Astra
06-19-2007, 09:30 PM
I'm on a little vacation and finally got some free time to catch up on the boards.
Saturday we hit Universal Studios for the first time in a decade. A lot of attractions have changed, but it's still a little weak compared to the Disney parks. One thing Universal has mastered is hiding long lines - they snake you in and out of buildings until you feel like you're waiting in line to wait in another line. Overall the waits were short, but the lines were just badly managed.
Back to the Future: The Ride is just a big empty building now. Pretty depressing, considering it was my favorite ride when I came here as a kid. The other original rides are looking pretty dated and something is going to have to be done soon in order to keep the place competitive. The two best rides there were Men In Black and The Mummy. MiB is a spinning shooter (I got the high score in my car with 104,000) and The Mummy is a great indoor roller coaster.
Islands of Adventure is better. Dueling Dragons, a set of twin racing roller coaster, is amazing. We came in and saw the wait time was only 5 minutes, so we hopped on. The queue takes you through this castle and into dungeons (amazing theme work). When you get to the end, you choose Ice or Fire. We rode Ice the first time and then got on Fire immediately after it ended. There are a couple of differences that result in unique rides. It's also located in the area that will eventually become the Harry Potter zone and new audio in the castle reflects this - my sister and I did a double-take when the disembodied voices mentioned "muggles" and "Gryffindor" in their warnings to stay away.
The Dr. Seuss area is really cute and looks just like the books. The rides there are all geared toward children, but it's still fun to look at.
Jurassic Park was shut down most of the day, but I came away with a souvenir velociraptor anyway.
Later in the week I think we'll be hitting Sea World and a bunch of the new malls that have opened in Orlando. This place has changed a LOT since I lived here.
Saturday we hit Universal Studios for the first time in a decade. A lot of attractions have changed, but it's still a little weak compared to the Disney parks. One thing Universal has mastered is hiding long lines - they snake you in and out of buildings until you feel like you're waiting in line to wait in another line. Overall the waits were short, but the lines were just badly managed.
Back to the Future: The Ride is just a big empty building now. Pretty depressing, considering it was my favorite ride when I came here as a kid. The other original rides are looking pretty dated and something is going to have to be done soon in order to keep the place competitive. The two best rides there were Men In Black and The Mummy. MiB is a spinning shooter (I got the high score in my car with 104,000) and The Mummy is a great indoor roller coaster.
Islands of Adventure is better. Dueling Dragons, a set of twin racing roller coaster, is amazing. We came in and saw the wait time was only 5 minutes, so we hopped on. The queue takes you through this castle and into dungeons (amazing theme work). When you get to the end, you choose Ice or Fire. We rode Ice the first time and then got on Fire immediately after it ended. There are a couple of differences that result in unique rides. It's also located in the area that will eventually become the Harry Potter zone and new audio in the castle reflects this - my sister and I did a double-take when the disembodied voices mentioned "muggles" and "Gryffindor" in their warnings to stay away.
The Dr. Seuss area is really cute and looks just like the books. The rides there are all geared toward children, but it's still fun to look at.
Jurassic Park was shut down most of the day, but I came away with a souvenir velociraptor anyway.
Later in the week I think we'll be hitting Sea World and a bunch of the new malls that have opened in Orlando. This place has changed a LOT since I lived here.