We went to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida on August 14, 2007. This report is based on our one day experience at Universal. Your mileage may vary.
Let me say up front that we are NOT theme park people. In witness of that fact, we had NEVER been to a theme park in Florida even though we have owned a house in Florida since 1998 and Carol has been a full time resident of Florida for over a year now. The last theme park we went to, anywhere, was King’s Dominion in Virginia, probably 6 years ago now. We did not really do any research on the parks before we went other than through the Universal Orlando website, which does have quite a bit of info on it. The impetus of this trip was that we got a coupon in the mail which allowed us entrance to both parks on a single day for $40 for the two of us. For that price, how bad could it be, eh, since the regular price for two people for both parks would have been about $160. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" /> You can buy a ticket to just one of the parks, although I suspect that 95% of people get the two park tickets, as it’s not really that much cheaper for one park. You just keep your physical ticket and you can go back and forth between both parks as many times as you want in the day by scanning the ticket. We had a wonderful time although we’re not sure we would do it again at the regular price. We basically did everything that we wanted to do in a single day in both parks, although we didn’t do everything there WAS to do. BTW, they do have a 7 day consecutive pass that’s $86 per person.. They do have several types of tickets which are cheaper if purchased online, so take a look at that if you’re considering coming.
Parking at Universal is all in parking garages, $11 per day. Parking was very organized and stress free, and even though we stayed until the parks closed at 10 PM, we had no problem getting out of the park when we left. We were on I 4 within probably 5 minutes of when we got back to our car, around 10:30 PM.
Once you park, there are moving sidewalks and walkways to get you to City Walk, which is a section of several restaurants and some entertainment venues which is just outside the parks. You can go to City Walk without going to the parks. If you live really close, it would be an option for a fun evening. There is a Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville, a Hard Rock Café, and Emeril’s and a bunch of other stuff there. We started off at Islands of Adventure, which is to the basically straight ahead as you go past Margaritaville. Universal is off to the far right, further to the right of the Hard Rock Café. We had intended ahead of time to go to Universal first, but with the heat, it actually worked out better for us to go to IOA first, as that seemed to involve more walking between the attractions and less time sitting inside in the a/c. BTW, pick up a park map just as to go into each park, as maybe there were other places to pick up maps inside, but we didn’t see any. We also did not see any billboards, etc., with map stuff inside the parks.
Our discount ticket had to be used by August 31, and since we knew the temperatures were going to be right around 100 degrees–and in light of how cheap we got the regular tickets-- we sprang an extra $30 per person for Express Passes, which got us to a really short line for all the big attractions. Allegedly the Express Pass is good only once per ride per day. However, we were able to get in to Spiderman and Men In Black twice with the express pass. The guy or gal at the Express Pass line is supposed to initial your paper to show that you’ve already used it once for that ride, but most times they didn’t. We didn’t try to use it on any of the other rides twice, but I doubt it would really have been a big deal to use it more than once anywhere. Express Passes can be purchased online and the price varies by the date you want to use them. I’m really glad that we spent the extra money for them, in light of the heat. The temperature was right around 100 when we went, but we did not stand out in the sun ever. Most of the lines at both parks are either inside or at least under cover, so you are generally not out in the sun anyway. On several of the attractions, the signs which indicated wait times were 50 to 60 minutes, but with the Express Pass, we never waited for any ride more than around 5 minutes. The park really didn’t seem that crowded to us and the lines not that long, so I’m not sure whether those signs were really correct on the regular wait times or not. On many rides, we pretty much just walked up, through an entire long snaking line. When you purchase the Express Pass online, you can receive it by email and just print it out and just take it with you to the park. You don’t need to do anything else to activate it at the park. You probably should print out your confirmation number from the online purchase in case there is a problem, but we didn’t have any problem with it. You need that physical piece of paper to show at each ride, so especially if you want to do some water rides, you probably should bring a plastic baggie to stick it in.
We brought a small bag with us, with two frozen water bottles, and a change of clothes for each of us. There are lockers around several places in both parks, $8 for the day with unlimited access during the day. You can pay for them with a credit card, and entrance is by a number code that you make up. This was definitely worth it for us, as we stashed the bag first thing and went back several times, to retrieve our water, for the change of clothes after the water rides, to stash my hat and our sunglasses after the water went down, etc. And BTW, I’m not sure how many people would actually do it, but you can apparently bring in food if you want, as that’s what their website says. They only do a very cursory bag check outside of City Walk. We were glad we brought the frozen water bottles and for the change of clothes after the water rides, before dinner.
OK, so, talk about the rides already!!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/impatient.gif" alt="" />
Islands of Adventure-Not necessarily in any order...
*Spiderman–We thought Spiderman was by far the best ride in either park. Really cool effects, great ride! We did it twice with the Express Pass. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Banana.gif" alt="" />
* Dudley Doright’s Ripsaw Falls–the animated creatures are really lame, but this is a classic log flume ride, with a couple of extra smaller little slides thrown in. Nice little ride, you’ll get pretty wet, even before the last free fall plunge.
* Popeye and Bluto Bilge Rat Barges–this is the round rubber raft ride over the river rapids. We hadn’t been on one in a long time, but a new innovation since we’ve been on one, is a relatively dry covered space in the center of the boat to put your shoes, etc. Very nice ride.
* Jurassic Park River Adventure–fairly lame water ride, the dinosaurs weren’t bad, although not as lifelike as one would have thought they should be. Small waterfall thing at the end.
* Duelling Dragons–this was the only roller coaster we went on. Pretty nice coaster, several upside down turns, NO jerking around of your head, etc., which was nice. BTW, I don’t think there was a regular wooden coaster at IOA at all.
* The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad–Stunts and special effects show. Pretty lame, but indoors, out of the sun, and you can sit down, but no a/c. Worth it to sit down for a while, maybe interesting for kids, but I was bored.
Universal–again, not necessarily in any order..
* Men in Black Alien Attack–My favorite thing in Universal. This one is great if you like the MIB movies. Basically, you get to shoot monsters and the computer keeps track of your score. Eric’s was much higher than mine! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Sad.gif" alt="" /> With the Express Pass, we were able to walk off, walk around and get right back on again. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/pirate.gif" alt="" />
*Shrek 4 D–Cute animation, nice if you like Shrek movies, very enjoyable. Basically just a movie experience, but very worth it, unless you don’t like Shrek..
* Revenge of the Mummy–Nice, scary special effects, I’m not a big fan of the Mummy movies, Eric liked this one better than I did. One of the few ‘rides’ as such at Universal.
*Twister–an old attraction, nice to do once
*The Blues Brothers–they sing at various times out on the street, nice, high energy show
*Terminator 2:3D–If you’re a fan of the movies and buy into the premise, it’s really cool. The show inside the theatre started off kinda lame, but the effects at the end were very cool. A mixture of live action figures and special effects.
* Universal Horror Makeup Show–I kinda didn’t want to do this one, but it was really very interesting and the guys were kinda funny. It’s basically a show where you sit them talk about and demonstrate horror effects in the movies. You watch in a regular theatre setting, inside with a/c, which was a good thing. Well worth doing.
* Jaws–reallllly old. OK little boat ride.
*Earthquake–really old, but kinda fun..
*Evening finale show–I’m not sure if this is available during the winter or not, but until August 18, there is an evening light show with lasers and fireworks and pictures displayed on the huge spheres out in the lagoon at Universal, with clips from many great Universal pictures. It was a wonderful finale to the evening. It was at 9:45, which is just before the park closed. As of August 19, the park is closing at 8, so not sure of the status of that show after then.
Dining– <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/dine.gif" alt="" />
As I said, we’re not theme park people, so we were somewhat surprised at the level of dining available. There are many ‘sit down’ air conditioned restaurants available inside the parks which offered food and drink at somewhat regular restaurant prices, plus the range of restaurants available out on City Walk. We are used to having a choice of burgers or a funnel cake or pizza or fried chicken to eat at a theme park. Especially because of the heat, it was a very nice respite to have a sit down meal in the air conditioning for lunch, at Confisco Grill, right by the entrance to Islands of Adventure. We split a small order of nachos ($5), a small pizza ($9), and a pitcher of sangria ($15). Several of the sit down restaurants do take reservations, especially for dinner, which you can do at City Walk in the morning. We tried to make a reservation that morning for Margaritaville and they said they were not talking any reservations at that point. (Margaritaville, Emeril’s, Hard Rock, etc., are all in City Walk and not within the parks, but it’s easy to walk there for a meal and go back in to either park.) We were able to walk in for dinner at Margaritaville and get seated within about 5 minutes. We ate outside but the sun had gone down by the time we got there and it was quite comfortable. Around 8:30 or so, a guy came and played guitar and sang, which was nice. We had a burger and chicken sandwich, both with fries, each around $9, and a couple of drinks. Food and service were a definite step up from the Confisco Grill, but to be expected since Margaritaville is outside the parks, and thus must compete more with other ‘regular’ restaurants.
BTW, there is a ‘meal deal’ plan that is available for something like $25 per day for the 2 park ticket or $20 per day for a single park ticket. However, this price does NOT include drinks (a sipper cup deal is available for something like $9 per day additional). The meal deal seemed to be fairly limited as to WHERE you could use it and WHAT you could it for. Unless you’re a really big eater, we thought it was a waste of money. We spent less than $20 per person for food for lunch and dinner, and we went where we wanted and ate exactly what we wanted.
That’s it! We are by no means experts, but if anyone has any questions, will try to answer.
Carol & Eric
