On our second Universal day, we went to Universal Studios Florida. Similar to Islands of Adventure, the park is situated around a lake, making navigation fairly easy. Some of the areas do extend further back from the lake, opening up a little opportunity to get turned around in the streets of New York and Minion Land, but overall it is still really well laid out.
We decided to head counter-clockwise in this park, but this time it was not a ride calling our names but a character. As we peered down the streets of Hollywood, we spotted none other than Bart and Homer Simpson. Who can resist a photo op with the Simpsons?
Our first ride was a tame one, E.T. Adventure. While nostalgic for parents, I actually can’t believe this ride is still there. The 35 year old animatronics are really dated and I’m guessing the average kid today hasn’t even heard of E.T. Still, it’s a good in-between ride for younger kids – dark so a little more “daring” for kids who want more than Trollercoaster but not intense like any of the true thrill rides.
From there, we were excited to spot Squidward in SpongeBob Storepants and Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey across the way in their swamp. I had not expected the kids to want to take pictures with any characters on this trip, but they were surprisingly into the Universal characters.
We wandered around DreamWorks Land for a while, especially enjoying Po’s Kung Fu Training Camp, with its Pond of Perpetual Wetness and Laundry of Ultimate Cleanliness. And we appreciated the Skadoosh ushering us to the exit. We were big fans of Kung Fu Panda when the kids were little.
But obviously for a family of Simpson’s fans, nothing could compare to what came up next… Springfield! I mean, they had a Moe’s! And a Kwik-E-Mart! How can you beat that? Very true to the town, it was fun to walk around and see all the iconic places and characters.
After tons of photo ops and enjoying a Lard Lad Donut, we checked out The Simpson’s Ride. A 3D motion simulation ride, the vehicle physically moves in place to match the on-screen action. When Sideshow Bob hijacks the vehicle, things got chaotic and a little rougher than I would have preferred. The ride was a little herky-jerky but the story was entertaining. All in all, we gave the ride two thumbs up for the Simpsons characters, the story, and the humor.
Men in Black Alien Attack was up next. A shooting game like Toy Story Midway Mania or Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, this was fun and different from the other rides we had done at Universal so far.
Next up we visited the other side The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley. Much like all the other lands in Universal’s parks, Diagon Alley is very true to the movie. Stores for Quidditch supplies, spell books, and disastrous delights lined the streets, all leading to the main attraction in the alley, Gringotts Bank. The bank sits at the end of the street, with a dragon perched on its turret. We wondered what the stir was when everybody started milling around in the street in front of it, and we quickly found out… every 15 minutes or so the dragon breathes fire!
After feeling the heat from the fire-breathing dragon, we headed into the bank to ride Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts. The bank’s lobby serves as the entrance to the ride, and as with all of the Harry Potter rides, the queue is not to be missed. Escape from Gringotts is a hybrid roller coaster, dark ride, and 3D motion simulator. With an initial sudden drop into darkness and several high speed maneuvers, the roller coaster aspect of the ride is fairly tame and comes in spurts. Your cart transports you from scene to scene, where the storyline unfolds on high tech 3D projection screens in front of you. The technology behind each scene and the excitement of getting there makes this one of the top rides at Universal.
From there we headed to Fast & Furious – Supercharged, a simulated car chase ride. Not fans of the movies, this ride was sort of lost on us. The simulation effects were just ok and the party bus storyline just didn’t speak to us. This is not one we would do again.
Next up was yet another motion simulation ride (I’m sensing a theme here in Universal Studios) – Transformers: The Ride 3D. Again, we were never really into Transformers but we did really enjoy seeing the robots outside the ride (both statue and “live”). The ride itself was starting to feel predictable at this point – I was feeling motion simulation ride-d out. This was actually one of the better ones but at this point I was sort of over these rides and since I didn’t relate to Transformers, I didn’t love it.
And continuing on with the string of motion simulator rides with themes that I wasn’t invested in, we rode Race Through NY Starring Jimmy Fallon next and were not impressed. After that we rode Revenge of the Mummy. It was not a motion simulator ride, but it was another ride about a movie I didn’t see (or care to see). This was basically a dark roller coaster and although I enjoyed it more than the previous few motion simulation rides, it still didn’t do much for me.
At this point, it felt like our interest was fading pretty fast. We made the decision to skip Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem. Because we actually know and like the Minion movies, in retrospect I would have skipped some of the others and rode this one instead. But we were set on doing all the rides in order around the circle and didn’t know we’d burn out by the time we got to Minion Land. We did enjoy seeing the mischievous minions scattered throughout the area though.
We decided to give one last ride a shot and went on Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. A legitimate (not simulated), outdoor, heart-thumping roller coaster, Rip Ride RockIt starts off with a 17 story ascent followed by an almost complete vertical drop. Lots of twists, turns and loops follow, and we were happy to end with a solid thrill ride. The ride wasn’t as smooth as some of their other coasters, but after so many motion simulation rides, I was just happy to be in actual motion.
Overall we enjoyed our day at Universal Studios Florida, but found Islands of Adventure to be much more exciting. Surprisingly, our favorite part of this park was the characters and the theming. We enjoyed the DreamWorks area and absolutely loved exploring Springfield. Diagon Alley was also great (although I think we liked Hogsmeade slightly better). We found this park to rely too heavily on motion simulation rides. Islands of Adventure seemed to have a better balance of traditional thrill rides and motion simulation rides. I’m not sure there are any rides at Universal Studios Florida that would draw me back in for another visit.
