After a "down" day yesterday we were ready for Entertrainment, Excitement, Magic and Endless Possibilities of Fun! Instead, we went to Universal Studios.
Bambi's mom got free tickets through work, including parking and $10 per person vouchers for lunch. So I was pretty hopeful going in. The Universal option came up a few weeks before we left. We had never been there before and were certainly open to trying it, particularly at that price. I began doing a lot of research and really didn't get a very "kid-friendly" vibe about the park.
I know they are aligned with Nickelodeon, but I only have a passing knowledge of anything on that network. Madison knows most of the characters from watching at day care, but we never watch it at home.
Not to sound like a Disney Snob, but Bambi and I were discussing Universal the night before we went. Basically, I summed it up as this: "I'm going in with some pretty low expectations, so based on that, of they are half way decent, they should blow me out of the water."
The obligitory "crashed kids" picture from that morning:
Grandma & Grandpa met us at Downtown Disney and we all rode in the van over to Universal and found a parking spot in their humongous parking garage. From there is is about a mile walk to the security check point and another mile and half to the entrance. You do walk through "City Walk" which is basically any mall in America, but with the roof pulled off. I just never got the feeling that families with young children are their target demographic.
At the end of City Walk is the NASCAR Cafe restaraunt, and thier mascot was out. My kids have no idea who this guy was. (I later Googled him. His name is Digger, and he's a gopher.) That didn't stop them from running up for a picture, though.
Finally, we get to the entrance to the park.
Our first stop was Jimmy Neutron's NickToons Blast. The attraction is like Star Tours in that you see a movie and your ride vehicle moves in concert with the movement on the screen. Evan was too short so sit in the moving seats, so I took him down to sit in the front in the stationary seats. Watching it from there it was just a herky-jerky movie with sharp cuts and fast-pased action. Kind of like The Blair Witch Project on methamphetamines.
The exit to that led you into a gift shop where SpongeBob was taking pictures. The kids stood in line and waited their turn. Just as they were walking up to Sponge Bob for a picture, an older lady walked up from the exit and stood next to my kids for a picture. Umm...lady, if you're going to line jump that's your business, but you shouldn't photo bomb someone else's picture. I politely told her to hit the road and snapped this.
From there Grandma & Grandpa got in line for Shrek and we started to wander the park. Madison was tall enough for the Simpsons ride, so we headed to that area of the park only to find out that it was shut down for technical difficulties. This seemed to be a common theme on this day, as it took several hours for us to see any signs of life from their Rip Ride Rocket Roller Coaster, and then it was just empty cars running the track for about an hour. Hmm...
Anway, here's Homer.
I will give Universal credit for this. Shrek & Donkey have a meet & greet area and Donkey is an animatronic figure that can actually talk and interact with the crowd. I don't know what type of voice synthesizer they use, but he sounds almost exactly like Eddie Murphy.
By now we had wandered back to the main street to see if MIL and FIL had gotten off of Shrek yet. We saw a few characters out so we went over. The had absolutely no crowd management what so ever for these guys. The characters were just in random places on the road with no lines, just crowds of people standing around them trying to figure out who was next for a picture. On top of that, they had what I assume were "set pieces", sitting around to make it feel like this was a real movie studio. Mostly, they were just large things to get in your way.
Curious George
Scooby Doo
Woody Woodpecker
By now we had joined up with MIL & FIL. He wanted to ride Jaws. They had been out to Universal Studios in California when Bambi was little and rode it there. They wanted to see how it compared. They did mention that that place was actually a movie studio and you could feel it. This one in Florida was a theme park that tried too hard to feel like a movie studio.
We got in line for Jaws but we were really humming and hawing over if we wanted the kids to do it or not. I didn't want them too scared to ever get in a boat again. So Bambi and Grandma took the kids over to Woody WoodPecker's area while FIL and I rode. If it was tame enough, we would bring them back later.
I know I said I was wrong about Tower of Terror a few days ago. But I
know this would have freaked the bejeezus out of Madison, and possibly Evan. Sooo glad we didn't bring the kids on this. The boat ride is basically an excuse to have a mechanical shark jump out of water at you while a Jungle Cruise-wannabe driver reads his lines. The shark jumps out at you a few times before the driver shoots him with a "grenade launcher". I will give our captain credit, though. He was really into it and sold his performance. Would he mail it in during the afternoon runs after doing it 30 times? I probably would.
Back in Woody WoodPecker's KidZone, the kids were having a ball. Woody's roller coaster is very good substitute for Goofy's BarnStormer. They had an absolute blast in the ball house. And Evan didn't even let us change him into a swim suit before playing in the water (the weather had warmed up a bit by today).
After lunch we rode ET. We heard that the Simpsons was running, but it was a 75 minute wait. Nevermind.
I took Madison to the Animal show while Evan went back to the balls. We met up and played in Barney's Backyard for while. Madison wanted to do Jimmy Neutron again, so I took her over. On the way, we ran into Marilyn Monroe. Madison had no idea who she was, but had a nice conversation with her.
A block or so later, we ran into the rest of the Simpsons. Again, she has no idea who these guys are, she just loves characters!
I know I mentioned that we don't watch Nickelodeon, but we do make an exception for Dora & Diego. They're OK. Here we are with Jimmy and Diego.
We rode the ride again, and it was marginally better sitting in a moving seat. Madison loved it, of course.
We met up Bambi and Evan started walking over toward the Beetlejuice stage to wait for Grandma & Grandpa, who went to that show. Madison was taking pictures of Evan standing in front of a statue, when some lady in an electric scooter drives right between them. Madison said, and I quote, "What the...?" and gave that lady the dirtiest look a 5 year old can muster! Daddy was so proud!
MIL & FIL joined us and we watched the Blues Brother's show. Elwood was bit on the skinny side, but they both sounded pretty good.
The skies were beginning to darken, so we made our way out of the park, thoroughly unimpressed. But we did have one more thing to look forward to tonight. Every time we come to Florida, we make it point to seek out a nice meal at a reasonable price. And not long after we left Universal, did we see a bright yellow sign beckoning us home: WAFFLE HOUSE.
It's more of an inside joke with us, but we have to do it every trip down. There's just nothing like getting served a plate of greasy food from a chain smoking waitress calling you "Hon."
So it was a fairly early night. MIL & FIL headed home to take care of the dogs. (No runaways since we've been gone!) We returned to the Beach Club and played with our birthday toys, watched Illuminations again, and turned in for the night.
I'm sure I sound like I hated Universal. And to some extent, I did. They really seem to be catering to teens and young adults, not to families and children. I never got that feeling of "this is awesome" that I get in any of the Disney Parks. I'm sure sometime we'll try their other park, Islands of Adventure. But not for quite a while.
Up Next: Back home at Disney World. EPCOT, swimming, and the International Food & Wine Festival!