Monday was our first full day without car travel. Almost. We had a 1 hour drive from our hotel to Universal Studios. We've never been to this park and the main motivation was the Harry Potter area. It was done very similar to the one in Florida except that there is only one one park with no train connecting multiple parks. My overall impression of Universal Studios is that it's designed to change often as new movies come out. The Harry Potter area is an exception . These rides were built to last. I'm still amazed at the Hogwarts sitting on the hill. Incredibly realistic.
The next stop was the Simpsons area. The kids have watched a grand total of 20 minutes of the Simpsons. Not because we won't let them but because they just haven't been interested. This may change. The start of the rides all have family friendly(ish) scenes from the show and the kids couldn't stop laughing. I'm pretty sure Carter is going to find a YouTube video of all the Itchy and Scratchy scenes. The other fun part waiting for the ride was the Krustyland map which included rides like the "Tilt-n-Spew" and the "Long, Long Line".
I should probably explain my ride experience at Universal. They are a mix of roller coaster and movie screens and I don't really enjoy the combination of the two. My ride experience is
1) Wait in line.
2) Get on ride.
3) Close eyes.
4) Ride starts.
5) Open eyes briefly.
6) Get dizzy.
7) Close eyes
8) Ride ends
Luckily not all rides are like this. The most enjoyable ride for all of us was the Studio Tour. Universal Studios is not just a them park. It's built around a working movie studio and the tour takes you through the studio lots where the big sound stages are as well as past famous sets such as Jaws, Back to the Future, War of the Worlds and Psycho. The highlight for Kerry was that they were filming a Christmas Hallmark movie with one of her favorite Hallmark actors.
Universal Studios is easily done in a day, especially if you get the 'Front of the Line' pass for an extra $70 per person. I don't really like this because it means extra money gets you extra privilege. I prefer Disney where most people have the same opportunity to get short line-ups via the fast pass. The front of the line pass also messes with the line estimates since people can just keep going to the front of the line. The Jurassic World ride showed as 120 minutes for us and only took 45 minutes. The ride was great and we were surprised at how quickly we made it to the front of the line.
Universal Studios was a fun day trip but I don't think we'll go back very often. It's a long drive from our hotel, the lines are long unless you pay to go to the front and the rides are not nearly as inventive as the ones at Disneyland. If we were in the area though we would stop by the City Walk which is there version of Downtown Disney. Lot's of great restaurants and a fun atmosphere that probably gets even better later in the evening.
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