Good evening!
Crowds:
The crowds did very little crowding while we were there (both Universal and Seaworld.) It was particularly uncrowded in the mornings, as one might expect. We usually got there around 9 am, at the park's opening, or a bit after. There were so few people we came a little later each time, confident that it wasn't going to be too crowded.
Our first day at Islands of Adventure, we were there at opening with maybe 100 people in line. We rode the Hulk, Spiderman (twice), Jurassic Park River Adventure, and a lot of Seuss Landing stuff with no wait. It took a couple of hours for anything resembling crowds to assemble. In fact, this was typical of every day we were there. Same for Seaworld.
The whole trip we never spent more than 10-15 minutes in a line (Popeye and Bluto's Barges, ET), and that was usually in the late afternoon.
Ya just gotta love passing room after room of empty queues on the way to the front of the line. I never want to come in the summer and see these things in use!
It must just get better the rest of November, a "value season" month.
The only New York/Jersey references I saw were several NYFD shirts.
We went to the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party one night--kinda crowded on the streets, but again, no real lines at the rides. Also gave out chocolate at the trick or treat areas for the first ten minutes then switched to Nerds, Sweet Tarts and Laffy Taffy, traditionally the dregs left in a kid's trick or treat plastic pumkin. C'mon, your DISNEY, the Snickers bar of theme parks!
We spent two days in Seaworld, though I really think you could do it in a day, especially in the off season. We did several things twice. Your day is dictated by the show schedules, not that that is too difficult. Didn't think I'd like it much (I had suffered from a Disney Superiority complex) but it was really nice.
Attractions:
Sea World
on't miss the mime guys at the Cirque de la Mer and Clyde and Seamore--fun-nay! Gotta love that Harpo Marx guy at Cirque de la Mer; not what we were expecting. Shamu is a no brainer. The Pets Ahoy show was cute and superior in talent to Animal Planet Live commercial/ show at Universal.
Universal:
Spiderman--excellent ride--good motion, not too jerky. MIB-clever, well thought out theming, though my scores were embarassing compared to the rest of the people in my car. Twister was disappointing. My 8 year old girl loved ET the most. Jurassic Park was pretty good--could've been scarier (see it at night if you
can.)
Food:
We ate meatball subs and pizza at Universal Studio's in the Italian place across from Richter's in the New York area (sorry I can't think of the name) --delish, and well regarded in our guide books! We ate at the Enchanted Oak in Islands of Adventure/Lost Continent, the counter service restaurant in a tree! Chicken was bland, the burger had some weird seasoning in it (reminded me of that weird, "50's-style burger I had at the Prime Time Cafe), roasted corn and fries were okay. Not worth being able to say "I ate in a tree!" Ate lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe at 1 pm (no wait)--that was good (fajitas, burgers, pasta.)
Mama Stellas at Seaworld had prefabricated pizza--no good. We are learning to look at the food people are eating at the tables outside the restaurants before going in.
We will always be Disney people, but my family really enjoyed our visits to Universal and Seaworld. They stand on their own. I was glad we went--though I missed Disney World, it was nice to do something different. We'll do Disney in a year or two, when Mission Space is up and running.
Have fun.
