Originally Posted By mrkthompsn If anyone wants to meet-up, I'll be the one wearing my Woody Woodpecker wife-beater cotton shirt tucked into my fleece gray gym shorts, white hat with transparent plastic green visor, kangaroo belly pack with Handycam charger and battery packs, no socks, leather loafers, and unshaved arm pits. Look for me!
Originally Posted By Princessjenn5795 "If anyone wants to meet-up, I'll be the one wearing my Woody Woodpecker wife-beater cotton shirt tucked into my fleece gray gym shorts, white hat with transparent plastic green visor, kangaroo belly pack with Handycam charger and battery packs, no socks, leather loafers, and unshaved arm pits." Are you trying to punish your kids for something?
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORDDU: Does your wife really have to come along, mkthompson, duckling? I'd be glad to substitute for her. I even have a witch-beater shirt you could wear in place of the wife beater shirt...
Originally Posted By dizneed << If anyone wants to meet-up, I'll be the one wearing my Woody Woodpecker wife-beater cotton shirt tucked into my fleece gray gym shorts, white hat with transparent plastic green visor, kangaroo belly pack with Handycam charger and battery packs, no socks, leather loafers, and unshaved arm pits.>> I'm sorry I must have misunderstood, I thought you were going to Universal, not Wal-Mart. ;-)
Originally Posted By CarolinaDisneyDad I went with my daughter in April to Universal for three days. She is 17. We had a good time but when it is all said and done it wasn't Disney. Uni is well done but or us it relies too much on video screens. SImulator rides become redundant after a while and I got tired of falling and smashing into stuff or flying. I think we counted 7 simulator rides. MIB was ok but execution wasn't great. You couldn't tell if you were hitting anything. The guy in front of me beat my score by a half million points (really? No way!) The coasters were good and even though they were extreme they weren't so rough that I couldn't ride them. No whiplash like on space mountain. Now Harry Potter is another story. Very well done and immersive. It's as good as any park I have been to. We spent a lot of time there and really enjoyed it. It's a pleasant surprise that the show was different on the train based on which direction you were traveling. The only negative was that gringots broke down two of the three times we were in line for it. The second time they evacuated the line but gave us a pass to come back later with less waiting. But overall very enjoyable. WE also really liked the food choices on city walk. Really diverse. Loved jambalaya at Gumps! TIPS: wear a bathing suit or take a change of clothes. Ponchos are probably enough. Some of the really good rides are water rides and you don't just get wet you get soaked! Buy the front of the line pass. Your day will be much more enjoyable if the pressure is off trying to manage wait timesnd your schedule becomes much more flexible. (Expect to pay more than Disney because this option is not cheap) In the end it was enjoyable but UNI lacks the emotional attachment that Disney brings. Their characters are great but there is no nostalgic attachment like at Disney and that is not anything they have done wrong it just is. But, they have great parks and I would do it again in a minute. My daughter and I had a great time.
Originally Posted By CarolinaDisneyDad And that comes from a 100% Disney fan although Uni and seaworldare earning a little more attention every so often.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>Uni is well done but or us it relies too much on video screens.<< We noticed that it's a lot of screens (often related to movies/franchises that we didn't particularly care about) and they all involve squirting/misting the audience with water. It's a fun gag the first time or two, but by the time you've done a day's worth of attractions, it just gets really annoying. My glasses-wearing parents were particularly unimpressed by this, since they had to keep drying them off all the time >>Some of the really good rides are water rides and you don't just get wet you get soaked!<< I hadn't been on Jurassic Park in years, and was shocked to discover that you get completely soaked on it! Having done the one in Hollywood a few years earlier (also in the winter months), I remembered that it wasn't so bad; but Florida's version was essentially like jumping into a swimming pool with your clothes on. Luckily it was a warm-for-January day, but it was still an unpleasant experience overall
Originally Posted By hopemax I rode the one in FL a few times, and never got particularly wet. So last Sept, DH asked "how wet do you get?" and I said, "Splash Mountain." So we got in line, and got put in the first row. There, you get absolutely drenched. So then in April, I was with my Dad and he didn't want to do the rafts because he didn't want to get wet. But he did want to do Jurassic Park, and I warned him about the first row. He said it would be fine...and we got the first row. I asked if he wanted to go back and do the rafts now, but he still refused. But over at Disney we have a new definition of wet. During MNSSHP last year, we rode Big Thunder in the middle of a big rainstorm. You couldn't keep your eyes open, ponchos didn't help, it hurt, and it took 3 days for things to dry out. I had to buy a new purse. If you are ever disappointed that they shut down the ride for rain...don't...it's not worth it. But it is a crazy story for us now.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros ^^I had a similar coaster-in-the-rain experience on Apollo's Chariot at Busch Gardens Williamsburg 15+ years ago. The seats are open all the way around, so you're very exposed, and the coaster is over 200' tall and goes more than 70mph. We had ridden it a few times and didn't have any issues, but on another trip I ended up in the front row, and it felt like we were just getting pelted with coins It definitely makes for a good story, but it's not something I ever need to do again!
Originally Posted By mrkthompsn Highly enjoyed Universal last week. The Cabana Bay Beach Resort is great. I must say Universal really has their stuff together.
Originally Posted By CarolinaDisneyDad One other thing I found funny that I had never considered about UNI. While we were there my daughter kept asking who the characters were and it dawned on me that many kids in her generation were after many of their franchises. For example my daughter had never seen ET, terminator, the Simpsons, twister, MIB, Blues Bros or Jurassic park. It wasn't intentional just never happened. Guess they were watching too much sponge bob and Disney channell. In any case universal will soon have to start rethemeing attractions soon to keep them relative to the current generations.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt I'd never thought of it before, but Universal's heavy reliance on current Hollywood films is similar to the challenge Disney has with keeping Tomorrowland and Epcot current/relevant to changing tastes and preferences. Until your post I'd forgotten that Twister was ever even a thing.
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORWEN: Twister is a tornado and a game. Surely you've seen The Wizard of Oz or at least played the game-- ORDDU: --hopefully with someone you love...
Originally Posted By FerretAfros To me, that really highlights the danger of building everything based around movies. Although when it's done well or is unique enough (like ET), it can stand alone. But too often, it requires the audience to have the connection to the film in order to mace any connection to the theme park attraction. And when those franchises start to fade back into obscurity (like Twister), it seems like something to avoid Granted, Disney does a better job of staying on top of their franchises than Universal typically does, but there's still a danger of getting saddled with irrelevant experiences
Originally Posted By dagobert Many franchises at Universal don't even belong to Universal. Harry Potter - Warner Bros. Men In Black - Sony Transformers - Paramount Marvel - Marvel/Disney The Simpsons - Fox Shrek - DreamWorks So if Universal would build their parks on their franchises, than there wouldn't be a park.
