Day 3 - Universal Studios
After leaving Busch Gardens the previous day, we travelled back to our hotel on Int Drive, Orlando and got some food and an early night in preperation for Universal Studios the following day. This was a day I was really looking forward to if I'm honest, possibly more so than any of the other days.
We arrived at 9 as our hotel was a stone's throw from the parks. In fact we could see Hogwarts, Hulk, RRR and more or less every single large ride from our hotel balcony. Great location.
Between opening time and about noonish the park was VERY QUIET. We took full advantage of this and rode the Mummy 3 or 4 times, Rip Ride Rocket twice and their newest attration Dispicable me and Twister. All 4 were different and really fun in their own way. I was in total awe of the detail on the Revenge of the Mummy. Absolutely fantastic attraction and one of my top 5 from the whole week I'd say.
After Lunch the crowds started to flock in and we headed over to Simpsons Ride which was absolutely amazing. Me and the mrs are HUGE HUGE simpsons fans and we simply loved this area. Shame that the new shops weren't quite ready but you could see them pretty well. I think this was another ride that made our top 5. I hope they continue to add more things to the area as the Simpsons in my opinion will never die such is the popularity of it.
After this we did MIB as it was literally next door and then made our way around the rest of the park and rode everything that we hadn't already done; Shrek, Terminator, Disaster, ET. After this we caught the Beatlejuice Rock show or whatever it was called. Slightly dissapointed with this actually. It needs changing.
Interesting thing about the Terminator ride. They were advertising the sale of a lot of the props in the shop upon exit to the attraction and also interestingly selling Avengers merch in there. Surely that must point to an Avengers replacement for Termiantor. Have to say it has had it's day.
Right at the end of the day we went for a close up look of the yet to open Transformers ride and got some pics. Can't wait to ride it on my next visit in a few years time.
Then we had one last ride on the mummy and RRR before leaving for the hotel. Great great day finished off with cocktails and food at City Walk.
Crowd Levels: 2 or 3 in the morning. Possibly 5 or 6 after Lunch.
Staff: Again top notch. Very friendly and chatty. They put us to shame in fairness.
Ride Count: 15
Fav ride: Revenge of the Mummy (just). Simpsons ride a very close second.
Florida Trip April 2013
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Benjsh
Day 4 - Wet and Wild.
This was supposed to be our Disney Hollywood Studios day but we decided against it due to cost, the fact that Magic Kingdom had been so busy compared to Busch and Universal and also because we we're tired and wet and wild was a fall out of bed job and you're there kind of day. It was a good decision in the end as we had islands of adventure the following day and wanted to be in good shape for it.
I won't bore you all with the naming of all the slides. Basically we went on all of them a few times each as it was fairly quiet in the park. Special mention to the Disco H20 slide though. Was a favourite of many on park that day. Very good fun.
Definitely worth visiting if you've never been.
Crowd Level: 3
Staff: A tad more miserable than the other parks I have to say. But still better than what we have here.
Slide Count: Too many I can't remember.
Fav slide: Disco H20.
This was supposed to be our Disney Hollywood Studios day but we decided against it due to cost, the fact that Magic Kingdom had been so busy compared to Busch and Universal and also because we we're tired and wet and wild was a fall out of bed job and you're there kind of day. It was a good decision in the end as we had islands of adventure the following day and wanted to be in good shape for it.
I won't bore you all with the naming of all the slides. Basically we went on all of them a few times each as it was fairly quiet in the park. Special mention to the Disco H20 slide though. Was a favourite of many on park that day. Very good fun.
Definitely worth visiting if you've never been.
Crowd Level: 3
Staff: A tad more miserable than the other parks I have to say. But still better than what we have here.
Slide Count: Too many I can't remember.
Fav slide: Disco H20.
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Benjsh
Day 5 - Islands of Adventure
Similar to our day on tuesday at Universal Studios park......we arrived early and planned on staying for the duration. As it was only 5 mins from hotel we were amongst some of the first people to arrive and it proved vital we did. It was literally heaving with guests. Everyone seemed to head for IOA on all the buses that arrived when we did. I hardly saw a single person veer off to the right and head to Stuidos park. Crazy stuff.
Needless to say......we headed straight for the Wizarding World of HP. If these early crowds were anything to go by it was going to be a bloody busy day.......and so it proved to be. We Rode Forbidden Journey ride very first thing and WOWZERS !!! What a magnificient ride. Breath taking even. By the time we got there the wait time was about 10 mins. Everyone else headed there first too it seemed. By the time we came off the queue was at 30 mins. Mental. We rode the Hippogriff thingy me bob and then the queue for Forbid Journey was 45 mins. I could only laugh. It was still only 9.30am. What would it be like at 12pm I thought......(120 mins at one point we noticed)
Dragon Challenge wasn't open and we were reliably informed it would open at Noon so we headed off for a wander around to get some pics of the scenery. They really did out do themselves with this one. So impressive. You almost feel like you're there for real even though it's a made up place. Butterbeer done....and off we went.
We then headed back to the front of the park towards Hulk and Spiderman. The wait times for both were 15-20 mins so we did both before the rest of the people arrived. Both fantastic attractions. It was just short of 10.30am and we'd done arguably the 3 best rides on park already (possibly unfairly excluding Jurrasic Park which I loved also). We then went on the Dr Doom drop thing and then had another go on Hulk.
We then decided to take a break and explore the Dr Seus Area for a bit of a chill out. Really impressive if you have young kids not that we do. We did the Cat in the Hat and had a laugh though.
Earlyish Lunch time followed and then we decided it was time to get a bit wet in the sunshine. Ripsaw falls and the rapids were both AMAZING.......my mrs doesn't really like water rides but even she couldn't help but laugh at the literal soaking we were both given. By this point in time the Park was VERY VERY busy. Wait times were ridiculous for most things.
Time for Jurassic Park ride and the learning centre. Always been a bit of dinosaur nerd and a massive fan of the film franchise so I was eagly anticpating this one. It didn't fail to impress despite a 30 mins ish wait. WHAT. A. RIDE. Stunning !!!
We then headed back to WWHP to ride dragon challenege. Surprisingly the wait was only 20 mins but I suppose that's down to the sheer fact that two tracks are better than one syndrome. We rode both just because we could.
After deciding against waiting 90 mins for a 2nd go on Forbidden Jounrey, we finished the day with one more go on Hulk before heading to City walk for some cocktails and food.
Awesome day but our busy schedule of the last 4 days was catching up with us. Tired beyond belief. Can't wait to go back though.
Crowd Levels: 7 or 8 easily.
Staff: Awesome. Some of best I have ever seen. Had a photo with Spiderman (haha) and was speaking with him for a good 15 mins. Really nice guy. Even if he was really called Joel and from California.
Ride Count: 13-14 ( mainly because we arrived so early ) It would have been a lot less had we arrived an hour later.
Fav Attraction: Got to be Forbidden Journey. Although Jurrasic Park, Spiderman & Hulk were close runners up.
Similar to our day on tuesday at Universal Studios park......we arrived early and planned on staying for the duration. As it was only 5 mins from hotel we were amongst some of the first people to arrive and it proved vital we did. It was literally heaving with guests. Everyone seemed to head for IOA on all the buses that arrived when we did. I hardly saw a single person veer off to the right and head to Stuidos park. Crazy stuff.
Needless to say......we headed straight for the Wizarding World of HP. If these early crowds were anything to go by it was going to be a bloody busy day.......and so it proved to be. We Rode Forbidden Journey ride very first thing and WOWZERS !!! What a magnificient ride. Breath taking even. By the time we got there the wait time was about 10 mins. Everyone else headed there first too it seemed. By the time we came off the queue was at 30 mins. Mental. We rode the Hippogriff thingy me bob and then the queue for Forbid Journey was 45 mins. I could only laugh. It was still only 9.30am. What would it be like at 12pm I thought......(120 mins at one point we noticed)
Dragon Challenge wasn't open and we were reliably informed it would open at Noon so we headed off for a wander around to get some pics of the scenery. They really did out do themselves with this one. So impressive. You almost feel like you're there for real even though it's a made up place. Butterbeer done....and off we went.
We then headed back to the front of the park towards Hulk and Spiderman. The wait times for both were 15-20 mins so we did both before the rest of the people arrived. Both fantastic attractions. It was just short of 10.30am and we'd done arguably the 3 best rides on park already (possibly unfairly excluding Jurrasic Park which I loved also). We then went on the Dr Doom drop thing and then had another go on Hulk.
We then decided to take a break and explore the Dr Seus Area for a bit of a chill out. Really impressive if you have young kids not that we do. We did the Cat in the Hat and had a laugh though.
Earlyish Lunch time followed and then we decided it was time to get a bit wet in the sunshine. Ripsaw falls and the rapids were both AMAZING.......my mrs doesn't really like water rides but even she couldn't help but laugh at the literal soaking we were both given. By this point in time the Park was VERY VERY busy. Wait times were ridiculous for most things.
Time for Jurassic Park ride and the learning centre. Always been a bit of dinosaur nerd and a massive fan of the film franchise so I was eagly anticpating this one. It didn't fail to impress despite a 30 mins ish wait. WHAT. A. RIDE. Stunning !!!
We then headed back to WWHP to ride dragon challenege. Surprisingly the wait was only 20 mins but I suppose that's down to the sheer fact that two tracks are better than one syndrome. We rode both just because we could.
After deciding against waiting 90 mins for a 2nd go on Forbidden Jounrey, we finished the day with one more go on Hulk before heading to City walk for some cocktails and food.
Awesome day but our busy schedule of the last 4 days was catching up with us. Tired beyond belief. Can't wait to go back though.
Crowd Levels: 7 or 8 easily.
Staff: Awesome. Some of best I have ever seen. Had a photo with Spiderman (haha) and was speaking with him for a good 15 mins. Really nice guy. Even if he was really called Joel and from California.
Ride Count: 13-14 ( mainly because we arrived so early ) It would have been a lot less had we arrived an hour later.
Fav Attraction: Got to be Forbidden Journey. Although Jurrasic Park, Spiderman & Hulk were close runners up.
Last edited by Benjsh on Wed May 01, 2013 9:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Henry
- Member
- Posts: 216
- Joined: Fri Dec 07, 2012 5:23 pm
You can do Hollywood studios in half a day, most of it being the night. But to be fair I only rode Tower of Terror, Rock 'n' Rollercoaster and some other rides that I wanted to do, I also did Fantasmic.
The rest of the days, you can do other parks.
Day 1) Magic Kingdom.
Day 2) Waterpark (Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach or Wet 'n' Wild) and Hollywood Studios.
Day 3) Animal Kingdom.
Day 4) Universal Studios or Islands of Adventure (or both if you're feeling brave)
Day 5) Seaworld.
Day 6) Busch Gardens.
The rest of the days, you can do other parks.
Day 1) Magic Kingdom.
Day 2) Waterpark (Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach or Wet 'n' Wild) and Hollywood Studios.
Day 3) Animal Kingdom.
Day 4) Universal Studios or Islands of Adventure (or both if you're feeling brave)
Day 5) Seaworld.
Day 6) Busch Gardens.
Credit to Lewis97 for the signature!
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Benjsh
Day 6 - Sea World
Short and sweet this one. Long first week back at work.
Awesome place. Great shows and great rides. Really quiet so we managed about 3 goes on Manta and Kraken and Two on Atlantis as well as watching all the shows and seeing the exhibits. Love the place.
Crowd Level: 3 or 4
Staff: A bit sleepy in the shops and food places if I'm honest. The tour people and people in the shows are amazing though.
Ride Count: 8
Fav Ride: Kraken all day long. No idea why people rate Manta higher. Kraken is a BEAST. Manta is good but Kraken is something else. So fast and unrelenting.
Short and sweet this one. Long first week back at work.
Awesome place. Great shows and great rides. Really quiet so we managed about 3 goes on Manta and Kraken and Two on Atlantis as well as watching all the shows and seeing the exhibits. Love the place.
Crowd Level: 3 or 4
Staff: A bit sleepy in the shops and food places if I'm honest. The tour people and people in the shows are amazing though.
Ride Count: 8
Fav Ride: Kraken all day long. No idea why people rate Manta higher. Kraken is a BEAST. Manta is good but Kraken is something else. So fast and unrelenting.
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Benjsh
Here are a few Pictures that I promised earlier this week. I've only uploaded a few. There were over 400 from the two weeks in total so I've just picked a few good ones. (PART 1)
A couple of pics of The View from our Balcony when we arrived. Not too shabby eh?
Our First Full day spent at Magic Kingdom and Splash Mountain looking shiny new:
Cinderella Castle show for all the big softies out there:
Second Day at Busch Gardens. Montu Time !!!
I told you it was dead earlier in the trip report. Sheikra going around with empty cars. Walked on.....Woooo!
Gwazi in all it's glory:
Cheetah Hunt. My favourite coaster in Florida. So much fun.
A couple of pics of The View from our Balcony when we arrived. Not too shabby eh?
Our First Full day spent at Magic Kingdom and Splash Mountain looking shiny new:
Cinderella Castle show for all the big softies out there:
Second Day at Busch Gardens. Montu Time !!!
I told you it was dead earlier in the trip report. Sheikra going around with empty cars. Walked on.....Woooo!
Gwazi in all it's glory:
Cheetah Hunt. My favourite coaster in Florida. So much fun.
