Florida Trip - Universal Studios

The Universal parks are made up of Universal Studios and the Islands of Adventure. You can easily walk from one to the other, unlike Disney, so this makes park hopping very easy. If it had not rained on us Tuesday we would easily have park hopped every day as, while there is a lot to take in, it feels like there's less to do than at the average Disney park. That said, these are much cheaper to get into and there's still a lot of fun to be had.

First item of business, if you're planning to be at the parks all day, get the Meal Deal. It allows you to eat in designated restaurants 'for free' all day: one entree and one dessert per visit. There is no limit on your visits. The Deal started at $21 and adding the park hopper option for $5 doubled the amount of restaurants. You can add beverages for another, oh what was it, $7 I think. Considering the price of theme park food, you can pay off the Meal Deal in about three trips (they say please no sharing but, c'mon who's not gonna share at least a little, especially with kids that don't eat much anyway). The beverage containers aren't coded in any way and we used them on multiple days, whether we were supposed to or not. *cough* The food ranged from 'tolerable' to 'pretty good' so it felt like it was worth it. The options are limited but not so much that the average individual couldn't find something to eat.

One thing I didn't like about the Universal parks in general was the carnival games that would pop up now and then. It gave the place a very 'State Fair' feel and cheapened the place rather than adding to the atmosphere. The Universal parks felt more like theme parks as opposed to Disney's 'in another world' feel.

Just going through the map to see the things I did:

Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast - Rode it twice. Fun simulator trip through the Nicktoons universe that I'm familiar with thanks to the kids I was with. Some water spraying, bobbing up and down, but nothing too action packed. There was also a staging room before the ride with a video that set-up the ride. Use of the chicken dance made me feel like I was at home. It's a large room with a larger video screen to trick the brain while the car you sit in moves a bit. Amusing and fun for what it was. Enjoyable but probably wouldn't be so if you're a childless adult that doesn't watch these shows.

Twister...Ride It Out - As it rained off and on Tuesday we went into Twister... where they simulate worse weather than we were experiencing. Duh for us. It warns that you will get wet. Two video staging rooms seemed like overkill to me as one would have been enough. The simulator area involves the crowd standing in what are essentially bleachers, watching as a tornado is simulated in the patch of ground before you. Lightning strikes, rain whips, signs are torn away, gas leaks and starts on fire. The roof nearly comes off the bleachers you stand on. More fun than I expected but I couldn't see doing it twice in one trip. If memory serves, the film playing on the drive-in screen wasn't the ones on the marquee, it was 'The People Under the Stairs'. Thumbs up. If you freak out in bad weather, this is probably not for you (this means Katy).

Revenge of the Mummy - Rode this three times and went from 'I don't know that I liked this' to 'woo-hoo!'. Long waiting area movie apparently explains how there was a 'real' curse on the making of the Mummy movies. Luckily (?) the lines were never long enough for me to see much of the film. The tomb you walk through to get to the coaster is well done and there are some things to play with to amuse you while you wait. Upon getting in the car, you ride into the tomb and are warned again that the curse is real. The bad guy offers you riches to join him or warriors and fire (warm real fire!) if you oppose him, which we do. I dunno, he never seemed to wait for a response. Ducking under a closing tomb door, it gets dark. There's another video screen as you stop and then you shoot backwards and down a bit. The car is rotated 180 degrees as we're told that the Magi can't save us now. Dark coaster! Black lights! Mist! Spook show stuff! Yelling encouraged! It stops at the 'end of the ride' but the glass on the office shatters, showing another mummy. The ceiling burns and we're off again! And then it stops. The second coaster sequence seems short compared to the rest of the ride. Recommended. Good scary.

Disaster! - Long show with some simulator involved. They are filming a disaster film and you're in it! They needed a kid and our Niko got picked. A number of actors get picked from the crowd in one room, then you go into another room so that the director (a projection played by Christopher Walken!) can explain some things to you. In another room, the actors do their CGI inserts and some crowd shots are filmed. Then you enter another room with a set of subway cars. Riding in the subway cars, you enter the simulation area and are given direction on the video screens in the car. Fires start, the street above collapses, water floods the area, stuff goes crazy. As the car recides, the trailer for the film, featuring the inserts just filmed, plays back. The star of the film that 'saved' Niko in the trailer? Dwayne Johnson aka the Rock. It was a lot of fun and the gal that was the head showrunner for it was outstanding. Recommended but due to the length of the ride I again can't see doing it more that once a trip.

Men in Black Alien Attack - One of a few 'shooter' games we played during the trip. You sit in a car and ride through a well made environment firing a gun at moving alien targets. This is the only such game that Niko beat me at and that's because he got the final bonus and I didn't. Fun but not outstanding to me.

The Simpsons Ride - rode it 3 times, once from each level of the structure. Krusty is debuting a new ride at Krustyland and you're in line for it! In the first queueing area, classic theme park related footage of the show is mixed with new footage of Krusty explaining the general situation. Inside the second queueing area, video screens with other characters (Apu, Patty and Selma, Hans Moleman, Snake, Groundkeeper Willy) entertain you until the story monitor starts up. Krusty explains you may be almost to the ride and informs you that Sideshow Bob is in the vicinity, hunting the Simpsons. Bob does get in the park, disgused as Scratchy, and becomes responsible for the Simpsons getting on the ride first. When Krusty notes that there's room for another group, Bart points to you and goes 'How bout those guys?' Krusty notes that you look clean enough and directs you to wait til someone tells you to do something. This leads to a smaller waiting room and another video sequence where we find out that a nuclear reactor powers the ride, Grandpa can't ride because of his heart conditions, Sideshow Bob makes us ride the ride at gunpoint, and Maggie slips away from a sleeping Grandpa to be mutated by the reactor. Ut oh. The next room holds the ride car we see in the cartoon. It rises up so that all you can see is a large video screen. It simulates lots of crashing and falling and leaning and such. Water is sprayed. Scents are released. Characters are spotted. Classic moments are had (a favorite as you tumble to the centre of the earth is Professor Frink saving your ride car with the expression 'Never fear; a nerd is here!'). Giant Maggie terrorizes Springfield and uses your ride car as a pacifier. In the end, all is well. There's a lot of movement and it jumbled my tummy a lot. It was too much for Amy. She didn't get sick but got to a 'I can't go on that again' place. It's like watching an episode of Simpsons and being in the third act. Excellent for fans of the series and a wild ride. I loved it, even with the jumbled tummy.

Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse coaster - Kids coaster with a few sharp turns. Nice for what it was.

E.T. Adventure - rode 3 times? 4 times? Wait outside to start by some international poster art. Then in first queue video from Steven Spielberg explains that we need to help E.T. get home to save his planet. In the next area you get your 'passport', a laminated card with a bar code that gets associated with your first name. The next queueing area (which we never had to wait in, just walked through) is a forest, very well done, has the communicator from the movie and stuff to see. The ride has you sitting on a bicycle (attached to a big car, no worries there). E.T. is in the front and flies you through the woods, over police and such until he hits the afterburners and you soar over the city (I kept looking for Godzilla to step on the city) and into space. From there you are on the Green Planet, which E.T. saves and everyone celebrates. In the final area, E.T. says thank you to everyone on the ride by name (the reason for the passport). It's a lot more fun than I expected, especially since it was for a movie I haven't seen since I was 8 and no longer have any interest it.

Universal Horror Make-Up Show - the displays in the entrance are worth walking in to see on their own, even if you don't do the show. Lots of tributes to monsters from the silent era (Lon Chaney!) til today. The show itself is funny but won't really teach you anything if you know the bare minimum about effects. Worth the time.

Terminator 2: 3D - You queue in Cyberdyne systems before entering another waiting room and watch a video for the company which gets interrupted by Sarah and John Conner, the ones from the movie, not the show. The Cyberdyne rep (she was also awesome) says to ignore them and come in for the display. 3D glasses are applied and the show goes from stage production with video screens to a movie on the video screen and back. Actors pop from the movie to the stage. We sat in the back row of the section and I had actors running past me, adding to the illusion. The 3D is excellent and the stage acting was well done. It's an excellent package and very entertaining. Thumbs up.

Lucy - A Tribute - not a ride or a show but a little museum dedicated to Lucille Ball. Lots of pictures, information, diorama of the sets for 'I Love Lucy', stereo-optic home pictures from the 50s of her family, video clips, costumes, scripts. Very impressive indeed. A fine way to end a day.

For those about to ask, Jaws was closed for refurbishment. I had no one to propose to anyway. ;)

And that's just one park! And not everything in it, just what I did! More to come obviously.