Day 2: Universal Truths

This post is part of a series of journal posts meant to chronicle what actually happened on our Disney wedding and honeymoon trip. Did all of our planning pay off? Read on, and find out!

It's not much of an exaggeration for me to say that Girl Scout Wife was looking more forward to gong to Universal Studios (specifically, to Islands of Adventure for the Harry Potter section) than anything in Disney World proper. As a Disney World veteran, this blew my mind, but I, too, shared a bit of curiosity about Universal; despite 25 trips to Disney World, my family had never gone to the "other parks." I guess Disney World was always just enough for us. Still, it was something that Girl Scout Wife said she wanted to do right up front, so we built it into the schedule. I put it on the schedule for the day after arrival for a couple of reasons: first, I figured it would be a good chance for Girl Scout Wife and I to spend some time with our siblings (a sort of "younger folks fun day" if you will), and second because once the Disney experience started I didn't want anything to interrupt it.

We bought our tickets to Universal in advance, opting for the one-day, two-park ticket purchased from Undercover Tourist through a link in the MouseSavers newsletter. Knowing that we were going to try to do two parks in one day, and not having any concept of the scale of either park, I sat down and (shocking, I know) put together a plan of attack for that day. I started doing my research on some of the usual touring plan websites, but by far the most useful site was the Orlando Informer Universal Studios touring plans page. Using their adult-oriented one-day, two-park touring plan as a base, I laid out a path that would take us through the parks and put is in the right place at the right time for lunch and dinner. My brother and sister in law added a must-do ride to the plan (the Terminator 2 3-D ride, which was so fabulously 90's that I thought I was going to lose it), but we went into the parks with a plan of action, and we were not disappointed. In fact, we had an awesome experience, largely because we walked right on almost every ride, no line, no waiting!

Girl Scout Wife and I, headed int the park.

I'm not going to go through the entire day, but I am going to give you my evaluation of Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure from a few different angle. First, the rollercoasters are freaking awesome. Almost every rollercoaster we went on was head and shoulders even my beloved Rock 'n Rollercoaster at Disney World. When it comes to these thrill rides, Universal has Disney beat hands-down, but, then again, Disney doesn't really traffic in extreme thrills. The Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket was our first one, and it set the tone for the day: after ascending up a 90-degree vertical incline, you launch into one of the longest rollercoasters I've been on in a while, all with your choice of music blasting in speakers. It was intense. Each subsequent coaster was almost as good, though that's the only one we rode twice. The Mummy, the Hulk, the Dragon Challenge, these were all a blast.

Who wouldn't love a ride that can produce these facial expressions?

Universal also has several rides I'm going to call simulator rides, which are a unique twist on the traditional "dark ride" concept. You load into a car, usually with about 8-10 other people, and wear 3-D glasses as the car moves through a series of sets with large 3-D screens built into them. All along the way, you're moving through a narrative while the car you're in moves in sync with the action on those screens, and other physical effects (like sprays of water; it became a running gag with us that Universal rides really like to pee on you) give you a really immersive experience. They're like a mash-up of Star Tours, the 3-D shows that use water, smoke, and other effects, and a dark ride. We rode three rides like this (the Transformers ride, the Spider-Man ride, and the best executed of the bunch, the Harry Potter simulator ride) and they basically ruined Soarin' for us. I had never ridden Soarin' before this trip, but after experiencing these simulator rides first, I walked off of Soarin' saying, "Wait, that's it? That's what the huge lines are for?" I wouldn't say that I loved any of these rides, and I'd still pick Star Tours over any of them, but they were really great to do once. There are also a couple of rides (the Despicable Me ride and the Simpsons ride) that are kind of like this, only you're in a big theater, a lot like Soarin'. I hate to admit it, but even these were better (and the Simpsons ride was laugh-out-loud hilarious).

One of the biggest surprises was how good the theming was at the park. I was actually expecting an experience a little more like Six Flags, or any other run-of-the-mill amusement park, but you can really tell that Universal has taken pains to really crank up the atmosphere, both between rides and within them. The Simpsons Fast Food area was amazing, and the theme and atmosphere in the Harry Potter section were second to none. It's not as good as Disney's atmosphere, but it's not too shabby. I definitely took my time to look around in several areas, and many of the rides even had a little bit of a show element to them, leading up to the actual ride. The Simpsons ride and the Harry Potter ride were among the best.

My full grown adult wife, photobombing in Hogsmeade.

So, the food. The food was...OK. We ate lunch in the Simpsons fast food area, and while the atmosphere was amazing, the food was nothing to write home about. I got a Krusty burger and had a Duff beer, and while they were fine, they weren't very memorable. To digress about the beer for a second, the Duff beer comes in three different varieties and, while ostensibly a craft beer (it's brewed by a craft brewery in Melbourne) it definitely doesn't take any chances. It's on par with a second-tier beer like Yeungling (which is what I drank all over Disney World when I couldn't get anything good, like in Epcot) and while only a little malty (my preferred flavor in beer) it was at least good enough for me to get a second one that evening. It's better than PBR or Bud Light, let's put it that way. Dinner was at the Three Broomsticks, and it was pretty bland. I was largely disappointed to see very few interesting choices anywhere we got food, something that applied to Disney World as well (though Disney is beginning to show intermittent sparks of creativity outside of their signature restaurants). I guess they have to cater to the lowest common denominator, but it left a lot of the food pretty plain. I do have a few hearty food recommendations though: get the doughnut ice cream sandwich from Lard Lad, a taco from Bumblebee Man's taco truck, a frozen butterbeer from the Three Broomsticks (or one of the stands in the Hogwart's area), and grab a couple of bottles of pumpkin juice. You'll thank me later.

I mean, how could we not have a Duff in Moe's Tavern?

One really neat element of the Universal experience that I appreciated a great deal was the fact that outside of all of the thrill rides they have free short-term lockers that are easy to access. This was great for storing our stuff before thrill rides, and it something you occasionally see at Disney World (I seem to remember this option before Kali River Rapids, but I would have appreciated it elsewhere too). It was nice being able to quickly stow everything, and even with short lines the price (free) was right!

After our very first rollercoaster (the Rip Ride Rocket), I decided to pick up Universal's version of Memory Maker, called Universal Photo Connect. It basically works the same way; you get a card that they scan every time you get a ride photo, or a photo from one of the in-park photographers. At first, I balked, given that we were only going to be there for one day, but since we were having so much fun (and since my Dad had gone with us, and I knew he was often on the other side of the camera) I went ahead and splurged. It turned out to be a great idea, because we got some amazing photos from the rides.

Left to Right: My Dad, my brother, my sister-in-law, Girl Scout Wife, GSW's sister, GSW's brother, and me.

Overall, it was a blast. Girl Scout Wife's sister actually smiled through most of the day (she's 15 and largely refuses to show emotions), I discovered that my sister-in-law is hilarious and awesome at amusement parks (let's just say the first time she yelled, "Let's go, Optimus!" to Optimus Prime in the middle of the Transformers ride, I knew she had bought in), and we all spent a great day together without any of the stress or worry about wedding planning.

My sister-in-law declares her true love for Optimus Prime.

That night, we headed back to our resort, and on the way we picked up Girl Scout Wife's cousin. It was here birthday that day, and she'd just arrived from Pennsylvania earlier, so we decided to take her out to Jellyrolls, the dueling piano bar on the boardwalk, figuring that would be a lot of fun. It was not. Six of us went, discovering that there was a $15 cover charge at the door (which none of us were prepared for), and then once inside we were confronted with a really un-Disney-like scene: a bunch of middle aged people acting weird and drunk and grinding on each other to dueling pianos. Down on the main floor there were a couple of other wedding parties, and it wasn't too bad once we found a seat. The drinks were awful and ludicrously priced, and while the music was good you couldn't get anything played due to the queue of other requests and the fact that you have to tip the piano players big to even get their attention. Plus, it was so loud that it was impossible for us to socialize, so we just sat there listening to other peoples' requests, and occasionally laughing at men who were clearly too old to be out clubbing trying to get all "sexy dance moves" on clearly drunk girls. The thing that blew my mind was this: how did they get that drunk, when the drinks were so watered down?

Well, at least they're smiling.

Takeaways

Here's what I learned that could potentially help other folks planning Disney weddings:

• Plan a "Young Fun" Day. If you're a younger adult and have family members around your age coming in for the wedding, I highly recommend taking a day for some high energy fun. We both had families with three generations present, and it allowed us to spend some quality time with our siblings (and my fun-loving Dad) before the more formal, slower-paced events started.
• Go to Universal. If you like thrill rides especially, go to these parks. We had a fantastic time, and will definitely go back. A secondary recommendation is: go to Universal during off-season on a Monday, because we didn't wait in a single line all day.
• Splurge on the Photo Connect. This goes for Memory Maker too, but I'm glad I traded a little money for a photo record of the day. Now, we have even more photos of our trip, and we didn't have to constantly snap photos (even though we still did).
• Skip Jellyrolls. Unless you just absolutely love overpriced, watered-down drinks and dueling piano bars, give this place a pass. The cover was ridiculously expensive, the bartending service was awful, the drinks were so weak that I couldn't have gotten a buzz if I tried, and the other patrons were so weird and obnoxious that I wouldn't be sad if I never went back. If you just want drinks and a good time, there are plenty of better places to go, like World Showcase in Epcot.