Weekend Trip Report: Orlando
Walt Disney World: David Harrison reports on his experiences at both Disney and Universal on a recent trip in Orlando. And the news isn't good for Universal. But hey, at least it's good for the Tampa Bay Bucs....
GO BUCS!!!
I have been sitting at home thinking about my last two weekends in Orlando, and the fun, and not so much fun had down there... Here's a recap of the activities.
MLK Weekend. Friday, 1-17-03. Arrive at Disney's Port Orleans Riverside resort around 1AM (Plane arrived late). We checked in and went straight to our room. Once at the room, and hungry, we couldn't eat, nothing was open on the WDW property, and we were too tired to drive off property.
Saturday, 1-18-03. We woke up on our own after the wake up call we asked for did not happen. Breakfast at the Port Orleans Riverside Food Court... pretty good, made my stomach turn for a while.
Our first stop was the Magic Kingdom. Once there, we headed over to Space Mountain where we got a fast pass. We had an hour to blow, so we went to the Alien Encounter. AE is good, but my parents said they would like to see it change over to the rumored Lilo and Stitch attraction so younger kids like my neice can enjoy it. We then had a blast on Space Mountain, and made our way around the Magic Kingdom riding the bigger attractions, and skipping the ones with a lot of families and kids.
Around 1:30 PM we left for Disney MGM Studios. There we had a lot of fun. It was crowded, but not so bad. My mother had never been there before, so we tried to do everything we could. Millionaire was first, I didn't do to well! We then headed over to Pizza Planet for some grub, and then to Muppets 3-D (Great show everytime). Now it was time for ToT. This was my first time on it since they started the new drop patterns, and It was great! The standby line was only 15 minutes, so we rode several times. Rock N Roller coaster was out of the picture, as it had an hour wait and no more fast passes.
After a few more drops on ToT, we headed back to the hotel to get more layers of clothing. It was chilly, and we went back to the Magic Kingdom to see the fireworks and Spectromagic. We arrived back at MK around 7:45. The fireworks hit the skies, and we hit Thunder Mountain RR, Buzz Lightyear, and Space Mountain before the 9PM parade began.
After the parade, we headed to Downtown Disney and the Rainforest Cafe for dinner (it was 11PM). Not bad, but they didn't know what hot chocolate was! Time for sleep.
Sunday 1-19-03... Woke up, ate at Port Orleans again, went to Downtown Disney to do some shopping. Then it was over to Universal.
Once at Universal, it was terrible! There were so many people, and you could tell Universal wasn't prepared for the MLK visitors. All of the Universal Express passes were gone by noon, and waits were more than 30 minutes for everything. We waited for Hulk, of course it was worth it. We then headed over to DD, where the line was all the way outside the castle! I have never seen the line for DD be that long! We were able to get a fast pass for DD, and came back to ride, though there were a lot of kids jumping in line and made it annoying. We also took a spin on Cat N Hat, but it took 30 minutes to ride, as it kept breaking down while we were on it.
Now it was time for USF, we went over, did twister, MIB, ET, and Back to the Future before going to Margaritaville (Best place to eat in Orlando).
We decided to head over to Epcot and see Illuminations, which was great! It was a lot of fun seeing it.
My mother and I then decided to walk around some of the resorts, starting at the Boardwalk and ending up at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We thought that we might be able to see some of the animals out since it was cold, and we were right! They were all out walking around, even though it was 28 degrees and 11PM.
Afterwords, it was sleep time and headed back up the turnpike the next day.
Overall, I was pleased with Disney, as they always go the extra mile to make you feel like you didn't waste your money.
However, I am not happy with Universal, and I am thinking of not renewing my Annual Pass because of their problems last weekend.
If your heading down, go to Disney, it seems Universal doesn't care about making people happy in the off season.
* * *
Also: I was at Universal's Islands of Adventure on Saturday January 25. We arrived and found out the Hulk was closed due to "Technical Problems". We asked if it would reopen soon, and they said probably not. With Dueling Dragons down for rehab, IOA had no coasters running! This was not good, and a lot of people who paid money to get in were getting ill. (I have an annual pass)
We left to go over to Disney where it was crowded, but still, at least their attractions were open.
Anyone know more about this?
Not to be mean, but you go on a holiday weekend and then you are mad for how crowded IOA was? OF COURSE it was busy. That's like people heading to Disneyland on a Saturday and complaining about crowds there.
Still, this points to the complaint I made a while back when we learned USH was getting new attractions in 2003 AND 2004. IOA needs a big new attraction just for crowd control! Not that I think 30 minutes is a big ordeal (most parks in Orlando have at least that during the summer) but when crowds DO appear, they clearly don't have enough attractions to make the crowds happy. These things happen at less busy times, also, when a big ride is unexpectedly down, like the Hulk was, or when it is too cold for the water rides.
I was one of the people pushing for a Spidey-level ride in Jurassic Park, but now I think they need to give the green light to their JP coaster idea and get it built ASAP! This year would be better than next year, since The Mummy coaster should take care of everyone's coaster jones in 2004.
I have a tendancy to agree with Kevin. I would hate to see you turn away from Universal because your experience didn't quite meet your expectations. As you, I'm hooked on Orlando and visit quite often. Planning is key and weekends are always going to find all the parks busy busy busy. My suggestion would be to stay onsite at one of the gorgeous hotels and get "front of the line" capability. It will make your trip so enjoyable!
Don't get me wrong, I love Universal, I just don't think they're stepping up to the plate right now. I expect more from Universal and Disney than I do from Six Flags, and I feel as if I was at Six Flags lately when I have been to Universal.
Yes, I complain about ride lines on a holiday weekend, but funny thing is, there were none at Disney!
Please understand I am a huge fan of Universal, they just need to step it up a notch!
I agree that more attractions are needed at IOA. They need one more large attraction, but most importantly, need many smaller attractions to spread the lines out in the park. Since pretty much every attraction at IOA is a major attraction, everyone is going to stand in line for them, so adding 5-6 smaller flat rides or small dark rides would very easily spread people out in the park. As far as coasters go, Hulk can be very touchy when it comes to weather because of the friction launch. It has certain temperatures that it can operate at, and won't usually run in the rain. As far as DD goes, my guess is that they only had one train on each track when it was running, which is just wrong. They have three trains for each track and have no excuse to run any fewer than 2 trains at any given time. As far as DD being closed, that's the way it goes when you go to a park in the off-season. It's being repainted, but I had heard that they were only going to close one at a time, but I guess they chose to shut them both down because the near-miss effect would be gone. DD will probably be closed until tghe end of February. They should have some sort of sign at the entrance to the park to indicate the closure, and if they don't then SHAME ON THEM!!
One of the few disadvantages of visiting in the off-season is dealing with stuff like this. Try going to Disneyland in a couple of weeks when half of the park will be down.
>>>Yes, I complain about ride lines on a holiday weekend, but funny thing is, there were none at Disney!<<<
That in itself should say a lot about Walt Disney World's current attendance at the moment...
In all seriousness, Universal Orlando is a much more of a regional resort than WDW. This means that weekends for the resort, particularly holiday weekends, can be slammed with locals, but on the weekdays you can have the park to yourself.
>>>DD will probably be closed until tghe end of February.<<<
Last that I heard it should be reopening in mid-February, but don't quote me on that.
There is a sign stating that that theDD is close for repainting, and they are expcted toreopen Feb 8th. Theservice inalltheme parks in Orlando hve been really bad. During Christmas I had trouble with a employee at MK and MGM. At MK I ask a employee what parade was about to start and she yelled at me and told me to get off the street. Then at MGM I asked a TOT employee if they were running the new TOT 4 and she told me she didnt have time to answer stupid questions. Sorry for all the typos.
From Anonymous
Posted January 27, 2003 at 11:11 PM
Very front of the park, just before the front gate does read that DD is down. It's located between the ticket booths and is VERY readable.
Sometime in February you will find it open-more toward late then early. Sorry.
It doesn't take that long to paint a coaster. I read it will be down for two weeks.
Mr Pheneix is exactly right about the lack of lines at WDW because no one is there. In fact, in late January in ANY of the parks you won't find lines, EXCEPT for the parks most popular with locals. Those would be IOA, MK and possibly Disney/MGM.
As for flat rides in IOA? Is StormForce not enough flat ride garbage in that park??? NO MORE!
They need something with a small footprint that they can fit between the larger attractions. There's not enough room to fit larger attractions between what's already there, so flat rides would be the best way to go. Some flat rides are great, just as long as they don't have 4 clones of the same one just with different themes.
From Matt Brown
Posted January 28, 2003 at 12:28 PM
Actually, there are 3 large spaces in IOA for rides. Two are between JP, which has been stated. The other is in Seuss Landing, which is big enough for another dark ride.I WOULD NOT want another flat ride. One is okay, but I don't want them to add cheap attractions just for the sake of having them there. I'd rather Universal wait and put in a very good ride. Storm Force isn't very good during the day, but if you've ever ridden it at night it's pretty good. There are lots of strobes and different lights. That's the only time I ride it.
You can't really judge IOA at this time of the year. If a park is open year round, it has to find some time of the year to do rehabs. And of course, this is the leat busy time of the year, so it's just logical.
As far as I'm concerned, adding a few "cheap" attractions that are properly themed and unique will dramatically enhance IOA, and spread people out in the park. That's the biggest problem with IOA. They just don't have enough places for people to go in the park, so they all line up for the same attractions, so the lines get out of control. If they add some smaller rides, that will give guests something else to do, especailly if they don't want to wait in long lines for the larger rides. In addition, the smaller rides will break up the walk around the park between the larger attractions, because you could stop and ride one of the smaller rides along the way.
Every great park should have a diverse collection of attractions. IOA is lacking in smaller rides, since most parks have 3-5 small rides for every big ride. They are also lacking in shows, which also help to control crowds. IOA may be a victim of it's own popularity, because there simply isn't enough in the park to occupy all of the guests on a busy day.
From Ben Mills
Posted January 28, 2003 at 1:31 PM
Well, that's all very well and good. But this kinda calls on a stupidity/bravery thing. I respect IoA for only putting three (that I can think of - I've probably forgotten one) flat rides. Every other ride (with a controversial exclusion of PF) is rated very highly. Now, had you stuck in a bunch of crappy off-the-shelfers, that might have caused Universal to drop some of the better rides.
Take Dino-whatever at AK. Hester and Chester are currently my most hated of all dinosaurs, possibly only behind Lee Evan's Dinotopia freak. That section really does a lot of damage to an already disappointing park.
So think of it this way. Would you really sacrifice a Jeep Safari and a B&M flying (or whatever it's gonna be) for a bunch of crappy flat rides? Would you really? Sure, the crowds might be slightly more intense, but to be honest, if it's that or enduring the torture of a Huss-made catastrophe, I know what I'd go for.
And just for the record, I actually like Poseidon's Fury. Then again, I've only seen the new version, so I don't have a lot to base it on.
It's still better than that damn TriceraTop spin thing though.
I don't think they should build flats in leiu of larger attractions that are already in planning. I do think, however, that in the meantime, while the larger attractions that are being planned, they should build some additional attractions to spread people out in the park. E-ticket rides take time to build and plan, but a flat ride can be built and themed in a couple of months. I just think IOA is putting all their eggs in one basket and relying on the popularity of the huge attractions, and that they will last the test of time. That's a huge gamble, and they should think about adding some things that maybe won't take years and millions to build. IOA should capitalize on their popularity and keep the interest flowing, instead of stagnating.
The biggest problem with the notion that flat rides would spread out the crowds is that the one real flat ride they currently have GETS NO LINES! (I don't count One Fish Two Fish since it is in a kiddie area and Dumboish rides have long histories in kiddie areas. I don't count Dr Doom either, since some effort went into that. But if I had my druthers, BOTH StormForce and Dr Doom would be replaced by REAL attractions!)
Check out Rate the Rumors. There are lots of ideas for little attractions that could spread out the crowds and wouldn't be eyesores. Off the top of my head I can think of putting a show in the Pandemonium Theater, building a small theater in Seuss Landing and/or Toon Lagoon, expanding the Pteranodon track throughout JP or just getting Sylvester McMonkey McBean going. There are PLENTY of semi-quick fixes that won't turn this park into a well-themed Six Flags.
Dr. Doom is a real attraction, and is the type of flat rides that IOA should add. IOA has the ability to take a standard ride and make it much more by themeing it and creating a unique experience. The problem with IOA's design is there isn't much room to add major attractions(coasters), aside from the back of the park. They really need to take advantage of the momentum, and add something new in the next year, even if it's a smaller, but well themed ride.
You can have the 10 best attractions on earth, but if that's all you've got, people will either get bored of them, or get tired of waiting in the excrutiatingly long lines for them. That's my biggest problem with IOA. If you go on a slow day, as I did last November, you finish the park in a couple of hours, and while the coasters are great to ride over and over, they did get old eventually. If you go on a busy day, as I have heard from others, every line is a long one, because there are only so many attractions in the park. It's simple math, if you only have 10 rides, everyone in the park is going to eventually wait in those 10 lines. If you have 10 big rides and 10 smaller rides, everyone will eventually wait in the 10 big lines, but some will wait in the 10 smaller lines, spreading the people throughout the park. That's what IOA needs to do. If they add another e-ticket attraction, you're just going to pull more people into the park to wait in line, not spread them out in the park. Crowd control is something IOA need to address and soon, before they loose their momentum, because people will begin to become as critical of IOA as they have of Disney.
OK, I don't really have anything new to add to this discussion, just some observations. It seems to me that both sides of this argument have some valid points. Yes, they need to come up with some new attractions, and no they shouldn't be crap (just to sum it up bluntly). I don't think that they are in any immediate danger of losing momentum and becoming the joke that is Disney as someone else had previously mentioned. However if they wait too long it could happen. I kinda have to agree with Kevin that there are a lot of wasted opportunities for quick, reasonably inexpensive fixes already there. I won't go into all of them, but the one I see as having the most potential is shows. Think about how much time a show takes as compared to a ride. For a ride, you have all those people waiting in line for a ride that's going to last only a couple of minutes. For a show, they still wait in line (if it's a good enough show that they want to see), but then sit through a 10 minute preshow while the stragglers and passersby file in to fill the theater, then a 20-30 minute show. this means that for anywhere from 30-50 minutes all those people are not crowding the streets or taking up space in ride lines. Sure, rides are continuously running and shows are only put on a few times a day, but I'm sure that every little bit would help the crowd control situation. Besides, all it would take is somebody to have a good, imaginative idea. They already have one theater that just sits empty (toon), and another theme (Seuss) that's chock full of potential show ideas. Once you add to that rides that were either never completed or are simply not living up to their potential you should have enough little things that can be done short term to keep people happy while you spend the extra time and money developing the "next big thing" which can be part of your long term plan.
From Matt Brown
Posted January 29, 2003 at 2:10 PM
Look, there just isn't enough room even if they removed Doctor Doom or One Fish Two Fish. What kind of "real" rides could replace them. One of the good things about Doctor Doom is that it doesn't take up much room. And believe me, this early in the park's life, rides would not be replaced. So forget about it for now Kevin. One of the ideas in "Rate the Rumors" is a launching hyper in Marvel. There is no possible way that could happen. First, don't you think they'd be wearing out the whole launch feature in Marvel. That would make the majority of the rides launching in MSHI. Second, there is barely any room at all. Yes, a very small strip behind DD, but that's not going to hold a hyper. It will barely hold the station for a hyper. And now, the building for one of the HHN houses is there. And there is no land to buy. The land next to MSHI is a city road. It's right next to a high school and neighborhoods too. I want to see a new ride in JP, a new ride for TL, and a new ride for Seuss, and Driving Machines open. Those would all also be good attractions. There are really only 3 spaces for new dark rides. I'm sure they could also add one or two new flat rides along with those too. Lastly, extending PF simply wouldn't work. Where are you going to expand it to? Surely you don't want it across the whole island, unless you want the theming to be broken.
From Anonymous
Posted January 30, 2003 at 9:36 PM
As a former employee for Universal Studios Orlando and Islands of Adventure I can relate to your concerns. During my 91/2 years there I was involved in all the "crazy" holiday crowds. Believe me when I say that the "powers that be" address the crowding issues daily. A day does not go by without discussions on how to better control crowds, move lines faster and what type of new attractions are needed. Plan your day by heading to the rear of IOA (Jurassic Park and Lost Continent) Typically these areas are pretty quiet until after 11:00 am.
I loved my days at Universal Orlando (leaving only due to a family illness) and would put them up against "the mouse" any day.
How would extending the Flyers ruin the theme of JP? They are Pteranodons, are they not? Plus, if they build the coaster here, which is the most likely rumor out there now, then what will THAT do to the theme? That's like saying the Hulk and Dueling Dragons are ruining the themes they are in.
As for a launching coaster. One like V2 at some Six Flags parks take up almost NO room. You should see the tiny alley where they planted it at Marine World. (And how exactly would adding another launching ride make the majority of the rides in Marvel launching rides? Are you actually comparing a tower ride to a roller coaster?)
As for the lack of room, there is plenty room in back of Seuss Landing. There are currently plans out there for a Grinch coaster which would fit behind One Fish Two Fish. I would assume that isn't a tiny ride. Furthermore, if they ever give up on the stupid Nick Studios attraction over at USF, they could easily steal a bunch of that land for more Suessian attractions.
As for land, you are wrong. The road on the other side of MSHI is Universal's. The empty lots on the other side of that road are also Universal's. The road which does not belong to Universal is the road behind JP. If Universal gave up on its idea of building hotels on the remaining lots, one of those plots of land could easily hold a new Island, which was the original plan.
There is currently A LOT of opportunities out there for Universal to expand IOA, but they aren't following through on ANY of them.
I think it's difficult to expand outwards when a park has a circular design, such as IOA. They need to make use of the land between attractions before they think of building far outside the circle. As far as PF, lengthenin the ride will add what, 32 more people per hour on the thing. I never got a chance to ride it, but it looks like an extremely dorky ride, and the lines move way too slow. The ride has become much like the Carrosel of Progress, a place to let people stand in line when the park is extremely crowded. Making it longer is not going to change the fact that aside from JPRA, there's nothing back there. The discovery center is nice, and the triceratops trail is kinda cool, but there's nothing really worth seeing a second time in the back of the park. A motion simulator, or flat ride or something would make that side of the park more than just a walk through between Toon Lagoon and Dueling Dragons.
From Matt Brown
Posted January 31, 2003 at 2:29 PM
Okay, my mistake, I thought the road you were talking about was the one between the high school and IOA. I was thinking JP for some reason. I don't know why, sorry. Yes they can expand Marvel if they move the road back. But how far back can an island go? The same for Seuss. It just couldn't go too far back.
About the coasters. Hulk fits in with the techno theme of MSHI. In most of LC, you can't even see or here DD unless you're standing at the entrance of the line. The thing about JP, theming is very very important there, as with all islands. I just think that having a coaster overhead you would mess it up a little bit. And like Russel said, how much track could they really add?
The Grinch coaster is not being planned. It's just a rumor. It's definately not in a planning stage. The next attraction to open in Seuss, or all of IOA for that matter, will most likely be Driving Machines. Go to IOACentral. About 15 of the regular posters work at UO. All of them say that next for IOA is Driving Machines opening. None of them have said anything about a Grinch coaster.
I agree, Nick should be gotten rid of. But if it was, USF would get the land, not IOA. In between IOA and USF is a service and maintancence road. Plus, they would somehow have to hide Seuss from USF, because they would be very close.
The road your talking about is called hollywood way. It would be unwise for Universal to remove this road because it is one of the only roads that bring guest back to I-4. It would be useless to remove it for MSHI because right behind the road is the Royal Pacific Hotel. The thing to do to insure expansion for IOA is to reroute Hollywood way by turning it closer to I-4 after it passes RPH, this would give expansion room for TL, JP, and possibly a new Island. It also would give enough room for a new Hotel.
From Scooby Dum
Posted January 31, 2003 at 10:17 PM
Everytime I drive on that road behind Toon Lagoon, I think they should build some kind of walkway over the road into the land on the other side, where they can build a new island. The biggest problem with that in my mind, is that it might be difficult for handicaped people, but Im sure they could figure that out.
I really hope they don't start adding a lot of shows to IOA. This is one of the things Disney started doing in the mid ninties, adding cheapy shows of whichever of their animated movies was popular at the time. These always irritated me because Disney had never really done a lot of this in the past. Then they would go and advertise the heck out of it like it was some major new attraction. No thanks.
Ofcourse I don't much care for Storm Force either.
What traditionally makes Disney and Universal different from the Six Flags of the world, is that they are very creative regarding their attractions. I don't think Universal needs to add another traditional show.
It's all about theming. Doom is a very average ride, but it has excellent theming.
Universal could add an interesting show to the Pandemonium theater. They do have a history of creating interesting shows. The Wild West Stunt Show has been around for almost 30 years. WaterWorld in USH is also a very popular show, not that it would work in this theater, but they do have the ability to create shows above the Six Flags level.
I long ago suggested they do like Disney and steal ideas from Cirque du Soleil, but use the Toon Lagoon characters. Or move the TL/MSHI border to the other side of the theater and create a Super Hero show. That would be extremely popular. Just look how well the average Spider-Man Rocks is doing at USH.
And I don't think adding a Seuss Landing theater would show the place up too much. They would only have three of them, which I think is a good number. If they could create a Voyage of the Little Mermaid/Legend of the Lion King type of show featuring one of the Dr Seuss books, that could be a big hit also.
As for the Grinch coaster, I know it is no longer on the horizon, but a couple years back there were actual plans for the thing to go in the back area of Seuss Landing. As for the Nick Studios, Seuss Landing would only need the building, which wouldn't have to be changed to look Seussian since it is so far away from Seuss central. Say they build a dark ride in there... the queue could be entirely within SL boundaries while the vehicles traveled over to the building. Nothing is impossible, and IOA needs the extra land far more than USF does.
Hey, all! Someone sent me an idea about Universal "borrowing" MK's Alien Encounter for a Universal ride. I think one of these could be a great fix for IOA! It would cost far less than something boffo/socko, like the rumored Jeep Safari, and probably even less than a themed coaster. Even better, it could last for about 20 minutes, which is about 18 minutes longer than a coaster. It could also solve the problem of the Pandemonium Cartoon Circus Theater. Go to
Rate the Rumors to chat about that idea. Maybe if we show them that there are cheaper alternatives, they will build us something!
This discussion has been archived, and is not accepting additional responses.
