Spring Break, Day Two, Updated on Day Three
Universal Studios, with pic and vid link. Or, scroll all the way to the
bottom.
Will and I met his friend, Chris, for breakfast,
then headed to Universal in Orlando. We got there right at noon, so we had ten
hours to see everything.
We got the "Cut in front of everybody else" pass. Was worth every cent!
First up, the T2 Cyberdine show, and it is a show. Characters break that fourth wall and enter the audience. Three-D filming and "protective eyewear" make much of the effects truly remarkable.
Then came MiB: Alien Attack, or what I like to call, Lazertag on Crack! As you ride through the city, you use the tag gun attached to your vehicle to rack up points by hitting the aliens as they pop up all around you! We rode this one twice. The second time, we got our suits and became members of the MiB!
Jaws... I got to see my old friend, Bruce the Shark, in action again. I got video of that and will post it as soon as I have time.
Lunch at Finnegan's Irish Pub: three hard ciders and Irish Stew.
Then the Revenge of the Mummy coaster. Truly a non-traditional coaster. It is high speed, but all indoors. I'm guessing speeds up to 40 mph. But cars are used instead of trains, so more things can be done with them... forwards, backwards, sideways, spins... truly fun and unexpected!
Jimmy Newtron is another 3D theatre experience with pneumatic seats interacting with the film.
The Horror Make-Up Show was fun. Will knew the girl helping to host the show, so that was pretty cool. I didn't get to meet her afterward because she had a rehearsal to get to in town.
Shrek 4D, another motion theatre experience, was well done and fun... all the favorite characters were there.
Then we crossed over to Islands of Adventure.
Spiderman. Oh, yes, Spiderman. By far the high point of our visit! Similar to the Revenge of the Mummy in that is an indoor, non-traditional coaster. Again, visitors are seated in cars and make their way through the city looking for news. Three-D glasses are worn, and here is what makes the whole show. As the villains appear on the screen in front of you, they are animated in such a way that they appear to be standing on the front of your car! the car shakes when one of the animated characters hits it. Doc Oc is there, Electro, Hobgoblin, Venom, some guy made out of water. Yeah, he sprays you. Amazing ride! We rode it twice!
Jurassic Park Boat Ride... mostly outdoors, a tour through Jurassic Park, with animatronic dinosaurs living in and around the river. Then, attack of the raptors and the T-Rex, followed by "just a little water." I have vid of this.
Dragon Duel roller coaster... a traditional coaster with trains of passengers, but the train hangs formt he track instead of sitting on it. Several loops and inverted spins, a couple of corkscrew turns. the catch here is that the ride is two coasters in one, and the two dragons, the fire and the ice, race against each other. Sometimes you see the other train, sometimes you don't. Looking down below my feet to see the ground, or, even more disturbingly, the sky, was exhilarating!
Seuss... the Cat in the Hat as a ride. Each page of the book is animatronically brought to life. Fun for a sit down.
Poseidon's Fury is a room-to-room moving performance. Well-coordinated! Inside the Temple of Poseidon was a water tunnel, very cool! And then the transformation room... Our guide was standing against a wall maybe five feet in front of us. There was a bright halogen strobe to blind us, and, the lights went out. While we were blinded, the wall was raised or lowered to expose a huge set. Five projection screens were used to show the battle between Poseidon and the Dark One. Real fire and real water exploded in front of us, while our guide tried to stay out of the way. Yeas, it was pretty amazing!
The final word? Buy the Express Passes! I give Universal a huge 10 Oscars out of 10! High marks all around!
Pics and vids are here. It will open a new window.
Conversely, you can go to my website (http://www.chaos-enterprises.com/syn) and click on the Spring Break link on the left.
We got the "Cut in front of everybody else" pass. Was worth every cent!
First up, the T2 Cyberdine show, and it is a show. Characters break that fourth wall and enter the audience. Three-D filming and "protective eyewear" make much of the effects truly remarkable.
Then came MiB: Alien Attack, or what I like to call, Lazertag on Crack! As you ride through the city, you use the tag gun attached to your vehicle to rack up points by hitting the aliens as they pop up all around you! We rode this one twice. The second time, we got our suits and became members of the MiB!
Jaws... I got to see my old friend, Bruce the Shark, in action again. I got video of that and will post it as soon as I have time.
Lunch at Finnegan's Irish Pub: three hard ciders and Irish Stew.
Then the Revenge of the Mummy coaster. Truly a non-traditional coaster. It is high speed, but all indoors. I'm guessing speeds up to 40 mph. But cars are used instead of trains, so more things can be done with them... forwards, backwards, sideways, spins... truly fun and unexpected!
Jimmy Newtron is another 3D theatre experience with pneumatic seats interacting with the film.
The Horror Make-Up Show was fun. Will knew the girl helping to host the show, so that was pretty cool. I didn't get to meet her afterward because she had a rehearsal to get to in town.
Shrek 4D, another motion theatre experience, was well done and fun... all the favorite characters were there.
Then we crossed over to Islands of Adventure.
Spiderman. Oh, yes, Spiderman. By far the high point of our visit! Similar to the Revenge of the Mummy in that is an indoor, non-traditional coaster. Again, visitors are seated in cars and make their way through the city looking for news. Three-D glasses are worn, and here is what makes the whole show. As the villains appear on the screen in front of you, they are animated in such a way that they appear to be standing on the front of your car! the car shakes when one of the animated characters hits it. Doc Oc is there, Electro, Hobgoblin, Venom, some guy made out of water. Yeah, he sprays you. Amazing ride! We rode it twice!
Jurassic Park Boat Ride... mostly outdoors, a tour through Jurassic Park, with animatronic dinosaurs living in and around the river. Then, attack of the raptors and the T-Rex, followed by "just a little water." I have vid of this.
Dragon Duel roller coaster... a traditional coaster with trains of passengers, but the train hangs formt he track instead of sitting on it. Several loops and inverted spins, a couple of corkscrew turns. the catch here is that the ride is two coasters in one, and the two dragons, the fire and the ice, race against each other. Sometimes you see the other train, sometimes you don't. Looking down below my feet to see the ground, or, even more disturbingly, the sky, was exhilarating!
Seuss... the Cat in the Hat as a ride. Each page of the book is animatronically brought to life. Fun for a sit down.
Poseidon's Fury is a room-to-room moving performance. Well-coordinated! Inside the Temple of Poseidon was a water tunnel, very cool! And then the transformation room... Our guide was standing against a wall maybe five feet in front of us. There was a bright halogen strobe to blind us, and, the lights went out. While we were blinded, the wall was raised or lowered to expose a huge set. Five projection screens were used to show the battle between Poseidon and the Dark One. Real fire and real water exploded in front of us, while our guide tried to stay out of the way. Yeas, it was pretty amazing!
The final word? Buy the Express Passes! I give Universal a huge 10 Oscars out of 10! High marks all around!
Pics and vids are here. It will open a new window.
Conversely, you can go to my website (http://www.chaos-enterprises.com/syn) and click on the Spring Break link on the left.
Posted: Tue - March 25, 2008 at 11:10 AM
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Published On: Mar 26, 2008 08:27 AM
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Published On: Mar 26, 2008 08:27 AM