tweak89
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 4, 2010
- Messages
- 336
Well, just got back from another Universal vacation and thought I'd give some thoughts on what's new since our last trip in 2014. We visited from Sept. 14-17th and stayed at the Royal Pacific Hotel, had 4 day park to park tickets and visited HHN26 on Friday night (with express pass). Our party consisted of my wife, niece (18) and nephew (23). This was the fourth trip to Universal Orlando for myself and wire, second for my niece and nephew.
Not much has changed at Royal Pacific, and that's a good thing to us. My nephew noticed the lack of fluffy robes in the gym showers, haha. He loved those, as he would use them after working out. Other than that everything else was great. We had breakfast in the Island's Dining Room, lunch at Jake's and we had room service (Pizza) one night as well. Staff was excellent as usual and we had no issues at all.
As far as the parks, we visited them each day during our stay.
This was our fist visit during off-peak times and we loved the lower crowds. While we still used Express pass, I could see staying at a budget resort during this time of year (although Despicable me would still be a wait!!). Now, the only issue we had in the parks has to do with the new policy being enforced on all the big coasters that basically allows you to have nothing on your person, thus forcing you to use lockers. I understand the policy as it pertains to bags and such, but how my phone in my cargo shorts pocket poses an issue, I don't know. We already travel very streamlined for Universal (no bags, cameras just our lanyards and phones). If this was during peak season, I can see this getting pretty ridiculous as some rides already had issues nearly full lockers. Also, the fingerprint readers seemed problematic for many (including us) so I wonder why they didn't stick with the Hulk style of lockers which worked great.
What was new to us this trip was Diagon Alley and Reign of Kong. Diagon Alley was great, a better area than Hogsmeade IMO. Wonderful detail and the "closed off" design really makes it look/feel more like a standalone park since you can't see/hear other parts of the park. We also loved Gringott's. The animatronics in the queue were fantastic. While I still like Forbidden Journey better as a ride, we really enjoyed it. We also really enjoyed the train connecting the Potter lands, we rode both directions to get the full experience. What a clever way to make what would have been a mundane ride into something interesting and different.
We visited Universal Hollywood earlier this year, so we were familiar with the concept behind Reign of Kong. That being said, Orlando's version is far and away the better of the two. We rode it twice and entered from the side once, and through the big doors the other. Much better experience when going outside through the big doors (don't know if they alternate or if it's just random). For those that don't know, Hollywood's version is part of the backlot tour (as is Fast and Furious) so your "ride" is the tour cars. That's what's featured in that version of the videos. We were on a VIP tour and had a smaller single car that didn't match the video, so the immersion wasn't quite the same. Of course, there is no extravagant queue nor that awesome environment surrounding the ride. We all enjoyed it quite a bit.
We had one night (Friday, opening night) for HHN26. We hit the parks earlier that morning and took a break in the afternoon to rest up for a late night. We headed back into the park around 4:30 and staged near Finnegan's. They cut us loose shortly after 6pm (official time to open was 6:30. We headed straight for Walking Dead, but they weren't open as they were having some sort of technical issues. So we hit, in order: Exorcist, American Horror Story, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Lunatics Playground, Tomb of the Ancients, Halloween II, Krampus (which went down while we were in line, but was only delayed about 20 min.), Walking Dead and Ghost Town.
Now, on the houses themselves, they were all done very well. The sets, atmosphere were all spot on for their respective themes (definitely leagues better than your local haunted houses). I especially loved the sets for Chainsaw, Halloween and Exorcist. Were they truly scary? Well, not really IMO. I think it's in part to the MASSIVE crowds and that you are basically in a long conga line, which means there are no reall surprises since you can see and hear almost every big scare that is coming. That's not to say we didn't get some good jump scares, we did, and overall we had a great time. I think being a huge fan of the movies/shows that inspired a majority of the houses played a big part in my personal enjoyment.
We had Express pass and cannot imagine not having it. Some of those queues were CRAZY!! Our only complaint was the exits to some of the houses had you coming out a LONG way from the house you entered requiring a lot of backtracking to get to the next house.
So, overall, another fun trip to Universal under our belt. We'll probably return in 2018 so that Fallon and Fast and Furious will be open.
Not much has changed at Royal Pacific, and that's a good thing to us. My nephew noticed the lack of fluffy robes in the gym showers, haha. He loved those, as he would use them after working out. Other than that everything else was great. We had breakfast in the Island's Dining Room, lunch at Jake's and we had room service (Pizza) one night as well. Staff was excellent as usual and we had no issues at all.
As far as the parks, we visited them each day during our stay.
This was our fist visit during off-peak times and we loved the lower crowds. While we still used Express pass, I could see staying at a budget resort during this time of year (although Despicable me would still be a wait!!). Now, the only issue we had in the parks has to do with the new policy being enforced on all the big coasters that basically allows you to have nothing on your person, thus forcing you to use lockers. I understand the policy as it pertains to bags and such, but how my phone in my cargo shorts pocket poses an issue, I don't know. We already travel very streamlined for Universal (no bags, cameras just our lanyards and phones). If this was during peak season, I can see this getting pretty ridiculous as some rides already had issues nearly full lockers. Also, the fingerprint readers seemed problematic for many (including us) so I wonder why they didn't stick with the Hulk style of lockers which worked great.
What was new to us this trip was Diagon Alley and Reign of Kong. Diagon Alley was great, a better area than Hogsmeade IMO. Wonderful detail and the "closed off" design really makes it look/feel more like a standalone park since you can't see/hear other parts of the park. We also loved Gringott's. The animatronics in the queue were fantastic. While I still like Forbidden Journey better as a ride, we really enjoyed it. We also really enjoyed the train connecting the Potter lands, we rode both directions to get the full experience. What a clever way to make what would have been a mundane ride into something interesting and different.
We visited Universal Hollywood earlier this year, so we were familiar with the concept behind Reign of Kong. That being said, Orlando's version is far and away the better of the two. We rode it twice and entered from the side once, and through the big doors the other. Much better experience when going outside through the big doors (don't know if they alternate or if it's just random). For those that don't know, Hollywood's version is part of the backlot tour (as is Fast and Furious) so your "ride" is the tour cars. That's what's featured in that version of the videos. We were on a VIP tour and had a smaller single car that didn't match the video, so the immersion wasn't quite the same. Of course, there is no extravagant queue nor that awesome environment surrounding the ride. We all enjoyed it quite a bit.
We had one night (Friday, opening night) for HHN26. We hit the parks earlier that morning and took a break in the afternoon to rest up for a late night. We headed back into the park around 4:30 and staged near Finnegan's. They cut us loose shortly after 6pm (official time to open was 6:30. We headed straight for Walking Dead, but they weren't open as they were having some sort of technical issues. So we hit, in order: Exorcist, American Horror Story, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Lunatics Playground, Tomb of the Ancients, Halloween II, Krampus (which went down while we were in line, but was only delayed about 20 min.), Walking Dead and Ghost Town.
Now, on the houses themselves, they were all done very well. The sets, atmosphere were all spot on for their respective themes (definitely leagues better than your local haunted houses). I especially loved the sets for Chainsaw, Halloween and Exorcist. Were they truly scary? Well, not really IMO. I think it's in part to the MASSIVE crowds and that you are basically in a long conga line, which means there are no reall surprises since you can see and hear almost every big scare that is coming. That's not to say we didn't get some good jump scares, we did, and overall we had a great time. I think being a huge fan of the movies/shows that inspired a majority of the houses played a big part in my personal enjoyment.
We had Express pass and cannot imagine not having it. Some of those queues were CRAZY!! Our only complaint was the exits to some of the houses had you coming out a LONG way from the house you entered requiring a lot of backtracking to get to the next house.
So, overall, another fun trip to Universal under our belt. We'll probably return in 2018 so that Fallon and Fast and Furious will be open.
