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A Scot's on his way.

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Yep, my older daughter it was her first coaster and I know many others that it is their first. So it is a huge hit for the younger crowd. However, once 8 PM hits it is a walk on and by 9 it is a ghost town back there. The young kids that ride it our doing parade, fireworks, and falling asleep. So for my night owl child it was always a perfect time to get 6 or so rides in before she was taller and able to ride more coasters. As long as there is no one waiting for the row you are sitting in they will let you go again if you ask.

I imagine most Wet n Wild workers are seasonal meaning they wouldn't be working the colder months since the park has limited operations and is closed some days in the winter months. So I can't imagine they are losing too much work and if they are starting softs in April, I would imagine paid training would start in March. So I agree they should not be slacking off. If I was their boss and saw that I would tell them there will not be a job waiting for them at Volcano Bay.

I always thought the back of the parks was closed when the fireworks were on. I don't think Big Thunder or SDMT are any worse than Barnstormer but they look more intimidating and when you're a kid, that's enough to scare you half to death.
 
I always thought the back of the parks was closed when the fireworks were on. I don't think Big Thunder or SDMT are any worse than Barnstormer but they look more intimidating and when you're a kid, that's enough to scare you half to death.

LOL - I guess people think like you because while the back is open, it is pretty dead back there. The only thing that closes during fireworks is the carousel and it re-opens once they are done.

barnstormer is 35", mine is 38", and thunder is 40". So it is a nice progression as the kids grow up. space is 44" which is the final one in that park.
 
Is this for safety reasons? If so, is it because of falling shells or distractions while riding?

Falling shells and fire risk. There is a whole area back there that they close and they hose down that area. It is for the smaller fireworks that go off right at the castle area. You can sit behind the carousel though, it is the side towards the castle that is closed off and causes the carousel to be closed down.
 
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To start wrapping things up, our last day on Friday (Which feels like a life time ago now :() was spent at the pool at CBBR and then Universal in the afternoon followed by genuine panic trying to pack everything into our suitcases. We ended up taking 3 cases home with 2 slightly over the limit plus 3 full hand luggage cases then followed by 2 full bags of duty free. Arriving in Glasgow and getting to the car with only 2 people was a struggle.

The only ride I haven't mentioned yet is DC. This still bums me out that it doesn't duel any more. The coaster is probably a step above ok now, it could be that it's a good coaster but I feel that I know how good it used to be that it's bringing down my opinion. Something I've found this year that I've never really thought before is that B&M are kind of boring coasters. Technically, they're mechanically beautiful but I've started to feel that they're playing things to safe and when they're new, they're great but they're not aging well as one of the great benefits is how smooth they are and once that wears off after years, it loses a lot of it's appeal.

I felt like the rest of the day at Universal was incredibly frustrating. The whole locker system is becoming a joke. They have staff shouting out over crowds to put the bags and any lose articles away and people are ignoring them. The locations are always cramped and the system feels a slow resulting in queues always forming. People were constantly being sent back through the metal detectors and I understand that the staff are just as frustrated having to repeat themselves for hours on end but I felt like they were starting to be rude and impatient with guests.

As a whole, I don't think the staff at Universal are at the level they need to be. I feel like the resort has came on leaps and bounds since Potter first opened and the staff should be at a higher level to compliment the resort. Some of the staff was great but the majority seemed uninterested and at times useless. Asking members of staff where the nearest freestyle machine was often met by vague answers.

These are others things that bugged me and I know this is nitpicking now I still feel that it's relevant. When the parks are so good, the smallest things can stick out more than normal. The bins were disgusting. I know it was unusually warm recently but I felt like the bins were lying far too long before being emptied and stale fizzy juice in the heat is one of the nastiest smells. I love the freestyle machines but the screens were hard to read in the sun, half were turned off or frozen, a lot were out of ice, they were always busy and poorly spaced out. You'd find some in close proximity and others far apart. I don't think their locations are on the maps either. The app is buggy and often out of sync for wait times and just purely laid out. For a park that's owned by a major ISP, the wifi sucked. It was slow and patchy and often faster to use 3G. People were constantly skipping queues and jumping into the express queue without staff saying a word. On DC, staff were competing to try and get the most trains dispatched which is nothing new but it was getting to the point where it was getting uncomfortable. They were slamming down restraints and running around like it was a giant game. Completely unprofessional.

CityWalk wasn't much better. An after hours event was on in Islands and HHN in the Studios and there was zero crowd control. The restaurants were packed which was expected but the staff were handling it so poorly. In Toothsome, there was no queue in the gift shop and the staff were serving people like it was a bar. Some people were waiting a long time while other people barged in to get served.

This is going to be a very unpopular opinion here but in terms of experience, I would say that overall, SeaWorld is as close to Universal as Universal is to Disney.

I really appreciated all the new development that has been made. Diagon blew my mind with how well hidden it is, it's truly like arriving into a different world and Gringotts is a wonderfully done ride.

However, I'm concerned about the future. Hulk and Kong were major disappointments. Hulk some how feels just as rough as before, the on board audio is terrible and the queue, as pretty as it is, offers zero plot until you're just about to board the train. Kong may be the longest ride in the resort but it feels like nothing happens and for all the advanced technology, it offers nothing new. I know not every ride can be the best but if it can't be the best it should at least be something different. F&F is looking like it will be even worse. I have hope for Fallon, I think it will be a fun ride but I fear that it will only be a fun ride the first few times and then it will be something similar to Shrek.

The bright side are the hotels are world class and Volcano Bay, I think is going to redefine the water parks in Orlando. I know Nintendo is looking like it's going to bring back the great experiences but I think adding smaller rides to fill the void in the mean time is just bringing disappointment. I can't tell if UC are severally over stretched with how much they have going on. F&F, Fallon, VB, 6th Hotel, (Possibly something new at CityWalk), Nintendo, SLOP, possible DC replacement, possible new MSHI ride and a 3rd park and that's just Orlando.

Don't get me wrong, I do love Universal, more than Disney, its just that the small things are bringing it down slightly and it's well within their reach to fix and I'm sure they will.
 
There's some fair points there Scott, but sometimes I wonder if we're all too close to it? As an example, I've got a mate who is absolutely Star Wars nuts and after watching The Force Awakens together (me having not spoiled it as a passive fan, him having read everything about it for 3+ years), he was deeply disappointed in it. He'd built up an unrealistic expectation by studying it so hard and he wanted those 2 hours to be 'everything'. I know that movies are subjective, but he couldn't just 'go along with the ride' and enjoy it as a fun night at the movies, as the majority of people seemed to find that movie to be.
I'd love to be hypnotised and go into Universal for a day to see what the average person feels and notices again, it'd be fascinating!! If you take a look at the average TripAdvisor review for Universal, people just go nuts for everything, it's like they are on happy pills compared to us! :lol:
I'm totally not saying you're/we're all wrong, but sometimes it's hard to turn that side of our brains off :bonk:
 
To start wrapping things up, our last day on Friday (Which feels like a life time ago now :() was spent at the pool at CBBR and then Universal in the afternoon followed by genuine panic trying to pack everything into our suitcases. We ended up taking 3 cases home with 2 slightly over the limit plus 3 full hand luggage cases then followed by 2 full bags of duty free. Arriving in Glasgow and getting to the car with only 2 people was a struggle.

The only ride I haven't mentioned yet is DC. This still bums me out that it doesn't duel any more. The coaster is probably a step above ok now, it could be that it's a good coaster but I feel that I know how good it used to be that it's bringing down my opinion. Something I've found this year that I've never really thought before is that B&M are kind of boring coasters. Technically, they're mechanically beautiful but I've started to feel that they're playing things to safe and when they're new, they're great but they're not aging well as one of the great benefits is how smooth they are and once that wears off after years, it loses a lot of it's appeal.

I felt like the rest of the day at Universal was incredibly frustrating. The whole locker system is becoming a joke. They have staff shouting out over crowds to put the bags and any lose articles away and people are ignoring them. The locations are always cramped and the system feels a slow resulting in queues always forming. People were constantly being sent back through the metal detectors and I understand that the staff are just as frustrated having to repeat themselves for hours on end but I felt like they were starting to be rude and impatient with guests.

As a whole, I don't think the staff at Universal are at the level they need to be. I feel like the resort has came on leaps and bounds since Potter first opened and the staff should be at a higher level to compliment the resort. Some of the staff was great but the majority seemed uninterested and at times useless. Asking members of staff where the nearest freestyle machine was often met by vague answers.

These are others things that bugged me and I know this is nitpicking now I still feel that it's relevant. When the parks are so good, the smallest things can stick out more than normal. The bins were disgusting. I know it was unusually warm recently but I felt like the bins were lying far too long before being emptied and stale fizzy juice in the heat is one of the nastiest smells. I love the freestyle machines but the screens were hard to read in the sun, half were turned off or frozen, a lot were out of ice, they were always busy and poorly spaced out. You'd find some in close proximity and others far apart. I don't think their locations are on the maps either. The app is buggy and often out of sync for wait times and just purely laid out. For a park that's owned by a major ISP, the wifi sucked. It was slow and patchy and often faster to use 3G. People were constantly skipping queues and jumping into the express queue without staff saying a word. On DC, staff were competing to try and get the most trains dispatched which is nothing new but it was getting to the point where it was getting uncomfortable. They were slamming down restraints and running around like it was a giant game. Completely unprofessional.

CityWalk wasn't much better. An after hours event was on in Islands and HHN in the Studios and there was zero crowd control. The restaurants were packed which was expected but the staff were handling it so poorly. In Toothsome, there was no queue in the gift shop and the staff were serving people like it was a bar. Some people were waiting a long time while other people barged in to get served.

This is going to be a very unpopular opinion here but in terms of experience, I would say that overall, SeaWorld is as close to Universal as Universal is to Disney.

I really appreciated all the new development that has been made. Diagon blew my mind with how well hidden it is, it's truly like arriving into a different world and Gringotts is a wonderfully done ride.

However, I'm concerned about the future. Hulk and Kong were major disappointments. Hulk some how feels just as rough as before, the on board audio is terrible and the queue, as pretty as it is, offers zero plot until you're just about to board the train. Kong may be the longest ride in the resort but it feels like nothing happens and for all the advanced technology, it offers nothing new. I know not every ride can be the best but if it can't be the best it should at least be something different. F&F is looking like it will be even worse. I have hope for Fallon, I think it will be a fun ride but I fear that it will only be a fun ride the first few times and then it will be something similar to Shrek.

The bright side are the hotels are world class and Volcano Bay, I think is going to redefine the water parks in Orlando. I know Nintendo is looking like it's going to bring back the great experiences but I think adding smaller rides to fill the void in the mean time is just bringing disappointment. I can't tell if UC are severally over stretched with how much they have going on. F&F, Fallon, VB, 6th Hotel, (Possibly something new at CityWalk), Nintendo, SLOP, possible DC replacement, possible new MSHI ride and a 3rd park and that's just Orlando.

Don't get me wrong, I do love Universal, more than Disney, its just that the small things are bringing it down slightly and it's well within their reach to fix and I'm sure they will.

Thanks for the review, I'm processing it still and I'll have to come back to this after my trip in a week.
 
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There's some fair points there Scott, but sometimes I wonder if we're all too close to it? As an example, I've got a mate who is absolutely Star Wars nuts and after watching The Force Awakens together (me having not spoiled it as a passive fan, him having read everything about it for 3+ years), he was deeply disappointed in it. He'd built up an unrealistic expectation by studying it so hard and he wanted those 2 hours to be 'everything'. I know that movies are subjective, but he couldn't just 'go along with the ride' and enjoy it as a fun night at the movies, as the majority of people seemed to find that movie to be.
I'd love to be hypnotised and go into Universal for a day to see what the average person feels and notices again, it'd be fascinating!! If you take a look at the average TripAdvisor review for Universal, people just go nuts for everything, it's like they are on happy pills compared to us! :lol:
I'm totally not saying you're/we're all wrong, but sometimes it's hard to turn that side of our brains off :bonk:

Yes, I agree we are sometimes too close both ways. I have to say that from the general population of locals I talk to Mako was the big hit of the summer. Kong was really not something a lot of people talked about and I didn't hear one person mention Hulk. Now I think that had more to do with Hulk opening later than the others.

I also have to say that my friends who come out of town and do both parks (Disney and Universal) really had the same overall impression of the parks as Scott did. Both sets of friends had similar comments. The employees are more rude at Universal and that Disney just has a different feeling. Things are neater, employees nicer, easier to find information, app is better, overall easier to do. Now the quality of rides is always a separate thing for them. Disney has that, I did it as a kid feeling and Universal has more of the thrill feeling. Which both families liked both parks rides themselves.

My one friend even had express for 2 days and she said they did like the express part, but that there was just something missing. Both her kids are huge Harry Potter fans, so they were really into all of the Harry Potter stuff. So they did have a good time at Universal and they liked the majority of rides. But she said that Disney was overall easier to do. The magic bands, getting into rooms, spending money, etc. was just overall easier. Disney App vs. Universal App again Disney won out. Same with the websites, she said she had a hard time really getting the information she wanted on their website. They did counter service at both parks, so food was not really compared.

The other friend stayed with me, so she didn't have magic bands, nor express. But again she said the information was harder to find. She even had to call Universal for one thing and was still given the wrong information. Again, her kids loved it. Her kids are older so the one loved the thrill aspect of Universal and the other is a huge HP fan, so loved that part. But again, she felt something was missing. She also did counter service at both parks, so again food was not a factor.

When I went to the AP event I was talking to groups of people and one group said, "When something happens we always say, well this is not Disney". So in their eyes enough customer service issues happen at Universal that they have a "phrase" to brush it off.

I love all 3 parks for different reasons and I have run into issues in all 3 parks. But I do have to say that I run into the most issues with Universal. I also have a hard time convincing my husband to do Universal because something always happens and he doesn't have a good time. Now I will also say that Sea World he loves the special events, but outside of events he is also not one to rush out and do Sea World. Now Halloween and Christmas I have no problems getting him to go to Sea World. I can get him to go to Magic Kingdom or Epcot any day of the week. It doesn't take much convincing to be honest with you. We are going tomorrow and I mentioned in passing wanting to go and he was like, "OK". When I mentioned Sea World for last week I had to plead my case lol
 
I should really continue on with this since I'm so close to saying pretty much everything I want to but I'm suffering some severe post holiday blues this past week and I've been losing to man flu.

This will be a review of CBBR.

Hands down, this is the best hotel I've stayed at in Orlando. The rooms were fairly basic and at times it did feel like design over function at times with the rooms but the benefits far outweighed everything else.

The big pros of the hotel were:
  • The location was great and not just for Universal either. Even travelling to Disney, you were on the I4 within a minute and could reach almost any where in Disney within 15mins.
  • I've heard a lot of people complain about walking to the parks but I thought it was a relatively easy walk and the garden walk is nicer than it really needs to be.
  • The pools were great and who doesn't love a lazy river?
  • The bars were kind of basic but reasonably priced.
  • The refillable cups were a bargain for what you got, my only gripe is how far away they were from our room. If they had a freestyle machine at every entrance, it would be perfect.
  • The food court was by far the biggest benefit. The food was pretty good and well priced but it was open every time we needed it. Plenty of times on recent trips, we would be coming home late from the parks and need something quick to eat which resulted in plenty of trips to fast food places. This worked out cheaper and tasted better.
The rooms were fairly basic but since we were only really in the rooms to sleep, it didn't really matter. A few things did annoy me however:
  • The beds were uncomfortably firm (This is purely a personal thing though and I know beds are always 50/50 to how people like them) with thin yet some how heavy sheets.
  • The alarm clock, although fitting with the room theme was horribly dated.
  • The wifi was patchy and I still can't get over this. Not that it was bad, it's just that you would think Comcast of all companies would be able to provide decent internet service.
  • The shower had awful water pressure.
  • The provided towels were tiny. I'm not the smallest but hardly the biggest of people and I struggled to wrap a towel around myself.
  • The maids did very little. I think they were scared to touch anything in the room which I can understand but it felt like they were doing the bare minimum and bed sheets were going days without getting changed.
  • The toilet roll. Oh, god! It was almost like sand paper.
  • The walls were pretty thin. We never had any problems with noise but you were always aware when the people next door were in and when people were walking down the corridor.
  • For the amount of security in the place, it's amazing how many leaflets for pizza were delivered under the door daily. One day we had 6 leaflets for local pizza companies.
  • Parking was ok for the most part but when it was busy, it was near impossible and incredibly frustrating. I didn't pay for parking as it was included in the package I booked, but if I was paying for it and couldn't get parked after driving around for 15mins late at night after a busy day, I would be beyond pissed off. The parking barriers seldom worked as well. (Top tip, if you can't get access the car park or leave, take the cone off the top of the white tube near the barrier and push the button and it will open the barrier)
This is all minor stuff though and every hotels in this budget will have similar issues. The pros far outweighed the cons.

Would I stay here again? Absolutely but I don't know if I would stay for the full duration of my holiday. Ironically, staying here has kind of persuaded me to try staying at Disney for a week and Universal for a week. The only thing putting me off that idea is that I think I would be creating a very solid line in my holiday that would split one week to only Disney and one week to only Universal/SeaWorld when I usually like to mix the two.

Staying on site has also solved many of the problems that I have thought would exist if travelling with my family as it would allow for such easy transport to and from the parks back to the hotel without having to have several cars.
 
@scott_walker As a UK visitor do you have a specific thought out strategy in terms of what order to parks to hit in? I did last trip and am planning the next one, just after your thoughts/reasoning.
 
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@scott_walker As a UK visitor do you have a specific thought out strategy in terms of what order to parks to hit in? I did last trip and am planning the next one, just after your thoughts/reasoning.

Usually we have a rough plan of what we want to do and then it will change depending on the weather forecast. This year was a bit different with Disney as our dining reservations made it set a bit more in stone, especially with getting a table at BOG. However going to MK was probably the only date really set in stone because it was my wife's birthday.

Staying on site this year made it a bit more flexible with going to Universal as well. We also had a list of restaurants we wanted to go to and set some time aside for shopping although this year was different. Due to the uncertainty in the exchange rate since Brexit, I took a lot more cash than normal when the exchange rate was high so we left most of our shopping to the end of the trip to see how much cash we had left.

The only thing I would have changed is that I think due to our excitement, we went to our favourite parks first and then left the others till later in the holiday that left it feeling a little unbalanced and forced to make sure we got everything done that we wanted to.

I tried using touring plans for the first time but I found the whole system clunky to use and we've always used thedibb.co.uk for park times and recommended parks.

Florida Park Hours

We avoided the majority of the theme parks at the weekend as they are typically busier and left other activities for then like Kennedy Space Centre and water parks.
 
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@scott_walker Last year I tried to split every few days of theme parks with a water park, but we found out pretty quick that these were as tiring as the parks when you're climbing steps all day, or trying to keep your balance in the wave pool! Never really took into consideration the weekend, so that will be something to take into account.

I think the order you do the parks has a major effect on how you perceive them. Few examples - we did Seaworld after MK, and we really appreciated the laid back feeling of the day compared to the hecticness of Disney. We also did Epcot late, which tbh probably didn't help in it appearing quite boring to us (when you've been jolted all over on Montu the day before, Test Track doesn't seem quite all that).

So trying to plan it all is fun, but maybe I'm trying too hard to plan how it'll all fit together to get the best out of every day.
 
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@scott_walker Last year I tried to split every few days of theme parks with a water park, but we found out pretty quick that these were as tiring as the parks when you're climbing steps all day, or trying to keep your balance in the wave pool! Never really took into consideration the weekend, so that will be something to take into account.

I think the order you do the parks has a major effect on how you perceive them. Few examples - we did Seaworld after MK, and we really appreciated the laid back feeling of the day compared to the hecticness of Disney. We also did Epcot late, which tbh probably didn't help in it appearing quite boring to us (when you've been jolted all over on Montu the day before, Test Track doesn't seem quite all that).

So trying to plan it all is fun, but maybe I'm trying too hard to plan how it'll all fit together to get the best out of every day.

We both had Fitbits on and we didn't walk as much in the theme parks as I had thought we would, we averaged about 20,000 steps a day but since we couldn't wear them to the water parks, I don't know how much we walked but I would certainly say it was on par with the theme parks and maybe even more tiring due to the countless floors climbed. I'm hoping that there's another option besides stairs once Volcano Bay opens.

I know exactly what you mean about the differences in parks between theming and rides, the order you visit in can completely change the feel of a park depending on your previous few days.

One thing I had wished we had done but always seem to do this way, is do Magic Kingdom later in the holiday and Busch earlier. The reason we always do Magic Kingdom early is because I think it sets the tone for the holiday, once you visit the castle, you know you're at Disney. The reason I wished we visited later is that it's a long day and once the jet lag kicks in, it's a nightmare at night once the night time parades and fireworks start. A few members have suggested staying in the park for an hour after the fireworks finish as it allows the park to empty out, the queues for the monorail/ferry to die down and the rush to be over in the car park plus it's a nice way to relax after a busy day. The reason I've always left Busch to later in the holiday is to get more comfortable driving before driving an hour from Orlando. I felt far more comfortable driving this year than I ever have and it would have been nice to use the early morning jet lag rises to get to Busch early.

I think going to Food and Wine completely changed the feel of EPCOT this year. If you're driving, I'd recommend getting an Uber to the park and having a few drinks around World Showcase.