Yesterday we visited Universal Studios Florida. I wasn’t aware they have two parks there now, so we didn’t get the combo pass for Islands of Adventure. We got there right when they opened yet we were still directed to what turned out to be the farthest parking area from the park. All the parking is in garages and we were in Jaws section 214. Unlike Disney, Universal expects you to make it to the park by foot. The only saving grace was there were moving walkways like they have at most airports.
The way it’s set up, you go through Universal’s CityWalk before coming to a fork in the “road” which splits off to the two different parks. Right outside the Universal entrance we got three photos of us taken by one of the photographers before going into the park. Once inside we headed straight for the Revenge of the Mummy ride. Despite my thorough research, I wasn’t quite prepared for how intense this rollercoaster is even though it lacks inversions. I knew something was up, however, when we had to check my small camera bag in a free locker before being allowed on the ride! Now you must know that when I’m “scared” or feeling a little overwhelmed by a ride, I close my eyes. Needless to say, I missed out on a lot of the special effects on this ride. At the end you get to view a photo taken on the ride and sure enough, my eyes were closed during that part too!
After that ride, we decided to head to the Shrek 4D show, but first stopped off at the Twister attraction. Shrek 4D was cute, but after Magic Kingdom and Epcot, I’ve grown tired of the effects where you get lightly sprayed with water or your seat moves, so I wasn’t all that impressed. After that we quickly (thanks to the lack of lines) made our way through the rest of the must-see attractions such as Jimmy Neutron’s Nicktoon Blast (lame), Earthquake – The Big One (okay), Back to The Future The Ride (so-so) and Men In Black Alien Attack (my favorite). We were disappointed to learn that Jaws was closed. Joe was really looking forward to it and it’s my favorite at Universal, so that really sucked.
We couldn’t believe how quickly we had gone through all the attractions we wanted to see, and it didn’t seem right to leave (it was only about 12:30), so we got our hands stamped and went through CityWalk looking for a place to eat lunch. We almost ate at the huge Hard Rock Cafe, but I didn’t want anything on the menu, so we went back into Universal to look for a place. All I wanted was a nice grilled chicken sandwich. Well, we went to this place called Richter’s Burger Co. where the chicken sandwiches were $7 each. I wouldn’t have minded if they weren’t almost tasteless. It was a huge waste of money, not to mention the fact that their menu board is misleading by not mentioning the sandwiches come with fries so we ordered fries we didn’t even end up eating. The whole meal was $20 for what would have been less than $10 at McDonald’s or Burger King. I don’t mind spending money on food when it is worth it, but I seldom find theme park food to fall within that category yet it is the most overpriced food you will find next to a movie theatre.
Turns out we ended up leaving the park after lunch anyway. Oh and before lunch we checked out our photos which were terrible. Apparently the people they hire aren’t professional photographers as they don’t know how to use exposure compensation or spot metering. I know I’m pale, but I’m not that ghostly! Both our faces were completely washed out in the photos. I can’t see how anyone would want to purchase one of those photos if they all come out that way.
Anyway, once we got back by the hotel we stopped at the A&W in Old Town and shared a root beer float. Then we came upstairs and took a two hour nap. After that we sat around for a bit watching tv, then went back to Old Town to browse the shops a little, then came back and watched more tv since both our stomachs have been giving us troubles. I think it’s all the crappy (no pun intended) food we’ve been eating. We found another cool show to add to our weekly schedule though – The First 48 on A&E.
I don’t mean to sound like such a complainer, and maybe it’s just burnout being the third theme park in as many days, but I didn’t like Universal that much at all. I don’t think I’d bother next time we come to Florida.
P.S. Later in the evening we learned that a British man on vacation with his wife and two teenage daughters was hit by a car outside Universal last night by a young woman who may have run a red light. He died at the scene. I feel so bad for him and his family. It’s bad enough when something like that happens at any time, but I can only imagine being in a foreign country and on vacation no less. :(
I rode the Mummy (in Universal Hollywood) the exact same way as you – eyes closed almost the whole time. All the commercials about scary special effects really got to me and I expected the worst from the ride. I was quite shocked at how short it was, and when I did crack open my eyes the only effects I saw were some really lame neon lights. I’m sorry, but neon lights are not scary. Maybe there was something worse than that in the ride, I dunno, but it was LAME. Oh yea and the free lockers outside the ride freaked me out too.
I have only been to Universal twice in my life, once in 1992 and once last Christmas, and both times I thought it sucked badly and there weren’t nearly enough interesting rides/attractions. I vow to never return to that park.
The most entertaining thing in our whole visit last time was the pre-show before the live animal show. There was a man dressed as Charlie Chaplan standing around the front row of the theater. As people would walk in to find seats, he messed with them by sneaking up behind and grabbing the hand of 1 person in a couple… or tapping them on the opposite shoulder with his cane and then looking completely innocent. It sounds lame but it was hilarious, and honestly it’s pretty sad that that was the most memorable “attraction” there. It wasn’t even an official attraction or show! Just a stupid pre-show!!
Universal, THUMBS DOWN.
I agree, when I went to Universal Studios in Florida I was really unimpressed. We got the pass for both of the parks, and I enjoyed Islands of Adventure a lot more, but I would have rather spent another day at Magic Kingdom instead of doing both those parks. I also thought that the set up was annoying–it seemed like there was very little shade or things to keep you cooler like there is at Disney.