Welcome to Theme Park Insider! Join the community or log in
Theme Park Insider
Facebook Twitter Pinterest YouTube

Universal Trip Report, August 31, 2012

Universal Orlando: Minions, Marvel, and more!

From Dominick D
Posted September 2, 2012 at 11:10 AM
Last night I went to Universal to activate my new AP with 3 free extra months! I went to IOA at 6:10 or so to ride Spiderman, only to find out it was down. Thankfully, the TM said it should be open in about 5 minutes. It was, and I got on with no wait. A few things I noticed:

1. In the scene when Doc Ock hits you with the anti gravity gun, a theater is called The Woodbury, a reference to Mark Woodbury (an engineer at Universal).

2. Stan Lee now says "You did great!" etc. instead of a Daily Bugle employee.


Due to time constraints I didn't have time to do anything else at IOA, so off to USF! When I got there I went straight to Despicable Me with a 15 minute wait. When it was first announced that it was replacing JN I was skeptical, but now I take back everything I said. This is a great ride that nobody should miss, although it jerks you around a bit. Afterwards I went to The Simpsons with a 10 minute wait, then MIB with another 10 minute wait. During the preshow for MIB, the TM acted like a robot. Before the elevator opened, he screamed loudly. In the elevator, he chased people around (I wasn't a victim). I think he's gonna be a scareactor ;). The nighttime show was in 30 minutes, and since I had nothing better to do, I watched it. The first time I saw it was in a soft opening and I didn't like it mainly because I got a bad spot. This time it was pretty good since I got a good view and I think there was more fireworks. Go in front of The Simpsons for the best spot. I had a good time, but a few notes:

1. Construction on Transformers and HP was happening when I went.
2. If you're going within the next few weeks, try counting how many America's Got Talent billboards you see. You'd be surprised at how many there are ;)


Comments in chronological order. Most recent at the bottom. Scroll down to respond.

From Rob Pastor
Posted September 2, 2012 at 12:05 PM
We did the new Spider Man 14 times when we vacationed in May. Never got the first row until the final ride. We actually preferred the back row. It seemed to have the best movement. The previous Spider Man was great. Now it's a couple of steps above great...We left too early for Despicable Me but the park was flooded with Minions and Minion shows while we were there. They created a lot of excitement. I can't wait to see it on our next Universal trip. It seems that nearly everyone just loves this ride.....Dom: Glad to see you changed your mind on the lagoon show. We thought it was really good, and it got better with every viewing. There's so much going on, you can see it dozens of times without catching everything on the screens. Great for repeat viewings...... When Transformers & Harry Potter 2 are completed, this is going to be a true destination park. But we are going to skip it for one year while all the construction is going on and then do our entire 2014 trip at Universal(2+ weeks). We'll do Disney for 2013 since we're looking forward to the New Fantasyland(minus 7 Dwarfs Coaster), even though it's taking sooooo long to finish.

This discussion has been archived, and is not accepting additional responses.