Charlotte caught in a contemplative moment
Nat & Grandpa
I then went to The Marketplace and got bagels, muffins, orange juice and coffee for breakfast. When I went back to the room everyone was up and ready except my dad, who was taking a bath. The rest of us ate breakfast, and we were out the door by about 8:40. The drive to Universal took about 15 minutes, with mortals in mere autos scattering to and fro to make way for the big black Behemoth. It's fun driving a vehicle that others look upon with fear. We noticed that the hotel was very close to Sea World, which for some reason I thought was in Tampa, and Andie & I discussed the possibility of taking the kids there while we were in Orlando. As we approached Universal I noticed that "The Hulk" was running, so either they were testing the ride before opening or they had opened early.
We arrived at Universal around 9:00 and parked in the "King Kong" section. One complaint I have about Universal is that it is a long walk from the parking structures to the parks - including having to walk through "CityWalk" (Universal's shopping & dining complex) - and it is difficult if someone in your party has impaired mobility. Fortunately the wheelchair rental is just as you exit the parking structure. Since we had forgotten to bring Charlotte's stroller we decided to rent 2 wheelchairs. This way we figured we could do a "round robin" with my folks and the kids, with Andie & I doing the bulk of the pushing.
Since we had already purchased tickets we made our way through "CityWalk" and went directly to the park entrance. As you pass the lighthouse at the park's entrance and through the main gates, the first section of the park you come to is the "Port of Entry" (POE.) POE is themed as a somewhat stylized Mediterranean port. It contains no attractions and is mostly shops. The architecture in POE is quite lovely and it makes for a nice gateway to the rest of the park.
IOA's icon - the lighthouse sign
"The Adventure Begins"
We turned left, so the first area we encountered was "Marvel Super Hero Island" (MSHI.) MSHI is themed after the Marvel comic book characters. The area includes "The Hulk", a hulking (pun intended) green roller coaster, "Doctor Doom's Fearfall", a sky shot ride, and "The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman", a one-of-kind (putting it lightly) high-tech thrill ride. As soon as we arrived, Natalie announced that she was hungry, and my dad also complained of being hungry (he had an excuse since he missed breakfast.) No one was interested in riding "Spider Man" (SM) except for me, and it seemed like a good time to ride, so I did. I'm not a big comic book fan, but I used to watch Spider Man cartoons as a kid and I remember the basic plot dealt with a newspaperman who suited up as an arachnid to fight crime. I also remember his boss believed - unlike the population in general - that Spider Man was a bad guy.
The wait was about 20 minutes. The queue area is made to look like a newspaper office - or, at least, a comic book version of a newspaper office. As you make your way through the queue you see "live" news reports on TVs scattered throughout about some bad guy who's name escapes me - it was "Octo" something - who was using some sort of zero gravity ray to hold the city hostage. He was aided by some cackling guy who throws exploding pumpkins, another guy who was made of water, and a babe with a killer hair-do (literally.) The story makes no sense whatsoever - but who cares?
Finally you get to an area where you are going to board this super new vehicle called "The Scoop". You are shown an amusing pre-boarding instruction video, given a pair of "night vision" (3D) glasses, and you're off.
I'm not going to go into a lot of detail regarding the ride itself so as not to spoil it for those who haven't ridden and would like to be surprised. I will, however, write a bit about the ride in general terms.
SM utilizes some very advanced and impressive technology. It is much like "Countdown to Extinction" in Disney's Animal Kingdom and "Indiana Jones" at Disneyland in that it is, at its core, a dark ride that utilizes ride vehicles that are, essentially, mini motion simulators. It is there that the similarities end. While you do travel from one room to another in your vehicle - like any other dark ride - the main part of the show is actually in the form of 3D projected images. These images are incorporated into the physical surroundings in a nearly seamless manner. The ride designers developed an amazing system whereby the projected 3D images can be viewed from a moving vehicle without having the images distort and become just double images.
I must admit that through the first 3/4 of the ride left me a little underwhelmed. After all the praise I'd heard of this ride I guess I was expecting too much. I mean, yes, it was cool. Real cool. But I just wasn't blown away like I thought I would be. It was, basically, a big 3D movie viewed from a moving vehicle.
Then came the finale.
All I can say is "WOW!" The last sequence of the ride is an absolutely seamless blending of all elements that creates an amazingly realistic and thrilling experience. After that, I was blown away.
SM is considered by many theme park enthusiasts to the best theme park attraction currently in existence. Do I agree? Well, if hard pressed I think I'd still have to give the nod to "The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror" and maybe "The Adventures of Indiana Jones and the Forbidden Eye". Regardless, SM is an amazing ride and clearly ranks in the top 5.
That said, for any ride developers looking into more attractions using this technology, I do have a couple of suggestions. First, I would try to do something to insure that other guests in the same vehicle do not encroach into the field of vision of the 3D images. When this happens it breaks the reality (on that same note, I would recommend riding in the front row of the vehicle if you can.) Second, I would try to do away with the old Polaroid style glasses. There is too much spillover of the image from one side to another, causing ghosting. The only 3D system I've ever seen does away with ghosting entirely is the one used at some IMAX theaters that uses radio-controlled LCD lenses. Of course these glasses are very expensive and heavy, so it would probably only be practical after some technological advancements.
After leaving SM I noticed that "Doctor Doom's Fearfall" (DDF) was advertising a single rider line. I asked the CM ("Cast Member" or theme park employee - I don't know if Universal uses this term, but for simplicity I will refer to all employees as "CM") and he told me it was about a 5 minute wait. I got inside and it looked like a longer wait (a later experience would teach me that the CM probably just didn't tell me the right place to go) and I wanted to meet up with the rest of my family, so I left. DDF was not real high on my list of priorities, so I bailed on it.
I found Nat, Charlie and Andie sitting in a bench that looked like a car. Spider Man was on the hood of the car posing for pictures. Andie told me that they were sitting there when she heard a "thump." She looked at Charlie, who was looking up behind Andie with a look of abject horror. Andie turned around and was startled to see this guy in bright blue and red tights! I asked if the kids wanted a picture with Spider Man, but they were both too scared be interested. My folks were on a nearby bench, so we all gathered together and went to "Toon Lagoon" (TL.)
TL is themed after characters from comic strips and cartoons. It's quite bright and charming. Funny little touches abound, such as a stack of "dialog balloons" that say things like "I yam what I yam" topped with a sign that reads "used". All of the attractions here are water themed. There's "Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls", a fun-looking flume ride, "Me Ship the Olive Oyl", a kid's water play area, and "Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges", a water raft ride. I suggested "Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges" (BBRB). My mom asked if we would get wet, I said I wasn't sure and that I didn't remember reading anything about the ride being particularly wet. Besides, the people coming off the ride didn't look too wet. Andie stayed behind with Charlie, who's too small to ride, and my mom wanted to stay behind too but I convinced her to ride. I would end up paying for it for the rest of the trip. We got absolutely soaked. My mom, of course, blamed me, but I just kept saying, "I really didn't realize we'd get so wet!" Even she had to admit, though, that it was a fun ride.
Andie suggested we go to an area that's more kid friendly, so we back-tracked to "Seuss Landing" (SL.) This section is, of course, inspired by the characters found in the books of Dr. Seuss. It is, hands down, the best section of the park in overall themeing. Granted, the park designers had a wealth of material to draw on, but still, they did a very commendable job of incorporating the Seuss characters into the environment. My mom & dad headed to the "Green Eggs and Ham" cafe while Andie, the kids & I rode "The Cat in the Hat" (CiTH.) CitH is a dark ride that uses some pretty advanced ride technology to tell the story of what is, perhaps, the good doctor's most famous story. The line was about 20 minutes. At first I thought the queue area was supposed to look like clouds, but then I realized they are actually bushes. In the world of Dr. Seuss, clouds and bushes look pretty much the same. We all enjoyed the ride a lot - I rode with Charlotte who looked positively entranced. The one change I'd make different would be to have the spinning of the cars controlled by the riders, ala "Buzz Lightyear" in Tomorrowland.
At play in a fountain
When we got to the wheelchair rental we inquired about retrieving them when we returned later that day, and the CM told us he'd leave them there with their tags attached. At the same time he was explaining to another man that there were no wheelchairs left to rent, who was obviously upset about it. We said we didn't really need both chairs when we returned, so we offered one of them to other guest, who seemed quite appreciative.
We drove back to MGV, dropped the kids and my folks off, and headed to the MVCI office for the presentation. By this time we were about 20 minutes late. When we got in there they had trouble finding our reservation, and it became clear why when they informed us that our appointment was for the 5th, not the 4th. I argued that I had the confirmation sheet - although I didn't have it with me - and it clearly said the 4th. As soon as I verbalized it, however, I realized I could be wrong. I let them try for a few minutes to arrange something for that day - we were there, after all - but she couldn't. Andie and I agreed that it really didn't matter that much, and I told the representative that I could have been mistaken on the dates. We left agreeing to come back the next day. Andie said, "I'm glad we didn't make a big stink about it!"
I took Andie back to the room for a nap, but I wanted to go back to IOA to get more pictures for my website. It was now about 2:00 and I told Andie I'd be back by about 4:00 or so. I went back to the park, this time parking in the "Spider Man" lot. I basically did a grand tour of the park working clockwise from the POE. On the way I made some mental observations about the park in general and each "island" in particular. On the whole, IOA is a beautiful park that is expertly realized. Each themed island immerses the guest into it's unique world in a way that comes closer to the achievements of Disney designers than any park (outside of a Disney park) that I've ever seen. This is especially true of "Seuss Landing" and "The Lost Continent".
I have two major criticisms of the park as a whole. First, having the park surround a central body of water makes it more difficult to navigate because you can't skip from one section to another. Epcot's World Showcase has a similar problem, but IOA is not quite as bad because the park is smaller (or at least it seems that way.) My other major complaint is that the transition from one area to another is abrupt, with most sections simply using a gate or sign to announce your entry. Disney is much better at handling the transation from one themed area to another (at least most of the time – is "The Mad Tea Party" in "Fantasyland" or "Tomorrowland"?) A classic example of the way Disney handles this is a "backroad" path that runs by "Splash Mountain" and leads from "Frontierland" to "Adventureland". The Disney designers made a building that, on the "Frontierland", has a southwestern adobe look that blends seamlessly into the Moroccan look of the same section in Adventureland. This type of seamless transition is absent in IOA.
After re-entering the park I turned left and went through the park clockwise. After POE was, as I mentioned, MSHI. MSHI is probably the least impressive of the "islands" as far as themeing goes. It is basically decorated with overblown 2 dimensional representations from Marvel comics. It's bright and colorful, but not real imaginative.
I was hoping to ride "The Hulk" and, especially "Dueling Dragons", but I knew I didn't have much time. Since I was in MSHI I decided to check out the wait for "Hulk", but at 30 minutes I thought the wait was too long. Luckily I asked the CM at the ride's entrance about a single rider line, and he told me that the wait was five minutes, so I went for it. The single rider line was kind of weird. I was told to go through a door to outside of the ride building, then up a set of stairs to the main loading dock. There I only waited for a few minutes before boarding.
Now, I wanted to ride Hulk, but I it wasn't a "must ride" for me. It is, after all, just a coaster. Yes, a particularly big coaster with a cool launch system, but just a coaster nonetheless. Boy, was I wrong. The Hulk is an absolutely awesome coaster. I don't know if it's just because it's so new, but the ride on the Hulk is smooth as silk. It is an exhilarating, thrilling ride. I highly recommend it.
TL, the next section, is more impressive. It reminded me a bit of Disneyland's "Toontown", only fashioned after a variety of comic and cartoon characters as opposed to Disney characters. The details throughout this section, many of them quite humorous, are impressive. Particularly nifty is the "Mt. Rushmore" edifice - featuring the likeness of "Dudely Do-Right" characters - that looms above "Ripsaw Falls".
Next you come to Jurassic Park (JP.) JP is themed to look like the island park developed for the film, with the same combination of lush vegetation and architecture that looks like a cross between an African village and a tropical paradise. The main ride building of JPs signature attraction - the "Jurassic Park River Adventure" - dominates the horizon. There is also a kid's play area and "discovery zone", an elevated ride called "Pteranodon Flyers", and an up-close encounter with a triceratops.
Entry to "The Lost Continent"
Entry to "Seuss Landing"
When I arrived back at the hotel at about 4:00 everyone was asleep except for Andie. We relaxed for a while, and eventually everyone woke up. We were out of the room at about 5:30 and on our way back to the park.
This time we parked in the "Cat in the Hat" section. We returned to the wheelchair rental where our chair was waiting. By now many other chairs had been returned and we were able to convince the CM to let us have a second chair even though we didn't have a receipt for it. My folks just wanted to wander around POE, but Andie and I wanted to go to LC, so we took the kids in one of the chairs and headed back. We agreed to meet for dinner at "Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville" at 7:15.
I wanted to ride "Dueling Dragons" (DD) so Andie took the kids to do a little shopping while I rode. He wait was about 20 minutes, much of which was spent winding my way through DDs massive queue area. The queue area was quite impressive - I especially liked the room with the frozen knights on horseback.
DD is a suspended coaster, with the riders hanging from the track with their feet dangling. It is actually 2 coasters - "Fire" and "Ice" - which are perfectly synchronized to pass within inches of each other as the cars go through opposing suspended loops. I rode the "Ice" side. This is a very hairy coaster with many sharp twists and turns. The part where you hit the loop at the same time as the other coaster goes by in a blink - but it's really cool. One thing that is especially disconcerting is the way the coaster comes what seems like impossibly close to trees, the tracks, and the ground. Another really great coaster.
I met up with Andie and the kids after the ride. I'm glad the line for the line was short, because Andie said shopping in LC was a bust - mostly dragons and crystals, something Andie (and me, for that matter) has no interest in. We made our way to JC so Nat could experience the "Triceratops Encounter" - the one thing at IOA that she'd expressed a real interest in. There was no wait at all and soon she was bonding with "Cera". This is a really neat attraction, and the dino is amazingly convincing. Nat was very impressed, and she's not even a big dinosaur nut. If you have a kid that loves dinos, this is a must.
Nat and "Cera"
By the time we made it out of the park to "Margaritaville", which is the first restaurant in "CityWalk" you encounter when leaving IOA, we were late for our Priority Seating (PS) reservation. Margaritaville was pretty crowded and we had to wait about 45 minutes before being seated. Even though it was late and it was the end of a long day, the kids were great. They simply played around the fountain outside the restaurant and had a grand time. This is not the first or the last time I'll say this - Andie and I are blessed with 2 kids who are absolute joys to travel with. They just go with the flow and rarely fuss. It's nice to know that we can plan a trip without worrying about how the kids will behave.
At play in the fountain outside Margaritaville
The fountain outside Margaritaville
On our way back to the car Andie and the kids got separated from my folks and me. I took my folks to the car and unlocked it so they could sit, then went in search of Andie and the kids. We found each other within a few minutes; mostly because we're both smart enough to know not to stray too far from the escalators. In fact Andie had done exactly what I suspected - she went down the escalator when she should have gone up. Well, we were all gathered, so we headed back to the hotel after a long, tiring day. Andie and I did what would become a tradition for this trip - we went out on the porch and chatted about the day before heading off to bed. We were in bed by 11:00.