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MJeff
Jun 2, 2011

THE LIAR
Hey I wanna go to Universal Orlando for the first time next year and wanna ask some questions and also just get general advice on it!!!!!!!!

I'm planning to go in January for 5-7-ish days and try to see all three parks, is it worth it to do stuff like the express pass, stay at one of their hotels (and if so which one) and all the other bells and whistles they try to convince you is super great and necessary?

Also talk about Universal in general, I would like to just hear people's experiences because it seems like a cool park. My story is I went to Universal Hollywood like three years ago and it was cool and I liked The Mummy ride and the Simpsons ride and I was like "drat that was cool, Orlando has way more stuff right, I should go there too" and then a worldwide pandemic was like "lol. just lmao." and here we are.

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STING 64
Oct 20, 2006

don't make direct eye contact with king kong

Jose Oquendo
Jun 20, 2004

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a boring movie
You can easily knock out Universal in 3 days. One day for each park. Get the express pass as well. Some hotels, like the Hard Rock, include this in your package, so that's worth checking out.

MJeff
Jun 2, 2011

THE LIAR

JOHN CENA posted:

don't make direct eye contact with king kong

I'm gonna

STING 64
Oct 20, 2006

MJeff posted:

I'm gonna

ur gonna regret it!!

Jose Oquendo
Jun 20, 2004

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a boring movie
The new Kong ride is loving awful. The old one ruled.

STING 64
Oct 20, 2006

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwOGaIJGnPE

rip to a legend...

Jose Oquendo
Jun 20, 2004

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a boring movie
I’d love to meet the designer who thought that sitting in a truck and looking at 3d screens while the truck bounced around would be a huge improvement over the poo poo in that video.

Bro Dad
Mar 26, 2010


Jose Oquendo posted:

I’d love to meet the designer who thought that sitting in a truck and looking at 3d screens while the truck bounced around would be a huge improvement over the poo poo in that video.

hey it works for half the other rides :shrug:

STING 64
Oct 20, 2006

the theme park equivalent of giving up and just plopping down an ipad in front of your toddler

MJeff
Jun 2, 2011

THE LIAR

Jose Oquendo posted:

I’d love to meet the designer who thought that sitting in a truck and looking at 3d screens while the truck bounced around would be a huge improvement over the poo poo in that video.

That sounds a lot like the Simpsons ride in Hollywood lol

Jose Oquendo
Jun 20, 2004

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a boring movie

MJeff posted:

That sounds a lot like the Simpsons ride in Hollywood lol

Sorta? Simpsons is more of a virtual rollercoaster motion simulator and it moves pretty good and definitely provides the right sensations. The new Kong ride is worse. The vehicle just kinda bumps around a little and you don’t really feel anything.

Simpsons ride is a re-skinned Back to the Future ride, which opened in 1991. It’s one of the ‘original rides.’ It’s also still a better ride than that new Kong one.

barnold
Dec 16, 2011


what do u do when yuo're born to play fps? guess there's nothing left to do but play fps. boom headshot
the mummy and the hulk are the only two rides worth visiting universal orlando for. the hollywood rip rockit whatever the gently caress sucks, and it also breaks down way too much

SweetMercifulCrap!
Jan 28, 2012
Lipstick Apathy
January 5th through 7th tends to still be pretty busy as the holiday crowds are not fully weeded out yet, so you would probably either want Express or to stay in the hotels that offer complimentary Express. I recommend the latter option if you can swing it. Three days is plenty and Express Pass will allow you to do it all more leisurely.

Jose Oquendo posted:

I’d love to meet the designer who thought that sitting in a truck and looking at 3d screens while the truck bounced around would be a huge improvement over the poo poo in that video.

At least they dressed it up with a cool facade, queue, and the scenes leading up to the main 3d portion and the animatronic Kong after are pretty cool. There's at least some effort, unlike Fast & Furious.

Rick
Feb 23, 2004
When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.
Go to Universal City California instead. I went there in the year 2000 and it was pretty good.

Cold Milk Bottle
Nov 19, 2012
Spider Man is the oldest motion sim there and still the best, they put a lot more effort into making it do a lot of not screen stuff and a lot of the newer dark rides are screened up and low effort about it. Fast and Furious is probably the worst one and Kong is pretty much the same system and layout but they threw a couple of animatronics in there. Anyway this is just me saying please stop making every dark ride a thing where a car drives by a screen

Rick
Feb 23, 2004
When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.
I'm actually only being partially honest, I watched "The Ball Drop" On University City Walk on December 31st/January 1st so I am the expert on the place in January. In the year 2000. They had the park open to walk through but all the rides were closed, I think they expected a lot more people to show up. But I feel pretty comfortable in my advice of saying to go there instead.

Rick
Feb 23, 2004
When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.
I also went to Universal City on a field trip a couple times. It's amazing some of the poo poo they got away with as field trips growing up. Like yeah when we went to Knotts, we went to that big America house (which you should go to at Knotts, instead of, Philadelphia) and then met up with tribal leaders who taught us about culture and crafts and about what the land was like before Europeans and we didn't ride any rides, well until high school. But Universal Studios, the Orange County Fair, the Los Angeles fair, they just took us to these places without any pretense of education at all. And these weren't wealthy schools, they were just blowing the budget on bussing us there and just skipping a day of education. Pretty cool though, I remember this stuff more than anything else I did in third grade. Anyway don't look at King Kong in the eye.

Man Musk
Jan 13, 2010

U can use ur AAA card at Universal Studios theme parks & resorts for a cool 10% discount :coolfish:

CelticPredator
Oct 11, 2013
🍀👽🆚🪖🏋

Halloween Horror Nights is the greatest thing of all time

BlueBayou
Jan 16, 2008
Before she mends must sicken worse
There are people who think the Transformers ride is better than Spiderman

I genuinely cant think of one reason Transformers is better.

And yeah, at least Kong has the animatronic at the end. And the different drivers. And a great static jump scare in the queue if its not too crowded

MJeff
Jun 2, 2011

THE LIAR

CelticPredator posted:

Halloween Horror Nights is the greatest thing of all time

I've heard it's pretty sick but I really wanna avoid going when it's too crowded mostly because covid but also because I hate crowds and lines. And from what I've heard Halloween is the most crowded time of the year that's not spring break or summer specifically because Horror Nights are so cool. :v:

Boxman
Sep 27, 2004

Big fan of :frog:


At Universal Studios, E.T. is a beloved classic that doesn't exist in Hollywood anymore, and the version of The Mummy that's there is significantly better than the west coast version. Men in Black is also unique. I don't know if the Jason Bourne stunt show is running in a post-pandemic world (I assume so?) but it also got high praise.

Over at Islands of Advnture, enjoy jurassic park river adventure - the hollywood one was converted to Jurassic World featuring Chris Pratt and that one raptor and that big dino that isn't the t-rex. It got better after a pandemic-downtime revision, but it's still very much worse than the one in Florida.

Velocicoaster and Hagrid's coaster also get top marks.

If you really give a poo poo about Harry Potter, know that you can't ride the Hogwarts Express unless you have the park-to-park/park hopper add on. the show is different depending which direction you're going.

Volcano Bay is fine, I understand? I've never been. I think they've stopped electrocuting and paralyzing people, so that's good.

Boxman fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Jul 30, 2022

WithoutTheFezOn
Aug 28, 2005
Oh no
You know what’s bullshit? They have a store very clearly named Wossamotta U and there’s not a single Bullwinkle-related item inside. Not one.

What.
The.
gently caress.

Scuba Trooper
Feb 25, 2006

Do they even have Rocky and Bullwinkle as characters anymore? They did when I was a kid and there was merch, but that was ages ago

Maigius
Jun 29, 2013


When I was five my parents took me through the Backdraft show, which is burning building themed. It's gone now, and I didn't remember anything about it but but the fire. I haven't had one for a while, but being in a burning commercial building was a recurring nightmare for me.

Naylenas
Sep 11, 2003

I was out of my head so it was out of my hands


I worked HHN in Orlando back in 2008:

On the mummy when you're in the treasure room be sure to loudly yell "there's king Kong!" And then point at king Kong

On the Simpsons ride when the car lands be sure to loudly yell "save the clock tower!" And then point at the clock tower.

Find a card printer, make yourself a fake UO employee badge and sneak backstage to the employee grill for 75% off the lovely pizzas and chicken fingers.

On men in black when you're facing the other car and you have to shoot their target, shoot the one on your own car a bunch.

Edit: "I think this time it's ... it's going to work!"
"Warning, coolant levels dropping"

"Doombots, ignore safety warnings and set the device for maximum extraction!"

Naylenas fucked around with this message at 00:38 on Jul 31, 2022

Man Musk
Jan 13, 2010

Getting p hyped for the Super Mario Land at Universal Studios

https://twitter.com/CodyBoopers/status/1532860010916548609

Edward Mass
Sep 14, 2011

𝅘𝅥𝅮 I wanna go home with the armadillo
Good country music from Amarillo and Abilene
Friendliest people and the prettiest women you've ever seen
𝅘𝅥𝅮
It ain't Super Mario Land without this music playing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZexyCYXoYHM

CapnAndy
Feb 27, 2004

Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.
Universal is a two-day visit, three tops if you really wanna go crazy and re-ride a bunch of poo poo

Also as it’s extremely pertinent to your plans to visit all three parks, I feel you should be aware that there’s only two parks. Epic has no official ETA but isn’t expected until at least 2025.

unless you were counting the water park I guess

CapnAndy fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Aug 1, 2022

SweetMercifulCrap!
Jan 28, 2012
Lipstick Apathy
Universal markets Volcano Bay as their third park but everyone knows water parks are not theme parks. It’s intentionally misleading to people who haven’t been here

Elendil004
Mar 22, 2003

The prognosis
is not good.


The Fast and Furious ride is incredible just to watch Dom Torreto leap onto a drone and yell about family.

Hagrid's Motorbike is also a real solid ride.


I doubt I could spend more than 2 days in the whole system unless I did waterpark the third day or there was some other stuff going on like night-life events or something. If I had to spend 3 days in Orlando I'd probably hit my favorite Disney stuff quick one day but thats a whole different can of worms.

CapnAndy
Feb 27, 2004

Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Elendil004 posted:

The Fast and Furious ride is incredible just to watch Dom Torreto leap onto a drone and yell about family.
I personally am a fan of the bit where he grabs a helicopter that is smaller than he is

Everyone involved in that ride ought to be ashamed of themselves

Roth
Jul 9, 2016

Man Musk posted:

Getting p hyped for the Super Mario Land at Universal Studios

https://twitter.com/CodyBoopers/status/1532860010916548609

This is probably the thing that will get me to go back. I haven't been since before the Harry Potter poo poo got added.

Elendil004
Mar 22, 2003

The prognosis
is not good.


Y'all think I'm kidding. I forgot it was during the part where they jump the ride vehicle over a big ramp using nos-enabled tow trucks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87gFEEsGux4&t=625s

I did forget though he yells "Ride or Die" which is kinda like family when you think about it.

Though it is cool they got everyone onboard for the ride, it does feel like a fast and furious ride and it's worth riding once.

Boxman
Sep 27, 2004

Big fan of :frog:


Roth posted:

This is probably the thing that will get me to go back. I haven't been since before the Harry Potter poo poo got added.

If you're looking for reasons to go in the meantime, The Secret Life of Pets is incredibly good, and I say that as someone who didn't see any of the movies. A fun, creative queue, a fuckton of animatronics in the ride, screens and tech that are creatively integrated into the entire thing. Even the rest of the area is extremely cute, with lots of little gags strewn about. If it had opened at a Disney park - or even Universal Florida - rather than at the Universal that's an afterthought for most people, the theme park community would have absolutely lost its poo poo.

I'm very curious how USH is going to deal with Super Nintendo World. It didn't strike me as a park that has a surplus of real estate, or even things to do. Like, there are lots of narrow paths and choke points that could get really ugly when literally everyone is going to one place. The fact that it's on the lower lot is even worse; those escalators are going to be awful.

Mnoba
Jun 24, 2010
is tis the harry potter stuff any good?

CapnAndy
Feb 27, 2004

Some teeth long for ripping, gleaming wet from black dog gums. So you keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. before the bite, before its oblivion in the goring of your soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it.

Mnoba posted:

is tis the harry potter stuff any good?
I mean, you can literally divide all of theme park design history into pre- and post-Hogsmeade; it was a paradigm shift harder than anything I think has happened since Disneyland opened, so yeah, pretty goddamn good

ymmv on how tainted the entire franchise is by the creator pushing all her chips onto the transphobia board, of course

Bro Dad
Mar 26, 2010


it looks really cool and is really well done

unfortunately it's loving terrible for a theme park and the whole section is a giant human crush because jk rowling demanded some stupid poo poo when building it

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Peyote Panda
Mar 10, 2019

If you're a large person (over 200 lbs and/or 6' tall) and the ride you want to take has those test seats out front, be sure to check them. There's even some videos on Youtube on how to contort yourself to fit certain rides if you're more than a couple of inches over 6'.

I made the mistake of not doing so before the Mummy ride and it pushed my legs together just enough that the Curse of the Mummy turned out to be, "My nertz!" I remember my wife's initial confusion that after all roller coasters and drop rides we'd gone on that weekend that the Mummy was the one I got nauseous on until I explained that I'd spent the last ten minutes with my daddy bag getting squeezed and not in a fun way.

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