Josh Hendy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2007
- Messages
- 1,294
We saved the best for last on this trip. Adapting our plan from the Unofficial Guide we hit the rides in this order on the first day we visited:
Line up at turnstiles before opening. Stowed dry clothes in an all-day reusable locker to the left of the entrance, near the washrooms. Hit Hulk, Spiderman, Ripsaw Falls (2x), Bluto's Barges (2x), duelling dragons (only ice was operating), Jurassic Park, Cat in the Hat. That took 3 hours from 9am til noon. We skipped Poseidon and Sindbad. Nobody got very excited about them when I described them, and I didn't insist as there was always lots of other things to do.
After that we cherry picked and just did rides here and there mixing up visits to USF and IOA. Good old park-hopping 7-day 2-park $99 passes! Eat your heart out Disney.
A few words about the attractions:
Hulk - we always breezed through the queue so the story (such as it is) was lost on us. It's a very cool coaster, but somewhat physically demanding. Even the kids complained sometimes of having a bit of a sore neck and feeling woozy afterwards.
Spider-Man - the 3D effects don't do a lot for me, but I can certainly appreciate the quality and the audacity of the ride. The last time we rode it I think that 3 out of the 5 people in our family skipped the 3D glasses and plugged their ears through the whole ride, but still enjoyed it.
Dr. Doom - DD12 wanted to ride it so I took her later on in the trip. The first flight and drop are actually really exciting and you want there to be more repeats, but instead it just fizzles out in smaller and smaller bounces. That left everyone on the ride saying as they left, "What was that? Is that it?" Even more annoying were the two obnoxious loudmouth teenage jerks riding with us who were determined to pump themselves up for what was after all a stupid ride, screaming at each other and at their friends who were riding on the other side of the tower.
Ripsaw Falls - this is great fun, but man is it hard to get into those logs. I'm 5'11 and average build and it was impossible to get in the front seat where my family insisted I ride, so I had to climb out and get in another seat. Maybe I should have prepped for this by doing a program of exercises and stretches. Later on we tried the water cannons and looking at the pictures I took afterward I was amazed to see that for only $0.50 we were actually shooting perfect strangers in the head with a jet of water.
Barges - this is sheer pleasure, especially when there are people in your raft who just don't comprehend that everyone is going to get soaking wet, not just an unlucky one or two. It was funny how long afterwards DKs' flipflops went squeak, squeak as we walked around the park. My leather sandals on the other hand were slimy under the feet so I started to take them off and put them under the cover as soon as we started moving.
Duelling Dragons - this is pretty fun, especially the loud scream when the trains almost collide. I found the moves and inversions to be tolerable, if I was having a good day. The queue was refreshingly cool. The kids were thrilled by the skeletons in the wall. But what is that sick, gasping sound you hear in from the bushes just before entering the castle? Sounds like a dragon with tummy trouble.
The last time we rode this, just coming into the station I felt a stinging, burning sensation on my forearm. There was a small flake of hot metal sitting on it which left a patch of burned skin about 1/4 inch by 1/8 inch. It was nothing as far as injuries go but I was surprised to see a coaster apparently falling apart like this. The TMs explained that it was just a flake off the brakes, which I suppose means they should change the brake shoes or something. We opened up negotiations by asking for a week at RPR but were quite happy to get Express Passes which we used to ride Mummy about 5 times that evening
Jurassic Park - this is a fun ride. If you sit in the front row it's like a bucket of water is tossed in your face, but in the back you barely get a drop on you. An unexplained mystery - once when I sat down there was a huge gob of saliva on the lap bar right in front of me. Whaaat? Who horks on a ride just when they exit?
Cat in the Hat - OK. I would place it ahead of Pooh and Snow White in the pantheon of kiddie dark rides but behind ET and Peter Pan, which wins because of the flying element and because of Big Ben and the moving headlights on the little cars in the London scene. Cat in the Hat could be improved by making the queue more atmospheric - it's supposed to be a dark, rainy day remember and you're waiting outside of the house. I would darken it and add more thunder and rain sound and visual effects. Then you would feel more like the Cat does when you come inside the house. One more thing ... Geisel's widow must be buying another mansion and maybe a Lamborghini every year just with the royalties from selling all those "Thing One" and "Thing Two" t-shirts. Woof.
Suess Trolley - Hated it. The sign said 15 minutes and the queue was actually almost an hour. I hated the stupid line and loathed the loudspeaker yelling "Woo woo" whenever a train left the station, which was rare because they were loading so slowly and only one side was operating.
Overall impressions - loved the theming, especially the landscaping in the Jurassic area. The way they stamp the leaves and animal tracks into the concrete pathways is cool. Even the smoking area in JP is the most generously landscaped and planted that I have ever seen. The whole park is well done, but I would try to find a way to build more shade into Suess Landing. The color scheme and landscaping could be a bit more earthy and less plasticky and still I think preserve the look and feel of the Suess books. Port of Entry is well done, probably the most attractive entrance of any theme park in the Orlando area.
It will be interesting to see how they design the boundary areas between Harry Potter land and the rest, because right now it seems to be intruding into both JP and Lost Continent. Not sure if they will try to add bridges to make it an island or if they'll just screen it with a few trees. I hope they do it well because little things like the theming and the transitions between lands leave a strong impression on visitors even if they can't articulate it.
Harry Potter does nothing much for me, but my kids are I guess typical and they are PUMPED about this new land. What a coup for Universal. It should more than make up whatever loss they might incur from possibly having to re-theme Marvel island. I believe that corporations are often mean and vindictive, having been exposed to a little bit of that on the job in years gone by - do you suppose that Disney might have bought up Marvel partly to get back at Universal for scoring Harry Potter? Whatever happens though I think that theme park guests are going to be the winners, what with Harry Potter land, re-tooled MK Fantasy Land and Marvel characters/rides are still going to show up somewhere.
Line up at turnstiles before opening. Stowed dry clothes in an all-day reusable locker to the left of the entrance, near the washrooms. Hit Hulk, Spiderman, Ripsaw Falls (2x), Bluto's Barges (2x), duelling dragons (only ice was operating), Jurassic Park, Cat in the Hat. That took 3 hours from 9am til noon. We skipped Poseidon and Sindbad. Nobody got very excited about them when I described them, and I didn't insist as there was always lots of other things to do.
After that we cherry picked and just did rides here and there mixing up visits to USF and IOA. Good old park-hopping 7-day 2-park $99 passes! Eat your heart out Disney.
A few words about the attractions:
Hulk - we always breezed through the queue so the story (such as it is) was lost on us. It's a very cool coaster, but somewhat physically demanding. Even the kids complained sometimes of having a bit of a sore neck and feeling woozy afterwards.
Spider-Man - the 3D effects don't do a lot for me, but I can certainly appreciate the quality and the audacity of the ride. The last time we rode it I think that 3 out of the 5 people in our family skipped the 3D glasses and plugged their ears through the whole ride, but still enjoyed it.
Dr. Doom - DD12 wanted to ride it so I took her later on in the trip. The first flight and drop are actually really exciting and you want there to be more repeats, but instead it just fizzles out in smaller and smaller bounces. That left everyone on the ride saying as they left, "What was that? Is that it?" Even more annoying were the two obnoxious loudmouth teenage jerks riding with us who were determined to pump themselves up for what was after all a stupid ride, screaming at each other and at their friends who were riding on the other side of the tower.
Ripsaw Falls - this is great fun, but man is it hard to get into those logs. I'm 5'11 and average build and it was impossible to get in the front seat where my family insisted I ride, so I had to climb out and get in another seat. Maybe I should have prepped for this by doing a program of exercises and stretches. Later on we tried the water cannons and looking at the pictures I took afterward I was amazed to see that for only $0.50 we were actually shooting perfect strangers in the head with a jet of water.
Barges - this is sheer pleasure, especially when there are people in your raft who just don't comprehend that everyone is going to get soaking wet, not just an unlucky one or two. It was funny how long afterwards DKs' flipflops went squeak, squeak as we walked around the park. My leather sandals on the other hand were slimy under the feet so I started to take them off and put them under the cover as soon as we started moving.
Duelling Dragons - this is pretty fun, especially the loud scream when the trains almost collide. I found the moves and inversions to be tolerable, if I was having a good day. The queue was refreshingly cool. The kids were thrilled by the skeletons in the wall. But what is that sick, gasping sound you hear in from the bushes just before entering the castle? Sounds like a dragon with tummy trouble.
The last time we rode this, just coming into the station I felt a stinging, burning sensation on my forearm. There was a small flake of hot metal sitting on it which left a patch of burned skin about 1/4 inch by 1/8 inch. It was nothing as far as injuries go but I was surprised to see a coaster apparently falling apart like this. The TMs explained that it was just a flake off the brakes, which I suppose means they should change the brake shoes or something. We opened up negotiations by asking for a week at RPR but were quite happy to get Express Passes which we used to ride Mummy about 5 times that evening
Jurassic Park - this is a fun ride. If you sit in the front row it's like a bucket of water is tossed in your face, but in the back you barely get a drop on you. An unexplained mystery - once when I sat down there was a huge gob of saliva on the lap bar right in front of me. Whaaat? Who horks on a ride just when they exit?
Cat in the Hat - OK. I would place it ahead of Pooh and Snow White in the pantheon of kiddie dark rides but behind ET and Peter Pan, which wins because of the flying element and because of Big Ben and the moving headlights on the little cars in the London scene. Cat in the Hat could be improved by making the queue more atmospheric - it's supposed to be a dark, rainy day remember and you're waiting outside of the house. I would darken it and add more thunder and rain sound and visual effects. Then you would feel more like the Cat does when you come inside the house. One more thing ... Geisel's widow must be buying another mansion and maybe a Lamborghini every year just with the royalties from selling all those "Thing One" and "Thing Two" t-shirts. Woof.
Suess Trolley - Hated it. The sign said 15 minutes and the queue was actually almost an hour. I hated the stupid line and loathed the loudspeaker yelling "Woo woo" whenever a train left the station, which was rare because they were loading so slowly and only one side was operating.
Overall impressions - loved the theming, especially the landscaping in the Jurassic area. The way they stamp the leaves and animal tracks into the concrete pathways is cool. Even the smoking area in JP is the most generously landscaped and planted that I have ever seen. The whole park is well done, but I would try to find a way to build more shade into Suess Landing. The color scheme and landscaping could be a bit more earthy and less plasticky and still I think preserve the look and feel of the Suess books. Port of Entry is well done, probably the most attractive entrance of any theme park in the Orlando area.
It will be interesting to see how they design the boundary areas between Harry Potter land and the rest, because right now it seems to be intruding into both JP and Lost Continent. Not sure if they will try to add bridges to make it an island or if they'll just screen it with a few trees. I hope they do it well because little things like the theming and the transitions between lands leave a strong impression on visitors even if they can't articulate it.
Harry Potter does nothing much for me, but my kids are I guess typical and they are PUMPED about this new land. What a coup for Universal. It should more than make up whatever loss they might incur from possibly having to re-theme Marvel island. I believe that corporations are often mean and vindictive, having been exposed to a little bit of that on the job in years gone by - do you suppose that Disney might have bought up Marvel partly to get back at Universal for scoring Harry Potter? Whatever happens though I think that theme park guests are going to be the winners, what with Harry Potter land, re-tooled MK Fantasy Land and Marvel characters/rides are still going to show up somewhere.
