Bennett family finds Universal Studios a good mix of rides and shows

Posted in summer fun, Things to do, Travel
by Shaun Bennett

This is the second in a six-part blog series detailing the Bennetts’ biennial trip to Disney World in Orlando. I’ll spend one blog entry on each of the four Disney parks, and two more on the two Universal Studios parks we visited before we hit Lake Buena Vista.

After going to Islands of Adventure on Day 1, we followed up with Universal Studios.

Dad’s pick

Universal Horror Make-Up Show. Unless you hit the comedy improv show at Pleasure Island in Downtown Disney, there isn’t a lot of adult-driven shows during a typical Disney trip. The horror makeup show is probably not recommended for younger kids, as it explains some of the gorier moments in filmmaking history and has a few of those off-color moments — such as when the host of the show squirted water on the T-shirt of an attractive woman who refused to volunteer earlier in the show. He hit the poor women with about half a gallon of water before stopping.

If you’re a fan of horror movies — and beside my father-in-law, I know nobody who loves them more than myself — this is an interesting and entertaining show. It mixes behind-the-scenes special effects know-how with plenty of comedy. One poor lady who did volunteer had a prop knife sawed into her forearm while blood spurted all over the stage, and was given the fright of her life when the “robotic” creature they showed the audience came to life and chased her around the arena.

Mom’s pick

Revenge of the Mummy the ride. Mary loved the Mummy movies starring Brendan Fraser, and this ride wowed her during our last trip in 2005. She loved it even more this time around, as Stephanie met the height requirement and was able to ride with Mary.

The ride is one part roller coaster and one part movie, and also enlists fire, thousands of virtual reality scarab beetles and tons of animatronic mummy guards to give you the feel that you’re zipping through a real pyramid in ancient Egypt .

Jacob did not quite meet the height requirement, but Universal Studios uses the parent-swap program, so one of us waited in a room near the ride’s loading dock while the other rode with Stephanie — who got to ride twice. Maybe it’s also Stephanie’s top pick …

Beetlejuice's Graveyard Revue was Stephanie Bennett's favorite Universal Studios attraction. As Beetlejuice made his way up and down the aisles of the theater, he stopped for a four-second pause while looking down at Stephanie and then turned to the crowd, pointed over his shoulder at her and said, "This kid's got attitude." Stephanie's face lit up and she's told the story to anyone who'll listen ever since.

Daughter’s pick

Stephanie Bennett with Jaws outside the ride

Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue. Actually, this was hands down the main thing Stephanie talked about for the past two weeks when it came to our Universal Studios trip. She had watched the classic movie starring Michael Keaton as the title character at my in-laws’ house — I told you my father-in-law likes his scary movies — and she was well-versed in the characters that made up the monster rock ‘n’ roll show.

Joining Beetlejuice on stage were Dracula, the Wolfman, Frankenstein, the Bride of Frankenstein and a pair of zombie cheerleaders named Hip and Hop. Stephanie has already requested that I rent “Bride of Frankenstein,” so she can find out more about the least popular of the monsters. I told her that her grandfather probably owns the movie already.

The songs were great, there was a high level of energy throughout the show, and Beetlejuice kept the crowd entertained with a plethora of one-liners. It was the last part of the show that sucked Stephanie in. As Beetlejuice made his way up and down the aisles of the theater, he stopped for a four-second pause while looking down at Stephanie and then turned to the crowd, pointed over his shoulder at her and said, “This kid’s got attitude.”

Stephanie’s face lit up, and she’s told the story to anyone who’ll listen ever since.

Son’s pick

Men in Black Alien Attack. This is the typical ride where you have laser guns and your shoot at targets to rack up points — much like Scooby Doo at King’s Island, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Age Spin at the Magic Kingdom or Toy Story Midway Mania at Hollywood Studios (nee MGM Studios).

These rides haven’t interested Jacob other than the cars you zip around the ride in spin and there are thousands of flashing colors and millions of zany sound effects, which seem to feed his sensory input and keep his eyes darting in every direction during the ride.

His score on all the above-mentioned rides, which we have done each about two dozen times, has always been zero … that is until he picked up the gun and began squeezing the trigger during the Men in Black ride. I know that he was surely mimicking my actions, and that he probably didn’t understand the object of the game, but he was hitting targets and gaining points. The whole thing was so shocking, that he nearly beat me because I was watching him go nuts and forgot all about shooting at targets myself. It was truly one of the many fun breakthroughs we had with Jacob during this trip.

This park is filled with so many more great rides that didn’t make the family favorites list. There were animated 3-D shows like Jimmy Neutron, Shrek and the Simpsons that had you flying around a cartoon world and having a blast. There’s Terminator 2 in 3-D — which features newly acquired Cavalier Shaquille O’Neal in the pre-show — which is by far one of the coolest shows in any theme park. There’s also the classics like Jaws and Twister, which are musts when visiting.

There’s a great kids area in this park, too. It holds the ride that was Stephanie’s pick of choice after our 2005 visit — E.T. adventure — where she got a $20 photo with her pedaling furiously on a bicycle with E.T. in the front basket, Woody Woodpecker’s roller coaster, Curious George’s play area, a Barney show, and, well, you get the picture.

All in all, Universal can be just as satisfying as a Disney park if you are a fan of the movies and you enjoy a good mix of rides and shows.

Coming next: Disney’s Animal Kingdom.