Went to USF this past Tuesday (10/18). I was concerned about the crowds, so I prepaid for Express Pass Plus. I also bought my USF tix over the website and saved about $5 per ticket. It was nice to have them so I did not have to wait in line.
I have not been to USF since they built CityWalk. The parking deck was nice, but I parked on the first level (King Kong) and had a VERY, VERY long walk (through Citywalk past the shops, of course) to the front gate of USF. Felt like I was back in Orlando airport with all the people movers and escalators. Holy Christ. Wasn't Citywalk the parking lot before?
Anyway, stopped at cinnabon for a quite bite. $2.50 for a soda. Christ.
Walked right up to the front gate, and the workers were having trouble getting the scanners to work, so it was a bit of a wait to get to enter. Kinda frustrating.
There was never more than a fifteen minute wait for any ride, so the express pass was a bit of a waste. But, you never know how the crowds will be.
Terminator 2 - rocked. All the characters (Arnold, Linda Hamilton, and that kid) from the movie make an appearance. After the show, dumped into the themed gift shop.
Horror Make Up Show - sucked. I like the old show much better. The "new" show is more an ad for universal movie classics, and some dopey jokes, then actually showing how horror effects are done (like in the old show). The props from the movie van helsing made up for the lame show.
Lucy A tribute - was okay for lucy fans. I did see a teenage girl (in full goth gear) laughing at the clips of the show. Attached to a gift shop of course.
Shrek 4d - was great. Poor crowd control has the entire theatre going out one door in a very cramped themed giftshop.
Twister - was awesome. Again, themed giftshop.
Mummy - an absolutely incredible ride. themed gift shop too.

At this point, I asked one of the attendants if there was any production going on, considering they used to have it when i was there in 1998. Nope, she said. They dont do production that is open to the public anymore. What a let down. Oh well.
Animal Planet - a cute show with animals doing tricks. For animal lovers only.
ET - Was a lot of fun, but ended too quickly.
Earthquake - awesome.
MIB - was a lot of fun. One disappointment, was that my laser gun aimed off center (it was down and to the left) which made it difficult to be accurate. But, the ride was great. Cool to see Will Smith make a guest appearance. My group was "bugbait", but I had the highest score at 67,000. Not bad for a first timer. Themed shop again. Ugh.
Back to the future - was great. Themed shop. Ugh.
The park was a bit empty which was surprising. I did not see many on street performances going on. There was a brief meet and greet in the kidzone with woody woodpecker, shaggy and scooby doo, and curious george. Also, there were two trolleys that carried around the flintstones on one, and lucy, olive oyl and popeye, doc from BTTF.
We ended up eating in Cafe La Bamba since Mel's and the International Food place was completely overrun. La Bamba was totally empty, cool, and nicely decorated. However, the food prices were outrageous. A medicore cheeseburger and dry fries was $7.50. A soda was an extra $2.39. The chicken wrap was also $7.50 and was decent.
After the park closed, we headed over to the Hard Rock. Of course, I had to get some tshirts. There was a five minute wait for a table. The memorabilia on the walls is incredible. I sat near the bar, and over our table was the cure, ramones, and the cramps. Very cool. The stained glass window with Elvis as god was funny. Our server was great too. But, the prices were insane. For their signature hamburger they wanted $13.50. ***?? A hamburger? You are kidding right? Most entrees were in the $13 to $20 range. Drinks were very expensive too, costing $1 or more than I would have gotten in a restuarant outside of Citywalk. My long island ice tea was $6.55 and the Bass draft was $5 and change. The onion rings were great. The hamburger was just okay and came with 12 french fries (yes, I counted). I could have gotten the same for half the cost anywhere else in Orlando. Dinner for two with an appetizer, two entrees, two drinks, and dessert was $68.
If I had to do this again, I would have just gotten the USF tix online and not done the express pass plus. And, skipped the hard rock and went to pastamore.