Cast of Characters
Me 26 Year Old Disney Fanatic from Marlton, NJ
Kristen 29 Year Fiancee and fellow Disney Nut from Marlton, NJ
Mom I get to go to Disney every week, hahahah Thonotosassa, FL
RJ 18 Year Old brother who prefers thrill rides, but still loves Disney Thonotosassa, FL
Guest Appearance
Dad I guess I will just grab a pretzel for dinner. Thonotosassa, FL
Day3 was set to be a long one especially because we were going to be away from Disney all day. The plan for today included both of Universals parks and their Halloween Horror Night. We started it off with a bagel, a muffin and a hot chocolate from the Boardwalk bakery. The bagel and the muffin were pretty good, but the hot chocolate was watered down and not what I would expect from Disney. Oh well, everything cant be perfect all the time. Off to the valet to pick up our car and travel to Universals Kingdom. Our first shock and disappointment of the day was the price of parking, $8! I am not used to paying for parking because I am an annual pass holder so when I had to fork over $8 of my hard earned money I wasnt too thrilled, but again, what choice did I have. I do like the way Universal has their garage set-up since I really dont like the tram system at Disney. It is so much better not having to wait before you even get to the parks. It looked like it was going to be a really crowded day at Universal, which definitely did not make us happy.
First stop was Islands of Adventure and the Guest Service window. Despite the size of the crowd and the line that was quickly forming, there was only one window open! After a long 5 minutes we were finally waited on. The reason for us being here is I had a problem with one of my tickets last year and did not want the same thing happening. Basically the ticket machines would tell me my ticket was expired even though the date on the ticket said 2030. The woman behind the window was very happy to check my ticket and said that it was fine and even initialed it saying it had one day left on it and it would not expire to the date listed. Ok off to the turn styles that were now a zoo. After slowly making our way to the machine, Kristen was the unlucky one to use my ticket and have the wonderful machine give her a resounding expired message. After trying to calm down, I slowly explained the situation to the woman at the gate and she reluctantly let Kristen through. I knew this would be a problem when we went to the Studio park later in the day, but we were determined to get on some rides early. First stop was the Hulk. The wait was short and the ride was as great as ever, there is just something exhilarating about riding a rollercoaster first thing in the morning. We were going to try to get on the ride again, but noticed that the line had increased dramatically so we hightailed it over to Spiderman instead. The wait there was a little longer, but we did get to see all the detail they added to the queue, which was very cool. The Spiderman ride is just so imaginative and well done; I am hoping more theme parks use the same mechanism with different themes. We browsed through the shops after exiting the ride and planned on heading over to Jurassic Park, but guess what? That part of the park was not open yet, this was pretty frustrating but turned out to be a positive. We turned around and headed to the other side of the park walking through Dr. Suess area snapping some silly pictures of each other. I wanted to see the Poseidon show, but the first one wasnt till later which was a bummer. So we opted for Dueling Dragons instead, here is another amazing queue that as so much detail. Even if you dont like rollercoasters, you might want to just walk through the line if it is not crowded, definitely creepy stuff. Fortunately, there was almost no line to speak of and we did both sides and proclaimed unanimously that we liked Fire better. We were getting a little hungry by now, but Mythos wasnt open yet so we headed for Jurassic Park. This is one of our favorite movies so we have to take pictures of just about everything. We were both reluctant to get wet this morning, but I was going to put our valuables in the locker so we could go on the ride. Well, let me tell you those lockers are retarded. I did everything on the screen and my locker's light came on, but before I could gather everything to place in the locker it automatically locked itself. Of course there wasnt any employee around to help out so we were out $1 and decided that it just wasnt meant to be. Time to take another walk around the park. We had planned on meeting my brother and mother for lunch, but they were sitting in traffic. The park was really getting crowded by this time; it must have been school trip day or something because there were large groups of loud kids with matching t-shirts everywhere. This was definitely a bad sign. My mom and brother finally made it into the park after waiting in 2 different lines and getting into a bunch of arguments with the poor staff at the gates. While we were waiting for them, we went though all the stores near the opening and took some more pictures.
Now, it was definitely time for lunch and we were off to Mythos. I dont want to talk too much about this disaster, if you want to read about it check out my dining reviews, if not let me just say it was bad. Ok, Kristen and I had enough of Islands of Crowds and rude people so we decided to make our way over to the Studios while my mom and brother fought the hordes of school children to get a seat on the Hulk. Before we left the gates a stop at Guest Services was in order to get this whole ticket confusion taken care of. They were courteous enough and just issued us a new ticket that I thought would solve our problems for good. I asked her repeatedly if we would have a problem getting into the Studios and she said there would be no issue at all.
So we made the quick walk to the gates of Universal Studios. Well guess what, the ticket said it was not valid. I was lucky I did not punch someone by now, but I think the employee could see I was furious and she just let us go through the gates. After entering we noticed this park was much less crowded which was a very welcome sign. There was no line for the Alfred Hitchcock exhibit, but the show did not start for another 20 minutes so we passed on that one for now. There is now a street full of famous cars and vehicles from recent movies. They had 2 cars from the Fast and the Furious, the bus from the Mummy Returns and a car from Blue Crush. We snapped a bunch of pictures and made our way to Men in Black to pick up an Express Pass. We were going to try and ride Jaws while we waited, but the line was 35 minutes and we were not in the mood to wait that long. After a couple of shops we walked back to Alfred Hitchcock and viewed the show. It was definitely good, but I remembered it to be longer on the Psycho sound stage. I guess people could not hold their interest that long. I do like the Birds in 3D, but I wish they added some more effects to go along with the on screen action. It was almost time for our Express Passes so we walked back to Men in Black to find out it was experiencing technical difficulties. I was about ready to scream by now. Maybe we could get a working Express Pass for Jaws, fortunately this was the case and headed to the Back to the Future store to check it out and get some refreshments. Well I found out some promising information from the first very helpful employee all day. He said the Holloween Horror Night was sold out, but you could buy a book of Express Passes to all the rides and haunted houses for $15 at Guest Services. Once we exited the store my phone rang and my brother and mom had made their way over to this park and we met them by Terminator. I told them about the book of passes for tonights event and we decided to go over to Guest Services to purchase it. I went up to the counter and asked about the booklet and he said I would have to go back to Islands to purchase it. I asked him to make sure they did not have them there, well of course they found them and would save us a walk. But here is where it got ugly; they wanted $50 each for the books, not the $15 I was told and more than willing to pay. They were asking for the admission price all over again. I wanted to throw something at the guy who did not seem to care that I was told they were only $15. So much for taking responsibility for what your employees tell the guests. I always though theme parks were considered service orientated businesses, I guess Universal does not follow that ideal. My mother had had it by now and walked over to Islands to talk to the manager that helped her out this morning with her entrance problems. We waited in the studios and browsed some more stores. After a while they were back and the manager was willing to go to $40 for the booklets and also let us in earlier. The booklets were still a rip off so we would just try to take advantage of the early opening. Kristen and I still had our Express Passes, but since there were now 4 of us I gave the Jaws ones to my family and Kristen and I went on Men in Black, which was now working again. I do really enjoy Men in Black and this is one of the rare attractions that beats Disneys version (Buzz). I got to use 2 guns and scored some pretty ridiculous scores, there were only 4 of us in a car that seats 6 and we still beat the other side by quite a bit. It is a shame the line was so long because we would have enjoyed doing this multiple times. After the ride we met back up with my family and headed to Twister which all of us love except my mom. We just caught the show and walked right into the first theater. Even though we were one of the last groups in, we managed a front row position for the actual Twister, which was wet, but very exciting. We were hungry now and since we could get into the Horror Nights earlier we headed to Jimmy Buffets for dinner.
I love this restaurant; it is just fun and wacky. Our reservation was for later, but they sat us immediately. The food was good and our waiter was outstanding. This made up for our disastrous lunch. My dad was meeting us for the Halloween Event so my brother and I went in search of him and miraculously ran into him walking through the moving sidewalks in the parking garages. We were now one unit and ready for some scares. We entered the park around 6:30 and it appears that our privilege to enter early was granted to everyone. First stop was supposed to be the best haunted mansion and it was good, but we have all been in better and my brother and I did not even get to jump once. It was still light outside, which detracted from the overall creepiness of the park. The guys with chain saws arent as scary when you can see them coming. Since we were there early we got to walk through every haunted mansion with no waits. The Jurassic Park version was mostly outside and since it was still light out was very disappointing. Our favorite was the Fear Factor house that featured some very gross and disgusting environments. That one is not to be missed. There was an area covered in soapsuds, commonly called foam that my brother and I attacked my dad in. We were all wet and covered in suds by the time in ended, but it gave us all quite a laugh. It was now finally dark and we had one haunted house left and the Bill and Ted show, which from years past is not to be missed. The place was very crowded by now, even hard to walk in some areas. It was not nearly this bad in years previous. I think the move to Island of Adventure caused more bottlenecks and gridlock in areas although the haunted mansions were larger in this park. It wasnt quite time for Bill and Ted yet so we headed for the Carnage house. Well the line said 30 minutes, but it was much longer than that. We waited and witnessed a fight and viewed a disturbing performer swallowing swords. The house was cool, but not worth the very long line. Once we exited we still had to wait for the show, but the time went by quickly and before you knew it we were seated and waiting for the performance. The show was similar to years past using characters from this years movies, TV shows and music to round out the act. It was a good time, but the smaller theater in Islands limited the show and it was better last year. We all headed home after the performance, fighting the crowds still entering the Horror Zoo.
The ride through the gates to Boardwalk was a magical one; I wanted to kiss the ground being back on Disney soil.
Me 26 Year Old Disney Fanatic from Marlton, NJ
Kristen 29 Year Fiancee and fellow Disney Nut from Marlton, NJ
Mom I get to go to Disney every week, hahahah Thonotosassa, FL
RJ 18 Year Old brother who prefers thrill rides, but still loves Disney Thonotosassa, FL
Guest Appearance
Dad I guess I will just grab a pretzel for dinner. Thonotosassa, FL
Day3 was set to be a long one especially because we were going to be away from Disney all day. The plan for today included both of Universals parks and their Halloween Horror Night. We started it off with a bagel, a muffin and a hot chocolate from the Boardwalk bakery. The bagel and the muffin were pretty good, but the hot chocolate was watered down and not what I would expect from Disney. Oh well, everything cant be perfect all the time. Off to the valet to pick up our car and travel to Universals Kingdom. Our first shock and disappointment of the day was the price of parking, $8! I am not used to paying for parking because I am an annual pass holder so when I had to fork over $8 of my hard earned money I wasnt too thrilled, but again, what choice did I have. I do like the way Universal has their garage set-up since I really dont like the tram system at Disney. It is so much better not having to wait before you even get to the parks. It looked like it was going to be a really crowded day at Universal, which definitely did not make us happy.
First stop was Islands of Adventure and the Guest Service window. Despite the size of the crowd and the line that was quickly forming, there was only one window open! After a long 5 minutes we were finally waited on. The reason for us being here is I had a problem with one of my tickets last year and did not want the same thing happening. Basically the ticket machines would tell me my ticket was expired even though the date on the ticket said 2030. The woman behind the window was very happy to check my ticket and said that it was fine and even initialed it saying it had one day left on it and it would not expire to the date listed. Ok off to the turn styles that were now a zoo. After slowly making our way to the machine, Kristen was the unlucky one to use my ticket and have the wonderful machine give her a resounding expired message. After trying to calm down, I slowly explained the situation to the woman at the gate and she reluctantly let Kristen through. I knew this would be a problem when we went to the Studio park later in the day, but we were determined to get on some rides early. First stop was the Hulk. The wait was short and the ride was as great as ever, there is just something exhilarating about riding a rollercoaster first thing in the morning. We were going to try to get on the ride again, but noticed that the line had increased dramatically so we hightailed it over to Spiderman instead. The wait there was a little longer, but we did get to see all the detail they added to the queue, which was very cool. The Spiderman ride is just so imaginative and well done; I am hoping more theme parks use the same mechanism with different themes. We browsed through the shops after exiting the ride and planned on heading over to Jurassic Park, but guess what? That part of the park was not open yet, this was pretty frustrating but turned out to be a positive. We turned around and headed to the other side of the park walking through Dr. Suess area snapping some silly pictures of each other. I wanted to see the Poseidon show, but the first one wasnt till later which was a bummer. So we opted for Dueling Dragons instead, here is another amazing queue that as so much detail. Even if you dont like rollercoasters, you might want to just walk through the line if it is not crowded, definitely creepy stuff. Fortunately, there was almost no line to speak of and we did both sides and proclaimed unanimously that we liked Fire better. We were getting a little hungry by now, but Mythos wasnt open yet so we headed for Jurassic Park. This is one of our favorite movies so we have to take pictures of just about everything. We were both reluctant to get wet this morning, but I was going to put our valuables in the locker so we could go on the ride. Well, let me tell you those lockers are retarded. I did everything on the screen and my locker's light came on, but before I could gather everything to place in the locker it automatically locked itself. Of course there wasnt any employee around to help out so we were out $1 and decided that it just wasnt meant to be. Time to take another walk around the park. We had planned on meeting my brother and mother for lunch, but they were sitting in traffic. The park was really getting crowded by this time; it must have been school trip day or something because there were large groups of loud kids with matching t-shirts everywhere. This was definitely a bad sign. My mom and brother finally made it into the park after waiting in 2 different lines and getting into a bunch of arguments with the poor staff at the gates. While we were waiting for them, we went though all the stores near the opening and took some more pictures.
Now, it was definitely time for lunch and we were off to Mythos. I dont want to talk too much about this disaster, if you want to read about it check out my dining reviews, if not let me just say it was bad. Ok, Kristen and I had enough of Islands of Crowds and rude people so we decided to make our way over to the Studios while my mom and brother fought the hordes of school children to get a seat on the Hulk. Before we left the gates a stop at Guest Services was in order to get this whole ticket confusion taken care of. They were courteous enough and just issued us a new ticket that I thought would solve our problems for good. I asked her repeatedly if we would have a problem getting into the Studios and she said there would be no issue at all.
So we made the quick walk to the gates of Universal Studios. Well guess what, the ticket said it was not valid. I was lucky I did not punch someone by now, but I think the employee could see I was furious and she just let us go through the gates. After entering we noticed this park was much less crowded which was a very welcome sign. There was no line for the Alfred Hitchcock exhibit, but the show did not start for another 20 minutes so we passed on that one for now. There is now a street full of famous cars and vehicles from recent movies. They had 2 cars from the Fast and the Furious, the bus from the Mummy Returns and a car from Blue Crush. We snapped a bunch of pictures and made our way to Men in Black to pick up an Express Pass. We were going to try and ride Jaws while we waited, but the line was 35 minutes and we were not in the mood to wait that long. After a couple of shops we walked back to Alfred Hitchcock and viewed the show. It was definitely good, but I remembered it to be longer on the Psycho sound stage. I guess people could not hold their interest that long. I do like the Birds in 3D, but I wish they added some more effects to go along with the on screen action. It was almost time for our Express Passes so we walked back to Men in Black to find out it was experiencing technical difficulties. I was about ready to scream by now. Maybe we could get a working Express Pass for Jaws, fortunately this was the case and headed to the Back to the Future store to check it out and get some refreshments. Well I found out some promising information from the first very helpful employee all day. He said the Holloween Horror Night was sold out, but you could buy a book of Express Passes to all the rides and haunted houses for $15 at Guest Services. Once we exited the store my phone rang and my brother and mom had made their way over to this park and we met them by Terminator. I told them about the book of passes for tonights event and we decided to go over to Guest Services to purchase it. I went up to the counter and asked about the booklet and he said I would have to go back to Islands to purchase it. I asked him to make sure they did not have them there, well of course they found them and would save us a walk. But here is where it got ugly; they wanted $50 each for the books, not the $15 I was told and more than willing to pay. They were asking for the admission price all over again. I wanted to throw something at the guy who did not seem to care that I was told they were only $15. So much for taking responsibility for what your employees tell the guests. I always though theme parks were considered service orientated businesses, I guess Universal does not follow that ideal. My mother had had it by now and walked over to Islands to talk to the manager that helped her out this morning with her entrance problems. We waited in the studios and browsed some more stores. After a while they were back and the manager was willing to go to $40 for the booklets and also let us in earlier. The booklets were still a rip off so we would just try to take advantage of the early opening. Kristen and I still had our Express Passes, but since there were now 4 of us I gave the Jaws ones to my family and Kristen and I went on Men in Black, which was now working again. I do really enjoy Men in Black and this is one of the rare attractions that beats Disneys version (Buzz). I got to use 2 guns and scored some pretty ridiculous scores, there were only 4 of us in a car that seats 6 and we still beat the other side by quite a bit. It is a shame the line was so long because we would have enjoyed doing this multiple times. After the ride we met back up with my family and headed to Twister which all of us love except my mom. We just caught the show and walked right into the first theater. Even though we were one of the last groups in, we managed a front row position for the actual Twister, which was wet, but very exciting. We were hungry now and since we could get into the Horror Nights earlier we headed to Jimmy Buffets for dinner.
I love this restaurant; it is just fun and wacky. Our reservation was for later, but they sat us immediately. The food was good and our waiter was outstanding. This made up for our disastrous lunch. My dad was meeting us for the Halloween Event so my brother and I went in search of him and miraculously ran into him walking through the moving sidewalks in the parking garages. We were now one unit and ready for some scares. We entered the park around 6:30 and it appears that our privilege to enter early was granted to everyone. First stop was supposed to be the best haunted mansion and it was good, but we have all been in better and my brother and I did not even get to jump once. It was still light outside, which detracted from the overall creepiness of the park. The guys with chain saws arent as scary when you can see them coming. Since we were there early we got to walk through every haunted mansion with no waits. The Jurassic Park version was mostly outside and since it was still light out was very disappointing. Our favorite was the Fear Factor house that featured some very gross and disgusting environments. That one is not to be missed. There was an area covered in soapsuds, commonly called foam that my brother and I attacked my dad in. We were all wet and covered in suds by the time in ended, but it gave us all quite a laugh. It was now finally dark and we had one haunted house left and the Bill and Ted show, which from years past is not to be missed. The place was very crowded by now, even hard to walk in some areas. It was not nearly this bad in years previous. I think the move to Island of Adventure caused more bottlenecks and gridlock in areas although the haunted mansions were larger in this park. It wasnt quite time for Bill and Ted yet so we headed for the Carnage house. Well the line said 30 minutes, but it was much longer than that. We waited and witnessed a fight and viewed a disturbing performer swallowing swords. The house was cool, but not worth the very long line. Once we exited we still had to wait for the show, but the time went by quickly and before you knew it we were seated and waiting for the performance. The show was similar to years past using characters from this years movies, TV shows and music to round out the act. It was a good time, but the smaller theater in Islands limited the show and it was better last year. We all headed home after the performance, fighting the crowds still entering the Horror Zoo.
The ride through the gates to Boardwalk was a magical one; I wanted to kiss the ground being back on Disney soil.
