Day 2: 4/25
I've got an annual pass, and one of the benefits is free valet parking. The valet parking stop off is right next to the entrance of City Walk and is just about worth the price of the annual pass on its own, especially when valet parking is $35. We started by picking up my friend's ticket at the will call window, and then quickly off to Islands of Adventure to ride the Hulk. The Hulk tends to be our first stop on every trip. It's an awesome rollercoaster and early in the morning gets us on relatively quickly. This was the first time going where we had to deal with lockers. They would quickly become the bane of our trip.
If you haven't had to deal with this before, here's the deal:
Nothing can be in your pockets. No phones, wallets, change, keys, or cameras. If you forget, you'll be quickly reminded about it when you are filtered through metal detectors at some point in line. Did you forget to take out your phone? Back to the locker. Loose change? Back to the locker, or you can donate it at a convenient donation box next to the metal detector. It's frustrating. If you're hoping to kill time on a long line by texting or messing around on a phone, it isn't going to happen. The lockers are free for a period of time based on the posted ride wait time. After that wait time, you're charged an amount of money to open the locker. This will be
Back to our ride. We got on Hulk super quick, speeding through the near empty line and hopping on nearly immediately. Since it's a quick ride, we quickly check the wait time. Still 15 minutes. With that in mind, we hop in line again and wait. And wait. And wait. After 45 minutes, we get on the ride again and then head to our locker to pick up our stuff. The problem, though, is that we're now locked out. All we need to do is cough up $3 to open the locker. From our wallets. Which are in the locker. That we can't get to. We hunt down a locker attendant to have him open our locker, but he's flooded with people who are also locked out of their lockers. Since the wait time changed while we were waiting, we just had to wait for him to open the locker for us (and everyone else).
With our crap returned to our pockets, it's off to Doom.
The Fear Fall is way too much fun. The anticipation of waiting to be shot up into the air is manic. The other great thing that the Fear Fall has? No lockers. Sweet! With a 35 minute wait, we just ride once. We want to hit up other areas too.
After Doom, it's Spiderman time! I learned a very important thing on the Spiderman ride: I can't do motion simulator rides. For the first time in a long time, I got sick on a ride. No vomit, just sick. No more Spiderman. Ever. I've tried Spiderman previously and got a little light headed, but this was painful.
Time to walk. It's off to the Harry Potter stuff. Now, none of us are Harry Potter fans. We just want to ride stuff. The line for the Harry Potter ride was obscenely long. The line for butter beer was extremely long. The line for everything was extremely long in Potter land. There's only a 15 minute wait for Dragon Challenge, and that's more than ok. Bring on the rollercoaster! But wait! We need to drop our stuff off at a locker. So we stand on line to get a locker for our crap. This time, I pocket two fives just in case we run into a problem. The wait for Dragon Challenge is quick. Most of that 15 minutes is from walking through where the lines would be. We hop on fairly quickly (red side) and have a fun ride. Time to claim our stuff.
Houston, we have a problem. The fingerprint reader isn't reading my friend's finger. It's not reading anybody's finger. We hunt down another locker attendant to open us up. Problem two: we don't remember our locker number. Locker attendant's solution: use the fingerprint scanner to find our locker. Really? Are you not aware of the current problem that we just told you about? He has us try all of the fingerprint readers, and if it doesn't work, he'd have to call security to do a sweep. After being rejected on all of the other readers, the last one recognizes my friend's print. Thank God. We're 0-2 in lockers. These things are becoming a pain in the butt.
After the frustration of dealing with all of that, we're starting to get hungry. We hop on the Harry Potter train and head to Universal Studios. I've mentioned in a previous report and quickly here: I'm not a Harry Potter fan. Neither are my friends. The Harry Potter train is a quick and convenient way to get to the other park for us. The show itself is fine, but without a frame of reference, it has no sway on any of us. I can recognize that it's a well crafted experience and I'm sure that it's amazing for a Harry Potter fan. For us, it's just a thing.
An odd thing happened on the train. In our little car section thing, we were seated with two girls who couldn't be more than ten years old. No parents. Just these two girls and two other random people of no relation. I'm not a parent, so I don't know how this works, but it seems really strange to see two ten year old girls roaming free without parental supervision. It was kind of uncomfortable. Is that how it works? Are parents cool with that kind of thing?
We arrive at Universal and head straight for Springfield. We may not be Harry Potter fans, but we love us some Simpsons! To the Simpsons ride!
Let's go over two of the most important things that The Simpsons Ride gets spot on: No stupid lockers and plenty of tvs playing excellent Simpsons clips. How long did we stand on line? I have no idea. Did I notice it? Not at all. I watched and laughed at all of the Simpsons clips. That's how you make lines fun. The problem, though, is that we didn't know what we were in for. None of us had any idea what the Simpsons Ride actually was. It was Simpsons related, making it a must do. The problem that we discovered after the ride started was that it was another motion simulator ride. Damn. I will start with the important stuff: it's incredibly well done. The visuals are great and it stays true to an episode of the Simpsons. It's great to see Sideshow Bob again. Unfortunately, half way through the ride, I'm starting to get sick again. It's a struggle to stay moderately composed, but I manage. One of my friends is having the same problem. I see him closing his eyes and trying to collect himself. The ride can't end soon enough.
After nearly puking, we decide to do the responsible thing and eat lunch. Off to Krusty Burger!