A look at Disney, Universal Orlando,SeaWorld Parks, and other Theme Parks and attractions sprinkled with vacation planing tips, photos, and reviews.
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Showing posts with label Universal Partner Hotels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Universal Partner Hotels. Show all posts
Right now If you book a Hotel stay.... Not Package …. Just a Hotel stay at one of these On-Site Resorts: Loews Royal Pacific Resort, Hard Rock Hotel® and Loews Portofino Bay Hotel you will get Universal Unlimited Express Pass for free. Notice I mentioned only Hotel Stay and not Package. I will will explain that a little more here in just a bit.
Unlimited Express pass What is it:
Universal Express Unlimited ride access to skip the regular lines at participating rides and attractions at Universal Studios Florida and Universal's Islands of Adventure. That's a value of $129** per person, per day. Valid theme park admission required. Not valid at Universal's Volcano Bay.
*Requires theme park admission. Valid only at participating rides and attractions in Universal Studios Florida and Universal's Islands of Adventure. Not valid at Universal's Volcano Bay. Excludes separately ticketed events. Park-to-Park admission required to board the Hogwarts™ Express. Benefit valid only for guests of Loews Royal Pacific Resort, Hard Rock Hotel® and Loews Portofino Bay Hotel, for the number of guests staying in the room for the length of hotel stay. Available during normal theme park operating hours only. Additional restrictions may apply and benefits are subject to change without notice.
**Based on average price of a 2-Park Universal Express Unlimited™ pass ranging between $84.99 and $189.99.
So that is the legal explanation based on official verbiage directly from Universal Orlando's Website.
My Verbiage is this. This unlimited Express pass has tremendous Value depending on the time of year you go to Universal. It is worth its Weight in Gold During peak travel times like spring break and Holiday Rush, but at times during the school year, its basically is a piece of paper that has some value depending on the ride or attraction.
The express will cut down your wait time drastically during peak travel periods allowing you more access to more rides than if you were to be just in the regular standby line. It is not a Cut to the front of the line pass, its pass to get you a reduced wait time in an express line. Say the line was 2 hours long. Express Pass will cut that wait down maybe to 30 minutes. That is a pretty significant reduction of time and well worth it. Downside of the express pass is that in most attractions, you miss the storyline build up for the ride, especially in rides like Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, Escape from Gringotts, and Transformers to name a few. If you have been on the attractions a few times and wish to skip the experience to build up the ride with the pre-shows, no harm no foul, more rides for you.
Now during Non-peak Travel times, normally when school is in session, the express pass loses value as you can see the price range above in the description. Rule of thumb is this: The less express pass cost, the probability of needing It is much lower. Many Days (especially during the weekdays)in September- early December, January-Late February, and Later April to Mid-May many of the rides will be walk on or have minimal waits. So there may be need for Express pass for Rides like Escape from Gringotts or The Hulk Coaster. See it still has some value.
So how do you get this express pass and is there a "hack"?
It's pretty easy to get the express pass when you book a hotel stay or Universal Orlando Package and stay at one of the Beautiful resorts of Loews Royal Pacific Resort, Hard Rock Hotel® and Loews Portofino Bay Hotel. On your check in day, you will get your picture taken for each member of your party and issued the express pass that expires on the day at Park closing when you check out. So as long as you have a Valid Theme park ticket, you now have unlimited access for you entire length of stay. Pretty awesome!
Now for the hack that can be pretty frustrating to some.... Let me preface this that there are rumors out there that Universal is trying to shut down this hack, so it may not work for you if the do this.
People during peak travel period (Spring Break and holiday rush)will book 1 night stays at Loews Royal Pacific Resort and Hard Rock Hotel® in lowest room categories knowing that they will get 2 days of express passes for free, but they will not actually stay at the resort. They end up saving a TON of money on having to buy express passes. Not only do they get the Unlimited Express passes, the now also get the early park entry.
How much a deal is it? Let's say you have a Family of 5, Buying 2 days of Express passes at the Highest price range$189.99+tax that is going to be roughly $1899.99+ Tax. You have to buy theme park tickets also. A Standard 2 queen bed room, the least expensive room, Non Discounted at Loew's Royal Pacific for Adults on December 26th, 2021 runs roughly $784 for the night plus comes with for 2 days express pass and early entry into the parks for "free". That family of 5 just roughly saved $1115.90. Not a bad hack if you are trying to save money during the peak travel period times.
That family may not even stay in the hotel that night because they are staying at rental house, timeshare or maybe a lower end "cheaper" hotel in the area.
Could Universal close down this hack?
Yes because in the verbiage of their express pass benefit they have this clause. Additional restrictions may apply and benefits are subject to change without notice.
How could they close it down?
Add a length of stay clause during peak travel times in order to get the express pass.
Could Universal Be losing money on the hack, yes and no. With the express pass they are selling "air" to reduce your wait. While this may have value to you, I am going to let you in on a little secret..... The express pass benefits Universal more than it does you.... The more time you spend waiting in line, less time you are are buying food and souvenirs.
Halloween is upon us and that means there is no better time to share with you our adventure and tips from Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights. Universal Orlando Halloween Horror nightsis by far the best Halloween Party and Haunt in this country. Yes not only can you get scared, startled, shocked, and get a good laugh; it is definitely a party/nightclub atmosphere. This year at Halloween Horror Nights(HHN), Universal went a couple of different directions and moved away from some of the "safe" tried and proven elements they have had for the last 21 years. One of the biggest changes was that there was no Iconic Figure or theme for this year's event. Last Year's Icon was Lady Luck.I believe this was a good call by Universal because it didn't over shadow some of the bigger Icons that came with the Haunted Houses this year. So let's get down to it and tell you about the good, mediocre, and the fantastic of this event. Make sure you read all way to the end to find out some tips that will help you if you should decide to go to HHN in the future.
The Stage Shows:
It's time for Bill &Ted's Election Adventure
Astaple of HHN has been The Bill and Ted's Stage show. Each year the theme changes giving Bill and Ted chances takes jabs at Pop Culture for the past year. This year was no exception and this year controversy arose over the show and caused a change in the show half way through its HHN run. The show, which was in the old west stunt show/Fear Factor Live show arena, started out with a bunch of YouTube clips of people getting themselves Darwin Awards for doing stupid things.It keep the crowd groaning in sympathetic pains and laughing at the misfortunes of the not so bright.Showtime started out with a nice, seductive dance montage celebrating the end of the world and the Mayan Calendar. ( I had to explain it to the guy next to me that the dancer were Mayans, he was still too drunk to get it.) After some nice blindingly but fun pyrotechnics, we are then introduced to the stars of the show Bill and Ted. This year's show had Bill and Ted competing against each other and trying to earn peoples votes to become Class President. Que the jabs at Pop Culture. This year's show took jabs at everything from Katnis (from the Hunger Games) who kept "Volunteering" throughout the show, to Honey Boo Boo child(the actress did great job spoofing her), Mad Men, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Killer, The Avengers( the high school years), and in my opinion the best jab all being aimed at the Snow White characters that emerged from this year movies and TV Shows. All of the Snow Whites that we have known and come to love recently were fair game.They jabbed at Kristin Stewart from the Huntsmen noting that all her facial expression and acting were the same for every character she has ever played. Of course they also took a jab at Disney's Snow White with the Classic line" My name is Snow White, I live with seven men and my safe word is EPCOT."
As I did mention there was controversy with this year's Bill and Ted's show and it came in the form of an Epic Rap Battle betweenThe President and Mitt & Ann Romney. I really didn't pay much attention to this part of the show because it was the weakest, most uninteresting part of the show. The controversy goes that some people saw the skit too Pro-Obama and degrading towards Mitt Romney and the Mormon religion. To me it was just poorly paced and not funny.
The show's final dance number was great and so were the pyrotechnics. If find yourself at HHN, do not miss this show. Be forewarned this show is not for children and don't count on taking Pictures or Video of the show, they are very strict about allowing photography of any type during the show.
This year's new addition to the stage show line up was 20Penny Circus. Not much info was given out about this show before HHN or even on the park maps that were given out. I truly didn't know what to expect. We caught a glimpse of the show while waiting in line for The Walking Dead House on the big screen. From what we saw, we decided it wasn't worth going to see. Itwas basically an extreme side show attraction with comedy that most of the audience wasn't laughing at . We saw someone eating glass, putting a nail up their nose and couple of other not interesting magic tricks taken to the extreme.
mmm Peanut Butter
The Haunted Houses:
The amount of detail that Universal put into these haunts or haunted houses was amazing.Most of the houses were either built in former Soundstages or in storage areas. Some of the house were movie production quality and one just seemed like it was a last minute addition. (It may have been a last minute addition because of the construction happening that will TRANSFORM part of the studios.)I will list the houses in the order from Mediocre to the Best.(in my opinion)
7) Welcome to Silent Hill
I have never played the game and have never seen the Silent Hill movies , so this house left me confused. To me it seemed like someone was on a bad acid drip and tried to re-create their trippy nightmare. This house did nothing for me. No Scares and since I didn't play the games or see the movies, their attention to details were lost on me. I have no clue what the pink rabbit or pyramid headed stilt walker were suppose to be. Never got startled or scared in this house, very few screams from anyone were coming from this house.I give this one4 out of 10.
6)Universal's House of Horrors
This house was based on classic horror movies and monsters with characters like the Wolfman, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Frankenstein to name a few. There was really interesting lighting in this house to make you feel like you were in a Black and White movie. That is about all that worked for this house. There weren't many scares here. The make-up on some of the Characters was top notch and some of the props were outstanding. There was an awkward section where you had to duck low to get under something(this was the only haunted house to do this) and made no sense. There was no gore factor in this house at all and had the shortest line. I would rate this house a 5 out of 10, but still better than any other haunted house I have been in outside of Universal.
5) Dead End
This house hadlot of detail but really no story to go with it. This was a full blown house built in a soundstage.I am not sure how long this took to build but I think house had everything but working plumbing when it came to the time and detail they put in this. The only drawback to this house was since there was a continuous line of people going through, it didn't allow the actors in the house an opportunity to reset and actually scare people.( Yes, there were people that got freaked out, just not me because I saw it coming.) There really wasn't any gore factor in this house and it seemed like a classic haunted house done very well. I would give this house a 6 out of 10
4) Alice Cooper's Welcome to my Nightmare
This was an interesting house as it was themed to the music and imagery of Alice Cooper's music. It was like walking through a 3D demented music video and it was great how the music changed from room to room. The gore factor was kicked up a notch in here and was a house youcould go through more than a few times and have different experiences each time. This house had areas that allowed the actors time to re-hide or blend into the scenery to get the scare factor up and surprise people. Having seen Alice Cooper themed haunted house before at Six Flags FrieghtFests, this house by far made Six Flags houses look like child's play.I give this house a 7 out of 10 for gore, scares, and detail.
3) AMC's The Walking Dead, Dead Inside
This is the Haunted House I was most looking forward to. If you are a fan of the show this is a haunt you would want to go through over and over again to pick out the details from the Iconic Scenes they chose from Seasons 1&2.You start out in the hospital and see the boarded door letting you know that there are dead inside. You then begin to snake your way though the hospital encountering Walkers.Then you transition(poorly) from the hospital to the Department store in Atlanta. From there you come to the RV and appear to be on the farm and enter the Barn.There are a lot of walkers in the barn, even the well-walker from Season 2. After surviving the Walkers in the Barn you exit into Walkers in the Highway Scene from season 2 and see a message for Sophia.(Sadly I don't think Sophia will ever get the message).The only drawback to this maze was the transitions from scene to scene, which is understandable . This had a decent gore factor to it and the Walkers were great. I Give this maze a 8.5 out of 10. Well done Universal!
2) Penn& Teller's Newkd Las Vegas
This house was a mixture of Illusions, laughter, and gore. It was nearly perfect and in 3D. This house should be rated R at the bare minimum. Las Vegas has been Nuked and Penn&Teller do a wonderful job of spoofing what Vegas would look like after it has been mutated by radiation. As you enter near the Iconic Welcome to Las Vegas sign you encounter a vomiting animatronic and it only gets more interesting from there. There is everything from a mutated buffet, three breasted lady, and a great Christmas light type room that words can't describe, especially with people in the room that reach for you that blend in because they are covered with lights. There are some things that didn't work well in this house and that is because of the constant line of people being pushed through. One such thing was the mutated buffet because you had the opportunity on the back side to press buttons to add special surprise to people at the buffet, but the inability to stop didn't allow it work. One thing that I missed was that on Select nights Penn& Teller were actually part of the House and took the time to meet fans. Nice touch! I give this house a solid 9 out of 10.
1) Gothic
Gothic was by far my favorite house. It had surprise elements, no gore, and stunning scenes. In this house, Gargoyles came to life and even at times flying down at or over people.The scenes had a lot of great detail and you were actually made to feel as if you were climbing to the roof a gothic style church. If you are afraid of heights the final scene would be sure to get you because it was of looking down on a city from high above. It was extremely convincing and detailed, while you were mesmerized by the final scene, occasionally a surprise would catch you off guard and make you scream. I give this house a 9.5 out of 10.
The atmosphere:
Universal this year went away from the safe Scare Zone where Creatures of the night would conjugate and scare the living daylights out of people that dare walk through. Instead this year they made it clear that ENTIRE studios was going to be the Scare Zone. Some of the fans of HHN didn't like this, I on the other hand loved it and enjoyed the freedom that the creatures had. I witnessed them chase people into the Locker areas, scare people while they were eating dinner, follow people into gift shops, and show up in unexpected places.For me this really worked well!To add to the ambience there of course was plenty of Fog, special lighting, Flame throwers(yes Flame throwers),and mood music.There was also plenty of opportunity for those who wished to get drunk to partake in their beverage of choice, and boy did some people seize that chance. To add to the experience this year as well, Universal took advantage of using the Cinema Spectacular show in the lagoon to pay tribute to Classic Horror Movies and Monsters. This was really a cool idea and nice added piece of entertainment.
The pictures that I and many others have taken really don't do this event justice. Adam TheWoo on other was able to capture this video that does a pretty good job of capturing the entire experience. Check it out.
This is an event that I am going to try to make a tradition to come to and have learned a lot from my experience here. I have many tips but will limit them here to 10 very important ones.
1) Plan now for HHN 23 in 2013, save your pennies to get here!
2) This event is not kid friendly. I saw many parents( and drunk parents) that had brought their young children (maybe around 5 years of age) and the kids were traumatized. Also there is a big Night Club Atmosphere here. In the end, it is up to you if you think your kids can handle this and if they can't if you can afford the years of therapy they will need after this.
3) If you want to drink, stay on site, don't overindulge, and bring plenty of money cause the drinks are expensive. Again know when to stay when, Stay on Site so you don't drive drunk or at least bring a Designated Driver. BE RESPONSIBLE
4) Buy the Express Pass and buy it in advance! This year really had no "slow" nights and line were quickly over 90 Minutes long. While in past years the express pass got you front of the line access, this year it was only guaranteed to cut your wait in half. If you want to see all the Haunted Houses in one night, you will need the express pass.
5) Be patient, you are going to have to wait in line.
6) Show up to the stage shows at least A half hour before show time, even if you have an express pass.If you can, sit the back row, these are the only seats that have a "back rest".
7) Take your time on the streets of Universal Studios and look for all the detail that has been put into the event.
8) Contact a Travel agent like myself to plan your trip, the ticket options and packages can be confusing. A Travel Agent like myself will help you find the best deal for you and make your trip nearly stress free.
9) Bring your wallet, HHN can be expensive but is worth every penny.
10) I can't emphasize these two enough, This is not an event for children and if you drink be responsible!
Enjoy some of our other pictures and thanks for reading .Click on the pictures for larger Images! Tell us about your adventures at HHN!
Adam The Woo doing his thing!
Holding area before we were unleashed into the night!
WALKERS!
These Walkers look hungry!
Poor Sophia
This was only part of the line, it was 120 minutes at this point
This summer(2012) Universal Studios Florida became home to the new ride Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem. Despicable Me replaced the dated Jimmy Neutron ride that was showing its age with many characters featured in the ride the younger audience could not remember or relate to. We were one of the last people to ride Jimmy Neutron ride in the summer of 2011 and were excited to hear that it was being replaced. We were not so excited when it was announced that Jimmy Neutron would replace The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera when it got dated. Since I have had the pleasure of riding all three these family friendly adventures, I will have to say, Despicable Me is by far the best. I will even venture to say it is even much better than Shrek 4D, which is right across the street from it.
Despicable Me is one of the first attractions you encounter when entering the Studios and Gru's House is inviting you to come on in. You really don't need to be a fan of the movie Despicable Me to like this ride, but it maybe help if you have seen the movie and the Shorts that were released with it on Blu-Ray to really appreciate some of the inside jokes.( Banana!)
Universal knocked this ride out the park and did not skimp on anything when it came bringing the movie characters to life in this 3D adventure. The 3D is phenomenal and the story is, well heart-warming and comical. This ride has a huge re-rideablity factor(unlike Shrek 4D) because of how much is going not only in the ride itself but the Que and pre-show. Universal really did a wonderful job themeing this ride from exterior of Gru's house to ending dance party and photo op with the minions.
Getting my Groove on with a Minion.
While I will let some spoilers out of the bag here with some pictures, I will leave the actual ride experience for you to find out for yourself as you take on your own Minion Training.
Here are couple important tips for you.
1) There are bad seats in this ride. If at all possible(ask the ride op) try to sit in the middle of the ride theater. If you can't, don't take someone elses assigned seat.
2) Have fun at the Dance Party at the end of ride and make sure you look at some of the cool merchandise in store. There are some great photo ops here!
3) There are non-motion seats available make sure you tell the ride op you want one if motion isn't your thing!
4) Be prepared to ride this ride again. Kids(and most adults) will love this ride.
*****DISCLAIMER****** Now I am going to say something here that may get some Disney Fans upset, so cover your eyes if you are a Disney Fan( as I am). This ride is currently better than anything new that has been done by Disney in many years. Even Better than Mickey's Philharmonic. That's right it is better than a Disney Ride!
So make sure if your heading to Universal to Island of Adventure to see Harry Potter, get yourself Park to Park access so you can experience the Minions at Universal Studios Florida. Got questions on Universal Orlando or need a ticket or vacation package quotes be sure to ask me, I have answers!
Enjoy some of our pictures of Minion Mayhem.Click on the Pictures to make them Larger.
Good thing there are Tennis balls on those spikes.
Love the Family Tree
It's a Dog eats cat , lion eat dog world!
As you walk in Despicable Me is on the left, Shrek 4D is on the right. ALWAYS GO LEFT!
Hope you enjoyed the pictures and get a chance to enjoy becoming a Minion.
Disney and Universal really know how to immerse guest in ride experiences. They really excel in the dark ride genre.Their immersion for their rides comes in story lines, preshows(the detail put into the lines and waiting areas), and also in the technology that make their rides thrilling and appealing to all ages. These are the rides I feel are at the top of the game in all of central Florida and possibly across the United States.
5) Star Tours 2- The first trip was great, humorous and memorable. Now with multiple story lines and 3D, this ride has gone to a whole new level. Disney and George Lucas have done wonders with this re-imagined ride. The story lines are randomly chosen so it make re-riding this ride a must. The preshows areas are amazing and humorous with homages paid the original Star Tours. This is must for any Star Wars fan! Who am I kidding, you don't need to be a Star Wars fan to enjoy this journey.
MIB the ride at Universal Studios Orlando
4) Men In Black- This is a great interactive shooter ride. Universal Studios take the humor from the movies, adds a nice story line for theme park visitors, and sends riders shooting and spinning through town under siege. Everyone emerges as a hero with fun and surprise awaiting you around every corner. Men in Black will beckon you to re-ride and best your last score or see what you missed and make your opponent's car spin. There as scenes and characters from the movie in the preshow line, including the worms. While some may argue that Toy Story Mania is better, Men in Black has more depth and discovery than Toy Story Mania. Suit up and see if you have what it takes to Save the city.
3) Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. It's a classic dark ride combined with drop ride. It may not have the towering heights that some drop towers have, but it sure to give you plenty of air time and different drop sequences, something those other towers can't do. Themeing of this ride is by far one of Disney's best in all of the parks. There are great visual effects and I just love when the star field opens and the dropping and lifting begins. Be sure to try the penny trick.(Drop me a line and I will let you in it.)
What's up with that guy in the center...oh wait that's me.
Have fun storming the castle!
2) Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey- It's Harry Potter goodness and an over all great experience. To take it all in you need to ride it several times. I recommend sitting on the far right hand side, that is if you like dragon breath. The one flaw I see in this ride is that you do have the same story over and over and over again. This is something Disney has been able to out do Universal with when Star Tours 2 opened. That doesn't make this a horrible ride, it is by far one of the most interesting and fun rides out there. Make sure you look closely at the mist from the Dementor, you will see your own face. Oh if your afraid of spiders, you might want to skip this ride. The line is very entertaining as well. Since the line moves at different rates, you may not get to see all of the stories or spells that are cast. For example, once in the room where you meet Harry and gang, it started snowing and other times we got to see some interesting happenings from the paintings that are hung through out the line.
1)The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man- This ride just got a digital upgrade(which I won't be able to experience until the fall) and is getting rave reviews! This ride was getting rave reviews even before the digital upgrades. Harry Potter may be the new kid in town, but this ride in my opinion offers a more multi-sensory trip. This ride can leave you disoriented,feeling toasty from real flames, and allow you to battle side by side with Spider-Man against some of Marvels most fearsome Villains like Doc Oct and Venom. Universal has a winner on their hand here!
The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man has a big brother and technology upgrade out there that just opened up out in California. Transformers:The Ride. Ride reviews have been phenomenal about this new version of the Spiderman ride as Transformers. Maybe someday it will show up at Universal Orlando?
What are you favorite Dark Rides? Who do you think has the better rides?
