Sister park and essentially the first / other half of Islands of Adventure which we visited last Saturday. The biggest difference between the two is this park boasts a lot of VR attractions, whereas the other has more rollercoasters.
We began by riding Rockit, the only physical rollercoaster here. It starts on a vertical climb with the rider looking at the sky before looping, barrel rolling and twisting from side to side. Yahooooo! Liz looked after the bags as no items inc sunglasses are allowed on the ride which Dan and Tim discovered when the ground crew sent them to deposit loose items in a locker. I rode with Charlotte at her request as she needed “a responsible adult” to ride with – lol. There are two images below to give a flavour of how the ride started – vertically up the tower, over the top and around the big loop with a barrel roll at the summit of the loop just for good measure.
Revenge of the Mummy was a physical roller coaster, with a few VR scenes and a jerky ride that propels you forwards, drags you backwards, left and right as you escape the clutches of the Mummy.
Bourne stuntacular was very different from the backlot style view provided by the Indiana Jones stunt show we’d watched a few days before. This show used a revolving stage with lots of openings and a giant semi-circular screen behind it which was the full width of the stage (see image below). Using visual effects, air jests, water droplets, fire, gunfire effects and other sounds we witnessed an escape scene unfold in front of us. A fast-paced, loud and well-presented show with many fight scenes and more audio-visual effects than you could shake a stick at which helped to maximise the impact of the show. E.g. they had a car on a trolley so the wheels could be spun as the background projection moved behind it to give the effect of a car chase.
After the show had concluded we decided something a little more gentle was in order, so we headed to ET. Sat on our chopper bikes, we whizzed through a condensed version of the film to rescue ET and then get him home to save his planet.
Talk show host Jimmy Fallon’s show seemed at first sight to be another “safe option”, as it advertised a tour of New York. And if you were hoping for a safe option, you’d be really disappointed as it was visually pretty demanding on your eyes and other senses.
Fast and Furious started mellow with a walk around the garage and repair shop. Once out of the queue line two real-life presenters (as opposed to a pre-recorded message) prime the audience with the storyline, as their entry point into the pending adventure. All too suddenly their speech is interrupted as we learn the FBI are about to raid our illegal road race garage and impound all the cars. Our highest priority is escaping from the FBI and hiding all our cars, which naturally we manage to do but only just!
The Simpson’s Ride does exactly what you imagine it should do, which is to allow you to experience an episode of the Simpson’s from inside the story. And our final ride before the rain stopped play was Despicable Me, Minion Mayhem. Another VR ride, and once again put together to a really high standard.
Once we’d sheltered from the rain to allow the storm to pass, we headed to a three-storey McDonalds that Daniel had seen on TikTok. This McDonalds is different and boasts McItaly, a pizza and pasta kitchen alongside the usual menu. You can see the pasta bowls on the wooden serving table and the lady in black making the pizza before handing them to the guy beside the oven to cook.
