Our first trip to USF, Sat. 11/21 to TDay

[ChuckGA]

We are Disney veterans and have been many times since 2001 and our last trip was June this year. This was our first time trip to Universal now that the kids are 9 and 12 and love the big rides.

Day 0: Friday Nov 20th. I took the day off so I could get everything ready. We normally try to get to Orlando the night before so we can get 100% of our time at the parks on the first day. I got Subway sandwiches for the trip down so we would only have to stop for gas because we were going to start late. My son got off the bus at 3pm, did some last minute checks and then went to pick up my wife and daughter at the middle school. We left Newnan, GA at 3:45pm, straight across Hwy 16 to I-75 about 30 miles north of Macon, GA. Traffic was pretty light and our planning allowed us to get to the Best Western Universal by 11pm. We got one of the last rooms for the night.

Day 1: Satuday Nov 21st. Up at 6:30am to get ready to head to the Hard Rock Hotel Club level for 5 nights. We had the continental breakfast at the Best Western and it was pretty good and better than the HRH club level breakfast offerings. The Best Western had scrambled eggs and a waffle maker along with the assorted cereals, bagels, bread, and donuts. If I was staying off site this seemed like a good place to stay. At 7:30am we headed for the Hard Rock Hotel and checked in. We got room 7062 which was just off the elevators around to the left, first room on the left facing the parks. The view was excellent and the location was excellent. A 15 foot walk to the club lounge and elevators and we were never once bothered by noise from either the lounge or elevators. At 8:20am we headed for Universal Studios. The walk was easy, if not a bit meandering and seemed about the same effort as walking from the Yacht Club to Epcot's International Gateway entrance. I tried to convert our printed paper tickets into a normal ticket so it would be water resistant but they would not do it.

They started letting us in at 8:45am and we headed right for Rip, Ride, Rockit. Of course it was broken but I knew from reading all the posts on the boards that this was par for the course. So off to the Mummy for our first Universal ride. We used our express pass and nearly got lost trying to find the loading area. They hadn't put all the ropes correctly and there was a point where you could go in two different directions and there was no sign to indicate the correct direction. We quickly figured it out and got into the front row of the car. We all found the ride extremely entertaining and rode it over 20 times before the end of our trip. After it was over we rode it again two more times before moving on.

At this point we discovered one annoying part of the Universal parks; they don't fully open at 9am. Many of the rides and shows don't open until between 10am and 11am. A pure show like Beetlejuice's Graveyard Revue we can understand having a scheduled time but continuous shows like Twister, Disaster! (Your Welcome), and Jaws should be running at the start.

Given we had to bypass Twister, Disaster!, and Jaws, next up was MiB. That was also a lot of fun but we were not very good. We did that twice and were only getting around 50K scores and I had read the guide a little bit before hand. We read up later and by the end of the trip we were quite good. Next up was The Simpsons. We used the FOTL pass but that seems to buy almost nothing on this ride. We had to wait a good 20 minutes before getting on the ride. We were all very impressed by the amount of detail in the videos and how well they keep you entertained before getting on the ride. The only problem is that only the people waiting on the first floor get to see the monitors for Simpson's day at Krustyland and the first ride was the only time we were on the first floor. Every other time we were on the second floor. Again another very impressive ride (motion car inside an IMAX theater, non-3D) and we are repeating lots of phrases from the preshow and show at home. There is just so much detail in the video that every time we rode it we noticed something new.

We headed for Jaws next because we thought it started at 10am but it was really 10:30am so back down to The Mummy for another round and then back to Jaws. I must say at this point the park is empty. Coming from Disney even during the slow season Universal seemed dead. Our FOTL passes were literally FOTL passes. If we decided to go on a ride then 1 or 2 minutes later we were sitting on the ride except for shows or The Simpsons. Jaws was a bit underwhelming. It was decent but not as good as I thought it should have been. Not that we ever got to see much of it but the preshow show on the monitors with Amity public access TV was very funny. One down side to being able to walk up and get on the next boat is that you don't get to see much of preshow and Universal put a lot of effort into it.

We went to Disaster! next but the wait was 30 minutes until the next show so one more round of The Mummy and then to Finnegan's to eat. There was almost no one in the restaurant and we were seated immediately. I got the chicken sandwich (excellent), my wife go the burger (so so), my daughter go the fish and chips (okay but the breading has an odd flavor), and my son got the kid's burger (so so). The Blues Brothers show started during our meal so we had entertainment and music to boot.

With lunch done we headed for Disaster!. Another very entertaining show but we got stuck in the last subway car during the final scene so we didn't see very much and planned to do it again before the end of the trip to get into one of the first two cars. I think it was at this time that Rip, Ride, Rockit was running so we decided to wait the 60 minutes to ride it. I had heard the seats were not all that big but I didn't expect too much of a problem. I am 5'9" 210 lbs so I have a bit of a belly but I am not that big. Well the kid closed that bar, which is like a belt bar that comes around you from the left (left seat) or right (right seat) and it was not easy to breathe. He said he barely had it closed. If that was barely closed then I would think most men cannot fit on the ride. The "big" seats in rows 3 and 6 seemed to be bigger for people who have large sized legs (seat form has deeper leg spots), not a belly (larger belt bar with a bigger radius) so it wasn't any more comfortable when I rode in those seats later. However I was better prepared and closed the bar myself and left a little breathing room. Our first ride was quite a trip. I can handle pretty much any ride but going straight up and then not quite straight down got me a bit anxious. After the ride we saw the video of my son sitting next to me and his expression switched from scared to excited to scared to excited every second. It was quite funny to watch.

At this point I am not sure of the exact order we went on the rides. We did Twister and the kids were not quite sure what to expect. My daughter seems to have started jumping at sudden loud noises even when she knows they are coming. They don't scare her but we kept saying "Time to pull Erica off the ceiling". We did T2 and had to wait about 15 minutes before being let into the main preshow room. Again another serious effort to pay attention to the details and the whole video of Cyberdyne Network was incredibly detailed and entertaining. Watching that was worth the 15 minute wait. The show itself was well done but not a top favorite. We walked right into the seating for The Horror Makeup Show and this had to be our favorite show by a mile. Funny, funny, funny with two levels of humor for the kids and the adults. There was a significant amount of adult humor but most of it goes right over kid's heads. We saw this again later in the week and it was still just as funny. We went on E.T. just to say that we did and didn't bother to do it again. The Animal Show was good but isn't at the same level as the Sea World shows. On the way out for the day around 5pm we did Shrek 4D and Jimmy Neutron. Shrek 4D was fun and enjoyable. I liked how they simulated riding in a carriage. Jimmy Neutron was nice but after The Simpsons it looked a bit dated. It was also not supposed to be as intense for small children so it was good for what it was supposed to be.

We headed back to the room and decided to eat at the club level for dinner since we were not very hungry. We ended up doing this every single night. The food selection isn't great but we really only needed to do the one big lunch and then a little something in the evening. It didn't seem worth the time, effort, and money to do a counter service or sit-down meal for supper that we weren't really interested in. We then had the evening dessert which was almost always cookies and then in bed asleep by 9:30pm.


More to come later.

 

[ChuckGA]

Day 2: Sunday Nov 22nd. Up at 7am to get ready for Islands of Adventure. The breakfast at the club lounge consisted of cinamon buns, small cranberry muffins, fresh fruit, oatmeal, bread, plain/everything/wheat bagels, and assorted cereals. We walked on over to IOA and headed for The Hulk. This was the big test because my son was on the border of 54" and we really hoped he made it. They checked him and we rode The Hulk two times in a row in less than 10 minutes. It is a very fun roller coaster and there is no straight track so you are constantly turning and looping. Next we headed for Spiderman. Here again is another ride that with FOTL you miss much of the set up for it. I didn't understand the main plot until about the 3rd time through it. I thought it was a bit herky-jerky and not as much fun as The Mummy but was still very impressed. Then it was on to Doctor Doom. Now I love Tower of Terror and so does my daughter and she was dying to go on this. For some reason I had worked myself up for this one and was concerned it would kick off a signficant height anxiety. We also missed the FOTL entrance so we spent a whole extra 5 minutes in the set up area. Universal went all out with the theming to add to the excitment/anxiety as much as possible. We were standing waiting for the doors to open at #1 right tower and then they opened and immediately closed. Never a good sign. They then opened again and the riders from the previous launch were still there. Finally a TM showed up and told us to get on after the others had left. I was quite unsure of my reaction to the ride until it launched upwards. As soon as it launched upwards I realized the ride was no big deal. Because of the way the ride is designed and launched it doesn't have much of a height sensation and it is effectively over in <10 seconds. I will say that I think Tower of Tower is a much better ride.

With Doctor Doom out of the way we went back on Spiderman and then moved on to Dudley Do Right. Walking up to that ride we saw lots of people wearing ponchos. Do they know something we don't? I am not a big fan of wet rides so Popeye was definitely out and I was starting to question this one. We all get in and start going around. Right at the oncoming train as you start to go down the hill the ride stops dead. At first it was "Please remain seated. A minor situation is being evaluated by our technicians." Then after 5 minutes of sitting in darkness we get "Our technicians have evaluated the situation and determined the ride cannot continue. Please remain in your seats and a Team member will be there shortly to escort you out. After another 5 minutes of sitting in darkness they finally turn on the lights and the TM says "We have to start in the back and I will be back shortly." He gets everyone else out of the logs behind us and then tells us that we have to wait for more TMs to show up to help get us out of the car. Well eventually more TMs show up but we still have to wait. After another 10+ minutes someone else shows up and looks at the front of the car and then says we can get out. It seemed like they needed an engineer to verify the car was in fact locked in place and not about to go over the hill. So they lead us out and say not to worry about our lost time, they will give us plenty of express passes to make up for it and she had a pretty big stack. I said "Like these?" as I showed my HRH card. They asked us where we were headed next and we said Jurassic Park. One TM escorted us to JP up through the exit to help make up for the delay. Again a relatively useless effort because there was only about 5 people in line for the next boat but they were very nice and were constantly thanking us for our understanding. I know things like this happen and we are quite understanding but unfortunately Universal seems to be encouraging the opposite behavior. For making the TM's and Universal's staff life easier, we get nothing. However if I had freaked out, started screaming, yelling, and putting up a big stink I am sure they would have offered something that actually costs money like a free meal instead of Express Passes, which costs Universal nothing and all the other guests that have Express Pass their time possibly. I always get frustrated when companies encourage "bad" and confrontational behavior they don't want because they are too cheap to say thank you for their customer's understanding and patience.

Anyway on to Jurassic Park The River Adventure. It was a good ride but it would have been nice if had been longer. It did however give one great memory of my wife's reaction. I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't been on it but her reaction to the part just before you go up the ramp in the Raptor containment area was priceless. Then on to my son's most looked forward to ride, The Dueling Dragons, because he had read about it in a Top 10 thrill rides book. This is another 54" ride and we were still worried he wouldn't make the height even though he did at The Hulk. We have heard too many horror stories about Disney's different height measuring sticks where the CM at the entrance say okay only to have the one at the ride say no to relax about the height. Well he was measured every time we switched between Fire and Ice and passed every time. The way Universal measures, which is with the eye while the child stands up against a pole seems to allow the TM a little leeway to put their eye a little higher or a little lower and give an extra 1/4". The Dueling Dragons was very fun and thrilling and much fun was had by all. Here was another ride where Express Pass was useless because the merge point was 100 feet from the start of the line and the line continued for hundreds of feet after the merge point. Fortunately IOA also appeared to be pretty dead so wait times were <5 minutes per round once they added the second trains. It was cool to see them bring out the second trains from the garage.

After a few rounds of Dueling Dragons it was on to Mythos for lunch. It was every bit as nice as people have said. Beautiful interior, very good food at reasonable prices (but not cheap). I got the buffalo chicken wrap (excellent), my wife got the salad with chicken and tortilla soup (excellent), my daughter got the fire and ice wrap (excellent) and my son got the children's steak (poor). Pounding a steak to make it seem soft does not make it a better quality when it still requires excessive amount of chewing to break it apart. Just because they are kids doesn't mean you can pass off a small piece of USDA choice meat (if the USDA didn't choose it, it wouldn't be fit for human consumption) and charge like it was select or premium because they won't know the difference. For the cost I would not recommend the child's steak and I would be concerned about the adult steak's quality.

Now that lunch was over we headed into the stadium to watch Sinbad's 8th voyage. The show was excellent and we all enjoyed it immensely. Next on the list was Posiden's Fury. The guide we had was flawless. It is just like Jungle Cruise where the jokes are all the same but the skill is in the telling and top notch boat captains are few and far between. He was able to act and stammer his lines beautifully. He was also able to speak fast and clear so was able to jam in all kinds of jokes in the preshow area. When the show was over some people were going out of their way to find him and congratulate him on an excellent show and we knew we had just seen something very special. I hope everyone's first time is as good as we had. We confirmed that it was special when we did it again on Wednesday and our guide was okay but not nearly as entertaining or funny.

We headed back to Dudley Do Right by way of another round of Jurassic Park River Adventure to see if it was running. It was so we did it without incident and only got kind of wet. Then it was back to Marvel Universe for many more rounds Hulk, Doctor Doom, Storm, and Spiderman. We were getting seiously spoiled by Express Pass and very low crowds. At the end of the day we went a few more rounds of Dueling Dragons with required height check and then finally Dr. Suess Train in the Sky. It looked kind of like the People Mover and we enjoyed a relaxing ride around Suess land.

Back to the HRH for a lite meal at Club 7 and in bed by 9:30pm.

 

[macraven]

sounds like you had fun!

 

[christophfam]

Thanks for posting! We have a couple of trips coming up and your post is getting me very excited for our trips! I still feel like an Uni newbie even though we've been for a couple of short trips. I know Disney like the back of my hand, but not Uni yet. Your report is very detailed and helping me re familiarize myself with the parks.

 

[ChuckGA]

Day 3: Monday Nov 23rd. Back to Universal Studios for another round. We didn't get there quite at gate opening (8:45am or so) but closer to 9am. This time Rip, Ride, Rockit! was open so round 1 in about 8 minutes and then round 2 in about 20 minutes. By that time the line was getting even longer so we moved on to The Mummy for about another 3 or 4 rounds. The park was definitely more crowded than Saturday but it was a little odd. Basically people either showed up for 9am opening or closer to 11am to noon. It wasn't like I was used to Disney where there is a steady stream of people in the first few hours as the part gets fuller and fuller. The previous night we had studied the MIB thread pretty hard and were ready for some better scores. A few rounds and I was up to around 300K and the rest of the family was in the 100-250K range. We got the last suit we'll ever wear and many "WOO - woo, woo - WOO" rounds.

We did another round of Disaster! making sure we were in the back so we could get into the front of the 2nd car to get a better view. My daughter was able to put together the "stare at the rock" reference but my wife did not. Still funny and entertaining and we now add "Your welcome" to just about everything we say. Another lunch at Finnegan's but this time the place was packed. I showed my HRH card and we were seated next in front of a few other families. They almost tried to seat us in front of another family that was called up that their table was ready. I would have refused had they gone that far but they acted as if some people expect that level of FOTL and assured us we would be seated next. I had the chicken sandwich again as did my daughter. My wife had the Guiness beef stew (excellent) and my son had the burger again.

For the afternoon we went back and did the shows and rides we did the first day except for Twister, E.T., and we were done with Rip, Ride, Rockit!. We also were able to catch Beetlejuice's Graveyard Revue. Another fun and entertaining show. The guy playing Beetlejuice really had the voice and mannerisms down perfectly. The Horror Makeup Show was just as funny the second time as the first. For T2 we sat much closer so we were covered with the fog at the end. Many more rounds of MIB and a another Simpsons or two.

So another full day at Universal Studios and then back to the hotel for a light dinner, intense study of the MIB thread, and early bed.

Day 4: Tuesday Nov 24th. Off to Islands of Adventure for the second time. This time we decided to start with Dueling Dragons to get in a bunch of rounds real quick as we knew the FOTL would get us on The Hulk, Doctor Doom, and Spiderman within 2 minutes but not on Dueling Dragons. So we get up to the ride and one other family is there and they got Fire front seat. So we waited until the next round to get Fire front seat for ourselves (height check for my son of course). On the previous day we did find that Fire had more loops and intense ride so we figured starting out with the best in the front seat would be the way to go. Well Ice had a surprise for us. After we did Fire front seat as the other family did Ice front seat, we swapped and now we were on Ice front seat. Okay, Ice might be a little less intense but front seat of Ice is way more thrilling than Fire front seat. Three times on Ice it looks like you are going to lose your feet and appears to be much closer to obstacles than on Fire. If I can get in the 1st two rows then I prefer Ice. We did each one a few more times with the kids trying out the rear seats of the ride. By the time we left I don't think there were even 20 people in the loading area.

Off to Jurassic Park River Adventure for another two rounds. We used the Express Pass entrance only because it was slightly shorter to walk all the way up to the waiting boat since there was no one on the ride. I forgot to mention that on our first day to IOA we did Pteradon Flyers. My son is in the tiny range where is >=54" for all the big rides but <=56" for the flyers. The first round my daughter went with him. He wanted to go again and my wife wanted to see what it was like so they did it again. The wait the second time was much longer even though it seemed like no one went up between the time the kids went up and my wife went up. There was one job I wouldn't want. Watching the TM at the front of the ride try to explain that it was for kids and that you needed one child between 36" and 56" tall to go on it must get old real fast.

The wife and kids did Dudley Do Right while I took their picture from the bridge. Next up was The Hulk. Another two rounds there an my son says he really wants to try Doctor Doom. Now he can handle the coasters with lots of loops and twists but dropping rides like Tower of Terror are not his thing. My daughter on the other hand loves dropping rides and likes coasters with lots of air time. He said he was sure so we all went on it. My wife also doesn't care for dropping rides and mostly tolerates ToT if she has to go on it. We get launched and come back down and he wants to go on it again. Since the exit passes right by the Express Pass line and there is no one in it, we duck under and get back in line. We ended up doing it 3 times in 5 launches. I don't think FOTL will ever be this good again.

Another round of Spiderman and it is around lunch time. We headed up and over because my daughter was in the mood for pizza. However the pizza place in Jurassic Park was not open. So we keep going around and end up in Suess land to eat at the pizza place there. We finish up lunch and try to get into Posiden's Fury but the wait time was over 30 minutes. So back to Marvel Universe for another couple of rides and then we are done and wanting to head back to the Studios. I find it interesting reading that many people go to Universal Studios for a few hours but spend most of their time at IOA. There are only 7 rides at IOA (Hulk, Storm, Doom, Spiderman, Dudley, JP River Adventure, and Dueling Dragons) and 2 shows (Sinbad, Posiden) and it doesn't take long to beat those to death with FOTL or at least enough that we need a break. I can do Doom and Dueling Dragons all day long but 3 times in a row is my limit on The Hulk before I need a long break. Spiderman is good but for us it doesn't have the repeatability like The Mummy.

So back to the Studios for more Mummy, MIB, and The Simpsons. Today we get a surprise on The Mummy. In the first section Imhoptep actually pops out of the sarcophogus. Before all we ever had was a projection of his eyes on the closed casket. On MIB we are getting up around 500K for our top scores and the car average is around 250-300K. We also got a new MIB ending against the other car when they got over 150K average and we were in the 300K's. It was very funny but we never got it again because every other time we faced cars with averages around 50K. Lots of "MIB material" and "WOO - woo" endings.

So back to the hotel for light dinner. We are coming up on our last full day and it is supposed to rain hard possibly all day so I find a Super Target relatively nearby so we can get some better rain gear than ponchos.

Day 5: Wednesday Nov 25th. Off to Islands of Adventure to start the day. It isn't raining yet so we head out for the coasters figuring they would be the most likely to shut down if the weather gets ugly and we can ride The Mummy and MIB all day long in the rain. Straight back to Dueling Dragons for another three rounds each of Fire and Ice and it is starting to rain. By the time we got to JP River Adventure it is pouring. No big deal as we have rain coats that are very comfortable. We head over to Spiderman and then to The Hulk. Now it is pouring out and we figure it is going to be interesting. We get launched out into the rain and it's like "When did it start hailing?" and "Whose idea was this anyway?". Those little beads of rain were pelting us in the face pretty hard and everyone's picture at the end of the ride was of squinting faces. My daughter and I take one last ride on Doctor Doom in the rain, which is no big deal because you go straight up and down.

It was around 11am and we decided we would go on Posiden's Fury no matter the wait. Well it was the full 30 minutes because Express Pass doesn't gain you anything here. They still count everyone who enters the ride before you and then cut it off at 200 or so. It isn't where all Express Pass people go in first and if they fill up the show then the standby line has to wait another round. The only thing Express Pass does it allow you to enter the room first. We had a different guide and as I said before, he wasn't nearly as entertaining and funny as the guide we had the first time. However this time we were in the front row so had a much better view. Once we were done with the show we headed to Universal Studios for lunch in the rain.

We ate at Louie's for lunch but did not have too much because we needed to save room for dessert. The first day in US we saw a really nice pastry shop in Amity but held off buying anything because we were hoping the Club 7 would have nice pastries for the evening dessert but it was mostly just cookies. So today everyone gets their own pastry. My son and I each get a raspberry Napoleon while my wife gets strawberry cheese cake and my daughter gets the caramel cheese cake. After eating all that yummy sugar we are starting to get a bit cold. The rain is still coming down pretty hard so we decide to go on Jaws to get warmed up. The heat of the explosions were welcome today. After Jaws it was another 7 or 8 rounds of MIB. I finally got over 500K in the main area and got the bonus for a total over 600K. Still nowhere close to maxing it out. The rain has died down to a very light rain and we finish out the day with Beetlejuice, Shrek, Mummy, and The Simpsons.

Day 6: Thursday Nov 26th, Turkey day. We are heading home this day but we decide to head to Universal Studios one last time for a few hours. It was clear but the temperature was markedly lower than the previous days. We were hoping to get a round or two on Rip, Ride, Rockit! but it was broken again. For the last two nights we could see workers on it through all hours as they turned on the white working lights on the second platform (the hill where you go down into the building) and were on all night long. So a few more rounds of The Mummy (I think we are close to 30 rides) and off to MIB. We did it for four rounds and our average score went up from 375K to a family record of 520K on the last round. One more round of The Simpsons and then a final ride on The Mummy before heading home.

 

[ChuckGA]

Some comments on our experience.

Universal is definitely very different than Disney. We don't feel like we are in another place like when staying on-site at WDW. Also I can see why US doesn't have nearly as many people at the park. Our family is now the perfect demographic for US, preteen kids able to ride all the big ones but parents still able to handle all the big rides so they are willing to go. This is a very small demographic. I cannot see heading to US with small children or ones afraid to ride thrill rides. I have made a very serious effort over the years with my kids to help them handle all the thrill rides and not be a ride chicken like I was as a kid. That effort really paid off on this trip or in reality allowed this trip to happen at all. We saw some parents with kids big enough to go on rides have to skip it because their kids wasn't ready for it. We also saw a lot of child swap people but very few strollers. I have to hand it to Universal, they recognize that in their parks child swap is necessary and they do an excellent job of providing it and having clearly designated areas.

After having gone to Universal I am surprised at how many people treat it as a 1-day park like SeaWorld. For us it was a about a 4 to 5 day park and that was with staying on-site during a slow time. I have always been a park commando at Disney but you really need to be one there if you want to maximize ride time and minimize standing in line time. It was interesting that even with being able to walk onto almost any ride, we still spent 100% of our time at the parks and never decided to go for a swim or take a break and it wasn't me driving it. Now part of that I think was due to the shorter hours. If US had been open until 8 or 9pm I am sure we would have taken a break in the afternoon. With the parks closing at 6pm, it would have been a lot of effort to go back for a swim and then to the parks to get on a few rides before closing. I also wonder how much of our riding over and over had to do with effectively zero wait times. If we always had to wait a short 10 or 15 minutes, I wonder if we would have stopped riding much sooner as the ratio of thrill to wait time goes way down quicker.

We expect to head back to Universal probably after Harry Potter opens. I am really curious if it will have a signficant impact on park attendance overall. It seems like most people only come for 1 day anyway so they are going to Harry Potter Land but will it really increase the lines at the other IOA attractions or US at all? From my view IOA needs about another 5 rides and HP is going to only add 2 if you count the fact that Pegasus(?)/HippoGriff coaster is currently closed. They also need another show or two. The one thing we really like about US was the diversity of attractions and that shows take a good chunk of the day.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Thank you for sharing your report! I noticed you didn't really go to the kids areas in either park -- you don't speak of riding Cat in the Hat, Caroseussel, One Fish Two Fish, Woody's Nuthouse Coaster, Fievel's Playground or the Curious George splash area -- is that because your kids weren't interested at all?

If you count the Dr. Seuss rides, IOA has another four, getting it almost to the number you suggested! I agree with you about another show, the Marvel comics area really cries out for a show, and I don't mean the superheroes riding around on their vehicles!

Again, thanks for sharing your experience!

Maria

 

[nerdboyrockstar]

I love reading trip reports from first-timers. Sounds like you had a great time overall.

 

[ChuckGA]

Thank you for sharing your report! I noticed you didn't really go to the kids areas in either park -- you don't speak of riding Cat in the Hat, Caroseussel, One Fish Two Fish, Woody's Nuthouse Coaster, Fievel's Playground or the Curious George splash area -- is that because your kids weren't interested at all?

If you count the Dr. Seuss rides, IOA has another four, getting it almost to the number you suggested! I agree with you about another show, the Marvel comics area really cries out for a show, and I don't mean the superheroes riding around on their vehicles!

I don't really consider Suessland or the kid area in US a bunch of cross-over rides for people of all ages like Fantansyland at MK, more like Mickey's Toontown if it had a few more kiddie rides. They seem like straight up kiddie rides designed to convince parents with older and really young kids to come to US instead of Disney. My kids were not interested in those rides and also the wait times were really high compared to all other rides so I didn't see any reason to add to other children's wait times on the few rides they can go on.

We had a great time and expect to go back by Thanksgiving 2010 at the latest.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

I don't really consider Suessland or the kid area in US a bunch of cross-over rides for people of all ages like Fantansyland at MK, more like Mickey's Toontown if it had a few more kiddie rides. They seem like straight up kiddie rides designed to convince parents with older and really young kids to come to US instead of Disney. My kids were not interested in those rides and also the wait times were really high compared to all other rides so I didn't see any reason to add to other children's wait times on the few rides they can go on.

We had a great time and expect to go back by Thanksgiving 2010 at the latest.

I'm sorry you missed "The Cat in the Hat" -- I definitely consider it for all ages! And for me, "One Fish, Two Fish" is a more adventurous Dumbo. I even like the Caroseussel -- I guess I'm just a fan! We always stay onsite, so I don't have to wait -- that may be part of the charm for me. If I was waiting in a long line, I would skip the rides that aren't as thrilling.

It sounds like you had a lot of fun, and I'm sure your next trip will also be a blast! I'll be back at Universal in less than 2 weeks, and I can hardly wait!

Maria

 

[phlffhd]

test

 

[macraven]

test

test...........i'm great at tests!!
except for the ones that require needles for the blood draws.
i hate those tests...

 

[Coach81]

Really enjoyed your TR! We're heading back for Mard Gras, and you gave me a nice preview. I'm really looking forward to trying out HR3..

Quick question.. we are also taking advantage of Club level.. we are planning on eating breakfast, snacking, and eating supper and snacks at night.. is that what you guys did, and did you like it?

Thanks again!

 

[ChuckGA]

Really enjoyed your TR! We're heading back for Mard Gras, and you gave me a nice preview. I'm really looking forward to trying out HR3..

Quick question.. we are also taking advantage of Club level.. we are planning on eating breakfast, snacking, and eating supper and snacks at night.. is that what you guys did, and did you like it?

Thanks again!

We did breakfast and dinner. We are generally park commandos; get there for opening and leave only once towards the end of the day so we eat lunch in the parks. Club level "dinner" was sufficient for us since we were not all that hungry after usually having a sit-down lunch and maybe a specialty dessert somewhere during the afternoon. Many other guests appear to have done the same thing but I can understand someone not doing it because the food isn't great and if you really want a full meal, Club Level food is not the way to go. Their breakfast selection is also pretty weak but at least as good as what we could bring with us to eat in the room. We had a much better continental breakfast at the Best Western just off-site the first morning.

 

[Coach81]

Well I'm not really looking for a full meal.. sounds like what I expected.. nothing really great, but sufficient for what we need..

Thanks!