I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: November 7, 2014] Universal Studios Island of Adventure

Our final day of vacation, and…nobody was sick at all!  Hooray!

It was another day at Universal.  I didn’t know if it could compare to the first day–how could it, really?  And while we didn’t do quite as many thrilling things, we fully explored the world of Harry Potter’s Hogsmeade and even left that island to explore others.  It was quite easy to forget was that there were so many other islands outside of the Harry Potter World.

We knew we wanted to ride the Harry Potter Express again–what’s the point of getting the MultiPark Pass if you don’t?  But we also knew that we wanted to start in Universal Studios Florida again because we wanted to go on the Despicable Me Minion Mayhem (the one ride that had a perpetually long line–oftentimes up to an hour) before heading over to Hogsmeade.

Remember, the entrance is shaped kind of like a Y.  You come in via City Walk and then you go left for Universal’s Island of adventure or you go right for Universal Studios Florida (the older f the two parks).  Unlike Disney, both parks are right next to each other.  But like Disney, if you pick to go in one, you can’t go in the other.  Unless you buy the Two Park Pass.  Then you can leave one and enter the other through the front, or you can go via the Hogwarts Express.

Despicable Me Minion Mayhem
We got there pretty early and the line was only 30 minutes, so we jumped on.  The wait line is pretty fun with clips from the movies and quizzes about being a minion (it’s hard to believe a movie franchise has been so successful based on little yellow pill-shaped guys who do not really talk), although no clips from the new movie, surprisingly.  The clips repeat after about 15 minutes which is certainly a flaw for such a long line.  But once you get in, the ride is pretty successful.  Not quite as good as the Simpsons, but the same principle of 3D glasses and stationary car–the big difference here was that it was theater style seating rather than an individual car, so it took some of the mystery out of it.

We thought about going into The Simpsons World again, but no, we went right to Kings Cross Station.

Hogwarts Express to Hogsmeade
Our seatmates were the awful spoilers this time, but even they couldn’t ruin our second view of the train ride.  And when we got to Hogsmeade, we were able to fully explore the village.

As with Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade is super realistic–with so many shoppes (and plaques to perform magic with interactive wands) offering all manner of Harry Potter things.  There are cool shops to explore.  Dervish and Banges for more school supplies.  The wonderfully realistic Honeydukes candy store.  There is also an Ollivanders shop in Hogsmeade.  (Interestingly the line for the wand experience was nearly an hour long compared to the five minutes that we waited in Diagon Alley–wonder what that was about).

Incidentally, a worker in Hogsmeade said that Hogsmeade was usually quite slow because it is the older of the two parks and all “the good stuff” is in Diagon Alley.  Now when we were there, Hogsmeade was pretty crowded, especially when we went into Three Broomsticks and had a fun “traditional” lunch (which was quite yummy).

There is definitely less to explore in Hogsmeade, but they make up for it with more rides.

Flight of the Hippogriff
This is a cool outdoor coaster (the car looks like it is made of wicker).  It’s a pretty gentle ride (mildly thrilling) in which you pass Buckbeak and Hagrid’s shack.  But the whole ride is about 30 seconds long–we were all bummed by how short it was.

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
This is the major ride on this side.  And even if you don’t go on the ride, which I didn’t, you absolutely must go on the line for it.  It leads you right into Hogwarts.  I actually wish that a) the line was slower (seriously) and that b) the people around me would just shut the hell up.  Because every twist and turn leads to something new–the pensieve, Dumbledore’s office, Harry Hermione and Ron under the invisibility cloak and even portraits talking to each other.  It was outstanding.  And I could have stayed on that line for hours watching everything.  S. and the kids tell me that the ride was a 3D spectacular even more exciting (and scary) than Gringotts.

None of us went on the Dragon Challenge (although again T. wanted to–another 52″ minimum).  This was a big old intense and crazy ride that went upside down and all over the place.  It looked great but wasn’t our cup of tea.

We explored around a little more and then decided it was time to see what the other islands had to offer.

It’s disconcerting to leave Hogsmeade and head right into Jurassic Park.  We laughed that Jurassic Park is such an old movie at this point and how it was sort of sadly empty in this area.  And yet it still looked amazing–scenes right out of the movie once again (Universal is amazing at recreation).

Jurassic Park River Adventure
This was the only ride we went on in this area.  It is a water ride (so C. wanted to do it even though T. didn’t).  And it is a wonderful recreation of the movie–with the giant doors and the music.  Of course things go haywire and suddenly you are plunging 85 feet into a giant pool and getting quite soaked.  There was a great picture of us all freaking out by the intensity of this drop, but we opted not to buy it.

This park leads right to Toon Lagoon.  Toon Lagoon is a crazy area in that it is a tribute to really old Sunday comics.  What a weird conceit–there’s multi-panel comic strips of Beetle Bailey, Marmaduke, Betty Boop, Mark Trail, comics that no kids have ever heard of.  There are shops of course (anyone want a Hagar the Horrible shirt?), but mostly there are cool photo ops–thought bubbles and speech balloons that you can pose under.  And there seems to be a lot of water stuff in this area for the kids to splash in while the adults go “Oh remember Mother Goose and Grimm.”

Speaking of water

Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls
Is the other log flume here.  C. (despite all his fear of the other rides) was super psyched to go on this one.  But S. was actually too afraid to do it, and even T. didn’t want to (she doesn’t like getting wet).  This ride has a 75 foot drop, but unlike Jurassic Park, you are single file, which makes it seem faster.  S. totally psyched herself out for this.  I didn’t think it was as scary, but it was pretty exciting and C.  and I got soaked at the bottom.  How did they make such a goofy cartoon (and the line is full of animal heads telling bad puns) into such a scary ride?

Toon Lagoon leads right into Marvel Super Hero Land.  I was surprised that it is all old school Marvel stuff.  With all the recent success of all the Marvel movies, I was expecting it to look a lot less like it did.   We went on one ride in this area because the other two are insane.

The Amazing Adventures of Spider Man
This is another 3D simulator ride.  And it was pretty great.  You bounce around, you get fire thrown at you, you spin like crazy.  And the visuals are very cool.  The surprise for me, as I said, was that the ride was based on the Spiderman cartoon, not the movie(s).  There was nothing wrong with that–in fact it looked fantastic, but how weird that they kept it so “old” when there was such a wealth of new stuff to use as imagery.

The other two rides are The Incredible Hulk Roller coaster (T. was too short for this one, phew).  I had been warned and psyched out about this so none of us went on it but it was awesome to watch.  And I’ll quote: “You accelerate from zero to 40 mph in two seconds flat, with the force equal to that of a jet taking off an aircraft carrier. The world turns upside down as you experience a weightless “zero g” roll. Then you feel a surge in power as you pick up speed and a menacing roar fills your ears.” The other ride was Doctor Doom’s Fearfall, which is probably not much different from Disney’s Tower of Terror, except it is described: “the countdown reaches zero and you are rocketed skyward, 185 feet into the air, then hurled back down faster than the force of gravity itself.”  So we passed on those.

What was most fun in this area was that as we were waiting, Dr Doom himself paraded by (into a changing room) and the Green Goblin came running up and scared the bejesus out of some girls sitting on a curb).  Pretty darn funny.

It’s here that you get to the opening of the park, which we never actually saw.  We were all pretty exhausted by this time, so even though we could have seen the entrance, we didn’t bother.  Rather we continued on to Seuss Landing.  I wish we had more time to explore Seuss Landing, but it was starting get late already.  T. thrill seeker that she is also loves carousels, so…

Caro-Seuss-el
This was a wonderfully surreal carousel which was a nice fun relaxing ride.

We regret not going on The Cat in the Hat ride which sounded fun, but we all missed that completely so I’m note really sure what it was like.  This led to The Lost Continent, which had two things we didn’t do.  The effects and structures looked amazing, but we were ready to leave (after eating some delicious Churros of course).

We returned to Hogsmeade and hopped on the train back to Diagon Alley.  We had some more butterbeer, did some more spells and then left Harry Potter World forever.

S. and I were jonesing for The Simpsons ride and when we passed by, the line was once again short.   This time, they sent us to the bottom section (which was a much shorter line–awesome!) and it was just as good the second time.  We tried to convince C. to go on the Mummy Ride (a 5 minute wait) but he had psyched himself out and wouldn’t do it, so we gave up.

We walked out through the Woody Woodpecker area which is the one place we hadn’t been yet.  But we were too tired to really appreciate anything.  The E.T. Ride looked interesting, but we just wanted to go.  And that’s when the parade went by.

Universal’s Superstar Parade is, I have to say a majorly pale imitation of any Disney Parade I have seen.  Since Universal only has a few character, there’s not much they can do.  There were some minions, Dora and Diego, some characters from the movie Hop (!) and really that was about it.  There were some guys doing really cool tricks on pogo sticks, but as for a parade, well, T. loved it, and we enjoyed clapping.  I think the best thing was that it was so short.

And then we all crashed back at the hotel, ready for our super early flight back home.

Universal Studios was an amazingly awesome experience.  And even if it is Disney’s trashy cousin, they know how to recreate worlds in full detail and they know how to make thrilling rides.