Liam Scanlan Universal Review 6/4/2019
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| Image Courtesy of kkday.com. |
On my 26th birthday, I received a $100 Gift
Card for a vacation at Universal Orlando Resort. My family and I decided that
we should go there for a family vacation from Monday, May 20th to
Wednesday, May 22nd, due to us having already gone to rival Orlando
theme park Walt Disney World several times over the years, and were looking for
an alternative. The park, despite not being owned by Disney, was still worth
going to, nonetheless.
We stayed at the Loew’s Portofino Hotel, which can
easily be described as very beautiful, due to it closely resembling Venice,
Italy. Heck, to make it even more Venetian, it even has its own boat, which
took us to Universal CityWalk from the hotel.
For those who don’t know, Universal CityWalk is
basically Universal’s answer to what is now Disney Springs, and was formerly
known as Downtown Disney. CityWalk has it all from restaurants to shopping centers.
However,
unlike Disney Springs/Downtown Disney, the parks are located inside of it, you
can go to them without leaving them. We even went three of those said restaurants,
the first being Voodoo Doughnuts, which is a donut place, and has a New Orleans
voodoo theme to it, with pink being the primary color of its interior. The
second was The Cowfish (for lunch), which is a sushi/burger place, and had a
west-meets-east theme, with blue being the primary color of ITS interior. The final one was the Toothsome Chocolate
Emporium (for dinner) ,
which serves a mix of foods such as burgers with desserts such as ice cream, as
well as, you guessed it, chocolate, while also having a steampunk theme. Unlike
the other two restaurants, however, this had, not ONE, not TWO, but THREE
primary colors for its interior: Brown, gold and silver.
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| Picture of the family at Voodoo Doughnuts. (Photo by Allyson Breger). |
At Voodoo Doughnuts, I had a jelly-filled donut (to
try something new!) which I liked, despite the jelly making my hand messy; at
The Cowfish, I had a tasty hamburger, which was restaurant quality in my
opinion, though very filling (I couldn’t even finish the fries!); finally, I
enjoyed ANOTHER hamburger, at the Emporium, though it tasted a lot like the one
at the Cowfish.
We also ate at Disney Springs on the first day at
Universal, and dined at a restaurant called “The Edison”, which is a steampunk-themed
restaurant, a theme that the aforementioned Toothsome Chocolate Emporium
shares, expect this one also felt a little late 1920’s/early 1930’s. It even
had some classic movies and cartoons from that era playing on the restaurant’s
TVs! I downed some superb chicken tenders, there!
Concerning my shopping there, I noticed that there
were a lot of anime-related merchandise, including T-shirts being sold, in both
CityWalk and Universal Studios, themselves. I guess this makes sense, as
Universal Studios in Osaka, Japan has a lot of anime-themed rides and
attractions, including 4-D attractions based on “Dragon Ball” and “Sailor
Moon”, as well as an ongoing series of stage shows based on “One Piece”.
Now that we got the necessities out of the way, let’s
talk about the good stuff: the park! The park I went to for this vacation,
despite Islands of Adventure ALSO being there, was Universal Studios, which as
the name implies, is basically a rival to Disney’s Hollywood Studios (formerly
known as Disney-MGM Studios), with its own movie studio backlot,
movie/TV-themed attractions, and whatnot, except Universal Studios came first,
while Disney just straight up copied it with Hollywood Studios. The rides I
went on were “The Simpsons Ride”, “Men in Black: Alien Attack”, and “Race
Through New York with Jimmy Fallon”. All three of them were pretty good
experiences.
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| Picture of the family with Bart! We were starstruck, obviously! (Photo by Allyson Breger). |
“The Simpsons Ride”, based on the iconic animated
sitcom “The Simpsons” (obviously), is a sim-ride where you go from a fictional
theme-park ride to various locations through the show’s setting, the fictional
town that is Springfield, all while running afoul of both the Simpsons themselves
and one of the show’s antagonists, Sideshow Bob. The ride itself was a tad
scarier than I thought was going to be, given its fast pace, and the fact that
Sideshow Bob even manipulates a giant mechanical panda in an attempt to destroy
America’s Favorite Yellow Family, but it still entertained me, no matter what.
“Men in Black: Alien Attack”, based on the Sony
Pictures franchise, which, believe it or not, is, in turn, based on a comic
book from the now-defunct publisher Malibu Graphics, is a ride where you get to
shoot aliens that are all over New York City. The “shooting aliens” part makes
it very similar to “Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin” at Walt Disney World,
so it’s nothing too unique, but I still got a kick out of it, even when I
noticed that one of said alien bore a slight resemblance to Slimer, which is one
of the most popular characters from another Sony Pictures franchise,
“Ghostbusters”. So, when there’s something strange in the neighborhood, who ya
gonna call? THE MEN IN BLACK!
“Race Through New York with Jimmy Fallon”, is, in my
opinion, the most unusual attraction of the park’s history, if not the most
unusual in theme park history as a whole. The reason why I’m saying this is
because it is based on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon”, which, to me,
seems like an odd choice for a theme park ride. That doesn’t stop it from
looking very beautiful, as the ride itself, a sim-ride, which unlike “The
Simpsons Ride”, is in 3D, has very beautiful visuals and vistas, as your race
with Fallon himself, not just through New York, but also through the Moon, which
makes sense because the logo for “The Tonight Show” is currently printed on a
photo of the Moon.
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| The Blues Brothers driving their famous police car. (Photo by Allyson Breger). |
Rides, aside, the atmosphere was very good. There
weren’t that many crowds, there were no kids screaming, and nobody got
intoxicated at all.
In the park’s San Francisco area, my mom, our friend Allyson,
who went with us on this vacation, since she lives with us, and I went to an
outdoor stage show featuring the Blues Brothers, and it was so good that I
found myself to be very amused when they started singing Soul Man, a song that
was used in an obscure comedy about a guy who takes pills to make his skin
darker so he can get into a cheap, all-black college scholarship, only to get
in to big trouble for his blackface. If that’s not outrageous, then I don’t
know what is! In that same area, we went to a pizza place, the name of which I
forget, and ate pizza. I LOVED the pizza, as it tasted a lot like that of the
Pizza Planet restaurant at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which I also enjoyed. I
also had a Fanta, which I liked, but was unfortunately unable to refill, as the
Coca-Cola Freestyle there didn’t do refills.
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| The Ukranian Ironbelly from Harry Potter in its natural habitat. (Photo by Allyson Breger). |
We also went to Diagon Alley, which is a “Harry Potter”-themed
shopping area that connects Universal Studios to Islands of Adventure, which,
as many of you know, has a Harry Potter-themed area of its own. We didn’t do
much, even though the atmosphere was very good, despite being somewhat crowded.
We just drank Butterbeer, which is a cream soda that they serve in this area,
and tasted very creamy and sweet, and watched some character from the
“Fantastic Beasts” spinoff movies sing, the performance of which I didn’t
really care for.
If
Universal wasn’t enough, we went back to Disney Springs in our way home. There,
we went to the Wolfgang Puck restaurant, which is named after a famous chef,
and serves a mix of American and Italian dishes. There, I ate another pizza,
which was too cheesy, if I’m being honest. We also went to a clothing store
called Uniqlo, which, due to its Japanese roots, was bombarded with shirts based
on Japanese media, such as comics, animation, and video games, as well as
non-Japanese media that is very popular there, such as Disney, Marvel, Star
Wars, and a Finnish comic strip called “Moomin”. There, I got a T-shirt based
on one of said video games, “Street Fighter’, featuring a character I thought
was funny since he spawned a meme: M. Bison.
Also, on our way home, we, as my older brother Connor
recommended, went to a mini-mall which had a place called “Soupa Saiyan”, which
is a ramen/soup restaurant with “Dragon Ball” merchandise and related images
all over the place, hence its name. It also had episodes of “Dragon Ball Super”
on its TV monitor. We didn’t really eat there, but were considering doing so
when the Jacksonville location comes, as many of said locations are popping up
all over the state of Florida. The significance of this to the review is the
fact that we went here on our way home, as I have just now implied, and that we
both had a good time, despite not really eating there.
So yeah, I had a pretty good time at Universal. There
were good rides, good attractions, a good hotel, and even a good atmosphere.
I’d recommend it to those who are looking for the best alternative to Walt
Disney World, as well as film/TV buff, due to the amount attractions based on
iconic films and TV shows there.
Overall, I give my experience at Universal Orlando
Resort a 9.5/10, as usual.
*Insert “E.T.” joke here*
The End.
