Orlando Feb 2024

[Ils]

We arrived back yesterday from our 11 night stay at Endless Summer- Surfside and had a great time. We decided to have more of a Universal focused holiday this time around but still managed to have a single day at each of Busch, SeaWorld, Epcot and a visit to Hollywood Studios at an After hours event.

It was our first time back in Orlando since Feb 2019. I'm going to break this mini report into two sections to cover all the parks attended, but primarily focus my thoughts on the new rides that have appeared since our last visit.

Universal:

Velocicoaster - I will jump straight in with probably my most controversial opinion. After our first ride we all came off with the same opinion..."I thought that was meant to be a world class ride?" My wife hated it, my 10 year old was nearly in tears as he said his legs really hurt due to the restraints pushing down too hard and even my eldest said " I'm not sure if I liked that". There is an annoying rattle already on this ride which for how old it is, is a little concerning.

We left it a few days and then myself and my eldest got back on for a night ride and our opinions did change for the better. Although the annoying rattle was still there it was a lot better ride in the dark. For me, I'm not a fan of the first part of the ride. I just find it a bit Meh. However, the second section after the launch and top hat is ridiculous.

Overall opinion was that it didn't quite live up to the hype but saying that, I saw enough positive responses from around us to suggest that maybe other riders experience were a lot more different.

Hagrids - This is quite clearly the best ride I have ever been on. Is it the best out and out rollercoaster I went on this holiday....No, but as an overall package and the joy this brought to our family, it really hits the spot.

We rode it on three occasions which included two night rides and each time all four of us came off with the biggest smiles on our faces.

A couple of the launches are really snappy and as a overall experience, Universal have smashed this out of the park. Our longest wait was 60 mins but it's probably the only ride I would wait double that for.

Honourable mentions - Hulk is still a good ride, I was lucky to go on version uno back in 1999 and it still has that imposing feel when you walk into the park.

Also the new Bourne show was excellent unlike the new Minion blast ride. Who sat there and thought that was a good idea?

Busch:

There were two things I wanted to achieve on this day. Ride Iron Gwazi and finally after all these years to get to ride Kumba which for numerous reasons I had failed to accomplish.

Iron Gwazi - My new number 1. This thing is relentless and gave me everything I wanted from Velocicoaster and more. The night ride we had on this was out of this world. The pacing is spot on and I was just thankful this delivered. Even the wife enjoyed it, which when we came off the first ride, I turned slowly to see her reaction and she had a big smile on her face thankfully.

Kumba - It did not disappoint. This now joins Montu as my joint second favourite ride in the Park.

Honourable Mentions - No one wanted to go on Tigris. We did Electric Eel back in 2022 and we all hated it. The thought of climbing back into a Premier is not for me.

My lads feedback on Serengeti Flyers was a positive one as that is one ride I'm just too old for now.

Overall thoughts we just love this Park. It was one of our favourite days back in 2019 and yet again this time was no different.


SeaWorld, Epcot and Hollywood Studios write up to follow.

 

[Matt N]

Interesting review; I’m glad you had a good time!

I myself went to Orlando last June, and I did very similar parks (although I did not do any Disney parks like you did, so did not get to see the likes of Tron, Cosmic Rewind or Galaxy’s Edge).

VelociCoaster is an interesting one. I have to say that I myself absolutely loved it, and would declare it one of my very top coasters, but I was definitely a tad underwhelmed after my first ride. I still thought it was phenomenal from the first go, but after that first go towards the back, I was not instantly declaring it a contender for #1 like I thought I might be.

For whatever reason, my second ride definitely made it grow on me considerably, and after that second ride, I can definitely see far more where the hype for it stems from. I don’t know if it was running better or if not going into the ride with the weight of ridiculously high expectations simply made me like it a lot more, but for whatever reason, that second front row ride was a game changer for me. Out of interest, did you manage to ride it in the front? I have to say that I felt that the front row was definitely my favourite row on it!

I have to agree with your thoughts on Hagrid’s; the pure fun factor of that one definitely floored me! I did also absolutely love Iron Gwazi, but I’d say that it was quite similar to VelociCoaster for me in that I wasn’t instantly sold on it being a top, top coaster, and it took a second ride for me to truly rank it as one of my very top coasters. I did slightly prefer VelociCoaster of the two overall, but both are sublime coasters; out of the 111 coasters I’ve ridden in total, VelociCoaster is my #2 and Iron Gwazi is my #4, and even then, I honestly wonder in hindsight if I’m ranking Gwazi in particular too low…

I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the other parks you visited!

 

[Ils]

SeaWorld: We went on President day so I had booked quick queue tickets as soon as they became available for $20 each before they raised the price closer to the time, as I know it can get busy there on bank holidays.

Pipeline: We hit this one first and was on the second train of the day. Great fun coaster and unanimously a massive hit in our family. The wife ranks it as her second favourite coaster of the trip after Hagrids. We managed to get a couple of more rides on it first thing.

Mako: Still up there in my top 3 favourite coasters in Orlando. We rode it twice. We had a front row and a back row and both rides were as good as what I remembered.

Manta: I didn't go on this, as last time I went on it I had my one and only panic attack in my life, when we were left on the brake run for what seemed a ridiculous amount of time. I don't like the feeling of being locked in when facing down. Also I remember the sensation of the Pretzel loop and I wasn't a fan. This time however my youngest was tall enough and he ranks this as his second favourite coaster behind Hagrid of the holiday.

Icebreaker: We queued up for 5 mins in the QQ line and it was still a 25 min wait as they had one train running. To be honest not one of us were bothered about going on it, so we walked out to go and get some food and never returned.

Other highlights: Kraken is still a solid ride and Infinity Falls is probably my new favourite rapids.

Only other comment is the operations at SeaWorld are up there with Flamingo Land as some of the worst I have ever seen. It was the same back in 2019.

Write up on Epcot and DHS still to come.

 

[JohnieBeahan]

It is good.