New Year in Universal Orlando Happy 2023
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This weekend I went to Universal Orlando with my mom and my brother. We thought we were going to have the park to ourselves.
Turns out we were wrong. We started the trip on Friday, in order to be inside the park on Saturday. It took us about 6 hours to get to our Hotel in Kissimmee.
There was a lot of traffic, and all the rest stops were full. This was but a hint of what was to come. I am not going to rant about the hotel.
That is a topic for a different blog. Once we were settled inside the hotel, we went to a nearby restaurant and then to a gift shop.
It seemed like a good way to kill some time. The following day we drove to Universal Orlando.
In order to skip traffic, we drove up to the park around noon.
Even with that precaution, it was still a hassle to make it inside.
We got the expensive parking for convenience’s sake.
It costs 30 bucks but it's a better parking spot. We had the tickets per-purchased online. They were 150 each.
The ticket also only allowed you to visit one of the parks.
We chose Universal since we are not big fans of roller coasters.
The weather was cloudy, and windy. In the afternoon, it rained a little, but not enough to ruin our day.
Based on the photos that I took; you can easily tell that the park was crowded. It was so crowded that the wait time in the express lanes were 2 hours minimum.
I just don’t have the patience to wait that long anymore. We knew that things were ominous when the Universal website suggested we bring a book to read, while waiting in line.
We went to only one ride: "The Fast and the Furious". It was over in a flash, but still it was very amusing. During the time we spent waiting in line, I was able to read War and Peace.
I wish I was exaggerating. All joking aside, I am exaggerating a little. The other ride we attempted was theme after the Bourne movie. It ran on an hourly schedule, and we kept missing the timing for it.
As for the Men in Black ride, the guy didn’t let us go inside because my brother had a backpack. It was really quite the bother.
With nothing better to do, we visited all the shops. We also saw Harry Potter’s dragon spill fire. I also posed for a decent number of photos.
It seemed like something useful to do with my time. We had 12 hours to kill before midnight. I wasn’t mad about the long lines.
What I really think Universal needs is more sitting areas. There are literally not enough spaces for people to sit while roaming about.
Close to midnight, I saw a good number of kids just lying on the floor sleeping. Their exhausted parents were standing guard nearby.
Adding more benches to the park would be a huge quality of life improvement. It isn’t like they don’t have enough room for benches.
The bathroom situation was at least tolerable. It was the only ride that didn’t have long lines. Aside from window shopping, we also ate at two different places in the park.
They are going to be their own independent foodie blogs. So, look forward to reading about the ice cream place we visited, as well as the food place. As far as music shows, there was a decent variety of them.
The best ones took place close to midnight in City Walk. City Walk is the central hub that links Universal Studios and Islands of Adventures.
The one I liked best was the one that featured the dancers on stilts. They managed to wabble quite nicely, while trying not to fall from such a great height.
They were eventually replaced by break dancers in rainbow shirts. A circle formed and even the audience participated in the dance numbers.
It was a lot of fun to watch. In a different part of the park, there was a DJ playing music. The main dancers were Gru and his three adopted daughters.
For those who have been living under a rock, Gru is the protagonist of Despicable Me. Go see the movie. I took a decent among of videos and photos of the dancing segments.
I wish I could have joined them as well, but sadly I was born with two left feet. Not knowing how to dance is not the worst thing that has ever happened to an individual.
Some restaurants also featured live music. The time eventually came for folks to gather around the lake to see the fireworks display.
The website claimed that there was going to be a cinematic display in the middle of the lake. Families with drones sent their little toys flying in preparation to get an aerial view of the show.
When the clock struct midnight, nothing happened. It was a real let down. The only fireworks we saw took place in a different part of the park.
They were about as vanilla as you can get. Based on the distance, I think the fireworks were actually coming from Disney World or Islands of Adventures. They looked far away.
The fireworks lasted less than 5 minutes. The countdown was done by the actual visitors. There wasn’t a ball dropped or anything.
The workers of the park tried their best to keep things lively. They were given a shoestring budget for the New Year, and they somehow managed to save the party.
With just music and dancing, the workers of Universal saved the party. When the music died, we started making our way towards the Parking lot.
We were all packed like sardines. Since we were all in a good mood, nobody was pushing or shoving anyone.
From time to time, we would hang back a bit to avoid being in the center of the crowd. We fancied that if a balloon exploded, it could cause the crowd to panic.
There have been instances where folks have been trampled to death. When we got to the parking lot, we rode on the automatic floor thing.
I do not know what it is called. It is like the automatic staircase, but on the floor.
Anyhow…while we were ridding it, a little girl in front of us began to panic.
She started taking step backwards, and she tripped us.
I had to hold onto my brother and my mother to keep us from falling.
I think her shoes got tied up or something. The point is that we almost fell. Once we made it to the car, we all breathed a sigh of relief.
Would we go back to Universal Studios? The short answer is Yes. This is Teresita Blanco the Artsy Sister. Bye, bye and God bless.
