"So what happened after the dragon?" a Feb '17 Universal TR - Final POSTS - May 19th!

[skier_pete]

Hello - and welcome to my FIRST EVER Universal Studios Trip Report.

First a little background. DW and I are big-time Disney Parks fans. While I grew up with Disney World, DW and I first went in 1997 and again in 2000 early in our relationship. At the time we also visited Universal - one day at the studios in 1997, and one at IOA in 2000.

We became Disney addicts in 2006 when we first stayed on property with DD who was 3 at the time. We've been every year since and even own DVC, but we haven't been back to Universal in all that time. This was mostly because of one reason - our daughter is afraid of most rides. Ever since she was little, she was afraid to try new rides. And at 13 - she still hates thrill rides. Oh, and she also hates 3D rides. So Universal never seemed like the best place for her.

However, she IS a big Harry Potter fan the last few years, and for about 2 years now has wanted to go to Universal to see Harry Potter land and also Jurassic Park. At one point we were considering just doing a day or two at Universal as part of a Disney trip, but we decided instead to plan a trip that was mostly about Universal. So we had agreed that if she gets good grades in 7th grade (last year) we would do a trip to Universal. Because we were staying off-property with a 2-bedroom unit, we decided we would invite DMIL along. She has come with us to Disney twice, but has never been to Universal. The main problem she has is that lately she’s been struggling to walk, and even though we got a wheelchair for her to use, she refused to use it, so we just had to be patient as we moved slowly through the parks.

Here’s mostly what you will see of DD – she has become quite camera shy lately.

I also ended up buying us APs. The idea is that an Seasonal AP is only about $40 more than a 3-day park-to-park ticket. We would then go back to Florida February 2018 and use our passes again at the beginning of the trip, allowing two trips to Universal for a little more than the price of one. IN the end we ended up going for 4 days. We bought a 2-day pass for DMIL, since she really couldn't keep up the pace for that many days.

I had low expectations for this trip. I expected DD to end up not wanting to ride anything at all, and me to get pissed off I spent all this money on theme park tickets and we weren't riding any of the rides.

If that peaks your curiousity to see exactly what happened...well then STAY TUNED FOLKS!!!

 

[skier_pete]

Table of Contents!!

Day 1 - Our resort at Sheraton Vistana Resort - LINK
Day 2 - NASA Day - LINK
Day 3 - Wild Dinosaurs and wild animals - LINK

Day 4 - Opening at Universal, Despicable Me and Gringott's - LINK
Day 4 - More Diagon Alley and Three Broomsticks - LINK
Day 4 - Hogwart's Express and Hogsmeade - LINK
Day 4 - Jurassic Park and Suess Landing - LINK

Day 5 - Rainy Day at Universal Part 1 - LINK
Day 5 - Rainy Day at Universal Part 2 - LINK

Day 6 - 4th Universal day @ the Studio side - LINK

Day 7 - Disney Springs & Trader Sams - LINK
Day 6 - DVC Moonlight Magic MK event - LINK

 

[skier_pete]

Day 1 - Travel Day

Saturday was our travel day, and we had a bit of a trek. Because of the holiday week, the airline ticket prices out of Buffalo were outrageous, so we had to drive to Pittsbrugh – about 4 hours drive – and fly out from there. The 4 hour drive only cuts about 20 minutes of flying, so we arrived on Saturday about 6:30 PM. We were staying t the Sheraton Vistana Resort. Check-in was completely painless as we didn't really wait at all. We had to go over to see the concierge for our "free gift" (a envelope full of coupons - WOW!), but we never really got pestered about getting a timeshare presentation, which was nice. We had rented a 2-bedroom unit that slept 6, which really left us with a lower unit in the "Courts" section.

One thing that surprised me about the place - I was expecting it to be a massive complex (which it was) but it was not nearly as spread out as it looked like on the map. We were in the middle of the courts section, and it was an easy 5 minute walk to 2 different pool complexes, as well as the grocery store. The layout was a tad confusing, and we got lost a few times trying to leave, but overall it really wasn't too bad to get around.

The room itself in courts was very nice. Updated and modern feeling, and it did NOT have any smell of mold or mildew that you sometimes get with hotels in Florida. Here are some pictures.

The kitchen /dining / living room area:

The second bedroom:

Washer/Dryer in the hallway between 2nd bedroom and dining area.

The Master Bedroom:

Since it was so late, we decided to just get some food at the property before going out grocery shopping. We ate at the "Tacky Tiki Hut" the first night - and I was rather unimpressed by this. It was an "order at the counter" type place, and if you didn't stand and check for your food being ready, they couldn't be bothered to tell you it was ready. The themeing of the area was some Tiki stuff on the walls, but really it mostly looked like a cafeteria. The food was just OK.

Tomorrow - before Universal - it's the entire UNIVERSE!

 

[rteetz]

Joining in Pete! I have yet to make it to the dark side that is Universal but likely will someday.

The room looks nice and spacious.

 

[skier_pete]

Joining in Pete! I have yet to make it to the dark side that is Universal but likely will someday.

The room looks nice and spacious.

You are definitely the demographic Universal is taking aim at. There are some great thrill rides there - even though they are getting a bit screen happy over there.

 

[macraven]

your pics are really clear and great.
nice looking family !!


young teens are always picture shy aren't they..
i have very few of my 4 boys in the parks when they were that age.

never liked me to take their pics..



well, carry on, i'm here for the ride

 

[nancy drew]

Following! My 13 year old daughter also loves Jurassic Park and Harry Potter, hates thrill rides, and looks similar to your daughter in photos these days. My 11 year old son loves Harry Potter and thrill rides. We are heading to Universal for the first time this month. I am very interested to hear about your visit!!!

 

[skier_pete]

your pics are really clear and great.
nice looking family !!


young teens are always picture shy aren't they..
i have very few of my 4 boys in the parks when they were that age.

never liked me to take their pics..



well, carry on, i'm here for the ride

It's probably not all that uncommon for teenagers to get camera shy. Our DD did pose for some pictures - just whenever I was trying to get a random candid she would hide her face.

Following! My 13 year old daughter also loves Jurassic Park and Harry Potter, hates thrill rides, and looks similar to your daughter in photos these days. My 11 year old son loves Harry Potter and thrill rides. We are heading to Universal for the first time this month. I am very interested to hear about your visit!!!

Well - your DD will probably be like my DD - she'll try most things except the coaster, but might not like too many of them. Or maybe you'll get lucky and she'll learn to love the rides. Since I might not get to it before your trip, a couple of warnings - the queue for the "Kong" ride is VERY intense. It scared our DD to the point she wouldn't ride the ride. She also wouldn't ride the mummy, which is a pretty serious indoor coaster - so I was sort of glad she bowed out of it.

 

[NJlauren]

Joining in! I hope DD loves the Harry Potter part of the parks! I know I do!

 

[YodasMom]

Enjoying your report!

I'm a "mature" adult, and I've always hated thrill rides!!! Still do! I did love everything else about the Harry Potter areas at both parks and spent 2 days there. There is so much to take in without going on the rides, plus the ques heading into the thrill rides were well-worth doing even though I bowed out of the rides!!! Of course, that's how I do Disney, too.

 

[wiscbugs]

I already enjoy your Disney reports so I am looking forward to this one as well. We flew down to Universal for a few days after Christmas so I'm looking forward to your reviews.

 

[skier_pete]

Joining in! I hope DD loves the Harry Potter part of the parks! I know I do!

Well, she's a stubborn 13-year-old, so the closest we get to her loving something is her shrugging and going "Meh"

Enjoying your report!

I'm a "mature" adult, and I've always hated thrill rides!!! Still do! I did love everything else about the Harry Potter areas at both parks and spent 2 days there. There is so much to take in without going on the rides, plus the ques heading into the thrill rides were well-worth doing even though I bowed out of the rides!!! Of course, that's how I do Disney, too.

Thanks - DW doesn't like true "thrill" rides (coasters for example) but she did like most of the simulator rides at Uni.

I already enjoy your Disney reports so I am looking forward to this one as well. We flew down to Universal for a few days after Christmas so I'm looking forward to your reviews.

Thank you so much!!

 

[skier_pete]

Day 2 of our trip - our first full day...
We had planned to go to NASA today, but woke up in the morning to news that there was supposed to be a launch from the SpaceX platform scheduled for the day before, but was delayed to 9:39 AM today. It was about 7 AM when we discovered this, and decided that if we could get out of the room by 8 AM we could be there in time for the launch.

Well, we were right and wrong about that. The crowd getting into the visitor center was high, and while we were driving into the facilities at about 9:10 AM, by the time we parked, got our tickets, and got through the turnstiles, the rocket went off. It was unfortunately an overcast morning, so without being where you could see it on TV, you actually couldn’t see the launch, only hear it. It sounded like a jet engine taking off. Then about 2 minutes later there was a huge double BOOOM – the sonic boom.
Since we weren’t in the viewing area – we beat the crowds into the Shuttle Atlantis building.

There was definitely a “we have to entertain people like Disney here” vibe, as they first let us into a preshow area, where we watched a movie about the shuttle program, then they let us into ANOTHER pre-show movie that was more surrounding, and after a 5-minute video they opened the front to reveal the whole shuttle Atlantis, mounted in the center of the building. Talk about a way to make your spaceship look HUGE!

They had a mock-up of the control deck, where you could see all the switches;

They also had a full scale model of the Hubble telescope;

After looking around DW and I rode the shuttle simulator – think Mission Space without the cool video and in a big room. They simulate the launch of the shuttle by strapping you into some seats like you are in the cargo bay during launch. They tilt you up. (Not quite to vertical,but my guess is maybe 60 degree angle.) Then shake you around. It’s not that scary or thrilling, but sort of neat.

By the time we were done with that, we were ready for some lunch. Plate of hamburgers and chicken nuggets later we went to get in line for the bus tour of the facility.
The tour was pretty cool, they take you out past the assembly building and the launch pads. Plus you get to see some gators!

The assembly building is impressive. It’s one of the largest single space buildings in the world. They could work on FOUR spacecrafts in here at a time. Each door opens to hold a space shuttle.

This is the launch pad they are building for the new rocket NASA is working on for deep space exploration (i.e. travel to mars).

This is one of the crawling that used to roll the space shuttles out to the launch pad.

This is the SpaceX launch pad where the rocket had been launched from a few hours previously.

Whereas NASA rolls it’s rockets out already vertically, SpaceX assembles them laying down, and then raises them to vertical. You can see the device here used for that.

The new rocket NASA is working on is called the “Orion”. This piece here is the nosecone for it. It’s designed so that if something goes wrong during launch with the main rocket, this piece has it’s own rocket and would detach the capsule from the main rocket and shoot it out ahead. The new Orion capsule is going to be similar to the old Apollo ones, except holding 5 people instead of 3.

Snuck a rare picture of DD waiting for the Apollo tour:

Again with Apollo, they had a pre-show, then a second pre-show, and then you actually went in to look at the rocket. I’d seen the Saturn V rocket before, but it never fails to impress.

That’s DD and DW in the picture for size.

Moon vehicle

The landing vehicle

Here’s the actual Apollo capsule

Inside the capsule – yeah pretty cramped:

This one’s cool – this is the ACTUAL Apollo 13 capsule. Yup, the Tom Hanks movie one.

We got a bus back to the main visitor center, and we had time to watch an IMAX movie before we had to go. We didn’t see everything, but I think we got a pretty good tour of what was going on. DD claimed she was mostly bored and hated it because it was just learning stuff, but we don’t really care – she undoubtably learned something along the way.

We had dinner back at our hotel, and had our first Disney excursion of the trip for the evening – DW and I went to Jellyroll’s for the evening:

Since the closure of Pleasure Island, Jellyrolls has been our favorite place to hang out at night. It's a dueling piano bar, except there are two teams of two pianists, so they are ALWAYS playing non-stop. On the hour, the other team comes out and they play a song with all four of them (see picture below). It's great fun, and we had a great time as usual!

Next up - time to get WET!

 

[macraven]

you take GREAT pictures!!

saves me the trip to go there now....jk

sorry you missed out on the visitor center section to watch the lift off but you made the best of it.


i absolutely love jellyrolls..

 

[rteetz]

I have always wanted to go to one of the NASA bases. That sucks you missed the launch but you can still say you were there during it.

So many cool pieces of history there! I would love to see some of those things up close.

Great pictures!

 

[skier_pete]

you take GREAT pictures!!

saves me the trip to go there now....jk

sorry you missed out on the visitor center section to watch the lift off but you made the best of it.


i absolutely love jellyrolls..

Thanks! It helps to have a good camera. I also take framing shots seriously, which many people don't do. Sometimes it works out!

NASA is definitely worth the drive...but probably not if you normally don't have a car. It's something worth seeing once, that's for sure.

I have always wanted to go to one of the NASA bases. That sucks you missed the launch but you can still say you were there during it.

So many cool pieces of history there! I would love to see some of those things up close.

Great pictures!

We had passes to see a space shuttle launch in 1997, but it was at like 4 AM, and we had to leave at like 1 AM to get there, and then I got really sick so we ended up not going. We figure maybe we'll successfully go see a launch in 2037!

It really is worth a spin over there if you have the chance.

 

[pcstang]

Great start to your report. Growing up in Orlando I never made it to Cape Canaveral. I did do space camp a couple of times in Huntsville AL, though. Very nice pictures! We could "see" the shuttles (shuttle trails) from our house and hear the booms taking off and during re-entry. Pretty cool stuff!

 

[pattyw]

Hi fellow Buffalonian! We are a Disney loving family, too, but Universal is luring us away! Nice pictures of NASA- we were in Florida when the last shuttle was taking off. It took two drives there to actually see it- weather delays! Can't wait to see how DD likes Universal!

 

[skier_pete]

Great start to your report. Growing up in Orlando I never made it to Cape Canaveral. I did do space camp a couple of times in Huntsville AL, though. Very nice pictures! We could "see" the shuttles (shuttle trails) from our house and hear the booms taking off and during re-entry. Pretty cool stuff!

That's cool!

Hi fellow Buffalonian! We are a Disney loving family, too, but Universal is luring us away! Nice pictures of NASA- we were in Florida when the last shuttle was taking off. It took two drives there to actually see it- weather delays! Can't wait to see how DD likes Universal!

Yes, we were lured this year by Universal as well. You will have to wait and see what DD thought!

 

[franandaj]

I read the intro, but need to come back and catch up on the rest. Just got back from my own trip!