FlyerTalk Forums - Universal Studios Escape (Florida)

Pixie and I spent a couple of days visiting Universal Studios Escape down in Florida. For those who haven't been there yet or in a while, Universal is building an entire destination, and unlike Disney this is all within a reasonable distance (no long bus/boat/monorail waits and rides, though there are some ...). Universal Escape consists of two Theme Parks, Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure, CityWalk, which has stores, restraunts, nightclubs, and a movie theater, and now a hotel, the Portofino Bay Hotel and the Hard Rock Hotel will be opening at the end of the year.

Portofino Bay Hotel

We stayed at the brand new Portofino Bay Hotel (which is a Loews property). While making the reservation, I told the agent I was a Loews First member and he was confused ... he put me on hold and came back and told me that I could get a rate of $117.50/night (compared to the $195 he originally offered and the $265 I had found on the web) ... I really don't know how I swung that and I don't think it was right, but I wasn't complaining.

The hotel is absolutely stunning. The rooms are big and the beds are Heavenly Bed like ... very similar bed spreads/sheets/pillow ... the only difference is the mattress itself does not have the pillow top of the Heavanly Bed. The foyer and bathrooms are tiled and the bathroom is huge. Each room has three telephones. The two in the bedroom are two-line phones with speakerphones. They have three pools. Two are run of the mill pools ... and the third, the Beach Pool, is extremely nice. They actually have a beach at the pool, no lip on one end with sand on the shore (not in the water though) ... very cool. The other end is a little deeper (only 5 foot deep max though and in the middle is a tower that houses a water-slide. The water-slide is probably about 60 feet long and very cool for such a short slide ...

The single most important thing about staying at this hotel however was the "front-of-line" access at the Theme Parks. From 7 AM until Noon each day we got front of line access to all of the rides (You also get preferred seating at the "shows" all day, but we didn't go to any of the shows). We were able to do all of the major rides at both parks easily between 7 AM and Noon the first day using the front-of-line access (If you buy a multi-day ticket you can "Park Hop", go to both parks in one-day using one-day of the ticket). We waited no longer than 10 minutes for any ride and the average wait was less than five minutes, and if we wanted we could ride again and again without having to wait in line (though we only did this once).

Getting from the hotel to the park you had three choices, walking (about 15 minutes), boat ride, which is very nice and relaxing takes about 7 minutes and they run about every fifteen minutes (usually more often though from what I saw), or shuttle bus, which I didn't use so I'm not sure what the timing or schedule is. Most everyone uses the boats though which drop you off between the two parks in CityWalk.

Islands of Adventure

This is the new park, about a year old. The park is divided into different "Islands" with their own themes. There is Toon Island, Marvel Superheroes Island, Seuss Land, Jurassic Park, and Ancient Lands (or something like that).

The Marvel Superheroes Island is probably the most popular and has three of the most popular rides. The Hulk is an incredible roller coaster ... this is a sit down roller coaster with over the shoulder restraints and you start by going up an incline (like most coasters obviously), but right before you reach the top it literally shoots you out of the starting tunnel ... it's amazing. This was the first time ever I rode a roller coaster and it was incredible ...

Also on Marvel Superhero Island is the Spiderman ride. This is a 3-D ride where you ride a car through and run into various bad guys. This ride is simply amazing ... you have to see it to believe it. For those that have done the Back to the Future ride, this one blows it away.

The other big ride on Marvel Superhero Island is Dr. Doom's Fearfall, a ride where you do a big drop ... we didn't do this one ...

On Toon Island the two major rides are both water rides. Popeye's Bilge Rat Barges uses the big circular boats found at most parks ... you get very wet on this ride and it's a lot of fun.

The other ride is Dudley Do Right's Ripsaw Falls. This too is a great ride, and you will get moderately wet on this ride.

These are great rides and should not be avoided ... don't be fooled by their 'toon themes ...

On Jurassic Park we only did the River Adventure, the third water ride at IOA. This too was a good ride and the final fall in this ride is spectacular.

They have this overhead ride where you ride in the birds that we wanted to do, but they only let adults go on with kids! That sucked!

They also have one walk through exhibit where you encounter a dinosaur that is supposed to be incredibly lifelike, but we didn't do that.

In the Ancient Times section they have a couple of shows (that we didn't do) and the Dueling Dragons ... two intertwined steel rollercoasters. These are overhead rollercoasters where you dangle. I only did this on the second day when my brother came also, and we only did the Ice Dragon ... but this was awesome (and since Hulk was my first rollercoaster, this was my second). The other coaster is the Fire Dragon.

In Seuss Land we only did two rides ... the Caroseul (okay ... it's corny for adults, but it was fun http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif) and Cat in the Hat, which is pretty cool. That is a car ride through the story, and it's more intense than you think!

Universal Studios Florida

The new big ride here is Men in Black. This is a car ride where you get a gun and shoot aliens and you get points. This ride is very cool and we did this one a few times (this is the only one we did a second time in a row). This is a must see ...

Pixie thought that Kongfrontation and Jaws were cheesy, but I liked them ... These are encounters with King Kong and Jaws (not the one from Texas) respectively ...

Earthquake was pretty cheesy, though Pixie didn't think it was too bad.

We both agreed that Twister was pretty corny.

The Funtastic World of Hannah Barberra is really cool, and this is another ride that you can't let fool you into thinking it's for kids ... you've got to do this one ... lot's of fun!

The big ride that's been there for a while is Back to the Future ... this is a simulator and is pretty awesome ... definitely not for the light hearted though, Pixie kept her eyes closed half the time she says to keep from getting sick!

Finally, the Termintor 2 3-D is a really well done theater show. The movie itself is excellent and the show is pretty cool. This one too can't be missed.

Anyway, this two day trip was the most fun I've had in a long time (since the PiP http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif). I highly recommend making a visit if you haven't for all you kids out there like me. Staying on site and getting front-of-line access is great. We had to get up a bit early (6 AM), but we would get to the park at 7AM ... stay until noon and do a bunch of rides, get lunch at the park or CityWalk or the hotel, then go back to the hotel and nap for a little and then hit the Beach Pool for some sun, water, and watersliding http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif, then freshen up and go to dinner or you can even go back to the park and do more rides (I did this one night, and the lines were nothing for the last hour). Get the multi-day tickets so you can Park Hop ... even if you only go for a day, the unused days never expire.