So last month I had a bit of a business trip to Florida, and took the opportunity to hit all the Florida parks that I haven't seen since I was about 9 years old. Having lived in So Cal for the past year and a half I've become a big Disneyland fan, so I was pretty excited about seeing WDW for the first time as an adult, but I was even more excited to see the parks that I visited first...
Universal Studios Florida
The last time I was at USF I was in high school and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was likely only in the imaginations of officials at the park, that being said Islands of Adventure has generally been my favorite theme park, and considering I only had around 8 hours to do both parks, I had to get a move on fast. Decided to head to USF first and close the day at Islands of Adventure.
This ride was certainly NOT there the last time I visited the park, and it really changes the landscape of the whole park. That, and the fact that Jaws is completely gone and replaced by a giant fence.
For not hearing a whole lot from the coaster community about this ride, I really enjoyed it. The seats were comfy, the ride wasn't too rough and I'm a huge fan of onboard audio, so being able to pick my own tracks made the ride twice as good. Not really a top 10 coaster, but a different type of experience that not many other coasters out there will be able to replicate.
Other than Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket, the park really hadn't changed much other than Simpsons replacing Back to the Future, both of which I really enjoyed. Thought the theming on Simpsons was really well done. Men in Black is still one of my favorite shooter rides out there, and The Mummy is probably still my favorite ride in the park.
It's starting to show its age, but The Mummy is just a lot of fun.
The evening was quickly approaching, and Islands of Adventure Awaits!
Islands of Adventure is just a really well designed park. It's got clearly themed areas, and each one is considerably more diverse than the other. It's also got another thing practically no other theme parks have: Each area of the park is themed around a different IP (Intellectual Property) instead of a general area such as a Harbor, or "Tomorrowland" I believe that can be a double edged sword, it's a good thing because the public can easily relate to your theming, and thus can be entertained by the queues or even just the Midway. The negative is that some IPs last longer than others, and without updates to some of those IPs, the theme can become stale, and less entertaining as we no longer reference the theme.
Suess Landing is great for Kids.
Hulk, Spiderman and Dr. Doom are all fantastic.
Anyway, Islands is great because I associate all of the themes, and Universal does theme brilliantly. That rang especially true for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
It's pretty impressive. Probably the best themed area in any theme park. The problem (which is well documented at this point) with the area is that it isn't designed to take all the people that it does on a daily basis, which is why Universal is expanding into USF in the near future.
Every view was designed to look amazing.
Inside the Wizarding World one will find Ollivander's Wand Shop, the Three Broomsticks (which wasn't so tasty), and many other shops and things you'll recognize from the movies. The ride itself in the castle was very cool, and honestly I spent almost my entire 2nd ride just trying to figure out how it all worked, which I think was even more impressive than the ride itself.
And of course there is this...
I liked it frozen much better than regular.
The thing about IOA, is that its filled with a bunch of little gems that I didn't want to miss, so I left Potterverse and headed for one of my favorite attractions.
For those of you who haven't been, this walk through attraction takes you into an old archeological site thats being dug up, and ends with a huge water and fire show where Poseidon takes on an evil Lord for control of the waters. Very cool.
That's a big Trident.
Being a 25 minute ride, when I came out I had around an hour left in the day, so I stopped taking photos and rode Dragon's Challenge, Jurassic Park, and Hulk in the front row which was particularly fun. Finished up the evening taking some photos of the park (why to Florida parks close so early?) before getting ready for some Disney Adventures the following day.
Next update likely posted later tonight about Disney World adventures. For those wondering I also visited BGT and LEGOLAND Florida during my visit, however I have much fewer photos of those parks.