Back to Disney World

Hopefully you have enjoyed the past two weeks blogs about the Universal Orlando Resort, and are ready to return to talking about a much better place; Walt Disney World. Nothing big has happened lately at Disney World, other than continuing work on the Fantasyland expansion. A lot of rumors have been spreading regarding exactly what this expansion has in store. Some think that the expansion may go exactly as planned, while others feel that something different and exciting may happen. Hopefully as 2011 continues, we will be able to see a better picture of the end product as construction efforts double.

The new interactive queue at the Haunted Mansion attraction has begun public testing. The week following my departure from Florida, some elements were unveiled for the public to see. These things include new mausoleums and tombstones that incorporate well-loved Mansion characters. This queue seems to be moving in the right direction like the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh attraction queue over in nearby Fantasyland. The Haunted Mansion queue is said to be opening in April this year.

Star Tours II is going to be a 3-D, simulator attraction located at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This ride is replacing the popular the popular Star Tours, 2-D simulator attraction that occupied the same location. Both Disney and Star Wars fans are trying to guess which Star Wars locations will be visited during the ride. I just hope that the pilot of the original ride, Rex, appears in this new incarnation. He brings some fun to the Star Wars universe, for those who are not familiar with the Star Wars saga.

With all these small changes and rumors coming out, I hope that you stay tuned to see what actually happens and what gets forgotten. Again, if you have some questions or something you would like discussed further, don’t hesitate to ask.

Adventure in the Islands of Adventure

In this week’s blog post I am going to discuss the Islands of Adventure theme park. Opening in May of 1998, Islands of Adventure is the second theme park in the Universal Orlando Resort. This park’s theme is quite different from its counterpart Universal Studios, as it relies on the theme of exploration rather than a movie studio. At the time of opening, the park consisted of six lands, adding a seventh in June of 2010.

Islands of Adventure

• Port of Entry
• Marvel Superhero Island
• Toon Lagoon
• Jurassic Park
• The Lost Continent
• Seuss Landing
• The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

At the time of opening this new theme park, Universal Studios Florida’s name was changed to Universal Studios Escape. This confusing name change is said to have attributed to poor attendance numbers the first few years of operation. 2001 brought the name change to Universal Studios Orlando and park attendance began to increase. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, Universal Studios Orlando was the only resort in the Orlando area to have an increase in attendance.

I have heard so much about this park and its Harry Potter ‘land’ that I was very interested to see what it was all about. Upon entering, I took note that the park is modeled after a typical Disney ‘hub and spoke’ format. The ‘hub and spoke’ format generally consists of a center circle with themed lands spread out in all directions that are joined by a main entrance road. At a Disney park it is Main Street and at Islands of Adventure it is the Port of Entry.

Universal has seemed to do a great job on developing themes for their ‘islands’. Each different ‘island’ has at least one attraction, restaurant and a handful of gift shops. Jurassic Park seems to be the best themed of the original ‘islands’. It hosts a fairly faithful recreation of the original Jurassic Park Visitor’s Center which houses a restaurant, gift shop and discovery center. The Jurassic Park River Adventure is a water-based ride that pits visitors against escaped dinosaurs and an 85-foot droop below a hungry Tyrannosaurs Rex.

The most popular ‘island’ is currently the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which opened on June 18, 2010. The main attraction here is Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which is located inside Hogwart’s Castle. This ride is a fast-paced blend of state-of-the-art video technology and advanced animatronics. I was not ready for all the action in this ride. There were spiders, dragons and many other creatures found in the storybook world of Harry Potter. I feel that this attraction and the wonderfully themed Hogsmeade village are very entertaining.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter holds two other rides; Dragon Challenge and Flight of the Hippogriff. Dragon Challenge, previously named Dueling Dragons pre-Potter is the world’s first dueling inverted roller coaster. Flight of the Hippogriff, formerly the Flying Unicorn is a smaller roller coaster that is aimed at children. Five shops; Zonko’s, Honeydukes, Dervich and Banges, Filch’s Emporium of Confiscated Goods, and Owl Post are all located within the ‘island’ and sell all the items you would need to become a wizard. The Three Broomsticks Inn and The Hog’s Head Pub allow visitors to enjoy food and drinks taken from the Harry Potter stories.

I hope that you have enjoyed my take on the Universal Orlando Resort and all it has to offer. Next week, we return to talking about what is going on a few miles away at the Walt Disney World Resort. Please post any questions or comments you have about the Universal Orlando Resort, and maybe I will continue to post some news stories about this theme park.

Spring Break! Part 1

I'm sorry for not posting a blog last week, but I was busy doing something more important; visiting Walt Disney World! Last week was my Spring Break and I went to Orlando, Florida with my friends. While we were in Orlando, we were able to visit the Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Universal Studios and the Islands of Adventure. I was very excited to get my feet back on to Disney property and also enjoyed being able to see what Universal Studios theme park had to offer. Over the next few weeks I am going to be highlighting events from this trip in a series of posts.

When we arrived in Orlando we were greeted with warm and sunny weather with only one day in our forecast calling for rain. Since we hadn't visited the Universal theme parks, we decided that we would visit Universal Studios first. We rushed into the theme park quickly to get on as many rides as possible, but also tried to enjoy this new experience as much as possible. Revenge of the Mummy, Jaws, ET Adventure and the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit were among our favorite attractions at Universal Studios. The majority of the rides at this theme park were thrill rides as opposed to the more relaxing rides at Walt Disney World.

As we all know, Walt Disney World is known for the cleanliness of its parks and I was on a mission to see if Universal theme parks were comparable. I took a survey of the entire park and felt that it was pretty comparable and have to give Universal some credit for being able to keep up with Disney World. I did feel that some of the Universal attractions' queuing lines were similar to those in Disney World in the late 70's and 80's that did not offer much to do or look at while in them.

I hope that you enjoyed this look at Universal Studios theme park and please comment or ask any questions that you may have. Tune in next week for another look at an awesome Spring Break!