A Year of Disney (and Universal) Trips- Universal Christmas Photos- updated 12/23

[meeko_33785]

We are huge fans of the Harry Potter books so every trip to WDW we debate if we should pay a visit to the WWoHP but so far we've always decided against it. Your pictures however are really tempting me to go and see it for myself!

I'm looking forward to hearing and seeing more of your day!

If you're a Harry Potter fan, I bet that you'd love the Wizarding World. For the most part, it's amazingly well done. I'm glad that you're enjoying the report so far.

Ditto for us except this next trip in May, 2012 we are going to take the plunge and visit IoA and WWoHP!

Keep the great TR coming meeko!

Awesome. That's the trip without any Disney park visits, right?

 

[wdwgirl03]

dawnbu40 and saintstickets...you definitely need to visit IOA especially if you are such big Harry Potter fans. It is well worth the trip!

Meeko, sorry you didn't care for Forbidden Journey. My sisters and I thought it was awesome

 

[saintstickets]

If you're a Harry Potter fan, I bet that you'd love the Wizarding World. For the most part, it's amazingly well done. I'm glad that you're enjoying the report so far.

Awesome. That's the trip without any Disney park visits, right?

Yes it is. We will be staying at VWL the entire trip but not going into any WDW parks. Shhhh....don't tell Mickey!

dawnbu40 and saintstickets...you definitely need to visit IOA especially if you are such big Harry Potter fans. It is well worth the trip!

Oh this visit to WWoHP is for our DD. She's the big Harry Potter fan. I wouldn't know a Basilisk from a Hippogriff. Oops! Did I just give myself away?

 

[Lady Lallie]

Wow. I really need to get myself to Universal. Your pictures are awesome. It's just so hard to plan a trip to Universal when you don't rent a car or anything while at Disney. I guess I'm going to have to make it a priority though.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Wow. I really need to get myself to Universal. Your pictures are awesome. It's just so hard to plan a trip to Universal when you don't rent a car or anything while at Disney. I guess I'm going to have to make it a priority though.

When my sisters and I went we used the Mears shuttle service. I think it was $18 round trip per person. You just call and they will pick you up from your Disney resort. It was really easy and worked well for us.

 

[meeko_33785]

dawnbu40 and saintstickets...you definitely need to visit IOA especially if you are such big Harry Potter fans. It is well worth the trip!

Meeko, sorry you didn't care for Forbidden Journey. My sisters and I thought it was awesome

It isn't that I hated the ride or anything- there was a lot in it that I thought was really cool, mostly in the queue through Hogwarts- but for whatever reason the ride itself just wasn't amazing for me. It may be because I'm just not that big of a Harry Potter fan, but I'm really not into the movie Jaws and that ride was my favorite at Universal Studios. The same goes for Twilight Zone and, to a degree, Peter Pan and those rides are my favorites at Disney. Who knows. I'd be more than willing to ride it again though. I liked it; I just didn't love it.

Yes it is. We will be staying at VWL the entire trip but not going into any WDW parks. Shhhh....don't tell Mickey!


Oh this visit to WWoHP is for our DD. She's the big Harry Potter fan. I wouldn't know a Basilisk from a Hippogriff. Oops! Did I just give myself away?

Don't worry, I won't tell Mickey if you won't.

Wow. I really need to get myself to Universal. Your pictures are awesome. It's just so hard to plan a trip to Universal when you don't rent a car or anything while at Disney. I guess I'm going to have to make it a priority though.

Sarah/ wdwgirl mentioned it too, but from what I've seen, the Mears shuttle seems to be a good way to go. I was actually looking into it a while back, and it seems to be one of the better deals for getting from Disney to Universal. I think if you're a Harry Potter fan, you'll enjoy it. If you really take the time to explore the shops, see the little street shows and eat at the Three Broomsticks, you could easily spend most of the day just in the Wizarding World.

 

[meeko_33785]

You may recognize this chapter’s title as a quote from Peter Parker’s demanding boss J. Jonah Jameson, so, not surprisingly, this chapter will focus on Spidey and the rest of the gang from Marvel Super Hero Island. Aside from the Wizarding World, Buzz and I had heard the most good word about the Amazing Adventures of Spiderman attraction, so after leaving Hogwarts, we decided to make that our next stop.

Along the way, we decided to make a quick stop in Toon Lagoon for a few photos. We spotted the infamous Hush-A-Bomb. Concerning the bomb, the infamous no-goodniks from Pottsylvania had this to say:

Buzz and I grew up watching Rocky and Bullwinkle, so it was fun seeing things from the show integrated into a theme park like this. It’s just too bad the Dudley-Do-Right ride was closed at the time. If we make it back there someday, I’d love to ride it.

The theming around Marvel Super Hero Island was a lot of fun. I really liked the architecture and design elements.

Our first Marvel attraction was the much-discussed Spider-Man ride. By now I thought we’d see waiting in longer lines like we saw over at the Wizarding World by the time we left it, but all the wait times here were fairly reasonable. We didn’t wait much more than 10 minutes for Spider-Man.

The queue winds through the headquarters of the Daily Bugle, and there was plenty to see along the way.

J. Jonah Jameson plays a big part in the queue and pre-show videos of the attraction. Buzz and I tend to find Jameson very amusing, so we really enjoyed the whole build-up to the ride. As for the attraction itself, it was great. The technology behind it was very well done, and unlike at the Forbidden Journey, I didn’t have any troubles with my eyes not adjusting to the film portions. It was definitely one of my favorite things at Islands of Adventure.

After the ride, some of the Marvel Super Heroes had come out for a meet-and-greet, so I decided to go and get some photos and autographs. First was Cyclops from the X-Men.

Nearby was Wolverine.

Captain America was looking as patriotic as ever.


Next, I thought that I’d head over to the Marvel Store where Spider-Man was appearing. Buzz doesn’t usually come along with me when I’m meeting characters, but he wanted to come along and see Spider-Man with me. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the front of the line, Spider-Man ran out of the store saying that he would be back in 5 minutes. After a while, it was obvious that Spidey was going to be a bit longer, so we decided to check out the rest of the island instead.

Some more of the fun theming of the area.

Our next attraction was Doctor Doom’s Fearfall. There really was no line to speak of; we just had to wait until the next vehicle to start loading. The ride is a free-fall tower attraction, sort of like Tower of Terror but much less elaborate. Unlike Tower of Terror, the whole ride consists of shooting you to the top of the tower and then lowering you slowly back to the ground. The thrills only lasted about 10 seconds which was pretty disappointing. At least the views of the park as you came down were neat. I can’t see us rushing back to this one, and I’m glad we didn’t have to wait to ride it.

Next, we headed over to the Incredible Hulk coaster. The waits were a bit longer here, but not more than 15 or 20 minutes. This was also another one of the attractions that you have to put your loose articles in a locker, but it was a lot less painful than over at Forbidden Journey. I can’t remember if I mentioned this before, but on attractions where you are required to stow your stuff, locker rentals are free for the length of your ride experience.

The coaster was great and has to be another of my favorite IOA attractions. The theming was consistent throughout (more so than Dragon Challenge).


We had one more attraction left in Marvel Super Hero Island. Storm Force Acceleration. Basically, it’s the Tea Cup ride. They really tried to spice it up with an X-Men-themed storyline where you’re trying to defeat a villain, but it’s still the Tea Cups. Fortunately, we like the Tea Cup ride, especially Buzz who can spin a Tea Cup faster than I ever thought possible. Needless to say, we got very dizzy but enjoyed the ride.

By this time the Super Heroes were coming back for another meet-and-greet. As they arrived, they did a little parade around the land.

At last, we got photos and autographs from that friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

The last Heroes left to meet were Storm and Rogue from the X-Men.

Having done everything that we wanted on the Marvel Island, we headed on to Toon Lagoon. On the way, we spotted a statue of J. Jonah Jameson outside the Daily Bugle and had to take a photo. It seems so fitting that Jameson would want a statue of himself, but you’d think he would have wanted a different pose than this. Oh well, it’s funnier this way.



Next chapter: Toon Lagoon with Popeye, Dagwood and Betty Boop

 

[meeko_33785]

After Marvel Super Hero Island, we made our way to Toon Lagoon. I’ve been calling Islands of Adventure the “Geekiest Place on Earth” in this report, and if I had to pick an island that Buzz and I are the geekiest about, it would have to be Toon Lagoon. The theming and atmosphere around it turned out to be a lot of fun, and I loved the background music that was piped in.

For those of you who have read my past Disney trip reports, you might remember that I like to take pictures of all the references to the more obscure characters around the World, and I have to admit, it was fun to find references to obscure non-Disney characters around Toon Lagoon, like Betty Boop’s boyfriend Bimbo.

Anyone else remember (or has even heard of) Little Nemo?

As you would expect for Toon Lagoon, there were Toons around to greet guests. When we arrived, I found Betty Boop and got her autograph and took her photo. She was fun and perfectly in character, even singing “Boop-Oop-A-Doop” along with the background music. For anyone who has never been to Universal, Betty Boop is huge there, and the shops are full of all sorts of Betty merchandise. Fortunately, unlike at Disney where the most popular characters usually have ridiculously long lines at meet-and-greets, Ms. Boop’s line was very short. I had heard that Popeye and Olive Oil usually can be found for meet-and-greets in Toon Lagoon as well, but unfortunately they weren’t out yet.

Nearby, Betty Boop’s dog Pudgy is part of a dog-themed water play area.

With Dudley Do-Right closed, there was only one big attraction to do in Toon Lagoon- Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges. In all honesty, Buzz and I aren’t big fans of water rides where you get drenched and, with the exception of Splash Mountain, rarely do them while at theme parks. From what we had seen of the Bilge-Rat Barges though, it looked pretty fun, so we broke out our ponchos and decided to give it a try. Not wanting to get our cameras drenched, was asked a Team Member if there were lockers nearby, but he informed us that each raft had a waterproof compartment for bags (which you can see in the center of the raft in the picture) if we didn’t want to rent a locker. Even better than not having to pay for a locker, the ride was a literal walk-on.

Since there was no one else in line, we ended up having a raft all to ourselves. Even though water rides aren’t usually our thing, we had a really great time. All the story and theming elements were very well-done, and fortunately we didn’t get too drenched. I think with the possible exception of Spider-Man, this was my favorite attraction of the day. It was definitely one of the biggest surprises of the day.

After the ride, we dried off by checking out the areas around Popeye’s boat, Me Ship The Olive. Since the ship itself was mostly a play area, we skipped most of it, but we had a blast exploring the boardwalk around it which was full of theming and visual puns.

By now, it was time for lunch. As cartoon fans, the idea of eating at Blondie’s deli sounded like a lot of fun, so we decided to grab some sandwiches there.

The deli’s specialty is The Dagwood, based on its namesake’s multi-layer creations. It looked way too much for us (who wants to go on thrill rides after eating a giant sandwich?), so we opted for some of Blondie’s smaller sandwiches and a couple of bags of chips. I can’t say it was the most spectacular sandwich that I’ve ever had or that it wasn’t overpriced, but it was good for a fairly basic sandwich.

The atmosphere is what really made the experience worth it to us. The décor of the restaurant is a lot of fun- very retro and cartoon-like, so I think that it was worth a try, at least just this once. Also, don’t let this picture fool you. When we got to the restaurant, it was completely packed. About half-way through out meal though, the crowd thinned out to the point that we were the only ones left in the restaurant. It was a little odd, but gave us a chance to get pictures of the restaurant without a ton of people in it. All in all, we enjoyed our lunch.

After lunch, the next attraction that we wanted to try was the Jurassic Park River Adventure, so we headed in that direction. On the way, we made a stop at Wossamotta U. If you grew up watching Rocky and Bullwinkle like we did, you might remember that WU was Bullwinkle J. Moose’s Alma Mater. Inside Wossamotta U was a gift shop that, unfortunately, sold no Rocky and Bullwinkle memorabilia. However, if you’re looking for a Betty Boop cell phone cover, this is the place for you.

Some of the characters cheer on the home team at the WU stadium.

Across the way was Gasoline Alley.

As the stains of John Williams’ score filled the air, we crossed the bridge to Jurassic Park.

The wait was a bit longer than at Bilge-Rat Barges, but was still no more than 10 or 15 minutes. We really enjoyed this ride as well. It’s another water ride, so we broke out our ponchos again for it. You do get very wet on this one- a lot more so than on Splash Mountain. At the last drop, it felt like a wall of water just hit us. Still, the ride was great. The theming was great and there were plenty of well-done show scenes complete with some large animatronic dinosaurs. After the ride, Buzz and I decided to split up. I had a 2-Park ticket and wanted to spend an hour or so at Universal Studios to get some more character photos, while Buzz wanted to stay at Islands of Adventure. He ended up sticking around Jurassic Park for a while exploring the Discovery Center (which he described as sort of a dino-version of Animal Kingdom’s Conservation Station complete with lectures and dinosaur presentations) before going on to some of the other islands to take pictures.

As I exited Islands of Adventure, I took a few more last photos of the Port of Entry.

Next chapter: Lots of characters from the Studios and Seuss Landing

 

[dawnbu40]

Fun update!! Spidey is my family's favorite superhero so I loved the pic of him!

Sorry the food at Blondie's wasn't better but it looks really cute! Your picture looks like a cartoon

Looking forward to hearing what you did at Universal.

 

[jenseib]

Lovin the updates. I really want to explore these parks someday

 

[meeko_33785]

Fun update!! Spidey is my family's favorite superhero so I loved the pic of him!

Sorry the food at Blondie's wasn't better but it looks really cute! Your picture looks like a cartoon

Looking forward to hearing what you did at Universal.

It really wasn't that the food was bad at Blondie's, it's just that I guess I was expecting more based on the price. It tasted good, but it was just your basic sandwich. You really get more for less money over at Earl of Sanwich at Downtown Disney, but I guess one should expect theme park food would be more overpriced. The theming was really fun though, and overall I'd say that we had a possitive experience at Blondie's.

Lovin the updates. I really want to explore these parks someday

I'd recommend giving them a try. I used to be one of those Disney fans that just would not to go Universal, but they really won me over.

 

[meeko_33785]

Once outside of Islands of Adventure, it was only a short walk (5 minutes at most) until I was inside the gate at the Studios. We rarely park-hop at Disney anymore, but if it was as easy as it is at Universal, maybe we would hop more often. As much as I enjoyed all the attractions at the Studios when Buzz and I were there in October, the reason I wanted to spend some time there on this trip was to see some more characters. Buzz and I agreed to meet up at Seuss Landing one hour after we split up, so it was going to be interesting to see how many meet-and-greets I could fit into one hour. I was going to start with the crew from Madagascar first, but their line looked fairly long, so I decided to pass on them.

While walking down Hollywood Boulevard, I found Curious George. Back in October, I only managed to get a photo of him in his pirate Halloween costume, so it was nice to see George in his more traditional form.

Nearby, Woody Woodpecker was greeting fans. This was also my first time meeting “classic” Woody since he was a Halloween vampire when I saw him last. Scooby-Doo was also out, but since he had a longer line than the other two (meaning he had a short line and the others barely had any line to speak of), I decided to skip him and see what other characters I could find.

I really the theming at the Studios- almost as much as the theming at Disney.


I checked both Shrek’s and Spongebob Squarepants’ locations, but none of the characters seemed to be out. I headed back to the Hollywood area but didn’t find any characters there either. My plan didn’t seem to be working out very well.

While in Hollywood, I decided to look around Lucy: A Tribute again. I Love Lucy is one of my all-time favorite TV shows, so it’s always nice to get a chance to look around this exhibit.

Outside the exhibit, I found Gene Kelly’s star on Universal’s version of the Walk of Fame. I’m also a fan of those old MGM musicals with Singin’ in the Rain being my favorite, and I was disappointed that this star was covered up by some Halloween Horror Nights decorations last time.


By now, the characters were starting to reappear. Scooby and Shaggy were the first to come out (although, sadly, they weren’t driving the Mystery Machine this time), so I was going to see them until I noticed a familiar redhead walking down the street.

Of course, it was Lucy Ricardo herself. Ricky wasn’t out with her this time (according to Lucy, he was busy rehearsing with his band for Mardi Gras), but it was fun being able to chat with Lucy about what she, Fred and Ethel have been up to and get some photos. She was awesome. Without a doubt, this was the best meet-and-greet of the day.

Lucy pointed out that Marilyn Monroe was nearby, so I went to see her as well.

A candid shot of Lucy wandering through Hollywood. I love how it looks like she’s thinking about going into Schwab’s Pharmacy since she actually did mention going there in attempt to get discovered at the soda fountain a la Lana Turner in one of the old I Love Lucy episodes. Plus, the empty street shows how empty the park was- a far cry from the bustling Hogsmead.

I finally did get over to see Shaggy and Scooby. These two are also some of my favorite characters at Universal and are always fun to interact with.

Next, I headed over to the Nickstuff store to see if Spongebob was out yet. He was- and with no line to see him- so I got a few pictures.

There wasn’t any line to Shrek, Donkey and Fiona either. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no fan of the Shrek films, but they’re fun as characters in the park. Donkey especially is always good for a wisecrack (for those who have never been to Universal, yes, Donkey does talk at meet-and-greets).

After seeing the crew from Shrek, I found a character that I hadn’t met before- Dave the Minion from Despicable Me. I still haven’t seen this movie, but it’s on my list of movies to see someday.

It was almost time for me to head back to Islands of Adventure to meet up with Buzz, so I decided to end my time at the Studios by meeting more of my favorite characters- The Simpsons.

The Simpsons characters usually arrive driving their RV down the street, which is decorated with tons of references to the show.

Even with a somewhat slow start, I still ended up getting pictures of 15 different characters in a little over half an hour. Usually I’m amazed if I’m able to meet that many characters in a whole day at most other parks. Universal Studios is definitely one of my new favorite parks for characters.

After another short walk, I was back in Islands of Adventure and on my way to Seuss Landing. Once I got there, I quickly spotted Buzz and we went on to explore the land.

Of course, after an hour of meeting characters, the first thing I did was meet some more characters. I spotted the Grinch first outside one of the shops. He was very Grinch-like and didn’t want to give my pen back after he signed his autograph (you can see him holding it in the photo). His heart must have grown three sizes after that because he did give it back after the photo was taken.

Inside the shop was the ever-charming Cat in the Hat himself.

The rest of the characters wouldn’t be out until later for the character show at Circus McGurkus, so now was a good time to try the Cat in the Hat ride. The wait wasn’t bad at all- less than 10 minutes. The ride was cute, but a little more trippy than I imagined (maybe it was because it’s been a long time since I read The Cat in the Hat but I had no idea what was happening in the middle of the ride when everything turned psychedelic for no explained reason). It was also more intense than your usual dark ride to the point where there were signs saying that pregnant women shouldn’t ride. We were a little confused by the ride, but it was pretty fun.

Of course, the ride empties into a gift shop where you can buy some of those Thing 1 and Thing 2 shirts you see tourists wearing all over Orlando. For the record, we didn’t buy any.

The “Oh! The Stories You’ll Hear!” character show was our next stop, so he headed towards Circus McGurkus. On the way, we spotted the Lorax.

A Seussian elephant welcomed us in to the Circus Tent



Next chapter: Ending our day by finishing Seuss Landing, revisiting a few favorite attractions and trying Butterbeer.

 

[dawnbu40]

Wow! 15 characters in less than an hour?! That's great

Sounds like you had a lot of fun with the meet and greets.

I love the pic of Lucy in front of Schwab's Very classic!

 

[Lady Lallie]

Look at that character luck! Wow!

You have convinced me that I need to give Universal a second chance. I didn't have a great time the first time I went but your report is making me realize that I missed out on a lot of things.

I have to go just so I can meet the Simpsons. We own all the seasons that are on DVD and watch them almost nightly before bed. I also need to meet Woody Woodpecker, that was one of my FAVORITE cartoons growing up. My godfather does a mean Woody Woodpecker impression as well. It thrilled my brother and I growing up.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Wow, you sure saw a lot of characters! That's cool they had the Grinch. I remember we saw him on our first trip to IOA but that was after Christmas. He definitely was grinchy then too.

 

[meeko_33785]

Wow! 15 characters in less than an hour?! That's great

Sounds like you had a lot of fun with the meet and greets.

I love the pic of Lucy in front of Schwab's Very classic!

The meet-and-greets were fantastic, and that picture is one of my favorites from the day, I was glad that I was there at just the right tme to capture it.

Look at that character luck! Wow!

You have convinced me that I need to give Universal a second chance. I didn't have a great time the first time I went but your report is making me realize that I missed out on a lot of things.

I have to go just so I can meet the Simpsons. We own all the seasons that are on DVD and watch them almost nightly before bed. I also need to meet Woody Woodpecker, that was one of my FAVORITE cartoons growing up. My godfather does a mean Woody Woodpecker impression as well. It thrilled my brother and I growing up.

I think that there's a lot of things that you'd like at Universal. Even if you're not into thrill rides (which I remember you aren't), there's plenty shows to see, characters to meet and a ton of amazing theming and movie sets to explore.. Plus, if you're a fan on the Simpsons, you should at least give the Simpsons Ride a chance. It's a simulator so it's a little bit of a thrill, but it's not too bad. If you can handle Star Tours and Soarin' I think you can do the Simpsons. And, of course, I know that you'd love Hogsmeade.

Wow, you sure saw a lot of characters! That's cool they had the Grinch. I remember we saw him on our first trip to IOA but that was after Christmas. He definitely was grinchy then too.

The Grinch was one of my favorite meet-and-greets over at Islands of Adventure since he was so perfectly Grinchy. It was a nice change since there aren't really any other villains at Universal. Plus, I was glad to see it was the classic Grinch and not the crazy Jim Carrey version.

 

[meeko_33785]

After the Cat in the Hat ride, we headed over to Circus McGurkus, the counter service restaurant where the Seuss-themed character show “Oh! The Stories You’ll Hear” is presented throughout the day. About 5 minutes before show time, we found a table near the stage area.

The show was cute. A “Reader” comes out to tell a few Seuss stories and the Cat in the Hat and company did a few dance numbers. It’s really more for kids (which we knew going into it), but it was fun seeing the characters and hearing a few stories that we hadn’t heard in a long time.

The main reason I wanted to see the show was what came afterwards- a meet-and-greet. The Reader told everyone to find a table and that the characters would come around and visit them. The first character to come around was Thing 1.

After a while, everyone sort of gave up on the whole wait-at-your-table-and-the-characters-would-come-to-you bit and everyone just started forming lines to see them. Sam I Am (of Green Eggs and Ham fame) was nearby, so I saw him next.

Lastly, I saw Thing 2. The Cat and the Grinch were there too, but since I had just seen them earlier, I passed on them.

After the show, we left Seuss Landing and headed back towards Toon Lagoon. Since I had missed the meet-and-greet with Popeye and Olive Oyl when we were there earlier in the day, I was hoping to be able to find them again before they were done for the day.

Shortly after arriving, I found the cartoon couple just inside one of the gift shops and got photos and autographs.

While in Toon Lagoon, we did some more exploring. There are so many great details and photo ops throughout the area. This Shoe-inspired one, for instance, has multiple punch lines that rotated so every time you walked by, you could see a new one.

Anybody else remember Aesop and Son from Rocky and Bullwinkle?

More Rocky and Bullwinkle references.

After Toon Lagoon, we passed through Marvel Super Hero Island to head back to Seuss Landing. Since we were a little more than an hour away from closing time, we figured we would make a loop around the park doing all the things that we missed the first time and end up in Marvel Super Hero Island to re-ride as many of our favorite rides and time would permit.

Our first stop on our final loop was the High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride. It’s somewhat comparable to the Peoplemover at Magic Kingdom and takes you on a tour of the land. Unlike the Peoplemover, though, it appears to be fairly low capacity and commonly seems to have some of the longest lines in the park (outside of the Wizarding World, of course). We waited about 20 minutes which, from what I’ve heard, isn’t too bad. For the most part, the ride is pretty disjointed and attempts to retell the story of the Sneeches, the birds that either had or had not stars on their bellies, but went in our of the story to to quick bits of other stories as you pass their respective locations in the park. Still, in a whole, the ride was pretty charming and gave great views of Seuss Landing and its theming, including a trip right through the Circus McGurkis tent. I don’t think I would wait more than 20 minutes for it, but I liked it. A word of warning to the health concious or impulse shoppers: this ride dumps you into a wonderful-smelling and extremely tempting candy store.

Since we were nearby, we decided to take a spin on the Caro-Seuss-el. There wasn’t any wait, which was a plus.

A Sneech in one of the shops on the way out of Seuss Landing.

Next, we walked through the Lost Continent. We didn’t really do anything in this land besides walking through it to get to the Wizarding World. If we come back to Islands of Adventure in the future, I think one of my priorities would be to spend more time here.

Back in Hogsmeade, there was one more thing that I wanted to do- try Butterbeer. If you’ve never had it, the only way I can describe it is sort of a cream soda float with a hint of butterscotch. It was delicious. As cool as the attractions were, this just might be my favorite thing at the Wizarding World. I guess they really do have something for everyone. While I finished up my Butterbeer, we headed past Hogwarts and over to Jurassic Park where Buzz wanted to buy a pin that he had spotted there earlier in the day.

While Buzz was making his purchase, I got a few more photos around the area.

Since we had just done a good amount of exploring in Toon Lagoon, we pretty much breezed through it this time en route to Marvel Super Hero Island.

We started by going on Spider-Man again. This time there was barely any line, and again we enjoyed both the thrills and antics of J. Jonah Jameson.

Next, we did another of our favorites for the day- the Incredible Hulk. The line was on the short side here as well. After our ride, it was almost time for the park to close, so we decided to head back towards Port of Entry.

Some of the fun details around the area.

On the way out, we looked through a few of the shops around the exit and, since we apparently had not been through enough shops that day, hit the Universal Studios Store at City Walk before heading back to the parking garage.



Next chapter: Reflections on Islands of Adventure

 

[Jennifer48]

I haven't been to Universal in years. Besides adding WWoHP, I didn't realize how many more changes there have been! I guess I don't pay much attention now that I'm a Disney snob

What great character meets you got!

I must get down to HP, I love that whole series.

 

[meeko_33785]

I haven't been to Universal in years. Besides adding WWoHP, I didn't realize how many more changes there have been! I guess I don't pay much attention now that I'm a Disney snob

What great character meets you got!

I must get down to HP, I love that whole series.

We use to be big Disney snobs too, but after they added the Simpsons Ride, we knew that we'd eventually have to get to Universal. I'm glad we did; we do enjoy their parks as well, though the Disney ones are still our favorites. If you're a Harry Potter fan, I'd really recommend giving Universal another try.

 

[meeko_33785]

I've come to the end of our first day trip of the year. To wrap up most of my trip reports for the year, I’m planning on writing some sort of post like this that has the kind of information that could be helpful for trip planning (crowds, weather, quick reviews, etc.). This is something that I hope would be helpful, but even if it’s not, I hope you’ll enjoy this look back at the trip.


Weather:

The weather throughout the day was as good as we could possibly hope for. It was a little foggy in the morning, but within the first hour or so, it burned off. The rest of the day was sunny with absolutely no rain and temperatures that were warm enough that going on water rides was pleasant but not hot or humid to the point that it was uncomfortable. In general, February is a hard month to predict what the weather will be like for Florida, but the weather we experienced when we went was pretty ideal for visiting a theme park. One thing that I noticed about the park was that while there were half a dozen or so indoor rides, there weren’t a lot of longer attractions (3D movies, live shows, longer omimover rides etc.) where you can just sit down in the air conditioning for a while. Even though there are a number of water rides to cool you down too, I couldn’t help thinking that the park would not be as much fun in the summer heat.


Crowds and Wait Times:

Buzz and I had picked to come to Islands of Adventure in February since we figured the crowds would be lower, and for the most part they were extremely manageable. The only place where the park ever felt crowded was the Wizarding World of Harry Potter where the tiny streets and courtyards were almost always congested and the lines remained long for most of the day. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey in particular had continually long lines, rising to an hour or more within the first few hours that it was open. Since we were there for rope drop, we were able to ride each of the land’s three attractions with wait times of no more than 20 - 30 minutes. Beyond the Wizarding World, the highest waits we experienced, or even saw posted, were 15 – 20 minutes for The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, Jurassic Park River Adventure and The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride. Everything else was 10 minutes or less including a few walk-ons.


Attraction Highlights:

Since this was our first time at Islands of Adventure, everything was new to us. From all the hype, I was expecting to be very impressed by Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, and while I enjoyed the ride (and perhaps more so enjoyed the queue through Hogwarts Castle), it wasn’t one of my favorite rides of the day. Instead, I’d have to pick The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges as my favorites in the park. Other highlights of the day included Dragon Challenge, Jurassic Park River Cruise and the aforementioned Forbidden Journey. And while not big name attraction, I also enjoyed walking around the boardwalk that surrounds Me Ship the Olive to see all of the toon-like details and visual puns. The only attraction of the day that we thought was a bit of a dud was Doctor Doom’s Fearfall which offered some nice views but only about 10 seconds worth of the thrills it promised.


Dining:

We had lunch at Blondie’s, the comic strip-themed deli in Toon Lagoon. While the decor of the restaurant was a lot of fun and just what we were hoping for, the sandwiches that we had were fairly basic and a bit overpriced. It’s a theme park, so overpriced food is no surprise. I honestly can’t say that we didn’t enjoy our sandwiches or the experience in general. I do think that if we return to the park in the future that we would try a different restaurant instead. And while not a complete meal, I would be amiss in not mentioning the Wizarding World’s infamous sweet beverage Butterbeer. I loved it and would love to try it again on a future visit.


Characters:

While at Islands of Adventure, I managed to meet and photograph 15 different characters including the Hogwarts Express Conductor in the Wizarding World, Spider-Man and other Marvel heroes on Marvel Super Hero Island, Betty Boop, Popeye and Olive Oyl in Toon Lagoon and a number of Seussian characters in Seuss Landing. Out of these, The Grinch and Betty Boop were among some of the more memorable meet-and-greets of the day. While doing a little park hopping over to Universal Studios, I ended up finding 15 more, one of which (Dave the Minion from Despicable Me ) I had not met on my first Universal trip. Between the two parks, I liked the characters over at the Studios considerably more with Lucy Ricardo, The Simpsons and Scooby-Doo and Shaggy being some of my favorites.



All in all, I enjoyed our first trip to the “Geekiest Place on Earth”, but overall I didn’t really like the park as much as the ones at Disney or even Universal Studios. I’m still not sure if it’s because the themes of the lands just don’t spark my interest as much or the attractions didn’t impress me that much or what, but it didn’t leave me wanting to return like Universal Studios did when I went last year. It really was an impressive park with some state-of-the-art attractions with some very well done (and some not-as-well-done) theming and is worth at least one visit. If I do make it back, riding Dudley Do-Right’s Rip-Saw Falls (which unfortunately was closed the day that we went) and actually spending some time in the Lost Continent would be at the top of my list of things to do.




I hope that you enjoyed this first portion of the report. Hopefully I haven’t lost any Disney fans out there by writing about Universal for a month, but next, I’ll be back to writing about Disney and our May day trip to the Magic Kingdom. For the Universal fans out there, after that the next trip will be yet another day trip, this time a whole day at Universal Studios. Hopefully, I'll be able to get the first chapter of the next report up shortly after Labor Day. Until then, thanks again for reading so far.