Universal Studios Orlando

Jake Yono

JY Journalsim

4/5/24

Hey everyone, in this article I will not be mentioning sports at all but I will indeed be talking about my trip to Universal Studios in Orlando Flordia I just returned from last week, on this trip, my family stayed at the new Evermore Orlando Resort just 25 minutes from the park, a unique entity of the Evermore is that it has a man-made lagoon with sand surrounding it. I enjoyed this as there was also a beautiful golf course which I did not play well on. One complaint about this new resort is that the swim areas around the lagoon were very tiny as there was kayaking going on but it did not take up much space, also the security was very advanced and they did not let it play football in the small swimming zone. I’m giving the resort a break on this because they are just figuring this out as the resort opened in January of this year. This article entry is not about the resort it is going to be about Universal Studios which I and my family visited I went on every ride because I was blessed with the privilege of Universal Express Unlimited.

My first statement about this overall great park is that there were too many simulation rides except the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, I get it that it’s a studio but there were way too many attractions where you were stationary and the ride was moving a little bit such as the Minions Illumination ride and the Jimmy Fallon ride, for this ride I liked the queue which went over the Tonights Show history and some of the NBC history the ride didn’t live up to it as your just stationary the whole time and you're barely moving, although there were rides like this, there were some simulations that were moving in the ride in which my favorite one was the mummy ride, Fast and Furious had an amazing queue and story, the Simpsons ride was mostly stationary but also very funny at the same time, Men in Black Alien attack moved a little bit but it had an interactive shooting game with it. My least favorite attraction was the Minion Villian Con, it was just a game where you shoot at things on a screen pretty boring. Recapping all of this the Islands of Adventure park is more for thrill seekers while the Universal Studios park is more for simulation seekers who want a nice story with their ride. It was still very fun because of the Rip Ride Rockit but I will check out Islands of Adventure next time as there are more thrill-seeking rides there.

Let's now talk about the rides I enjoyed, for the most part, my obvious #1 for this park was the Hollywood Rip-Ride-Rockit, this was completely different from all the other attractions because it was a roller coaster and every single ride was some sort of simulation with some soft of the level of action, On the Rip-Ride-Rockit, I enjoyed how there were 2 main event worthy level drops, this is different from the standard roller coaster where it has 1 big main drop and the rest of the ride is below that level, Universal makes an excellent effort to create this thrill in their rides, in their other park Islands of Adventure the Vellosicoaster has a big acceleration in the middle leading up to the big drop and a barrel roll at the end, I love the music you get to choose because it makes you feel like that main character in Hollywood with your choice of background music. Overall this ride is an amazing part of Universal Studios.

How about we continue to the simulation rides where the 1 with the most action by far was Revenge of The Mummy with an indoor roller coaster track dropping and going forwards and backward, it also contained many elements such as water, wind, fire, no other rides in my opinion compared to this because the level of movement was low and stable. I’m not bringing hatred to any other rides but to me the action the more fun for me. Every ride was enjoyable because of the movement, humor, elements, interactions, Queues, and stories. The first ride I went on was the Minions ride, this contained a very long story in the queue and some action but not much on the actual ride. #2 was the Race Through New York with Jimmy Fallon, the queue had the NBC history in it and prefromers to resemble the Jimmy Fallon show, then I checked out the Transformers Ride which had a shorter less detailed queue but was a huge step up from the Minions and Jimmy Fallon overall a good ride, then the Rip-Ride Rockit which is self explanatory, then the Mummy ride which was #1 on my list for simulation rides of the park, after this was the Simpsons ride which was the best stationary simulation to me, after was MEN IN BLACK Alien Attack which was a slow moving simulation but had an interactive shooting game to get involved, then it was Fast and Furious Supercharged which I really loved the realastic queue and beat “BT Race Wars” and it had an amazing story, then Harry Potter which had some sort ov moving simulation but a mediacore ride of the many at both of the combined parks, then it was ET Adventure which was on the older side of attractions but still a good story but vary little movement on the ride itself, lastly my lease favorite ride was the Minions Villian Con which all you are doing is shooting at things with guns on a screen which is basically a video game, not my favorite kind of thrill.

To wrap it up Universal Studios in my opinion has way too many simulations and not enough rides it’s a life-changing park as some of the simulations have amazing details and queues such as Jimmy Fallon, Fast and Furious, and the Simpsons. Also, we cannot forget about the Hollywood Rip-Ride-Rockit in which you can pick your music and secret songs and it has 2 main drops in an all-star thrill-streaking ride. I also would like to say that I love how Universal pays attention to detail like no other in the queues with the characters, scenes, and artifacts, and throughout your whole experience. A park-like Cedar Point has higher thrills but almost nothing in the queue. This is a very debatable topic as to what riders prefer, a less thrill ride with more experience, or a high thrill with no experience at all. I have pictures and videos at the end of this article from my experience if you would like to check them out. Universal Studios Orlando is an amazing place for people who want to have an experience while still partaking in a thrill.