Jumboshrmp Posted August 8, 2006 Posted August 8, 2006 On August 4-7, my family went on a short vacation to Orlando, to visit the Universal parks, using our Florida resident Seasonal Passes. However, there was a side trip before we visited the parks the next day... We arrived in Orlando on Friday afternoon. We stopped by an outlet mall, and I took pictures of random things of interest. The only notable thing was the Disney Store, which was selling Universal and Nickelodeon merchandise as well. We drove past Kraken, and I wished I was able to ride it. I also saw a screamin’ Swing in front of Skull Kingdom, which looked like it could only hold about 4 people. After stopping by the hotel (we got the exact same room as last time), we went to Old town to get my first (and only new) credit of the trip. Windstorm, a Zamperla coaster built and transferred to the Florida from Italy in 1997, would be my 30th coaster. It didn’t look like much. In fact, I judged it to be a kiddie coaster. Boy, was I wrong. It was pretty bumpy, but there were only lapbars, and the sides of the cars were well padded. Windstorm has banked turns up to 80 degrees and is 50 feet tall, but has a nice hill and a couple of really scary spiraling drops. It cost $5 to ride, and I only rode it once, but it was worth it. Next day, I went to Universal Studios first thing, and rode the Revenge of the Mummy, first thing, since it was my sister’s first time, and I was afraid if I didn’t get her on it, she would chicken out. After that, we rushed over to Islands of Adventure I changed into my swimming suit, and I headed towards the water rides. I had never been on either Dudley Do Right’s Ripsaw Falls or Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge Rat Barges, so I was quite excited to ride. They were both better than expected, and to my surprise, I enjoyed the Popeye river raft ride more. But be warned, you have to WANT to get soaked in order to enjoy this ride. Otherwise, it's just miserable. I would have hated this ride if I rode in normal clothes, and wasn't expecting to get wet. We got stopped on the lift for about 20 seconds, and we all laughed as the guy next to me had water dumped on him for the entire time. After that, I split up from the rest of my Family, and went off to ride the coasters. I went over to Dueling Dragons first, rode several times, and got a few front row rides on both sides. I had always declared Fire as my favorite, however, I noticed that in my opinion, Ice gives a better front seat ride than Fire does, but Fire Dragon seems to be more fun in any seat. I rode the Hulk 4 times during the trip, and I found it to be slighlty less interesting and exciting, compared to Dueling Dragons. However, I did have an interesting experience on the Hulk. I was waiting in line, unusally long wait, but worth it in the end. They came over the intercom while I was waiting in line, telling people that normal operation of the Incredible Hulk may be suspended due to inclement weather, but there was no lightning, and it was not raining yet. I got in the train, and they sent us out into the launch tube, we took off, and once we got to the cobra roll, I started to notice drops of water falling off the train. Once we got to the part where the track spirals around the lift, I realized it was raining. We were moving faster than the rain, so I could focus on single drops of rain while riding. I got a little wet, but it was really fun.... Until they held us on the brake run outside the station for a little under a minute. But riding a coaster in the rain is sure one fun experience. I also got to ride the incredible Hulk Coaster at night. Some pretty neat effects in the launch tunnel, but the park was still lit up pretty well in that area, so it wasn't dark enough to make the ride much different. On the first night, I headed over to Un iversal to see the new fireworks show Universal 360. It was pretty neat, there were fireworks, and a bunch of famous movie clips projected onto giant spheres, as well as some amazing lazer effects and projections onto the buildings all around the park. However, if you have one night at the Universal Orlando resort, and you have to choose between watching Universal 360, or riding in the front seat of Dueling Dragons in the dark, go for Dueling Dragons. My last ride of the trip was Dueling Dragons, in the back seat of fire, and it was great. Much better than riding the Hulk at night, because this area of the park has much less lighting, and the ride is over a lake, in it's own area of the park surrounded by trees. It was my favorite ride of the trip, and a great way to end. However, I have to call out Universal on this. Normally, Dueling Dragons has an outstanding capacity, 3 trains of 32 people on each track. But in the last hour that the park was open, they were running one train. This one train operation made the line move VERY slowly, especially with the Express pass line cutting in front of us, since there was no employee stationed at the merge point to direct the proper number of guests in at a time. However, in the end, amazing night time ride was worth the 45 minute wait (the posted time was 10 minutes, which is the usual wait time for most of the day, but incorrect with one train operation). My total ride count for the weekend: Incredible Hulk Coaster: 4 (and a ride at night with some neat effects in the Gamma Tube, aka launch tunnel) Dueling Dragons Fire: 10 (including 1 front seat ride, and 1 very awesome ride in the very back seat in the dark) Dueling Dragons Ice: 7 (including 3 amazing front seat rides) The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man: 4 Jurassic Park River Adventure: 3 Dudley Do Right's Ripsaw Falls: 1 Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges: 1 Doctor Doom's FearFall: 3 Revenge of the Mummy: 2 Pteranodon Flyers: 0 ( I STILL have never been on this ride, due to lines always being 90+ minutes). And now , here are the pictures! And I will end my trip report with this picture of Ice Dragon's Giant turnaround. Finally, I'll add two pictures I took, from a parking lot behind Dueling Dragons. It's a really cool place to get some unique pictures. Here is an angle of the drops you usually don't get to see. And here is a random Screamin' Swing, placed out by the side of the road by Skull Kingdom. This is what happenbs when you forget to include the non IOA Pictures first... So yeah, here was this neato coaster at Old Town called Windstorm This soda machine artwork was really cool. No caption needed. I'm sure you've heard about the great queue line for Dueling Dragons, and don't need to see pictures. But I noticed yesterday, that even the Fire Extinguisher door is themed! Luckily, for most of the day, I was able to use the Re-Ride line. This is an ingenious invention! But the wait was worth it, and the ride was beautiful at night. This is what the inside of the station looks like most of the time, when the ride ops are doing one train operation This girl is all "It's totally a credit". Liars I hate when people run in front of the camera when I take pictures. Everyone behind me was getting impatient, so I didn't take any more, fearing the wrath of the angry tourist. If you've never seen the trains on Dueling Dragons before, heres a crappy picture showing the neat theming. The front rows have pink restraints, because it is the inside of the dragon's mouth. I took this picture while I was stopped on the lift hill. Yep. They were mis-dueling the trains all day. I felt bad for the first-timers, but it was pretty neat getting stuck up at the top of the lift hill on Ice, and getting to watch Fire go around the track. How about this one? Can you spot the problem? I arrived at Dueling Dragons, but something was not right. What's wrong with this picture? Next, I headed towards Dueling Dragons, but I had to pass under this ride, which I had still never been on. You tell me if it's a credit, then I'll decide whether it's worth the 90 minute wait. This bird reminds me of the vultures in Splash Mountain Dudley Do Right's Ripsaw Falls had literally no wait first thing in the morning. Even though it was 95 degrees. Finally! I'm at Islands of Adventure. I only had to walk 5 miles to get there. Next, I passed by the Jumboshrmp Restaurant and Market (I wanted to Photoshop it to say that, but I'm too lazy at the moment, maybe I'll do it later). CityWalk. It sure feels like you have to walk across an entire city to get to your car with your tired feet at the end of the day.
knottslover77 Posted August 8, 2006 Posted August 8, 2006 Love it! How long was the line for DD, really. --Jay
Hattuchili Posted August 8, 2006 Posted August 8, 2006 Nice PTR. When I see all the pictures, then I want to go back to Universal! Maybe in the next days or weeks! Anyway, I am glad you had a good time! --Sören
CD Posted August 8, 2006 Posted August 8, 2006 The wait was 45 min (like said above) Read the whole post before asking questions.
Jumboshrmp Posted August 8, 2006 Author Posted August 8, 2006 I forgot to include my rodent picture. I always like to stop at Downtown Disney before going home, to get a little bit of Disney no matter were I spend most of my time. They have this new room at the World of Disney SHop called the Adventure room. It has an Animatronic Pirate. A rodent Pirate In the Adventure room at the World of Disney Store at Downtown Disney. You can see the Pirate's knee, Mater (from the movie Cars) on a poster in the background, and I just noticed , the rodent is holding a Tinkerbell
rcoasters Posted August 8, 2006 Posted August 8, 2006 Great TR ! I really laughed at the actual Bench : The Ride
GURZU Posted August 8, 2006 Posted August 8, 2006 Great photos!! The trains in Dueling Dragons aren´t sincronized. Look when the blue train up loop, the red train is in the lift...
obeygiant Posted August 8, 2006 Posted August 8, 2006 Great pics! Were the waits for all the rides long, or was it just fir DD and Hulk?
Jumboshrmp Posted August 8, 2006 Author Posted August 8, 2006 Great pics!Were the waits for all the rides long, or was it just fir DD and Hulk? The wait for hulk was never longer than 35 minutes, but it's not THAT good of a ride compared to some of the other B&M sit down coasters (like Kumba and Dragon Khan). Dueling Dragons was a 45 minute wait only for a little while. Most of the time, I was able to walk on and continue using the Re-Ride line and not have to wait. Spiderman had the longest lines, up to 75 minutes, which is why I only got to ride it 4 times. I only ride when the single rider line is open, and it was closed 90% of the time. Jurassic Park, Dudley, and Popeye, (the water rides) came up to around 60 minutes during the middle of the day, but were walk on in the morning and around the evening.
Jumboshrmp Posted August 8, 2006 Author Posted August 8, 2006 ^were those waits w/ express? No, those were the avergae Stand By wait times that I saw posted on the main signs outside the attractions. I never have (and never will) use Universal Express, especially since the waits are usually always manageable if you plan ahead. Like I said, I was able to ride both sides of Dueling Dragons combined 17 times in only two days, plus, it was the weekend.
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