We planned to spend a day at Universal on Saturday (the 14th), how'd we do?
Well, pretty well, actually.
Although we do get an hour early entry, I told my DW that I'm done with getting up before the crack of dawn to spend all day at the parks rushing from ride to ride. Since we live only 30 miles away, we can plan to spend 3/4 or 1/2 days and have just as good as time.
So, we slept in! I'm up early every day for work and on the weekends, I want to sleep in and have a relaxing morning, which is what we did.
We headed out around 10AM from Lakeland, which is west of Universal, about 30 miles. The only way to Universal is up the dreaded I4. This is a hellish road that likes to back up around RT 27 between 5 -10 miles or so and then the 4-5 mile corridor (miles 64-72ish) just after Disney. So what should be a 40 minute drive or so, typically can take 60-90 minutes by mid-morning and stay that way all day, until well after 10PM. And if there is an accident, then forget it.
On Saturday, we got to Universal in about 50 minutes, so not too terribly bad. But arriving at Universal at 11AM means a long, long line at the parking garage. Being that I never stay in the middle, I kept all the way to left and only had 5 cars in front me as opposed to 10-15 in the other lines.
Premier passes have "preferred parking", something that others have to pay about double the price of normal parking. On Saturday, this put us in the Jaws parking area. Advantage is that Jaws is on the same level as the entrances to the park, so no escalators. However, Jaws is all the way at the end of the garage and I'm sure people parking in the level above us were actually closer to the parks, only they had to use an escalator. Glad we didn't actually have to pay for this, we would have brought Premier passes based on other benefits, and only used the regular free parking, which we might do next time. The other advantage is that fewer people part there so there is no line of dozens of cars in front of you trying to a: figure out how to follow the car in front of you, or b: figure out how to outwit the parking attendants and use and end spaces to walk less.
As for security, Universal's is still better than Disney at getting people through, as for park entrance, well, their system is still bad, fingerprints don't take and it seems if you get in a line where someone is having an issue, it just takes too long to get into the park. And, it seems, far too many people have issues with their tickets and fingerprints. Far, far too many. My wife is one of them, her fingerprint match failed all 4 or 5 times we went thru the turn styles, and they'll fail again next time we go.
We were in the park around 11:30 or so and planned to eat around 2, just before our Express Passes opened up at 4.
Having not really eaten breakfast, we knew we wouldn't last until then. Hey, look at that, Voodoo Donuts is open. I had the namesake Voodoo long john and she had the No Name which was a yeast donut, chocolate frosting, Rice Krispes and peanut butter creme. Both were amazing. We've been to Portland and visited the original location and these were as good as ever. Great start to our visit. And since we ended up walking almost 11 miles on Saturday, we walked off the calories.
We then went to IOA to start our day and just walk around a bit. The weather was Florida Picture Postcard, warm, not really too hot, not a lot of humidity, just perfect.
After just walking around, we came by Kong, which we hadn't ridden yet. The stand by time was 45 minutes, so we said, what the heck. I love the outdoor presentation of the ride. It completely captures the look of Skull island. As for the line, well, I hated it. Too dark and too narrow for me as I really, really don't like dark, narrow places. As for the ride, I thought it was great. A lot of fun and action packed. Not knowing what to expect, kind've caught me off guard, but in a good way.
By then it was near 2PM and we wanted to eat at the the NBC Grill and Brew. We were immediately (no wait) seated at a open window table which overlooked several TVs and the pathway between the two parks. Have to admit the food (fish tacos and smoked chicken) were excellent and our server was very attentive and had no problem with allowing us to sit there and watch the 1st period of the Lightning game.
Now, it was 4PM, time for some rides. We did all of the following with our Express Pass. Being in the heat of the day, we did the wetsome threesome, Jurassic Park, somewhat wet, Dudley Do-Right, pretty wet and Popeye, say, did you jump in the pool? We were wearing quick dry shirts and shorts and sandals so we didn't mind. We then headed over the US and did Escape from Gringotts which remains a favorite, the Simpsons and while we were headed over to the Mummy, discovered Fast and Furious was in technical rehearsal and we enjoyed that. I posted separately about that experience. That did not have an Express Pass, so by the time we were done, it was just after 8 and US was closing. We had just enough time to make it back over to IOA to ride Hulk, well, I did, my DW had had enough.
Now, I hate leaving Universal and trying to find I4 west to Tampa. Leave, somehow get in the left lane to turn left, allowing in 6,837 cars who also just figured out they need the left lane since the signage sucks. Then realizing you need to turn left, again, after allowing in 10,872 cars in line who just realized they need to turn left again, too, as the signage sucks. This time, somehow I went the wrong way and ended on going north or east (once the sun goes down, forget it, I'm terrible and direction) away from Universal and actually in the opposite direction from Lakeland. However, with very little traffic, ended up on Vineland, which led to an I4 west entrance ramp that was not being consumed by 17,934 people trying that double left turn to exit Universal and point the car west. We had traveled 2 miles north/east of Universal so by now going west, we traveled past it again on our way back. But, since we had no traffic, I'm pretty sure we passed a lot of the people we would have been behind waiting in those stupid left turn lanes.
The traffic around Disney wasn't too bad and we were home in less than an hour, which is 30 minutes less than we had when coming home from Orlando on Easter.
All in all, an excellent day and we look forward to our return some time in May, but not on a Grad night.
Dolby1000
Well, pretty well, actually.
Although we do get an hour early entry, I told my DW that I'm done with getting up before the crack of dawn to spend all day at the parks rushing from ride to ride. Since we live only 30 miles away, we can plan to spend 3/4 or 1/2 days and have just as good as time.
So, we slept in! I'm up early every day for work and on the weekends, I want to sleep in and have a relaxing morning, which is what we did.
We headed out around 10AM from Lakeland, which is west of Universal, about 30 miles. The only way to Universal is up the dreaded I4. This is a hellish road that likes to back up around RT 27 between 5 -10 miles or so and then the 4-5 mile corridor (miles 64-72ish) just after Disney. So what should be a 40 minute drive or so, typically can take 60-90 minutes by mid-morning and stay that way all day, until well after 10PM. And if there is an accident, then forget it.
On Saturday, we got to Universal in about 50 minutes, so not too terribly bad. But arriving at Universal at 11AM means a long, long line at the parking garage. Being that I never stay in the middle, I kept all the way to left and only had 5 cars in front me as opposed to 10-15 in the other lines.
Premier passes have "preferred parking", something that others have to pay about double the price of normal parking. On Saturday, this put us in the Jaws parking area. Advantage is that Jaws is on the same level as the entrances to the park, so no escalators. However, Jaws is all the way at the end of the garage and I'm sure people parking in the level above us were actually closer to the parks, only they had to use an escalator. Glad we didn't actually have to pay for this, we would have brought Premier passes based on other benefits, and only used the regular free parking, which we might do next time. The other advantage is that fewer people part there so there is no line of dozens of cars in front of you trying to a: figure out how to follow the car in front of you, or b: figure out how to outwit the parking attendants and use and end spaces to walk less.
As for security, Universal's is still better than Disney at getting people through, as for park entrance, well, their system is still bad, fingerprints don't take and it seems if you get in a line where someone is having an issue, it just takes too long to get into the park. And, it seems, far too many people have issues with their tickets and fingerprints. Far, far too many. My wife is one of them, her fingerprint match failed all 4 or 5 times we went thru the turn styles, and they'll fail again next time we go.
We were in the park around 11:30 or so and planned to eat around 2, just before our Express Passes opened up at 4.
Having not really eaten breakfast, we knew we wouldn't last until then. Hey, look at that, Voodoo Donuts is open. I had the namesake Voodoo long john and she had the No Name which was a yeast donut, chocolate frosting, Rice Krispes and peanut butter creme. Both were amazing. We've been to Portland and visited the original location and these were as good as ever. Great start to our visit. And since we ended up walking almost 11 miles on Saturday, we walked off the calories.
We then went to IOA to start our day and just walk around a bit. The weather was Florida Picture Postcard, warm, not really too hot, not a lot of humidity, just perfect.
After just walking around, we came by Kong, which we hadn't ridden yet. The stand by time was 45 minutes, so we said, what the heck. I love the outdoor presentation of the ride. It completely captures the look of Skull island. As for the line, well, I hated it. Too dark and too narrow for me as I really, really don't like dark, narrow places. As for the ride, I thought it was great. A lot of fun and action packed. Not knowing what to expect, kind've caught me off guard, but in a good way.
By then it was near 2PM and we wanted to eat at the the NBC Grill and Brew. We were immediately (no wait) seated at a open window table which overlooked several TVs and the pathway between the two parks. Have to admit the food (fish tacos and smoked chicken) were excellent and our server was very attentive and had no problem with allowing us to sit there and watch the 1st period of the Lightning game.
Now, it was 4PM, time for some rides. We did all of the following with our Express Pass. Being in the heat of the day, we did the wetsome threesome, Jurassic Park, somewhat wet, Dudley Do-Right, pretty wet and Popeye, say, did you jump in the pool? We were wearing quick dry shirts and shorts and sandals so we didn't mind. We then headed over the US and did Escape from Gringotts which remains a favorite, the Simpsons and while we were headed over to the Mummy, discovered Fast and Furious was in technical rehearsal and we enjoyed that. I posted separately about that experience. That did not have an Express Pass, so by the time we were done, it was just after 8 and US was closing. We had just enough time to make it back over to IOA to ride Hulk, well, I did, my DW had had enough.
Now, I hate leaving Universal and trying to find I4 west to Tampa. Leave, somehow get in the left lane to turn left, allowing in 6,837 cars who also just figured out they need the left lane since the signage sucks. Then realizing you need to turn left, again, after allowing in 10,872 cars in line who just realized they need to turn left again, too, as the signage sucks. This time, somehow I went the wrong way and ended on going north or east (once the sun goes down, forget it, I'm terrible and direction) away from Universal and actually in the opposite direction from Lakeland. However, with very little traffic, ended up on Vineland, which led to an I4 west entrance ramp that was not being consumed by 17,934 people trying that double left turn to exit Universal and point the car west. We had traveled 2 miles north/east of Universal so by now going west, we traveled past it again on our way back. But, since we had no traffic, I'm pretty sure we passed a lot of the people we would have been behind waiting in those stupid left turn lanes.
The traffic around Disney wasn't too bad and we were home in less than an hour, which is 30 minutes less than we had when coming home from Orlando on Easter.
All in all, an excellent day and we look forward to our return some time in May, but not on a Grad night.
Dolby1000
