Soundstage 44

Ive been very MIA as of late, for which I apologize, but over the next few weeks before a long hiatus trip to Wisconsin, I will be covering different topics, including HHN, a Despicable Me ride review, A look into Super Silly Stuff, and more. Today I am going to simply talk about the bizarre events that have surrounded soundstage 44 recently.

Last month, Universal surprised everyone by pulling a permit to put an HHN house in soundstage 44. The building has layed dormant in the park for eight years, with no activity whatsoever. Many have said the building had basically been left to rot. Well, a two days ago, a permit was pulled to demolish soundstage 44. According to some on the inside, this was a huge shock to those working on HHN, apparently they had already begun work on the house in SS 44, and were basically just kicked out of the building one day and were told this building would no longer be used for HHN and it was going to be demolished. So this is where it gets really bizarre. If your Universal, why cant you wait for five months before demolishing SS 44 until after HHN is over? Why NOW? They basically cancelled the HHN house last second, and decided to demolish the building ASAP without hesitation, after eight years of laying dormant, to being a new attraction. What is so urgent about this new attraction going in SS 44s place that they have to start working on it immediately, instead of just waiting until November 1st when HHN ends. Its so bizarre I cant even begin to guess, although some rumors have come up. One is that Universal had plans to demolish 44 after HHN, but they had no idea just how bad of shape SS 44 was in, and when they saw the awful condition of it decided it wasnt suitable to host a HHN house, and just canceled it ad decided to demolish it now. This sounds unlikely to me because work on the house had already begun, and to my understanding was moving along quite nicely. I just can get over the bizareness. The HHN creative team had plans to build a house in 44 for almost a full calendar year, and then BAM! one day this building is getting demolished, no more HHN house in this building. Its clear that something big has happened in the last few days causing Universal to go into top speed on construction of a new attraction. The only plausible rumor Ive heard for why they may be in such a huge rush, is that Disney has bought out Marvel from Universal, which means Universal is being forced to close Spiderman, arguably Universals, (Orlandos?) most popular ride, and they want to get a ride just like it (Transformers) built ASAP, so it can be open by the time they have to close spiderman. Problem is, I just cant imagine Universal so willingly agreeing to close spiderman forever. The outrage people had when crappy outdated rides like Jaws and Back to the Future closed, can you imagine the outcry if Spiderman, the ride that made universal what it is today, were to close? Maybe I just dont want to believe its possible, since Spiderman is my personal favorite ride Ive ever been on. (yes I prefer it over Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.) I just cant get over the intrigue of wondering why Universal is in a huge rush to get 44 demolished. Its bizarre to say the least. Only time will tell.

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.