Inside Universal Forums

Welcome to the Inside Universal Forums! Register a free account today to become a member. Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members and unlock our forums features!

  • Signing up for a Premium Membership is a donation to help Inside Universal maintain costs and offers an ad-free experience on the forum. Learn more about it here.

Quick One-Day Christmas Visit Report

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.
More to come, just know I'm approaching the character limit...
 
  • Next came the Wholiday Spectacular. The last time I'd seen a version of this show, it was presented on the dinky little stage between the Cat show building and One Fish Two Fish. Naturally, the Blue Man Group soundstage was a huge improvement, and it was nice to be in proper, padded seating. While the queueing crowds seemed overwhelming, there was ample space, and we ended up with great center seats despite being fairly far back in the line. I wish there was a more eloquent way to get guests from Point A to Point B, but it is what it is.
  • The show itself was good, not great. There are two major problems: the unfortunately dated arrangements that feel plucked from a CD-ROM game and the indecision over whether we're doing the Ron Howard movie or the original Seuss story. The show plucks lines, story beats, characters, and the "Where Are You Christmas" number from the former, but it also seems desperate to move away from the rest of that adaptation, going so far as to eliminate the Mayor and the love triangle with him, Grinch, and Martha. The rampant consumerism is briefly touched upon in Cindy's intro but is then completely abandoned, leading to an uneven presentation with a number of unnecessary beats. Don't get me wrong, the performers are very talented, but they deserve a tighter script. I did appreciate the color conscious casting for Martha, and wow, what a fantastic singer. She (along with the vamping Grinch) were definitely the highlights.
  • We did manage to get a virtual queue pass for the Grinch during the second drop, which I'll circle back to in a moment.
  • Post-show, we circled the park to try and hit Kong, which was unfortunately down. It never came back up that day, though it's been running okay since. So it goes.
  • Stopped by Camp Jurassic, which is as charming as ever. Pteranadon Flyers was down for some unknown reason, don't think that ever came back up, either. We noticed quite a few of the climbing elements of Camp Jurassic were blocked off, with TMs stationed to prevent people from accessing. Anyone know what the deal is there?
  • At this point, were killing time before our Grinch M&G slot, so we made our way back to Hogsmeade, which looked lovely with its decorations. We decided to do Hippogriff, which had a VERY backed-up Express queue (about 15-20 minutes, 60 minute standby). Ride itself was cute, but I'm reminded how Universal Hollywood was able to fix or at least address many of the shortcomings of the original Orlando iteration (some of which were unavoidable due to existing elements). Similarly, we caught a bit of the Triwizard Tournament as we exited, and I couldn't believe the "students" didn't have a backstage space to wait before performing. Instead, they just awkwardly stand behind the banners until it's their turn. Nothing to be done given the realities of the space, but something the Hollywood iteration corrected by providing them with a legitimate backstage space.
  • Anywho, off to the Grinch. The line looked long, but we were told it'd take about 30 minutes. Fair enough. Lot of disappointed families coming up and trying to talk their way into the line without a virtual queue pass. The trouble is... the line just didn't move. Five minutes would go by before a single group would be let inside Honk Honkers. Worse still, several families showed up and were directed through a side entrance - presumably with some sort of disability pass, as they did not have VIP lanyards? - and were permitted to meet the Grinch without waiting. This led to several 10-minute periods where no one moved. We ultimately had to bail after 25 minutes, as we had lunch reservations. The current system is set up to fail - they're absolutely distributing too many virtual passes, which is alarming considering how hard they are to come by in the first place. I get they want to make each interaction with the Grinch special, but the performer can't be spending 5+ minutes with each guest. And I'm not really sure what the solution is, but I don't think line-cutting with disability passes (which, as we know, are often abused) is practical with the current setup. The Hollywood version has a fairly decent system where the Grinch will spend about a minute, plus or minus, with each group. There's no virtual system there, and the lines do get heinously long, but more people ultimately get to meet the character. My thought would be to try to create a Meet Mickey situation where there are multiple Grinches in multiple hidden rooms... where you set that up, I'm not quite sure, but I don't see any other good way to improve this.
  • Caught the train to the Studios without issue. I see the ride as transportation exclusively at this point, but it is lovely.
  • Had lunch at Lombard's for the first time in MANY years. We noticed huge lines for just about every food venue (including the more obscure Lost Continent stuff), but Lombard's was pretty available - the host stand quoted a wait time of 15 minutes to a party who came up without a reservation. The interior remains very nice and lavish, if a bit out of time. Our food was quite good, though maybe not on the level of the still-superior Mythos. Very solid drinks, however. My partner who had never dined here was impressed, so we will probably add it back into our rotation on future visits.
  • Made our way to Diagon Alley, where we saw the Christmas Celestina show. This was a highlight of our day. Celestina is always excellent, but the level of effort put into the holiday offering is exceptional. A+.
  • I'd never seen the Christmas decorations in Diagon Alley. Like Hogsmeade, very tasteful without being overwhelming. Still one of the best themed areas anywhere.
  • Ran into Earl the Squirrel as we headed to the Horror Makeup Show. Great performer, and I am so amused by how much of a cult following the character has generated. There was quite a line to greet him.
  • Fantastic Horror Makeup Show - one of the best I've seen in many years. I wish we could move on from the Mummy remake clips, but having to plug a mediocre Monster offering has been par for the course for the last decade.
  • Checked out the Tribute Store, which the visual merchandising team once again knocked out of the park. Picked up the Earl the Squirrel candle and a Grinch ornament.
  • Mummy was down in advance of the parade. Part of me thinks it wasn't actually delayed and was instead shut down to avoid crowding issues in that narrow corridor. Would love if someone could confirm or deny that conspiracy theory...
  • Took a while for us to find the holiday food or drink offerings. I guess I had in my head that this would be more in line with the HHN or Mardi Gras stuff with plenty of tents in the New York area? But, alas, it's reduced to two little, tough-to-spot carts. The Battery Park location had exactly two TMs manning it, so the lines were frighteningly long. Several people behind us waited several minutes and then balked. We stuck it out, and to their credit, they did get a third TM in there to help. Girlfriend had the mulled wine and was happy, I got the Winter beer, which was very solid.
  • Got a spot on Hollywood Blvd for the parade, which I really enjoyed! I think I prefer the Macy's/generic Christmas stuff to the Dreamworks/Illumination material, though I can appreciate Universal working to build up its animated properties. The big issue, of course, is the Dreamworks/Illumination material is not nearly as memorable or iconic (or even as aesthetically pleasing) as some of Disney's best evergreen material. Still, it was very well done, and the performers were giving it their all.
  • Booked it to ET and had a very good ride. Botanicus in the forest is still stuck in the down position - any word on what's happening there? Projections on the moon were also stuck in place. Everything else was more or less working as well as it had, which is to say not very well, but figures technically twitched here and there.
  • Realized we should have tried for Gringotts first - it was a bit of a madhouse as everyone from the parade descended on it, but we did get through within 20 minutes or so. Ride looked and felt great.
  • We were running short on time and realized we'd have to make some tough decisions. Elected to forgo Rockit and Mummy in favor of Men in Black, one of our favorites. Sadly, the ride experienced technical issues as we reached the loading station. We waited around for 15 minutes - there was no way we were going to be able to cross the park and hit another ride *and* see the fountain show - and they did get it back up and running. We were able to ride twice, and many of the figures were in strong shape. They even got the prominent green-scaled baddie just before the Big Bug to move again, though he mostly just rocks back and forth, and his audio has been curiously turned off.
  • This was our first time seeing the new fountain show, which we did not even realize was going to be running that evening. Overall, it's entertaining, but not memorable. These shows need to be built around music and songs, which is why the Horror Nights variants tend to succeed where the daytime versions fall short. Naturally, the Trolls and ET bits played best, but there was an impressive amount of pyro! I'd personally cut the Transformers and Fast and Furious sequences.
  • Biggest miss is how early the parks were closed. Both were PACKED, but Islands shut down at 6pm for a private event, and Studios wrapped up at 8. They really should have stayed open until 9 or 10, as the queues were massive all over come closing time. This is one area where Universal consistently struggles relative to Disney, and I hope they address it before Epic opens.
Overall, despite some ops hiccups and latent maintenance issues, a very full, great day. Definitely needed Express, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to do half of what we accomplished. Excited to return next year to check out Minion Blast.
 
Top