wholesomejoe
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2012
- Messages
- 80
I haven't been to Universal since my parents took me at 14. IOA was under construction, and many rides were different. It was a whole new experience for me. I was accompanied by my wife and 5 year old. We did IOA on Friday, US today, and hitting our favorites from both parks tomorrow. We have had a blast and don't want to go home. The weather has been absolutely perfect.. not a drop of rain, and 75-78 all three days. Here's a photographic look of our trip and a few videos too!
Day 1.. Islands of Adventure Friday 1-25
We are staying offsite. The hotel is right across the street from the Pirate Dinner adventure. It was fairly nice for the price we paid, and so close that the drive takes less than 5 minutes, and only had one turn to make.. no issues. We drove each day.
we did not have express pass, nor did we need it. The longest we have waited on ANYTHING was despicable me, today.. when we rode it a second time later in the day, and still only waited 30 minutes.
Ok.. so.. we got to the park each day a little before 830am.. we were nearly the first in line all 3 days. We headed straight to Potter, at gate drop. We did Olivanders in about 10 minutes, and then headed to Flight of the Griffon which my son loved. After that, we child swapped Forbidden Journey. We both got right on, no wait at all. I rode it twice that day, I didn't wait either time.. and we went through the queue the first go round. I did single rider the next go round. After That, we made the rounds and hit up all the popular rides.. Spiderman was fantastic, we took photos with several marvel characters, I hit up hulk, deathfall, I had 3 cups of butter beer that day.. OMG THAT STUFF IS LIKE CRACK.. we bought my son a robe, wand, and hedwigg HOLY CRUD EXPENSIVE STUFF. Ate at three broom sticks for lunch.. It was a lot better than some people were saying it would be, I had no complaints. No issues at all on day 1.. fun, fun, fun. We rode every single ride on day 1 except for dragon challenge (it is down, riding it tomorrow) and ripsaw falls (we got soakedddddd on the first one, so i decided to wait til tomorrow. A family was wearing ponchos and they had a laugh out of how drenched we got. The people dryers are fairly useless, 5 bucks down the drain. 8 dollar ponchos.. bring your own.
Ride of the day? FJ, with Spiderman in a very close 2nd.
Oh, and I got the cornish pasties, my wife got the chicken, and son got chicken fingers.
Day 2 Universal Studios
Day 2, we were exhausted.. day one tired us out. We stayed til park close.
We didn't have any specific order for day 2. We started with Despicable ME, and then made a circle. I rode rip ride rockit 3 times.. (fav coaster, with mummy in close 2nd.) We got on Disaster, and I volunteered to be an actor.. I got to be an evil scientist.. only to miss the rest of it as they told us the shoot had been postponed (i assume the ride was having issues) they gave us a password and told us to come back later, we did.. rode it.. but missed my acting like a fool on stage.. was sort of bummed about that.
I was wearing a ghostbusters shirt, where the logo is in the shape of "GA", and an actor dressed as a tourist spotted me and gave me a high five, and told me that I was awesome, and I got my photo with them. They saw my son was wearing a "Christine" shirt.. and they high fived him and dubbed us coolest family ever.. was really cool.
The only issues we had on day 2 came at a couple areas. 1. Our song got height checked twice on Simpsons, when he had not dealt with that at any of the rides before it. I'm not sure what the deal was, he was obviously tall enough. I wasn't upset with the staff, they were just doing their job.. but it felt excessive. 2. We ate lunch at Louies.. was very dissappointed here. I had to actually get snappy with the server, which is very very very rare for me. We ordered my son a slice of cheese pizza, and she told us it was gonna be 2 minutes.. so we said OK.. We wait, wait, wait.. holding up the line and then I see the same server give the two people behind us 2 slices of cheese pizza. I ask her "Did you forget my cheese pizza" she says "Oh, it is gonna be 2 minutes for it" I said, you just gave them cheese pizza. She seemed confused, and sort of snotty that I questioned her ability to tell the difference in pizza. She immediately stopped what she was doing to get us a piece at that time, but the group behind us were getting impatient, and I was not moving without the pizza. We were asked to do a survey later, and I told them about the experience.
We had an incident also.. that turned out OK.. I somehow managed to leave a photo I had purchased of my son and Spidey, on a ride. As expensive as this stuff is.. I was freaking. We thought all was lost.. to our surprise, they had it at lost and found!
Tomorrow is our last day. Ride of the day at US for me was Rip Ride Rockit, with The Mummy as close 2nd, and Despicable Me, close third.. for my son.. Despicable ME. We finished the night at Hard Rock Cafe.. we both got chicken fajitas, and the kid got mac and cheese.
Now for some pictures! ( and video )
The Globe tonight!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151407122571620&set=vb.557591619&type=2&theater
My wife and Son coming off a water slide.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151407108181620
In Line At Olivanders
My wife, and new wizard in hogsmeade!
me with sirius black
Hogwarts!
Poseidon's Fury
Sorting hat.
my fav photo, for obvious reasons lol.
enjoying butter beer.. sorry out of focus
bought the digital download photo connect card!
here are the tourists I was talking about.
Day 1.. Islands of Adventure Friday 1-25
We are staying offsite. The hotel is right across the street from the Pirate Dinner adventure. It was fairly nice for the price we paid, and so close that the drive takes less than 5 minutes, and only had one turn to make.. no issues. We drove each day.
we did not have express pass, nor did we need it. The longest we have waited on ANYTHING was despicable me, today.. when we rode it a second time later in the day, and still only waited 30 minutes.
Ok.. so.. we got to the park each day a little before 830am.. we were nearly the first in line all 3 days. We headed straight to Potter, at gate drop. We did Olivanders in about 10 minutes, and then headed to Flight of the Griffon which my son loved. After that, we child swapped Forbidden Journey. We both got right on, no wait at all. I rode it twice that day, I didn't wait either time.. and we went through the queue the first go round. I did single rider the next go round. After That, we made the rounds and hit up all the popular rides.. Spiderman was fantastic, we took photos with several marvel characters, I hit up hulk, deathfall, I had 3 cups of butter beer that day.. OMG THAT STUFF IS LIKE CRACK.. we bought my son a robe, wand, and hedwigg HOLY CRUD EXPENSIVE STUFF. Ate at three broom sticks for lunch.. It was a lot better than some people were saying it would be, I had no complaints. No issues at all on day 1.. fun, fun, fun. We rode every single ride on day 1 except for dragon challenge (it is down, riding it tomorrow) and ripsaw falls (we got soakedddddd on the first one, so i decided to wait til tomorrow. A family was wearing ponchos and they had a laugh out of how drenched we got. The people dryers are fairly useless, 5 bucks down the drain. 8 dollar ponchos.. bring your own.
Ride of the day? FJ, with Spiderman in a very close 2nd.
Oh, and I got the cornish pasties, my wife got the chicken, and son got chicken fingers.
Day 2 Universal Studios
Day 2, we were exhausted.. day one tired us out. We stayed til park close.
We didn't have any specific order for day 2. We started with Despicable ME, and then made a circle. I rode rip ride rockit 3 times.. (fav coaster, with mummy in close 2nd.) We got on Disaster, and I volunteered to be an actor.. I got to be an evil scientist.. only to miss the rest of it as they told us the shoot had been postponed (i assume the ride was having issues) they gave us a password and told us to come back later, we did.. rode it.. but missed my acting like a fool on stage.. was sort of bummed about that.
I was wearing a ghostbusters shirt, where the logo is in the shape of "GA", and an actor dressed as a tourist spotted me and gave me a high five, and told me that I was awesome, and I got my photo with them. They saw my son was wearing a "Christine" shirt.. and they high fived him and dubbed us coolest family ever.. was really cool.
The only issues we had on day 2 came at a couple areas. 1. Our song got height checked twice on Simpsons, when he had not dealt with that at any of the rides before it. I'm not sure what the deal was, he was obviously tall enough. I wasn't upset with the staff, they were just doing their job.. but it felt excessive. 2. We ate lunch at Louies.. was very dissappointed here. I had to actually get snappy with the server, which is very very very rare for me. We ordered my son a slice of cheese pizza, and she told us it was gonna be 2 minutes.. so we said OK.. We wait, wait, wait.. holding up the line and then I see the same server give the two people behind us 2 slices of cheese pizza. I ask her "Did you forget my cheese pizza" she says "Oh, it is gonna be 2 minutes for it" I said, you just gave them cheese pizza. She seemed confused, and sort of snotty that I questioned her ability to tell the difference in pizza. She immediately stopped what she was doing to get us a piece at that time, but the group behind us were getting impatient, and I was not moving without the pizza. We were asked to do a survey later, and I told them about the experience.
We had an incident also.. that turned out OK.. I somehow managed to leave a photo I had purchased of my son and Spidey, on a ride. As expensive as this stuff is.. I was freaking. We thought all was lost.. to our surprise, they had it at lost and found!
Tomorrow is our last day. Ride of the day at US for me was Rip Ride Rockit, with The Mummy as close 2nd, and Despicable Me, close third.. for my son.. Despicable ME. We finished the night at Hard Rock Cafe.. we both got chicken fajitas, and the kid got mac and cheese.
Now for some pictures! ( and video )
The Globe tonight!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151407122571620&set=vb.557591619&type=2&theater
My wife and Son coming off a water slide.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151407108181620
In Line At Olivanders
My wife, and new wizard in hogsmeade!
me with sirius black
Hogwarts!
Poseidon's Fury
Sorting hat.
my fav photo, for obvious reasons lol.
enjoying butter beer.. sorry out of focus
bought the digital download photo connect card!
here are the tourists I was talking about.
