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Cairn
Posts: 156
Registered: 3/22/2004
Rank: Bronze Critic
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 7/26/2004 8:00:04 PM
Last Saturday while vacationing in Florida, I took in a visit to Universal Studios in Orlando. We arrived in Orlando at 11:00AM and managed to find parking to be no problem as the garage was well marked and organized. My friend with whom I was vacationing with discovered a $5.00 bill by her foot as she got out of the vehicle, so we were off to a good start.
We had planned to meet my mother, sister, and neice and nephew at the main gate to Universal Studios which was also done with no problem. We quickly discovered that there were plenty of shops and places to sniff around at outside the two main gates of Island of Adventures and Universal, and we were not disappointed by the offerings. A person can spend half the day just playing around on the promenade. We decided to take in Universal over Island of Adventure, mainly due to us having small children in tow...so we could all see the attractions together.(I honestly believe that the two parks should be merged into one rather than charging two seperate addmissions)The line to buy tickets to get into the park were a bit long as it appeared to be a busy day in the works. After 15 minutes we entered the park.
The first attraction we visited was "Twister". There was only a 15 minute wait and we found the ride to be intense and exciting(I reviewed the rides separatly on this site). Following that, we took in "E.T. Adventure". Again there was only a short 25 minute wait, which was not any burden as the waiting area was quite attractive and neat to look at.
Following that, we attempted to check out "Mummy" and "Shrek 4D". Unfortunatly we passed on both due to the 2hr+ wait for both. Instead we took in the "Animal Planet Live" show, then sat down for lunch at one of the deli's.
Food at Universal is tasty and well portioned but quite expensive and served by kids who could be right at home working at a fast food joint. For a park of this level I would have liked to have seen better organization in the food service area.
After lunch we all walked over to take a ride on "Jaws". Despite the 45 minute wait, the ride was fun and well received by everybody. A walk through the New England section proved to be the highlight as the place was loaded with midway games, cute New England beach shacks, great smelling food, lots of lights and people having a blast in a total old time carnival atmosphere. We spent a bit of time winning toy Scooby Doo's on the games of chance.
We then made the trip over to take in "Terminator 3D", another great attraction with a minimal wait. By the time we exited the Terminator building, the park was loaded with guests to almost an uncomfortable level. We made another attempt to take in Shrek and Mummy, but the wait was still hours long. In addition many of the other rides were pulling in wait times of 60+ minutes, so we took in the ride with the least wait time..."Back to the Future" at 40 minutes. This ride was wild and fun, but a bit rough on the neck...I think we nearly killed my mother on this one, she's still mad about being coerced into going aboard with us.
When we exited the ride it was after 5:30PM, and due to the humidity and on and off rain storms, we were all hot, wet, and tired...so we called it a day.
In short, Universal seems to be a fun place, but does suffer from shortcomings such as crowds, some disorganization, and high prices. As I said above, the management should consider making the two parks into one and charging a higher addmission...at least the crowds would be more spread out. I'll give the park another chance in the future, I just think I will go during a weekday in off season.
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