We were first able to luck out on our Disney passes by buying a 6-day park hopper plus last year, which was cheaper than this year’s ticket prices. We were planning on using only one day last year, because we only had time for one day, and thinking ahead, it seemed more logical to go ahead and get the passes since they never expire. The best thing is that if Disney ever raised their prices, which they did, the passes are still good for the same admissions. So for anyone heading down, I would suggest buying more days then you plan on spending in WDW and just save your tickets for another future vacation. Having Busch Gardens Williamsburg platinum passes; Busch Gardens Tampa and Sea World were already taken care of, including parking. After scouring the Internet, we stumbled upon the Universal 5 consecutive day pass, that was only available online for $90. This deal seemed too good to be true, even being cheaper than a two day two park pass, but it was directly from the Universal Orlando website, so we went ahead and bought them.
Normally I use Priceline for hotels, but in passing I caught an ad for Extended Stay America, which is primarily designed for business travelers, but seemed like a fine place, and best of all there was a location just across the street from Universal Orlando. At $36 per night for two people, it was difficult to pass up. So everything was set, and I began the 12 hour drive from Washington D.C. to Tampa, FL.
Day 1 Busch Gardens Tampa
I have been to this park a few times before, and enjoy the good mix of things to do in this park. We hit this park on Saturday, November 9, 2002, and as expected it got a little crowded. Even in November, Saturday is not the best day to try to get everything in this park done in one day. We had expected this and hit the big attractions early, Gwazi, Kumba, and Montu all before noon. We made sure to sign up for beer school and get free samples of fine A-B products at the hospitality house. A special treat was the special Big Band show that was running throughout the month of November at the Stanleyville Theater. On this weekend, they were doing a tribute to Frank Senatra, which was a great show. This gentleman who was singing the tunes was a dead ringer for Senatra, and all of his most famous tunes were highlighted. We passed on a lot of attractions in favor of the coasters, and partly due to the crowd. The smaller attractions are all nice, but on a crowded day you have to make priorities, and Montu and Kumba take precedence of Rhino Rally and Scorpion. Day 1 was good, but a crowded park limited our ability to really take full advantage of all of the attractions in this nice park. We then headed over to Orlando to check into our hotel.
Day 2 Sea World
We had deliberately planned on going to this park on Sunday because Jack Hanna was here for a visit. Entering the park near opening time, we first checked for special tours and events for the day. We decided to sign up for the Polar Encounter. After that, we headed over to the dolphin lagoon for feeding time. This is a very cool experience for those who don’t have the money or desire to go to Discovery Cove, and is also a good way to kill time waiting for Kraken to open. Then it was time to hit the rides, with Kraken first on the list. 4 rides later we headed over to Journey to Atlantis for a couple of rides and then back over to Kraken after a second train was added for a few more rides. Before we knew it, it was time for our Polar Encounter that included a behind the scenes look at the Wild Arctic exhibit, and highlighted by a chance to pet a penguin. The hour-long tour was very cool and highly recommended. We checked out Clyde and Seamore and Jack Hanna’s show and then back over to Kraken for a couple of final rides before we were pried from it’s oh so comfortable seats for closing time.
Day 3 Disney/MGM Studios
This was one of the 4 parks that I hadn’t been to before, and was really looking forward to it, but was a little worried visiting it on a holiday (Veteran’s Day). This seemed like the best option since it allowed us to avoid the “magic hour” parks every day we were in WDW. I was actually surprised to see the park so sparcely crowded for a holiday. We wanted to make sure to get into a Millionaire show, so we went over to it’s pavilion to get a fast pass, which we later found was unnecessary. Then it was on to ToT and RnRC. Tower of Terror more than met my expectations, and is now one of my top 5 rides of all time. Rock n Roller Coaster was not bad, but not really that great. I’m sure Florida residents are great to have it, since is gives them a LIMs coaster to ride, albeit not a great one. The other attractions were good, but in the shadow of the Tower of Terror, they just seem pedestrian. Overall, though, MGM turned out to be a great park, and to finish it off with Fantasmic was awesome. Most people say this, and I would tend to agree, this is WDW’s best park right now.
Day 4 Animal Kingdom/EPCOT
We had been to EPCOT last year, but never to Animal Kingdom. After checking out reviews and the like we though we would be able to cover these two parks in one day. Starting in Animal Kingdom, we headed straight to Dinoland USA and rode everything there with the highlight being Dinosaur, an incredibly scary adventure that is one of Disney’s finest creations. We next watched the bird show and did the Asia walk-through and Kali Rapids. After the overrated safari and the wonderful It’s Tough to be a Bug, we chose to watch the Festival of the Lion Kings over Tarzan Rocks. At 3:00 we realized that we had done just about everything in the park, aside from Tarzan Rocks, and we satisfied with leaving to head over to EPCOT. We entering EPCOT we went directly to Test Track and then over to Journey Into Imagination, which wasn’t open last year when we visited this park. Next we went to the World Showcase and took full advantage of the Food and Wine Festival. We got a number of samples, and attended the Sam Adams beer school, much better that A-B’s, but Sam Adams’ is only here a few weeks each year. We had the advantage of only having 15 people in the class, but over 30 servings of beer poured for a capacity class. Let’s just say we had more than our share of free beer!!! Unfortunately, the night ended on a slightly sour note with a major line of thunderstorms coming through about 7:30 PM which in turn cancelled Illumi-Nations. The day turned out to be a success in completing Animal Kingdom with time to fully experience the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival. The festival is a great even and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting in late October/early November. Animal Kingdom was actually a lot nicer than we had expected, but there’s just not enough to do here yet to fill a complete day.
Day 5 Magic Kingdom/EPCOT
Since the Magic Kingdom was closing at 6:00 this day, we chose to head over to EPCOT to try to catch Illumi-Nations since the weather forecast looked favorable. The Magic Kingdom still has it’s magic and we had a great time riding some of the rides that were still emblazoned in our childhood memories. From Big Thunder Mountain to Haunted Mansion to Space Mountain, we rode pretty much everything in this park, so you can probably tell it wasn’t very crowded at all. Mickey’s toontown was skipped along with the Indy Speedway and Golden Carousel. Space Mountain is still this park’s best ride, which means Disney has a lot of work to do to appeal to today’s families. Even little kids need bigger and better things, and this park should try a little harder to keep up with the times. We took the monorail back to EPCOT, where we parked in the morning and managed to get into a tasting for Escelon Wines. After that we ate a nice dinner at the Moroccan restaurant complete with dancing and musical entertainment, and a wonderful meal that was the best of the week. Illumi-Nations went off without any problems other than its many changes from the last time I had seen the show in 1990. I would highly recommend checking out EPCOT on days that the Magic Kingdom closes before 8:00, and eating a really nice meal in the most beautiful of the Disney Parks, especially at night!
Day 6 Islands of Adventure
After being taunted by the Universal parks for 4 days, especially since they were just across the street from our hotel it was finally time to check out what is rated the best theme park in the world by Theme Park Insider. The 20-minute walk was a little longer than expected, but a good trade-off to the $8 parking fee. When entering the park I was pleased to see the ID verification for multi-day passes. A signature or picture ID is required to use your signed pass. This is something Disney should look into, as well as a way to recover days from a lost or stolen pass. We headed straight to Spider-man, and were impressed with Universal’s themeing. They have really tried to take Disney head on, and for the most part hit the mark. Spider-man was an incredible totally immersive ride, but after three times, the last couple rooms still seemed a little disorienting. As a whole though, Spider-man is right up there with the best rides in the world. Hulk was a cool coaster, especially with the launch, which I was surprised to notice in not LIMs powered. The coaster as a whole though is not quite as powerful as either Kraken or Kumba. Dr. Doom’s Fear Fall was next, and was my first experience with an S&S ride. It was a neat experience, but as drop rides go it takes a far back seat to Tower of Terror at MGM. We then checked out Seuss Landing and the rides in that area, before going to Dueling Dragons. We were a little disappointed to see only one train on each track which made the lines go really slow, fortunately the park wasn’t too crowded. The rest of the park was really uneventful, aside from the total drenching we received from Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls. I think this park is a little overrated, with it’s hype probably created by residents who now have a legitimate alternative to the mouse in Orlando that is thrilling for all ages, which is a great thing. I was mostly disappointed in the total number of rides. I could only imagine what this park must be like during peak season, since just about every ride here is a “big” ride. I was, however, pleased with the Universal Express system, and favor it over Disney’s Fastpass.
Day 7 Universal Studios Florida
Of all the parks we visited, this ended up being my favorite for a one-time visit. Men in Black: Alien Attack is really the only ride here that is re-rideable, but there’s plenty to do here to fill a day. T2 was an incredible experience, and E.T. was a beautifully themed ride that should not be taken for granted. Twister was a little disappointing and the Horror Make-up Show wasn’t as funny as I thought it would be. MIB, though is a great ride, and we got hooked, riding it for almost 2 hours. Universal Studios is a great park with lots of things to do, and should not be overlooked just because there’s something new across the street.
Day 8 Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios
Lots and lots and lots of rain made the parks empty and ripe for the riding. Hulk was closed, but Spider-man was open, and a few rides later we were somewhat tired of it and got sufficiently we riding Dueling Dragons. Note: Do not ride in the front seats of the Dragons on a rainy day, or bucket of water will end up in your lap! The rain didn’t hamper your enjoyment of these two very cool coasters too much, but again one train on each track really slows things down, especially when there are different loading and unloading platforms. We then headed over to USF and rode MIB for over 3 hours, and I still couldn’t get to 999,999. I guess I’ll have to come back another time. I was surprised to see a totally enclosed ride so empty on a rainy Saturday, but not disappointed.
After all was said and done, we had hit just about every ride, show, and attraction in 8 theme parks in a week with tons of time to spare to ride our favorites again. All 8 parks are great with Busch Gardens Tampa being the most complete park, and Universal Studios being my favorite of the week, mostly due to the Men in Black: Alien Attack and being the most sparsely crowded of all of the parks we visited. Disney has some serious competition now, but they’re doing a decent job of keeping up with MGM Studios and the new attractions at EPCOT along with the highly anticipated opening of Mission: Space. I highly recommend visiting during the first few weeks of November to avoid the crowds and the added bonuses of the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival, and a probable visit from Jack Hanna to Sea World or Busch Gardens Tampa. These weeks fall right between the Halloween craziness and holiday rush, and despite the Veteran’s Day holiday, the crowding was minimal (the longest line we waited in, aside from Fastpass and Universal Express, was 25 minutes for the front seat of Montu). One of my best vacations to date, and I hope to do it again in a year or two!
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Why does everyone rate Dinosaur so highly? It is just like Spiderman at IoA with puppets. Okay, so the puppets roar and appear to fall off the hinges while showing no facial expressions, but they're still just puppets. And that time warp bit at the beginning and end. LIGHT BULBS PEOPLE! I would have thought that all over Disney's billions of dollars could have paid for something a bit more elaborate than a room full of static light bulbs.
Or am I on my own with my crazy ideals here? Surely some one agrees?
Nor was the motion on the ride vehicle enough to make it at least a good thrill ride in the dark.
Poor motion. Poor effects. Poor show. So, a poor attraction in my book.
That said, I've heard from several people who love the thing. Which makes me wonder if the quality control's a problem here. Are some people getting a better ride than I did?
Any Disney CMs care to weigh in on that?
Going back to the darkness. I don't understand why people have such a problem with it. Space Mountain is dark. There is more to see in Dinosaur than SM. Indy has its dark moments also. But you are usually stopped or going slow in those dark scenes. The motion of the jeep is much more exciting in the dark.
As for the dinosaurs, I don't get the complaints there either. The Jurassic Park River Adventure is just a slow version of Dinosaur. You can see the dinos better on JPRA, but then you also see them for so long that you can't help but think about how they aren't real. At least CTX never gave you time to think about that.
Still, Dinosaur is lame because of the slowness. Speed it up!
I don't think Robert would appreciate the language necessary to describe that on his site.
BUT...
I think darkness helps on Dinosaur. It makes you feel trapped, and when you think of the amount of money they would have had to have ploughed into that project for it to have worked otherwise, I think you can understand Disney's reasoning.
IMHO.
Darkness works on Space Mountain, because the theme of the thing is you're supposed to be "flying" through space.
But on Dinosaur, I'd like to see some, well, *dinosaurs.* And being dark kinda makes that hard to do.
Granted, dim light makes things a bit more moody, a but more menacing, than would bright daylight. Been when the gloaming becomes so dark I can't see the dinos themselves, you've defeated its purpose. Unless, you're simply trying to cover up your lame dinosaurs and cut-rate effects. Which, unfortunately for Disney, was the impression I was left with after riding.
