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My Trip Report (29/8-5/9)

Jul 30, 2018
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I will start off by saying a lot of this trip was impromptu and only decided in the two weeks prior when it became clear that the parks would have extremely low crowds. I initially had only decided to go to Universal and maybe one of the Disney parks but with the crowd levels I decided to go for it and managed to go to all four Disney dry parks and the Two universal dry parks, went to the opening night of Halloween Horror Nights and happily rode almost everything I wanted to ride including Velocicoaster (twice), Flight of Passage (twice) and Rise of the Resistance. Below are my general impressions of the parks and rides:

Day 1 : Universal

A running thing about this report is gonna be just how empty the parks are with low wait times. This first day immediately after entering the park I did Velocicoaster which was just a 10 minute wait. I have to say the ride is fantastic and lived up to all the hype, I’m not really a coaster enthusiast and only really interested in going to the major theme parks versus ones with more thrilling experiences, so this was probably the most intense coaster I’ve ever been on. But despite the intensity it was an incredibly smooth experience. After that I rode JPRA which I still enjoy quite a good bit and King Kong, which is still mostly fine, not amazing but just fine, both of these were under 10 minute waits and basically walk ons.

Pretty much the only snag of the day was Hagrid’s which went down for maintenance while I was in line, even then it was likely 30 minutes total of wait. Hagrid’s is still really fantastic, in ways between Velocicoaster and Hagrid’s I still have to give it to Hagrid’s, I really like the implementation of the animatronics within the ride and it’s a good mix of thrill and themed elements. Forbidden Journey was mainly the same ole same ole, maybe getting a tad long in the tooth, not sure how to put it, it’s still good but certainly doesn’t hold a candle to the other offerings now.

Spider-Man is still a spectacular dark ride that features my favorite era/variation of Spider-man, it’s just plain good fun that never gets old. The Hulk was another walk on for me, and I think it still has a very unique feel and place in IoA even with the recent inundation of other coasters, overall it’s pretty great how IoA now has 3 coasters that all have a very distinct feel to them. I headed over to Universal Studios and had some lunch at Finnegan’s, got the fish and chips. The fish was very delicious, sadly I’m not too big into drinking so the bar was wasted on me, but maybe next time I will try something, the two folks next to me certainly got some drinks (I think a cranberry margarita and a green apple tea?) that looked quite delicious. Went on to MIB which was the second ride to have any notable snags, spent about 15 minutes waiting on maintenance but otherwise was a short wait. MIB is still a pretty fun time and the best of this type of interactive shooting ride I experienced, I will be sad to see it go whenever that time comes.

Next up I went to the Bourne Spectacular, and was very impressed with the tech and the quality of the show, but genuinely it being Bourne kinda made the show uninteresting to me, but I did leave imagining how cool the effects and tech would be used on an IP I’d like, definitely made me excited for whatever shows Universal does in Epic Universe. Afterwards I rode the Mummy, which is a very fantastic dark ride/coaster ride, this is still for me probably the best ride there is at USF. In fact to directly compare I went on Gringotts right after, and much like I felt in 2019, it is by far to me the weakest Harry Potter ride (meant for adults at least) and just isn't as thrilling an indoor coaster as something like the Mummy nor is it as compelling a “3d/Screens” ride as the others I rode. Only other things I did was hop on the Hogwarts Express and rode Velocicoaster again, it was just that good. Overall a great first day and I’m glad I got this day in, since the weather was perfect (as perfect as 90 degree weather can be at least).

Day 2 : Animal Kingdom and Epcot

This day was a double feature, I started the day by going off to Animal Kingdom. First, some general thoughts about the park, it’s still the most cohesively themed park of the ones I’ve been to, though that comes at the detriment of being one with very few rides/attractions. It makes up for it by being “part zoo” (and despite any marketing that’s the only way to describe it). Anyways once again I started off the day by bee-lining to the newest land/ride of the park. I have not been to Animal Kingdom since 2008 and outside of Avatar admittedly I can say not much has changed since then, (this will be a running theme of a lot of my Disney experience) . I mentioned Universal being practically empty, however Animal Kingdom was unbelievably so, I’ve genuinely never seen a park this empty before. I walked on to Flight of Passage, there was a 10 minute wait time, but that was genuinely approximately the time it took just to walk to the beginning of the ride and then to deal with the pre-show.

The ride itself was pretty good imo, basically Soarin’ 2.0 with a much more exciting simulation involved. However much like when Soarin came, I just can’t feel for it as a “flagship” theme park ride if you will, I especially just can’t imagine spending more than 30-40 mins waiting to ride it let alone the 60-90 minute waits I’ve seen mentioned in the years following its opening. Na’vi River Journey was just okay, I can always appreciate a boat ride but there just isnt anything particularly special or interesting about it. Ultimately I feel the entirety of Avatar Land spends a lot of time trying to justify being in Animal Kingdom and it still didn’t really sell me on that matter. I also tried some of the food, there wasn’t anything I found super amazing, I had the non alcoholic drink and it was sickly sweet, a pongu lumpia which was nice, the “cheeseburger pods” were fine but nothing to write home about.

The rest of Animal Kingdom was more or less how I remember it, I can say I very much enjoy the “zoo” part of Animal Kingdom so I’m less hard on it, but at the end of the day there really are just about 9ish “rides” and then a few “nature walks” etc give or take. That said I still enjoy it as a park due to its general thematic cohesion and rides more than any other Orlando park besides IoA. In the afternoon I hopped over to Epcot and boy , what a mess of a park to be honest. Not much to truly say about it , some of the rides are kitschy in a way I can enjoy , but the park is still very lacking. Though I already knew that , Soarin’ is still Soarin’ , it’s easy to enjoy it but I didn’t truly get the hype for it when I rode it in 2006~ and it's been surpassed now with better takes on the concept .

Anyways I mostly went to Epcot for the Food and Wine festival and it didn’t disappoint there , there was tons of stuff to enjoy eating and probably some of the better food I had on this trip . How it basically further confirmed an issue I always thought about Epcot , which is when it’s solely getting by as a “Food and Events” Park it’s only really as fun as it takes for you to get full (and also for you to break the bank ). I wasn’t even half way through the world showcase before I had too much to really be interested in trying more . Obviously the intent is for you to come back to try more and more stuff you missed , but for me I don’t have the time and money for that especially as a non-local .
 
Day 3: Disney Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom

Never been to Hollywood Studios before and my first impression was that it’s very very incoherent. I’m not sure what it was like before they added Toy Story and Star Wars but as of now it just feels like a very weird park that they dumped spillover stuff into . To start off I went to Toy Story Land , when it comes to the land overall , I wasn’t that impressed . I don’t think they pull off the supposed feel of making you feel miniature and a toy in Andy’s Backyard . To be fair I don’t expect them to pull that off , but more so the “giant objects” just don’t come off convincing to me . Anyways as for the rides , I think Slinky Dog Dash is really good for the type of coaster it is . Nothing really special about the other rides in this land; they're not terrible but nothing special .

Next up was doing Muppetvision, and I will say at this point of my trip was very much tired of “3D” but it was still pretty charming and their use of animatronics /character actors etc. made it at least somewhat better than some other 3D shows I sat through . Rock n Roller Coaster was fun, but after riding so many coasters it just kinda got lost in the bunch for me , I do think I enjoyed it more than its Universal counterpart when I rode that in 2019 though . Tower of Terror , I enjoyed it quite a bit. I love the interior and queue segments , I love the theming, the ride itself is probably the only drop tower I've been willing to ride and it reminded me how I fear heights/falls more than any rollercoaster. Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway was good , I think their use of projection mapping and the ride concept made for a ride I hadn't experienced before. I actually have to say I really love the trackless ride system, I think it has a lot of potential on what can be done especially mixed with other effects. I also found the preshow to the loading station pretty cute.

Finally I did the Star Wars stuff, Star Tours was neat, at least in the sense it gives folks a bit of the stuff not present in Batuu with the original trilogy stuff, I understand it’s a bit superfluous and likely will be replaced long term but it was nice that it’s there. When it comes to Batuu proper, I’m gonna say I actually found myself really impressed, it is probably the best themed land outside of the Harry Potter lands. I tried blue milk and actually found it to be pretty pleasant, like drinking the milk after eating froot loops, I didn’t try the green milk which I heard is the one that doesn't taste too great. I had lunch at the cantina and wasn’t all too impressed by the chicken , mac and cheese etc. I had, they were definitely nothing special or interesting. I do think the land could use some ambient music and a bit more kinetic energy around the land but overall I liked it, but that’s as someone with no strong attachments to Star Wars.

As for the rides, I also enjoyed Smuggler’s Run more than I expected to, I was a single rider and was an engineer as a result but actually was pretty fine with that role. I will say one thing, while I enjoyed it more than I expected I still don't think this is a type of ride folks really wanna be doing at theme parks, me and one of the gunners were basically the only ones in the “crew” I was in who actually did much of the interactivity stuff, even the pilots missed various cues at points. Rise of the Resistance, Firstly I woke up at like 6:30 to get a reservation for this ride, clicked on “book a reservation” at 7am on the dot, got boarding group 77, had to wait until 2pm to get on the ride. Basically by technicality the longest I waited for a ride this whole trip and ridiculously so considering this was a trip, and park day where basically every single park was supremely empty. Though admittedly Batuu , Magic Kingdom and HHN were the most crowded I saw these parks this whole week. Anyways, with that out of the way I can say, pretty dang impressed by this ride, it’s almost the best dark ride I’ve ever ridden to be honest. I can start by saying, while I had grown tired of tons of pre-shows, Rise has genuinely impressive pre-shows that actively add to the experience and story. The ride itself, again, I really liked the trackless ride system and think it can allow for the blending of some really great stuff during a ride. Generally just liked the use of animatronics, setpieces, etc. on this ride, again not that huge a Star Wars fan but I feel this ride knocks it out of the park.

Afterwards I went over to Magic Kingdom, and I really don't have much to say about it. I've been to this park at least a dozen times in my life. I suppose this was my first time riding seven dwarfs, but that’s simply okay, I think slinky dog was the better kiddie coaster, and while seven dwarfs ride clearly has its role and place, it still just made me think of how thunder mountain was just a few walks away. Haunted Mansion, Pirates, and various other dark rides, boat rides and omnimovers at magic kingdom are still some of my favorites and why this park is still super solid. I also went on Splash Mountain for what I guess will likely be the last time, which is funny to think about cause the ride seemed to be having at least some issues, there were various times on the ride there was a backup of logs and there was a wait on ride for the party ahead to continue. Ultimately, a good park, but legitimately nothing has changed since I went in 2014 as far as I can tell.

Day 4: Halloween Horror Nights

To be honest, I really wanted to do much more on this day, but I bungled the timing of things. I decided today I would go to the parks later since I would mostly be there for HHN, headed in around 4, decided to get a snack at Big Fire. I got the fondue appetizer and it was pretty good, i didn’t get an entrée since I was saving room for HHN food but in hindsight I wish I had tried more . By the time I got out of Big Fire , USF was already closing in order to prepare for HHN , and I was silly to not realize that would happen . A shame since that was the park with a few more rides for me to try still , anyways I rode Spider-Man again to pass the time and then a storm came in . I’ll be honest, the heavy raining literally put a damper on this experience . I went to HHN from the opening and only really did 3 houses and two-ish scare zones because my shoes got wet and only lasted about 3-4 hours before I just was too miserable to continue . Add on the 30 minute wait to get pizza fries ( which were really good mind you ) and having to deal with some family stuff for pick up and I didn't have much more time than to do those 3.

I’ll also reveal here that this was my first time ever really going to this type of Halloween event let alone HHN and that this was a very spur of the moment decision . I have not done any research on what would show up , where anything would be , what houses were the most hyped etc. Any reading up on HHN on enthusiast sites also just made my eyes glaze over . I also could tell while doing the event that a lot about this year and my night wasn’t the “ideal” between the rain and the “plexiglass/vinyl” stuff that had to be done for covid. I’ll be upfront and say despite some worries , nothing really scared me , a likely mix of the aforementioned things but I also think I'm just not the “getting scared” type (at least not in person) when I think about it. With that in mind I have to say I do kinda get why folks can get really into these events , and the houses I went to seem very well done and overall the event made me really wish I had the chance to go to it across multiple nights.

To go into specifics , The three houses I tried were Legendary Truth , The Haunting of Hill House and Revenge of the Tooth Fairy. I’ve taken a look at how certain houses have been received and it seems I did two of the more well liked houses and then one of the repeats from past years ? Legendary Truth was pretty interesting. It was definitely not what I expected from a Halloween setting, though like I've seen mentioned places it would have helped if there was some sort of queue video or primer of what it was about and some of the lore . But yea the set pieces seem really good and I enjoyed the setting .

I don’t really remember much about the tooth fairy house , it was okay , I didn’t really follow the story too much , it’s another one where it became clear you’re supposed to really look into this stuff before you go to know the lore . But again maybe I was just pretty distracted cause my shoes were wet and that area leading up to the house didn’t help .

The Haunting of Hill House , it was one you could immediately tell was an “IP” cause the level of quality of this house seemed high . I enjoyed it decently , and while not an actual scare , the most foreboding I felt in any of this was just the parts of this house that were genuinely just allowed to be super dark . A lot of the set pieces and costumes for this one just seemed really good to me .

Went through the Crypt TV and Seek and Destroy scare zones ,The Crypt TV scare zone was really cool with what they had on show , there were a good few things I stopped by just to see . The Seek and Destroy zone , I kinda couldn’t grok well , like I initially thought it was like Hunger Games or something ? I think a zone like that could work if there's some real high tension but especially that first night it just felt like a bunch of sci fi cops walking around swinging weapons around . Overall I can say I enjoyed what little I was able to experience , the food was good, I wish I had time to get more offerings, it seems like a well produced event . I pretty much was at least convinced HHN is something I would want to plan a trip around next time , most likely including staying at the resort so I don’t have to worry about how long I stay out .
 
TLDR and Closing Thoughts :
  • It really is great to visit the parks when they aren’t crowded, and boy was this an unprecedented level of no crowds as far as I can tell.
  • Seriously almost everything was a walk-on and the longest I waited for anything was probably for those darn pizza fries.
  • IoA and Magic Kingdom are probably tied as my favorite parks still , I'd also want to give a nod to Animal Kingdom but I’m just a sucker for both coasters and dark/boat rides .
  • A lot of the other parks are just really lacking in one way or another or just incoherent as parks , none as much as Epcot , which really really needs a ton of work .
  • Overall my ranking would be IoA >= MK >AK>>DHS>USF>>>EPCOT
  • Star Wars land impressed way more than I expected , in turn Avatar Land is nice but doesn’t do it for me .
  • The Disney Parks really need some new stuff , the additions so far have been nice to even great but it’s readily apparent we may enter another period of years until they add anything significant again and the parks really don’t need that.
  • It was especially felt on that rainy day when USF also closed early for HHN but it would be really nice if IoA had some more indoor rides, in general I also want UOR to have some more indoor rides that aren’t just more coasters or screen based.
  • Navigating the Disney resort for park hopper really makes me appreciate that the two universal parks are just right next to each other and it’s just a Hogwarts Express or a walk from Citywalk away.
  • Definitely want to give HHN a good proper multi-night try next year , and can’t wait!
  • With this trip done and dusted and looking ahead, the next step in my theme park journey is for sure to finally stay on-site , particularly now that I have this Universal annual pass.
 
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