It was almost cold in my room when I woke up this morning. And who is to blame for setting the thermostat too low? 😉 I took a warm shower, and while the hot water was pouring down, I was thinking a few hours forward when I would be standing in a line somewhere, in the scorching sun, sweating my butt off. I noticed that I can hear more noise in my room here than at the Disney Resort. Not strange though, since this is in the city with roads around, and the Resort was out in the woods.
The first time I walked by this sign, I thought it warned of a wet floor (as they do like everywhere here in the USA). This would have been rather strange since it’s full carpet throughout the corridor (except at the elevators). However, I guess they warned about the very low threshold between the carpet and the wooden floor. And apparently, it was needed; someone missed the large sign and knocked it over.
On the way from KSC yesterday, I stopped at a Walmart to buy some yoghurt and bread, so I didn’t have to buy breakfast for $20 every morning. Ate the yoghurt in the room and then grabbed my backpack, a piece of bread, and headed for the buses. It was a very long line at the bus stop, but almost everyone was queuing for the ones going to Universal Epic, while I was going to Universal Studios Florida (USF). “My” bus stopped a bit down the road and started to load a scooter. I then heard some Swedish right behind me, and she was worried that they would forget about us. I answered in Swedish that I thought they knew about us, and her first reaction was “Oh, you’re speaking Swedish! We’re so used to not hearing anyone else.”. Nice surprise 🙂
It was a short ride over to the parks, according to Google Maps, about a 25-minute walk. They had the security checkpoint at the bus station. Here, they had an X-ray machine for the bags instead of manually going through them. After a walk across a large bridge, I arrived at the Universal CityWalk. Like a large vestibule in front of two of the parks. Lots of shops and restaurants.
When I reached the entrance to USF, it was still 30 minutes left. You could see the staff setting stuff up, putting out ropes, chairs, and other things. They opened the gates a bit early, and people poured in in different directions. I came about 100 meters before I hit a rope. Apparently, they weren’t quite ready to let us get to the attractions further in yet. Before they dropped that rope, a security guy held a short speech, that we would wait until his signal, so that his staff could get out of the way safely, and that we shouldn’t run. It’s not fun to have a vacation at the hospital. When the rope dropped, no one ran, but we probably had a couple of world records in walking 😀
I went for Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, one of the “A-grade attractions” in USF. A difference between Disney and Universal is that Disney has solutions for bringing your backpack to all rides (at least the ones I went on), while Universal has a few rides that require that you have no loose items. Their solution is lockers outside the ride; the small ones are free, and the larger ones cost. The small ones are 14x35x43 (HxWxD in cm), and I managed to squeeze my backpack in by moving around the items a bit.
I got in line at 9, and it was clear that they put some real effort into the queuing area. Took just five minutes to get into the first room with a short holographic video clip to start off the story. Then an elevator ride “down” where the floor moved a bit up and down relative to the walls. Another corridor, grab some 3D glasses, and then up a stairwell, and finally jump into the carts.
It started off a bit scary with the cart tilting about 45 degrees, and then it took off. But the story was nice, great effects with both water, heat, and air, while going up and down, rotating both left and right. For me, just the right amount of scary! When the ride was over, they had opened up the single rider queue, so I went for another run. This skipped everything up to the last stairwell, and I got into a cart immediately.
Disney vs Universal
A difference between Disney and Universal I’ve noticed is that the latter really pushes for the saftey information. Sure, Disney had the posters up at the relevant rides and such, but here it’s both posters and audio-messages, on repeat, to the extent that it gets annoying.
After the second ride, I took a lap in Diagon Alley, found a lot of places where people could use their wands to perform “magic”. I headed over to TRANSFORMERS: The Ride-3D. You get into a cart, and then it’s pure chaos. The transformers fight in a city, and you go back and forth in your cart. No real drops though. I moved on to Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon, a sort of theater where the whole stands moved while we “raced” Jimmy through New York. Even though it was very clear in both signs and audio that recording and photography weren’t allowed, they cut the sound twice to tell someone to put their phone down. More exciting than I had expected, but both these attractions allowed you to bring your backpack with you, so how tough could they be 🙂 Cut the sound twice during Fallon to tell us that Recording was forbidden.
I continued with Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast. You get a blaster, step onto a moving walkway, and then just shoot stuff. Not very clear what I should aim at, but I got about 500k in points. No clue if that was good or bad 😛 Next up was the E.T. Adventure. After a video introduction, we got to say our first name to a cashier and received a plastic card. After another queue, we handed the same card to the next guy, who assigned us seats on the ride, which consisted of a sort of bicycle. I guess it might have been to keep track of who’s who for photos taken during the ride. Otherwise, it seemed completely useless. Coming from the earlier, newer, and more spectacular rides, this felt quite low-tech.
Beside E.T. was the MEN IN BLACK Alien Attack, another ride in USF that required me to put my backpack in a locker. Started with some audio theatrics, and then we jumped into carts where all seats had laser guns. Since there was no queue, we didn’t get time to listen to the instructions on the screens; we just walked by them. Not easy to aim, so I tried to shoot everything. The cart spun around frequently, and I ended up with 176k points. I wanted revenge, so I went for a second round; this time, I got 290k points.
Just as I exited, my brother Peter called, so we talked for a bit. I went to pick up my bag again, but then so much time had passed that I had to pay $3 for the surplus time. Luckily enough, my wallet was in my pocket, and not in the locker. When we hung up, I went for the Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, the only ride that I had to queue for so far today. After 20 minutes, they announced that they had some technical difficulties. Where I stood, there was a staff member, and she entertained the two kids beside me. Right person at the right place! After a total of 45 minutes, they closed the attraction, and we got a single-use express pass as compensation. Shit happens, I went for lunch instead. The woman earlier, had recommended a Minion yellow soda, with banana flavour (of course). I got that with my lunch and it was quite nice. Told her as much when I met her later on.
Disney vs Universal
It feels like there are more AC-controlled environments at universal than at Disney. Disney seems to have more nature and the restaurants and sops has the same temperature as outside (but no direct sun of course). Here at Universal, it feels lik e as soon as you get through a couple of doors, it’s 20 degrees (compared to 27-28 outside).
I checked the app to see what rides I had left, and I found Fast And Furious – Supercharged. You got on a bus, and the instructions said that there were straps to hold on to if needed. Not like the USA to put that responsibility on you. EVERYWHERE else, there is a belt or a bar or a harness. But here, just hold on to this strap, if you like.
The bus ride was chaotic. Screens on both sides and special effects, wind, water, and heat. Fun though! I went for another round of Escape from Gringots, but this time, there were others who had discovered the single riders’ queue. However, just took about 15 minutes, compared to the 45-60 minutes for the ordinary line. Beside me in the cart, I got a couple from Great Britain, in their 70s. “There might be a lot of screaming from here”, the woman said and pointed at her husband. They handled it well 🙂 Since I had done it two times before, I started to look around at the ride and how it worked. It’s amazing how you can trick the body and mind by tilting a cart and showing scenes on a screen.
Something odd I noticed was that the restrooms smelled of gingerbread dough. It is probably something else, but that is what I think of when I smell that.
I went back to Minion Mayhem and had to queue for half an hour before getting in (saving the express pass for another time). It seemed like they still had some issues because after the video introduction, they held a trivia for a few minutes before letting us into the theater. The ride itself was quite fun and more bumpy than I expected.
I did another round of Villain-Con Minion Blast; this time, I got 750k points. Not sure how, though. I made my way to King’s Cross Station, to take the train to the Island of Adventure, the park “next door”. However, it took about an hour to get on board, and even though the ride was comfy and nice, it was terrible as transportation. From the station, I could probably have exited the park in ten minutes, spent another five in the CityWalk, and finally another ten in IoA to get to the Hogsmead station. I’m glad I have done it, won’t do it again 🙂
Walked around in Hogsmead and took some pictures of Hogwarts. Watched the Triwizard Spirit Rally.
I passed by the Velocicoaster, and thought; No! Way!
I bumped into the British couple again, and we started talking, and did that for over an hour. Very nice people who had a timeshare here and visited relatively often. I asked if there was something in Orlando I should do if I had some time over. Not really was their answer. They suggested the Kennedy Space Center, but I had already done that. We said goodbye, and I walked towards the exit. I passed by Hard Rock Cafe to get another magnet and then left for the buses.
Bought myself a pizza in the restaurant and went up to the room to write this and watch Monday Night Football. Luckily, the hotel had ESPN.