Chiselphane

Thanks for making me fall in love with Universal Orlando all over again. Stunning pictures.

It is optional....but most of us mid-westerners are too polite to not take the picture...lol. I too hope it goes away....I'm guessing it might take a season or two before it's gone. Saw I lot of people with those pics running around the park. I don't think it is a too polite thing. I think most of them think it is mandatory. The attendants don't ask "would you like to take a picture?" They instead ask "how many?" Then they direct you where to stand. Universal does the same thing at Gringotts, the photo op has the appearance of something mandatory but a firm-yet-polite "No thank you" will suffice. And it does play havoc with the lines to a degree there as well. SDC has done that on a couple of the cave tours I've taken, now that I think on it; sometimes they'll have a photo op at the bottom of the big cave and present it as something you should do rather than could do.

I'd recommend watching the show either way. But it feels like it'll be an attraction that you'd get a lot more out of if you had some familiarity with it.

Not sure about SW, but SE is this week, albeit probably a bit shortened for most due to some ice days. I don't think it has much if any impact on attendance though, but FYI just in case.

Do you know what year that picture of the strip was taken? That's incredible

I'm sorry if it came off as a complaint, it was just meant as an observation, especially since it seemed so different compared to my previous visits. We certainly weren't complaining about walking on to the Hulk on a busy park day! Actually this was one of the better times I've had at any park that's busy, normally big crowds will put me right off. A large part of that was it was the first visit for most of my family, we took my mom there for a 70th birthday gift and she was so happy! Still rides coasters too, the on-board video on Rip Ride Rockit had us nearly in tears laughing.

We went to the park this past Monday (2/5) and it was more crowded than I expected but not enough to really ruin the day. One thing that quickly stood out to me though is the wait time estimators at the ride entrances were much less accurate than they've been for me in the past. We had numerous instances of a 20 min wait ending up being a walk on and on others, that 20 min wait being over twice that amount. Just thought it was a little strange, every other time I've been to the park they've been pretty spot on for time. The Jurassic Park river ride was closed off which was a minor disappointment, I absolutely love the T-Rex animatronic. Also it felt like they've eased up a bit on how strict they were as to bringing stuff on the rides, that may just be luck though but we didn't use the lockers nearly as much as previously and that had no impact on riding.

Same boat for me. I've even gotten queasy on the Merry Go Round. But I have no trouble with spinning coasters so I'm praying that will hold up for Time Traveler.

We go to the City Museum at least a couple times a year. If you get an opportunity to sign up for their sleepovers, DO IT. Taking the already incredible experience and adding free run of the place in the middle of the night is just beyond words. You haven't lived until you've watched the sun come up while sitting underneath a giant metal praying mantis. We're going to another sleepover in January so unfortunately the roof won't be open but everything else will be, weather permitting for Monstro of course. They include dinner and breakfast, and project movies on the side of the whale all night.

We have to pass going this year due to finances so thanks for rubbing salt in the wound! It's such an incredible time to visit the park. No exaggeration in that some of our best family memories are at SDC in November; the first time my daughter rode Outlaw Run was at night during the festival and it just doesn't get any better than that.

So tired of this trend of Fake Nips

Diagon Alley ,without question.

Forgive me if it's been brought up but have they ever given a justification for the policy? Logically I would think the intent is to increase throughput, we've all seen people floundering at removing their stuff at the station, but applying logic to Universal's decisions of late is probably not a winning strategy. I do get there's always THAT PERSON who has shit flying out their pockets but it just seems punishing to people with a modicum of intelligence. On my most recent visit there a few months ago, there was a guy loudly arguing with the Dragon Challenge detector attendant about how his phone was in a zippered pocket. I actually had forgotten to put mine away too so I turned back before dealing with it and good grief that was a LONG walk back to the lockers from where they have the detector set up. And then allll the way back up the line again. Never mind there was a constant stream of foot traffic from all the people being turned back. Never mind that DC's storage area is (was) the worst arrangement in the park, IMO.

That reminds me, here is a picture of a guy I met at the park the other day. Really nice fellow.

What would be really cool is if Universal released the video portions in some format. As a fan of the films I really dug the Cyberdyne commercial, it gave them more depth than the films portrayed.

I actually chuckled out loud at this! Seems like something I would do. Does that mean that the leopards had to be spotted as well? No, silly. Everyone knows leopards are black, but the zoos have to paint them yellow so they stand out. But they always skimp out on the paint so some black still shows through.

I have to admit, a lot of Universal's recent decisions have me worried about how the Nintendo area is going to turn out. I'm sure it will be great on a visual level but the actual attractions are a toss-up, I think. Hopefully N's attention to quality will help. I suppose worst case there will at least be some great merch, which I have an apparent genetic weakness for.

Yeah I have extremely fond memories of that sky ride, those gondolas were make out city in the late 80s. I mean I mostly rode them alone but...

Wow, they really did a nice job theming Whistle Punk Chaser. Nice pictures! Yes Ernie these are great. Few things will endear me to a park faster than when they take what could easily just be an 'off the shelf' children's ride and instead put some thought and effort into it to make it special.

Yeah, the line situation that would be created by different car types seems the type of pain in the butt that SDC would be happy to avoid. I'm sure most if not all of us posting here have seen it elsewhere; even parks with clearly delineated lines complete with attendants still get bottlenecks of people trying to figure out where to go.

I keep telling myself after living in Missouri for 6 years now, I'm immune to surprise at the lengths people here will go in order to avoid walking yet they still find a way. I swear if SDC came up with a way to charge for a shorter *distance* line, not necessarily shorter *wait* time, they'd make a fortune.

My only complaint about RRR is I wish the music was a bit louder. I don't know if I''ve just always had bad luck with seats but I can never hear much of the song I select over the noise of the ride, and that seems to defeat the purpose. Such problems I can live with, though.

TN is generally first or second week of August. We here in MO are mostly 2nd week, my kids start Aug 10. I dont know offhand what the states closer to Dollywood start at but seems likely to be a similar time frame.

Sean's correct. While you might get an op that will let 5 slide by, official raft max capacity is 4. Our sole visit to WhiteWater we were turned down for five of us in the raft. There's certainly enough space for 5, especially children, so I could definitely see a more lax op letting it happen. And considering how lackluster and inattentive the staff was in the rest of the park on our visit I was pretty surprised they even bothered! We don't intend on returning, it was so overpriced for a water park that is on the small size of things and poorly run at that.

I moved to Missouri a few years ago and the first time I discovered a cicada, it was while taking out the garbage and I inadvertently kicked one sitting on the ground. The noise is just indescribable. It startled me so badly I swear I was channeling Michael Jackson with the moves I was making, holding two garbage bags no less. I can't even imagine one striking one mid-ride, they are pretty big and very solid.