Universal CA or Universal Orlando

kirst_al UK

kirst_al UK

Member
Original Poster
What do people think of Universal CA compared to Universal FL?

We have never been but are hoping to go next year - if you could have one or the other which one would you choose and why?

:shrug:
 
dandaman

dandaman

Well-Known Member
I don't know much about Universal Studios Hollywood, but I do know it's:

- one park, versus Orlando's two

- both have CityWalk

- many rides in Hollywood are the same as the ones at Orlando's Studios park

- paralleling this, Backdraft (Hollywood) = Twister (Orlando). Again, many of Hollywood's rides are duplicated.

- The biggest advantage to Hollywood is the actual studio property, where many of their films are shot. Because of this, the Studio Tour is the best feature that UO doesn't have.

Now, as for Universal Orlando's advantages:

- a whole other park (Islands of Adventure), which some say rivals Disney for themeing

- 3 world-class hotels

- many other attractions right next door (not that the same can't be said for Hollywood!)

In other words, even though I've never been to either (yet), I say take Universal Orlando. :wave:
 
Skip

Skip

Well-Known Member
Universal Orlando is far superior. They have two parks and 3 excellent hotels, plus CityWalk. Universal Hollywood is one smaller park with a scaled down CityWalk. Also, many of the stuff at Hollywood is straight from Orlando (Terminator 2 3D, Shrek 4D, Fear Factor Live, Back to the Future) and others are variations from Orlando (Jurassic Park, Revenge of the Mummy). The big draw of Hollywood is their excellent Studio Tour, which actually takes you on most of their backlot where they actually shoot the movies. However, Orlando has Islands of Adventure, a world class theme park with immersive theming and great attractions.

Orlando wins big time in my book, though Hollywood is good for a one day excursion. :)

-Skip
 
kcnole

kcnole

Well-Known Member
- paralleling this, Backdraft (Hollywood) = Twister (Orlando). Again, many of Hollywood's rides are duplicated.
Click to expand...

Not true. Backdraft > Twister.

As for a day of attractions I think USO is probably the better park for repeat visits. However USH has the three hour I believe tour which is the hilight of the day. (I'm not comparing USH against USO and IOA for this comparison since they're two seperate parks. I'm just comparing the studios park at both locations). So with the addition of a better backdraft and the tour I'd give USO a slight edge but not by much because that tour is wonderful.

However if the question is for which resort is better as a whole. I'll take Orlando due to the extra park and the hotels. I definitely think that Hollywood is worth visiting though.
 
Skip

Skip

Well-Known Member
Valawen9 said:
4 rides?! That's IT? Pfft. I wouldn't even waste my time.
Click to expand...

It's not like they're bad rides... the rides are Back to the Future, Revenge of the Mummy, Jurassic Park, and the Studio Tour. Revenge of the Mummy is short but really cool, Jurassic Park is great, BTTF is a classic, and of course the Studio Tour is the highlight of the day.

Of course, that's not all the park offers. There's also the walk-through Van Helsing Fortress Dracula, several shows including Shrek 4D, Terminator 2:3D, Fear Factor Live, the spectacular Water World, and more. There's also the Nicktoon Blast water-play area, plus tons of street entertainment.

IMO Hollywood is definately worth your time, but only for about a day. Plenty of time to see everything w/ proper planning! :)

-Skip
 
kcnole

kcnole

Well-Known Member
I believe the full list of attractions is:

The Studio Tour (Probably the main attraction in the park)
Revenge of the Mummy
Shrek 4-D
Jurassic Park
Fear Factor Live
Terminator 2: 3-D
WaterWorld
Nickelodeon Blast Zone
Back to the Future
The Special Effects Stages
Universal's Animal Actors
Backdraft
 
J

JT3000

Well-Known Member
Valawen9 said:
4 rides?! That's IT? Pfft. I wouldn't even waste my time.
Click to expand...

To it's credit, MGM only has one more.

kcnole said:
As for a day of attractions I think USO is probably the better park for repeat visits. However USH has the three hour I believe tour which is the hilight of the day.
Click to expand...

You're thinking of Gilligan's Island. USH's studio tour is "officially" 45 minutes (and will soon be shrinking due to their weird development plan.)

And just for comparison's sake, here's the full list of USF attractions:

Revenge of the Mummy
Men in Black: Alien Attack
Terminator 2: 3-D
JAWS
Shrek 4-D
E.T. Adventure
Back to the Future
Earthquake
Fear Factor Live
Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast
Beetlejuice's Graveyard Revue
Twister -- Ride it Out
Universal's Horror Make-up Show
Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster
Animal Actors
Curious George Goes to Town
A Day in the Park with Barney
Fievel's Playland
Lucy -- A Tribute
The Blues Brothers

and IOA:

The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man
The Incredible Hulk Coaster
Jurassic Park River Adventure
Dueling Dragons*
Poseidon's Fury: Escape from the Lost City
Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls
Popeye & Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges
The Cat in the Hat
Doctor Doom's Fear Fall
High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride*
The Flying Unicorn
Pteronadon Flyers
The 8th Voyage of Sinbad
The Caro-Seuss-el
Camp Jurassic
Storm Force Accelatron
If I Ran the Zoo
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
Jurassic Park Discovery Center
Me Ship the Olive

* These attractions have two different tracks, resulting in two different ride experiences.

(Yes, this was all off the top of my head. If I'm missing anything, feel free to chime in.)
 
Welsh Tink

Welsh Tink

New Member
Universal Hollywood is really small. We were there for a day last July, did everything more than once, stopped to have lunch, drinks and stuff, and never felt like we were rushing around.

The best part of it for us though was that it is a working studio. They were filming ' Desperate Housewives ' on our first studio tour ( got to go down Wisteria Lane the second tour we did, as they had then finished filming ), and Orlando Bloom kindly stopped and got out of his car to wave at us as we rode by. For that reason alone, Hollywood wins everytime!!
 
maelstrom

maelstrom

Well-Known Member
I much prefer USH for the scenery. You have a great view of the Hollywood hills and you can see other studios from Universal (WB is one that I can remember). The park is on two levels and you have to go down these four massive escalators to get to the lower level (and back up). That is an attraction in itself. The USH studio tour is also around two hours long and contains King Kong, Earthquake, and Jaws all within the tour. I also prefer California's Citywalk to Orlando's.
 
J

JT3000

Well-Known Member
If the studio tour is your motivation for visiting USH, I would strongly recommend going now. It will all but cease to exist in the near future.
 
maelstrom

maelstrom

Well-Known Member
JT3000 said:
If the studio tour is your motivation for visiting USH, I would strongly recommend going now. It will all but cease to exist in the near future.
Click to expand...

Says who? King Kong, Earthquake, and Jaws are all contained within the studio tour. But then again, they tore out the entire E.T. ride and area, so I guess Universal doesn't care much about... anything.
 
J

Julius & Boobah

Member
Don't go all the way from Hull just to do USH. If you're going to the West cost do a Drive and go from San Francisco to Anaheim and visit Disney Land and Disney's California Adventure, do Hollywood and USH visit the Grand Canyon and then end up in Vegas.

That's what we did and it was awesome...

Please don't go all that way to visit USH it's a bit sucky... all the rides are in Florida anyway however the tour was AMAZING but not worth planning your whole trip around... besides the Back To The Future Courthouse square has been ruined by Fires/Neglect and the Ghost Whisperer, so that isn't even that great anymore.

GO to the westcoast because you want to and if you get chance after doing all the above then go to USH but otherwise Universal Orlando wins hands down every time.
 

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