Sunday, June 5, 2011

Orlando vacation day 2 - Universal Studios

After a really long day at Magic Kingdom, we started our day little late and took the hotel shuttle to Universal Studios at 9:25 am.  The shuttle stopped at one of the other close by hotels before actually leaving for Universal.  Since Universal is little father than the Disney parks, it took us about half an hour to get there around 10 am.  Even though we got there an hour late than the park opened, what surprised me and made me happy is that there wasn't any crowd at all which was the best.  We picked up the map and started our day as we had planned to cover the rides and shows we wanted to see.

First stop was The Simpsons Ride which was the best ride ever.  This ride tops in the list of my top rides for this vacation.  It's the best fun simulation ride ever and I think it's the best decision Universal Studios took to replace Back to the Future simulation ride with this one.  We loved it so much we decided to go back to it after we finish covering everything else.  We sat in the 2nd row first time but sat on the 1st row second time and it was fantastic!  DO NOT MISS THIS RIDE if you are ever in Universal Studios.

Next stop was next door neighbor Men In Black Alien Attack ride which was a lot of fun as well.  It's a 3D ride and a ride similar to Buzz Lightyear's Ranger Spin.  The ride actually has a lot of space to put your belongings but they don't let you take anything inside because it spins few times in-between and that's why you have to put your stuff in the locker before going on this ride.  The lockers are just next to the ride and free for first 30 minutes so it's not a problem.  The wait time was like 10 minutes, so we got through the ride pretty quick.  It was fun ride.

Next, we attended Jaws, which is a boat tour of the coast where you never know who pays you a visit....maybe a SHARK!  You are being toured on an island where all of a sudden you see a shark heading your way, rocks your boat back and forth, and next thing you know, you get splash of water on you.  It was nice short boat ride.

So far the day is going great, without any crazy crowd and not really rushing to get to the rides.  Next, we went to Disaster which is not really a ride but combination of presentation and behind the scenes movie making secrets of Disaster that we see in different films.  This is really funny and involves audience participation to create a short film which they show you at the end.  I found it really hilarious, so DON'T MISS this one!

Next, we headed to Twister ride which is again not a ride.  This does not have any seating and involves a lot of standing and moving from one place to another before you actually get to see how a real twister is formed in a movie.  We got to witness an actual twister forming where you see a cow flying, tractor being pulled, roofs flying off, it was amazing!  At the same time, you see the power and force of Twister which is really scary!

After seeing couple of behind the movie making secrets, we headed to Shrek 4D show.  There was about 20 minute wait but we weren't in hurry so we decided to just wait and watch the show.  I had seen this show in Universal Studios in California but this one was different and as usual it was funny.  We also wanted to see the Jimmy Neutron show but unfortunately it wasn't running on that day.  After that we were able to catch the Animal Actors show which had animals from different movies do a little gig.  We saw the dog from Marley and me and there were couple other dogs from other movies which I don't remember.  This show was cute and fun at the same time.  It was already 3 pm, so we took about half an hour break for lunch and freshen up.

Next was the E.T. Adventure ride, which was really nice ride.  It was really impressively built with the sets built right from the movie.  Definitely go on this ride.  We went to Woody's Nut House Coaster which is kind of kid's ride but still I wanted to get on it since I can't get on the big roller-coasters that go upside-down :P.  We waited for like 15 minutes for a 30 seconds roller coaster...hehe...but it's ok.  We went back to the Simpson's ride where we had almost 30 minutes wait.  Well, no wonder there is long wait time since this ride is awesome!!

Oh we also took pictures with a lot of Disney characters including characters from movie Madagascar, The Simpsons, Scooby doo.

Next, we went to Terminator 3D show which is really loud.  I had seen this show in California but we decided to see it again since we had time.  It was little bit different.  If you haven't seen it before then it'll be good to watch it for first time.  It was 5:30 pm and we still had time before the park closed, so we went to the Horror Make-up Show which was more likely comedy show.  I kind of had my eyes closed when they showed horror characters on the projection screen but other than that it was really funny.  There was a magic show playing right across the street, so we went to that next.  I finally went on the Revenge of the Mommy ride which was super fast.  It was definitely different from the one in California but crazy fast.  I am glad my brother didn't come on this ride because it had a lot of turbulence as well.  We left the park after this ride and looked around on the CityWalk.

We headed back to the shuttle parking lot to catch our hotel shuttle at 7:45 pm and got to hotel in half an hour.  This was the best day because we got through all the rides and shows within the given time frame without rushing and not having a big crowd.  Also we came back earlier than the first day when we were super tired.  At Universal Studios, there is a concept of Express pass, which lets you skip the long lines once if you pay extra $20/person.  There was no need for us to get it since there was hardly any crowd.  But this is one park which you can cover in one day without rushing because it's not as big as Magic Kingdom.

I really needed some energy since there were still 5 more days left and these 2 days completely made me tired.  Next on the list is Disney's Hollywood Studios.  Stay tuned! 

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