We’re in Florida and visited Universal Studios today, one of two Universal theme parks located here in Orlando. The theme is ‘movies’, and all the rides/attractions/restaurants/shops are based around films.
The ‘star of the show’ for us was the Harry Potter section of the park, which recreated ‘Diagon Alley’ from the films. It was extremely impressive and contained a mind-boggling ride that was half roller coaster and half 3D film.
I’ve been to many Disney parks and thought they had cornered the market on fantastic design and attractions but Harry Potter today opened my eyes. It was, in a word, amazing!
But it’s also only a part of a very large park, and over about 7.5 hrs today we rode almost every ride and saw most of what there was to see.
That shot was taken waiting in line for the Transformers ride which was maybe even slightly better than the HP one. The goggles are for the 3D component of the ride, which didn’t even make me sick! We also went on rides based on the ‘Mummy’ and ‘Fast & The Furious’ film series, and KLS rode a Jimmy Fallon NY-themed ride while I rode this:
While it was a hellish brain-shaker of a coaster I’d say it’s probably worth it, if only for the initial (17 story) vertical climb. They use metal detectors on every rider before you can get on just to make sure you don’t have items that could fall out of your pockets!
The Simpsons ride – a motion simulator ride utilizing a gargantuan imax 3D screen – was too much for me and I basically ignored the screen and focused on the wall to minimize motion sickness. This was only partially successful and had the ride continued for only a minute or so longer I may have revisited my lunch! KLS loved it though 🙂
The ET ride – 29 years old and the only ride remaining from when the park opened – was surreal and worth doing just because it’ll certainly close soon enough. You give your name at the start and an animatronic ET speaks it at the very end but I was too embarrassed to say my name was something like ‘Jesus’ or ‘Satan’ 🙂
That is KLS drinking frozen ‘butterbeer’, a butterscotch flavored concotion sold in the Harry Potter restaurant. She said it was even worth the $7!
It’s late and I just spent hours painting Dobby house elves on postcards so I’ll leave some of the remainder of the Universal Studios news for those. Suffice to say we had fun, and are already looking forward to the other Universal park – which has more rides! – in a couple of days.
