Well, it has been 12 days since our grand opening experience at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We have provided podcasts, photos, and a trip video of the remarkable new island at the great Universal theme park Islands of Adventure. What follows is a detailed trip report of the two crazy days we spent at Universal Orlando Resort.
I (The Beast) was already in Orlando for a convention I was attending that week. Rex flew into town on Wednesday night and spent the night at one of the worst motels in the greater Orlando area. I am surprised he made it through the night without contracting some kind of strange disease. After Rex checked us into the Hard Rock Resort at Universal, he and I hooked up at the airport where I was returning a rental car. From there, it was off to the Hard Rock Resort where we entered our room, dropped off our bags, and made our way to Islands of Adventure for a special VIP entrance into the WWOHP a day before it officially opened.
As we approached the new island from the side of the Lost Continent, we could tell that Universal was taking seriously the VIP only admittance. We were abruptly stopped and asked to see our "ticket." This made things very nice for us because we had no idea that the next day, on the official grand opening day, that we were going to see some of the longest lines in the history of theme parks! Yet, with our early admittance, we were able to leisurely walk through the WWOHP and even experience the Forbidden Journey ride with very little wait. Needless to say, we were completely blown away by the new ride and both of us ranked it higher than Spiderman, which is quite a statement after only one riding. To hear us talk in great detail about this amazing new ride, listen to this podcast.
From there, Rex and I were able to experience the amazingly incredible taste of Butterbeer. This non-alcoholic drink is the perfect mix of a frozen desert and butterscotch candy. You can also get it in a non-frozen, liquid form, but Rex and I agreed that the frozen Butterbeer was the way to go. This is a must purchase when you enter the world of Harry Potter at IOA. After snapping some pictures and looking around, we exited WWOHP and were excited about the grand opening festivities the next day.
Of course, any trip to IOA is not complete without a stop to Captain America's Diner. I secured a seat for us while Rex waited in a fairly long line for the food. It was great as always and we discussed the amazing adventure we had just experienced on the Forbidden Journey. Since we knew most of our time would be spent in IOA this trip, we decided to make a quick jaunt over to Universal Studios. Once inside the park, we quickly hit Revenge of the Mummy and MIB. Revenge of the Mummy was a great ride, all the effects and timing were cued perfectly. We unfortunately rode the right-hand track on MIB, which neither of us are very good at, so our scores were merely in the 200,000 range. A far cry from the normal 800,000-999,999 we normally score. Finally, we jumped on The Simpsons ride, which is a better ride than BTTF, but if you are in the back row, the ride is considerably less effective.
Well, Rex and I decided to call it a day from our park adventures and move on to where the real excitement is in the greater Orlando area. Fun Spot. After spending a grand total of about 4 minutes in Fun Spot, we moved on to bigger and better things. Namely, Red Lobster.
The alarm clock, which was my Ipod busting out Kiss' "Modern Day Delilah", rang out early and we crawled out of bed on Friday, June 18th, to make our way to the grand opening event. We had no idea what was in store for us. Even though we had early access to the park, the lines were already massive. Non-resort guests were already waiting to get in with lines backed all the way through CityPark. You can hear us describe the chaos on our podcast, but to make a long story short, it was going to take 3-4 hours to get into IOA, another 6-8 hours to get into WWOHP, and then another 2-3 hours to ride the Forbidden Journey or enter Ollivander's Wand Shop. That, my friends, is a lot of waiting. However, if there was ever an attraction to wait that long for, the WWOHP is the one. It truly does deliver and does not disappoint. Before the ceremonies began, Rex and I decided to torture ourselves and ride a completely empty Storm Force Accelatron. We were going to be the only riders on the attraction, which would have been pretty much unprecedented, until an 8 year old boy jumped in right at the last minute. That ride is brutal. From there, Rex and I viewed the dropping of the "envelope" led by Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) himself. It was a short and fairly unimpressive curtain drop, yet probably a good idea to keep it low key considering the thousands of people waiting to get in. The entire day was spent being amazed over the lines, interviewing folks, capturing video, and just having fun. In the middle of everything, we managed to enjoy a ride on Dudley and Popeye, always a good time!
The day went by quickly. Yet, Rex and I discovered that we had one more treat in store for us the next day. Resort guests, because of the lines during grand opening day, were going to get into the park and experience WWOHP at 6 am. Yep, 6 am. That is incredibly early to get out of bed when on RATB adventure, but we decided we had to try it. So we did. The process went remarkably smooth. We waited for about 1 1/2 hours before once again stepping foot inside the new island. We went straight to Forbidden Journey, which to our amazement was even better the second time than the first. We then rode Flight of the Hippogriff and Dragon Challenge. It was a nice surprise to be able to check out everything once again without all the crazy crowds around us. I made sure to purchase a chocolate frog, which was very good, and we took our time capturing all the amazement of the island. It was a wonderful day.
After offering our thoughts, concerns, and expectation about WWOHP for over a year, I am please to say that Rex and the Beast give it a big thumbs up and we highly recommend it to anyone who is a theme park lover. Check it out!
To see our pictures, click here
To view our video, click here
To listen to our podcast, click here
I (The Beast) was already in Orlando for a convention I was attending that week. Rex flew into town on Wednesday night and spent the night at one of the worst motels in the greater Orlando area. I am surprised he made it through the night without contracting some kind of strange disease. After Rex checked us into the Hard Rock Resort at Universal, he and I hooked up at the airport where I was returning a rental car. From there, it was off to the Hard Rock Resort where we entered our room, dropped off our bags, and made our way to Islands of Adventure for a special VIP entrance into the WWOHP a day before it officially opened.
As we approached the new island from the side of the Lost Continent, we could tell that Universal was taking seriously the VIP only admittance. We were abruptly stopped and asked to see our "ticket." This made things very nice for us because we had no idea that the next day, on the official grand opening day, that we were going to see some of the longest lines in the history of theme parks! Yet, with our early admittance, we were able to leisurely walk through the WWOHP and even experience the Forbidden Journey ride with very little wait. Needless to say, we were completely blown away by the new ride and both of us ranked it higher than Spiderman, which is quite a statement after only one riding. To hear us talk in great detail about this amazing new ride, listen to this podcast.
From there, Rex and I were able to experience the amazingly incredible taste of Butterbeer. This non-alcoholic drink is the perfect mix of a frozen desert and butterscotch candy. You can also get it in a non-frozen, liquid form, but Rex and I agreed that the frozen Butterbeer was the way to go. This is a must purchase when you enter the world of Harry Potter at IOA. After snapping some pictures and looking around, we exited WWOHP and were excited about the grand opening festivities the next day.
Of course, any trip to IOA is not complete without a stop to Captain America's Diner. I secured a seat for us while Rex waited in a fairly long line for the food. It was great as always and we discussed the amazing adventure we had just experienced on the Forbidden Journey. Since we knew most of our time would be spent in IOA this trip, we decided to make a quick jaunt over to Universal Studios. Once inside the park, we quickly hit Revenge of the Mummy and MIB. Revenge of the Mummy was a great ride, all the effects and timing were cued perfectly. We unfortunately rode the right-hand track on MIB, which neither of us are very good at, so our scores were merely in the 200,000 range. A far cry from the normal 800,000-999,999 we normally score. Finally, we jumped on The Simpsons ride, which is a better ride than BTTF, but if you are in the back row, the ride is considerably less effective.
Well, Rex and I decided to call it a day from our park adventures and move on to where the real excitement is in the greater Orlando area. Fun Spot. After spending a grand total of about 4 minutes in Fun Spot, we moved on to bigger and better things. Namely, Red Lobster.
The alarm clock, which was my Ipod busting out Kiss' "Modern Day Delilah", rang out early and we crawled out of bed on Friday, June 18th, to make our way to the grand opening event. We had no idea what was in store for us. Even though we had early access to the park, the lines were already massive. Non-resort guests were already waiting to get in with lines backed all the way through CityPark. You can hear us describe the chaos on our podcast, but to make a long story short, it was going to take 3-4 hours to get into IOA, another 6-8 hours to get into WWOHP, and then another 2-3 hours to ride the Forbidden Journey or enter Ollivander's Wand Shop. That, my friends, is a lot of waiting. However, if there was ever an attraction to wait that long for, the WWOHP is the one. It truly does deliver and does not disappoint. Before the ceremonies began, Rex and I decided to torture ourselves and ride a completely empty Storm Force Accelatron. We were going to be the only riders on the attraction, which would have been pretty much unprecedented, until an 8 year old boy jumped in right at the last minute. That ride is brutal. From there, Rex and I viewed the dropping of the "envelope" led by Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) himself. It was a short and fairly unimpressive curtain drop, yet probably a good idea to keep it low key considering the thousands of people waiting to get in. The entire day was spent being amazed over the lines, interviewing folks, capturing video, and just having fun. In the middle of everything, we managed to enjoy a ride on Dudley and Popeye, always a good time!
The day went by quickly. Yet, Rex and I discovered that we had one more treat in store for us the next day. Resort guests, because of the lines during grand opening day, were going to get into the park and experience WWOHP at 6 am. Yep, 6 am. That is incredibly early to get out of bed when on RATB adventure, but we decided we had to try it. So we did. The process went remarkably smooth. We waited for about 1 1/2 hours before once again stepping foot inside the new island. We went straight to Forbidden Journey, which to our amazement was even better the second time than the first. We then rode Flight of the Hippogriff and Dragon Challenge. It was a nice surprise to be able to check out everything once again without all the crazy crowds around us. I made sure to purchase a chocolate frog, which was very good, and we took our time capturing all the amazement of the island. It was a wonderful day.
After offering our thoughts, concerns, and expectation about WWOHP for over a year, I am please to say that Rex and the Beast give it a big thumbs up and we highly recommend it to anyone who is a theme park lover. Check it out!
To see our pictures, click here
To view our video, click here
To listen to our podcast, click here