*ALL VIEWS ARE MY OWN AND NOT OF THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY, CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY OR YUMMY JOBS*
Hey there, pals!
So far on this September 2022 trip, my sister and I have only been to the Walt Disney World parks. But for today's post, we headed to the other major theme park resort in Orlando: Universal! I do love Universal and it's always so interesting to compare the two major tourist hotspots in Florida! So, let's sit back, hold on tight and enjoy reading about the rides, raptors and rain at Universal Orlando Resort.
Like on Day 3, my sister and I had to wake up fairly early to catch the shuttle bus over to the Universal Orlando Resort. Plus, we had to make sure that we left on time as there's only one shuttle bus that runs to Universal in the morning! All in all, the journey time to Universal was so much easier than Disney purely because of the location of Sonesta ES Suites - it's a 10min drive to Universal vs a 20-25min drive to Walt Disney World - and the parks only being a short walk away from the bus parking.
Just like the Walt Disney World park tickets, our Universal park tickets were also printed out on a confirmation page with a QR code. But, we had clear instructions of how to redeem the actual ticket using a self-serving collection point. However, these were clearly not working as a bunch of us struggled to get our tickets, even though we were typing in the correct confirmation code. So, we had to go to Guest Relations for help and this took much longer than needed. But, we got our paper tickets and we were straight onto our first theme park: Islands of Adventure!
Because my sister isn't as much of a thrill-seeker as I am, especially with rollercoasters, we knew we were going to get both theme parks done in one day. We started the day off with a ride on Hagrid's Magical Motorbike Adventure, which is my personal favourite ride at Universal, and is one that I thought my sister would be able to do quite comfortably. However, I was completely wrong. After the first launch, my sister immediately didn't feel good. I really enjoyed the ride as always, but I did feel incredibly guilty that my sister felt incredibly nauseous after the ride. So, I told my sister that we can have a sit down and then head to wherever she wanted to go for the next ride.
It got humid very rapidly, so my sister decided that she wanted to go on Jurassic Park River Adventure. I must admit, I didn't really remember much of the ride at all! Much of the effects weren't working and the family next to us had the lap bar pulled down really loosely to the point that my sister and I could easily climb out of the boat if we wanted to! The ride was still fun, even if we did get an absolute tidal wave from the big drop in the second row of the boat!
Seeming as we were already soaking wet, my sister and I decided to get even more wet by riding Dudley Do Little's Ripsaw Falls! If I didn't remember what Jurassic Park River Adventure was like, then I had absolutely no hope for remembering what this log flume was like!!! In fact, the only thing I do remember is getting drenched right through to the skin because I rode this ride six years ago and I was on the very front. This time, my sister and I were on the back two seats of the boat and boy were we uncomfortable. I had completely forgotten how uncomfortable the ride was! We both enjoyed ourselves, but it definitely wasn't our favourite ride of the day.
As we were getting to Dudley Do Little's Ripsaw Falls, we walked past the newest ride in all of Universal Orlando...
And this rollercoaster looks absolutely insane, crazy, yet awesome all bundled into one! Just look at the images below. And believe me, pictures do not do this rollercoaster justice for how stunning it looks!
Unfortunately, my sister and I were skipping VelociCoaster this trip because of my sister's motion sickness, not liking launch or super thrilling rides (all reasons that I have already addressed in this post!).
While we were looking at VelociCoaster, my sister spotted a ride that looked like a rollercoaster-type, soaring over a land ride. I have absolutely no idea how to describe it but hopefully the picture below helps 😂 The name of the attraction completely escapes, but unfortunately you had to be under a certain height restriction in order to ride with an adult. And, my sister and I were both too tall to ride, so that absolutely stinks!
Then, we went to Seuss landing to ride my sister's most anticipated ride: the Cat in the Hat. The ride had a walk on queue, which was perfect because that ride gets ridiculously busy during a heavy rainstorm. I knew the ride wasn't the most advance or thrilling, but it is a barrel of laughs and I'm really glad that my sister enjoyed the Cat in the Hat ride!
Right next door was the Seuss Trolley Train Ride, which my sister hadn't done before but I knew that it would be a calm one that she would appreciate! Again, it was literally a walk straight onto the train and we got some great views of the whole of Islands of Adventures!
We had timed all of this absolutely perfectly, as it started to absolute chuck it down with rain while I was in the restroom. We were literally under the best shelter because soooo many people came running towards our area, as well as loads of people running to the Cat in the Hat ride. Fortunately, this storm only lasted 10mins and we had completed everything we wanted to do in Islands of Adventures.
It was a short walk over to Universal Studios and it was mad to think that the Team Members were getting everything ready for Halloween Horror Nights that night! From what I could see, the decorations and preparations for Halloween Horror Nights looked very spine-chilling. But, it certainly looked like paying guests were in for a frightfully, fearsome, fang-tastic night! Regrettably, my sister and I are not fans of being scared... we just do not see the enjoyment of it! So, we didn't experience Halloween Horror Nights whilst we were in Florida.
Our visit to Universal Studios Florida started off at the back of the park in Diagon Alley, as I don't think my sister had been in that area before. Currently, my favourite ride in Universal Studios is Harry Potter: Escape From Gringotts. This was by far the longest wait of the day. I strongly think that everyone who was in Islands of Adventure had park hopped over to Universal Studios because that's where all the indoor attractions are and Escape From Gringotts is a popular ride. We waited a total of 75mins and my sister had absolutely no problems with it being a motion simulator, rollercoaster and 4D experience. Was it worth the 75min wait? No. Did we have a ball? Absolutely!
We didn't have long left before Universal Studios was closing, so we quickly made our way to E.T. This was another ride that I had completely forgotten what it was like, and honestly it was amazing! I'm sorry to sulk on Disney, but E.T. is by far better than Peter Pan's Flight at Magic Kingdom in my opinion. The way E.T. says goodbye to each person who's on board the bicycle is cute and the level of detail is astronomical. No matter which way you were facing, you were instantly immersed into the story, which was super easy to pick up if you hadn't seen the film before.
My sister and I had successfully done everything we wanted to do at Universal Orlando Resort and it was time to make our way back to our hotel. But, before we did that we had to stop in the Universal gift shop. My goodness, this was filled with all the typical souvenir items you could think of for each of the classic films featured at Universal... From your robes, wands and wizarding treats of Harry Potter to Thing 1, Thing 2 merchandise for the Cat in the Hat, countless amounts of Minion/Fluffy Unicorn toys and mugs, as well as a load of dinosaur items for Jurassic Park. There was truly something for everyone in this shop!
Before the trip, my sister and I agreed that we should both get something identical to represent our inseparable sibling bond that we have together. So, we decided to get a keyring with our names at the bottom - I was going to be Thing 1 and my sister Thing 2. My sister than speed-walked over to the Fluffy Unicorn display where she tried on a kids hoodie. To my surprise, the hoodie actually fitted her figure nicely, but she was so proud of herself!! Instead of the hoodie, my sister decided to get a fluffy unicorn toy to take home and add to her collection of stuffed animals.
Sadly, the shuttle bus wasn't picking up from the bus station until much later on in the evening. Therefore, we had to organise an Uber ride back. I was incredibly confused at where the Uber parking was, but a very lovely gentleman saw that my sister and I were lost at the bus station and he kindly pointed us in the right direction. Strangely, the Uber/taxi drop off and pickup point is on the top floor of the Jurassic, King Kong and Jaws parking garage! I was worried that I wasn't going to get any signal or internet connection to be able to book an Uber ride, however after 15mins of trying to connect we were on our way back to the hotel.
Again, my sister and I had a chilled out early night so we had the opportunity to catch up on some rest from the last few early starts that we've had on this trip. The next day of our trip was going to be a mouth-watering visit to Epcot to see all the changes that have happened since my sister and I were last there. So, you're going to have to tune in next to see all of that!
Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to read my post this week. I really do appreciate it! And even those of you who are sending me messages via the contact page or on Instagram and Facebook saying such lovely things about my trip posts so far means the absolute world to me. I'm ready to keep typing away and relive all the memories I so deeply cherish 😊
Have a magical day!
-Hannah
DISCLAIMER: this blog is my personal experience on the Disney Academic Exchange Program (DAEP) 2019-2020 and may not reflect everyone’s experience. Other programs and future participants on the DAEP may have slight adjustments to their programs that may not be featured in any of my blog posts. That being said, if you do leave any questions, I will try to answer them as best as I possibly can 😊
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