I think Transformers, Despicable Me, Jurassic Park and Men in Black are good to watch.
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I have seen Beetlejuice in the past just milling around outside the theater at random times during the day as well.
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I wish I had watched Men in Black with DD18 before we went. I remember the movie being a lot of fun and the ride was probably her favorite outside of WWoHP.
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It wasnāt as helpful as I was hoping. 
. But yes, entertaining.
It seemed like they were mostly trying to one-up each otherās descriptions instead of giving me useful feedback. Because āif you like butterfingers, youāre really going to like the butterfinger donutā isnāt exactly insightful. 
My final takeaway was since I like maple donuts or ones with Boston cream filling, I should probably get one of the maple donuts or one with Boston cream filling. 
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You must get the Voodoo Donut! Fun, filling and who doesnāt love a donut that incorporates witchcraft?
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Itās definitely on my list because would get great for breakfast, but isnāt absolute high priority since we have a location locally (that I havenāt made it to yet, but DH has).
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Exactly! And that raspberry filling (blood) is so tasty 
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So this finally happened, which aligns to the closing times OI has told us:
So does that mean the showtimes in TP should now be close to final? Because Iām contemplating changing my plans completely if soā¦ 
Since weāre going both nights, I was planning to go to the shows at USF on Friday pre-close and Popeye at IOA on Saturday pre-close.
But now in my touring plan it looks like the last Animal Actors show on Friday will be 3:15pm and the Cinematic Celebration wonāt happen at all? On Sat, thereās an Animal Actors at 7:45pm. Itās also showing the Cinematic Celebration happening at 9pm. But if the park closes at 8pm that night, can that even be correct?
Thought Iād check yāallās wisdom before I started flip-flipping days!
(Still no Beedle The Bard after 2:30pm either day though. 
)
Sigh. TP still has IOA closing at 9pm on Sat, and it should be 8pm (Universal app and OI both agree to that). Think theyāll catch that automatically pretty quick or do we need to ping someone?
Yea! Thatās been fixed to be 8pm now.
But theyāre still showing USF having Cinematic Celebration at 9pm despite closing at 8pm on Sat.
With no evening spectaculars at Disney, it would be a nice-to-have. Guess Iāll leave room for it in my plans.
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Iām so interested to see what VC does to the meetup. I know they have to hedge their bets and probably wonāt announce that it will be available after hours, but thereās always a chance.
Otherwise, weāve got the two night tickets so may invest some regular hours time one of the days if the technical rehearsals are going on.
Iām almost more excited about what this does for all the other wait times (especially Hagridās) than for the actual VC ride
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Yeah, same here. After listening to reviews, it might be out of our league. 
With some trepidation, our kids did all the Disney rides last Jan, which the DS11 twins were definitely not too sure about going in. And I could definitely feel my age a bit.
Iām trying to set our TP to work our way up in intensity of rides at UOR, with the agreement that anyone can start opting out if they stop enjoying them. And VC definitely looks like itās the top of the ride pyramid. But if it gets people out of other linesā¦
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Yes, to MIB. We watched all of them one after the other to āprepareā for our first Universal trip. I enjoyed the sequels the second time around more than I had the first time. I think because when I watched them spaced out by months/years the sequels seemed silly-stupid. Whereas when we watched them back-to-back they were silly-wonderful.
Definitely, ET also. I was shocked at how well that has held up. The cars, clothes etc were dated, but nothing else was.
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FYI for those of us going in June:
-
A New Species of Roller Coaster
Jurassic World VelociCoaster is currently in technical rehearsal. During this time, the ride will be open on a limited, unscheduled basis and some elements of the attraction may not be available.
Experience Jurassic World VelociCoaster during the daytime portion of your ticket access, between 4:00 pm and when the parks close to daytime guests.
Meh. And 60-80 min wait times? 
I promised the kids weād build up in ride intensity, so we would have wanted to ride it after hours on Friday (or I guess sometime Sat). And weād planned to start in IOA on Fri and USF on Sat because of showtimes. (The only showing of Animal Actors after 4pm either day is at 7:45pm on Sat.)
More tweaking of TPā¦sighā¦
Thatās going to eat up a LOT of Saturday pre-close between the wait and transferring between parks.
Well and I went and bought Universal Studios only Express Pass thinking they had more indoor rides we could do when itās hot and sunny outside and then weād ride the train over during the actual event and do the roller coasters after dark so if I start at Velicoaster Iām in the wrong darn park and eat up over an hour of my express pass time.
So Iām highly considering coming back on the 12th. I am holding a room at Royal Pacific which double books me on the 11th but itās cheaper than four more express passes and our flight doesnāt leave till like 9:25pm that night so we would stay in the park till 6:30pm and RD Velicoaster when itās officially open. But four more park tickets and double booking that last night is close to a $1000. What am I thinking?
I thought about calling Universal to see if I can switch which park has the express pass or upgrade to the park to park one but for 2 hours? Iām just in a rock and hard place here. Lol
Also I really wanted to go to NASA that last Saturday as well be over there and itās on the way back to the airport, itās much cheaper and itāll be a new experience. I mean Iāve been to the one in Houston several times as a kid on field trips but this one is bigger. My dream job was to be an astronaut so I love NASA stuff.
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Does the event not officially start till 8pm on Saturday? I donāt think youāll get Animal Actors at 7:45pm if the event starts at 7pm. I think TP is wrong about that and Universal doesnāt put out show schedules till just before the next week usually. I think you can probably scratch the idea of seeing that show if they donāt let us in before 4pm (which they have in the past right?)
Good point. So maybe I need to put together alternate TP assuming these showtimes from these past dates as more representative rather than what TP is currently showing?
7pm (for Fri)
https://touringplans.com/universal-studios-florida/showtimes/date/2021-05-17
8pm (for Sat)
https://touringplans.com/universal-studios-florida/showtimes/date/2021-05-14
Looks like all the shows would have a least one showing before close, but might have to pick and choose. Sigh,
It sounds like theyāve let people in quite a bit early in the past from some of the comments Iāve seen. Iām planning for us to leave our hotel at 2pm on Friday and see what time they let us in. We can always hang out on CityWalk.
I bumped up our car service to 2pm thanks to you mentioning that about getting in early. So fingers crossed. If all else fails there always voodoo donuts to kill some time and a game of mini golf. ;-).
Yes, I donāt think youāll be able to do all the shows unless you start in USF both days. Iād honestly choose Velicoaster on Saturday if youāre building up to rides over Animal Actors. Itās the weakest of the three Universal shows (monsters is still the best imho and then Bourne). But Animal Actors is cute and it makes my daughter happy and sheās 13 so itās still a good choice.
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On Friday Iād aim for the 4:30 pm monsters and 6pm Bourne (we had to wait thru a full show for Bourne last Oct so I donāt think youāll make the 5:15pm) but we were able to get in line 15 min before monsters and get in and 15 min before animal actors and get in (this was on a day with a 10 for crowds on Columbus Day Weekend). So if we get in a bit early i bet you could swing 3:45 AA, 430 Monsters, 6 Bourne.
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