10 hours, 2 parks, 8 miles walking, 9 flights of stairs, and 18 rides later, we are back at the camper and we are exhausted! The VIP Experience at Universal Studios is not for the faint of heart by way of fitness, or finances, but it was certainly the best way that RDB and I could have spent our one day at Universal on this trip. We're exhausted, but it is that "I'm gonna sleep really good because I did everything I wanted to do" kind of exhaustion!
The morning started early - with an arrival time before the park opened at 9am to get checked in and over to Cafe La Bomba for our breakfast (included) and to meet our tour guide, Sofia. She's been doing VIP tours for a little over a year, and after the day we spent with her and our 7 other tour-travel companions, we would ask to have her guide us again in a heartbeat!
The morning started with a few character 'mini-greets' right in front of the restaurant while we were eating (they were there during our lunch break, too!)
Our group took off at a great pace and the first ride we experienced was one of the newer indoor coasters: Transformers. Sofia gathered us all together in the shade beside a backstage door and gave us the layout of the experience - the kind of drops, twists, length of the ride, etc - along with the backstory of how we fit into the Transformers world (we were saving the All Spark from the Decepticons, of course!) before she led us thru the door, down a hallway and right up to the front of the line where we boarded the next set of cars that arrived.
As a part of the tour, since we were entering and exiting from backstage areas, we had the chance to see the schematics of the rides along with the control rooms. (We weren't allowed to pictures backstage, or to enter the control rooms, but Sofia assured us - you're being watched. All. The. Time.)
From there it was over to the Rip, Ride, And Rocket outdoor roller coaster. Our first thrill-and-steel coaster of the day. This one required us to leave our bags behind, and go thru metal detectors to ensure we had nothing in our pockets, as the ride would take us up-side-down four different times! We repeated this process (no bags, and being out thru a metal detector or wanding) on several of the rides, as they were making sure that safety was paramount.
RDB and I stepped off that ride and immediately downed a dose of Advil - we're a lot older than we used to be and after that ROCKET of a ride, we weren't going to take any chances that the shake-rattle-and-roll of the coaster was going to run our day.
Next up, we took a walk over to Diagon Alley, one part of the Harry Porter themed portion of the parks, to ride Escape From Gringot's Bank. This ride, along with several other indoor rides in the park, uses 3-D screens within the ride to add to the illusion that you're doing more movement and experiencing more scenes than just the physical world in front of you. But, honestly, the 'show room' where the lines are (which we by-passed but Sofia made sure we had time in to take pictures after the ride) was an incredible accolade to the designers of the ride who wanted to immerse you fully in the experience.
Over 700 crystals in that HUGE chandelier! And I must say, the life-sized, fire-breathing dragon guarding the hoard invested inside was quite the site!
(Thanks again to Sofia for know the timing of the dragon's growls that were the sign that she was about to spit fire!)
From there we were off to some of the older parts of the park - riding the Men In Black Alien Attack and the E.T.'s Adventure Ride. Both were showing their age (ET turns 32 this year!), but were quick, unique rides and a fun way to really see how far roller coaster and ride technology has come over the decades. MIB was a fun interactive shoot-the-aliens type game where you could compete with the others in your car (RDB won by getting the 100k bonus, but I had the most points from just shooting (Dad would be proud!))
One really neat part about the VIP tour was the ability to go down onto the 'set' of the Men In Black Alien Attack ride - needless to say, I got a few fun pictures while were were hanging out as new recruits with the rest of the M.I.B. team.
The morning at Universal Orlando had flown by and it was time to go back over to Cafe La Bamba for a buffet lunch. It was so nice to have an indoor place reserved just for the VIP tours, with delicious food, and bottles of water to take with us on to the next part of our tour.
Next up - a ride on the Hogwart's Express to take us over to the other park for the rest of the afternoon.
To make the most of your VIP experience, you really should consider buying both parks - especially if you're a fan of the Harry Porter series: the rides over in AdventureLand park are so immersive, but the shopping and people watching experience of Diagon Alley in the original Universal park can't be beat!
First up on the after-lunch tour: Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. This by-far was our favorite of the outdoor coasters - it was fast, smooth, incredibly fun - you go backwards! and the coaster drops laterally, track AND cars!!
I'm realizing as I'm working out this post that I don't have nearly as many pictures of the afternoon as I did of the morning! It was so fast paced and we were so immersed in the world of Hogwarts, that, well, here, check these out:
To say it was magical wouldn't be the half of it!
We rode both Hagrid's Motorbikes and Harry Potter's Forbidden Journey. Both have a unique conveyor belt loading/unloading system that takes a little getting used to; it definitely makes the wait much faster (for those who had to use the normal cue) because the ride never comes to a full stop to switch out riders. Between that and the 3-D glasses that several of the attractions are using, you really can appreciate the new technology and how it's changing the landscape of amusement parks.
After leaving Hogwarts, we entered into a very familiar what-could-go-wrong fantasy....
Nothing to be concerned about, right?
I mean, if you need to escape when you're being chased by a dinosaur, there's no better option than to ride the newest, fastest, and tallest ride in the park: The Velociraptor.
After the Rip Ride and Rocket from the morning, we were a bit worried this was going to be another "where's my Advil?" kind of ride, but we were both surprised at how smooth, and FAST, the ride actually was! A drop of over 140" and several twists that send you upside-down had us all in smiles (and fixing our hair!) afterwards!
Next ride was the Jurassic Park River Adventure... but RDB and I both sat that one out, not wanting to chance getting soaked on a water ride and having wet shoes for the rest of the day!
We continued on to an indoor/outdoor ride with Skull Island, The Reign of Kong, and then made our way over into the 'comic book' section of the park for The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman (which uses a ride technology that Universal patented, and laid the groundwork for the Transformer's ride we rode in the morning).
Our final coaster of the tour was The Incredible Hulk.
We were all kinda glad this was our last one, as the phrase "Hulk SMASH!" really applies to the way your ears are going to feel after your head gets knocked around in those seven - yes, seven! - times you're inverted. (Our final dose of Advil was taken after this one!)
It was time to say 'goodbye' to Sofia and our tour-travel crew, but there was so much more that we were looking forward to taking advantage of! Before we road the Hogwart's Express back to the original park to finish out the night we stashed our backpacks and went back in for another ride on The Forbidden Journey and again on Hagrid's Motorbikes. Having the Express Pass as a part of the VIP Experience after the tour was over meant that we walked right on Forbidden Journey with no wait, and Hagrid's only had a 12 minute cue - when those without the 'fast pass' had a wait time of over an hour!
We finished the night by watching the Mardi Gras Parade down main street, and then rode back-to-back twice on the Transformers ride, ending where we started with rides.
I had the BIGGEST smile on my face as we walked out to retrieve the truck from valet (included in the VIP Experience, and totally worth it as a $75 value just in that alone!) If you're thinking about purchasing this add on to your tickets, but just aren't sure - please, do it! To be able to walk on all those rides, then use the fast pass access for the remainder of your day in the park, plus the meals, AND the valet? All in all, it was 100% worth the money!
A quick recap of our tour:
- BREAKFAST 9-9:30
- Transformers (i)
- Rip Ride Rocket (o)
- Escape from Greengots Bank (i)
- Men in Black (i)
- ET Experience (i)
- LUNCH ~12:15-1:00
- Hogswart's Express (park transfer) (i)
- Hagrid's Magical Creatures and Motorbikes (o)
- Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (i)
- Velocicoaster (o)
- Jurassic Park River Adventure (water) (o)
- Skull Island, Reign of Kong (i/o)
- Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man (i)
- The Incredible Hulk Coaster (o)
- TOUR ENDED ~4:30p
- Forbidden Journey (walk on)
- Hagrid's Motorbikes (15 min)
- Hogwart's Express back to other park (walk on)
- Transformers walk on back-to-back (during end of parade)
(i) = indoor ride, (o) = outdoor ride, ExpressPass Access
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Be sure to check out our other posts from Tent On Wheels at DISNEY!
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