Yo! I'm back in the hizouse after 2 weeks in Florida and I know you're all dying to know my top 10 rides.
Well, don't panic, because every time we went on a ride, we logged it and we spent queue time discussing where the rides go in our family list!
I was pleased that a lot of the new rides made the top 10, so things are still improving all the time.
We did:
Universal
Universal Studios
Islands of Adventure
Disney
Magic Kingdom
Epcot
Animal Kingdom
Hollywood Studios
We had Express passes for Universal and Genie+ for Disney.
Universal is the classic method of showing your pass and get in the much shorter queue.
Disney uses the app and you book a slot. You can start booking slots 1 hour before the park opens and Disney resort guests get early access to the parks, so can book earlier too. Sometimes, a whole day's worth of rides would be gone before we could book or maybe a slot at 9pm.
Disney have a few rides that can't be booked with Genie+, but you can pay extra to beat the lines (about $10-15 per person).
There were a few shows, but we haven't included those, even though they were all pretty great, especially Bourne Stuntacular, Poseiden's Fury, Indiana Jones and the Frozen sing-a-long.
So, in reverse order, here are our top 10 rides!
10
Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts - Universal Studios
So, the whole of the Potter world stuff is amazing. The theming is world-class. In Universal studios, there's a front that's themed like London (reasonably accurate, to be fair!) and you walk through a secret section and end up in Diagon Alley, with Ollivander's wand shop and a load of store fronts, some of which are real and you can buy merch or food and some are pretend ones and you can buy a wand to cast spells at and something will happen in the windows (pots stir, lights come one, eyes open and so on.)
The focal point of the area is Gringott's Bank, which has the dragon sat atop it that breathes fire every 10 minutes.
Inside the bank, the queue looks a lot like the interior of the bank based on the films and even has animatronic bank tellers, working.
You progress down various tunnels and end up in the office of Bill Weasley, where a holographic introduction using the actual actor talks about how he'll take us down to the vault.
You're then taken into elevators and you're lowered down into the vault and finally loaded onto the carts with "safety goggles" (3D glasses). Problem is, Bellatrix finds you and sends you the wrong way!
So the ride is an amazing combination of real effects, roller coaster and 3D screens that actually tell a story.
It's taking the Spider-Man concept and updating it to modern ride levels.
This is the former site of the Jaws ride and there are a couple of Easter eggs like the record store in "London" has "Here's To Swimmin' with Bow-legged Women" by the Quint Trio and there are shrunken heads in Nocturne Alley that sing "show me the way to go home.
9
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey - Islands of Adventure
Just pipping Gringott's is the ride house under the giant Hogwarts model.
This side of the park has Hogsmeade and snow-covered shops and houses to explore.
At the end of the street is Hogwarts and this ride.
Again, the theming is brilliant. Even the sign has magic writing and the queue goes through the stairwell with talking painting, a sequence with Dumbledore in his office and even a sorting hat.
The ride puts you on pew-like seats and takes you on an adventure following Harry and the gang.
I found this one to be slightly better because there were more practical effects going on, not just screens including
death eaters and a full-scale dragon head!
The two sides of the park are linked using Hogwarts Express that has a really clever show as you travel out the "window" and the frosted glass.
All the Potter stuff was amazing and although they must be making a boatload of money from the merch, it didn't feel tacky, just loads of people, young and old, getting excited about being in the places they'd seen in the films.
8
Skull Island: Reign Of Kong - Islands of Adventure
This was a real surprise treat. It was similar to the Fast and Furious ride, but instead of Deisel Van flying through the air, it had a Kong theme.
After queuing through skull-filled caves with an animatronic soothsayer, everone boards a jungle jeep and sets off to escape a storm. You drive through the jungle then enter the giant gates of the temple where one of the crew gets attacked by the creatures of the island and you set off to rescue them.
You then end up in a sequence with giant 3D screens either side of you, so you're surrounded by the action and Kong has a dust-up with some T-rexes trying to take a chomp out of you. It's all going off and it really feels like you're falling at times. The ride is topped off with a full-size Kong head animatronic with him snorting at you!
7
Jurassic Park River Adventure - Islands of Adventure
The classic still stands, decades after it opened, partly because Spielberg was involved with its deisgn.
It's really clever how it makes it looks like you've veered off-course as the tour continues on your original route, but you end up in the danger zone.
After a couple of raptor encounters, the piece-de-resistance is the giant animatronic t-rex, that is just about to chomp you and you're so preoccupied looking at it, you don't see the massive drop!
First ride got us drenched, but later rides were nowhere near as wet, so it depends on how heavy the boat is and where you sit, I think.
Some of the animatronics are a bit dated, especially compared to some of the newer rides, but that T-Rex is still a brilliant moment as it stomps out of the mist at you.
The California version has added some screens with the giant water dino from Jurassic World, but that's not in Florida.
6
The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man - Islands of Adventure
So this is another older ride (1999), but is still brilliant. I think it's a combination of the action and the content.
There are similar rides, like Transformers, but this is just so much more relatable as the Sinister Six try to cause havoc with Doctor Octopus' anti-gravity gun!
You drive around New York, in your news reporter vehicle, but end up being the story as the supervillains try to attack you.
You have heat and water thrown at you and finally zapped with the anti-gravity gun and end up flying over the streets, but what goes up...
Another brilliant mix of 3D and real effects make this an all-time great!
5
The Incredible Hulk Coaster - Islands of Adventure
There aren't many classic coasters in the Universal/Disney parks, but even without the competition locally, it's still one of my favourite coasters, ever.
The basic premise is that you're getting tested on with a gamma radiation test by General Ross and you experience what it's like turning into the Hulk.
It's got this amazing start where you're trundling up the first hill with the experiment going fine until the gamma rays hit you and you get launched out of the tube!
It's had a refurb since I was there last, changing Banner's experiment to Ross', with new speakers in the seat.
The ride itself is by Bolliger & Mabillard (Oblivion, Nemesis, Air) and it's still a great, smooth ride.
As we were staying in a Universal hotel, we got early entry and rode it twice in a row, on the front seats! Wooo!
The ride itself looks amazing too, with sections that go underground and blast water up. At night the whole thing lights up green and every time it launches, there's a massive Hulk roar.
4
VelociCoaster - Islands of Adventure
Okay, so this is a new Intamin coaster and it's amazing!
It's higher in my list, but my son felt a bit sick riding it two times in a row, so he downvoted it.
They're really strict with no loose articles, so everything goes into lockers.
You're then lead through a queue area, where you see the cars leave the ride, but they're transparent screens and I jumped when a raptor ran past!
There are also some animatronic raptors in the queue, muzzled up, but their eyes look at you and they rattle their cages and are genuinely unnerving. There are some nice props like books by Dr. Alan Grant and dino chew toys.
After that, there's a giant screen doing a great video where Claire Dearing and Owen Grady talk about the ride and it works brilliantly because she's playing it cool and marketing it to the guests, whilst he's arguing that putting a roller coaster in a raptor pen is a ridiculously stupid idea and berates the keepers riling up the raptors with stun batons. It all adds to a great, authentic atmosphere that it's a crazy thing to do.
You sit in cars (there's a front row queue for a longer wait) and they buckle you in, but there's only a lap restraint, not over-the-shoulder ones and I genuinely thought I would fall out if I raised my arms!
The cars then go into the starting gates and you can see the raptors champing at the bit to chase you and you get launched at 0-50 mph in 2 seconds straight out of the gate.
The track goes through rock structures and loops around over water, with the raptors appearing as you whizz past (with them screeching as you pass through the headspeakers).
Then there's my favourite bit of the ride. At first, I thought it was entering a braking area, but it was a second launch zone, propelling you from 40 to 70 mph in 2.4 seconds, then you fly up a 155 foot hill and crest down again, with the final section being a barrel/heartline roll over water and you feel really close to it!
So the coaster itself is a brilliant, smooth and thrilling ride, but the addition of authentic props and cast videos really elevates it further.
3
Avatar: Flight of Passage - Animal Kingdom
Not many "rides" at Animal Kingdom, but Expedition Everest, the Kilimanjaro Safari and some of the shows are well worth doing, but the highlight is the rather random addition of the Pandora section of the park.
There are loads of unusual alien plants and structures, the highlight being the floating rocks dominating the skyline. They're massive and look amazing.
There's a Na'vi river cruise, which is very nice and features the best animatronic in any of the parks, but it's pretty skippable.
However, the must-ride attraction is the Avatar experience.
The queue sees you weaving around the rocks and caves until you end up in a test lab, that has unobtanium experiments and a scale avatar floating in a tube!
You're then lead up a ramp and into a room for about a dozen people and they clean you of viruses and sync you up (some clever camera effects) then a Sigourney Weaver lookey-likey ("Sigourney Beaver") talks you through what will happen.
Finally, you're lead to your "bike" that will link to your avatar's banshee.
You face a metal wall, but after syncing with your avatar, you're soaring above Pandora.
It's quite simply the best simulator I've been on. You can see how they do things if you look hard enough, but you genuinely feel like you're soaring above the world and you feel the wind in the air, smell the grass and feel the splash of the waves. It's breathtaking and a real thrill, we were buzzing afterwards.
It's not included on Genie+, so you can pay or go early. We went early, but slow loading times meant we waited about 90 minutes, but it was 100% worth it.
We did the Na'vi river cruise as the sun set and saw there was only a 45 min wait, so we went on it again.
By the time we got to the loading ramp, we were the only people waiting! So they said we had the pick of the rooms and we asked if any were better and they put us in the syncing room all by ourselves, then sat in the middle-middle of the seats and had our vision filled with the screen. It was even more special the second time and by the time my banshee landed to watch the Pandoran sun set, it was quite emotional!
Then we stepped out into Pandora at night, long after the park had closed and the majority of guests had left, so walked around the stunning paths, all lit up and glowing, it was such a great moment for us to share.
2
Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Islands of Adventure
This is an absolute corker and a must-ride.
It's the only ride in Universal that doesn't allow Express Pass, so it's a right nightmare to get on with queues reaching 3 hours most days, but it's another example of how rides have evolved to be "story coasters" that tell a short story as you ride around. Using the voice of Robbie Coltraine as Hagrid, you go with him on an adventure going past several creatures.
I won't spoil too much as there are loads of lovely moments and surprises.
You ride in twos on a motorbike and sidecar (bike is best) and there are a record 7 launches on Florida's longest ride at over 1.5 Km.
The animatronics are top-notch and the surprises are really great. The feeling of the wind as you race around is pretty unique.
It's a bit bonkers, but if you stay at a premium Universal hotel, you get 2 days unlimited Express Pass and early entry, so we stayed one night at the cheapest of the premium hotels and it still cost less than standard one-ride Express passes! My wife and son went down early to queue for Hagrid whilst my daughter and I took our time in the fancy room and ambled down later to pick up Cinnabon breakfast and went on Popeye's boat as Hagrid had technical issues delaying the start.
2 things of note there, the boat has excellent views of VelociCoaster, but also overlooks Bluto's Bilgerat Barges and the boat has watercannons on it and I was crying with laughter calling out to people and when they looked up, blasting them!
Later in the day, we set an alert in the Universal app for when Hagrid dropped to under 90 minute wait, and it went off, so we raced from Universal Studios to Islands of Adventure and managed to get on. With the childswap facility (daughter was too small), my son got to ride with each of us, so he's been on it 3 times!
1
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance - Disney's Hollywood Studios
I didn't think anything would top Ratatouille, then VelociCoaster, then Hagrid, but this was amazing.
I mean, I like Star Wars, but a fan would lose their mind at this.
The thing that sets this apart is that it's another "story" ride, but there are so many *real* elements that sets it apart from anything else.
Each section got better and better and there are several sections to it.
The whole section of Galaxy's Edge is so good, with brilliant theming throughout. There's the bloody Millenium Falcon parked in it, for chuff's sake! Smuggler's Run ride is good and stepping onto the Millenium Falcon was so weird, like I'd been there before. I was a bit giddy! The ride itself is OK, but apart from the pilot, who gets to push the lightspeed lever, it's just pushing buttons when it says, but Rise OTR is astonishing.
I'll spoiler what happens in Rise, in case anyone else goes as it's best not knowing:
You start off queueing in the rebel caves and end up in a briefing room where an animatronic BB-8 and a holographic Rey tell you that you need to escape on a transporter ship, you're lead outside and there's Poe Cameron's X-Wing, right next to your transporter. You don't really have time to drink it in as you're lead into the transporter. Inside, the pilot is an animatronic Mon Calamari, but you see out the window the whole ship gets sucked into a Star Destroyer!
The hatch is forced open and an Empire general tells you to disembark for interrogation, you step out of the ship INTO A HANGAR. It's massive and cold and you can see out of the launch window ships passing by. You're flanked by a load of stormtroopers and droid, so there's no espape as they throw you into the prison cell.
Up above, General Hux and Kylo Ren decide your fate and it's not good.
Then the wall lights up as a hole is cut out and you're greeted by rebels. Man, it was good to see them.
They put you in reprogrammed droid carts and begin your escape - play it cool.
A torture droid spots you and all hell breaks loose. It was all a bit of a blur at this point, but in your escape, you run from blaster fire. You see Kylo Ren and Hux at the controls of the ship. You see the rebels having a massive fight out the window. You see Kylo Ren chase after you and even cut a hole in the ceiling with his lightsaber to get down to you. You even race into a hangar where there are TWO FULL SIZE AT-ATS!
You manage to escape with a rough landing and Mon Calamari saying we've saved the day but been really lucky.
Honestly, both my wife and I were absolutely buzzing. The kids loved it too, obviously, but it was all so well done. We didn't think we would get on as it was broken down more than running on the day we went to Hollywood Studios, but I said I really wanted to do it.
It was probably our longest wait at about 90-120 minutes because they had to clear all the people who had paid first, then we got our turn.
It was quite funny as we were waiting to be put in our cells and my daughter said she needed a wee and the guard kept in character, snapped his fingers at a subordinate and said "You! Take this one to the restroom" and I just had to sit on some crates next to a stormtrooper!
So that's our list of top ten rides!
We had an amazing time and was really pleased the new rides were so great.
Well, don't panic, because every time we went on a ride, we logged it and we spent queue time discussing where the rides go in our family list!
I was pleased that a lot of the new rides made the top 10, so things are still improving all the time.
We did:
Universal
Universal Studios
Islands of Adventure
Disney
Magic Kingdom
Epcot
Animal Kingdom
Hollywood Studios
We had Express passes for Universal and Genie+ for Disney.
Universal is the classic method of showing your pass and get in the much shorter queue.
Disney uses the app and you book a slot. You can start booking slots 1 hour before the park opens and Disney resort guests get early access to the parks, so can book earlier too. Sometimes, a whole day's worth of rides would be gone before we could book or maybe a slot at 9pm.
Disney have a few rides that can't be booked with Genie+, but you can pay extra to beat the lines (about $10-15 per person).
There were a few shows, but we haven't included those, even though they were all pretty great, especially Bourne Stuntacular, Poseiden's Fury, Indiana Jones and the Frozen sing-a-long.
So, in reverse order, here are our top 10 rides!
10
Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts - Universal Studios
So, the whole of the Potter world stuff is amazing. The theming is world-class. In Universal studios, there's a front that's themed like London (reasonably accurate, to be fair!) and you walk through a secret section and end up in Diagon Alley, with Ollivander's wand shop and a load of store fronts, some of which are real and you can buy merch or food and some are pretend ones and you can buy a wand to cast spells at and something will happen in the windows (pots stir, lights come one, eyes open and so on.)
The focal point of the area is Gringott's Bank, which has the dragon sat atop it that breathes fire every 10 minutes.
Inside the bank, the queue looks a lot like the interior of the bank based on the films and even has animatronic bank tellers, working.
You progress down various tunnels and end up in the office of Bill Weasley, where a holographic introduction using the actual actor talks about how he'll take us down to the vault.
You're then taken into elevators and you're lowered down into the vault and finally loaded onto the carts with "safety goggles" (3D glasses). Problem is, Bellatrix finds you and sends you the wrong way!
So the ride is an amazing combination of real effects, roller coaster and 3D screens that actually tell a story.
It's taking the Spider-Man concept and updating it to modern ride levels.
This is the former site of the Jaws ride and there are a couple of Easter eggs like the record store in "London" has "Here's To Swimmin' with Bow-legged Women" by the Quint Trio and there are shrunken heads in Nocturne Alley that sing "show me the way to go home.
9
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey - Islands of Adventure
Just pipping Gringott's is the ride house under the giant Hogwarts model.
This side of the park has Hogsmeade and snow-covered shops and houses to explore.
At the end of the street is Hogwarts and this ride.
Again, the theming is brilliant. Even the sign has magic writing and the queue goes through the stairwell with talking painting, a sequence with Dumbledore in his office and even a sorting hat.
The ride puts you on pew-like seats and takes you on an adventure following Harry and the gang.
I found this one to be slightly better because there were more practical effects going on, not just screens including
death eaters and a full-scale dragon head!
The two sides of the park are linked using Hogwarts Express that has a really clever show as you travel out the "window" and the frosted glass.
All the Potter stuff was amazing and although they must be making a boatload of money from the merch, it didn't feel tacky, just loads of people, young and old, getting excited about being in the places they'd seen in the films.
8
Skull Island: Reign Of Kong - Islands of Adventure
This was a real surprise treat. It was similar to the Fast and Furious ride, but instead of Deisel Van flying through the air, it had a Kong theme.
After queuing through skull-filled caves with an animatronic soothsayer, everone boards a jungle jeep and sets off to escape a storm. You drive through the jungle then enter the giant gates of the temple where one of the crew gets attacked by the creatures of the island and you set off to rescue them.
You then end up in a sequence with giant 3D screens either side of you, so you're surrounded by the action and Kong has a dust-up with some T-rexes trying to take a chomp out of you. It's all going off and it really feels like you're falling at times. The ride is topped off with a full-size Kong head animatronic with him snorting at you!
7
Jurassic Park River Adventure - Islands of Adventure
The classic still stands, decades after it opened, partly because Spielberg was involved with its deisgn.
It's really clever how it makes it looks like you've veered off-course as the tour continues on your original route, but you end up in the danger zone.
After a couple of raptor encounters, the piece-de-resistance is the giant animatronic t-rex, that is just about to chomp you and you're so preoccupied looking at it, you don't see the massive drop!
First ride got us drenched, but later rides were nowhere near as wet, so it depends on how heavy the boat is and where you sit, I think.
Some of the animatronics are a bit dated, especially compared to some of the newer rides, but that T-Rex is still a brilliant moment as it stomps out of the mist at you.
The California version has added some screens with the giant water dino from Jurassic World, but that's not in Florida.
6
The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man - Islands of Adventure
So this is another older ride (1999), but is still brilliant. I think it's a combination of the action and the content.
There are similar rides, like Transformers, but this is just so much more relatable as the Sinister Six try to cause havoc with Doctor Octopus' anti-gravity gun!
You drive around New York, in your news reporter vehicle, but end up being the story as the supervillains try to attack you.
You have heat and water thrown at you and finally zapped with the anti-gravity gun and end up flying over the streets, but what goes up...
Another brilliant mix of 3D and real effects make this an all-time great!
5
The Incredible Hulk Coaster - Islands of Adventure
There aren't many classic coasters in the Universal/Disney parks, but even without the competition locally, it's still one of my favourite coasters, ever.
The basic premise is that you're getting tested on with a gamma radiation test by General Ross and you experience what it's like turning into the Hulk.
It's got this amazing start where you're trundling up the first hill with the experiment going fine until the gamma rays hit you and you get launched out of the tube!
It's had a refurb since I was there last, changing Banner's experiment to Ross', with new speakers in the seat.
The ride itself is by Bolliger & Mabillard (Oblivion, Nemesis, Air) and it's still a great, smooth ride.
As we were staying in a Universal hotel, we got early entry and rode it twice in a row, on the front seats! Wooo!
The ride itself looks amazing too, with sections that go underground and blast water up. At night the whole thing lights up green and every time it launches, there's a massive Hulk roar.
4
VelociCoaster - Islands of Adventure
Okay, so this is a new Intamin coaster and it's amazing!
It's higher in my list, but my son felt a bit sick riding it two times in a row, so he downvoted it.
They're really strict with no loose articles, so everything goes into lockers.
You're then lead through a queue area, where you see the cars leave the ride, but they're transparent screens and I jumped when a raptor ran past!
There are also some animatronic raptors in the queue, muzzled up, but their eyes look at you and they rattle their cages and are genuinely unnerving. There are some nice props like books by Dr. Alan Grant and dino chew toys.
After that, there's a giant screen doing a great video where Claire Dearing and Owen Grady talk about the ride and it works brilliantly because she's playing it cool and marketing it to the guests, whilst he's arguing that putting a roller coaster in a raptor pen is a ridiculously stupid idea and berates the keepers riling up the raptors with stun batons. It all adds to a great, authentic atmosphere that it's a crazy thing to do.
You sit in cars (there's a front row queue for a longer wait) and they buckle you in, but there's only a lap restraint, not over-the-shoulder ones and I genuinely thought I would fall out if I raised my arms!
The cars then go into the starting gates and you can see the raptors champing at the bit to chase you and you get launched at 0-50 mph in 2 seconds straight out of the gate.
The track goes through rock structures and loops around over water, with the raptors appearing as you whizz past (with them screeching as you pass through the headspeakers).
Then there's my favourite bit of the ride. At first, I thought it was entering a braking area, but it was a second launch zone, propelling you from 40 to 70 mph in 2.4 seconds, then you fly up a 155 foot hill and crest down again, with the final section being a barrel/heartline roll over water and you feel really close to it!
So the coaster itself is a brilliant, smooth and thrilling ride, but the addition of authentic props and cast videos really elevates it further.
3
Avatar: Flight of Passage - Animal Kingdom
Not many "rides" at Animal Kingdom, but Expedition Everest, the Kilimanjaro Safari and some of the shows are well worth doing, but the highlight is the rather random addition of the Pandora section of the park.
There are loads of unusual alien plants and structures, the highlight being the floating rocks dominating the skyline. They're massive and look amazing.
There's a Na'vi river cruise, which is very nice and features the best animatronic in any of the parks, but it's pretty skippable.
However, the must-ride attraction is the Avatar experience.
The queue sees you weaving around the rocks and caves until you end up in a test lab, that has unobtanium experiments and a scale avatar floating in a tube!
You're then lead up a ramp and into a room for about a dozen people and they clean you of viruses and sync you up (some clever camera effects) then a Sigourney Weaver lookey-likey ("Sigourney Beaver") talks you through what will happen.
Finally, you're lead to your "bike" that will link to your avatar's banshee.
You face a metal wall, but after syncing with your avatar, you're soaring above Pandora.
It's quite simply the best simulator I've been on. You can see how they do things if you look hard enough, but you genuinely feel like you're soaring above the world and you feel the wind in the air, smell the grass and feel the splash of the waves. It's breathtaking and a real thrill, we were buzzing afterwards.
It's not included on Genie+, so you can pay or go early. We went early, but slow loading times meant we waited about 90 minutes, but it was 100% worth it.
We did the Na'vi river cruise as the sun set and saw there was only a 45 min wait, so we went on it again.
By the time we got to the loading ramp, we were the only people waiting! So they said we had the pick of the rooms and we asked if any were better and they put us in the syncing room all by ourselves, then sat in the middle-middle of the seats and had our vision filled with the screen. It was even more special the second time and by the time my banshee landed to watch the Pandoran sun set, it was quite emotional!
Then we stepped out into Pandora at night, long after the park had closed and the majority of guests had left, so walked around the stunning paths, all lit up and glowing, it was such a great moment for us to share.
2
Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Islands of Adventure
This is an absolute corker and a must-ride.
It's the only ride in Universal that doesn't allow Express Pass, so it's a right nightmare to get on with queues reaching 3 hours most days, but it's another example of how rides have evolved to be "story coasters" that tell a short story as you ride around. Using the voice of Robbie Coltraine as Hagrid, you go with him on an adventure going past several creatures.
I won't spoil too much as there are loads of lovely moments and surprises.
You ride in twos on a motorbike and sidecar (bike is best) and there are a record 7 launches on Florida's longest ride at over 1.5 Km.
The animatronics are top-notch and the surprises are really great. The feeling of the wind as you race around is pretty unique.
It's a bit bonkers, but if you stay at a premium Universal hotel, you get 2 days unlimited Express Pass and early entry, so we stayed one night at the cheapest of the premium hotels and it still cost less than standard one-ride Express passes! My wife and son went down early to queue for Hagrid whilst my daughter and I took our time in the fancy room and ambled down later to pick up Cinnabon breakfast and went on Popeye's boat as Hagrid had technical issues delaying the start.
2 things of note there, the boat has excellent views of VelociCoaster, but also overlooks Bluto's Bilgerat Barges and the boat has watercannons on it and I was crying with laughter calling out to people and when they looked up, blasting them!
Later in the day, we set an alert in the Universal app for when Hagrid dropped to under 90 minute wait, and it went off, so we raced from Universal Studios to Islands of Adventure and managed to get on. With the childswap facility (daughter was too small), my son got to ride with each of us, so he's been on it 3 times!
1
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance - Disney's Hollywood Studios
I didn't think anything would top Ratatouille, then VelociCoaster, then Hagrid, but this was amazing.
I mean, I like Star Wars, but a fan would lose their mind at this.
The thing that sets this apart is that it's another "story" ride, but there are so many *real* elements that sets it apart from anything else.
Each section got better and better and there are several sections to it.
The whole section of Galaxy's Edge is so good, with brilliant theming throughout. There's the bloody Millenium Falcon parked in it, for chuff's sake! Smuggler's Run ride is good and stepping onto the Millenium Falcon was so weird, like I'd been there before. I was a bit giddy! The ride itself is OK, but apart from the pilot, who gets to push the lightspeed lever, it's just pushing buttons when it says, but Rise OTR is astonishing.
I'll spoiler what happens in Rise, in case anyone else goes as it's best not knowing:
You start off queueing in the rebel caves and end up in a briefing room where an animatronic BB-8 and a holographic Rey tell you that you need to escape on a transporter ship, you're lead outside and there's Poe Cameron's X-Wing, right next to your transporter. You don't really have time to drink it in as you're lead into the transporter. Inside, the pilot is an animatronic Mon Calamari, but you see out the window the whole ship gets sucked into a Star Destroyer!
The hatch is forced open and an Empire general tells you to disembark for interrogation, you step out of the ship INTO A HANGAR. It's massive and cold and you can see out of the launch window ships passing by. You're flanked by a load of stormtroopers and droid, so there's no espape as they throw you into the prison cell.
Up above, General Hux and Kylo Ren decide your fate and it's not good.
Then the wall lights up as a hole is cut out and you're greeted by rebels. Man, it was good to see them.
They put you in reprogrammed droid carts and begin your escape - play it cool.
A torture droid spots you and all hell breaks loose. It was all a bit of a blur at this point, but in your escape, you run from blaster fire. You see Kylo Ren and Hux at the controls of the ship. You see the rebels having a massive fight out the window. You see Kylo Ren chase after you and even cut a hole in the ceiling with his lightsaber to get down to you. You even race into a hangar where there are TWO FULL SIZE AT-ATS!
You manage to escape with a rough landing and Mon Calamari saying we've saved the day but been really lucky.
Honestly, both my wife and I were absolutely buzzing. The kids loved it too, obviously, but it was all so well done. We didn't think we would get on as it was broken down more than running on the day we went to Hollywood Studios, but I said I really wanted to do it.
It was probably our longest wait at about 90-120 minutes because they had to clear all the people who had paid first, then we got our turn.
It was quite funny as we were waiting to be put in our cells and my daughter said she needed a wee and the guard kept in character, snapped his fingers at a subordinate and said "You! Take this one to the restroom" and I just had to sit on some crates next to a stormtrooper!
So that's our list of top ten rides!
We had an amazing time and was really pleased the new rides were so great.
those small UK parks are still fun and have their own charm, though. I've said before on here but we used to go to Drayton Manor Park a couple of times a year when I was a kid. Always fun, although I see now they have now long since gotten rid of my favourite rides - Klondike and The Crypt.
you have to love small UK theme parks for this type of thing.
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