Spongebob Storepants, Universal Trip 5/28/12

As it turns out, I got off work a bit early today and was able to make a quick express trip to Universal that lasted about an hour. The main order of business was to check out the Spongebob Storepants store, which opened on Saturday. This store is amazing, immersive, very nice. It includes life size images of Squidwards house, spongebobs house, and a character meet and greet built into the store. Without further ado, here are some pics.  Beginning with the entrance.

Throughout the store there are digital pictures letting you know what part of the store your in. The pictures would occasionally animate and "come to life" which I got a couple pics of. All the digital portraits are featured below.

The merchandise in the store is basically an overload of spongebob. You will feel surrounded by it, because you are.

Some more little nuances

Life size spongebob house. Yes you can walk inside

Life size squidward house. No you can not walk inside

They have cast anchor in Orlando

Finally some posters that are displayed on the outside of the store

Overall this is an incredible addition to Universal. It hasnt gotten the press because its just a gift shop but this adds a whole nother dimension to the park and should not be missed. After checking out the store I moved onto the Mummy for a quick ride. Because tourists dont have the largest brains the single rider line was longer than the stand by line, so I moved over to the stand by line at the front and walked right on.

Unless the stand by line is at least 30 minutes, I wouldnt even think of using the single riders line. Plus it angers people like me who usually go alone, when big families crowd the singles line when the stand by line is pretty short. After this I saw the 4:30 horror make up show, which I did not see last time when I snapped pictures of the display. Here is the set up of the stage for the show.

The show runs at a fairly long 25 minutes, but there seems to be so much unmined territory, I think it could easily be an hour. Its a great show, if you decide to see one show on your trip, this is my suggestion. After this I left for the day, and was out of the park by 5. Still have a trip planned for IOA tomorrow morning, so see you sometime tomorrow.

Universal 5/26/12

I spent a couple hours in the park last night, snapped a few pics, and have a few odds and ends to share. I got into Universal about 7:15 and decided to hit up the 7:30 terminator show to rest my feet. The preshow to this is about 10 minutes and the room which houses it is pretty cool.

The show itself is a nice place to rest your feet and relax, but its nothing special, I do enjoy it if Im in the right mood though. After this I moved over to IOA, the single rider line for spiderman was way to long, and the single rider long for Hulk was closed despite a fourty minute wait, so the only Marvel ride I was going to get on today was Doctor doom. there is a single rider line for doctor doom, but its hard to locate, its up the stairs that the ride exits out of.

The ride exits into the Marvel arcade, with some fantastic four decor

I wouldnt recomend the single rider line if youve never been on the ride, because the queue really is fantastic. The single rider line does provide some nice views though. From here the regular entrance looks quite extravagant.

The regular queue is inside, so you never see the towers, but from the single rider line your pretty much looking straight up at them which may be a bit daunting.

For this ride I was in station four, which is the side that gives the best view of the park.

After the ride I moved to the Marvel observation deck, which gives a breathtaking view of the Hulk coaster

After a few minutes their it was on to Ripsaw Falls for a nighttime ride. It was basically a walk on and after some comprising I got the backseat which gets you the least wet. I was still pretty wet afterwards though.

By now it was 9:00 and I decided to move onto Jurassic Park, where I explored Camp Jurassic for some nighttime pics. The inside mines of Camp Jurassic are really cool, most people overlook this as just another playground, but Id recommend exploring in here, its really awesome.

This next pic is my favorite park of camp Jurrasic, a mesh bridge covered in fog with bubbling water beneath. It can quite scary to walk across!

To end the the night, I decided on a nighttime ride on Jurassic Park. The river adventure is absolutely stunning at night, and I hadnt had the opportunity to do it in the dark in awhile. I got an extra treat in my very own boat all to myself, the third time ever where Ive had this luxury. This is my favorite experience in Orlando, Jurrasic Park, at night, in my own boat, but its incredibly rare. Here are some pics of the beautiful ride at night.

Heres proof that my voyage was solo

See, empty seats. The Trex looked good this time, the drop was awesome as usual, the inside part of the ride is awesomely creepy by yourself. All in all it was a good night. My next planned trip into the parks is slated for Tuesday Morning.