Universe Man, Universe Man

Those who know me already know that when I take a trip to Orlando, I really only take a trip to Disney World. I had never even seen Downtown Orlando until this last week. And as for the other theme parks, if I have been to Sea World then I remember nothing of it. I have been to Universal Studios but it was probably our my worst theme park trip ever. This was on one of the many family trips to Disney when we decided to take an afternoon and go to Universal. We got there and it was packed. So we got in line at the ET ride, which was the first attraction that we came to, and we proceeded to wait for upwards of 2 hours. Regardless of the fact that I have issues with ET the movie, those who have ridden the ride will know that it is pretty lame especially after waiting for so long. Since we ended up spending so long in line we basically used up all of our time set aside for Universal, and ET was the only attraction that we got to ride there.

Over the years I have gotten over the trauma of the bad Universal experience (the ET issues remain), and Universal has expanded and added several new attractions. So when Jim, Jeremy, and I ended up deciding to go to Universal, I was actually very pleased. They try to have annual passes so that they can go whenever guests are in town so they re upped their passes. It was a good thing because they were then able to get me a discount on my one day pass. We also decided to get the express pass option which is equivalent to fast pass in Disney except that Universal charges for it!

Since we had a limited amount of time before we had to leave to get me to the theatre on time, I decided to defer to their judgement as to which rides were worthwhile. In the end we rode just about all of the rides. In the Universal park proper, I think that my favorite ride was the Mummy Roller Coaster. I did make Jim and Jeremy suffer through the ET ride, and it was just about as lame as I remembered it. I mean come on at the end of the ride where ET says every one's name, he did not even say mine. Really how difficult is Hans!

The new Simpsons attraction was pretty fun. It recently replaced the Back to the Future attraction which was the ride that I really wanted to go on all of those years ago not stupid ET. The Shrek 4D movie was also really fun. I could have done with less bouncing in the seats though. It really just pointed out how much weight I have gained! Stupid Shrek!

Next we made our way over to the Islands of Adventure park. All of the rides that we rode there were fun with the Hulk Roller Coaster being the favorite. I did experience Dippin' Dots for the first time thanks to Jim. They were quite enjoyable although I will probably not get the large cup again.

I could not resist the temptation to take pictures of the signs for the new Harry Potter Wizarding World under construction. I am assuming that the big building under construction will be the Hogwarts Castle? I actually know little about what the attractions will be like, but I do know that will be visiting Universal more frequently in the future now!