Cast:
Me - 34 year old male, themepark junkie
Friend - 32 year old male, likes themeparks but not obsessively so
Vacation dates: 4/21/2001 to 4/27/2001
Hi everyone. The reason I am writing this report is because when I went to look for reports about late April for last year I couldn't find any. I was looking for information that would help me plan my trip. So this report won't be a minute by minute experience, but hopefully will help someone planning a trip for this time of year.
Summary:
We spent 4 days at Universal and 2 days at Disney. We had purchased Seasonal Passes for Universal ($143.05/person). I believe Universal is phasing out SP, but even APs are a good deal. SPs give you a year pass to USF/IOA with the busiest days blacked out (Easter, Summer, and Christmas). We had purchased 5-day park-hopper passes to Disney for $221/person, and intend to use the other Disney days in subsequent trips. We stayed at the DaysInn east of Universal Studios. The Days Inn is located right off of Major Blvd ---I don't remember the street name---but it is a 15 to 20 minute walk to CityWalk. Our room rate was $44/night. Crowds were moderate to light. The weather was clear to partly cloudy with lows in the 60s and highs in the mid to upper 80s thru Wednesday and mid to upper 70s for Thurdsay and Friday. It became noticibly cooler during Wednesday as the front moved through. It did rain Wednesday evening around 9:30pm.
Travel:
We left Montgomery, Alabama early Saturday (4/21) with the intention of stopping over and camping at O'leno State Park near Lake City, FL. We reached O'leno SP mid-afternoon, set-up camp and explored the park. The park's drawing feature is that the Santa FE river is supposed to flow underground at the park and a few mile away it is supposed to re-emerge. The mental image I had was of a hole with water flowing into it ----maybe even a whirlpool like a draining bathtub, or maybe a small waterfall where the water disappears. Well actually the Santa Fe River barely qualifies as a river. It looks more like a swamp to me. And if the water was flowing, you'd be hard pressed to notice it. The river-shaped swamp does have an ending. Maybe the river would flow if Florida wasn't experiencing a drought. Aside from the river disappointment. The park is quite nice with a suspension, walking bridge that crosses the river. The hiking trails pass several large Cypress trees. At night the fireflies were awesome! The woods at night looked as if they were strung with white chistmastree lights. The fireflies were that numerous. This is not an exageration. Nighttime temperatures were about 60. We left Oleno about 8:30am Sunday arriving at Universal Orlando about 11:30.
Redeeming Season Passes:
We showed our vouchers to the parking attendants and he waved us through so we didn't have to pay for parking although we didn't have our actual passes yet. We wanted to go to IOA. So we went to guest services at IOA to get our passes. We have noticed in prior trips that IOA personnel don't seem to be as efficient as their USF counterparts. This proved to be the case yet again. It took 30 to 45 minutes to get our Season Passes. In all fairness, Universal seemed to be having network problems that day. Still USF guest services seems more professional to me.
Sunday (4/22):
We spent about 5 hours at IOA/USF and rode DDRipsawFalls twice, Popeye , JPRA, Cat, Spiderman twice (via single rider line, posted wait was 60minutes), Twister, EarthQuake, and MIB twice (via single rider line--don't remember posted time). IOA was moderately crowded. USF was not crowded.
Monday (4/23):
Spent at Disney parks, AK, MGM, Epcot. We took Turkey Lake "shortcut"---don't do this unless I-4 is very busy or having problems. Turkey Lake Rd added a good 20 - 30 minutes to the drive. Again, if I-4 is a parking lot, by all means TAKE this route! We started out at AK. This was our first visit to AK and we had intended to spend the better portion of the day here. On other boards people have reported that AK is busiest during the first of the week. So we had expected to find slightly higher crowds. The park seemed to be packed!!! After thinking about it though, I think the crowd problem is just the poor design of the park. Traffic has to flow both into and out of each section in AK via the same route. In comparison, the traffic at MK can flow either via the "spokes" of the wheel or around the circumference. If you get fastpass to an attraction and go to another section of the park, there is no shortcut back to redeem your fastpass. We both agreed that AK was the least enjoyable of all parks in Orlando. We spent 4.5 hours at AK, 4 hours at MGM, and about 2 hours at Epcot. In that period we rode Dinosaur twice, Safari, saw the Festival of the Lion King and Tough to be a bug, rode Kali River Rapids,and we walked the Mahrajah (sp?) Jungle Trek and Pangani Forest trail. At MGM, we rode Tower of Terror twice, ate at the Brown Derby, saw Indiana Jones stunt show, rode the great movie ride, and saw the Voyage of the Little Mermaid. We then hopped over to Epcot where we rode Spaceship Earth, rode the river ride in Mexico, rode Maelstrom, and finally we watched the circlevision film in China. I don't think it would be possible to do all that we did if you were touring with children, nor would it be possible if we didn't enjoy walking fast. I would characterize the day as busy, and fun ----probably I'd call it "commando" style touring.
Tuesday (4/24):
After the fairly heavy day at Disney we had planned to do a more leisurely pace at USF/IOA. We didn't rush but we managed to do ET, BTTF, MIB (twice), and Kong ---all with no wait. Kong had a 10 minute wait posted but by the time we had walked the queue it was virturally a walk-on. We then redeemed our T23D express passes that we had made upon entry into the park. At IOA, we did JPRA, CAT, Spidey (the express passes were gone and the wait was 25 minutes). Then we did Hulk twice (no wait), fire and ice of Dueling Dragons (no wait). We ate at Confisco's Grille at some point where I had the best meal of my vacation (grilled Salmon w/pasta and vegetables). We went back to USF and rode Jaws and Earthquake. We left the parks relatively early. So even at a leisurely pace, we managed to take in 15 attractions and a wonderful meal.
Wednesday(4/25):
Another commando day at Disney. We started at Epcot by riding TestTrack twice, Universe of Energy, and Body Wars. We took the monorail to MK and rode Pirates (walk-on), SplashMountain twice (using fastpass), CountryBearJamboree, Haunted mansion twice (walk-on). We ate fish and chicken /w fries at the Columbia Harbour House. We then did Big Thunder Mountain, Jungle Cruise, S. F. Treehouse, Buzzlight year twice (walk-on due to afternoon parade), Spacemountain twice (once Fastpass, once 20minute standby), Carousel of Progress (walk-on), TimeKeeper (walk-on ---thankfully they had kept it open for another week!). We rode back to Epcot and did the river ride in Mexico, Maelstrom, American Adventure, Living with the Land, Living with the Sea, and Spaceship Earth.
Me - 34 year old male, themepark junkie
Friend - 32 year old male, likes themeparks but not obsessively so
Vacation dates: 4/21/2001 to 4/27/2001
Hi everyone. The reason I am writing this report is because when I went to look for reports about late April for last year I couldn't find any. I was looking for information that would help me plan my trip. So this report won't be a minute by minute experience, but hopefully will help someone planning a trip for this time of year.
Summary:
We spent 4 days at Universal and 2 days at Disney. We had purchased Seasonal Passes for Universal ($143.05/person). I believe Universal is phasing out SP, but even APs are a good deal. SPs give you a year pass to USF/IOA with the busiest days blacked out (Easter, Summer, and Christmas). We had purchased 5-day park-hopper passes to Disney for $221/person, and intend to use the other Disney days in subsequent trips. We stayed at the DaysInn east of Universal Studios. The Days Inn is located right off of Major Blvd ---I don't remember the street name---but it is a 15 to 20 minute walk to CityWalk. Our room rate was $44/night. Crowds were moderate to light. The weather was clear to partly cloudy with lows in the 60s and highs in the mid to upper 80s thru Wednesday and mid to upper 70s for Thurdsay and Friday. It became noticibly cooler during Wednesday as the front moved through. It did rain Wednesday evening around 9:30pm.
Travel:
We left Montgomery, Alabama early Saturday (4/21) with the intention of stopping over and camping at O'leno State Park near Lake City, FL. We reached O'leno SP mid-afternoon, set-up camp and explored the park. The park's drawing feature is that the Santa FE river is supposed to flow underground at the park and a few mile away it is supposed to re-emerge. The mental image I had was of a hole with water flowing into it ----maybe even a whirlpool like a draining bathtub, or maybe a small waterfall where the water disappears. Well actually the Santa Fe River barely qualifies as a river. It looks more like a swamp to me. And if the water was flowing, you'd be hard pressed to notice it. The river-shaped swamp does have an ending. Maybe the river would flow if Florida wasn't experiencing a drought. Aside from the river disappointment. The park is quite nice with a suspension, walking bridge that crosses the river. The hiking trails pass several large Cypress trees. At night the fireflies were awesome! The woods at night looked as if they were strung with white chistmastree lights. The fireflies were that numerous. This is not an exageration. Nighttime temperatures were about 60. We left Oleno about 8:30am Sunday arriving at Universal Orlando about 11:30.
Redeeming Season Passes:
We showed our vouchers to the parking attendants and he waved us through so we didn't have to pay for parking although we didn't have our actual passes yet. We wanted to go to IOA. So we went to guest services at IOA to get our passes. We have noticed in prior trips that IOA personnel don't seem to be as efficient as their USF counterparts. This proved to be the case yet again. It took 30 to 45 minutes to get our Season Passes. In all fairness, Universal seemed to be having network problems that day. Still USF guest services seems more professional to me.
Sunday (4/22):
We spent about 5 hours at IOA/USF and rode DDRipsawFalls twice, Popeye , JPRA, Cat, Spiderman twice (via single rider line, posted wait was 60minutes), Twister, EarthQuake, and MIB twice (via single rider line--don't remember posted time). IOA was moderately crowded. USF was not crowded.
Monday (4/23):
Spent at Disney parks, AK, MGM, Epcot. We took Turkey Lake "shortcut"---don't do this unless I-4 is very busy or having problems. Turkey Lake Rd added a good 20 - 30 minutes to the drive. Again, if I-4 is a parking lot, by all means TAKE this route! We started out at AK. This was our first visit to AK and we had intended to spend the better portion of the day here. On other boards people have reported that AK is busiest during the first of the week. So we had expected to find slightly higher crowds. The park seemed to be packed!!! After thinking about it though, I think the crowd problem is just the poor design of the park. Traffic has to flow both into and out of each section in AK via the same route. In comparison, the traffic at MK can flow either via the "spokes" of the wheel or around the circumference. If you get fastpass to an attraction and go to another section of the park, there is no shortcut back to redeem your fastpass. We both agreed that AK was the least enjoyable of all parks in Orlando. We spent 4.5 hours at AK, 4 hours at MGM, and about 2 hours at Epcot. In that period we rode Dinosaur twice, Safari, saw the Festival of the Lion King and Tough to be a bug, rode Kali River Rapids,and we walked the Mahrajah (sp?) Jungle Trek and Pangani Forest trail. At MGM, we rode Tower of Terror twice, ate at the Brown Derby, saw Indiana Jones stunt show, rode the great movie ride, and saw the Voyage of the Little Mermaid. We then hopped over to Epcot where we rode Spaceship Earth, rode the river ride in Mexico, rode Maelstrom, and finally we watched the circlevision film in China. I don't think it would be possible to do all that we did if you were touring with children, nor would it be possible if we didn't enjoy walking fast. I would characterize the day as busy, and fun ----probably I'd call it "commando" style touring.
Tuesday (4/24):
After the fairly heavy day at Disney we had planned to do a more leisurely pace at USF/IOA. We didn't rush but we managed to do ET, BTTF, MIB (twice), and Kong ---all with no wait. Kong had a 10 minute wait posted but by the time we had walked the queue it was virturally a walk-on. We then redeemed our T23D express passes that we had made upon entry into the park. At IOA, we did JPRA, CAT, Spidey (the express passes were gone and the wait was 25 minutes). Then we did Hulk twice (no wait), fire and ice of Dueling Dragons (no wait). We ate at Confisco's Grille at some point where I had the best meal of my vacation (grilled Salmon w/pasta and vegetables). We went back to USF and rode Jaws and Earthquake. We left the parks relatively early. So even at a leisurely pace, we managed to take in 15 attractions and a wonderful meal.
Wednesday(4/25):
Another commando day at Disney. We started at Epcot by riding TestTrack twice, Universe of Energy, and Body Wars. We took the monorail to MK and rode Pirates (walk-on), SplashMountain twice (using fastpass), CountryBearJamboree, Haunted mansion twice (walk-on). We ate fish and chicken /w fries at the Columbia Harbour House. We then did Big Thunder Mountain, Jungle Cruise, S. F. Treehouse, Buzzlight year twice (walk-on due to afternoon parade), Spacemountain twice (once Fastpass, once 20minute standby), Carousel of Progress (walk-on), TimeKeeper (walk-on ---thankfully they had kept it open for another week!). We rode back to Epcot and did the river ride in Mexico, Maelstrom, American Adventure, Living with the Land, Living with the Sea, and Spaceship Earth.
