Adrian Mateljan

Tuesday 26th May 2009

For our third day in Orlando we left the world of Disney and swapped it for the Universal Studios experience. We had bought our tickets back in the UK (14 day, 2 park tickets - though we were only going to use one day) including Universal Express Plus Passes for today only. Having elected to print them out at home, we ended up having to carry the two A4 sheets of paper - each - around with us for the entire day - as we were unable to swap them for the smaller park passes. This minor inconvenience was easily made up for by the decision to buy the Universal Express Plus Passes - which operate in pretty much the same way as the Disney FastPass system, with the following exceptions:

1. They are only available to those who have bought them, not everyone entering the park.
2. You can only use them once per ride (not an issue for us - we were attempting two parks in a single day, we weren’t planning on redoing anything…)
3. There is no getting a FastPass ticket and coming back later to use it - you just go straight through. Hence there is no limit of one FastPass at a time either.

Universal Studios Florida®

We arrived at the park bright and early - so early in fact that most of the attractions hadn’t opened yet - so our first experience was Shrek 4-D™. After an uninspiring lead in by one of the park attendants in the waiting chamber we entered the cinema proper for a wild cinematic experience. Not content with simple 3D effects and gimics (spiders, blown air, water spray) - the chairs actually move! Combined with the on screen antics of Shrek and Donkey, it was very easy to get caught up in the action and feel like you were actually there, galloping along with them as they seek to rescue Princess Fiona, again.

Next up, my favourite for the day - The Simpsons Ride. Probably the longest wait, even with our express passes, but definately worth it. A roller coaster ride with a difference (actually, I am not sure that it actually *is* a roller coaster), the ride sees you on a roller coaster in Krustyland alongside the Simpsons family - with the added twist that Sideshow Bob is destroying the coaster *while you are on it* in another attempt to kill Bart. The ride is enclosed, so all you can see is the projected Simpsons cartoon, as whatever mechanics make up the ride convince you that you are actually living through the mayhem - including drops, turns, missing track and giant robots - not to mention Springfield and all the characters you know and love.

After the fun of the first two rides, I found the Men In Black™ Alien Attack™ ride was a bit of a let down - being more frustrating than fun. Armed with a blaster, you mission is to kill as many invading aliens as possible.  I found spotting and hitting the aliens difficult - and I’m sure my “big red button” didn’t work on the end boss. Lou fared better, comfortably beating my score. All in all the Toy Story Midway Mania of Disney’s Hollywood Studios was a lot more fun.

Our next stop was the Jaws® ride. Unlike with Shrek, the attendant here (who admittantly is actually part of the experience) was very enthusiastic about his work - which was the highlight of the ride, as, well, its just difficult to spruce up a boat on rails and a mechanical shark.

Continuing around the park landed us at Revenge of the Mummy®, an actual bonafide roller coaster. This was a fun ride, without being exceptional. The effects were different (for a roller coaster) and characterful, though perhaps let down by seeming a bit fake.

We headed back to Disaster! as it hadn’t been open when we passed it on the way to the Mummy, but we had missed the session. Instead we headed over to Mel’s Drive-In for lunch as well as checking out the Delorean and train from the Back to the Future movies.

Last stop for us here was the Terminator 2®: 3-D attraction, which was “Super!”. The mix of live action, special effects and 3-D film was very well done - and like the Jaws ride, the attendant entertaining us before the actual show did a great job of her character.

While there is a lot more to the park than just the rides we did above, the two main attractions we missed were the E.T. Adventure® (part of the Woody Woodpecker’s Kidzone®, which we didn’t feel the need to visit) and the Hollywood Rip, Ride Rockit! (which hasn’t been completed yet).

Universal’s Islands of Adventure®

Having finished with Universal Studios we headed across to Islands of Adventure for the afternoon. Deciding to get the wet rides over with first, we skipped the Marvel Super Hero Island and headed straight to the Toon Lagoon, where our first port of call was Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges®. And wet we got! My shoes didn’t dry out until the following day. This ride was a lot of fun and reminded me of the Grizzly River Run at Disney’s California Adventure® Park in Anaheim.

Next up was Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls®. Bypassing an hour long queue via our express passes, this reminded me of another Disney ride - Splash Mountain from the Disneyland® Park in Anaheim - complete with the same style (yet different) wacky cartoon characters, the same calm and safe atmosphere punctured with occasional drops and rapids and the same death defying drop at the end.

Completing the trifecta of wet, we moved on to the Jurassic Park River Adventure®, which also reminded me of a Disneyland® Park attraction - the Jungle Cruise. Except this time there were some distinct differences. For one, there is no tour guide on the Jurassic Park River Adventure (though there is audio). Secondly, there is no long drop on the Jungle Cruise (or dinosaurs for that matter). The start of this ride was actually quite atmospheric. The lead up to the drop, less so (it felt like they were trying too hard). The drop itself was quite an adrenaline rush - but as per ususal, was over too quickly.

Having done the wet rides, we continued around the park. Next up was the Dueling Dragons® - a roller coaster with a difference in that two coasters go at the same time, and the carriage is connected at the top so your legs dangle. Waiting in the queue, Lou was not too sure about this one - but we eventually made it on, riding the Ice (blue) dragon into battle. Lou survived - no doubt helped by the fact that we were in the middle of our carriage, making it difficult to see what was happening in front of you. Unlike some of the roller coasters we have been on, this one actually felt quite long. Interestingly, the area this ride is in is undergoing a Harry Potter transformation - so it may be themed differently in the future.

Moving on, we walked through the Lost Continent and Seuss Landing without stopping, bringing us back to Marvel Super Hero Island where we enjoyed our last ride for the day - The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man®. This was yet another slightly different experience - merging 3-D and mechanical in a more open environment as we witnessed (and took part in) a battle between Spider-Man and several of his foes. An excellent end to our day at the parks.

Again, there is a lot more at the park than what we did - though possibly the only rides we missed of note was The Eighth Voyage of Sindbad® Stunt Show and The Incredible Hulk Coaster® - which we were simply too coastered out to bring ourselves to do at the end of the day.

Aftermath

It was only coming up 3pm as we left Islands of Adventure, so we headed over to the local AMC to watch Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Afterwards we had perhaps the best dining experience of our holiday - quality, quantity and price - at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co Restaurant. We finished up with some souvenir shopping - t-shirt and hoodies for myself and Louisa. All in all a great day!

Catchya,
Adrian

Monday 25th May 2009 - Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Day two was Memorial Day in the US, so we were expecting the parks to be busier (and they were). Once again we headed off early for “Magic Hour” - this time at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I had planned out the day this time (with the help of a guide lent to me by one of my colleagues at work - thanks Alison!) - so there would be no missing anything of interest!

First up - the “Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster(R) Starring Aerosmith”. This was our first proper roller coaster for the week, and having seen the upside down car on the guitar strings outside - it wasn’t without a little bit of trepidation. The queue was already long enough for us to experience the mechanisms in place to keep us entertained while waiting, but being our first stop, we didn’t have to wait long. Lou became a little unsettled when she saw one of the cars before us literally take off - but then it was too late and we were buckled in for the ride. And what a ride it was! The launch at the start was probably the scariest part, as you are very quickly brought from a standing start up to full roller coaster speed (it reminded my of the coaster at Disney’s California Adventure in this respect) - but the ride is pretty much in almost complete darkness - so I can only say it felt like we were twisting and turning in on ourself, but who really knows? We came out exhilarated. It was awesome fun. The only negative? It felt very short!

Next we went past “Toy Story Midway Mania!” to pick up our fast pass tickets (and did we need them!) and then headed over to “Star Tours”. It all seemed very familiar - and it was - it was the same ride that we had done in Disneyland. After Lou was finished being distracted by a real life squirrel, we made our way through the Streets of America and ended up outside of the “Studio Backlot Tour”, waiting for it to open (first photo below).

The “Studio Backlot Tour” was fun and interesting and was broken up into two parts. The first part was a demonstration of special effects similiar to those used in the “Pearl Harbor” movie. The second photo below shows someone about to be drenched as if on a ship, while the third shows incoming torpedoes and explosions. They eventually ended up reordering the filmed scenes, splicing in additional footage and showing us the finished product!

The second part of the “Studio Backlot Tour” involves being driven around the backlot itself - checking out old props, hearing about the history of Disney, the parks, viewing the costume and engineering workshops etc and ends up with another special effects demonstration. This time it involved a semi trailer which you can see on fire in photo four and drenched in photo five. Unfortunately, still photos (especially from my iPhone) do not really do the effects justice. Photo six and seven are the Streets of America and the Monsters Inc photo opportunity respectively, as seen from the tour. Apparently they use the Streets of America for filming (it is life size) - remodelling it as necessary. The skyscrapers in the background is just a painted wall.

Next we used our fast passes to get into “Toy Story Midway Mania!”. This ended up being the longest fast pass queue we were in for the entire week. It is basically a target practice game with the Toy Story crew - but that description does not do it any justice at all. The target practice is all in 3D and you have a set time at each station before being whisked away to the next. All the while you can see your score - and compare it to your partner’s. Lou got an early lead, but in the end I prevailed quite comfortably. This was immense fun and I can fully understand the wait times. Unfortunately, this was one of the most boring queues.

From “Toy Story Midway Mania!” we raced across to see the “Indiana Jones(TM) Epic Stunt Spectactular!” where more special effects were the order of the day as they demonstrated scenes similiar to those in the various Indiana Jones movies. You can see Indiana making his entrance in photo eight (complete with falling styrofoam “rocks”), being chased by a styrofoam “boulder” in photo nine and re-enacting the plane scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark in photo ten. The bit where the Nazi boxer gets hit by the spinning propeller was particularly memorable (he disappeared *very* quickly down a trap door). Again, the photos do not do the event justice - nor do they capture the fight scenes, explosions or audience participation.

We had lunch at the “Hollywood Brown Derby” as the “50’s Prime Time Cafe” which was Lou’s original choice was booked out. Note to self - grapefruit cake tastes, surprise surprise, like grapefruit - which I don’t like!

We then rushed over to see the “Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show” (photo eleven.) Sitting in a huge stadium, we got to see the action unfold, complete with information about the vehicles, drivers, stunts and various special effects tricks used. Photo twelve shows the “ballet chase” - the red car is the “good guy” being chased. Photo thirteen shows the chase going across the ramp - the red car is already across and went over backwards, or did he? Turns out they had two red cars and this one literally drives facing out of the rear of the car! If you take a close look at photo fourteen, you can see a guy falling from the top of the building.

Photo fifteen shows the jetski getting involved (why not?) while photo sixteen shows one of the chasing motorcyclists on fire - after having slid through the fire across the tarmac - all planned of course. Its quite comical really - the guy involved dresses up in all kinds of cooling and flame retardant gear before being doused in something flammable so that he lights up instantly. It is all very controlled though - do not try this as home!

Photo seventeen shows the final explosion while photo eighteen shows the cast at the end. Note there are three red cars - the one on the right has a driver strapped on to the side so that the car can appear to drive without a driver. This was used to great effect when they asked a twelve year old from the audience to remote control drive their shiny red car (obviously, he wasn’t really driving it at all - but not before a couple of close shaves and some panicking.)

On our way out of the stadium I caught a glimpse of the old Mickey Mouse One plane (photo nineteen). We started to get down to the less popular attractions - “The Great Movie Ride” was interesting, but nothing special and the “Journey Into Narnia: Prince Caspian” added nothing if you have seen the film. With that, we called it a day and made our way to the exit. We caught a brief glimpse of the Block Party Bash parade (photo twenty) on our way out.

In the end, we missed a few popular items for various reasons. The “Twilight Zone(TM) Tower of Terror” and “Jim Henson’s Muppet*Vision 3-D” as we had done them previously at Disney’s California Adventure. “Voyage of the Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast - Live on Stage” because Lou simply wasn’t interested in seeing them. The only real disappointment was missing “Fantasmic!” - which wasn’t on that night, presumably because it was Memorial Day.

We headed into Downtown Disney for the afternoon/evening. Photos twenty one and twenty two show various Lego monstrosities outside of the LEGO(R) Imagination Centre, while photos twenty three and twenty four show some of Downtown Disney itself. We ended up going to see Terminator Salvation at the AMC Theatres (review to follow) and finished the day with a meal at Fulton’s Crab House. Unfortunately this was our worst value for money meal on our stay - being one of the more expensive places we dined at and lacking in both quality and quantity. As a comparison, we got better quality and quantity at the Hollywood Brown Derby - the most expensive restaurant at Disney’s Holywood Studios - for slightly less cost.

After a successful day, Lou let me plan out the next day’s adventure at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. But you will have to wait for the next installment for that! Until then, bye!

Adrian

EPCOT

Sunday 24th May 2009 - Epcot

Day one saw us off to Epcot - the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow - the largest of the Disney World parks. We left early to catch the morning “Magic Hour” - where the park opens an hour earlier for people staying in Disney World accommadation.

First up, Future World starting with Spaceship Earth (which you can see the outside of in the photo.) A relaxing ride through history portrayed by animatronics and narrated by (because we chose UK as our home, I’m sure) Judi Dench. This first part was interesting, but not awe inspiring. The second part, however, was a riot. Using the interactive display we had the chance to predict the future by nominating areas of interest to us. This resulted in a cartoon presentation of what the future might be like, complete with cut outs of our heads (from a previously taken photo near the start) which was hilarious.

We then moved on to the Test Track, a simulated vehicle test course. This ride got off to a slow and somewhat lame start (testing suspension, breaking - with and without ABS, extremes of temperature and handling) but the “speed test” at the end made for an exhilarating finale.

Next up was Mission: Space, a simulated journey from Earth to Mars. We chose the advanced training (orange track) - of course - for the full experience. This was quite cool. Unfortunately the confined space and centripetal forces (to simulate taking off, acceleration, landing etc) unsettled Lou for the rest of the morning.

Taking a rest we ended up buying hats from one of the Disney “Mouse Gear” stores and walking around Innoventions where we picked up our Kim Possible “Team Possible” mission - more on that later.

Next stop was the Univerity of Energy - which was fun. The ride itself was very impressive (the whole “cinema” moved) as was the prehistoric area at the start. Afterwards we had a brief walk through the butterly garden.

By this time we were starting to get hungry so we entered the World Showcase. Our Kim Possible “Team Possible” mission required us to rendevous in Norway, so we skipped Mexico. The mission was a bit more convoluted than we had expected and had us moving all over Norway looking for Camille Leon. While fun to start with, complete with Kimmunicator and assistance from Wade, Kim and Ron, it did start to get old pretty fast. Hence we did not take up the option for further missions. We were ravenous by now - and so continued on past Germany, Italy and the American Adventure to have lunch at Japan at Teppan Edo, teppanyaki style - which was very good.

After lunch we browsed the stores and bazaars of Japan and Morocco before visiting a patisserie in France (too much mousse!) and stopping for Lou to smell the scent gardens. We skipped the United Kingdom and continued on to Canada to watch O Canada! which was more a tourism infomercial than anything else - but still managed to be entertaining. The 360 degree cinema was not enough to convince Lou that we didn’t need to revisit Canada sometime in the future…

Back to Future World and Honey, I Shrank the Audience - which I think we saw five years ago in Disneyland, Anaheim. Unfortunately the 3D was mostly fuzzy (bad glasses?) and the pre-show was blatant Kodak advertising which I thought was unnecessary. Otherwise entertaining.

By this time we were getting pretty tired on our feet, so The Seas With Nemo and Friends, while nothing special, gave us a chance to sit down. We also sat in on Turtle Talk With Crush, which was awesome. Watching Crush interact with the kids in the audience - asking and answering questions - has to be seen to be believed.

We finished up by visiting the Sea Base Alpha Gift Shop where we picked up a mug and shirt (for Lou) with the seagulls from Finding Nemo chanting Mine! Mine! Mine! before heading back to the resort. In the end we missed a number of the attractions - Soarin’ because we had done this five years ago at Disney’s California Adventure, Anaheim. Maelstrom (in Norway) and the American Adventure due to lack of planning. We also didn’t stay long enough for the IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth fireworks - so we have a number of things to see should we return.

Being completely exhausted, we ordered in pizza and, with the intention of not missing anything the following day, I planned out our day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios…

To be continued…

Saturday 23rd May 2009 - Flights to Miami and Orlando

Lou and I were up early to drive to Heathrow Airport, having dropped Kobe off with a dog sitter and done our packing the day before. Lou had organised parking for us with driveFly, so we only had to hand our keys over once we got to the airport at 5am.

Our American Airlines flight to Miami was delayed, so we were a little concerned about catching our connecting flight to Orlando (our flight was meant to land at 12:40pm and our connecting flight was at 2:25pm). We must have got into Miami well before 2pm, but it was past 2:25pm by the time we got through immigration. We were lucky in that our connecting flight was also delayed - delayed so much in fact that it didn’t depart until 3:25pm - and then was held up on the runway as we waited for the Florida afternoon storm to roll by. We were going to get to Disney a bit later than expected…

On the flight to Orlando I managed to get a window seat, so I got a good look at Miami from the air - a very flat landscape with a very orderly, wet layout. As always, these aerial views of cities remind me of SimCity and make me consider installing it once again. Orlando was similiar, though what I saw seemed to have more trees and vegetation. This was more apparent from the ground in the back of our Lincoln Town Car care of Happy Limousine.

We picked up some groceries on the way to the Disney’s Old Key West Resort, checked in, had dinner at Olivia’s (the on-site restaurant) and had our “Disney’s 7 Day Premium Tickets” activated on our room key - all ready to start the fun the next day!