Florida 01/26 – Epic Universe + Universal Studios
Day 7
Not much to report here, had a lazy morning as we’d pretty much run out of things to do that didn’t include standing in a 2 hour queue for something already done.
Afternoon rolled around and we went back to
Epic Universe
to see the dragon show, Untrainable. I’d seen it before in Beijing so knew what to expect. And it was what was expected, very good, but then they skipped Toothless at the end for technical reasons or something.
Can’t remember exactly what happened next, more procrastinating out of silent protest to the park and then left again most likely. $30 parking just to see an old show.
The weather had gone really weird once more, with another massive drop in temperature expected overnight and some pretty high winds, so general consensus was that everything outdoors was going to close for the next 24 hours or so.
Epic Universe
Expecting this to quieten things down substantially, and maybe steal our final lap on a broken stardust racers, went back in again to find it closed for weather instead of course.
The park was deadening however, as guests had suffered the 3 attractions available and then decided to run for shelter. Battle at the Ministry had hit an all time low and I had had a few days to recover from the potential fever dream. Probably still took about 90 minutes in the end, but it was worth it for the comedy.
My fear that I had misinterpreted any of the moments that split my sides was extinguished. If anything it elevated the experience even further by having them affirmed. I must not tell lies.
The park wasn’t far off closing, but threw a random curveball in Hiccup’s Wing Gliders reopening as a walk-on for the final 30 minutes. We grabbed a cheeky lap in the now bitter cold, but it had great vibes in the dark and is a fantastic family attraction, when you can walk on it.
Then, wanting to spice life up a little and pretend we’d got our moneys worth, we power-walked to Mario Kart with 5 mins left on the clock. Not because it was good, but because it was open.
Again the true walk-on experience enhanced the pacing, and I opted not to shoot this time, just soak up the vibes. S’alright that way, less chaotic but a little lacking in cohesive stimulation.
And then we left.
Day 8
Failed logic had dictated we leave this park until the final day. Most chance of the Mummy reopening earlier than stated. Most ‘indoor’ park for the day when everything outdoors was expected to be closed.
This park simply sucks right now.
Universal Studios
Sadly couldn’t resist walking into the Minions Villain Con travelator thing immediately before it got any queue, as it was a new ‘experience’. You collect a hefty gun and then stand on a spot, moving slowly past some shooty scene screens.
They managed to break a moving floor about a minute in, so we had a good 10 minutes looping the same sequence over and over again while everyone’s arms got tired from the heavy guns and bored because it’s simply not an engaging attraction.
Started back up again, no one cared, waited for it to end and left. Ew.
Then headed to the back of the park to try and double down on the Harry Potter humour. I had almost entirely forgotten what Escape from Gringotts was like beyond a bad story and the sentiment of ‘I’d quite like to try the ‘coaster’ again though’.
Shouldn’t have bothered, the comedy was gone. Queue is such a drag, so I guess Forbidden Journey is the best at that. Bill Weasley gives an unconvincing performance in a pre-show, then on-board the audio was really quiet so we couldn’t even hear the stellar dialogue. It makes no sense for big V to show up in this one, say something funny, then that same problem again – ‘I’m going to kill you with my wand now’. Could have done it in an instant, fluffs it up by licking the air and being creepy instead.
Harry intervenes out of character and power scaling, then what happened to the ‘coaster’? On my one previous attempt it had managed to lull me into a false sense of the technology being quite cool at least. Nothing happened at all that gave me that impression this time around, it failed on every level. Then the lockers are bad.
Oh yeah, the lockers are bad in this park, we were reminded again at Men in Black, immediately needing to use them again. It broke down for about 10 minutes while we queued. Then we rode it. I like it, couldn’t seem to score very well, but I like it. The spinning is pretty intense if you get hit in a duelling section. A technology that needs bringing back to a modern dark ride for sure, this thing is old now. And as soon as we left it went down for the day.
Half the park was closed in fact, including many, many of the indoor attractions that were supposed to be saving the day. The hogwarts train, MIB, ET, fast n furious, villain con, the Mummy of course, most insultingly of all, down. It’s not a good attraction lineup to begin with, particularly with the recent death of RIP Rocket, but this really drove the point home. Gringotts up to 3 hours, 90 for a Transformers clone I’ve done 100 times or a Minions clone I’ve done once. Don’t like Jimmy Fallon or the Simpsons ride. Time to leave already eh?
Had some bad food in city walk while waiting for something, anything to miraculously reopen and somehow save our day. All the Universals were suffering the same fate and salvation never came, so we left again to monitor the depressing situation from the warmth and comfort of a hotel room.
Islands of Adventure
Nighttime came and the coasters of IoA limped back into life. We had one more ‘dying hour’ card to play, so we played it on Velocicoaster.
Picture this, but dark.
This was about the only thing to go better than expected and pretty much saved the day on some levels. What should have been an hour queue for the dying hour ended up around 35 minutes. Then 15 minutes. Then walk on. Finally, after a full week, we had managed one more fill of multiple laps of a kick ass Universal coaster and it was back to kicking ass mode, somehow. Definitely wasn’t warm, maybe I was more disheveled to compensate but the speed and power of the elements that were lacking on our single lap, days before, had returned to what I had been considering their former glory. It’s a firm ‘not quite top 25 for me these days, but I love it anyway’.
Then we tried to push our luck and drove to Epic for their dying hour, hoping for a single side of Stardust to do the same. Sat in the car, staring at where the on-board lights should have been moving. Lightning didn’t strike twice. And now the Stardust situation is even worse! We count our blessings for that first day, every day.