VolvoManiac850
Let's Go Bucs
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2008
This was my third trip to Universal...and was a huge disappointment. My previous trips were in 1992 (great) and 2005 (okay-ish).
Everything from Universal I remember is gone. Back to the Future? Gone. (It was my favorite back then, too). All the Hanna-Barbera stuff? Gone. Very little remains of what used to be there. I get it, the properties aren't as hot these days, but it just doesn't make sense.
We went there because we both like Harry Potter. Imagine our disappointment when we found out you needed the equivalent of a park hopper to go everywhere, plus the Hogwarts Express was broken down so we would have had to exit the theme park to get there. It was also really hard to find the entrance to it, so much that we walked by the doors a few times. The roller coaster was really well-done over on the Universal side, but the rest of it was chaotic. Diagon Alley was authentic but tiny and most of the souvenirs were overpriced ($20 or so for a cardboard headband? My wife will gladly spend $35 on a good set of ears, but you can buy a better $5 headband at Claire's than what Universal was hawking).
We didn't even bother to get food at Universal and ate at City Walk instead (at Bubba Gump). This was before we went into the parks.
We aren't Minions fans so most of the front of the park was a wash. We got frustrated and left and just spent the rest of the time at the Mall at Millenia, where walking around the mall was more pleasing than walking around Universal.
It was hard to even walk around there since there was a show in the middle of the street and no real sidewalk or detour.
We decided we'd be Disney-only people after this trip. Yes, the Mario park is enticing when it opens (grew up a Nintendo gamer), but I'll take Disney any day over the chaos that is Universal. Plus, they have NO respect for their past. I'd gladly stop at something Flintstones related but now it's all Minions?
Everything from Universal I remember is gone. Back to the Future? Gone. (It was my favorite back then, too). All the Hanna-Barbera stuff? Gone. Very little remains of what used to be there. I get it, the properties aren't as hot these days, but it just doesn't make sense.
We went there because we both like Harry Potter. Imagine our disappointment when we found out you needed the equivalent of a park hopper to go everywhere, plus the Hogwarts Express was broken down so we would have had to exit the theme park to get there. It was also really hard to find the entrance to it, so much that we walked by the doors a few times. The roller coaster was really well-done over on the Universal side, but the rest of it was chaotic. Diagon Alley was authentic but tiny and most of the souvenirs were overpriced ($20 or so for a cardboard headband? My wife will gladly spend $35 on a good set of ears, but you can buy a better $5 headband at Claire's than what Universal was hawking).
We didn't even bother to get food at Universal and ate at City Walk instead (at Bubba Gump). This was before we went into the parks.
We aren't Minions fans so most of the front of the park was a wash. We got frustrated and left and just spent the rest of the time at the Mall at Millenia, where walking around the mall was more pleasing than walking around Universal.
It was hard to even walk around there since there was a show in the middle of the street and no real sidewalk or detour.
We decided we'd be Disney-only people after this trip. Yes, the Mario park is enticing when it opens (grew up a Nintendo gamer), but I'll take Disney any day over the chaos that is Universal. Plus, they have NO respect for their past. I'd gladly stop at something Flintstones related but now it's all Minions?
