Hutch
Strata Poster
In recent years, my family and I have gone skiing out west for spring break, but this year my older siblings were unable to get enough time off from work. So since it was just my parents and I, we decided to go fly down to Florida and stay at the Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Resort to do some theme parks!
My dad and I flew down Monday morning, and my mom (due to her work) flew down Tuesday night. The three of us flew back to Boston midday Friday, so I had Monday afternoon, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning to ride some rides! Of course, there was a nice pool to relax and whatnot, but why would anyone do that when there’s some roller coasters nearby?
There were a few reasons we decided to stay at Hard Rock. The two parks are a short walk away, there’s a nice pool to relax for my parents, and there was a selection of guitars available for my dad to rent (he's somewhat of a rock 'n' roll goon). More importantly, the package gave the three of us tickets for 4 days at the parks, and that includes morning ERT for Hogsmeade, Hogwarts express park hopping, and unlimited express passes!
Now obviously, you don’t need more than 2 days at both Universal parks, but it came with the deal, and our location made it really convenient to pop in for a couple hours. It was very useful on Friday morning, where I did Islands of Adventure for 2 hours before checking out of the Hotel.
I wouldn’t say we overdosed ourselves at the Universal parks; I obviously wanted to do a few other parks, but I’ll get to those later.
Day 1 – Universal Studios Florida
My dad and I had an early flight out of Boston Monday morning and arrived to Orlando just before noon. We had a nice Universal shuttle that drove us right to our hotel.
Couple of exciting sites to see on the way, including SeaWorld’s B&M skyline, where I got my first glimpse of Mako…
…as well as Volcano Bay with the impressive volcano structure.
Could barely make out Fun Spot Orlando though, which is far more innocent than the other parks.
I had done both Universal Orlando parks multiple times in the past (most recent time was 2011), but far before I considered myself an enthusiast. So there were a couple of creds I needed to get, and there was also plenty of new stuff to check out.
Today was supposed to be a leisurely day, checking out one of the Universal parks for a few hours. After lunch, we decided to do Studios, mainly for Diagon Alley. I wanted to try the Gringotts coaster early in the week, so I would avoid any cred anxiety later in the week (unfortunately our express passes don’t work for either Gringotts or Forbidden Journey).
Bit of walk from our hotel to City Walk, but the path was rather nice (there was also the option of taking a launch along the pond).
First ride of the day was Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit.
Express pass saved us a 25 min wait, merging in with the regular queue up at the station. I remembered from the past that the queue seemed to move pretty consistently, and that was the case today. The number of trains running (at least 5 of them) and the quick dispatches (staff were pretty diligent at getting people on the ride, and not just here) make up for the low capacity.
Being able to choose you’re onboard music is cool and all, but the concept is pretty gimmicky. I tend to forget about it halfway through the ride. When I arrive on the final brake run, I remember “oh that’s right there’s music playing.” Probably wouldn’t be a total loss if it was removed (even though the ride is themed around it), but I don’t care nonetheless.
As for the ride, I feel like there isn’t a lot going on? There’re a few decent sections, like the drop, non-inverting loop, and the turnaround helix in the middle of the ride is actually pretty forceful. But the rest of the ride doesn’t really do anything, with most of the layout is just kind of “there.” Well, there are some pops of airtime when you enter/exit the MCBRs, but wouldn’t you rather just have some traditional airtime hills instead?
It’s still enjoyable though. And I’d say it’s still worth reriding, especially when there aren’t many other coasters in the park. I found it a bit rattly too (but I got a smoother later in the week). 6.5/10
Its aesthetic appearance has actually grown on me a little bit. I think the way it towers above and interacts with the buildings look pretty good.
I did a quick reride by myself, and then we moved onto Transformers: The Ride 3D, a new ride for the both of us.
Despite knowing what to expect (I’ve seen ride footage years ago), I loved this. It’s funny how the movies aren’t good, but somehow this works as a thrill ride. The content is just ridiculous with a lot going on, but it’s a lot of fun. I’d say it’s one of the best rides in the park.
We went back around to check out the Rockefeller Center building (which looks pretty good), but we didn’t realize that the Jimmy Fallon ride, scheduled to open April 6th, was under technical rehearsal.
You could select a ticket for a certain time slot (don’t know if there’s a limited amount or not), but the times available weren’t until later in the evening. We were able to try it out on Wednesday, so stay tuned for that.
Next, we moved onto Revenge of the Mummy.
I’ve decided that this is a better coaster than Hollywood. The initial dark ride section is great, and the effects still hold up pretty well compared to the more recent stuff. The launch into the actual coaster section is best part, and the rest of the ride is fun. The fire room is absurd as well, and the drop afterward is executed well. The coffee joke at the end is amusing, if a bit stupid, but it’s unnecessary and doesn’t fit the tone of the ride. 7.5/10
Like I did with Hollywood before, I did a quick reride by myself. I made the mistake of seeing if single rider was any shorter, but it ended up being longer than express pass.
When I left the building, the area was taken over by a parade, which was infested by cartoons like Dora the Explorer, Secret Life of Pets, and Spongebob. My dad was on the other side of the street, and the crowd made it a bit of a nuisance to meet up again. We watched it for a few minutes while trying to escape.
We kept moving along the edge of the park and arrived at the London street.
And of course, on the other side is quite possibly the best (and one of the most crowded) theme park area you’ll ever see.
The London area outside is very nice, but I love how Diagon Alley is hidden around the corner, just like how it is in the Harry Potter universe. With the setting, interactions, scale, and attention to detail, you kinda feel like you’re there in the movies. There’re countless shops, hidden corners (i.e. Knocturn Alley), and hundreds of other nooks and crannies. You could really spend hours searching every little detail.
I’ve always been a fan of the series, so I might sound bias, but I can’t think of any other theme park area I’ve been to that looks nicer than this. Everything else just seems to pale in comparison to this, especially the rest of this park where the theme is cities/streets, and this is more of a different world.
Perhaps the only downside about this area is the amount of crowds it attracts, making the main alley area very densely filled with people. It definitely adds to the atmosphere, but I’d imagine hanging around there in the summertime or whenever the temp is much hotter can get a bit uncomfortable.
The Gringotts coaster had a 75 minute queue, and they closed off the single rider line because it was “full.” My dad was gonna head back to the hotel soon, so he decided that we should do the Simpsons ride before leaving me (he didn’t want to suck up the wait for Gringotts).
We’d done this in the past, but it was a bit better than I remember. Obviously it can’t quite match Spiderman, Harry Potter, or the other new simulators, but I thought this held up pretty well. There’s still a handful of simulators in the park that can’t match this (like Shrek 4D, which we didn’t do that this trip; although it has been a while since I'd done that), and content and enjoyable as well. My main complaint is that there’s a lot of pre show stuff that’s spread across into three rooms (the main loading area that’s surrounded by characters, the separate room before you board, and one final part where you’re just waiting on the ride). That can take some time and can be a bit annoying if you’re getting re rides.
So while my dad left the park, I kept doing my own thing, which included checking off this +1… Woody Woodpecker’s Nuthouse Coaster. And I actually used the express pass for this… gotta shave off those precious minutes.
After that I figured that I’d go back to Diagon Alley and see if I could get on the Gringotts coaster. There wasn’t really anything else I wanted to do. We still had more time later in the week, so I figured I’d save some rides for later.
Nice to see this display of the DeLorean. I remember doing the Back to the Future ride when I was around 5 or so (first time I came here)… I believe it was just replaced/rethemed to Simpsons?
Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts still had a 75 min wait and no single line available. I knew the queue line would be pretty interesting, so I hoped that wait wouldn’t feel that bad.
Obviously if you want to avoid any ride spoilers, skip the rest of Part 1. I know the ride has been open for three years now, but it’s still feels pretty new, so I encourage anyone who isn’t familiar with the ride to skip ahead. I’ve done so for the most part these past few years.
The queue starts out in the cattle pens, and it took me about a half an hour to actually get inside the main building. It’s hard to tell by this picture, but the cattles pen go on for quite a while and even extends outside in the sun. Thankfully I had shade, although it doesn’t seem like the queue would ever extend that long anymore.
I actually ended up waiting about 60 min, but during the second half of the wait I was very engaged it the stuff that was going. This included preshow sections and detailed theming, making the overall wait much more bearable and exciting.
After the main room, there’s an area where the staff can take your picture (which I guess you can receive after the ride?). I told the staff member no at first, but he was pretty persistent, so I was like “Okay, fine.” Fortunately the process is quick, but it's unnecessary. If that’s something you and some friends want to do, that’s fine. But I just wanted to move on. You then move into a pre show video featuring a goblin and Bill Weasley, which was fine, before going into another pre show section where you step into an “elevator.” Okay, so I actually thought that the elevator’s movement and lighting effects were pretty neat. But after riding this again later in the week, I wished that all this pre-show stuff was gone. The picture in the middle of the queue is silly (just have a regular ORP!). If you haven’t read the all books or seen all the movies, you’re not gonna know (or care) about Bill Weasley or that one goblin. The elevator is cool, but I think I’m in the minority here regarding that. Additionally, the video room and elevator completely get rid of the organized queue (there's just open space), so people get anxious and try to sneak up towards the next door. Overall I’d probably prefer to have some sort of video loop like they did in Forbidden Journey.
There’s one last room with normal queuing that leads up to the station, but it’s actually pretty nice. There’s a spiral staircase that goes up to the dual loading station, and the room is themed to the depths of the bank. Unfortunately the ride had a malfunction right before I boarded, but the staff had a pretty quick turnaround and was able to let people back on within minutes.
Okay… can’t believe I just wrote multiple paragraphs about a queue… let me talk about the ride itself now. The trains look excellent (the big light on the front is the best feature) and feel comfortable. After leaving the station, you start out in the first screen room (I knew there’d be 3D screens like Universal’s other rides) where **** goes down. The really cool feature is the tilt track similar to those Vekoma tilt coasters (i.e. Gravity Max). It’s not as steep as, say, the dive machine holding brakes, but it still feels steeper than what it really is (it’s probably around 45 degrees). A fun drop into the darkness follows, and then there’re more screen rooms where the cars (two cars per train) spin and shake around, similar to Spiderman and Transformers (honestly, if you’ve been on any Universal dark ride, you know what the drill is for this one). Towards the end, there’s one last launch, but you slow down almost immediately, leaving you with a final “Hooray, you escaped” scene before returning to the station.
I really enjoyed it, but after this first ride I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. I think it’s because I was expecting a more substantial roller coaster section. There’s really only two actual coaster elements: the first being the tilt track, which I think is quite cool, and the second being the fun little launch. As for the rest of the ride, it’s another excellent dark ride that focuses on screens and interactions. So while it is definitely a coaster, it feels more along the lines of Forbidden Journey and Spiderman, rather than Revenge of the Mummy.
I managed to get a second ride later on in the week. I enjoyed it much more that time, mainly because at that point I knew what to expect. I really like it overall, and I think it’s my favorite of the coasters in this park, even though Mummy has the better coaster section. You really have to treat it more as a dark ride than a coaster. 8/10
It was around 6 PM when I exited to so I had to leave soon for dinner. I hung around in Diagon Alley for few minutes before making my way back to the entrance (obviously had to get a shot of the dragon breathing fire).
Later that night, my dad and I went to City Walk to eat at the Hard Rock Café (very good). I don’t know if this is the best picture, but City Walk looks fantastic at night. It kind of feels like its own town.
Next up will be my Busch Gardens Tampa report. That will probably be the longest part of this whole PTR as it was the new major park for me, with plenty of new coasters, and the most pictures that day during the whole week. Don’t how soon/long it will take me to write, but I’ll get to work on it!
My dad and I flew down Monday morning, and my mom (due to her work) flew down Tuesday night. The three of us flew back to Boston midday Friday, so I had Monday afternoon, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning to ride some rides! Of course, there was a nice pool to relax and whatnot, but why would anyone do that when there’s some roller coasters nearby?
There were a few reasons we decided to stay at Hard Rock. The two parks are a short walk away, there’s a nice pool to relax for my parents, and there was a selection of guitars available for my dad to rent (he's somewhat of a rock 'n' roll goon). More importantly, the package gave the three of us tickets for 4 days at the parks, and that includes morning ERT for Hogsmeade, Hogwarts express park hopping, and unlimited express passes!
Now obviously, you don’t need more than 2 days at both Universal parks, but it came with the deal, and our location made it really convenient to pop in for a couple hours. It was very useful on Friday morning, where I did Islands of Adventure for 2 hours before checking out of the Hotel.
I wouldn’t say we overdosed ourselves at the Universal parks; I obviously wanted to do a few other parks, but I’ll get to those later.
Day 1 – Universal Studios Florida
My dad and I had an early flight out of Boston Monday morning and arrived to Orlando just before noon. We had a nice Universal shuttle that drove us right to our hotel.
Couple of exciting sites to see on the way, including SeaWorld’s B&M skyline, where I got my first glimpse of Mako…
…as well as Volcano Bay with the impressive volcano structure.
Could barely make out Fun Spot Orlando though, which is far more innocent than the other parks.
I had done both Universal Orlando parks multiple times in the past (most recent time was 2011), but far before I considered myself an enthusiast. So there were a couple of creds I needed to get, and there was also plenty of new stuff to check out.
Today was supposed to be a leisurely day, checking out one of the Universal parks for a few hours. After lunch, we decided to do Studios, mainly for Diagon Alley. I wanted to try the Gringotts coaster early in the week, so I would avoid any cred anxiety later in the week (unfortunately our express passes don’t work for either Gringotts or Forbidden Journey).
Bit of walk from our hotel to City Walk, but the path was rather nice (there was also the option of taking a launch along the pond).
First ride of the day was Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit.
Express pass saved us a 25 min wait, merging in with the regular queue up at the station. I remembered from the past that the queue seemed to move pretty consistently, and that was the case today. The number of trains running (at least 5 of them) and the quick dispatches (staff were pretty diligent at getting people on the ride, and not just here) make up for the low capacity.
Being able to choose you’re onboard music is cool and all, but the concept is pretty gimmicky. I tend to forget about it halfway through the ride. When I arrive on the final brake run, I remember “oh that’s right there’s music playing.” Probably wouldn’t be a total loss if it was removed (even though the ride is themed around it), but I don’t care nonetheless.
As for the ride, I feel like there isn’t a lot going on? There’re a few decent sections, like the drop, non-inverting loop, and the turnaround helix in the middle of the ride is actually pretty forceful. But the rest of the ride doesn’t really do anything, with most of the layout is just kind of “there.” Well, there are some pops of airtime when you enter/exit the MCBRs, but wouldn’t you rather just have some traditional airtime hills instead?
It’s still enjoyable though. And I’d say it’s still worth reriding, especially when there aren’t many other coasters in the park. I found it a bit rattly too (but I got a smoother later in the week). 6.5/10
Its aesthetic appearance has actually grown on me a little bit. I think the way it towers above and interacts with the buildings look pretty good.
I did a quick reride by myself, and then we moved onto Transformers: The Ride 3D, a new ride for the both of us.
Despite knowing what to expect (I’ve seen ride footage years ago), I loved this. It’s funny how the movies aren’t good, but somehow this works as a thrill ride. The content is just ridiculous with a lot going on, but it’s a lot of fun. I’d say it’s one of the best rides in the park.
We went back around to check out the Rockefeller Center building (which looks pretty good), but we didn’t realize that the Jimmy Fallon ride, scheduled to open April 6th, was under technical rehearsal.
You could select a ticket for a certain time slot (don’t know if there’s a limited amount or not), but the times available weren’t until later in the evening. We were able to try it out on Wednesday, so stay tuned for that.
Next, we moved onto Revenge of the Mummy.
I’ve decided that this is a better coaster than Hollywood. The initial dark ride section is great, and the effects still hold up pretty well compared to the more recent stuff. The launch into the actual coaster section is best part, and the rest of the ride is fun. The fire room is absurd as well, and the drop afterward is executed well. The coffee joke at the end is amusing, if a bit stupid, but it’s unnecessary and doesn’t fit the tone of the ride. 7.5/10
Like I did with Hollywood before, I did a quick reride by myself. I made the mistake of seeing if single rider was any shorter, but it ended up being longer than express pass.
When I left the building, the area was taken over by a parade, which was infested by cartoons like Dora the Explorer, Secret Life of Pets, and Spongebob. My dad was on the other side of the street, and the crowd made it a bit of a nuisance to meet up again. We watched it for a few minutes while trying to escape.
We kept moving along the edge of the park and arrived at the London street.
And of course, on the other side is quite possibly the best (and one of the most crowded) theme park area you’ll ever see.
The London area outside is very nice, but I love how Diagon Alley is hidden around the corner, just like how it is in the Harry Potter universe. With the setting, interactions, scale, and attention to detail, you kinda feel like you’re there in the movies. There’re countless shops, hidden corners (i.e. Knocturn Alley), and hundreds of other nooks and crannies. You could really spend hours searching every little detail.
I’ve always been a fan of the series, so I might sound bias, but I can’t think of any other theme park area I’ve been to that looks nicer than this. Everything else just seems to pale in comparison to this, especially the rest of this park where the theme is cities/streets, and this is more of a different world.
Perhaps the only downside about this area is the amount of crowds it attracts, making the main alley area very densely filled with people. It definitely adds to the atmosphere, but I’d imagine hanging around there in the summertime or whenever the temp is much hotter can get a bit uncomfortable.
The Gringotts coaster had a 75 minute queue, and they closed off the single rider line because it was “full.” My dad was gonna head back to the hotel soon, so he decided that we should do the Simpsons ride before leaving me (he didn’t want to suck up the wait for Gringotts).
We’d done this in the past, but it was a bit better than I remember. Obviously it can’t quite match Spiderman, Harry Potter, or the other new simulators, but I thought this held up pretty well. There’s still a handful of simulators in the park that can’t match this (like Shrek 4D, which we didn’t do that this trip; although it has been a while since I'd done that), and content and enjoyable as well. My main complaint is that there’s a lot of pre show stuff that’s spread across into three rooms (the main loading area that’s surrounded by characters, the separate room before you board, and one final part where you’re just waiting on the ride). That can take some time and can be a bit annoying if you’re getting re rides.
So while my dad left the park, I kept doing my own thing, which included checking off this +1… Woody Woodpecker’s Nuthouse Coaster. And I actually used the express pass for this… gotta shave off those precious minutes.
After that I figured that I’d go back to Diagon Alley and see if I could get on the Gringotts coaster. There wasn’t really anything else I wanted to do. We still had more time later in the week, so I figured I’d save some rides for later.
Nice to see this display of the DeLorean. I remember doing the Back to the Future ride when I was around 5 or so (first time I came here)… I believe it was just replaced/rethemed to Simpsons?
Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts still had a 75 min wait and no single line available. I knew the queue line would be pretty interesting, so I hoped that wait wouldn’t feel that bad.
Obviously if you want to avoid any ride spoilers, skip the rest of Part 1. I know the ride has been open for three years now, but it’s still feels pretty new, so I encourage anyone who isn’t familiar with the ride to skip ahead. I’ve done so for the most part these past few years.
The queue starts out in the cattle pens, and it took me about a half an hour to actually get inside the main building. It’s hard to tell by this picture, but the cattles pen go on for quite a while and even extends outside in the sun. Thankfully I had shade, although it doesn’t seem like the queue would ever extend that long anymore.
I actually ended up waiting about 60 min, but during the second half of the wait I was very engaged it the stuff that was going. This included preshow sections and detailed theming, making the overall wait much more bearable and exciting.
After the main room, there’s an area where the staff can take your picture (which I guess you can receive after the ride?). I told the staff member no at first, but he was pretty persistent, so I was like “Okay, fine.” Fortunately the process is quick, but it's unnecessary. If that’s something you and some friends want to do, that’s fine. But I just wanted to move on. You then move into a pre show video featuring a goblin and Bill Weasley, which was fine, before going into another pre show section where you step into an “elevator.” Okay, so I actually thought that the elevator’s movement and lighting effects were pretty neat. But after riding this again later in the week, I wished that all this pre-show stuff was gone. The picture in the middle of the queue is silly (just have a regular ORP!). If you haven’t read the all books or seen all the movies, you’re not gonna know (or care) about Bill Weasley or that one goblin. The elevator is cool, but I think I’m in the minority here regarding that. Additionally, the video room and elevator completely get rid of the organized queue (there's just open space), so people get anxious and try to sneak up towards the next door. Overall I’d probably prefer to have some sort of video loop like they did in Forbidden Journey.
There’s one last room with normal queuing that leads up to the station, but it’s actually pretty nice. There’s a spiral staircase that goes up to the dual loading station, and the room is themed to the depths of the bank. Unfortunately the ride had a malfunction right before I boarded, but the staff had a pretty quick turnaround and was able to let people back on within minutes.
Okay… can’t believe I just wrote multiple paragraphs about a queue… let me talk about the ride itself now. The trains look excellent (the big light on the front is the best feature) and feel comfortable. After leaving the station, you start out in the first screen room (I knew there’d be 3D screens like Universal’s other rides) where **** goes down. The really cool feature is the tilt track similar to those Vekoma tilt coasters (i.e. Gravity Max). It’s not as steep as, say, the dive machine holding brakes, but it still feels steeper than what it really is (it’s probably around 45 degrees). A fun drop into the darkness follows, and then there’re more screen rooms where the cars (two cars per train) spin and shake around, similar to Spiderman and Transformers (honestly, if you’ve been on any Universal dark ride, you know what the drill is for this one). Towards the end, there’s one last launch, but you slow down almost immediately, leaving you with a final “Hooray, you escaped” scene before returning to the station.
I really enjoyed it, but after this first ride I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. I think it’s because I was expecting a more substantial roller coaster section. There’s really only two actual coaster elements: the first being the tilt track, which I think is quite cool, and the second being the fun little launch. As for the rest of the ride, it’s another excellent dark ride that focuses on screens and interactions. So while it is definitely a coaster, it feels more along the lines of Forbidden Journey and Spiderman, rather than Revenge of the Mummy.
I managed to get a second ride later on in the week. I enjoyed it much more that time, mainly because at that point I knew what to expect. I really like it overall, and I think it’s my favorite of the coasters in this park, even though Mummy has the better coaster section. You really have to treat it more as a dark ride than a coaster. 8/10
It was around 6 PM when I exited to so I had to leave soon for dinner. I hung around in Diagon Alley for few minutes before making my way back to the entrance (obviously had to get a shot of the dragon breathing fire).
Later that night, my dad and I went to City Walk to eat at the Hard Rock Café (very good). I don’t know if this is the best picture, but City Walk looks fantastic at night. It kind of feels like its own town.
Next up will be my Busch Gardens Tampa report. That will probably be the longest part of this whole PTR as it was the new major park for me, with plenty of new coasters, and the most pictures that day during the whole week. Don’t how soon/long it will take me to write, but I’ll get to work on it!
). You get to see plenty of reports of the place, and it really does look so good. Plus, there are plenty of new creds since last time I went. 
