Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure

I had a full, 12 hour day, between USO and Islands of Adventure. With ample use of single rider lines, this was very possible to hit everything that I wanted to, plus rerides. I really had a great time, and have a lot of thoughts about both of the parks. But first, the coasters!

Coasters

Escape from Gringotts (#26)

This funky indoor Intamin really surprised me. It had a really cool queue, and decent capacity. The trains were big and reminded me of the Mummy trains across the park. Both the tilt track and bouncing track caught me off-guard, and the spinning of the trains worked really well. With my glasses, the 3D effect didn’t work very well, so I ended up taking my 3D glasses off halfway through the ride and just appreciated the ride system. The whole experience seemed really ahead of its time and I thoroughly enjoyed it, though the experience was more similar to a dark ride than a coaster. 8/10

Flight of the Hippogriff (#208)

My first of 2 Vekoma junior coasters during the trip was perfectly adequate. The scenery looked great, including the excellent Buckbeak animatronic. The layout was also a step up from Sprockets, on the same level as Woodstock Express at Cedar Point. Great ride for kids, but definitely not something that I have to ride again. 6/10

Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure (#210)

The ride that replaced my beloved Dragon Challenge was an incredible experience. It was awesome that they kept the original castle, and it looks as great as I remembered. Even in the final switchbacks, it was really entertaining watching Hagrid zip around above you. Unfortunately they weren’t running the Pepper’s Ghost preshow, which would have been a nice touch, but definitely didn’t downgrade the experience with not having it. The ride vehicles were brilliant, with a really comfortable motorbike experience. I got to ride in the bike both of my rides, and it was quite thrilling being that exposed. The loading sequence was great, with the moving walkway keeping capacity as high as possible (I’ll talk more about that later…). The layout was masterful, really keeping the speed up with the multitude of launches, and quite impressive on-ride animatronics. The blast-ended skrewt, Hagrid and unicorns all looked great, and though Fluffy wasn’t moving, it still looked impressive. The spike and reverse section were quite the reveal for other riders, and really well done even though I knew it was coming. My first drop track was also quite well done from a theming perspective, both definitely better executed pacing-wise than Expedition Everest on the other side of Orlando. It was definitely shorter than I expected, it only felt like 10-15 feet, meaning there really wasn’t a stomach dropping sensation, but this ride is targeted at a wide level of accessibility, so that was totally fine. The final launch of the ride was also incredible, it just kept accelerating, with a nice forceful turn to send the ride off with a bang!

I didn’t have to wait too long for this ride; I got lucky and was the second single rider of the day just by chance of being near the ride when it first opened around 11 am. I then waited a full 60 minutes in the main queue for my last ride of the night, which was great because the line moved at a consistent clip and there was always something to look at. One point to make though was reliability, this ride definitely isn’t the pinnacle of uptime. As I hinted, the ride only opened at 11 am, while the park opened at 9 am. It was mostly up after that, except for a stint with rain. It was by far the longest line of the day all day though, mostly because of popularity and slightly lower throughput. Overall I had fantastic luck with this ride, and there is not much that can beat this ride in terms of a full package. 10/10, near attraction perfection.

Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit (#24)

This ride was just as fun as I remembered it. There were far fewer music choices this time, but you can’t go wrong with Humble by Kendrick Lamar while zipping around on an airtime-filled coaster. Honestly, I can usually pick apart and remember most layouts very well, but I was just vibing to the music so hard that I can’t remember anything notably bad about the layout, past the standard “lots of midcourses”. Though thankfully they were minimally braked. Honestly, this ride is just “solid” from a coaster experience, and really only falters in the theming department, which can be described succinctly as “utilitarian”. 8/10

Incredible Hulk (#209)

This was my favorite coaster force experience of the day. The layout is a masterful blend of B&M’s best from the turn of the millennium and I loved it. My one ride was in Row 5 and I missed all of the themed queue being a single rider, but it didn’t matter. The station was busy and full of detail. The trains were comfortable and the onride audio was clear. The launched lift hill was surprisingly potent and forceful, and the first inversion was fantastically whippy. The cobra roll and loop were incredibly forceful, smooth, and in the case of the cobra roll, very whippy. Everything I love about B&M design. The tunnel under the water accentuated your speed, and the helix around the lift was nice and forceful. The second loop remained nice and powerful, with a cool visual of the midcourse piercing the loop. After that, the ride died, with a hard midcourse, and a mediocre corkscrew before meandering to the final brakes. But, 80% of this ride is B&M perfection so I didn’t really care. The visuals of the first half of the ride were great, but the second half was just ugly. For the theming that did exist, it was good, and the ride experience was sublime, so it gets a solid 9/10. Would be nice for this ride to get separate load / unload to increase the capacity even more, though it’s not really necessary.

Revenge of the Mummy (#25)

I had forgotten most of this ride from my first experience in 2017, and was quite a fun reintroduction. Most of the ride was a blur, but I remember there being a few nice pops of airtime, a few powerful launches, and a toast fire roof effect. Solid ride! 8.5/10

Velocicoaster (#207)

The curse of overhype strikes again. While this ride was definitely “good”, it was nowhere near as good as a ton of other rides I experienced on my trip. The issues began with the appearance and theme of the ride. The front entrance looks incredible, but it’s kind of in an awkward spot and a bit hard to find. The ride itself is visible from many parts of Hogsmeade and Lost Continent, somewhat breaking the immersion of those lands. Especially given the effort that Disney puts into sitelines, this was definitely not an upside. The queue experience was pretty miserable as well, as the ride is themed to putting a rollercoaster in a raptor paddock. That “paddock” is just a big steel and concrete box. You feel enclosed and trapped inside and there’s not much to look at. The second launch flyby is cool, but I wish there was more of an emphasis on a view of the ride in the paddock. Hell, the exit side of the platform has the best view of the whole queue experience and you don’t even get to see it! Also, the “preshow” video was quite annoying, with a short loop. It also looked really tacky with the 6 TVs, instead of using something seamless like a projector or LED panel. Operations were also quite lackluster, with stacking nearly guaranteed, and often double stacking occurring. One positive though was the trains. They were still very “intamin bulky”, similar to their older OTSRs a la Maverick and Fahrenheit, but the OTS lap bars were quite comfy. I still prefer the Mack and B&M lap bars but these are definitely an improvement from the old design. The theming gets drastically better too as you are on ride, with a ton to look at, and some of the tightest clearances I have ever seen. Usually I am hands up all the time, but there were a few points that I naturally reflexed my hands back down around some rockwork. They did a great job theming the inside, I just wish you could have looked at it longer. Another mild disappointment was the actual layout. The first launch was punchy, but it felt like it cut off a half second too soon. The first half of the ride was quite forceless in general, though the first two inversions had some fun pops of airtime. The rest of the hills and whatnot though just didn’t really give me anything, positive or negative. The second half of the ride started with a bang of a launch, though it too felt like it cut off just a little bit early, nerfing the speed of the rest of the ride. The tophat gave some good floater, but not the insane ejector that I am used to (Storm Runner). The stall was alright, overall they are not my favorite elements, looking better off ride than the actual experience. The big helix thing felt like filler, with the finale finally picking things back up. The speed hill and mosasaurus roll were coaster perfection, with incredible ejector airtime, and matched what I expected from the rest of the ride. Then, we hit the comically long brake run, back into the bunker of a station. Overall the ride experience was just one step down from what I expected. I got 5 rides in total throughout the day, in the morning, afternoon, and at the end of the night, and I just didn’t get that magical ride. The front row was better, since the theming was so good, but I feel like it was a waste to not be able to see the theming more during the experience. Given how many people have raved about the ride, I am wondering if the launches may have cut off early on purpose? The standard clientele of Orlando parks doesn’t necessarily expect the most insane Steel Vengeance’s of experiences, and I am wondering if people complained that it was too intense. In any case, the ride as I experienced it was definitely a let down, and the one nick on the surface of an otherwise flawless day. 

Dark Rides

Transformers

I called this Car Crash: The Ride. Again, the 3D effect didn’t really work with my glasses. The audio sounded really good but the visuals were chaotic and the movements were really jerky and uncomfortable, and not in a thematic way. I also have no interest in the Transformers universe so it wasn’t my thing. 4/10

Amazing Spiderman

Car Crash: The Ride 2. Except, not really? It’s fascinating to me that the same ride system can open at two parks right next to each other and have such a drastic difference in quality. Basically all of my issues with Transformers were resolved. The movements were comfortable enough and the 3D screen scenes were far less chaotic. The 3D effect worked better for me, and the inclusion of more physical sets definitely helped anchor the story. And the story was comprehensible and very enjoyable, with a great queueing experience. And the audio was still great! 8/10

Fast and Furious, Supercharged.

The reputation precedes this ride. It was running at half capacity and the ride operators were not getting into the swing of things at all. The first show scene made zero sense, though it looked alright. The main sequence was a lot of rumbling and CO2 blasts and didn’t really look good at all. I feel like the hallway that you walk down as a single rider describes my experience well:

3/10

Skull Island: Reign of Kong

“What Studios does, Islands does better” is what I wrote in my notes during my visit. Like F&F, it’s a standalone Backlot scene, but this one was done way better. The queue line was a lot more interesting and the station looked nice. The ride vehicles were the same mechanically, but also had a driver dummy up front to make it look like a real truck. There was an outdoor portion that we skipped due to weather, but the first scene was a nice showset that set the stage for a main sequence that actually was convincing. It was the same tech as F&F, but programmed much more convincingly with a lot less chaos. Then, there was a surprise finale, with a gigantic and incredible King Kong animatronic. One of the largest and best looking I have ever seen. The ride system still isn’t my favorite, but this is definitely a far better implementation of it! 7/10

Cat in the Hat

This was a ride that I did because I hadn’t done it before, not because I was necessarily interested. It was a complete walk on, and overall not bad! The whole aesthetic was a bit creepy, but the scenes were fun and the physical sets were a nice change of pace. Not bad, great for kids! 6/10

E.T.

I still haven’t seen the movie but this is definitely a classic ride. The ride system is really cool, and the sets look awesome. The animatronics looked dated, but still did what they needed to do. The whole name tag passport thing seemed like excessive effort for a mild effect at the end, but it was cool nonetheless. I am glad that they are still keeping this with Dreamworks Kids being built just outside. 7/10

Despicable Me

The original Minion attraction was somewhat of a letdown. It was a quirky motion simulator, somewhat similar to Krusty, with limited movement and similar gags to Muppet Vision that just didn’t really land for me. I preferred the newer attraction across the street! 4/10

VillainCon Minion Blast

The new for 2023 ride at Studios has gotten mixed reviews so far, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Standing on a conveyor belt was genius, as you moved very slowly which allowed you to really dive into all of the scenes, and hit as many targets as possible. The gun felt good and was very responsive. I like that you could link your account to the gun to track high scores. The accuracy and response of the shooting was great, and it was surprisingly easy to tell which blaster hit was yours compared to everyone else. The screens were gigantic and beautiful micro-LED panels, which really made the ride. It was super high resolution and incredibly colorful. I also loved that in the scenes with dozens of screens, I couldn’t find a single one that didn’t react to your gun. I don’t know how many IPs could work with this sort of ride system but the inherent chaos of the Minions worked perfectly. I could really lap this for hours just working up a higher and higher score! Loved it! 9/10

Forbidden Journey

Otherwise known as Kuka Arm: The Ride. This was a ride system that I was definitely fascinated with after I discovered it when they added it to Planet Coaster. The movement of the ride vehicles was really cool, but the attraction in general had a few rough edges. The transitions from scene to scene were a bit blunt. The flying screen scenes weren’t bad at all, but it was really immersion-breaking for me to see out of the corner of my eyes the other ride vehicles flailing all over. The most blatant example though was a dementor that was very clearly a black trash bag attached to the end of a Kuka arm. Good way to not custom build an animatronic, but it was not disguised well at all and was almost hilariously bad. Overall I think the concept is incredible, and I can’t wait to see what the next generation ride looks like at Epic Universe, but you can definitely tell that this one was the prototype and has some issues. 7/10

Hogwarts Express

This was a genius attraction, and overall a good experience if it has minimal wait. It would be nice for it to have better capacity, as waiting an hour for a transportation ride is pretty rough, but the effects were pretty convincing and it was definitely better than exiting one park and entering the other. I would say that it was worth it to ride the one time, but don’t buy a combo ticket just to experience it. 6/10

Men in Black

This shooter is definitely showing its age. A lot of the sets looked dated and the movement was quite mediocre. Overall it was just a lot slower than I am used to on shooters like Justice League and Toystory Mania. I liked the physical sets but they were definitely more 2D cutouts than I like. 5/10

Food

My friend suggested I tried the Chicken Buffalo tater tots in Seuss landing, and they were fantastic. I definitely wouldn’t have thought to put all of those ingredients together, but it went together very well and was quite tasty. I had to chug my frozen butterbeer as I bought it approximately 15 seconds before Hagrids opened right in front of me, but it was still great. The fish and chips at the three broomsticks were just as tasty as I remembered from my actual London trip, and the Weasley sweet shop was a joy to wander around. A warning that the Every Flavor Beans are every flavor!

Single rider lines

My favorite Universal policy was the single rider lines. I got on nearly everything instantly, and on these rides, row doesn’t really matter. However, there are a few rides to avoid the SRL.
Don’t do single rider on Hagrids or Velocicoaster. Often the waits would be just as long (or longer!) as the standard line, and you have nothing interesting to look at. Plus, seat selection on those can actually affect the experience. Escape from Gringotts had a similar setup where I completely missed the preshow, and waited nearly as long as the main ride. Next time I would probably wait in the main row and try to get front of a car, but it wasn’t as big of a deal as the others I mentioned.

Universal corner cutting

The parks in general looked fantastic, but if you look close, you can see where they cut corners. Stuff like the TVs in Velocicoaster. The obviously flat back border wall during Hagrids. The utilitarian Single Rider lines for Fast and Furious and Hagrids. The duplication of the exact same ride system between both parks. The unkept pavement in the Studios park. The blatant and awful speaker placements around the park. HRRR & Hulk. Surface level, Universal looks good. But if you look close, they just don’t match the same quality that Disney does. They don’t go the extra step to take those small details into account. On one hand, it doesn’t affect the overall experience too bad, but given how expensive it is to get into these parks, I expect the highest level of quality possible. The Harry Potter areas felt far more high-quality than the rest of the park, and I hope that design ethos can spread to more parts of the parks. This really is nitpicking, sure, but if they really want to beat Disney, they need to be better. Overall though the parks do look great, especially Islands. Studios needs some help, and hopefully after Epic opens, the studios park can get the facelift it deserves.

Finale

Overall, I had a fantastic time at the parks. 12 hours was plenty to explore basically everything to a sufficient depth, with the exception of Lost Continent, which I completely missed by accident. I definitely felt like I got to know the parks far better, being the second visit to both parks. Universal is really doing some great stuff, and I can’t wait to come back when Epic Universe opens!