Tuesday April 20, 1999
New stuff rules!
Tuesday was to be an unexpected new adventure for me: I'd be checking out Universal's new Islands of Adventure theme park. When I had arrived in Orlando, I hadn't even known the park was open, so the visit was a delightful surprise. I was eager to get a look at this new place and it's attractions, particularly the Jurassic Park area. I didn't know much about the park, so everything would be shiny and new, both figuratively and literally.
After I entered, I looked carefully at the park guide map, becoming more and more enthused as I read about each Islands attractions. I walked completely around the park, looking over each Island and getting to know the place and taking pictures. As I walked into Jurassic Park, I was overwhelmed by the size of the entry gates (Whata they got in there, King Kong?), the attention to detail, and the theme music playing in the background. The music, lifted directly from John Williams' Oscar-winning soundtrack, really set the mood for the place. I watched the Jurassic Park River Adventure run a few times; it wasn't open yet, and the boats were empty, but I hoped the ride would be open for guests soon.
Chaotic characters
Boy, that's a weird sight, I thought, as a man walked across the square to gaze at the empty boats. Who would wear all black, and a leather jacket on top, in this heat? After a few moments, the answer finally penetrated my brain: Ian Malcolm. I wasn't seeing a park guest, I was seeing a character; Dr. Ian Malcolm, the quirky chaos-theory mathematician played by Jeff Goldblum, was a main character in both Jurassic Park and The Lost World. This guy looked nothing like Goldblum, and was way too short, but I was amused and delighted to see such a character in the park.
It's all about atmosphere, and it looked like Universal was paying attention to all the little things that create an atmosphere.
I continued around the park until I hit the Port of Entry, then went around a second time. By now the Jurassic Park River Adventure was open, so I stuffed my camera in one of the cool electronic lockers outside the ride queue and got in line. It wasn't much of a line; the park was practically empty, and I was on a half-full boat immediately. The ride impressed me a lot. Details, details, details, they makers of this attraction must have watched the JP movies quite a bit, and everything was very faithful. I thought some of the animatronic dinos could have been better, but I was looking with a highly critical eye..
With the boat only half full, I had been able to sit in the front row. Needless to say, I got very wet on the final drop.
Since I was already wet, I rode it again immediately. I sat farther back in the boat this time.
It's not scary, it just scares me
After retrieving my camera (did I mention how cool the electronic lockers are?), I decided to get on the other ride that was running in Jurassic Park, the Pteranadon Flyers. The flyers looked like a kiddie ride, but they were 30 feet or so high, offering an excellent view of the Jurassic Park area, and I wanted to get some pictures. I waited in line, dripping dry, for about 40 minutes, before being shoehorned into one of the little dino-swing ride cars. Actually, it wasn't really a 'car' as such; the Flyers use a carnival swing style vehicle that is basically a small chair suspended below the track by four steel rods. Riders are held in place by a lap bar. Now, I have never been comfortable on rides that dangle my feet in midair, and the Flyers seats also didn't inspire much confidence, but I'll do anything to get a good picture, so I got on the ride despite my fears. The Flyers is not a wild ride, or rough, or even very fast. In fact, it pretty much qualifies as a kiddie ride, except for the part where you're 30 feet off the ground sitting on a swing that's only three-quarters as wide as you are.
Once I got off the ride, and my knees stopped shaking, I finished a third circuit of the park, taking pictures and exploring all the shops.
I'm something of a coaster-chicken, so I skipped the park's signature coaster, the Incredible Hulk (which was running only about half the time), and the other big coaster, Dueling Dragons, a pair of racing coasters. I usually get on a coaster only when I have someone prodding me into it, so I pretty much just passed by them all without a second glance today.
I also skipped the Spider-Man ride because the line for it was over an hour. I would later learn the folly of this, however, when I started seeing reviews and advertisements for this attraction, which is generally thought to be the best ride in the park.
The real world intrudes
At this point I was out of film, so I left the park at about 2pm. I figured to go back to my hotel, fill up on fillm and take a little rest, and maybe come back later. When I got back to the hotel, I took a little time to transcribe my trip notes from my mini-notebook to my day planner, then took a quick nap in front of the TV. But I started waking up a little as news began coming on about a horrible shooting incident at a high school called Columbine. CNN ran footage over and over. All the local stations broke into thier regular programming with the story. So-called 'experts' on everything from police proceedures to hostage negotiations to child- and criminal-phycology gave thier opinions on why a pair of high school kids would suddenly take it upon themselves to start shooting up thier school and kill thier classmates. But all I wanted to know was if the remaining people in the school had gotten out safely, and if the shooters had been aprehended. All the guess work and speculation could wait until later. I watched for several hours and never made it back to IOA that day; I did call home to check in, though, since I had some extra time on my hands.
All in all, the whole thing reminded me of the Oklahoma City bombing; a huge disaster with lots of innocent people dieing.
I went out later and got something to eat at a close-by place, and finished my day once more in front of the TV.
Walk miles: 14.9
Drive miles: 121