DAY FIVE: Monday - June 14th, 2004
We went to Universal Studios: Islands of Adventure today. I must start by saying that I was very impressed with Universal this time around. It has been four years since I had visited either Universal Park… and both Melissa and I decided on our last trip in the summer of 2000 that Universal just did not do most things as well as Disney. They were disorganized, their early entry program wasn’t as structured, their ‘Express Pass’ was just a big joke.
This time around we were impressed with the way they managed ride lines, we thought their ‘Express Pass’ was much improved… especially since we could sometimes pick between two different times to come back to the ride. One annoyance we had, however, was that Universal made their guests rent lockers (first half hour was free) whenever they went on the motion based rides. So, we not only had to wait in line to get our locker, we also had to wait in line for the ride and THEN wait in line to get our bag from the locker. Very frustrating.
A quick word about the water rides at IOA: Beware… you will get soaked! Please understand this… there are some water rides where you MIGHT get soaked… but at IOA… you WILL get soaked. All that aside: The Popeye rapid ride has my vote for the best rapid ride I’ve ever been on. It absolutely puts Kali River Rapids to shame; both in length and creativity. I can’t say that Ripsaw Falls is better all around than Splash Mountain… but it seems to have more drops and you come away with much more water to take with you as a souvenir.
My favorite three rides at Islands of Adventure: Spiderman (my vote for the best attraction in Orlando), Hulk Coaster, and Jurassic Park River Adventure. My least favorite attraction: Simbad Stunt Show: Pure cheese. (What a waste of time… but the sad part is: Simbad is STILL better than the Tarzan show at Animal Kingdom!)
This was the least crowded park we encountered our entire trip and we were done with all the attractions by 12:30PM… so we went to the Studios and got in a couple of rides there before we called it a day. I wanted to make a quick comment on Poseidon’s Adventure: This attraction is a tad bit weird, but very creative. I love the water tunnel. Very cool.
Over at Universal, I finally got to see The Horror Make Up Show. This is another great show by Universal. It was both educational and funny. We also rode ET, which is another sentimental favorite of mine. The forest queue is cool too.
We wanted to play mini-golf that night at Fantasia Gardens… but it was raining/storming the whole night. We ended up going to the Swan Hotel to eat at Gulliver’s Grill. It was a nice restaurant, but we’d never make it a point to go back again. We felt a little pressure from our waiter because we weren’t spending the big money on the buffet and other premium dishes… but overall it was a nice experience.
DAY SIX: Tuesday - June 15th, 2004
Our day six stop was Universal Studios. I was very excited about this visit because this would be my first time to ride The Mummy. We got on pretty quickly. I loved the coaster sections of this ride, but I was disappointed with the special effects. I guess I believed too much of Universal’s promo material. I never felt threatened by the fire… the bug room was a joke… and other special effects that I was looking forward to just didn’t seem to be as good as advertised. I still think this is one of the best rides in the park. (I did like Kongfrontation and will miss that attraction)
We also took in Shrek 4-D for the first time. It really made us think of Emily. She loves Shrek for some reason. In fact, the grandparents took her to see Shrek 2 during this vacation. They said that she was glued to the movie the entire time! Anyway… I liked this attraction more than my wife did. I was blown away at how the floor of the theater moved to what was happening in the movie. I thought this attraction was well done. Before we left, we stopped by one of the gift stores so that we could buy Emily a Shrek stuffed toy (I think we got her donkey).
I was kind of annoyed: we were waiting in line to get into the Animal Show and this little kid was messing around and spilled Cherry Icee all over my white shirt. I was pretty torked off when the parents started laughing about it rather than trying to apologize. Oh well. I certainly didn’t wish anything bad on them. I certainly wasn’t hoping that the ‘Lassie’ dog in the animal show would urinate on that kid’s face… that never crossed my mind at all... seriously...
My favorite three rides at Universal Studios: The Mummy, Shrek 4D, and Men in Black. My least favorite ride: Beetlejuice Musical Revue.
Though Universal Studios does not come close, in my mind, of matching the magical atmosphere that the Disney Parks create, I found it hard to pick any attraction other than the Beetlejuice show that I didn’t care for. Universal has an amazing assortment of rides and attractions. They even got rid of two attractions that I really enjoyed: Kongfrontation and The Wild West Stunt Show. As far as judging a park based on the quality of the attractions offered… I really do think Universal Studios is my favorite. I mean, when you don’t include attractions like Back the Future, ET, Terminator 3D, or Jaws in your favorites list because there are three better attractions; you know that you are in a great theme park.
Again, we got done with Universal fairly early in the afternoon… rested until evening and spent the evening at Downtown Disney. It was a nice break from the parks. I always try to schedule a couple of hours of shopping at Downtown Disney for Melissa. She loves it there. We spent most of our time the World of Disney store. We also visited the toy store and the Team Mickey store. We thought about mini-golf again, but we decided on sleep instead. (We realized, on this trip, that our bodies can’t take what they used to take in college…)
Coming next week: The Conclusion to our Disney trip (or) An article about change in the church... just depends on if I finish the article on change or not.
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