DelPiero
Strata Poster
Final Parks - Universal Studios and IOA.
Part 1.
The plan was to go into IOA first but just do a few bits and bobs and then head over to the studios for the rest of the day, with a 2nd day planned for mopping up missed things. It nearly went to plan.
Fingerprint entry cards, good idea, shame they don't always work. Faffed around for 5 mins trying to get the machine to accept my fingerprint, eventually worked, humph.
In we went, but we had no time for perusing the gift shops etc at this point, attractions must be ridden.
First up was the big green machine which dominates IOA. Helen sat out the first run as she hadn't seen it complete a circuit, so she took the camera and watched on while I literally walked on the ride. Here was my first interaction with the world famous Universal theming. It's outstanding, the queue line was like nothing i'd ever experienced, and was just a taster of what was to greet my eyes over the next 2 days. Back row as per usual for the first ride.
Ops were very quick, considering there is no seperate exit platform the throughput is quicker than expected. They ran 2 trains, even that early in the morning with no queue.
B&M's only launch is ok, it's nothing compared to the Intamin accelerators, but feels faster than it is due to the tunnel enclosing it, however, the zero-g is not taken at any great speed. This isn't actually a bad thing, i liked it, and the cobra roll was decent, as was the loop. The dive into and out of the mist is great. In fact, from the launch to the first corkscrew is excellent, it was all going swimmingly until the that element.
It goes from being a smooth but forceful ride to just being a rough one, the entrance into the corkscrew just didn't feel right, no smooth entrance just a slight shift of entrance position into the invertion. It was not good. The loop after was ok, but not as smooth as the initial loop, but then the ride starts snaking around for no apparent reason. The smoothness of the first 20 seconds are lost in a blaze of tiny track corrections which stifles any enjoyment of the 2nd half of the ride. AND IT HASN'T EVEN HIT THE MCBR YET!!
It slightly redeems itself with the next corkscrew, but again starts snaking after that to the final brakes.
This is probably the only B&M which i both love and hate with a passion. God knows why the track doesn't want to curve properly, it totally ruins the ride. But the first part of it is absolutely brilliant. Gutted.
We both rode it again and took a 2nd row seat, it wasn't quite as rough, but it was still very unpleasant from the corkscrew on. First ride done, and not impressed, was it a bad omen for IOA?
NO!! A resounding NO! What a brilliant Shot ride, easily the best shot I've been on (only been on 3 but hey?!). Again, the theming is excellent and considering it's a tower the ops weren't too bad.
I was genuinely surprised when it launched, and enjoyed the shot but the best part of this ride is the massive ejector airtime at the top, you are literally flung out of the seat into the restraints as the car is forced down. Such a great feeling.
My faith had been restored, what delight is in store next? Spiderman of course!
Queue theming once again out of this world and a new car type for me. All these dark rides are firsts as far as i remember. Again a nice quick queue, only 5 minutes. This one's hard to place for me. Most of it was really enjoyable, the effects are excellent and you really feel part of the action but there was one part which made me a bit green. You get flung up in the sky and saved by mr spidey, but that scene of flying through the air was a little too much for my stomach to handle. Felt a bit blegh, other than that it was excellent though. A good dark ride.
We had a wander through the rest of the marvel island, snapping pics of the area, the attention to details to really immerse the guests in this park is ridiculous, good ridiculous of course. Already at this stage i knew IOA was the best "Themed" park i've visited.
Anyway, made our way over to Toon Lagoon. Once again, the theming jumps out and slaps you in the face in true toon style.
Small fountains of water everywhere, life sized cannons, huge facades on all the shops and food places. It's really like stepping into a comic world. I appreciated it all, but I was here for what's known as one of the worlds best water rides.
I'd heard a lot about this bad boy, so was expecting fantastic theming, a few short and one excellent final drop.
Luckily we got there quite early and there was no queue, but I can imagine the potential queue on this ride. It wins the prestigious "longest queue line in the world" award, so, so long.
My expectations were justified though, I love the fact that there is actually a story to the ride, the short drops are all great and have a decent amount of splash, especially the first one. I also love that the lifts aren't boring and have theming and story integrated into them, at no point were we bored.
Then there's the final splashdown which not only looks great from off ride but it rather thrilling on ride, it just keeps on going all the way to the final splashdown. Such a good finale, and the last part of the ride with the storytelling was an unexpected plus.
All in all it's the best flume type ride I've been on. There is nothing which lets it down. Well played Universal, you've won in my eyes.
It was getting hot so we had made the right decision doing Ripsaw Falls, fortunately we were nicely soaked but fancied doing the Bilge Rat Barges ride before going to the Studios, unfortunately it was closed. No matter, added to the list of things to do the following day. We then decided to move to the other park.
By the time we got to the studios we were nearly dry, which was good considering the epic amount of sitting we were to doing.
Despicable Me had an hour queue so we decided on Shrek 3D, 20 mins is reasonable so we got in line.
The outside line had a decent amount of Shrek based decor to keep you interested, but any longer in the Q and I would have got bored, 20 mins was enough. The inside however took it to another level, loved the dungeon. The pre-show was excellent, a good ride host who was reasonably funny and for some reason looked like a mate of mine, Chubby Adam. The effects were nicely done and all in all kept our attention well.
The 4d ride itself was decent, a few water sprays, moving seats, cool ghostly air. If you like the Shrek films it's worth watching, but any longer than a 20 min wait and you'll be disappointed.
Despicable Me's queue time was still at the hour mark so we swiftly moved on, HRRR had a 45 min queue so decided to move round the park a bit to try to find some quicker attractions. Next up was the new ride - Transformers.
Optimus was doing a meet, greet and pic session, so we took a couple of pics. This was our first interaction with the characters, loads more to come.
Helen didn't fancy it as she wasn't keen on Spiderman and this was a similar attraction, so through the single rider line i went. It was only a 10 min queue anyway but I literally walked straight on. The only problem with this was missing a huge portion of the queue line and therefore lots of theming.
This was better than Spiderman, a lot better. I've been a fan of transformers since my youth, and enjoyed the newer films to an extent, so the story was fun. The cars span a lot but without being overly disorientating, but the thing about this is it's long, around 4 minutes in length and none of it is wasted. Constant action with the car being directly involved in the story nearly all the way through. It really is fantastic, some of the effects are jawdropping but there's no time to dwell on it as the next second you're being spun off and through a wall.
Next time you head to Universal don't miss it, it's truly a world class dark ride.
Time for a coaster - Revenge of the Mummy
All I knew about this was that it's an indoor coaster based on, yep, the mummy films. I wanted to be surprised so specifically didn't watch a POV.
I'm glad I didn't, the whole experience was brilliant. All the animatronics looks great and the fire effect on the ceiling actually made me cower in my seat due to the heat. The drops are excellent and the twists and banked turns are surprisingly good. The whole ride was smooth too, although maybe that was partly due to the fact that I was focusing on everything going on around me rather than the ride itself.
Great ending too, easily the best fake unload I've seen. Overall it was brilliant and I have nothing but good things to say about the whole ride. I'm looking forward to my next go on a Premier coaster, as this one set high standards.
We then took a stroll over towards the San Fransisco area of the park and decided to go on DISASTER!
Unfortunately this was a disaster of a ride.
+ points to the girl host, she acted it well. Also the final subway scene was ok, seen better water effects personally, the fire effects were good though.
- points for the totally burdonous pre show and filming portions, just plain boring and long.
The final "film" was also meh, got a few chuckles from other riders but not me. We both got off feeling short changed, even though the queue was only 5 minutes, the whole experience was closer to the half hour mark.
Men in Black next.
Went solo again as the guy on the entrance told Helen it can be quite bad for motion sickness so I again missed a load of queue line stuff, but honestly, i'm not sure if it's good or not. The phasers were interesting and yes, the theming is awesome, as are all the animatronics, but the guns seemed to only work sporadically and wouldn't register hits. The cars also spin waaaaaaaaay too much and I got a crap score
Usually i do really well on these shooters so that's why it wasn't great haha.
It's also really annoying that the guns are so loud, so I didn't hear half the instructions on ride from Zed. Had no idea what i was doing half the time. But there are certain really good parts like the shootout between the cars (only found out what i was supposed to be shooting at after), the massive alien bug is awesome and the customized endings is a really nice touch.
I was dissapointted, but if I went again and went though the normal queue line and not rushed through, my opinion would probably change.
I met this guy, he was fab, sounded a lot like the Christopher Lloyd and was happy to goof around.
Then it was time for the Simpsons ride.
The queue only said 15 mins but they had breakdown so it ended up being 40 mins.
Ermagherd it was rubbish.
After waiting that amount of time i was left extremely dissapointted by the ride. It's the only dark ride of the trip which gave me whiplash. The story was full of action, but it was too quick and made very little sense. Too much took quickly, too jerky and left me with a very sore neck.
Not one I will revisit, and if it's still there when we go back with the boy, i'll have to bear it for his sake if he desperately wants to go.
We then decided to take a look at the childrens area near E.T. E.T is the only ride that's still in operation since I was last here, so for nostalgia reasons was a must. Love the indoor queue line, brought back some great memories and totally forgot about the personalized greeting so it was a nice reminder.
The ride itself was fun, much like i remembered it, well worth the 20 min queue.
Then we had a quick look at the Curious George play area and took a couple of pics for the boy, seems like the kind of run around place he would love.
Cred time, Woody Woodpecker
Very short, and only one circuit, but for a kiddy coaster it was good. A decent helix and a couple of adult headchoppers. Walk-on +1.
A few more bits to do in the studios before heading back into IOA.
Took a wander towards the exit to grab the Terminator "experience", something different to everything else we saw on the trip. Interesting angle on the series and enjoyed the mix of live action and 3d effects. The Terminator geek in me was satisfied.
We then found this
I don't think she ever found it
We then ran into a few more character experiences, I love this cheeky monkey
After seeing no movement on queue times for HRRR and Despicable Me we rode out the Twister.
I loved the film when it came out, and it's still watchable so it was nice to experience it, even if it was a little boring. Flying cow <3
That was all for the Studios, decided to do the last 2 things the following day so we went back into IOA for the final couple of hours as Harry Potter was supposed to be quieter at the end of the day.
Part 2 to come.
Part 1.
The plan was to go into IOA first but just do a few bits and bobs and then head over to the studios for the rest of the day, with a 2nd day planned for mopping up missed things. It nearly went to plan.
Fingerprint entry cards, good idea, shame they don't always work. Faffed around for 5 mins trying to get the machine to accept my fingerprint, eventually worked, humph.
In we went, but we had no time for perusing the gift shops etc at this point, attractions must be ridden.
First up was the big green machine which dominates IOA. Helen sat out the first run as she hadn't seen it complete a circuit, so she took the camera and watched on while I literally walked on the ride. Here was my first interaction with the world famous Universal theming. It's outstanding, the queue line was like nothing i'd ever experienced, and was just a taster of what was to greet my eyes over the next 2 days. Back row as per usual for the first ride.
Ops were very quick, considering there is no seperate exit platform the throughput is quicker than expected. They ran 2 trains, even that early in the morning with no queue.
B&M's only launch is ok, it's nothing compared to the Intamin accelerators, but feels faster than it is due to the tunnel enclosing it, however, the zero-g is not taken at any great speed. This isn't actually a bad thing, i liked it, and the cobra roll was decent, as was the loop. The dive into and out of the mist is great. In fact, from the launch to the first corkscrew is excellent, it was all going swimmingly until the that element.
It goes from being a smooth but forceful ride to just being a rough one, the entrance into the corkscrew just didn't feel right, no smooth entrance just a slight shift of entrance position into the invertion. It was not good. The loop after was ok, but not as smooth as the initial loop, but then the ride starts snaking around for no apparent reason. The smoothness of the first 20 seconds are lost in a blaze of tiny track corrections which stifles any enjoyment of the 2nd half of the ride. AND IT HASN'T EVEN HIT THE MCBR YET!!
It slightly redeems itself with the next corkscrew, but again starts snaking after that to the final brakes.
This is probably the only B&M which i both love and hate with a passion. God knows why the track doesn't want to curve properly, it totally ruins the ride. But the first part of it is absolutely brilliant. Gutted.
We both rode it again and took a 2nd row seat, it wasn't quite as rough, but it was still very unpleasant from the corkscrew on. First ride done, and not impressed, was it a bad omen for IOA?
NO!! A resounding NO! What a brilliant Shot ride, easily the best shot I've been on (only been on 3 but hey?!). Again, the theming is excellent and considering it's a tower the ops weren't too bad.
I was genuinely surprised when it launched, and enjoyed the shot but the best part of this ride is the massive ejector airtime at the top, you are literally flung out of the seat into the restraints as the car is forced down. Such a great feeling.
My faith had been restored, what delight is in store next? Spiderman of course!
Queue theming once again out of this world and a new car type for me. All these dark rides are firsts as far as i remember. Again a nice quick queue, only 5 minutes. This one's hard to place for me. Most of it was really enjoyable, the effects are excellent and you really feel part of the action but there was one part which made me a bit green. You get flung up in the sky and saved by mr spidey, but that scene of flying through the air was a little too much for my stomach to handle. Felt a bit blegh, other than that it was excellent though. A good dark ride.
We had a wander through the rest of the marvel island, snapping pics of the area, the attention to details to really immerse the guests in this park is ridiculous, good ridiculous of course. Already at this stage i knew IOA was the best "Themed" park i've visited.
Anyway, made our way over to Toon Lagoon. Once again, the theming jumps out and slaps you in the face in true toon style.
Small fountains of water everywhere, life sized cannons, huge facades on all the shops and food places. It's really like stepping into a comic world. I appreciated it all, but I was here for what's known as one of the worlds best water rides.
I'd heard a lot about this bad boy, so was expecting fantastic theming, a few short and one excellent final drop.
Luckily we got there quite early and there was no queue, but I can imagine the potential queue on this ride. It wins the prestigious "longest queue line in the world" award, so, so long.
My expectations were justified though, I love the fact that there is actually a story to the ride, the short drops are all great and have a decent amount of splash, especially the first one. I also love that the lifts aren't boring and have theming and story integrated into them, at no point were we bored.
Then there's the final splashdown which not only looks great from off ride but it rather thrilling on ride, it just keeps on going all the way to the final splashdown. Such a good finale, and the last part of the ride with the storytelling was an unexpected plus.
All in all it's the best flume type ride I've been on. There is nothing which lets it down. Well played Universal, you've won in my eyes.
It was getting hot so we had made the right decision doing Ripsaw Falls, fortunately we were nicely soaked but fancied doing the Bilge Rat Barges ride before going to the Studios, unfortunately it was closed. No matter, added to the list of things to do the following day. We then decided to move to the other park.
By the time we got to the studios we were nearly dry, which was good considering the epic amount of sitting we were to doing.
Despicable Me had an hour queue so we decided on Shrek 3D, 20 mins is reasonable so we got in line.
The outside line had a decent amount of Shrek based decor to keep you interested, but any longer in the Q and I would have got bored, 20 mins was enough. The inside however took it to another level, loved the dungeon. The pre-show was excellent, a good ride host who was reasonably funny and for some reason looked like a mate of mine, Chubby Adam. The effects were nicely done and all in all kept our attention well.
The 4d ride itself was decent, a few water sprays, moving seats, cool ghostly air. If you like the Shrek films it's worth watching, but any longer than a 20 min wait and you'll be disappointed.
Despicable Me's queue time was still at the hour mark so we swiftly moved on, HRRR had a 45 min queue so decided to move round the park a bit to try to find some quicker attractions. Next up was the new ride - Transformers.
Optimus was doing a meet, greet and pic session, so we took a couple of pics. This was our first interaction with the characters, loads more to come.
Helen didn't fancy it as she wasn't keen on Spiderman and this was a similar attraction, so through the single rider line i went. It was only a 10 min queue anyway but I literally walked straight on. The only problem with this was missing a huge portion of the queue line and therefore lots of theming.
This was better than Spiderman, a lot better. I've been a fan of transformers since my youth, and enjoyed the newer films to an extent, so the story was fun. The cars span a lot but without being overly disorientating, but the thing about this is it's long, around 4 minutes in length and none of it is wasted. Constant action with the car being directly involved in the story nearly all the way through. It really is fantastic, some of the effects are jawdropping but there's no time to dwell on it as the next second you're being spun off and through a wall.
Next time you head to Universal don't miss it, it's truly a world class dark ride.
Time for a coaster - Revenge of the Mummy
All I knew about this was that it's an indoor coaster based on, yep, the mummy films. I wanted to be surprised so specifically didn't watch a POV.
I'm glad I didn't, the whole experience was brilliant. All the animatronics looks great and the fire effect on the ceiling actually made me cower in my seat due to the heat. The drops are excellent and the twists and banked turns are surprisingly good. The whole ride was smooth too, although maybe that was partly due to the fact that I was focusing on everything going on around me rather than the ride itself.
Great ending too, easily the best fake unload I've seen. Overall it was brilliant and I have nothing but good things to say about the whole ride. I'm looking forward to my next go on a Premier coaster, as this one set high standards.
We then took a stroll over towards the San Fransisco area of the park and decided to go on DISASTER!
Unfortunately this was a disaster of a ride.
+ points to the girl host, she acted it well. Also the final subway scene was ok, seen better water effects personally, the fire effects were good though.
- points for the totally burdonous pre show and filming portions, just plain boring and long.
The final "film" was also meh, got a few chuckles from other riders but not me. We both got off feeling short changed, even though the queue was only 5 minutes, the whole experience was closer to the half hour mark.
Men in Black next.
Went solo again as the guy on the entrance told Helen it can be quite bad for motion sickness so I again missed a load of queue line stuff, but honestly, i'm not sure if it's good or not. The phasers were interesting and yes, the theming is awesome, as are all the animatronics, but the guns seemed to only work sporadically and wouldn't register hits. The cars also spin waaaaaaaaay too much and I got a crap score
Usually i do really well on these shooters so that's why it wasn't great haha.It's also really annoying that the guns are so loud, so I didn't hear half the instructions on ride from Zed. Had no idea what i was doing half the time. But there are certain really good parts like the shootout between the cars (only found out what i was supposed to be shooting at after), the massive alien bug is awesome and the customized endings is a really nice touch.
I was dissapointted, but if I went again and went though the normal queue line and not rushed through, my opinion would probably change.
I met this guy, he was fab, sounded a lot like the Christopher Lloyd and was happy to goof around.
Then it was time for the Simpsons ride.
The queue only said 15 mins but they had breakdown so it ended up being 40 mins.
Ermagherd it was rubbish.
After waiting that amount of time i was left extremely dissapointted by the ride. It's the only dark ride of the trip which gave me whiplash. The story was full of action, but it was too quick and made very little sense. Too much took quickly, too jerky and left me with a very sore neck.
Not one I will revisit, and if it's still there when we go back with the boy, i'll have to bear it for his sake if he desperately wants to go.
We then decided to take a look at the childrens area near E.T. E.T is the only ride that's still in operation since I was last here, so for nostalgia reasons was a must. Love the indoor queue line, brought back some great memories and totally forgot about the personalized greeting so it was a nice reminder.
The ride itself was fun, much like i remembered it, well worth the 20 min queue.
Then we had a quick look at the Curious George play area and took a couple of pics for the boy, seems like the kind of run around place he would love.
Cred time, Woody Woodpecker
Very short, and only one circuit, but for a kiddy coaster it was good. A decent helix and a couple of adult headchoppers. Walk-on +1.
A few more bits to do in the studios before heading back into IOA.
Took a wander towards the exit to grab the Terminator "experience", something different to everything else we saw on the trip. Interesting angle on the series and enjoyed the mix of live action and 3d effects. The Terminator geek in me was satisfied.
We then found this
I don't think she ever found it
We then ran into a few more character experiences, I love this cheeky monkey
After seeing no movement on queue times for HRRR and Despicable Me we rode out the Twister.
I loved the film when it came out, and it's still watchable so it was nice to experience it, even if it was a little boring. Flying cow <3
That was all for the Studios, decided to do the last 2 things the following day so we went back into IOA for the final couple of hours as Harry Potter was supposed to be quieter at the end of the day.
Part 2 to come.
