My Universal Review(both parks - one day)

[po1998]

Purchased a 1 day, two park pass w/unlimited front of the line access...~$310. Went on a Sunday a couple of weeks ago.

Some thoughts...


- In anticipation of screen burnout, I took a dramimine on the way to the parks.

- Sometimes front of the line worked great. Other times we waited at least 30 minutes.

- The theming of the two Harry Potter lands is FANTASTIC. Can't wait to see future expansions of the lands.

- Did not have a butter beer, but the lines for the carts were at least 10-15 people deep, morning, noon and night. I'd say it's a money maker!

- I'm not sure why, but I expected more out of the fire breathing dragon other than a two second blast of fire. LOL

- I was fine with the screen based rides...until I rode FJ. Not sure if it was the screens or the motion of the vehicle, but I came off the ride, feeling a little woozy.

- After my first FJ experience, the rides with a lot of "fast motion" in the screens, forced me to just close my eyes...Simpsons and Jimmy Fallon in particular. I was okay on Transformers, Gringotts, Spiderman, Minions, etc.. Tried FJ one more time right before park closing, and the second time, I resorted to closing my eyes for large portions of the ride. By that time, I think I had enough.

- I thought Kong was tremendous. I had heard some so-so reviews on it.

- Spiderman is still GREAT, despite its age.

- I thought the parks were very well kept up and clean.

- Did not encounter any sub-par employees.

- The screening area at the top of the escalators is a crazy zoo. I can't even imagine it, at busier times of the year.

- Probably my top 3 attractions in no particular order...Gringotts, Mummy & Kong...with honorable mention to Spiderman.

In summary, I think we got a LOT more done than if we had not purchased the front of the line pass, but the eye popping $310 for one day, was definitely a one and done experience. Did not do either of the big coasters, nor the water rides due to no change of clothes, but hit all of the other main attractions twice in an eleven hour period.

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

Thanks for your review! We went last year but booked one night at RPR so we got 2 days plus free EP's for both days. That worked out great. I felt the same way with FJ. I was dizzy and nauseated after that. Never rode it again. Our favorites were HP world, of course, MIB, the Mummy and Minions. The HP area was just amazing and the ride on Universal side was fantastic. The immersion into the story is amazing.

We tried a one day trip once, and got EP's for one park, Universal studios side. It was expensive, but we did miss IOA.
Glad you had a great time. We enjoyed the ease of getting to and riding the attractions, sometimes we rode MIB over and over
The lack of pressure to get to a fp or adr was also great. It felt like a vacation shouldbe to me; ie: no stress, no hurry, do what you want when you want and as many times as you want, eat where you want, etc.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

- I thought Kong was tremendous. I had heard some so-so reviews on it.

I also thought Kong was better than reviews on this site had suggested it was.

 

[lebeau]

I also thought Kong was better than reviews on this site had suggested it was.

Kong's a good ride. Some people weren't going to be satisfied with it because it employs screens. But if you can get past that, it's solid.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Kong's a good ride. Some people weren't going to be satisfied with it because it employs screens. But if you can get past that, it's solid.

You couldn't do what happens in the 360 room without screens. I'd like it if the first two indoor scenes had more practical figures and set pieces, but that's the only complaint I have about the ride. I think the queue is one of the best I've ever seen.

 

[Horizons '83]

Wow $310 for a day. That's about what I paid for a season pass which I use to get discounted rooms in the resorts that have express pass built in. I had to get a room any ways but the higher end hotels can be very reasonable with an AP. My last stay was at The Portifino coming out to about $200 a night. Don't know if I just caught that right or what? I booked it and the price actually went down one week so I booked again at the cheaper rate, the week after that the rates had gone up past my original rate. If you are flexible which I am because I don't live that far away from Orlando the AP's can work out very well. I've been to the parks 9 days this year.

I don't think Kong gets a fair deal on reviews on this forum, it's not a bad ride at all.

BTW you are at Universal during a very busy time it's spring break. I went to WDW last weekend and I had to use all my planning abilities to make that work out decently because of the crowds and some stuff we just couldn't go on. I was there to check out Panadora and I can say the The Flight of Passage is top notch. That ride will have a two hour stand by line forever I think. AK has stepped up it's game, still not a full day park but I could probably make it one if I felt like it and I hadn't been to it before. It out does Epcot and DHS for sure at least for me.

YEah the Florida Discount is fantastic. I wish I still lived there.

I think you just so happened to catch an amazing deal at the Portifino, I've never seen it that cheap.

 

[UpAllNight]

The issue with Potter is it makes the other areas of Islands look a little dated imo. After visiting Potter I can’t help but feel like Marvel and Jpark are currently somewhat wasted opportunities. Islands is a fantastic park though.

I agree Kong didn’t deserve the slating it got. They overhyped it massively, and as good as the AA is, it’s completely random at the end of the ride, but I found the action engaging and I was well involved. I prefer it to every screen ride in the Studios park, other than Gringotts.

I think you could take any of Universals screen rides, plop them into any other park in the world, and they’d be received much better. The overkill is killing Universal, especially the Studios park. The rides are actually great, but the park experience needs work. Desperate to hear something beyond speculation about their future plans.

 

[JoeCamel]

The issue with Potter is it makes the other areas of Islands look a little dated imo. After visiting Potter I can’t help but feel like Marvel and Jpark are currently somewhat wasted opportunities. Islands is a fantastic park though.

I agree Kong didn’t deserve the slating it got. They overhyped it massively, and as good as the AA is, it’s completely random at the end of the ride, but I found the action engaging and I was well involved. I prefer it to every screen ride in the Studios park, other than Gringotts.

I think you could take any of Universals screen rides, plop them into any other park in the world, and they’d be received much better. The overkill is killing Universal, especially the Studios park. The rides are actually great, but the park experience needs work. Desperate to hear something beyond speculation about their future plans.

They have stated they are done with screens for the future (leave out F&F) so things are looking up. They proved they could do screens and hopefully screens will allow them to update what they have but now they will go a totally different direction.

In addition to updating Spiderman to 4K last year they have upgraded FJ in the last month to 4K. This is the beauty of screens.

 

[raven]

In addition to updating Spiderman to 4K last year they have upgraded FJ in the last month to 4K. This is the beauty of screens.

FJ just completed the HD screen swapout and it makes all the difference now. No more blurry feeling since now you can easily focus on the screens. But yes, it is an attraction that people quite frequently get sick on. Just read those waning signs well and there will be no surprises.

Each attraction’s description at the entrance makes the rides sound more intense than what they actually are. But it’s better to be prepared for any contingency than not getting enough in the discription.

By the way, FJ only moves at 5mph. It’s the screens that make it seem faster though.

 

[JoeCamel]

FJ just completed the HD screen swapout and it makes all the difference now. No more blurry feeling since now you can easily focus on the screens. But yes, it is an attraction that people quite frequently get sick on. Just read those waning signs well and there will be no surprises.

Each attraction’s description at the entrance makes the rides sound more intense than what they actually are. But it’s better to be prepared for any contingency than not getting enough in the discription.

By the way, FJ only moves at 5mph. It’s the screens that make it seem faster though.

Just like Kong. Stationary vehicle going 40MPH. What a wonderful organ the brain is - so easily tricked

 

[Tom Morrow]

Interesting that you thought it was well kept up and clean. I frequent all of the Orlando parks a lot, and both Universal parks, especially Studios, are by far the dirtiest in my perception. But I could be biased so its nice to see what first time visitors think.

 

[macefamily]

Great review. I totally agree on your top ride choices. You were down there at a very busy time. I just checked out the wait times today, at all of the Disney and Universal parks, and it's crazy. Most are in excess of 45 minutes with the prime rides going 60 to 120 minutes. When we went to our first Horror Nights at Universal last September, we went on a Thursday night and we bought the Express Passes. We managed to hit every single house. That's hard to do so those Express Passes really helped.