u/TheTrashBulldog

I've had the opportunity to take a 12 day vacation down to Orlando and see the other side of the Wonderful World of Universal. I went in with a completely different mindset but even this didn't fully prepare me for the completely different vibe and experience that Universal Orlando was.

To start us off, everything was MASSIVE. Walking paths, roads, queues, restaurants, distances. Security seemed to be a tad bit more efficient at getting guests through the screening checkpoints, especially considering the amount of guests Orlando gets compared to Hollywood. Citywalk in Orlando is more or less a giant circle around the lake whereas in Hollywood its a small strip sandwhiched between parking garages and backstage areas of the park. The dining and shopping options however are mostly the same on either version of Citywalk though. Also Universal Express is done very much differently in Orlando than it is in Hollywood. In the West Coast we still use the old plastic handouts with bar codes to grant express access, while Orlando uses facial recognition technology which I found to be surprising. The system though isn't perfect and has its bugs at times, but overall it's very effective at cutting back abuse.

Hotel: Cabana Bay Beach Resort

This jointly managed property between Universal and the Loews Hotel Co. has been themed remarkably well down to the last screw. The 1950's post World War II aesthetic created a unique vibe that hasn't been done in any large resort that I know of to this day. The customer service was superb and went above and beyond even my own high expectations for Universal, even with a serious error on their behalf at the start of our stay. Needless to say our issue was fixed and even comped extra generously. Our room was in the Continental Building (Got a Suite to have a dedicated Dining Area and Living Room) and the corridors were very clean and well lit. For the price paid I was very satisfied with the room size, the view, and quality. The beds were very comfy and the separate living room area made it easy to take video calls when needed while not disturbing a sleeping relative if needed.

Room service calls via the text system allowed me to request towels or more soap bars relatively quickly and conveniently. With its two large pools, water slide, lazy river, and adjacent entrance to Volcano Bay, we ended up getting the maximum mileage of water attractions and pools in general. The Bayliner Diner has a wider menu than I initially thought and I was overall impressed with not just the variety, but the quality of the food they served (A separate post about the Food Reviews of this trip will be made soon). In events of inclement weather (which happened often during our trip), the entire hotel seemed to provide numerous backup entertainment options as well for all ages. The arcade was decently sized and provided good variety of games. As a professional bowler, I was thoroughly impressed and fell in love with the 1950's themed Brunswick Crown Galaxy Bowl. Unfortunately, since I didn't bring my gear with me I did not make use of the lanes and therefore can't comment on the quality of the experience. I will say though that the price for bowling per person was steep ($20 per person and if it was only one person you got 40 minutes, not even an hour) I did make good use of the pool table though in the lounge area of the alley.

Theme Park 1: Universal Studios Florida

The classic of the four parks, also the one that started it all in the Orlando area. We did this park as our first one to warm ourselves up for the rest of Orlando's parks by starting off with many of the classics we are familiar with. From the entrance it was clear that this park was trying to emulate being in a film lot with soundstages, although overall the theme seemed kind of inconsistent as one went through the different areas of the park (World Expo, Springfield, Minions Land, etc). With that being said, it was really nice to see some of the attractions we have over in Hollywood done just a bit differently (Mummy, Transformers, Minion Mayhem, Simpsons). I will say that the Orlando version of the Mummy is a better themed version than what we have over in Hollywood. E.T was a favorite of mine in this park as I never got the chance to experience this ride when it existed over in the West Coast. Despite it being older, I consider it a classic and hope to see it stick around for years to come. Men in Black Alien Attack was initially down for a refurb but I managed to come back to it via the Hogwarts Express once it came back and was really well themed as well as very fun to play. I enjoyed this one more than Minion Blast when it came to choosing something to escape the heat mainly since the instructions were easier to follow than with Minion Blast. Race through New York was also a whacky ride that I've seen get a lot flack around here but I ended up actually enjoying it's cheesy nature more than I had anticipated mainly because this ride seems to kind of poke fun at itself and how bad it is. (Unlike the other bad simulator that takes itself too seriously) Ultimately we skipped Supercharged because its simply an awful attraction and it's very insulting that this is what they gave Floridians after closing down Earthquake/Disaster. Instead of Supercharged we did Escape From Gringott's which although it was another simulator, the high level of theming was very nice as is expected of anything Harry Potter within Universal's Parks. Overall Universal Studios Florida Scored a solid 9/10 in my book.

Theme Park 2: Universal Islands of Adventure

For our second day we opted to explore Universal's Second Gate. From the moment we stepped through the gates into the Port of Entry, I immediately felt myself immersed in a different world unlike in the Classic Universal park. The best part of this entire park for me has to be Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. The long wait even with Express made this ride absolutely worth the hassle and I got the chance of doing it two times, one in the front row and one in the very back row. Be advised though that I highly recommend NOT riding the front row in the late afternoon as you'll have flies and mosquitos going splat in your face as you speed through the Forbidden Forest. Forbidden Journey here is the original version and it's very noticeable as the hydraulic systems on all the KUKA arms and effects are jerkier and the benches ride rougher than in the Hollywood version. Flight of the Hippogriff proved to be the same as on the West Coast, and that is uncomfortable and very painful for anyone over 6' tall (The Lap bar barely closed on my due to my height). During this time I rode the Hogwarts Express back to Universal Studios to catch Men in Black as when we went to Universal the first time it was still down for refurbishment. I really liked the detailed storytelling of making it seem like you're traveling not just on a train but through the Wizarding World itself. While not a big attraction, I enjoyed riding this because back home the Hogwarts Express is just a static set piece. Jurrasic Park was down and so was the Pteradactyl Flyers, but Velocicoaster was a blast and another attraction that lived up to the hype. Kong Skull Island was the tram segment I am so familiar with plus some extra scenes and more backstory which I actually enjoyed, the highlight though was the full sized Kong animatronic at the end. This brought me back memories of the original Kong we had in Hollywood before he burned down in 2008. In Toon Lagoon both Popeye's Bilge Rat Barges and Dudley Do Right's Ripsaw Falls got us extremely wet head to toe but were both extremely fun. Both of these attractions have a very long layout which surprised me compared to the other log flumes and raft rapids I've been on. Marvel Superhero Island was a shocker as despite being older, its comic book aesthetic made it look more vibrant and better themed than Avenger's Parking Lot Campus in Disney California Adventure. The Spiderman Ride despite utilizing the same system as Transformers ended up scoring high on my list due to its use of practical effects like fire and moving set pieces. It is without a doubt that Universal's 20 year old Spiderman attraction is a far superior experience to Web Flingers or whatever that thing Disneyland built is called. Incredible Hulk is also a very underrated coaster in my opinion that even though Hagrid's and Velocicoaster get all the hype, Hulk shouldn't be overlooked either. Finally, Suess's Landing provided lots of fun for the kids in our group who couldn't enjoy the other rides. The Trolley in the Sky and the Cat in the Hat dark ride all had a certain kitschy charm to them that reminded me of the Fantasyland Dark rides at Disneyland. Overall Islands of Adventure scored a 10/10 in my book.

Theme Park 3: Volcano Bay

Getting to experience this park was initially looking iffy at best as during our rest days between Universal and Islands of Adventure we had severely terrible thunderstorms in the afternoon. We rescheduled our tickets in order to avoid a weather closure and found guest services to very much accommodating. As a result of the rescheduling, we were able to grab up tickers for Volcano Bay Nights. Up until now my experience with waterparks has been limited to waterslides and pools on a huge concrete pad, so I was really taken a back by the great theming this park had. Since we stayed at the Cabana Bay, we walked to the park and were inside in a matter of minutes. Universal really outdid themselves with the theming by making this park more than just an ordinary Waterpark. This park also has the most vegetation out of all of the parks through the walkways. I did enjoy the high frequency of the wave pool compared to Knott's Soak City where it seemed waves came every 40 minutes. TeAwA was a solid experience that ended up being my favorite as it took the ordinary lazy river concept to an entire new level (I also appreciated being able to float down a river without my knees and ankles dragging and scraping the bottom). At a close tie with TeAwA was the Krakatau Aqua Coaster for best experiences in the park. The rest of the waterslides were not much different than what you'd find in most Waterparks but I will say that once again, the heavy theming and ambience made them stand out more despite being more or less the usual waterpark attractions. The park at night looks absolutely gorgeous with the colors lighting up the pools adding a lovely mystical vibe to it. My family took advantage of the live DJ dance party while I decided to do all the rides and slides numerous times in the nearly empty park. The free snacks (Garlic Parmesan popcorn and Blue Raspberry Churro bites) and souvenir cup were a nice touch for a barely noticeable increase in admission price. As mentioned earlier, the food quality here exceeded my expectations as well. Overall Volcano Bay earned a 10/10.

Theme Park 4: Epic Universe

This was what many of us personally came for, the newcomer to the Universal Destinations and Experiences Roster, and we saved the best for last. This park however is located a few miles away from the Main CityWalk/Universal/Islands hub and getting to it by bus takes some time, but it's about 10 minutes as the buses have their own dedicated lines along Kirkman Ave. From the moment we got off the bus and entered the hub, I was greeted by a unique whimsical and epic ambience soundtrack that I really enjoyed. Walking up to the Chronos Tower and into the entrance was an experience in itself. Celestial Park was very open and beautiful and the ambience music combined with the sight of the Grand Helios rising in the distance was very gorgeous. Taking advantage of Early Entry, we kicked our day off at the Super Nintendo Portal and did Mario Kart. The layout in Super Nintendo World shockingly though felt smaller than Hollywood and was more difficult to navigate due to the numerous levels and how you must go up the escalator through the Portal and then back down. (We later discovered the side entrance/exit which we used later throughout the day to expedite things). Yoshi's Adventure is a cute kid friendly ride that is very reminiscent of what the People Mover at Disneyland once was, but I think it could benefit from a slightly longer layout as well as more indoor animatronic scenes. Donkey Kong Mine Cart Madness was a shocker for me as this ride rode a lot rougher than I had initially imagined. It was jerky and bouncy but very much fun and thrilling nonetheless. Constellation Carousel for being another simple flat ride was really lovely, and for those of you that haven't done it, I highly recommend you do this one at night as the colors and music make it a totally unique and different experience from the daytime. Another attraction that changes vibes from day to night was Stardust Racers. While this coaster was much slower than Velocicoaster, its launch and airtime moments were still very thrilling. The lighting and nighttime soundtrack is also amazing. We were able to watch a showing of The Untrainable Dragon and I was personally floored with the quality of this live performance. Myself being a Disney annual passholder many years ago, this show really reminded me of the live adaptations of Aladdin and later Frozen when it came to the production quality. Hiccup's Wing Gliders was a nice family coaster that despite it's lower intensity compared to other attractions still packed a decent punch on the launches, but the scenery beyond a few scenes and elements was somewhat lackluster and plain, although still a solid ride for a family coaster. Dark Universe was probably the best themed land, and in my opinion this is one of the areas of the park that is best enjoyed at night. Monsters Unleashed quickly shot its way into my top 5 favorite dark rides. The seamless blending of screens and animatronics, as well as the original storyline that brought the Universal Monsters to life in a way that also respects their roots was very well done. Even the Queue on this ride was an experience itself. Curse of the Werewolf was a nice coaster as its the first and only spinning coaster I've been on that uses a launch. However the amount of spin you get (or don't get) depends on how well the car is balanced. Another awesome aspect of this land I really liked was the burning windmill effect which went off every 15 minutes. We closed our day in the Ministry of Magic portal and the streets of Paris France. Out of all the lands in the portals, this one felt the smallest. However it's single flagship ride, Battle at the Ministry, proved to be another pinnacle of Universal's outstanding dedication to theming. The entire queue itself was an experience and the scale of the detail the designers went to left everyone in our group astonished. The scale helped everyone feel like they had left behind the mundane reality of the world and stepped into the magic of the Wizarding World. The attraction itself despite being more screen reliant than the other rides, it still was a solid experience that really took us deep into the world of Harry Potter. Epic Universe was undoubtedly a solid 10/10 for me.

PROS:

- Large resort with lots of things to do across all the parks.

- Transportation from the Hotel to and from the Parks was quick and reliable. Buses were always clean and well maintained.

- The Food was very much a huge improvement over what we have here in Hollywood.

- Loews Hotels maintains a high degree of cleanliness across all of their properties, not just Cabana Bay (I explored some of the other hotels out of curiosity on an off day).

- Volcano Bay nights offers lots of good freebies aside from granting you exclusive afterhours access to the park.

- Mosquito control was so well maintained that I got bit ZERO times during my entire 12 days I spent here. I get bit more often in California than I did over in Florida.

CONS:

- This is a part that I wish would have not existed in this review as the majority of the trip was splendid, unfortunately there were too many instances for me to try and dismiss them as occasional occurences. Employees in general seem to need a serious attitude adjustment and could greatly benefit from taking a course to teach them adequate people skills. I understand the humid heat and sun can be terrible for anyone, but verbally abusing and yelling at guests including children will never be acceptable behavior.

Two specific instances that stuck out were as follows. The first one was at the Cabana Bay Bus stop when we were heading over to Epic Universe at 7:30 AM after breakfast at the Bayliner. There is always an employee at the bus line guiding guests as well as answering any questions one may have before heading to the parks. On the morning of our Epic visit an older woman (Mid 60's or older) with a cane or umbrella was guiding guests onto the buses. Her attitude was downright disgusting and she seemed to savor the chance to belittle and berate any guest possible. It wasn't just a common safety announcement, she escalated things to a direct ad hominem attack. She yelled at two little girls who could have not been any older than 9 and they began to cry, something which their parent did not take lightly. A verbal argument broke out between her and the father who also responded with threats of violence (He also yelled at his wife over being too slow at folding her stroller). In an cowardly move, she then tried to use the actual bus driver as a shield when things got too heated for her comfort. The driver based on his smug grin of backing up and leaving her to deal with the angry guests tells me this isn't her first time trying to do this. During this tense encounter she also pointed and waved her umbrella at guests which came off as very threatning, especially when there are children around. Interestingly enough she had removed and or hidden her name tag beneath the reflective vest she was wearing so this tells me that she potentially is aware of her abusive conduct and wants to avoid being named to a supervisor.

The second issue occured inside Epic Universe on Mario Kart. We used the elevator as we had a guest in our group with ADA issues and the stairs down to the loading platform for Mario are greater than the stairs in the Hollywood version. Upon going down to the ADA loading side (outer most track) we met with a very unprofessional team member who almost immediately began to yell at our group to decide who was boarding first. After riding Mario Kart we were going to wait for our next group to get off so we could all leave together up the elevator. This prompted the team member to yell nearly in my face to get out of the load area to which at this point I already had enough as this and the abusive bus loader happened barely an hour apart so I replied in a stern tone "Do not talk to me or my family that way or I will have a supervisor called." The team member backed up but we followed her instructions. After leaving the ride I got a hold of a supervisor and communicated my grievances to them regarding this encounter and the one on the Bus platform at Cabana Bay. Unlike the bus lady, this time I was able to read the name tag so this might have gone somewhere with the higher ups at least.

There were numerous other instances of rude and dismissive personnel not just inside Epic but almost everywhere on property. I am not going to include them because they were not as egregious as the two instances I just mentioned. I understand there is a lot of entitled tourists, the humid heat is awful, and that many of the team members are overworked. However, yelling, berating, and verbally abusing guests including children is a line that should never be crossed. As a Hollywood Native, I'm really thankful that we have a much better trained and more professional ensemble of team members. The West Coast Universal isn't perfect by any means, but it's been very seldom that I've encountered folks as disgusting and rude as I did in Florida. It wasn't just employees either, some of the guests were very hostile and angry at their own families too, this is also something I've barely seen in Hollywood. The higher ups and supervisors though did display the trademark kindness and patience when hearing out our grievances however and I'll like to thank them for that.

His Comrades ended up getting 50-70 years as well, a huge win in my books. This made my day, while also making our country much safer.

It seems that this year they let up to five times the amount of people that they usually let in. The entire park was packed to the brim and it felt like a weekend night instead of an exclusive event.

Pulled up to the park at 4:15 PM to catch a few rides and walk around before the event kicked off. Did Forbidden Journey and Simpsons which were both below 30 minutes. After getting a snack to eat I caught the Studio Tour at 6:45 PM with no wait time. I assumed this was how the rest of the night was going to go as this has always been the case with takeovers.

After returning to the Park at 7:50 PM I headed down to the lower lot and that's when I began to notice the crowds really picking up, especially on the Simpsons Plaza and down the Starway. The Studio Tour though at this time was still a walk on. I headed down for some dinner at Jurrasic Cafe and noticed that the lower lot was a complete gridlock mess.

Lines where everywhere for the merch handouts and the Coke samples up on the second level Jurrasic Terrace. I finished my meal and tried to hit up Mario Kart at 8:20 PM. Getting from Jurassic down to the Entrance to Super Nintendo World was a chore in its own right that required lots of maneuvering and cutting through lines just to work my way down the road.

Upon finally reaching Mario I was met with a 45 minute line, and on top of this single rider was closed for the rest of the night. The latter was something that was beyond absurd in my opinion. I put my power up band away and decided to go hop on The Mummy only to see that it had gone down. I decided to go head to Transformers but the Coca Cola lines had only gotten even worse and with the DJ infront of Panda now having built up another huge crowd, I realized I wasn't in the mood to go down that road with such awful traffic.

With my patience running thin, I saw the time being 9:00 PM and opted to wrap up the night with a second run on the Studio Tour (Can't go wrong with this classic, can you?) and hauled ass up the Starway to make it before closing time of 9:15 PM. After reaching the tour bridge at exactly 9:13 PM, I headed down to the tram plaza where I was met with a similar sight to the lower lot. The entire general line went as far back as the ADA Platform/Unload Area, and the Express line was using all the switchbacks starting from the Entrance of the Standby line. A tour ambassador informed that the Express line was going to be at least 30 minutes.

This was the final straw and I called quits for the night. There really was nothing worth it this time in my opinion as the insane crowds totally ruined the experience and the exclusivity. What's the point of reserving a special event night if they're going to pack the park to the brim like this? Might as well just come on any weekday. It sucks because I was homesick for my Universal fix after two weeks absent due to work and Grad Bash keeping me away.

I sincerely hope this is just a one time fluke and not the future of annual passmember takeovers. Or maybe I'm just over exaggerating and being a Grinch? Overall this Takeover in my books came to a very bad 3/10. The last one in December was perfect and had a nice balance with the crowds that this one seriously lacked. The only disaster I want to see when I come to Universal is the one that resides in Stage 50, not this crowd chaos.

In the meanwhile I'll just come by on a Tuesday when the crowds are truly low.

I'm very peculiar with the type of fit and texture I like in my finger inserts, with a preference for slick and worn over tacky and new. I also don't fit into the exact sizes they come in and usually work them out to fine tune my fit.

My current method to work the finger inserts is using a piece of rough 50 grit sandpaper. But this is hard and tedious to do as well as being rough on my fingers. I saw someone today on the lanes using a specialized tool that I thought was a bevel knife but it seemed different. It looked like an X-Acto knife with a cylindrical head with a rough texture for grinding the inside of the insert. Does anyone know what this tool is called and where I can get it.

Or other tips and tricks to tweak and fine tune my fit would be very much appreciated.