USH 4/25, or Moosh's story of mystical niss.

Who: Mike "Bassistist" Miller, Chris "Funtype" Murray & brother Tim, Jeff "JJMailman" Johnson, and Rachelle "Wildcat" Lagnado.

Why: To take advantage of the "Buy A Day, Get A Year Free" promotion before it ended.

Weather: HOT...I'm talking 100* in the beautiful San Fernando Valley.

Crowds - Heavy.

General attraction comments:

Jurrasic Park -- great ride but the park still has the ride in "Winter" mode meaning less wetness. The dropping jeep was not working and the mag brakes at the bottom of the drop were on heavy. Still my favorite dinosaur themed shoot-the-chutes!

Terminator 2-3D -- Nice 3D effects but I'm bothered by the fractured storyline. We experienced dropping floor #1 in this attraction. It was "Super!"

Shrek 4D -- Fun, but again it is as if the park could not make up with mind if the audience was in the movie or merely an observer. Lots of water effects but not much else. The pre-show was the best part.

Back To The Future -- by far the WORST simulator ride. Car movements seems to be randomly programmed by a 3-yr-old, the screen was very dirty, and the sight of the other cars ruins the experience. TAER IT DOWN!

Backdraft -- Dated but still fun. Oh, here's something new: a dropping floor!

Special Effect Stage Show -- revamped since my last visit, I really enjoyed this a lot mostly die to the outstanding hosts who were VERY, VERY funny.

Backlot Tram Tour -- We had the WORST. GUIDE. EVER! He spoke in a monotone, was never on cue, and overacted so badly ["Golly gee, I really hope it doesn't rain too much because you know we have floods here in California"] that nothing was a surprise. Oh, and lots more dropping floors!

Mummy -- still lots of work to be done on the HUGE outdoor queue. Someone in USH's marketing department got a little overzealous: a sign near the attraction called it "the fastest coaster in the world!" No, it did not say "indoor coaster."

Animal Planet Live -- Thanks to a friend of Rachelle's, who is a trainer in the show, we got a special backstage tour and got to meet [but not touch] all the animals. We were supposed to have a meet and greet with an orangatan but missed it because of the loooong Tram Tour.

Oh, and the niss? Well it was quite mystical indeed ;)

Mummy is faster than TTD? WOW! But there is no way it is faster than Zeus, Hades, or Avalanche. Those are all the fastest.

I found the park to be a surprise! the Mexican Restaurant on city walk was very nice, and service was fast.

Waterworld show was spectacular, probably my favorite stunt show.

I thought T2-3D was clearer, and easier to follow than it's florida version.

We were fortunate to get in on a television taping of "the help". While the show itself wasn't gonna get any emmys, it was cool to see the stars (even met David Faustino) and as we were being led to the sound stage we saw a VERY healthy, and alert looking Todd Bridges, I sure hope he's got his act together. All I can say about Tori Spelling and the other females in the cast is FOR GODS SAKE EAT SOMETHING!!! (except Mindy Cohn)

This was my first visit to the park, it was the day before KNOTTS winter solace and we had a great time.

SAM

We didn't have time for Waterworld but I agree: MUCH better show than movie. We'll see it when we return for Mummy's opening.

So are you saying I didn't miss anything? ;)

I'm glad you had a good time, mOOSHie! For a park with no coasters, USH ranks easily in my top 5 parks. T-3 was incredibly entertaining, and I agree with the sentiment on Waterworld. On my initial visit in '99 (or so), I felt BTTF was the BEST. Upon revisiting in '00, I felt it was still good; better than Star Tours anyway. Too bad it's going down...

I remember going to USH when it opened and Backdraft's floor did drop.

Since when does Backdraft's floor NOT drop? Doesn't it work all the time? Is it a random thing?

At OUR Universal...we don't have Backdraft, but we DO have Twister (the Hurricane movie, not dawnmarie's flat ride).

I'm wondering if they're not *pretty similar*, kind of like YOU have Indiana Jones but WE have Dinosaur: The Ride at our respective Disney parks? From what I've been told, those two are essentially the same ride but with different theming....

Can someone who's been to both parks comment on that? TIA...

Backdraft doesn't have a cow, Gator ;)

Moosh-
Good to see you got in on the season pass deal. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Universal run a Buy 1 get 1 free for SoCal residents during the summer? I have friends coming in from out of town, and I can't remember if that ran all summer long or just at the end of summer.

Twister and Backdraft have the same set-up with vastly different technology. By that I mean they both have 2 pre-show rooms featuring people from the film talking about misc stuff before you enter the effects room.
Dinosaur and Indy have the same technology just with different set dressing.
Personally I prefer Backdraft, as it feels much more 'in your face'

Danimales - the promotion was scheduled to end April 30th. If it's still offered it'll be on the park's website.