This past weekend, I made my first official trip to Universal Studios. I was just ready to try something a little bit different, and Universal was offering a really great annual pass deal for Florida residents. I had the good fortune to have a fellow Disney nerd along to show me around. Here are my thoughts:
Things I liked:
Things I liked:
- I was impressed with lots of the theming. In particular, I really liked the architecture and detailing of Port of Entry and Lost Continent at IOA, and I thought the New York section of US blew the Streets of America out of the water in terms of details. I also thought that the theming in Toon Lagoon was extremely clever and well-done.
- Many of the attractions are really fantastic. Spider Man was as awesome as advertised, and definitely met my expectations. Jurassic Park was also quite good, though I thought the dinosaurs could have looked a little better in some places. MIB: Alien Attack beats the heck out of Buzz Lightyear, though I'm on the fence whether I like it better than Toy Story Mania or not (I think TSM might have the edge). The Mummy was also seriously cool. The Simpsons Ride had lots of fun little theme park references--some subtle, some not.
- The food that I had was very good, and a little bit lower-priced than comparable WDW food. They also gave AAA discounts!
- On the whole, crowds were much lighter than at WDW.
- Advertising for Universal's services tends to be much more in-your-face than Disney's. I thought that posters touting Universal's Express Pass right in the regular ride queues was in poor taste and very out-of-theme. They also really push the all-you-can-eat meal deal. I passed by several Uni employees yelling out "ALL YOU CAN EAT! $20!" Their photographers and credit card application people are also much more disruptive than their Disney counterparts.
- Maintenance seemed to be at a slightly lower standard than Disney. Not horrible...but not tremendously great, either.
- Employee appearance standards seemed to be a little more lax. The first Uni employee that I saw was not clean-shaven and was wearing a backwards-facing baseball cap. However, this did seem to be the exception rather than the rule. Most seemed to be somewhat similar in appearance to the Disney Look, with a few exceptions.
- I really wasn't impressed with Shrek 4-D. The film was very good, but I found the really rough motion of the seats far more distracting than anything. There was some good theme park humor involved, though.
- Most of the major rides require that you stow any carry-on items in lockers that are free for a relatively short time. I really wish they'd have designed the ride vehicles to hold backpacks and the like. I found it to be a bit of a hassle, and would stress out a bit about making it back to the locker before it started charging me money.
I just thought the Simpson Ride was a bit much (this is just my opinion), I thought it was super violent. We rode the ride along side a family with younger childern and I just kept thinking that if I had young ones I would have been horrified! 
