PreTrip fun
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I wake up, 4:30 am on April 2nd, 2004. Anticipation growing. I knew in about 7 1/2 hours, I would be in sunny Orlando, Florida, maybe getting a chance to ride Revenge of the Mummy, one of the most hyped up rides ever at Universal theme parks, during its soft opening stage. So, right out of bed I walk, well run to change my clothes, grab a poptart, wake up mom, and force her to leave for Newark International Airport. On the way there, we hit no traffic whatsover, whic le us arrive at the airport just on time, 7:00am. Our flight wasat 8:30am, which gave us just enough time to go through all the safety procedures with luggage etc... By the time we ate breakfast and looked around, it was 8:05, so it was time to board the plane. Now, I haven't been on a plane in 5 years, so I was very excited. After about 20 minutes of boarding, we started to slowly move. After about 5 minutes of just slow movement, something caught my eye. OMG, is that it, I can't beleive it's there, I ahve been dreaming of this for my whole life.... I was only 100 feet from Hooters Air!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, after I settle don, i realized that we were gaining speed. Lots of speed. We started to rise. Within 10 second we were hundreds of feet above the ground. What a great view of NYC. 2 hours later we were there, Orlando International Aiport. What a nice airport. I ran, with luggage in hands, to the tram which would transfer us to te main airport. Ther we met our shuttle to the Hard Rock Hotel, which we would stay for the next 5 days and 6 nights. While driving there, I saw something that made me nearly cry. The bomb on Bomb Bay at Wet N Wild was tooken down ;-( I knew right then and there I would hate Wet N Wild. Well we made a hard left turn, and all of a sudden something big and brown with a yellow top started to form shape. I knew what it was, but then I saw it. Twisted green and white steel, beautifully shining on the horizon. It was the big, nasty green giant known as the Incredible Hulk Coaster. I rolled down the window and started yelping like a little dog. We then proceeded right, further from Islands of Adventure, but another shape started to take form. It was big and yellow, with writing I couldn't read I knew what it was, though. The entrance to Universal Studios Florida!!! After another few yelps, I saw something else that caught my attention. This time, it wasn't someting in a theme park, it was my new home, the Hard Rock Hotel! And man is this hotel something. It is so big, and sooooo beautiful. We make the left, where we enter a HUGE courtyard, and smack dab in the middle of it is aout 20 guitars in a circle, with water shooting up around it. After we were dropped off, we checked in, but room wasn't ready yet. This was good news for me because I knew I would be in USF within an hour! We were handed our hotel keys for unlimited express passes (which would make the price of the hotel worth it later) and we were on our way to the back of the hotel. We passed the cool pool, which I would never go in, and walked down a sinny pathway to the parks and CityWalk. But, with my luck, our trip would be delayed 15 minutes because of an evil fence. After about 15 minutes of trying to open it, another family came over and opened it in 5 seconds. We didn't know we had to press a button and pull a bar up :-/ Anyway, walking to USF was awsome, because I knew vacation as only beginning. Within 5 minutes, I saw it. The Universal globe, with water and mist around it, the IOA lighthouse in the backround, and the USF entrance to the right. All that kept going through my mind was, "Please god let me ride the Mummy, I will give my soul to ride it." Soon, after all the months of torturing myself if I would ride it, I finally rode it....

After pondering the Universal globe for a few minutes, and taking pictures left and right, we made a hard right turn into the HUGE USF entrance. And by huge I mean HUGE. It is one of my favorite entrances of all time, and it looks so good lit up at night. Let me say this, the 5-park orlando flex ticket is a life saver on crowded days. First of all they give you a shuttle to each park so no crowded parking lots, and you can skip the lines at the gates and just go to where they scan the ticket. And that is another coolthing Universal does. Instead o he classic give me your ticket to rip and enter, they scan it to make sure its valid, and make you sign a paper to make sure its yours (only for flex ticket) Another thing is re-entry of the park. You need your original ticket and hand stamp to nter the park(s). This is a very good idea IMO. SFI and CF should start doing this so not just anybody cane enter the park, or stealing from people then entering with their ticket. Well after the ticket scan and security check, we were on our way. As soon as you eter the park, you are thrust into movie heaven. Walking down main street is awe inspiring. To your left, Nickelodean Studios and Twister. To your right, T2:3D and Shrek 4-D with MIB and BTTF looming n the backround. As we keep advancing down USF's Maint street, my anticiption grows. Then, something to the right catches the corner of my. It was big and yellow. I knew what it was. As we walked closer, you could read the signs. On top, "Revenge of the Mummy" and on he bottom, "Museum of Antiques" What a building it is. At the entrance, I noticed something. No express Bummer. And as I as walking through the entrance, they made my mom take off her fanny pack and put it in a locker. So, we made a dash for the lockers, and notice there are no keys. So, I worry, but watch everybody crowding around computers. I soon realize that you have to put your fingerprints in to get a locker. Well, let's just say this caused much havoc amongst guests. Nobody knew what they were doing, and some couldn't get in their lockers. Well, I put in my fingerprints 2 times, one to verify, locker opens up, we put the fanny pack in the locker, and it is off to ROTM!!!!

Revenge of the Mummy
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Yay, the sign says only a 30 min wait. So, we go into the standby entrance, an walk into the Paradise theater, where a big ROTM banner is shown. We procede to the left, where we enter a dark room with tv monitors everywhere but I will get into the video a little bit later. We then enter a second dark room, with the same monitors and video. Sorry about the descriptions in these rooms, I was only in these particular ones twice, on the first day, so memory is slightly fuzzy. Anyway, we then go to the outside quene, but only a sliver of it. Warning to all who visit USF in the summer: if the whole outside quene is filled, just walk away. Anyway, we make a left into the old Kong building. Here we see a couple cool props. To the left, you see a camera and reel from the new Mummy movie they are shooting. To the left, we see another video monitor. I guess I will explain the best quene video ever now: Ok, it is about everybody from the Mummy movies talking about their experiences, and some clips from the movie. In that, Brendon Frasier talks about how the loclas in the town the movie was shot in believed in an evil spirit named Imhotep. The only thing that can protect you from him is the Medjai symbol, which you will beome very familiar with later in the qne. There is a cast member named Reggie who is funny and always gets picked on by Brendon Frasier. There is one funny part in the video that shows Brendon Frasier asking a coffee person for coffee, and she says the greatest line ever...."No Medjai no service" He goes crazy lol. Anyway, we then proceed to the next room in the quene. This one has a couple models used in the movies and the same video on the monitor. We then proceed into a hallway, where we see a sign that says "Welcome to our technical rehersal, we hope you visit again when all of ROTM' effects are put in" Cool. Anyway, we then proceed into the next room. This room is themed to a dark Egyptian tomb. You will see hyroplyphs on the walls and a stone in the middle of the room with place to put your hand. If you do put it on, lights will flicker, and the ceiling above you will turn into a Medjai symbol. As we keep progressing through here, we see a live video that shows people in the quene. Neat stuff. Anyway, we go into another hallway, which has a hole in the wall. In this hole, you will see some sort of 3D image. If you put your hand in there, a bunch of air will suprise you. After this, we enter my favorite part of the quene, the finding of a statue of a pharoah. This keeps a theme of an architectual find. As we go up the stairs, we see employees trying to scare us. One employee tried to scare my mom, and her reaction was, "excuse me" Anyway, we go up the stairs and meet a split in the line. Since there are twin stations, this is needed. We choose the left on our first trip. When we finally reach the employee, he assigns us to row 5, the last row. WOO-T!!!!!.....

Sounds awsome. I can't wait until my sep trip to Florida. Did you find any good discount cupons?

__________________

Carolina Panthers 2008 NFC South Champions! 12-4
Divisional Playoffs: vs. Arizona
Go Panthers! The only NFL team with a PURRFECT 8-0 home record!!
#1 North Carolina Tarheels: 13-1

*Clears throat*

Anyway, our train rolls into the station, and we board. 4 people per row. As I boarded, I noticedhese trains aremuch more comfortable and bigger than Premier's old trains. We pull down our lap bar, and are ready to go! We make a slight bend to the right, and come to a stop. We see the track switch to our track, and we start rolling. We go into a short straightaway, and curve right. We then here Reggie saying, "Are you insane, get out of here, the curse is real, look for the Medjai symbol, it's your only hope but watch out for the...." All the while wesee a mummified eggie shaking like crazy. This will be removed soon as it is only a soft opening. Then you see a light flash on a golden face (again, animatronic will be installed here) and you hear Imhotep say silence and some gibberish. We keep rolling along, and make a left, and on the wall to our right we see some hyroplyhics lit up and on par with the trains movemenet. We then move into a straightaway and Imhotep reveals his face on a giant screen. This CGI is awsome. Anyway, he reveals his riches he can offer us. In that instant, we see to our right and left golden treasures lit up. If you look closely to the left, you see a golden Kong statue. You gtta love Universal Creative for making a tribute to he monkey. Anyway, he then says surrendur your souls, which 3 mummies on ech side of th train pop up. These beautiful pieces of art are so good looking. The detail is amazing to me. Anyway, we then make a right and a dead end. The train stops very adruptly, and we see a scarab beetle. Then another. Thn anoter. Then 1,000,000 come crawling down and to the sides. This is so real, and is scary as hell! We then do a slow launch backwards, and stop. The rotating track roatates. In the meantime, Imhotep says, "Not even the Medjai can save you now." Not true, but anyway....We see purple and blue bublish things, and we make our way up a hill. We see another Imhotep CGI, ad he says, "your souls are mine" We then make a nice launch up hill, through Imhotep's mouth, which is filled with green fog, and make our way down a 30ft hill at 50 degrees. Airtime is good, and we then make a right turn. After that, we go through many twists, turns, and drops, all the while passing cool lit up mummy's. We then make a right hand turn into a fake station. You think it is is a real station, so you are ready to leave. But, you then see the ride op's shadow, and her flesh is tooken off, then the window beaks (you get sprinkled with water here), and you hear Imhotep say some gibberish. There you will see fire come from the torches, and it goes up the wall, onto the ceiling. This is a cool effect, and it gets really hot in there. After that, Imhotep says one of the greatest lines ever, "Death is only the beginning!" We then launch slowly into my favorite drop of the ride, right into orange mist, up and over into a semi helix, into a small bunny hop, where you see the Medjai symbol. In the end, you see a Brendon Frasier video that says, "Welcome back, you did great. Now where is my cup of coffee!!!" In that instant, you see a shadowy figure pass by him, and a mummy give him a cup of coffee, he says thanks, then you see a shadow cover him, and you hear him scream. You then roll into the unloading platform, where everybody claps and cheers. The ride op says great job, and you then procede to the exit where you enter the cool gift shop and look at your picture....

Overall: 9/10

Good things: Great story, great theming, cool effcts, what was used was used to the max, very good coaster part, and the feeling of I want more, let's ride again.

Things that need improvement: Stop at movie part so you actually see the whole movie, some theming in first rooms in quene, and not so strict employees.

Notes: Awsome ride. All that needs to be done is added Reggie animatronic, Imhotep animatroni at beginning, and Imhotep animatronic at fake unloading station. Great ride, best ride at USF. This will be a major peole attracter in the summer, so get a express pass or go in single rider line. Good capacity, too.

Times ridden: 4 times

sir! You have followed my example and have written a well detailed TR. Well done....

__________________
HANNAH MONTANA!!!!!!!!!
TAKING THE WORLD BY STORM!!!!!
"I'm living proof....THAT GIRLS CAN ROCK!!!!!!"

After buying my photo and looking at the Mummy shop (Sahara Traders) I make a left to head for San Francisco area. Boy was it hard to leave ROTM, but I mananged to. After a short walk, my mom decides to get a cup of coffee at Starbucks. As I waited, I took pictures o the area. After she came out, we were on our to Earthquake. As we approach the building, I see the wait time is 45min. Yay, I get to cut that big line with my express pass!!! That alone is worth the hotel charge. Anyway, after my mom finished her coffee, we were on our way....

Earthquake
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After flashing my hotel key to the rideattendant, we waited in an outside tent area with about 50 people. While waiting to enter the building, they decide to double check the validity of our keys with a laser gun thing. Within 10min, they open up the doors into the building. In this first room, we are greeted to three windows with a city in the backround, and black and white picture on the walls of the major earthquake in San Francisco, which occured in the 1920's or 1930's. Once everybody entered, the doors closed and an attendant grabs a microphone and starts to talk. He explains that those pictures are from a man's attic, which were donated to Universal. He said they are very rare because the city didn't want any bad publicity because of the disaster, so they burned all the pictures of the earthquake up. He then explains how thy make rain and snow effects in movies. This is why those windows are there. First, he shows us how they make rain, and shows the city when it's raining. He then explans how they make snow, which is from cut up chicken feathers. He shows us the quick show, then opens the door to the next room in the quene. Here, he explains how they show disasters in movies, which is made by scale models. He then shows us a video of the stars of Earthquake, explaining how deadly they are and the process of making the movie. The doors open up to the next room in the quene. Here, we see a big green screen and equipment to our right. He picks out 3 voluenteers, and shows them doing stupid things in front of the screen, which projects images from different places on the tv screens. Then, he picks out another voluenteer, and sows how they make crashing effects in he movies. He drops her ino a soft cushon, with a crashing sound, and then he says we will now be in a 8.1 eartquake. The doors open to the next room, which is the loading platform. After the other train comes back, we load into a model subway train. fter everything is clear, we start moving foward. After about 20 seconds of just riding around, we make a stop. You hear the attendant say some things that a earthquake is happenning, and some other stuff. All of a sudden, to yor left, you se the roof beak, exposing the city, and a bus rolls down into the subway. To your right, you see gallons of water flow into the subway station, with some fire effects in the backround. Out of nowhere, a ride attendant comes out and says we survived. We then roll backwards into the station, exit the train, and are back in the hot Florida sun.

Rating: 4/10

Good things: Ok effects, idea is good.

Things that need improvement: Please god stop with the preshows, horrible ride, outdated special effects, attendant coming from the subway and not panicking, and just everything.

Notes: Worst ride at USF.

Times ridden: Once

After a ride on the worst "thrill" (yea right) ride in Florida, it was on to the Amity area. But, something caught my eye as I was walking to my next destination. It was big and purple, with orange circles, and white rope underneath. YES!!!!!! Theme park basketball!!! One of the most impossible games in the world. I shelled out 10 bucks for 8 shots. On my 1st shot, the ball hit off the backboard. On the next 2, I aired it. After feeling embarresed, I threw up two that hit the rim. On the next one, I could feel it. The way the ball rolled off my fingers, I knew. The way the ball spun, I knew. It went up, like a orange god, right in the hoop. WOW! I won a theme park basketball game! On the next two, I threw up off the backboard shots, but who cares! I knew, after all the money I spent, I'd get a huge prize. But, since theme parks ae cheap, they gave me a used basketball. I was dissapointed, and chucked it away. After being PO'd, I walked into Amity, where I saw a great white shark hanging from a wooden poll. I knew I was close, but I couldn't find the entrance to Jaws. After 5 minutes of searching, I finally realized it was right in front of me.

Jaws
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45 minute wait. God, staying at the onsite hotels is a blessing! I look to see whre the express entrance is, flash it, and walk into the wooden housed quene. After walking through a maze of switchbacks, we finally reach the loading platform. 5 minute wait. In the meantime, I looked around. Not a very exciting quene, looks just like red lobster without the food. Anyway, after the 5 min, we boarded a cool ferry. Our ferry guide welcomes us and we start moving. In the first scene you see beautiful Amity. While moving, the tour guide tells us about Amity etc... Then, she gets radio'd by another ferry guide. He says that they are in trouble and need help. As we go around the corner, we see a sunken boat. The tour guide freaks out as if this is real. Very good actor might I add. Then, to the left of the boat, we see something floating on top of the water. It is white and triangular. It's JAWS! WOOT! The tour guide freaks out, and takes out her rifle. Now, why the hell would she have a rifle with her!?!? Anyway, after a couple shots, it goes underwater, and it starts shaking the boat. Out of nowhere, it pops up, just like in the movie, and tries t take a chomp out of us! Looks pretty real, too. She takes a few more shots. Finally, she realizes she can't kill it, so we move into a shack for some shelter. Our guide says we will be safe there, but we know this won't keep Jaws out. A minute later, we se that Jaws has entered, so we zoom out of the shack into water again. Out of nowhere Jaws tries to take a chomp out of us, again. This time he is all cut up. She takes a few more shots at him, and eventually hits a gas tank, which sets Jaws on fire. Now, something very scary happens, and will haunt me for the rest of my life. We see a burned up Jaws, and the tour guide makes fun of him. This would traumatize me if I was like from the age of 1-8. Anyway, Jaws yet again tries to eat us, but our tour guide shoots him one more time ad finally kills him for good. After that, she says phew ......good job, and thanks us for the ride.

Sorry, wouldn't fit in one post...

Rating: 8/10

Good points: Awsome tour guide, great effects, awsome looking Jaws.

Things that n...eed work: More reason for tour guide having rifle, more backround on the history of Jaws, maybe in a preshow video ala BTTF?

Notes: Great ride. Classic. Great atmosphere around the ride. I feel it needs some work on the backround of Jaws, though. One of my favorite rides at USF, great for anybody over the age of 8.

Times ridden: Once

We the exit to the right, and head for our next destination, which is hailed as the best ride at USF by many...... Men In Black: Alien Attack.........

After taking a few photos of me and the fake shark, we are on are way to World Expo, the land where MIB and Back To The Future reside. In the distance, I could see it. Clear as day. The big white building, with circular window type thing, and two white towers wit yellow spheres on top of them. Wow is this building so cool looking. It looks just like what I would envision a MIB headquaters to look like. Before actually going up to the building, I step onto a bridge type pathway, right across from MIB, and take about 10 pictures and a video of MIB. After I take all those pics, I make a left and go onto the pathway that took me to MIB. As I walk closer, the building just grew and grew and grew. This building is HUGE. Anyway, before actually entering, I go to check out the sign, for even more pictures. After that, I flash my hotel key, and start to enterthe quene.
Men In Black: Alien Attack
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The wait time sign said 60min. Yeah, that showed me that this privelege is too good for the 300 a night. After we flashed our hotel key, we make a left, passed the outside quene, and another left into the inside part of the quene. Even the inside looks very much like the movie. After walking straight for about 50 feet, we go up a flight of stairs, parrallell to the normal quene. If you look straight, you see a circular screen, showing a cool video. If you look down, you see 2 aliens moving around and doing their thing. We proceed to another room, where a zig zag or two greets us, with a screen to our left. This screen shows us what to do in the car we will be boarding and how to use the gun. Under the screen, we see a wide assortment of cool guns we can zap the aliens with (sorry, you can't choose which one you want for the ride) Anyway, after the zig zags we enter the loading station. We make a left, go down a flight of stais, and are greeted by a ride attendant. This ride attendant directs us to our car, on our right. This side is just for express pass users. She leads us to the second row, the last row. After waiting for our car to pull up, we enter and move all theway down. Here, we put any loose articles in the net in front of us. This is suc a good idea. They should do this for coasters, but the nets would have a zipper on them so nothing would fall out. After pulling down our lap bar, we are set to go. We roll into our first scene, which has many pop up aliens. This ride is really hard to explain, but it is just all pop up aliens. After about 5 alien scenes, we see a video with Will Smith in it, telling us that a alien is in Time Square. We make a right and see a HUGE alien. Here, you will get the most points from shooting a single alien on the ride. We then enter the alien via his mouth, and start spinning uncontrolably through fog and some strobe lights. We then exit the mouth, they show us our vehicles score, the president of MIB talks to you, then we see a video of Will Smith saying we did good but not good enough, and neurolizes us. We then exit the vehicle in the unloadng station, and walk up a long fight of stairs. If you look back to the black wall, you will see a sign that says, "The Universe and Us" After the long flight of stairs, we enter the very big MIB store. Here you will find one of the best stuffed animals from any movie ever, the bulldog from MIB in a tuxedo. After gauking around, we finally exit out of the large sphere and to our next destination.
Rating: 9/10
Good points: Very interactive, fun factor is very high, very addictive, themed to one of the best Universal movies ever, and good theming.
Things that need impovement: Longer time spent in aliens mouth, some not so fake looking aliens, and everything else is perfection.
Notes: 2nd best ride at USF. The idea to have a HUGE video g...am as an attraction, is just amazing. It is a very fun ride that will keep you wanting more. You should see this ride at night, also. It is amazing looking, as it is purple with white stars scattered everywhere.
Times ridden: Twice
*Extra*Highest score: 108,525

After exiting the MIB gift shop, we make a left to our next destination, the ride that defines classic, Back To The Future: The Ride. While walking there, I realize something. I haven't eaten since 5:00am in the morning. So, I pick up a pretzel in front of BTTF, and take some pictures. After finishing my pretzel, I walk up to the entrance. While walking there, I notice some very cool props laying around. The first I noticed is the Delorean, the car that Doctor Bron invents to thrust you back in time. A verynice touch is the liscence plate, which read "Outtatime" After gauking at that, I look up to see the beautiful building. It is big and gray, with lots of glass and touches of green and orange. For some reason I loved the look of this building. After putzing around for awhile, I finally realize that I should ride. I walk up to the express entrance, notice it s a 90min wait(hehe) flash my room key, and am on my way to ride....

Back To The Future: The Ride
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After showing my hotel key, I make a left then a quick right to where I would have been waiting if it wasn't for the brilliant express line. I see LONG zig zags, so I am very thankful I don't have to wait in that line. Here, another ride attendant asks to see my express pass. She scans it, and I make a right up a flight of stairs. The line then twists to the left. Here, you have a great view of MIB, USF, and IOA in the distance. I was DYING to go to IOA, but I knew that would be later.....or so I thought. Anyway, after a 10 minute wait, I entered the buildng, where ANOTHER attendant requests to see our passes. Meh. We then make a left and choose a row. The door closes behind us, and we see a video of Biff (the bad guy) running around and causing havoc in the building where the DeLorean is. We then see Docor Brown talk about his new invention, but quickly notices Biff has enered the building. Biff then pushes Doc Brown into acage, where Biff taunts Brown and goes into the time machine and rides off. Doc Brown realizes we are his only hope, and we are off into a long hallway, where the attendent tells us a room to go to. We enter the room, doors close, and we watch another video. This video shows the DeLorean, and a VERY amusing safety video. After the video, the doors in front of us slide open, and we see the DeLorean. We enter it, put on our seatbelts (or lap bars?, I forget) and are ready. The large screen in front of us is revieled, and shows a long road with metal doors closed. We start moving, very fastly, and then the doors slide open. We are released into a town from the 80's, ad in the distance we see Biff flying around. As we go through the town, we crash into billboards, go around people's houses and yards, and through a clock. After going through the clock, we are thrust into the BC ages. Here, we go through canyons, through lava, and meet a T-Rex. And by meet mean hit into it, fly in it, and annoy the hell out of it. Eventually, Biff wants out, so we hit into him, and we go back to the future. Here we see Biff getting tooken away by security. The screen is covered up, the sides come up, and we exit to our right.

Rating: 8/10

Good points: Very good story, very wild ride, and great preshows.

Things that need improvement: Updated movies on ride and in preshows, maybe in 3D?

Notes: 3rd best ride at USF. It is just classic. I love it, but it needs some updating to do. Great ride nontheless.

Times ridden: Once

Sorry, I need to shell the USF ones quickly because I realized I still have 6 more parks after this to cover, and those will be a lot longer than these reviews. Look for the rides I didn't ride on 4/2/04 tonight, and those will not have the experience, but just the ratigs and good points etc....

Rides not ridden on first visit:


Twister
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Rating: 6/10

Good points: Great theming, decent effects on ride itself, good show.

Things that need improvement: Please god kill the preshow, better effect on the twister iself.

Notes: 2nd worst ride at USF. Good ride, but it is dissapointing to some guests that they think they are gonna be on a thrill ride, when they will just see a 2 minute show.

Times ridden: Once

Terminator 2: 3D------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rating: 8/10

Good points: Great story, awsome 3D effects, great live action, and great preshow.

Things that need improvement: More interactiveness, an actor that actually looks like Arnold Schwartzenegger.

Notes: 4th best thing at USF. It is a very good show. The quene, however, is a litte bland and needs something. That doesn't detract from the show, which is good.

Times ridden: Once

ET
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Rating: 7/10 (for a kiddie ride)

Good points: Amazing quene, good preshow, very creative in rie experiene itself, greattheming.

Things that need improvement: Please god, if you are up there, listen to me. ET's home scared me wth the aliens and bright colors and circus like music. One of the scariest things I have seen in the 14 years I have been on this planet.

Notes: Great ride for the kiddies. It is a very cute ride with great animatronics for an old ride.

Time ridden: Once

Woody Woodpecker
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Rating: 5/10

Good Points: Some pops of airime

Things that need improvement: Needs to be longer and faster

Notes: Decent ride for a kiddie coaster, but Flying Unicorn atIOA its a**

Times ridden: Once

That is it for my USF trip report! Now I gotta do MGM, Epcot, IOA, SWO, WNW, and BGT!!!!!!!!!!! Well, Epcot should bedone by tomorrow afternoon, considering I was only there for 1 1/2 hours! Comments are appreciated!

wait a second.....you have almost the exact same title as mine....you have the lines in between, you said *clears throat* at the beginning just like me, and you even had the same rating systems as me...wtf? thats not cool!!!!

__________________
HANNAH MONTANA!!!!!!!!!
TAKING THE WORLD BY STORM!!!!!
"I'm living proof....THAT GIRLS CAN ROCK!!!!!!"

Well, actually, I did M:S, Test Track, and Illuminations. Here s my wrap-up of USF:

Universal Studios wrap-up
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Rating: 7/10

Good points: Great dark rides, very complete in the sense it has lots of kiddie and thrill rides, very clean, nice employees, and great theming (especially in New York)

Things that need improvement: A little bit of everything needs improvement. BTTF could use some new paint and a new video, T2:3D could have a video that hypes up T4 instead of T3, and some general touch up's in the areas.

Notes: Very good park. I wasn't expecting much, since my last USF trip was kind of a bust. This time I had a great time. Everything is just so pleasant. The theming is top notch, as are the rides with the new addition of ROTM. All that it needs is some updating to the rides and touchup's in themed areas.

Times visited: Twice

Epcot TR to come this afternoon, and my much controversial Mission: Space review...Stay tuned!

slipknot: I took the best features of yours and the new ideas of mine to make this one. I couldn't think of a better title because...welll.....it is a HUUUGE florida trip report.

After a great ride, I decided to go back to te hotel, figuring that IOA would be open until 10. So, I exit the studios, make a left, follow signs, and I enter where the pool is. This pool is HUGE. It has a sand beach, pool itself, hot tub, basketball hoop, volleyball net, slide, and underwater music. The Hard Rock pool is the BEST! So, I walk in, get a person to help us with our luggage, and he tells us our room number. 1134 is the number. We make a right, go down a huge flight of stars....WHAT?!? I wanted an upstairs room. Well, I didn't say anything, and just kept walking. After going down the stairs, I see a ice crea parlor to our left, and a hallway to our right. We go down the hallway, make a left into a small plaza of rooms. The employee directs us to the right, and go down a long hallway. 1131, 1132, 1133....1134! After all these hours of riding rides I was happy that I was gonna sit down and take a nap. W open the door with our hotel keys, and what I see on the other side is a beautiful hotel room, with two queen sized beds in front of us, a couch and open space to our left, and a sink and large bathroom to our right. I was in heaven. I let out a WOO!, and proceeded to the window. To me, the view from the room is the most important part of a hotel. I opened the curtain, and got a great view of the palm trees and pool. By now I was in heaven. Everything was oing right. Too bad that it wouldn'tstay that way.... Anyway, after we paid the bellman, I sat down and tried to sleep. I couldn't. I knew I'd be going to IOA, on of the world's greatest park, in an hour or so. To take some of the excitement out of me, I turned on the Universal channel they have, which shows the parks rides and information. While resting, I heard something that nearly made me cry........ "Islands of Adventure will be closing at 6PM today, and Universal Studios will be closing at 7PM today"....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I screamed into the pillow, and my mom made a suggestion. She said, "How about we go to Disney tonight, you can choose the park" My mom is the greatest. I decided on Magic Kingdom, because I heard Epcot always closes at 7 on weekdays. So, we go out the front lobby, and ask the valet to call a taxi over. After about 5 minutes of waiting, we see a orange cab drive up to the front of the Hard Rock. The valet opens and closes the door for us, and we were on our way. About 5 miles down, I notice something to the left. It is big and white, with an american flag on top of it. A little bit further down, I saw something right below it. It was blue and large. I knew it. It was KRAKEN! Just two days, just two days. After passing Sea World, I saw an exit sign that said, "Walt Disney World, keep right, 1 mile" Yay! After that long mile, we make a right, and I see another sign that says, "Downtown Diney, 1 mile-Epcot, 3 miles-Magic Kingdom and MGM 5 miles-" As soon as we pass those sign, I see a large entrance up ahead that says, "Walt Disney World" with Mickey and Minney around it. Nice. Anyway, since taxi driver's know everything, he takes a "short cut" to a special entrance. This leaves us at a parking lot, with two monorails on both sides of us. To the left, we have the Magic Kingdom monorail. To the right, we have the Epcot monorail. As we walked closer to the Magic Kingdom monorail, I overheard an employee say, Epcot is open till 9PM tonight" Yes!!!!!!! Screw cinerella's castle, it is time for the big white ball! We make a hard right, and go up a flight of stairs. Since it is 7:30PM, nobody is going on the monorail. We board, with two HOT ladies in front of us. After 5 minutes of waiting for other passengers, we start to move. Within 5 minutes, I see something large and white to our left. As soon a I saw it rise, the monorail guide said, "To your right, you will see Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom, with Cinderella's castle behind it" That is all I wanted to go to MK for, was to see the castle. I was on SM and Splash Mountain a few years ago, so I didn't have any desire to go there. After passing MK, we start gaining speed. Within 5 minutes, I see yet another tall white structure rise. I reconized it right away, it was Spaceship Earth: The Big White Ball. While getting closer, I see that the whiteness turns into purpleness. Anyway, we make a left around it to have a short tour of Epcot. In the corner of my eye, I see one of the most hyped attractions ever created. A ride that is suppoed to be the greatest ride in the world...Mission: Space....and I was so excited!!! I almost broke the window of the monorail and jumped out! But, I knew I wouldn't get to see what was passed M:S. As we keep going around the circle, I saw that Epcot is a verrrrrry beautiful park. I was so happy we got to go around Epcot, because I would've never saw that side ofthe park if it wasn't for the monorail. After lapping the park once, we stop right in front of Spaceship Earth. We step out, go downthe flight of stairs, and land around 1,000ft away from the entrance. Walking to get the tickets, I notice these very strange objects sticking out of the ground. I still don't know what they were, but they looked cool. After walking for awhile, we finally reach the ticket gates. No lines, which was good. As soon as we reached the counter, saw that they don't discount tickets at night. ****, Disney is so money-hungry. Even SFI doesn't charge full price at night. We buy a two day, two park ticket because we would be going to MGM tomorrow, and we were on our way. After passing the ticket gates, go around Spaceship Earth, make the hard left, I could see it as clear as day. A ride that Disney hyped to the max. A ride that enthusiasts praise as some sort of god....Mission: Space. While walking there, I snubbe Test Track, and just kept walking to Mission:Space. I ralized that the 100 million dollars they set n this attraction was just for the interior!! The outside of this building is SOOOOOO cool looing. As we appoach it, my mouth drops. In the backdrop, we see silver metal spikes stabbing the air, with a model Earth spinning, and the best planet ever, Mars, in front of all of it. After I tooka fewpictures, we walked to the entrance. 65min wait! Illuminations would be done by then! So, we had to do something that we didn't want to do, we got an e-ticket, and went in the Single Rider Line.

OMG. Now thats a TR man. Well done.

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