to do this ride by the way) anyway we finally got on (Hungarian Horntail ....the blue one) and it was pretty awesome/immense. Definitely an excellent B&M inverted with some very fast and intense inversions. Loved it. Just a shame that my queue experience soured it a bit for me. It would have been completely bearable and anticipation building if they were running (at least 2 trains, I don't know if it can handle more but I assume it can) and if it wasn't so hot AND if we weren't standing still with no movement for SOOOO long. (You get into queues for rows far longer before any ride I've ever seen before, so you move 4 people forward ~assuming no express riders~ every 3.5 minutes or so. It just feels horrible and demoralising.

 

Phew. What next? Well we went and popped in some of the shops (the sweet shop, as the queue wasn't round the entirety of Hogsmeade ~ie Ollivanders~) and then had a Butter Beer of course!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Butterbeer

 

There is a lot of hype around Butterbeer. Okay. So the actual brown bit is basically a slightly but not very fizzy, quite toffee-butterscotchy tasting cream soda. As it isn't massively carbonated it can tend to get a bit sickly, but it is very nice. However, the kicker of the drink is the head. Good lord. The head is made from liquidized little pieces of heaven. The texture is amazing, imagine a 50/50 mixture between melted marshmallows and thick cream, and the taste is like vanilla-butterscotch and very sweet. It is absolutely amazing. Either on its own, or mixed in with the drink itself which is of course the way to take it in.

 

My sister couldn't finish her one, so I finished hers. I left it until the end when head was about 40% and drink was about %60 and I mixed it (swirled in the tankard) until it had emulsified and I drank that. Epic idea. Win drink. Mega hax, must do of course. OF COURSE.

 

We then did the star of the show (although the whole of Hogsmeade and Hogswarts is an extremely impressive package!) we headed over to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Spoilers LATER, I will warn you when they arrive.

 

Now I knew very little about the ride. I knew that it was in Hogwarts, I knew that you journeyed through aspects of the film and I knew it was a robo-arm ride on a track.

 

 

In the queue you go through the halls, then outside to the....greenery lesson place...don't remember the name.

 

 

But the theming is brilliant (obviously)

 

 

You finally go back into Hogwarts.

 

 

I guess I'll say from here onwards there are a few spoiler pictures from inside Hogwarts. Not many. And then after that I will talk about the ride.

 

 

 

My sister doesn't know how to do the "BJ sign language" and fails spectacularly.

 

 

Sorting hat just before getting on the ride!

 

 

The good thing about the queue is that it is constantly moving. It was an hour long but the ride is huge capacity so it was fine, plenty to look at and almost constant movement, unlike Dragon Challenge.

 

Aaaaand we got on the ride. Spoilers ahead. You get on with a moving platform, the ride itself is a four seater outward facing school bench type vehicle, with raised sides, so you cannot actually see your party. You are securely fastened in with a very tight, but very comfortable lap bar. You travel accross horizontally (like side scrolling) with the floor and then Hermione is in front of you. She waves a wand at you and PPOOOFFFF your vehicle lifts off the ground, floating and hovering in a waving motion just like...Levioso in the films/books. Amazing. You know this is going to be good.

 

Then basically its a combination of spherical screens with the story on and interactive bits of scenery and theming. It is absolutely incredible. You go through the Whomping Willow and you go right on your back, with the scenery going EXTREMELY close to you, so you absolutely feel like you are part of the action. My favourite bit was.....and I'd say don't even read forward, let it be a surprise...however if you've already read, or if you just want to know...

 

My favourite bit was the Dragon. The Dragon's head is right in front of you all of a sudden and you're like "Oh wow awesome" then it breaths out hot smoke at you that is illuminated orange. It was shocking, amazing, brilliant, breathtaking. Absolutely awesome.

 

END OF SPOILERS.

 

The whole ride is an absolute masterpiece and incredibly fun.

 

We then left the amazing Hogswarts and Hogsmeade and went back to Toon Lagoon. We rode Bluto and Popeyes Rat Barge....River Rapids ride thing. Extremely fun. And extremely wet. Like ridiculous. Its amazing how they turned what is normally the most boring part of a ride (the chain pull) into probably the most fun and hilarious experience. Every person in the barge gets absolutely soaked and there is no avoiding it. Queue was about 5 minutes.

 

We then did Dudley Do Rights Ripsaw Falls.

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately this was another ride which was ruined a heck of a lot by the queue. Another standing for ages in the same place without moving ride due to the absolutely ridiculous amount of express queuers. Was advertised as 20 minutes and was about 40. The queue was almost unbearable. I was running out of water, my feet were very tired and I was extremely hot, again poor air conditioning in this queue. Enough about the bad though.

 

On the ride itself it was very fun. A great log flume, and the drop at the end going under the covered bit and all the froth everywhere...wow it just looks extremely impressive and is a hell of a lot of fun! Again we got absolutely soaked.

 

We got off the ride, and decided to sit down and have a little rest and try to dry off in the sun for a bit. I purchased the worst thing I ate in the whole two weeks. IF YOU ARE AT ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE DO NOT BUY A HOT DOG. It was completely over salted. It was disgusting. But I ate it due to severe hunger.

 

So I wrung out my socks and popped them in my bag, and donned my shoes and we went back to Marvel Super Hero Island. Took many photos and we finally went on Hulk which was practically walk on. About 2 minute queue, which was almost a bit of a shame as I didn't have quite enough time to soak up the queue line which is A) Hulk, so comics, so I love, B) My favourite colour, C) Awesome science amazing radiation flashing lights, logos, D) Cool.

 

Anyway, the ride itself was incredible. Better than Dragon Challenge (well Hungarian Horntail, I didn't do Chinese Fireball) the launch is cracking and surprsingly packs a little bit of a punch (nothing near the punch of Stealth or Rita, obviously, but still great) and then the first inversion the Zero G Roll is SICK. Great drop down into a HUGELY intense giant loop. I believe it was the loop that was so forceful that it pushed my arms down!

 

Then the rest of the ride is just a smooth and well thought out/laid out romp through some more great, large and small powerful inversions like the smaller loop. Just an awesome coaster.

 

 

 

We then went over to Seuss Landing, by this point our feet were pretty much killing us, and none of us were really bothered about those rides, so we hit the shops and then left the park. With the kinds of queues we had (although for the most part excellent) the park kind of needs another half day if you want to hit everything. Although we could have easily fit in things like Dooms Fearfall and Storms Accelerator but simply weren't really interested.

 

We headed towards the hotel and were too pooped to even hit a drive thru so we just had pizza ordered to the hotel and we actually just had Flippers again (wanted Dominos or Pizza Hut, but after ringing several different numbers of EACH ~phone calls being ; Oh we don't deliver to that area, try this store that is one block down the road from us~) lolz. But yeah thats fine, Flippers is awesome and we would experience a different pizza later in the holiday.....cliffhanger.

 

Ranking the rides

 

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey - The best dark ride I've been on, and one of the most impressive displays of modern technology that I have experienced.

Hulk - Extreme and brilliantly smooth and powerful coaster.

Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man - Fun and a genuine adventure.

Dragon Challenge - Hungarian Horntail - Awesomely intense and dragonish.

Jurassic Park River Adventure - Fun and charming.

Ripsaw Falls - Fun and wet.

Bluto and Popeyes Rat Barges - Hilarious and wet.

 

Final Thought

 

Although we only managed "7 attractions" the day felt a lot more packed (probably mainly due to Hogsmeade, as you could consider the shops themselves an attraction and Butter Beer is an EVENT) and the day was enjoyable!

 

The bad experience in two of the queues definitely soured my mood when I was in them, but the mood was quickly replaced by joy when actually on the rides, having said that I definitely would have enjoyed them more if the queue was more tolerable (particularly for Dragon Challenge) and I probably would have considered the other coaster a must do.

 

Scenery and theming is excellent, however the park probably more than most of the parks in Florida did feel a TINY bit Thorpe Parkish in that is is essentially just a piece of land or area with these places stapled on top of it, so it is an attraction and not an actual area to lose yourself in filled with magic, which is what most of the other parks feel like. So slightly mixed feelings in that regard. But the place IS amazing, and Hogsmeade is just brilliant in all ways.

 

Massively enjoyed myself with a just few niggles. 8.4/10

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wut.

 

I...

 

Hmm.