USA Trip 2011 Park #4
23 – 24 August 2011
Kyra and I flew from Ohio to Florida, and the change in vibe was instantaneous. Our first impressions of Florida were heat, concrete, tourists, and retirees – kind of like the Gold Coast. We made our way to the Hilton Garden Inn at SeaWorld where we set up camp for the best part of a week. It was so great to be able to spend more than 1-2 nights in one place. The hotel was pretty central, and there were shuttle buses every morning that took us to where we needed to go. At around 2am on our 2nd or 3rd night, the fire alarms went off. I remember asking Kyra to turn her phone alarm off, before we realised we actually had to leave the building. We grabbed our passports and a jacket, and headed down the stairs with hundreds of other guests. Apparently the sprinklers had been set off on one of the floors. Apart from that one incident, everything else ran really smoothly.
On day number one in Florida, there was no question what we would do. Both being massive Harry Potter Fans, it was straight to Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios. This was my first experience with Universal, and it was awesome. Kyra and I bought a two day pass which allowed us to skip between both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. There was heaps of variety with the attractions, and the theming was spectacular.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was everything we had hoped for. Hogsmeade was just perfect (well, except for the thousands of tourists cramming the tiny street.) We tasted hot and cold Butterbeer (which was like brown creaming soda with whipped cream), although we probably should have left that until after the coasters as it was sickeningly sweet. I bought Bertie’s Every Flavour Beans, a Chocolate Frog complete with Dumbledore’s card, and then it was time for wand shopping at Ollivander’s. The staff pick out a random member of the crowd to have a wand chosen for them. A kid got chosen which I guess was fair enough, but it didn’t stop us sulking for a little while. I really wanted Belatrix’s wand but they didn’t have it, so I settled with Dumbledore’s.
The street entertainment was excellent, as were the props throughout. We made our way to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which had an indoor flying seat style set up. I had never waited in a line for three hours for anything in my life, yet there I was. To this day that record for ride waiting time remains. It was only bearable because the queue system was woven throughout the castle. We waited in the Greenhouse, in the Great Hall and in the common rooms to name a few. It felt good finally getting to sit on the ride and rest our feet. The ride made us feel like we were flying around Hogwarts and was really enjoyable. Then, just as we made it to the whomping willow, the ride stopped. We were tilted backwards facing the roof, and all the lights came on. The magic died when we realised we were just in a big tin shed…bugger! After a 5 minute delay, the ride restarted and we made it to the end. I was really disappointed that staff didn’t give us a free pass to the front of the queue for a redo, but there was no way I was going to re-join that line again.
It was a much shorter wait time for the two coasters in the wizarding world. The Flight of the Hippogriff was a zippy little kiddy coaster, but the Dragon Challenge (formerly duelling dragons) was pretty great. This consists of a pair of intertwining steel coasters, and you got to choose whether you wanted to ride the Chinese Fireball or Hungarian Horntail. Since the tracks were different, we had to go on it twice to get both experiences. The ride has since closed to make way for another Harry Potter attraction. That’ll do dragons, that’ll do.
We got caught in a storm mid-afternoon, but this happened every day we were in Florida. The storm rolled in, it poured for half an hour, then the sun came out again. The humidity was certainly trying its best to sap our energy.
The greatest coaster at Islands of Adventure was The Incredible Hulk. With a combo of fast launch, twists and turns over a massive track, it was brilliant (you have to say this in a Harry Potter voice.)
We enjoyed some of the smaller novelty rides across the various lands, with the Jurassic Park area being another highlight. The Pteranodon Flyers was like a mix between a suspended roller coaster and a chair-o-plane, plus the River Adventure was probably the best of its kind I have experienced. A friend had already spoiled the ending for me, but it still made us laugh. This ride too has closed, but is expected to reopen with a new branding to match the latest movies in the series. As already mentioned, the theming around the park was second to none. Seuss Landing was right out of the story books, and we saw a lot of Marvel fans geeking out (rightly so) in that area.
Due to the massive wait times, we didn’t get to do everything we wanted to at Island of Adventure, so we returned for part of the next day too.
Roller Coaster Ramble 