Spring Break - Florida - 3/28 thru 4/03 - Trip # 15

[zjohn1988]

This is my trip report from my spring break to Florida. I went with my mom, sister, her friend, and my girlfriend. (I stayed with my g/f the whole time alone in the parks so my report is based on 2 riders for each ride.) We went to Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Florida, Disney's Magic Kingdom, Epcot, MGM Studios, Animal Kingdom, and Typhoon Lagoon.
At Universal, we stayed at the Royal Pacific Resort (3/28-3/30). Thanks to us staying on site, we got free transportation by boat to Citywalk and free unlimited Express passes. Longest wait was 15 minutes (express) on Incredible Hulk. Stand By reached 85 min+. Dualing Dragons was no longer than 10 minutes (express not needed). <<As of dusk. Dr. Dooms Fearfall was 5 minutes (express). Reached up to 60 minutes stand by. Spiderman had less than 10 minutes (express) and up to 85 min stand by. Here are my IOA totals:
IOA times into park: 3
Incredible Hulk: 5 (also witnessed one train set-up on the mid-course block.)
Dr. Doom's Fearfall: 3
Spiderman: 1
Dudley Do Right Rip Saw: 1
Popeye, Bluto, and Olive Oyl Rilge Rat Barge: 1
Jurassic Park River Adventure: 1 (Got our own boat)
Dualing Dragons Fire: 1
Dualing Dragons Ice: 2
The Flying Unicorn: 1 (had a fun convo with the ops )
TOTAL RIDES WITH RE-RIDES: 16
Total time to complete rides: > 3 hours
Universal Studios was mobbed when I went in. I still got on everthing in a night though. Mummy had a low wait. It could have been better. I was also in the Earthquake pre-show.
Here are my totals:
USF times into park: 2
The Mummy: 4 (included our own train by special request .)
Shrek 4D: 1 (one of the best I've ever been on).
Twister: 1
Back To The Future: 1 (still hurts)
Jaws: 1 (jumped from 0 to 60 minute wait in 5 minutes.)
Men In Black Alien Attack: 1
Earthquake: 1
ET: 1 (umm...it only had 5 other people in line )
Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast: 1 (no wait with express pass)
TOTAL RIDES WITH RE-RIDES: 12
Total time to complete rides: > 3 hours
TOTAL USF/IOA RIDES WITH RE-RIDES: 28
Wednesday afternoon we headed over to check in at Disney's Contemporary Resort. We stayed here for the remainder of the trip (3/31 thru 04/04).
Magic Kingdom was jammed. Pretty much everything was accomplished though. Splash Mountain had a lift stop, and we got stuck on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. We also saw Spectromagic and the fireworks show (Wishes) 3 times.
ALOT has changed since I was at WDW back in 2003. New scenes and voices in many rides. The monorail has a new voice, Haunted Mansion also has scenes rearranged. Here are my totals:
Times into park: 5
Space Mountain: 2 (45 minutes before the entrance when someone gave us 2 fastpasses. then 25 minutes).
Astro Orbitor: 1 (5 minute wait)
Buzz Lightyear's Spaceranger Spin: 2 (45, 10 minute wait)
Stitch's Great Escape: 1 (no wait) (Alien Encounter was way better...)
Tomorrowland Transit Authority: 1 (5 minute wait)
Splash Mountain: 2 (5,10 minute waits).
Big Thunder Mountain: 3 (25,15,10 minute waits).
Goofy's Barnstormer: 1 (no wait)
Walt Disney Railroad: 1 (no wait, Toontown to Frontierland.)
Pirates of the Carribean: 1 (got our own boat)
Haunted Mansion: 3 (5 minute waits)
Small World: 1 (Great Rehab)
Snow White: 1 (got our own car)
Winnie The Pooh: 1
Mickey's Philharmagic: 1 (Shrek 4D blew this away)
TOTAL WITH RE-RIDES: 22
Total time to complete rides: 5-6 hours
Epcot has Soarin' advertisements up, but no sight of any employees giving preview, however some higher-up management was there talking about it. We also saw Illuminations which also changed. Here are my totals:
Times into park: 1
Figment: 1 (Got our own car)
Test Track: 6 (We got 14 fastpasses and came close to being kicked out of the park for "cheating".
Mission Space: 1 (I loved it, but it wasn't intense enough for me )
Spaceship Earth: 1
Living Seas: 1 (where's the ride part? I think we missed something...)
Universe of Energy: 1
TOTAL WITH RE-RIDES: 11
Total time to complete rides: 2 hours
Typhoon Lagoon we went to twice. The wave pool was closed the 1st time due to something which Idk if should be released. We did all the slides and the lazy river though. Crush n' Gusher is a TON of Fun!!
Animal Kingdom seemed to be very busy when we were there on Saturday. Expedition Everest is also coming along very nicely. Here are my totals.
Times into park: 1
Dinosaur: 1 (10 minute wait fastpass, 45 minutes stand by)
Ragin Caj..uhm I mean Primevil Whirl..: 1- 25 minutes stand by. (Also had a downtime on the Fastlane side.
Kali River Rapids: 1 (also had fastlanes which we were very close to being kicked out of the park for being cought for "cheating"..yeah we fled when the CM turned the other way.
We also did the Safari twice with a 20 minute and 0 minute wait. Fastlane was useless. They also changed the story a little bit.
Total with re-rides:
Time to complete those rides: 4 hours
MGM Studios was the last park on our "to-do" list.
Tower of Terror is a lot of fun with the new programs. I was VERY dissappointed with Rock 'n' Rollercoaster. Major down-times due too problems which again, I probably should not mention. Here are my totals:
Trips into park: 1
Rock 'n' Rollercoaster: 4 (got on 4 of the 5 trains, also got 'priority seating' everytime )
Tower of Terror: 2 (since when did Fastlane have a longer line than stand by?)
Who Wants to Be a Millionare: 1
Great Movie Ride: 1
Total with re-rides: 8
Time to complete those rides: 6 hours
The Motor Stunt Show did have shows, however we didn't catch any of the shows. We did hear them practicing though. I also don't know if this was released, but something bad also happened during one of the shows...
TOTAL WDW rides including re-rides: 46
During the entire trip I tryed to see how the employees did their jobs.
Guest Friendliness: USF/IOA: 8/10
WDW: 9.5/10
Ride Safety : USF/IOA: 6/10
WDW: 3/10
I was VERY disappointed in the way the safety was handled in the WDW parks. I wonder if they ever heard of EXIT GATES...I almost saw a little kid fall onto the express monorail track at the Magic Kingdom when it was coming into the station. USF/IOA employees also did a bad job at watching the rides and the riders. They made Six Flags look like some of the Safest Parks ever.

Total rides including re-rides for Spring Break 2005*: 74

*not including water rides

Next Trip: July 30-August 8th, 2005

[w00dland]

The saftey factor is pretty surprising to me. What exactly do you think went wrong on Rockn Roller Coaster? Would you say all the parks were pretty packed or just normal? What attractions do you think I should hit first and which lines move slowest? Sorry for all the questions but I'll be there in 2 weeks.

[zjohn1988]

What I was told is that RnR would not restart after the ride was stopped for a certain reason. Last night i was in line and they stopped to let a girl off. They never sent a train after that because it wouldn't go anywhere. I think it is a launch problem though with the catch car. (I had too much time on my hands at that ride to figure that out..)

It was pretty crowded, but that was because of Spring Break. It should be a little bit lighter in 2 weeks. The slowest lines at all the parks were Space Mountain (they seemed to keep half the que empty in the building and then had a grouper at the entrance). Also Test Track was going slow. It had an 85 minute wait when Mission Space was only 45 minutes...Dinosaur had a long line and didn't seem to move too quickly. And Tower of Terror had a shorter stand by line than the fastlane line.

[Ilovthevu']

Thanks for sharing. Can you explain what they did to the Small World and could you explain the "cheating" aspect please? I've noticed that you did quite a number of parks in a limited time. I actually hate that idea because it takes time to get from one place to the other through Monorail and Ferry for both Epcot and Magic Kingdom.

For woodland, Magic Kingdom is great. You'll probably want to go there the most because a) it's packed and b) I think it has the best attractions.

[LAFFfan4lyfe]

Thats awesome john. I'm glad you had fun. Sounds like you had a better trip than I did. I'm suprised that there were problems with Rock n Rollercoaster, i was there several days before you and it worked beautifully. How do you cheat with the fast passes by getting 14 passes??? I cheated once, only because the guy just asked for my pass and didn't scan it. Great report!