Josh Hendy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2007
- Messages
- 1,294
I'll briefly summarize our 1-day touring plan, which is lifted from the Unofficial Guide. I'll discuss each attraction afterwards. To recap, we were staying offsite and didn't have FOTL access so we were determined to get on the good rides fustest with the mostest before the tidal wave of guests arrived.
We waited at the turnstiles for 9am opening, and headed directly to The Simpsons. After that we went to ET where we had to wait 15 min. or so, possibly because we were the first riders of the day and they were still getting it ready. Next Revenge of the Mummy, which left us so pumped up that we immediately rode it again. This extra ride put us off our schedule slightly as it made the crowds somewhat larger on the rest of the rides. Then Men in Black, where as newbies we got our clocks cleaned by the other car. I had the best score at 99,000, DW and DDs were far behind (you know what they say, men hunt women nurture). Next Jaws, Disaster and then Shrek 4D by which time the line was significant and we had to wait over 1/2 hour. When we popped out of Shrek at 12:10 the official ride blitz was over. We skipped Twister and Terminator.
We had lunch at Louies, where the whole pizza was a great option. Then in the afternoon we hit the shows: Horror Makeup @ 1:30pm, Fear Factor @ 2:30 and Animal Actors @ 3:15. Then it was back to the hotel for a swim.
Over the rest of the vacation we returned several more times to USF and cherry picked our favorite rides, mostly Mummy, Simpsons and of course HRRR on the last day for which the coaster enthusiasts in our family lined up three hours in the hot sun. And we just sucked up the great atmosphere, theming, architecture, and landscaping.
Now some impressions of the attractions.
Simpsons - this is a great ride but just between you and me, I found it more and more nauseating the more times that I rode it. I ended up kind of half-opening my eyes and also plugging my ears when I sat in the back row by which I discovered that I could actually comprehend the words the characters were saying. If you're tall enough and sitting in the front row then look around and you may be surprised to see that there are 4 vehicles running simultaneously under the same screen. It was fun watching them jump up and down in synch with the movie. The queue is OK with the videos and jokes about Krustyland, but you've probably noticed that there is a place at ground level just when you line up along the wall of the building proper, where there is a minimum of ventilation and a maximum of crowd stink. Twice it happened that just as we were entering this stink zone they opened up the stairs so we could go in the other theater. The first time we did this the TMs working the upstairs were surprised and annoyed that we showed up and asked us several times, "Who removed the chain?", like it was us who did it but it was the downstairs TMs I'm pretty sure. Probably they couldn't stand the smell of us. DKs (aged 12-15) loooovvvvveeeddd this ride so I endured the nausea just to see their happy faces.
ET - a nice little ride. The last part of the queue is the best part, the outdoor part of the queue is the worst part. Everyone in teh fambly noticed that when you fly over the city the little lights of the cars don't move, which is one of the coolest effects in Peter Pan.
Mummy - what a cool ride. We rode it as many times as possible. The lockers work great, except once we rode it three times in a row, exceeded the allotted time and had to pay $3. The absolutely fastest cycle was the evening that they had TM previews of HRRR and the crew was firing us through the coaster AFAP so they could finish their shift and get on the other coaster. By the end of the trip we were competing with each other to see who could act the most bored on the ride photo, looking at their watch, yawning, etc. Because we timed our rides to avoid the crowds (first thing and last thing in the day) we never actually got to see all the pre-ride videos so the story remained pretty sketchy to us.
MIB - I loved it, the females didn't so much, and I had to wheedle and push them a bit to ride it a second time. They finally seemed to understand what the gun was for and how to shoot and would have maybe ridden a few more times, except it was the end of the trip by then. Wait'll next year.
Jaws - good ride, can't think of much more to see about it, except I really appreciated the theming of the ride and of the whole Amity Island zone.
Disaster - the casting and filming of the movie were kind of tedious but I was wondering about something - do they supply ringers to play the role of the sweet old lady? The one we had was perfect. It happened that we were sitting right behind her on the subway train when they showed us the completed movie. When she watched her little bit right at the end of the movie she looked stunned, like, "Whaaaat the - ?" I laughed my head off watching her.
Shrek - well done, but with the exception of Mickey's Philharmagic our family finds most 3D movie attractions kind of, meh. The 3D illusion and added effects don't seem to get our adrenaline pumping any more. I think that Philharmagic still "works" because of the beautiful, soaring music.
Horror Makeup - this is a fun little show. I don't know how they usually pick their volunteers but on our day they picked a sweet young girl from Taiwan whose innocent look and seeming incomprehension of English appealed to the audience. That and her bare midriff.
Fear Factor - a slender but apparently very athletic Irish lass cleaned up in our show, which was I suppose a good role model for DDs. The stunts were fairly wholesome so I wouldn't mind if they participated some day, unlike the disgusting parts for which they recruited yahoos from the audience. Bleh.
Animal Actors - we're suckers for this kind of stuff. After the show we were thrilled to go down and see "Frank" the pug up close.
Rip Ride Rockit - enough has already been said about this ride, but I'll say that we got to ride it on only the 2nd day of technical rehearsals, on the very last day of our trip, and that the 3 hour wait in the hot sun in front of the stage was worth it - though it would have been impossible without a support team bringing us drinks and snacks. The only shakiness I noticed was at the bottom of the first drop and ascending into the loop. The rest of the ride was very smooth and fairly exciting. I think I prefer it to the Hulk-type inverting coasters because the more extreme coasters leave me woozy. After the first few seconds I literally didn't hear the music any more, either because it broke or more likely because I was too excited to notice it. I didn't notice the sound again until the cartoon characters at the end of the ride started to babble about how great we looked in the video. This must be the world's most photogenic coaster and throughout the trip I was always snapping pictures of it from every angle, esp. at sunset and at night when it was lit up.
Theming and atmosphere - NY, San Fran and Amity are superb. Production Central is boring but I suppose it's authentic. Some people have criticized HRRR as clashing with the theme but it does add a "weinie" to draw the crowd in which was lacking previously. World Expo doesn't really work except for the MIB building, but what can you do with pseudo-Krustyland plopped in the middle? Maybe they'll re-theme this some day. Kidzone we skipped, except for ET. Hollywood area looked very nice, right down to the gardens and architectural detailing. Mel's diner is highly photogenic especially around sunset. Overall I would say that USF "works" as a theme park better than Disney Studios which reflects its rushed planning and construction. Of course my dream park would be to move RnR, ToT and one or two other rides into USF, and somehow keep all the crowds away from it whenever I want to visit ...
We waited at the turnstiles for 9am opening, and headed directly to The Simpsons. After that we went to ET where we had to wait 15 min. or so, possibly because we were the first riders of the day and they were still getting it ready. Next Revenge of the Mummy, which left us so pumped up that we immediately rode it again. This extra ride put us off our schedule slightly as it made the crowds somewhat larger on the rest of the rides. Then Men in Black, where as newbies we got our clocks cleaned by the other car. I had the best score at 99,000, DW and DDs were far behind (you know what they say, men hunt women nurture). Next Jaws, Disaster and then Shrek 4D by which time the line was significant and we had to wait over 1/2 hour. When we popped out of Shrek at 12:10 the official ride blitz was over. We skipped Twister and Terminator.
We had lunch at Louies, where the whole pizza was a great option. Then in the afternoon we hit the shows: Horror Makeup @ 1:30pm, Fear Factor @ 2:30 and Animal Actors @ 3:15. Then it was back to the hotel for a swim.
Over the rest of the vacation we returned several more times to USF and cherry picked our favorite rides, mostly Mummy, Simpsons and of course HRRR on the last day for which the coaster enthusiasts in our family lined up three hours in the hot sun. And we just sucked up the great atmosphere, theming, architecture, and landscaping.
Now some impressions of the attractions.
Simpsons - this is a great ride but just between you and me, I found it more and more nauseating the more times that I rode it. I ended up kind of half-opening my eyes and also plugging my ears when I sat in the back row by which I discovered that I could actually comprehend the words the characters were saying. If you're tall enough and sitting in the front row then look around and you may be surprised to see that there are 4 vehicles running simultaneously under the same screen. It was fun watching them jump up and down in synch with the movie. The queue is OK with the videos and jokes about Krustyland, but you've probably noticed that there is a place at ground level just when you line up along the wall of the building proper, where there is a minimum of ventilation and a maximum of crowd stink. Twice it happened that just as we were entering this stink zone they opened up the stairs so we could go in the other theater. The first time we did this the TMs working the upstairs were surprised and annoyed that we showed up and asked us several times, "Who removed the chain?", like it was us who did it but it was the downstairs TMs I'm pretty sure. Probably they couldn't stand the smell of us. DKs (aged 12-15) loooovvvvveeeddd this ride so I endured the nausea just to see their happy faces.
ET - a nice little ride. The last part of the queue is the best part, the outdoor part of the queue is the worst part. Everyone in teh fambly noticed that when you fly over the city the little lights of the cars don't move, which is one of the coolest effects in Peter Pan.
Mummy - what a cool ride. We rode it as many times as possible. The lockers work great, except once we rode it three times in a row, exceeded the allotted time and had to pay $3. The absolutely fastest cycle was the evening that they had TM previews of HRRR and the crew was firing us through the coaster AFAP so they could finish their shift and get on the other coaster. By the end of the trip we were competing with each other to see who could act the most bored on the ride photo, looking at their watch, yawning, etc. Because we timed our rides to avoid the crowds (first thing and last thing in the day) we never actually got to see all the pre-ride videos so the story remained pretty sketchy to us.
MIB - I loved it, the females didn't so much, and I had to wheedle and push them a bit to ride it a second time. They finally seemed to understand what the gun was for and how to shoot and would have maybe ridden a few more times, except it was the end of the trip by then. Wait'll next year.
Jaws - good ride, can't think of much more to see about it, except I really appreciated the theming of the ride and of the whole Amity Island zone.
Disaster - the casting and filming of the movie were kind of tedious but I was wondering about something - do they supply ringers to play the role of the sweet old lady? The one we had was perfect. It happened that we were sitting right behind her on the subway train when they showed us the completed movie. When she watched her little bit right at the end of the movie she looked stunned, like, "Whaaaat the - ?" I laughed my head off watching her.
Shrek - well done, but with the exception of Mickey's Philharmagic our family finds most 3D movie attractions kind of, meh. The 3D illusion and added effects don't seem to get our adrenaline pumping any more. I think that Philharmagic still "works" because of the beautiful, soaring music.
Horror Makeup - this is a fun little show. I don't know how they usually pick their volunteers but on our day they picked a sweet young girl from Taiwan whose innocent look and seeming incomprehension of English appealed to the audience. That and her bare midriff.
Fear Factor - a slender but apparently very athletic Irish lass cleaned up in our show, which was I suppose a good role model for DDs. The stunts were fairly wholesome so I wouldn't mind if they participated some day, unlike the disgusting parts for which they recruited yahoos from the audience. Bleh.
Animal Actors - we're suckers for this kind of stuff. After the show we were thrilled to go down and see "Frank" the pug up close.
Rip Ride Rockit - enough has already been said about this ride, but I'll say that we got to ride it on only the 2nd day of technical rehearsals, on the very last day of our trip, and that the 3 hour wait in the hot sun in front of the stage was worth it - though it would have been impossible without a support team bringing us drinks and snacks. The only shakiness I noticed was at the bottom of the first drop and ascending into the loop. The rest of the ride was very smooth and fairly exciting. I think I prefer it to the Hulk-type inverting coasters because the more extreme coasters leave me woozy. After the first few seconds I literally didn't hear the music any more, either because it broke or more likely because I was too excited to notice it. I didn't notice the sound again until the cartoon characters at the end of the ride started to babble about how great we looked in the video. This must be the world's most photogenic coaster and throughout the trip I was always snapping pictures of it from every angle, esp. at sunset and at night when it was lit up.
Theming and atmosphere - NY, San Fran and Amity are superb. Production Central is boring but I suppose it's authentic. Some people have criticized HRRR as clashing with the theme but it does add a "weinie" to draw the crowd in which was lacking previously. World Expo doesn't really work except for the MIB building, but what can you do with pseudo-Krustyland plopped in the middle? Maybe they'll re-theme this some day. Kidzone we skipped, except for ET. Hollywood area looked very nice, right down to the gardens and architectural detailing. Mel's diner is highly photogenic especially around sunset. Overall I would say that USF "works" as a theme park better than Disney Studios which reflects its rushed planning and construction. Of course my dream park would be to move RnR, ToT and one or two other rides into USF, and somehow keep all the crowds away from it whenever I want to visit ...
