Pete the DISney nut
Official NUTcase
- Joined
- May 5, 2001
Combination Day AKA Things Can Only Get Better.
We awoke at 6.30am feeling a little low as the realisation had dawned on us - today was our penultimate full day in the Wonderful WDW. It has been a tremendous Holiday for us so far - meeting good friends from the boards, swimming with dolphins, doing a lot of firsts (for us, anyway) - and we knew that today was going to be another marvellous day for us - going back to Universal and Islands and doing what rides we had not done on our last visit.
We put the telly on - ostensibly to see what the weather had in store for us but the real reason was to watch some Toon Disney
- and according to the weather guy, the top temp was again 87 - 88F. Nice one. After we had our breakfast, we headed to the bus and before very long, we were on our way back to Universal Studios and, to be honest with you, we had no idea what to expect. The last time we were there, it was quite busy and we were expecting it to be the same this time around.
How wrong we were. We alighted at 8.45 and the whole place seemed deserted. It felt like we were the only people there, which was nice in it's way but it did feel a little bit eerie. So we wandered towards Islands - our first port of call and did the usual strut along the moving walkway and would you believe it, the same music was playing: Donna Summer's Hot Stuff!!! :cool
The first ride we did - and, as it turned out this was indicative of what was to happen for the rest of the day - was Spiderman. What I mean by this was there was no queue! At all!! Excellent - and this ride does merit the comments that have been made; you do need to ride this more than once to get the benefit of what happens and, if you can, get in the back row of the car - the ride is much better in the back. I will not spoil it for anyone but you HAVE to ride this. It is so amazing.
I went on the Hulk again - and, would you believe it - I was in exactly the same seat this time as last time; row 7 end seat on the left hand side. I think this coaster - and Kraken in Seaworld are the best coasters I have ever ridden on; Dueling Dragons is very good indeed but what makes these two coasters better is the launch on the Hulk and THAT drop in Kraken. If you have ridden it, you know what I mean.
From there, I decided to give Fearfall a blast as I missed out last time due to the queue - last time it was well over an hour to wait so I decided not to give it a second glance. This time, I was lucky - no wait at all. So I thought to myself, Peter it is now or never so in I went.
I walked through the queueing area and was shown in by a very bored CM who showed me to the loading area and before long, the doors opened and we walked in. I was on my own as Tracy had decided against riding this as there was no floor on the ride.
A necessary aside here. All the other rides I have ridden on have had one thing in common and that is safety. If I feel safe on a ride, no matter how extreme it may be, I do not mind as long as I have that safety.
I was with two other people in the car and the bar came down but the belt that goes between your legs did not give me that feeling of security I had with all other rides I was on. Furthermore, the doors closed and I thought the ride was about to launch and I could not get the belt fastened. Also, the harness did not come down snugly enough on my shoulders to make me feel safe or secure.
As it happened, I was not the only person to feel this unsettled. The couple who were with me decided against riding it and, I have to admit, I felt the same uncertainty so for the reasons mentioned, I decided against it.
So out I went and once I had explained to Tracy my concerns - however unjustified they may have seemed (after all, the rides will only run if they do have a high level of safety) - and we then decided to have a mosey around and catch other attractions we missed last time around.
So we walked through the Toon Lagoon and took some pictures and generally soaked up the atmosphere - the layout of each "Island" is unique in it's own way and definitely worth spending some time in to see the attention to detail that you miss on a walk through and then we headed over to Lost Continent after taking another stroll through Jurassic Park.
We think - out of all the "islands" in this theme park, the Jurassic Park Island is without doubt our personal favourite; the music, the overall impression we got both times was it was just like walking into the film. Absolutely outstanding and, when we were here last time we missed out on the Triceratop Encounter as the queue was a little too long. However, with the queues being non existent this time around - as already mentioned, the parks were virtually deserted - we decided to go and investigate this further.
Well, what can I say about this apart from wow, you would almost think the Triceratops was real - it must have been a model from the film or something, and it was so effective. Out came the camcorder and I captured some truly remarkable footage of this amazing attraction. You have to go and experience this, I can almost guarantee you will not be disappointed.
From there, we headed towards Lost Continent and I had to ride Dueling Dragons again - this is one ride I cannot get enough of. The queueing area on this ride is well above the normal queue and the walk up to the ride itself is an attraction in it's own right. The theming is amazing and the ride itself is so thrilling, when I came off them - after riding them both one after the other in twenty minutes (the queues again were non-existent) - I was grinning like the Cheshire Cat from Alice In Wonderland.
Awesome!!! From Dueling Dragons we caught the 12.15 show of Sinbad. We had the Express pass seating for this and this show is so funny!!! The jokes are corny - especially the joke - which is a truly groan-inducing pun of the sidekicks' name (again, no spoilers) and this show, in particular, merits a particular mention One for the camcorder to capture. If you can - a useful hint here; try to sit just by the stern of the boat and this will give you an amazing overview of the show and you can get some very good close up shots as well.
Then it was time for dinner. The last time we were here, we both wanted to eat in Mythos but have an evening meal there and, unfortunately for us, our plans were thwarted so we decided, rather than try for an evening meal here again and to be foiled twice, we decided to have lunch here instead. Hence the reason why we went the way we did first off in the morning.
We definitely made the right choice.
From the outside, it looks incredible - and, we thought, boy, this looks good from the outside. The way it looks outside, I have great pleasure in telling you, is nothing compared to the internal decoration.
You walk in and the first thing that grabs your attention is the stonework. I will not spoil it for anybody reading this but you have to see it to believe it. It is absolutely breathtaking. And then you walk into the restaurant.
It is almost like you are walking into a huge, brightly lit cave with all these stalagmites and stalactites which have been carved into semi-human form. It is truly a work of art and the designers deserve all the plaudits they must have had. It is a true attraction in it's own right and one I cannot recommend enough.
As if the décor is not enough, the food is of a very high standard indeed and, as many of you may already know the portions are larger than we Brits expect. Well, for those who have large appetites will definitely find the portions here larger than normal compared to American standards!!!
We had the most amazing meal here - probably the best meal of our holiday, and we have had some excellent meals during our holiday - and I cannot recommend this restaurant highly enough.
From there, stuffed to the gills - we headed through the rest of the park soaking up the wonderful weather and the sights and sounds of the park and wandered slowly towards Universal to do the attractions we missed out last time. Our first port of call was ET.
There was a queue for this so we decided to get an exprss pass - the food was not quite settled yet - so we wandered around some and decided to do Jaws again. We love this ride - the CM who was "piloting" the boat was not quite as good as the first time and as we had videod the ride last time around, we decided to do the ride and enjoy the interaction without having to concentrate on getting the right shots for the photos and what have you. From there, we walked towards MIB and rode that again and, again, we had noticed that the queues were disappearing fast again - and this time around I scored over 215,000 (not a bad score; a hint here - aim for the red circle on the cars around you. It increases your score and makes the other cars spin round like washing machines. Well, it made me laugh). From there, it was a short walk to the Back to the Future ride - which I went on on my own (Tracy found this ride a little bit too rough) which was another walk on.
By this time, it was time for ET and the Express Pass. Again, the queues were virtually non-existent in the Express line, so we got on the ride more or less immediately - give or take a five minute wait and, I have to say, it was well worth the wait. This is cute without being overly twee. Basically, you board multi-passenger Bicycles and go for a tour around ET's world. It is lovely and so relaxing.
If you can, think of Peter Pan's Flight - but with bikes instead of boats. The attention to detail is second to none and another classic example of some ingenious Imagineering. Lovely.
From there, we wandered around some more and, as time was getting on now, we decided to head towards the exit and catch another couple of rides we had missed last time around; namely the Gory, Gruesome and Grotesque Horror Make Up Show, Hanna Barbera and Hitchcock.
The GGGHMUS is not actually as bad as it sounds - it is a look at how special effects are used in movies to create monsters and the like. The "hosts" make the show for me - but a word of warning may well come in handy; there is nothing overly gross in this attraction, but I feel really young children may find one or two scenes a bit upsetting. From there, Hanna Barbera was next and this we EP'd before we went to the GG show.
Hanna Barbera is a simulator ride with all the cars in a huge building with a massive screen which shows the journey you take as you follow Yogi Bear chasing Dick Dastardly as he has captured Ellroy Jetson. It is quite fast - this is the impression that you get - but it is very smooth and great fun.
The last show we caught was the Hitchcock show - which is actually quite clever, if a little bit dull (for two thirds of the show anyway) but it is well worth caching if, like me, you are a fan of his films. The last third is very well done indeed (the whole attraction is very well put together as you go into Tobega Bay for the last part of the film, The Birds. I will not spoil it for you but if you do not like birds very much, you may want to be advised that the last part is a 3D film of the climactic scene in the film where the birds start to attack and this 3D filmmaking is very effective and SO realistic.
Again, as a cautionary note, you may decide against taking realy young children into this as it can prove to be quite upsetting. When we were in it, I seem to recall a couple of young ones starting to cry when this started.
Anyway, it was time to head back to the bus and the hunger pangs decided to kick in. Which was quite awkward because we had booked the bus and with the journey taking quite a while, we felt we could not wait for the bus to get us back to the hotel so we could eat there.
We therefore decided to try to get a snack somewhere before we got to the bus.
We called into a couple of places to no avail and then we tried Pastamore's.
We were seated more or less straight away here and we explained we had to catch a bus and if at all possible, can we be served fairly quickly. I can only say that the service here was very, very quick indeed. Yet, although we had asked to be served quickly, to their credit, we did not feel rushed. We can strongly recommend this restaurant to anyone. From seating to leaving was about 35 minutes. The food was very nice and the whole experience was such that, when we go back we will have a proper meal here.
From the restaurant, we headed up to the bus, through the CityWalk concourse, and yet again, Donna Summer was playing - so we did the, by now customary, strut and before long we were on the bus heading back home.
Once we were back in the hotel room, we turned the telly on to watch some Toon Disney (why change the habit of a lifetime) and settled down to sleep with the knowledge hanging over us that tomorrow was our last day of this holiday.
Coming next: EPCOT AKA Why did the weather have to pick today to change?
We awoke at 6.30am feeling a little low as the realisation had dawned on us - today was our penultimate full day in the Wonderful WDW. It has been a tremendous Holiday for us so far - meeting good friends from the boards, swimming with dolphins, doing a lot of firsts (for us, anyway) - and we knew that today was going to be another marvellous day for us - going back to Universal and Islands and doing what rides we had not done on our last visit.
We put the telly on - ostensibly to see what the weather had in store for us but the real reason was to watch some Toon Disney
- and according to the weather guy, the top temp was again 87 - 88F. Nice one. After we had our breakfast, we headed to the bus and before very long, we were on our way back to Universal Studios and, to be honest with you, we had no idea what to expect. The last time we were there, it was quite busy and we were expecting it to be the same this time around.How wrong we were. We alighted at 8.45 and the whole place seemed deserted. It felt like we were the only people there, which was nice in it's way but it did feel a little bit eerie. So we wandered towards Islands - our first port of call and did the usual strut along the moving walkway and would you believe it, the same music was playing: Donna Summer's Hot Stuff!!! :cool
The first ride we did - and, as it turned out this was indicative of what was to happen for the rest of the day - was Spiderman. What I mean by this was there was no queue! At all!! Excellent - and this ride does merit the comments that have been made; you do need to ride this more than once to get the benefit of what happens and, if you can, get in the back row of the car - the ride is much better in the back. I will not spoil it for anyone but you HAVE to ride this. It is so amazing.
I went on the Hulk again - and, would you believe it - I was in exactly the same seat this time as last time; row 7 end seat on the left hand side. I think this coaster - and Kraken in Seaworld are the best coasters I have ever ridden on; Dueling Dragons is very good indeed but what makes these two coasters better is the launch on the Hulk and THAT drop in Kraken. If you have ridden it, you know what I mean.
From there, I decided to give Fearfall a blast as I missed out last time due to the queue - last time it was well over an hour to wait so I decided not to give it a second glance. This time, I was lucky - no wait at all. So I thought to myself, Peter it is now or never so in I went.
I walked through the queueing area and was shown in by a very bored CM who showed me to the loading area and before long, the doors opened and we walked in. I was on my own as Tracy had decided against riding this as there was no floor on the ride.
A necessary aside here. All the other rides I have ridden on have had one thing in common and that is safety. If I feel safe on a ride, no matter how extreme it may be, I do not mind as long as I have that safety.
I was with two other people in the car and the bar came down but the belt that goes between your legs did not give me that feeling of security I had with all other rides I was on. Furthermore, the doors closed and I thought the ride was about to launch and I could not get the belt fastened. Also, the harness did not come down snugly enough on my shoulders to make me feel safe or secure.
As it happened, I was not the only person to feel this unsettled. The couple who were with me decided against riding it and, I have to admit, I felt the same uncertainty so for the reasons mentioned, I decided against it.
So out I went and once I had explained to Tracy my concerns - however unjustified they may have seemed (after all, the rides will only run if they do have a high level of safety) - and we then decided to have a mosey around and catch other attractions we missed last time around.
So we walked through the Toon Lagoon and took some pictures and generally soaked up the atmosphere - the layout of each "Island" is unique in it's own way and definitely worth spending some time in to see the attention to detail that you miss on a walk through and then we headed over to Lost Continent after taking another stroll through Jurassic Park.
We think - out of all the "islands" in this theme park, the Jurassic Park Island is without doubt our personal favourite; the music, the overall impression we got both times was it was just like walking into the film. Absolutely outstanding and, when we were here last time we missed out on the Triceratop Encounter as the queue was a little too long. However, with the queues being non existent this time around - as already mentioned, the parks were virtually deserted - we decided to go and investigate this further.
Well, what can I say about this apart from wow, you would almost think the Triceratops was real - it must have been a model from the film or something, and it was so effective. Out came the camcorder and I captured some truly remarkable footage of this amazing attraction. You have to go and experience this, I can almost guarantee you will not be disappointed.
From there, we headed towards Lost Continent and I had to ride Dueling Dragons again - this is one ride I cannot get enough of. The queueing area on this ride is well above the normal queue and the walk up to the ride itself is an attraction in it's own right. The theming is amazing and the ride itself is so thrilling, when I came off them - after riding them both one after the other in twenty minutes (the queues again were non-existent) - I was grinning like the Cheshire Cat from Alice In Wonderland.
Awesome!!! From Dueling Dragons we caught the 12.15 show of Sinbad. We had the Express pass seating for this and this show is so funny!!! The jokes are corny - especially the joke - which is a truly groan-inducing pun of the sidekicks' name (again, no spoilers) and this show, in particular, merits a particular mention One for the camcorder to capture. If you can - a useful hint here; try to sit just by the stern of the boat and this will give you an amazing overview of the show and you can get some very good close up shots as well.
Then it was time for dinner. The last time we were here, we both wanted to eat in Mythos but have an evening meal there and, unfortunately for us, our plans were thwarted so we decided, rather than try for an evening meal here again and to be foiled twice, we decided to have lunch here instead. Hence the reason why we went the way we did first off in the morning.
We definitely made the right choice.
From the outside, it looks incredible - and, we thought, boy, this looks good from the outside. The way it looks outside, I have great pleasure in telling you, is nothing compared to the internal decoration.
You walk in and the first thing that grabs your attention is the stonework. I will not spoil it for anybody reading this but you have to see it to believe it. It is absolutely breathtaking. And then you walk into the restaurant.
It is almost like you are walking into a huge, brightly lit cave with all these stalagmites and stalactites which have been carved into semi-human form. It is truly a work of art and the designers deserve all the plaudits they must have had. It is a true attraction in it's own right and one I cannot recommend enough.
As if the décor is not enough, the food is of a very high standard indeed and, as many of you may already know the portions are larger than we Brits expect. Well, for those who have large appetites will definitely find the portions here larger than normal compared to American standards!!!
We had the most amazing meal here - probably the best meal of our holiday, and we have had some excellent meals during our holiday - and I cannot recommend this restaurant highly enough.
From there, stuffed to the gills - we headed through the rest of the park soaking up the wonderful weather and the sights and sounds of the park and wandered slowly towards Universal to do the attractions we missed out last time. Our first port of call was ET.
There was a queue for this so we decided to get an exprss pass - the food was not quite settled yet - so we wandered around some and decided to do Jaws again. We love this ride - the CM who was "piloting" the boat was not quite as good as the first time and as we had videod the ride last time around, we decided to do the ride and enjoy the interaction without having to concentrate on getting the right shots for the photos and what have you. From there, we walked towards MIB and rode that again and, again, we had noticed that the queues were disappearing fast again - and this time around I scored over 215,000 (not a bad score; a hint here - aim for the red circle on the cars around you. It increases your score and makes the other cars spin round like washing machines. Well, it made me laugh). From there, it was a short walk to the Back to the Future ride - which I went on on my own (Tracy found this ride a little bit too rough) which was another walk on.
By this time, it was time for ET and the Express Pass. Again, the queues were virtually non-existent in the Express line, so we got on the ride more or less immediately - give or take a five minute wait and, I have to say, it was well worth the wait. This is cute without being overly twee. Basically, you board multi-passenger Bicycles and go for a tour around ET's world. It is lovely and so relaxing.
If you can, think of Peter Pan's Flight - but with bikes instead of boats. The attention to detail is second to none and another classic example of some ingenious Imagineering. Lovely.
From there, we wandered around some more and, as time was getting on now, we decided to head towards the exit and catch another couple of rides we had missed last time around; namely the Gory, Gruesome and Grotesque Horror Make Up Show, Hanna Barbera and Hitchcock.
The GGGHMUS is not actually as bad as it sounds - it is a look at how special effects are used in movies to create monsters and the like. The "hosts" make the show for me - but a word of warning may well come in handy; there is nothing overly gross in this attraction, but I feel really young children may find one or two scenes a bit upsetting. From there, Hanna Barbera was next and this we EP'd before we went to the GG show.
Hanna Barbera is a simulator ride with all the cars in a huge building with a massive screen which shows the journey you take as you follow Yogi Bear chasing Dick Dastardly as he has captured Ellroy Jetson. It is quite fast - this is the impression that you get - but it is very smooth and great fun.
The last show we caught was the Hitchcock show - which is actually quite clever, if a little bit dull (for two thirds of the show anyway) but it is well worth caching if, like me, you are a fan of his films. The last third is very well done indeed (the whole attraction is very well put together as you go into Tobega Bay for the last part of the film, The Birds. I will not spoil it for you but if you do not like birds very much, you may want to be advised that the last part is a 3D film of the climactic scene in the film where the birds start to attack and this 3D filmmaking is very effective and SO realistic.
Again, as a cautionary note, you may decide against taking realy young children into this as it can prove to be quite upsetting. When we were in it, I seem to recall a couple of young ones starting to cry when this started.
Anyway, it was time to head back to the bus and the hunger pangs decided to kick in. Which was quite awkward because we had booked the bus and with the journey taking quite a while, we felt we could not wait for the bus to get us back to the hotel so we could eat there.
We therefore decided to try to get a snack somewhere before we got to the bus.
We called into a couple of places to no avail and then we tried Pastamore's.
We were seated more or less straight away here and we explained we had to catch a bus and if at all possible, can we be served fairly quickly. I can only say that the service here was very, very quick indeed. Yet, although we had asked to be served quickly, to their credit, we did not feel rushed. We can strongly recommend this restaurant to anyone. From seating to leaving was about 35 minutes. The food was very nice and the whole experience was such that, when we go back we will have a proper meal here.
From the restaurant, we headed up to the bus, through the CityWalk concourse, and yet again, Donna Summer was playing - so we did the, by now customary, strut and before long we were on the bus heading back home.
Once we were back in the hotel room, we turned the telly on to watch some Toon Disney (why change the habit of a lifetime) and settled down to sleep with the knowledge hanging over us that tomorrow was our last day of this holiday.
Coming next: EPCOT AKA Why did the weather have to pick today to change?
