 Last month Matt and his lovely wife Rose headed out to Orlando to celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary which meant spending a few days at Universal Orlando Resort and Halloween Horror Nights. So since there's not really much "construction" wise going along, and because Matt takes amazing pictures, we figured we'd just post some photo tours of the park. So here is the first one from Universal Studios Florida and some from CityWalk. We'll post IOA on Friday. All pictures by Matthew Nelson Welcome to Universal Studios Florida   Toothsome!!  What could be in here?       Oh yeah, it was HHN time too    Phone Home ...   Random     Droooooool  Rose is casting some kind of spell              Secret Entrance      Well done Dragon!!     Good Mummy                I see fog    Best ScareZone!!    You can just take that keg to Park Journey Headquarters          Lieutenant Dan ... Ice Cream!!     LOVE!!              Seriously ...                 And there's our look at Universal Studios Florida. We hoped you enjoyed seeing some great detailed pictures of this amazing park instead of just the normal "what's being built" type updates. Stay tuned the rest of this week as we kind of found ourselves with a plethora of Universal updates. Tomorrow we'll have an update from the UOR Fun Run, Thursday a trip report from HHN Hollywood, but this ones a bit different as we had to do it with a wheelchair (so that was different) and then Friday we'll have our photo update of Islands of Adventure. Related Updates:
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 It's finally here!!! It's Potter Week!! As you all know the Wizarding World of Harry Potter opens at Universal Studios Hollywood this Thursday (April 7) and the star studded premiere is tomorrow night (April 5). We will of course be there on the red carpet so be sure you are following us for all of that fun. So while we're celebrating all things Wizarding World this week we thought it would be a good time to stop and take a look backwards a bit, to take a look at where the park was just a few short years ago and at the "Epic Transformation" they've made. Because it truly is EPIC. From a park that just a few years ago was giving a full year away for the price of one day to where today is commanding multiple visits for tourists and has definitely swayed the attendance habits of local fans who now have a choice between incredible theme parks to attend each weekend. It truly is an AMAZING time time to be a theme park fan in Southern California. (keep in mind, we don't have all the older pictures we would have liked, but at the time we weren't thinking of taking them for posterity ... oh hindsight) We'll start off at the front of the park since that's the first thing everybody sees when they enter. Remember when this was the new thing in the park?  Of course, the iconic entry to the park hasn't changed much over the years.    The rest of the entrance area has sure changed over the years though.      Sure looks different today    All new Starbucks!!   And they aren't even done yet, coming this Summer!!  The Wild West Theater    Now ...  Universal Plaza decked out for Lunar New Year earlier this year.    Let's take a left turn from Universal Plaza where we now have the amazing Despicable Me Minion Mayhem and Super Silly Funland. T2:3D.   Now ... Despicable Me Minion Mayhem and Super Silly Funland      Did You Know: Despicable Me Minion Mayhem was one of the first projects we started covering as a website?  Continuing on through the upper lot of the park, who remembers when Marvel had a presence at the park? It really wasn't that long ago.   Once Marvel left it was just "Comic Heroes"  Photo Credit David Yeh/EndorExpress Or when this was actually a thing?  Even the Studio Tour entrance has undergone some pretty significant changes over the years:      The tour itself has had some changes, some forced and two totally different Fast and Furious attractions.  June 2, 2008 - The latest Backlot fire.  Have a tramtastic day ...    But all of the changes weren't exclusive to the upper lot, the lower lot has received it's share of love recently. Then ... Special Effects Stages (now on the upper lot)  Now ... Transformers The Ride 3D  Even small changes to make the guest experience better. Then...  Now ...  But of course, none of that compares to the changes made to the upper lot in just the last few years. The thing that has finally made Universal Studios into a full fledged "Theme Park" and not just a "Studios" park. Then ... Did you know: The Universal Amphitheater closed in September 2013? Not even 3 years ago.     Photo Credit David Yeh/EndorExpress  Photo Credit David Yeh/EndorExpress Anybody know what is in this spot now? Certainly looks much different today.  Photo Credit David Yeh/EndorExpress  No Epic Transformation could be done without a LOT of Epic Construction.                  Now ... we'll start off with the amazing Springfield addition that was made last year.           And of course, none of that compares to what is opening in just a few days.        So now it's finally here ... just a few short days away. Wizarding World opens for the world to see. And we all have heard the rumors, we know they aren't done yet. When the new additions will be announced is anybody's guess. Will they take the advantage of the world looking at the park this week to make another big announcement? We'll find out tomorrow night. We hope you enjoyed this look back at the park over the past few years. We of course had a lot more pictures that we could have shared, but we figured this was more than enough. It's still amazing how much work has been done in just a few years and we can't wait to see what the future holds.  Now that the last night of Halloween Events for 2015 is over it's time to start turning our attention back on the attractions coming for 2016, and that of course means Wizarding World. It's been almost 2 months since our last full update for Hogsmeade, Hogwarts and all things Potter, so let's get right to it today. Written by Gregg Condon We'll start off where we've been starting off for awhile and that's with the entry to Wizarding World, which looks a bit different than it did just a couple of months ago.  As you can see in the background, Hogwarts has had a LOT of detail added to it.  Moving back a bit you can start to see much more detail on the buildings of Hogsmeade. The clock in the middle and of course the Hogwarts Express on the far right.  Moving around near the Studio Tour    Apologies for the sun glare in some of these pictures, it was very bright  The amount of detail there is amazing  They're still working on the Greenhouse  A look at Flight of the Hippogriff which has been testing  Moving around to the other side, the trees that will be between Wizarding World and Shrek are filling in nicely   I want to go now!!!   Hippogriff. Looking forward to this since it will be different than the others.  We obviously have no idea when Wizarding World is going to open but they are working feverishly to get it done. But Wizarding World isn't the only thing going on at the park ... New banner up in Springfield ...  The other side ...  This has been there for awhile, but again it's been awhile since our last update. =)  On the lower lot, work is being done on what was the Universal Experience. I want to say they announced that this was going to be a food location now but it's early, it's Monday and Coffee hasn't kicked in yet. =)  Back up top, considering Halloween Horror Nights ended about 7 hours prior to the park opening on Sunday there are still a lot of props up, but they did put up a few walls already.  They finally caught Michael Myers ...  The new Retail/Dining megaplex is coming along nicely. No idea when it will be finished but it will be nice when it is.     Grinchmas Stuff has started showing up in the stores ... #TooSoon =)   And Minion stuff too ...  Real quick, a couple of CityWalk notes ... they are getting ready for Santa's Arrival  Smashburger is now open  Jody Maroni's (that I think we ate at once in 20 years of going to CityWalk) is closing and will be replaced by Ludo Bird (good call). Just hope the prices are more reasonable than the Ludo Bird at Staples Center.  The new (much needed) parking structure is looking close to being done. Let's hope they have more booths open when it opens too because the lines to get in when I left at about 10:30 were crazy.  And lastly we'll leave you with a picture of a couple of the great characters at Universal Studios Hollywood. They really are the heartbeat of the park. I could listen to these two argue all day. =)  Thanks for reading, we hope you enjoyed the update. We are fast approaching the time where there won't be much to update on as far as Wizarding World is concerned but we should be able to get another update together in the next few weeks. We also have no idea when the parks Season Pass prices will be announced and what their grand scheme is going to be, we've only heard rumors at this point. So stay tuned. And as always, as soon as opening dates, pass prices or anything is announced we will be bringing it to you. Have a great week!!! |
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