Cheating on Mickey with Harry Part 1

[macraven]

loving your report.....

 

[reelmom]

Wonderful report. We are hoping to get down to Universal next year. We were supposed to go this year but Disney won out.

 

[Csaks]

You're most welcome. I felt/feel so bad about the delay.

Don't feel bad, you sound busy. Just love your way of spinning a tale.

 

[ZellyB]

Don't feel bad, you sound busy. Just love your way of spinning a tale.

Really enjoying reading your report. When we finally got into the WWoHP area on our trip, I was just giddy at how amazing the whole area looked. It's really fantastic.

 

[EvangelineG]

"I'm the Wizard of the World! I don't want to die!"

Fantastic trip report! Can't wait to read the rest.

We are HUGE Harry P fans (books mostly, the movies are only "meh" compared to the books), and are SO excited to go to WWoHP!

 

[ESN]

Ok - Sounds like you and I are the same when it comes to rides - -I love soarin, and BTMRR - but havent the guts to do EE or Space Mtn -- I hate big drops --- The Jurassic Park ride nearly gave me a heart attck - Rode Revenge of the Mummy but did not enjoy it..

What I really hate are the drops -- are there any big drops on FJ?

That is what really gets me

Thanks

 

[vleeth]

Great trip report.

I have almost a year before my first trip to wwohp.

You make it sound awesome!

 

[Fantasmic23]

What I really hate are the drops -- are there any big drops on FJ? Thanks

No. The ride is a simulator ... So, it "simulates" the idea of dropping. Trust me, I'm the Queen of the Ride Babies (C'mon ... Dumbo scares me, too!) and I love this ride.

 

[Fantasmic23]

We are HUGE Harry P fans (books mostly, the movies are only "meh" compared to the books), and are SO excited to go to WWoHP!

I am just getting into the books now. I love them! I can't believe I didn't read them sooner. We're going again in August (!), so I have some time to play catch-up.

 

[PrincessCharlie]

Hello, great tr! Glad we're not the only nutters who try to teach their siberian husky how to say "I love you" amongst other things like "dinner" and "walkies" lol. We hav'nt been successful yet though.

You'll enjoy the books, they're a completely different experience to the films, they'll be some new things that are never metioned in the films which make the story even better.

Have fun reading them

 

[Fantasmic23]

There's More To This Island


Due to the excessive crowds, it's time to say so long to WWOHP for now. We have two more days. We can always come back. We soon find ourselves at Seuss Landing. I am amazed by the number of people sporting bright red Thing 1 and Thing 2 tee-shirts. Now, aside from the TV holiday special "How The Grinch Stole Christmas", my husband isn't a big fan of Dr. Seuss. I, on the other hand, grew up with Dr. Seuss, both the books and the cartoons (My favorite being The Lorax). My kids are more than familiar with the books, some of the cartoons and more recently the movies, The Cat in the Hat (Mike Myers) and Horton Hears a Who (Jim Carrey). My daughter's school is performing Seussical, Jr. in a few weeks and she is very curious. We get in line for The Cat in the Hat ride. It is a cute ride and I have a sudden yearn for my first grade teacher, so I can share this all with her. I know better than to push my luck when it comes to Dr. Seuss and my husband, so I don't say anything as we walk by The High in the Sky Trolley Ride.

We grab some Ben & Jerry's (I have stopped counting calories at this point) and decide that it's time to check out The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman. My husband and son are out of their minds with excitement as they are big Spidey fans. They both collect Spiderman comic books and the movies seem to be running on a continuous loop in our house. My daughter enjoys the movies, too, and I have been hooked ever since Morgan Freeman donned a Spidey Suit and swung around on The Electric Company in the 1970's. Our friend, Louie, has had nothing but wonderful things to say about this ride. I'm expecting edge-of-your-seat greatness.

The line is long, but we're old pros at this by now. I spend a good portion of the wait explaining to my son that this is not a rollercoaster. The queue for this ride is really something ... Vignettes of office scenes within the Daily Bugle, complete with cups of coffee and half-eaten food on the desks. "Jonah Jameson" is one of my favorite Spiderman characters, thanks in large part to J.K. Simmons (Oz, Juno), the talented actor who brings him to life in the films. My husband begins a conversation with a man standing in front of us. The man is complaining about the Hulk coaster (A long line ... Go figure). After awhile, the man comments on my husband's UCONN tee-shirt. Turns out, this man lives a few towns away from us in Connecticut. We discuss local restaurants, stores and the inevitable Connecticut traffic. This is the second time today that we've made a "Line Friend", the first being a sweet and friendly Ohio woman (and her three daughters) on line for Forbidden Journey.

It's our turn to finally board the ride and it's fantastic! Loud, colorful and incredible effects! Like the ride as we do, we don't feel the need to hop in line for it a second time. The heat and waking up early is taking its toll on everyone.

We poke around in a few stores in City Walk on our way out. We price a few items and decide that tomorrow will be Souvenir Day. We stop at a Popeye's Chicken on the way home for a quick bite. Back at the hotel, I'm cursing myself that I didn't remember to pack bathing suits. The kids don't care and are happy to splash around the pool in shorts and tee-shirts.

Wednesday, April 20th

We are up early again, but we do not have Early Admission today. Still, we'd like to be there when the park opens. It's unanimous: We all want more Potter. I'll also be coffeeless until 10:30 or so. Grrr. We head right to Forbidden Journey and The Line is impressive, but not that bad. Wait a minute. It is bad. It seems to take forever to reach the Greenhouse portion of the line and when we do, the "Ride is broken" rumors begin flitting around. Oh, fudge. After about ten minutes or so, there is an announcement that the ride is up and running again. There is a huge cheer ... And I mean huge. My son is sporting a blue Phineas & Ferb tee today, featuring Perry the Platypus. It's sort of Mickey in disguise, as P&F are Disney property. A man with a little boy standing behind us inquires where we bought the shirt. His eyes light up when I tell him Walmart. Standing in front of me is a teenage boy clad in Gryffindor regalia: Robe, scarf, etc. I look at him affectionately and again am amazed by just how huge this Harry Potter phenomena is. I think back to the phenoms of my teenage years, if you can count Molly Ringwald and John Hughes movies as phenoms. I begin to fantasize about an Adult Theme Park, perhaps a bit R-rated, that would feature rides based on movies such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Weird Science, Animal House, Halloween, This Is Spinal Tap, Clockwork Orange and The Shining. Better yet, a theme park based on Stephen King books and movies. Daydreaming helps the time pass faster.

We ride FJ again. Complete awesomeness. When we try to ride a second time, we are informed that the ride has broken down and it's going to be "awhile". We wait a good while before I decide that we're wasting time. We exit the line with a bunch of pissed-off looking people. We decide that we're done with WWOHP, at least for today. In fact, we're done with IOA for today. There's nothing left that we really want to see. I love "Jurassic Park" but I don't know if I have that much love to endure an 80 foot drop. Dudley-Do Right? I hear there's a considerable drop as well. I am missing the wimpiness of Splash Mountain. Popeye and Bluto's Barges sound promising in this heat, but I have forgotten to pack a change of clothes

 

[vleeth]

So is FJ better than Spiderman? I love Disney, I plan obsessively. But Spiderman is by far the best ride I've ever been on.

 

[Tink2Day]

Thanks for the update!
I know the ups and downs of taking care of a 90 y.o. (my parent).

I'm thinking about a return trip as well and I'm hearing so many different reports that I'm confused.
Someone said that earlier this week it wasn't crowded at all... the anniversary maybe everyone was scared off??

It wasn't crowded in November when we were there and we just popped in and out of the locker areas. Really I didn't need the bag I took.

Love when an adult can act like a kid and laugh at themself I'm a kindred spirit with your husband.

I remember thinking that I had just walked into the movies and the books and was waiting to run into Harry, Hermione and Ron just around the corner.

Isn't it amazing?

 

[Fantasmic23]

So is FJ better than Spiderman? I love Disney, I plan obsessively. But Spiderman is by far the best ride I've ever been on.

In my opinion, FJ was much better than Spiderman. Spiderman was great ... I loved it, I just prefer FJ.

 

[momabaarjo]

FJ seems to have some issues on breaking down off and on...even on the hard opening weekend last June. While waiting our second time FJ must have stopped 4 times...making the wait stretch into a couple of hours to ride. We joked what would happen if it shut down again while we were on the ride...guess what happened...yep shut down for about 5 minutes while I was inverted facing my worst nightmare and Ron's (if you know where I mean).

 

[Fantasmic23]

guess what happened...yep shut down for about 5 minutes while I was inverted facing my worst nightmare and Ron's (if you know where I mean).

Oh, no!

 

[Harry Potter]

FJ seems to have some issues on breaking down off and on...even on the hard opening weekend last June. While waiting our second time FJ must have stopped 4 times...making the wait stretch into a couple of hours to ride. We joked what would happen if it shut down again while we were on the ride...guess what happened...yep shut down for about 5 minutes while I was inverted facing my worst nightmare and Ron's (if you know where I mean).

Trouble is, the majority of FJ's 'interruptions' are not down to technical difficulties, but rather one of two things: a) a TM has to clean up vomit from the ride vehicle after a rider spewed out all their butterbeer during the ride, or b) a disabled guest embarks the ride in a different loading station (which is located behind the observatory in scene 1, probably behind you as ride through it) and this vehicle needs to join the regular track from its 'siding'.

In both cases, as all of the ride vehicles are conjoined on the same continually moving circuit, the whole circuit must be briefly shut down for operational reasons to enable either a) or b) to be completed effectively.

Unless you are stuck motionless for more than say 5 minutes, or unless parts of the ride before or after the stop are malfunctioning (i.e. no simulator screen on the Quidditch match, so your just gently swaying from side to side infront of a blank screen, or mistimed audio, or no audio at all) then you can expect that the reason for the unfortunate stop is just down to those normal things I listed above.

Everybody is expected to ride FJ including those guests with extra assistance, nothing wrong with that. BUT, for those of you who are too stupid to realise that drinking butterbeer before you 'take to the sky' will inevitably lead to a disaster for everyone, please stay away in future!

That said, Forbidden Journey is still literally breaking down a few times every day, each time causing delays in the queue of perhaps upto an hour, and we will one day get to the point when we ask ourselves is Universal really on top of this newfangled technology? There is such thing as teething problems, and there is such thing as having multiple elongated breakdowns every day of the week, years after inception.

Time will tell.

 

[Fantasmic23]

Wednesday, April 20th - Later That Morning

Universal Studios OR Where the heck is everybody?

We enter U.S. and it's like a ghost town. It's eerily empty and I almost feel that we have stepped into a "Twilight Zone" episode. Where is everybody? Oh, I know exactly where they are! I'm exaggerating, of course, but the crowds are much, much lighter here. A few people here. A few people there. You can run down the street and not have to worry about eventually colliding with people (My son tried this ). We finally stop for coffee, orange juice and muffins and take it outside the shop. It also feels that it's easily ten degrees cooler here than it was in IOA. Perhaps I'm just giddy with the caffeine and low crowds. It's almost as if we have U.S. to ourselves and I love it!

We walk for awhile ... Just walking with no real plan. Even though I've never set foot in U.S. before, things are looking familiar. I'm getting a New England beach town vibe and I know that wherever we are, the Jaws ride isn't too far away.

Now, "Jaws" is a movie that gets a lot of play in our house, as it's one of my husband's top ten favorite movies. In fact, the only reason he agrees to go to Martha's Vineyard is because "Jaws" was filmed there. It was out of character for him, but my husband once happily climbed aboard a coach bus for a two hour plus tour of the Vineyard and places that had anything to do with the filming of "Jaws". But of course he laughs at me anytime I suggest heading up to Maine for a similar tour involving Stephen King movies.

The line has a 5 minute wait (A.K.A. It's practically walk-on). And ... The ride is hokey. It's cheesy and campy ... Not that cheesy and campy is always bad. I suppose for the younger set or those with a genuine fear of water and sharks, the ride can be intimidating. I was expecting high thrills and chills. It's good fun, though, and we all have some laughs. In my opinion, I wouldn't wait for this ride if it's 30 minutes or more. It's just not worth it (My opinion, again).

Now, the sequence of the following rides are in no particular order. Because of the light crowds, we were running nilly-willy from one attraction to the other:

Men In Black: I loved this. Think Toy Story Mania, but better (IMO). I received a horrible final score, but only because I was having so much fun spinning and looking at everything. There is a Locker Situation for this ride, but not as bad as FJ.

Beetlejuice Music Revue: More hokey, cheesy fun, this time with Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan jokes thrown in. Definitely a PG-13 kind of show. My daughter rolled her eyes more than once during the show. I thought my husband would be giving me The Look during this show (You know, that "Are You Serious?" look), but he loved it. And I'm sure the Zombie Girls and their skimpy costumes helped, too.

Terminator 2: Ugh. Whose idea was this? Too loud and I really wasn't paying attention. My husband and son loved it, though. Not too far away was a gift shop where you can snap pictures of various movie props, including "Alien" and "Terminator".

E.T.: Cute. Very cute, though I was expecting a tad more (specifically more "scenes" from the movie). Fittingly, you board a bicycle ... And that's where the plot line left me. Are we saving E.T.? His planet? No matter. I loved the music, though, as I always do when it's composed by John Williams. You give your name to a Team Member as you board the ride and at the end, E.T. welcomes you home by name.

The Simpsons Ride ... Another ride makes my all-time favorite list

I had a feeling I was going to like this ride, but I didn't expect to love it as much as I did. I'm coming to find out I'm a Simulator Ride kind of gal and this is one simulator ride that doesn't disappoint. It also has one of the funniest pre-shows I have ever seen. You also laugh all during the ride, thanks to Homer Simpson. I sort of previewed this ride on YouTube. I couldn't see much, but the comments were full of high praise. Because this ride has a rollercoaster scene, my son thought it was an actual rollercoaster. He freaked out just before the ride began and my husband and he were escorted out. My daughter and I rode, loved it, laughed ourselves silly and told my son he would have nothing to worry about. We hopped in line again and my son and husband loved it. Definitely our favorite ride after FJ.

Our stomachs are rumbling, so we head to the Beverly Hills Boulangerie for lunch. Delicious sandwiches (We all ordered tuna salad with lettuce and tomato on croissants). They also come with potato salad, strawberries and a slice of cantaloupe. Delicious desserts, too. My husband bought a black an white cookie (More "Seinfeld" memories) and it was on the money. Guests seated around us had a slice of cheesecake and a luscious-looking kiwi tart. Great view, too, as we sat outside to eat. A parade passed by and we could see the Betty Boop shop/I Love Lucy tribute museum (!) across the street!

The I Love Lucy tribute museum is a must for any Lucy fan ... Or any fan of vintage television in general. My daughter fell in love with Lucille Ball on this trip and we have been happily watching I Love Lucy episodes together ever since.

More rides/attractions in no particular order:

Shrek 4D: Very cute. The seats move up and down, water sprays (I believe smells, too) and there were lots of laughs from the audience.

Jimmy Neutron: Another fun, simulator ride. The kids loved it, given their love of anything Nickelodeon. Sorry to hear that this ride is leavning.

At one point during the day, we were stopped and asked if we would like to step inside a wonderfully air-conditioned builing, watch and rate a TV show intended for the fall line-up and make $10. We were a bit hesitant, but achy feet and sweaty bodies finally won out. We watched a show (Whitney ... Quite, quite funny, though a bit raunchy at times) and then answered questions (All via a computer). Voila! $10 each ... That we of course blew on souvenirs later that day. While we did this, the kids were seated with other kids and were watching some Potter film. "Half-Blood Prince" maybe?

Souvenir Time!

I first buy my MIL a mug. It's black, depicts Hogwarts, and the gold worlds "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" appear when liquid is added. Cool! I buy myself one, too, as well as a plain-looking black mug that just says "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" in gold letters. You know by now how much I like my coffee! My son chooses a Ron Weasley wand, his favorite HP character (Mine, too). My daughter chooses a Gryffindor tie. I talk my husband out of a broomstick (He has great plans for a Movie Room ... Someday). He holds up a plastic Goblet of Fire (For the yet to be constructed Movie Room) and I say yes. I buy two HP postcards and a Gryffindor luggage tag. I have my own plans for a Harry Potter display in the future Movie Room. We try on robes and Gryffindor scarves and take pictures. My son is the only one of us suffering from Red Eye in the pictures and we teasingly call him "Slytherin" for the remainder of the day.

And so another day ends. One more day left. We head back to the hotel, stopping at the largest McDonald's I have ever seen. Well, the McD's with the largest menu I have ever seen. There's all the regular fare that Morgan Spurlock ("Super Size Me") warned us about, plus dozens and dozens of other items: Salads, deli sandwiches, hot entrees.

 

[momabaarjo]

Everybody is expected to ride FJ including those guests with extra assistance, nothing wrong with that. BUT, for those of you who are too stupid to realise that drinking butterbeer before you 'take to the sky' will inevitably lead to a disaster for everyone, please stay away in future!

That said, Forbidden Journey is still literally breaking down a few times every day, each time causing delays in the queue of perhaps upto an hour, and we will one day get to the point when we ask ourselves is Universal really on top of this newfangled technology? There is such thing as teething problems, and there is such thing as having multiple elongated breakdowns every day of the week, years after inception.

Time will tell.

Thank goodness I left the butterbeer until after the ride!
The day I was on, it was breaking down for long periods of time...of course we waited it out cause this time we were bringing in our cameras to take pictures inside Hogwart's and we loved FJ so much the first time...gladly wait to do it again (within a reasonable time frame). I hope they get the issues with the technology worked out, because this is an awesome ride even if you are a muggle!

 

[momabaarjo]

Wednesday, April 19th - Later That Morning

Universal Studios OR Where the heck is everybody?

The line has a 5 minute wait (A.K.A. It's practically walk-on). And ... The ride is hokey. It's cheesy and campy ... Not that cheesy and campy is always bad. I suppose for the younger set or those with a genuine fear of water and sharks, the ride can be intimidating. I was expecting high thrills and chills. It's good fun, though, and we all have some laughs. In my opinion, I wouldn't wait for this ride if it's 30 minutes or more. It's just not worth it (My opinion, again).

I have to agree...pretty bad!!! I was disappointed that Bruce is showing his age and USO has not done anything to update him!


The Simpsons Ride ... Another ride makes my all-time favorite list

Hate the show, but this ride is AWESOME!



.