Nothing too groundbreaking today, just some more pictures of Universal Orlando. This time, we're park-hopping over to Universal Studios Florida.
Here are the iconic glove and archway. Needless to say, I was pretty awe-struck seeing this for the first time.
Transformers: The Ride - Even with my limited experience, I've been able to get on all three rides that use this ride system. I somehow even rode
Curse of DarKastle at Busch Gardens Williamsburg in the last year of its operation. Transformers is by far my least favorite of the three. If I hadn't used the Single Rider Line and had waited in the normal queue, I would've been very disappointed. It's not the worst ride on Universal property, though!
Diagon Alley was another area that was jaw-dropping to see.
Escape from Gringotts, the area's main attraction, was solid, too! I really enjoy the Harry Potter books and have read them multiple times, but have still only seen one of the movies. Not sure how that works out...
The Simpsons Ride was fun, but not really that repeatable. I would've loved to ride Back to the Future when it was here!
Here's "Hollywood Boulevard," an area that can be found in both Disney's Hollywood Studios and Universal Studios. In this vicinity is the Horror Make-Up Show, which was a very good time. That building at the end of the street used to house Terminator 2: 3D, but it closed a year before I visited.
Universal Studios Florida was a ton of fun, but it is a "studios park," so I think that Islands of Adventure has a slight edge in my book.
6 comments:
I've never been to Universal Orlando. From what I've seen online, Islands of Adventure looks more my style as well.
From pics I've seen plus this one, "Diagon Valley" looks super fantastic! Isn't "Diagon Alley" and "World of Harry Potter" connected by a train of some sort? I think it's cool that the same theme is shared by two theme parks next to each other. Very unusual.
Thanks, Andrew.
The Harry Potter areas are some of the best themed areas, anywhere! I would have loved to spend more time there. And yes, the "Hogwarts Express" connects the two parks' Potter-themed areas. It's a good way to try to convince people to upgrade to a "park-hopper" ticket.
I know the Spider Man ride at IOA uses the same ride system as Transformers. What is the third ride that uses that system? After riding Spider Man, I was a little disappointed in the Transformers ride. Like you said, it's not the worst ride, but I thought Spider Man was so much better.
The third ride is Curse of DarKastle, which was at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia from 2005 to 2017. I got to ride once it in its last year, but I wish I had gone on it more than one time!
For me, it was the other way around - I rode Transformers first, so I was even more astounded at Spider-Man.
Wow, so Busch Gardens had an attraction that used the same ride system, but it only operated for 12 years? I wonder why they would get rid of something like that?
It was an amazing ride, but that fact was probably what ultimately resulted in its downfall. Apparently SeaWorld was looking for easy ways to cut costs - DarKastle was a very complex ride with a ton of special effects that I guess they didn't feel was crucial to the park. The day I rode it, the park was pretty empty, but it still struck me of how the queue for the ride was completely deserted. I guess I should've taken that as a sign...
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