- May 26, 2010
- 5,801
- 16,072
I had a pair of comps that needed to be used by 12/16 before they got blocked out for the season... and I realized I hadn't actually seen Universal Orlando's holiday offerings in a decade plus. I was already headed to Florida to visit the family for Christmas, so we made a pit stop and did a night at the Royal Pacific (no use visiting from out of town this time of year without Express). I'll run through my observations in roughly the order we experienced the attractions.
- First, the Royal Pacific. I've mentioned it previously on here, but the refresh they did here is excellent. Retains the soul of the property and its theme while removing some of the tackier kitsch elements. All it's really missing is a marquee restaurant - Jake's doesn't suffice, and while the sushi bar is nifty, it's not a destination. Tchoup Chop is missed. Room was great, no issues with the service.
- We hit Strongwater Tavern for dinner (got in on the 15th and weren't going to do the parks until the next day) given the Royal Pacific's lack of offerings. Great drinks and shockingly good food. While purportedly a tapas place, I felt the portions were entree-sized. The pork shoulder in particular was spectacular.
- Managed to get a last-minute slot for the Back to the Future room at the Universal Movie Escape. They're still working through some front-of-house tech hiccups, but the staff was friendly and accommodating. We loved the facility's bars - great, strong drinks - and the general atmosphere. Many curious parkgoers coming in and being disappointed when they learned there were no times available, so there's definitely an impulse-buy audience when/if advance reservations slow. We were paired with another couple who were big BTTF fans, so 4 in total. After hearing of some issues with the room settings on Twitter, I double confirmed the room was set for 4 people, as it had previously shown it was sold out.
- Now, for the room itself. LIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD. The production design is great. It's basically a non-scary Horror Nights house in terms of scale and level of detail. Some very nifty and surprising special effects. The story was good, and I did not mind the conceit for why Doc Brown never appeared on-screen (Christopher Lloyd only contributed VO). That said, the silhouette performer was overacting, and the director ought to have reigned him in a bit. The puzzles, unfortunately, were very hit or miss. Some rooms were extremely satisfying, like the Under the Sea dance and retro diner bits. Others, like the Western and Biff rooms, were too vague and frustrating to be fun, even when we were essentially being told what to do. The clock tower finale was also mechanically confusing despite a few hastily-added posters that tried to again explain what had to be done. Ultimately, it's tough to find the "aha" moments, because even when you'd correctly solve the puzzle, the room ahead of you wouldn't be ready - so the game would throw a slightly tougher puzzle at you to keep you occupied. Fair enough, but they'd then interrupt you in the middle of that puzzle, so it wasn't always easy to tell when we'd truly succeeded and when we'd come up short.
- Right now, I'd recommend waiting on trying the Universal Movie Escape until some changes are made, especially at the current price point. Definitely check out the bars, though, if you like cool, themed drinks.
- We hit the Green and Red Coconut Club and was overall delighted. I could do without the Top 40 DJ, but they got a decent crowd on the dance floor, so it seemed to be working out for them. The drinks weren't really my thing but clearly had their audience.
- Next day, we got up at the crack of dawn to hit Hagrid and Velocicoaster since these attractions still do not have Express access. We were fortunately on the second train out for Hagrid - front row, too. Ride was largely in good shape and made for a great start to the day. One of the Fluffy heads still doesn't move, and the spinning directional sign was out of commission (though present). Only other effects I noticed missing were the Skrewt blasts, which seem to be pretty hit or miss.
- Velocicoaster was next - again, no wait. Still an absolute banger of a coaster and a perfect addition to the park. Can't get over how well integrated it is, how it revitalizes the sleepier areas of Jurassic Park, and how it feels like it's always been here. Forbidden Journey and Hippogriff were both down, so we got another ride in before early entry wrapped up.
- As the rest of the park opened, we hit each of the Seuss rides. Cat was in surprisingly solid shape, or at least looks as good as it has the past few years. Seuss Trolley had some broken effects in the Sneetch tunnels - these ought to be pretty easy to fix? Not sure if the Trolley planned to only run track on a day that crowded, but hope they got the other one open.
- Tried to get a Grinch meet and greet time - they're doing the dreaded virtual queue drops this year - no luck. Saw the times, but by the time I tried to confirm them, they were gone. Big Rise of the Resistance energy.
- Grinchmas in general felt a bit subdued. I know it hasn't been around for many years, but the whacky tree was missed. Still lovely decorations everywhere, but they've basically paywalled the characters behind the breakfast, so there are no frolicking Who's to interact with... and because The Grinch is there, they can't start the Meet and Greets until much later, reducing the number of people who can ultimately meet him for free. The solution, in my book, would be to hire more performers. Hollywood has Orlando beat in this area, as you can always meet the characters at any point in the day.
- Hit the Marvel rides - Spider-Man looked great. Doom sort of kneecapped its audio by having a TM over the PA cut off the start of Doom's speech with their own cringe-y spiel, which felt a bit to me like someone trying to inappropriately take the spotlight. Fog effects were working in the towers, though! Hulk was good, though the on-board audio was out on our ride. More concerning, though, was the chaos in the Hulk plaza - the first of several ops failures we encountered that day. Basically, they only had one (1) TM handling the Express metal detectors, so whenever they went off (and they did, frequently), the entire line had to stop so the poor person could wand down the offending guest. This led to the Express overflow filling and spilling out into the walkway, making it impossible to figure out which queue was for what. A lead should have noticed this was happening and reassigned someone to help this poor TM (who was doing her best but looked like she hated her life). Naturally, by the time you got past the detector, there was no actual Express line.