Our first park day meant an early start for us. The alarm went off at 6.30am and we were all ready in the car for 7.30am. The drive up to Universal Studios was very easy and we were pulling up to the car park pay booths just after 8.00am.
Now it isn’t a Florida holiday if I don’t moan about the cost of car parking. I was trying to be relaxed about it especially as Neil had offered to pay this one. But $32 is a ridiculous amount on top of the already exorbitant ticket price. I would love to understand a breakdown of theme park profits and how much contribution comes from just car parks. Still though it’s our choice to come here and still pay it.
It has been several years since we have been to Universal Studios and we were looking forward to it. We therefore had a spring in our steps as we walked from the Spiderman parking lot row 551 to the entrance and made it with about 25 minutes to spare before opening.
The park opened 10 minutes earlier than the published time. As normal we had left our route planning around the park to Neil’s discretion. He did confirm that he had taken into account my moaning about queuing as well as making us not have to double back on ourselves constantly.
Transformers was first up. I have no clue what the story was about. Not a clue who the baddies or goodies were. The ride was clever but I would have preferred it to have been just a nice tour of say the National Parks with perhaps some jeopardy of getting to the café before closing.
Then we rode the Mummy. Now this I did kind of understand. I had forgotten how intense the rollercoaster was but did appreciate the special effects including the real flames that got me wondering about the size of their gas bill. Perhaps the car park fees must subsidise that.
Before we were allowed our first break of the day we went to the Harry Potter land. The theming of the whole land is amazing with great attention to detail. The ride itself is good although again the story is convoluted. The effects are very good.
We had managed 3 of the big attractions and it wasn’t even 10am and as we had been on our best behaviour, Neil allowed us a stop outside Starbucks whilst he went and rode Rip Ride Rocket. I had done that once before years ago and firmly remembered saying never again.
From here we went to shoot some Aliens at Men in Black. We assumed there was some malfunction as it seemed that Karen thrashed both Neil & I with her score. Something to do with pressing a red button first?
Finally, we rode a ride with a nice storyline. The old favourite that is ET. It was fun although they got the sequencing wrong and so ET did not say any of our names at the end which was a shame.
We just made it in time to the midday performance of The Bourne Stuntacular which is new since our last visit. The pre shows were just meh before we made our way into the main theatre. As per the Clare Family tradition we pushed our way past people who had ignored the instructions to keep moving to the end of the row deliberately standing on as many toes as possible.
From the moment the show started I sat there with my mouth open. I have never seen anything like it. It was mind-blowingly good. I could not differentiate between the HD wrap around screen, the props on the stage or the live action actors. It is the nearest you can get to actually being in an actual action movie. It was wow – just wow. It was worth the high cost of admission alone. I cannot recommend it highly enough and I would love all my family and friends who like these types of films to see it.
As we came out Karen said she had never seen me react to a show like that before as she confirmed I just sat there with my mouth wide open the entire time.
It was now lunchtime and so we sat outside Mel’s Drive in Diner and had our picnic lunch whilst watching a meet and greet with The Simpsons take place on the other side of the street.
From here we walked to Minions – Villains. This is a new walk-through ride where you stand on a moving walkway shooting anything that moves from a large handheld laser gun. Clever technology but just an OK attraction. It was confusing and none of us wanted to do it again.
Another stop followed where we shared the Minion Banana flavoured popcorn that Neil purchased which was rather tasty.
This was very close to the Jimmy Fallon ride through New York, which was fun but a bit silly.
Then we made our only mistake of the day and went to the Fast & Furious ride. None of us were bothered to do it as it isn’t that great but the entrance was deserted and so we walked in. Eventually we found the end of the queue. We waited as it moved very slowly, mainly because of the number of people walking in with express passes. These passes now cost more than the actual admission price unless you are staying in one of the Universal Hotels. We had only had minimal waits all day and so considered them to be of poor value.
20 minutes passed and I had had enough and but couldn’t work out how to leave the queue. Karen tried to assure me we were nearly there but we weren’t but I stayed. It didn’t help that we were getting updates that Norwich were playing poorly and losing away at Sheff Wed. It was an hour before we got off the ride. The ride was short, not well executed and not the best use of an hour of my life.
Karen needed a drink after this so we found a table near Starbucks again and sat whilst Neil disappeared for less than 10 minutes to ride The Mummy again.
We had all had enough by this time as decided to make our way out of the park watching the new parade of movie floats go past us.
I had made a reservation at the world’s largest Hard Rock Café at City Walk as we had never eaten there and so we walked the short distance to it. To Neil’s chagrin we were shown to our table in a quiet side room rather than the loud and busy main restaurant. The food was OK but overpriced for what we got.
We walked around City Walk and visited the new Epic Universe preview centre. The new park opens next year and looks very impressive. We are already planning our future visit.
Neil and Karen, both bought themselves a Voodoo Doughnut to take back to the villa with them.
It had been a really good day.
The drive back was busy but we made it without incident and settled down to watch the election results come in. It was interesting to watch it on CNN and how they were calling each state. I felt it needed Prof John Curtice to make some bold predictions but they were cautiously sitting on the fence. Indeed, the BBC website seemed to be ahead of what the US channels were reporting. By the time I went to bed it appeared that Trump would indeed regain the presidency.
I am not sure we are best to judge when in the recent past we have had to choose between Johnson or Corbyn, but it clear that both the US candidates had issues and one more than the other. Perhaps though we all just get the choices and leaders we deserve.
