I was at Universal and Islands of Adventure on the 9th & 11th of Jan. Thought I'd post what I thought, since my last trip to Universal ended up just one day (spent at IOA) due to hurricane Irma. and the time before that was like... 2001ish. So lots of new things for me to do at Universal. This won't be a long review but just some thoughts. It'll also won't be in any order.
Jimmy Fallon - Race Through New York was a very dumb ride, but it was fun. Plus my dad enjoyed it, and my dad doesn't do many rides anymore. So any ride he can get on and actually like is a huge plus.
Rip Ride Rocket was a fun coaster. I see where the issue comes in with people not liking it. But I didn't hate it.
Revenge of the Mummy was a lot of fun. I didn't know what to expect other than it was like Gringotts. But it was fun and I really liked it.
Escape from Gringotts is a split ride for me. I enjoy the ride, and its very fun. However idk what's actually happening because I don't actually like Harry Potter. Like at all. I've seen 2.5 movies and read four chapters of one book. So the whole ride doesn't make any sense to me, but I enjoy it none the less. (The other ride at IOA is an entirely different subject.)
MIB Alien Attack is my favorite ride of all time. I love this ride, and I will continue to love this ride. It's so fun. the preshow, when they run it, is cute. plus I love kicking my family's ass at it.
Simpsons ride was so good. We laughed the whole time. Particularly at the preshow, it was funny for us bc my brother recently had a child, so we had to do child swap on everything. and the baby did get left behind with Grandpa (my dad) as we rode it. And getting off the ride to find him nodding off on a park bench while watching the baby was an extra sort of meta humor that made us all laugh even harder. The theme park humor just got me good. I enjoyed myself on it.
ET is such a cute wholesome ride and I love it to pieces. I'm glad I got to ride it again.
I finally got to do the Horror Makeup Show, and its really cute. Did not like that they sort of focused on the Mummy reboot. but I guess they're waiting for a new movie with lots of makeup to replace that segment. Because that's really not something you want to show off. But it was enjoyable and very old Universal. Down to Nickelodeon style floor for their stage.
Transformers was not good. About what I expected from the ride. Lots of metal flying around couldn't see anything that was happening. Classic Michael Bay Transformers. It also made me sad bc the ride starts almost identical to DarKastle. Including an inanimate dog coming to life and jumping on your vehicle. RIP DarKastle.
It doesn't actually need to be said but, Fast and the Furious Supercharged was the worst fucking ride I went on this whole trip. I... wow. That was so incredibly bad. The queue was really cool. (If you're like into cars. I'm personally not. and don't give a shit about cars and car races.) and I knew going in it was Hollywood's tram video just put into its own ride, but wow. That was so bad. I couldn't see half the things bc I was on the edge on the left, and like 90% of the things happened on the right. I got shot directly in the face with water at one point. It was just bad. Like even if I don't know the movies well, I can still enjoy a ride (See Gringotts), but Y I K E S that was a waste of money. And they gt rid of both Disaster AND Beetlejuice's Graveyard Revue. Like I realize both those things are old Universal, and they want to get rid of everything that's irrelevant. But like, WOW THAT WAS REALLY BAD.
Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem was a good ride. No, it's not great. Minions are still very annoying. But like the Despicable Me movies (or at least the second movie), it's not that bad. I actually enjoyed myself, despite going in 100% with the idea of I'm gonna hate this, and let's just get it over with so I never have to ride it again. I'd wait 20-30 minutes for it, prolly not much more than that, but that's mostly for the ride type and given there's only one theater. Fight me on this. I'm willing to throw down.
Over at IOA I don't have much to say about it, we spent maybe half a day at the park. Only because by the mid afternoon the park got super packed, and it ended up being too cold to ride water rides, and the one water ride I wanted to do was River Adventure which is down for seasonal maintenance. (And I only wanted to do River Adventure because the last time we went we skipped it because the trip was focused on my Sister-in-Law and her first trip to Uni, and she hates reptiles and dinosaurs and anything remotely scary. That and my dad really wanted to do all the Harry Potter stuff.)
Poseidon's Fury is really the only thing I like have any sort of words to say about, and just... what was that. What did I experience for 20 minutes. I genuinely want to know. First, I remember that walk through being VASTLY DIFFERENT from what I experienced. But was this version made on like 2$ and a stick of gum? Why was Darkenon (What sort of name is that????????????) in a cheap Magneto cosplay? Why did it look like it was made out of cardboard? The good bits were the sets and the reveals, which haven't changed since I last did this. But like what did I actually witness? Where was this going? I don't even know if they know.
But overall, I had a good time. I wouldn't go back and visit Universal often, the parks don't hold too much interest for me. But it was nice to visit and knock out those new rides from my list, and ride some old favorites.
Jimmy Fallon - Race Through New York was a very dumb ride, but it was fun. Plus my dad enjoyed it, and my dad doesn't do many rides anymore. So any ride he can get on and actually like is a huge plus.
Rip Ride Rocket was a fun coaster. I see where the issue comes in with people not liking it. But I didn't hate it.
Revenge of the Mummy was a lot of fun. I didn't know what to expect other than it was like Gringotts. But it was fun and I really liked it.
Escape from Gringotts is a split ride for me. I enjoy the ride, and its very fun. However idk what's actually happening because I don't actually like Harry Potter. Like at all. I've seen 2.5 movies and read four chapters of one book. So the whole ride doesn't make any sense to me, but I enjoy it none the less. (The other ride at IOA is an entirely different subject.)
MIB Alien Attack is my favorite ride of all time. I love this ride, and I will continue to love this ride. It's so fun. the preshow, when they run it, is cute. plus I love kicking my family's ass at it.
Simpsons ride was so good. We laughed the whole time. Particularly at the preshow, it was funny for us bc my brother recently had a child, so we had to do child swap on everything. and the baby did get left behind with Grandpa (my dad) as we rode it. And getting off the ride to find him nodding off on a park bench while watching the baby was an extra sort of meta humor that made us all laugh even harder. The theme park humor just got me good. I enjoyed myself on it.
ET is such a cute wholesome ride and I love it to pieces. I'm glad I got to ride it again.
I finally got to do the Horror Makeup Show, and its really cute. Did not like that they sort of focused on the Mummy reboot. but I guess they're waiting for a new movie with lots of makeup to replace that segment. Because that's really not something you want to show off. But it was enjoyable and very old Universal. Down to Nickelodeon style floor for their stage.
Transformers was not good. About what I expected from the ride. Lots of metal flying around couldn't see anything that was happening. Classic Michael Bay Transformers. It also made me sad bc the ride starts almost identical to DarKastle. Including an inanimate dog coming to life and jumping on your vehicle. RIP DarKastle.
It doesn't actually need to be said but, Fast and the Furious Supercharged was the worst fucking ride I went on this whole trip. I... wow. That was so incredibly bad. The queue was really cool. (If you're like into cars. I'm personally not. and don't give a shit about cars and car races.) and I knew going in it was Hollywood's tram video just put into its own ride, but wow. That was so bad. I couldn't see half the things bc I was on the edge on the left, and like 90% of the things happened on the right. I got shot directly in the face with water at one point. It was just bad. Like even if I don't know the movies well, I can still enjoy a ride (See Gringotts), but Y I K E S that was a waste of money. And they gt rid of both Disaster AND Beetlejuice's Graveyard Revue. Like I realize both those things are old Universal, and they want to get rid of everything that's irrelevant. But like, WOW THAT WAS REALLY BAD.
Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem was a good ride. No, it's not great. Minions are still very annoying. But like the Despicable Me movies (or at least the second movie), it's not that bad. I actually enjoyed myself, despite going in 100% with the idea of I'm gonna hate this, and let's just get it over with so I never have to ride it again. I'd wait 20-30 minutes for it, prolly not much more than that, but that's mostly for the ride type and given there's only one theater. Fight me on this. I'm willing to throw down.
Over at IOA I don't have much to say about it, we spent maybe half a day at the park. Only because by the mid afternoon the park got super packed, and it ended up being too cold to ride water rides, and the one water ride I wanted to do was River Adventure which is down for seasonal maintenance. (And I only wanted to do River Adventure because the last time we went we skipped it because the trip was focused on my Sister-in-Law and her first trip to Uni, and she hates reptiles and dinosaurs and anything remotely scary. That and my dad really wanted to do all the Harry Potter stuff.)
Poseidon's Fury is really the only thing I like have any sort of words to say about, and just... what was that. What did I experience for 20 minutes. I genuinely want to know. First, I remember that walk through being VASTLY DIFFERENT from what I experienced. But was this version made on like 2$ and a stick of gum? Why was Darkenon (What sort of name is that????????????) in a cheap Magneto cosplay? Why did it look like it was made out of cardboard? The good bits were the sets and the reveals, which haven't changed since I last did this. But like what did I actually witness? Where was this going? I don't even know if they know.
But overall, I had a good time. I wouldn't go back and visit Universal often, the parks don't hold too much interest for me. But it was nice to visit and knock out those new rides from my list, and ride some old favorites.
