Universal Islands of Adventure / Universal Studios Florida

Visited: September 11, 2023

Attending: Just Brian

The Busch Gardens parks were things that I know how to do. They were new parks for me, sort of, but they're still amusement parks of the sort that I'm accustomed to. Disney, and by extension Universal, are expert-level theme parks. They require extra planning, and you have to anticipate bigger crowds. I knew I was coming during what supposed to be the off season, and I planned reasonably well, but I was doing this solo, so I knew that there might be some complications that I missed. Nevertheless I planned my morning out properly, allowed plenty of time, arrived at the parking facility around 8:40, and was rewarded with a truly amazing parking spot. It was just luck of the draw, but I ended up just a couple of slots from the front of the parking structure. From there, it was a couple of escalators, some long paths, a complicated security process that I did not remember from last time, and then a decent hike through the Universal Citywalk to get to the park. Fortunately electronic admission was no problem and I soon found myself at the edge of the lake. It wasn't nine yet, so those of us without special permissions were standing around waiting to be let into the rest of the park. And there were more people than I hoped to see. It probably was an off-season crowd, but it certainly wasn't a ghost town. My plan was to get to Hagrid’s first thing. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same plan, and the stated wait time was about 100 minutes when I arrived. The stated wait time for Velocicoaster, however, was given at 15 minutes. So when I got to the appropriate fork in the path, I made a game-time decision, and headed into Jurassic World to ride the brand-new coaster.

Velocicoaster

I arrived at Velocicoaster over the bridge behind Hogwarts with the big black netting over top, which I'd seen in many photos and videos before now. I also had a pretty good idea of what the entrance looks like. Fortunately the crowd really was very sparse at this point. The single-rider line wasn't operating at this point because it didn't really need to. So I just joined the general queue, and really bypassed most of the pre-show activities, because there was nobody waiting. As a result, I screwed up the locker system, and locked my little temporary pass card inside the locker. Regardless I was up on the platform almost before I knew it. Which is kind of a shame because it's got a pretty good pre-show, but I figured I could see that later. I strapped myself in, noticed the comfortable restraints, and the comfortable seat as well. The train rolled out, hit its first launch, and soon I was zooming all around a velociraptor paddock. The track goes in and out of the rock work, pretty much as I expected. It feels like close shaves, but of course it isn't really. There were some noises around, but I had difficulty focusing on anything in particular this first time through. I did notice a similarity to Taron, which is another coaster that I've never been on, but I know what it looks like, and it's compared frequently to Velocicoaster. Then the second half kicked in, with a second big launch, the top hat, and then big old swoops around the rest of the area. There's a stall over the path that went on a little bit longer than I expected. I had a pretty good idea what it was going to do next because I'd seen it while I was walking up to the coaster. Then there's the mosasaurus roll at the end. This is one case where I wish I hadn't known. I knew it was coming, I knew other people regarded it as life-changing, so I wasn't really certain what was going to happen. It's a zero-g roll, it's a very good one, and it's over water, but I don't think that it rewrites the book on coasters. It's a good ride, probably an excellent ride, it does many of the things that Intamin does best. I'm just not sure that it's as breathtaking as Iron Gwazi was yesterday. And specifically it didn't do anything I didn't expect, which is kind of my fault for knowing so much about it in advance. But there was nothing so stand-out that it blew me away. It did everything that I thought it would do, and did it really well, but that's all that it did. It did occur to me that a first ride of the day might have been slow, and also that a night ride must be magnificent. Sadly I wouldn't have time for that.

Forbidden Journey

With Velocicoaster out of the way, my biggest time concern of the day, I headed back over to Hagrid's. The wait time was now 110 minutes, and the single rider line was still closed. I asked the greeter when it might be open, and of course they couldn't tell me. I really didn't want to stand around for two hours, so I went over to Hogwarts to ride the Forbidden Journey, and also get a pretty good look at Hogsmeade, which I hadn't had a chance to do to the level I wanted to in 2011. I noticed a lot of things, and I took an awful lot of pictures, which I didn't do 12 years ago for some reason. I'd already stood through the Forbidden Journey line once before, so I had no hesitation about taking the single rider line this time. In fact the crowd was small enough that single rider deposited me pretty much on the platform right away. I only had to wait a few seconds before there was a party of three to join. The ride is still very impressive, much like I remember it from last time, but it doesn't have the element of surprise anymore. The video sections were a bit more immersive than I remember, and once again I had absolutely no idea where I was in the show building, which is definitely a good thing. On the whole it was a good diversion and I didn't really spend very much time on it.

Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure

I came back over to Hagrid's after what felt like only a few minutes, to find that the single rider line was now open. The displayed wait time was still around 100 minutes, and the greeter made a point of telling me that the single rider line would have just as long of a wait. Well, I certainly had to do a good bit of walking to get to the queue building. However once I was inside, the single rider line certainly was only a few minutes long. In fact I was at the front of it before I even knew what was happening. I did get assigned to join a family of five, which is pretty much the point of a single rider line. However, that meant I knew I wouldn't get to sit where I wanted in the train, and specifically I had to occupy the sidecar rather than the motorcycle. The difference wasn't nearly as stark as I thought it would be. I still think I got the full experience from sitting in the sidecar. Would I like to try the motorcycle sometime in the future? Sure, but I don't feel like I missed out badly. Once again, although I tried to avoid spoilers for this ride, I did have some idea of what was going to happen. I had forgotten that the track ends and the train proceeds backwards for a bit. I also had no idea how long the backward section actually was. So that was a nice surprise. I was expecting to stop to see plot-based presentations, so that didn't disappoint me. I even had a pretty good idea of what those presentations would be, since I'm familiar with the story and with the rules of narrative in general. I did think the ride had some pretty good speed at ground level, which makes it seem faster. It dodged around and about in roughly the way that I expected. I was completely aware in advance of the drop track, and although I didn't know exactly where it was, I could guess pretty well, so it didn't surprise me at all. My temporary family didn't know about the drop track, or at least the kids didn't, so they were pretty well surprised. Since I have now done three separate rides with drop tracks, I can say this one was not particularly scary. It's not that far and I could see where it was going. I was surprised by one particular plot point near the end, which I won't spoil. But much like the previous coaster today, it mostly did what I thought it was going to do. It's very impressive, and I thought it did its job very well, but it didn't surprise me in the way that I hoped it would. It's a good ride, but I have to admit that I kind of wish Dueling Dragons could still be there instead.

Velocicoaster (again)

So at this point, I'd ridden three rides, and it wasn't even 10:00 yet. More important, I had knocked out my two primary goals. I really hadn't known how long that would take, so I found myself at a bit of a loose end. I wandered around Hogsmeade a little bit more, taking pictures, and sharing them with Carole and Alex. But there's not a whole lot more to do in the Wizarding World, so eventually I went back to Jurassic Park. I spent a little time resting in the shade and exchanging texts with Alex. But eventually I decided to go back to Velocicoaster. The line was longer this time, more like 20 minutes, but that was fine with me because I wanted to take the opportunity to see the pre-show that I missed earlier. It's pretty good, about what I would expect, and the velociraptor animatronics are very impressive. With experience, I managed to use the lockers correctly this time. Once I got to the platform, I was assigned a row in the middle of the train, as opposed to closer to the front. I do wish I'd gotten a back-row ride, but that's something for the future. The first unusual thing that happened is that we were removed from the train after sitting down. There was some sort of an issue, which caused them to empty all the trains and cycle them once, empty. Whatever the problem was I had no idea, it didn't seem to affect anything, and we got back on our train once it came around again. This time around I was able to pay a bit more attention in the velociraptor paddock, so I was able to see the model dinosaurs as they were threatening us. That did improve the ride somewhat. As for the rest of it, I took another good look around from the peak of the top hat, and it's a nice view but nothing spectacular. I knew to anticipate the stall, so I didn't grab on the way I had the first time, and I did the same thing through the mosasaurus roll as well. I did feel a greater degree of freedom, but it didn't have that amazing edge that I was hoping it would have. So a little better the second time around, but I don't know that it's automatically top 10 material.

Lunch

After the second time through, with the single rider line closed again, I didn't feel like I needed to spend the time in the queue again. So I walked through a lot of the Jurassic World store and theming, which was extremely impressive, seeming like it was right out of the movie. I didn't particularly want to pay lunchtime prices at the sit-down restaurant, but I did go outside and find a pizza stand right nearby. It was still relatively early, and there was a picnic area nearby in the shade, relatively empty, so I decided I'd take care of that errand right away. The pizza was fine, nothing in particular to write home about, and of course overpriced. But I was able to hydrate, and that's the important thing.

Walking

Having accomplished most of the “right half” of the park, I figured I should at least do a full circle around the lake once. So I walked by Kong, and decided not to do that. I walked through the very strange comic-strip themed area, and got lost. I still don't understand this area. I'm one of the older people who might be attending this park, and this particular property seems old even to me. So I just got through it and down to Marvel Superhero island, where I am quite familiar with the properties involved. I spent quite a bit of time in a few stores, looking for something that Alex or Jude might appreciate, but I came up a little bit short. The items are very Avengers-centric, which I really should have expected given the parameters of the contract. However the signage and the rides outside make use of a broader range of characters, so I forgot that they wouldn't all be represented in merchandise. I was particularly disappointed by the lack of Squirrel Girl, which caused me to realize that there weren't going to be any deep cuts here.

Spider-Man

The Spider-Man dark ride is one that I experienced last time I was here, but I did it in kind of a hurry. I had an express pass at the time, and very little time, so I rushed through the queue and rode it. So I decided to go with the general populace this time, partially because it was still early and I had nothing better to do, partially because it was inside and air-conditioned, and partially to see what I'd missed before. The pre-show is animated, and uses a lot of art style from what looks like a very ‘90s cartoon. Maybe that's intentional, because the '90s Spider-Man cartoon was very popular, but the crude animation and the style of writing are both very over the top. It was probably appropriate when the ride was created, but now that we've had 15 years of Marvel movies taking these characters very seriously, something like this show seems a bit like mockery. The ride itself is pretty good, and much like last time, I would have liked it much better if the Forbidden Journey wasn't a thing that exists. It's a first-rate dark ride that's also the second best dark ride in the park. The plot is still extremely silly and while there are some very nice set pieces, and a very dramatic ending, it's not particularly groundbreaking. Still, I got what I wanted out of it.

Incredible Hulk

Hulk was another roller coaster that I remember from my previous visit in 2011. I wasn't much of an enthusiast then, but I do remember liking it. I know that it's been completely re-tracked since then, and the pre-show was rebuilt, so I was interested to see what was going on. I did learn that I was going to have to use a locker and empty my pockets thoroughly for all rides, not just Velocicoaster. Once I got inside there wasn't much time to appreciate the pre-show; I was on the platform and on the train almost immediately. The launch tunnel was more impressive than I remember, and the launch itself may have been a bit more forceful than I remember. Unfortunately, the ride doesn't seem to be smoother than I remember. In fact it's a lot worse. I've never been one to complain about the B&M rattle, although other enthusiasts complain about it a lot. On this particular ride, it was jarring, it was visible by watching the seat in front of me, and it rattled my teeth. Combine that with the old-fashioned restraints, and it took a lot of joy out of this ride. I barely remember what happened, because I was concentrating on keeping an eye out down the track so that I could avoid anything painful that might be about to happen. So it was a lot less enjoying the coaster and more trying to defend myself against it. I have to say I'm really disappointed because I remember enjoying this one 12 years ago.

Hogwarts Express

At this point I was pretty much done with Islands of Adventure, so I needed to get over to Universal studios. There are two ways of doing this: you can go out the entrance and just walk over, or you can take the Hogwarts express. There didn't seem to be a lot of line for the train, and it's by far the more entertaining way to go, so I did that. I did have to wait a bit in line, probably the longest line I'd waited in so far today, but the experience was probably worth it. The train itself is a really good replica of the fictional train from the movies, and the events that take place while you're on the train, while fairly obvious if you've read the books, are at least accurate and entertaining. So I enjoyed this particular trip over. I noted that there did seem to be an option to just take the train across, without having the attraction experience, and that seemed reasonable if you'd already done it before.

Escape from Gringotts

Once I got off the train, I noted that the station on the Universal Studios end seemed to be a lot more elaborate and detailed then the one at the Islands end. That kind of makes thematic sense, since the Universal Studios terminal is supposed to be King's Cross in London, which is quite a large train station, one that I've been to. So I had to walk quite a bit to reach the exit, and then found myself on a replica of a London street, except in Florida, and extremely hot and humid. Walking down the street a little bit, I was able to find the “hidden” entrance to Diagon Alley. Walking through that wall space into the alley is just as impressive as it is in the movies, and just as impressive as the Wizarding World at Islands. It's that strange experience of knowing exactly what you expect to see, but never having seen it in real life. So I spent quite a bit of time taking pictures and sending some of them to Alex, and I'm looking forward to going through the photos later on. I don't know if the Escape from Gringotts counts as a roller coaster proper, but I couldn't think of anything I wanted to do more in this location, and I suspected it would be air conditioned, so that sealed the deal. I had to do some fumbling around with a locker again, and the queue seemed to be 30 minutes or more, but I knew it would be indoors. The ride is more presentation and dark ride than it is roller coaster, much in the same way that the Indiana Jones ride isn't a roller coaster. However the scene in the bank that the ride is based on shows the bank vehicle to be very roller coaster-like. So who's to argue? The pre-show is extremely impressive, including a very well done fake elevator, and the decorations around the platform really make you feel like you're in a cave somewhere. The ride itself has a lot of presentation sections using video screens, which are unfortunately a bit more obvious than the ones in Forbidden journey. However, they're still pretty effective, and I did certainly enjoy the story. I'm still not sure if it's an actual roller coaster though.

More walking

After coming out of the bank, and out into the heat again, I did spend some time looking around the various set pieces and taking pictures. I was very surprised to find that there is a Nocturne Alley as part of this setup, and I did explore down it, and found it quite creepy, which seems appropriate. So I headed back out of the Wizarding World, and out onto the street. I didn't know exactly where I was, or which end of the park I was at, so I just kept walking in a clockwise direction. I found the Men in Black section which convinced me that I was at the far end of the park and there was nothing more for me to see down here. I crossed a bridge into a very elaborate Simpsons themed area. I'm not a huge fan of the Simpsons, any more than a person my age would be, but I certainly understand a lot of references, just because the thing has been around for so long, and of course because of my last boss who's a huge fan. In fact I was seeing most of the displays through his eyes. So I made sure to take a lot of photos, some of which I have already sent to him, and I hope he gets a big kick out of them. After walking far enough I eventually ended up back in the New York set, where there's a bunch of Transformers stuff. I decided not to do the Transformers ride because I couldn't think of a good reason to do so, but I did take a lot of pictures. I could see the one other roller coaster in this park, so I eventually went over in that direction.

Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit

This particular ride isn't anywhere near as well themed as all the other rides in Universal. I'd say it's mostly just a straight roller coaster, except it's kind of an unusual roller coaster. And while I have heard a lot of negative things said about it, I have heard a few people say positive things, so I went into this with a certain amount of trepidation. The line was again not particularly long, and after using an unnecessary locker again, I found myself on a ride vehicle pretty quickly. I knew that one of the features of this ride is that you get to pick your own soundtrack to listen to while you ride. I thought that was one of the cooler features, and I was looking forward to it. Unfortunately they seem to have drastically pared down the song list in the last few years, and nobody seems to know why. I was able to select from a list of genres, and when I selected Rock, I was given a list of exactly one song. I don't even remember what the song was now, but I didn't think it was appropriate for a roller coaster. I tried to go back and select something else, but by the time I got through the UI we were on the lift hill, and the whole thing shut off. Apparently the ride selected a song for me, some hip-hop thing that I'd never heard of before, and didn't seem terribly appropriate to a coaster. The guy I was sitting next to seemed to enjoy it though. The ride has a vertical lift hill, which I normally don't care for, but it's not really all that tall, and doesn't seem as open as other vertical lifts I've experienced before, so it didn't really bother me. What does bother me is that the first drop is a lot more shallow than you would expect from a vertical lift. It goes into a non-inverting loop at this point, and that's when I started to notice the rattle. It was hard enough of a rattle to be very uncomfortable, and strangely there was something wrong with the seats. I'm an adult male of roughly average height, and the way the seats were configured made me feel like my legs were too short. The plastic cut into the backs of my knees, and I couldn't quite get my feet to the floor, just the tips of my toes. Combine that with the strange restraints and the whole ride was very uncomfortable. The layout is somewhat uninspired, with lots of block brakes, and given that I was already uncomfortable, and there was a bad rattle, I didn't spend a whole lot of time paying attention to the layout. I just hoped it would be over soon. And it didn't really last that long, because the ride’s not that good. So I got off, and did my best to forget about it altogether. So two coasters in the morning were great, and two in the afternoon were very disappointing.

Hogwarts Express

I wandered around the fake city sets for a little bit after that, but it was too hot in the afternoon, and city blocks and pavement don’t allow very much relief from the sun. I noticed that the set isn't just New York; I'd seen London, and I was surprised to walk through a section that was very distinctly San Francisco. I'm not sure why fake San Francisco was more disconcerting to me than fake New York; it just was. So I fairly quickly decided that I was done for the day, and although it was perhaps a little early, I decided that the weather and the dehydration were sufficient justification. So I headed back to the train station with the intent of taking the Hogwarts Express back to Islands. I noted that the sign said there was a 60-minute wait, but I just assumed that was wrong, because the wait on the Islands end hadn't been anywhere near that long. Turns out the sign was accurate. So I waited in an extremely long line, probably the longest of this trip so far, for a ride experience that I didn't particularly want to have. I would have preferred to skip the attraction portion of the ride and just transport back. But either I didn't understand what I saw on the Islands end, or you can't get that version from Studios. Regardless, I was inside, and I was air-conditioned. So eventually I made my way back into Islands, with the intention of doing just a bit of shopping, and then heading home. I got a late message from Creech, telling me that the ride he was working on was down and had been for some time, and that if I came by he could chat for a few minutes. So I did that, and he really meant a few minutes. Creech is certainly dedicated to his job. It was a nice chat, but it was short, and so I finished my shopping and headed for home, right about rush hour. That was fine, perhaps a little earlier than I expected, but I decided that my overall health would be better served by not pushing my limits on this particular day.