Central Florida is schvitzing its way into another record-shatteringly hot summer, and all three of Orlando's major theme park resorts have debuted cool new attractions which employ water or ice to entice guests into braving the brain-melting temperatures. I risked heat stroke to report that one of these E-Tickets is worth venturing out in this withering weather, the second should be savored in fall, and the third simply left me cold.
CineSational: A Symphonic Spectacular at Universal Studios Florida
Eighteen years ago, I reviewed the then-new Universal 360: A Cinesphere Spectacular in one of my first articles for Orlando Weekly. Ever since, I've covered every Cinematic Spectacular and Celebration that Universal Studios Florida has launched from its central lagoon. So trust me when I say that CineSational: A Symphonic Spectacular — which has been running nightly at park closing since its June 14 debut — is Universal's first such nighttime show to not merely approach its competitors' equivalents, but satisfyingly surpass them in both technology and emotion.
The tech is represented by 228 upgraded fountain nozzles, 4K projection mapping and a choreographed fleet of 600-plus drones creating Lite Brite–like shapes in the sky. But the all-important feels come from the newly arranged musical score and cinematic images (lovingly curated by directors Mike Aiello and Jason McManus) which triggered my Gen X childhood memories of Ghostbusters and Back to the Future, while also entertaining Gen Alphas with Trolls and Minions.
The best tribute I can pay to CineSational is to say I recently rewatched it on a night when rain prevented the drones from taking flight, and still found it fully entertaining even without that significant element. With its featured performers, Universal's latest spectacle edges out Anaheim's current World of Color as my new favorite event spectacle currently running in a domestic park ... at least until Disneyland's Fantasmic! gets another dragon.
Tiana's Bayou Adventure at Magic Kingdom
In the four years since Disney announced the closure of their Splash Mountain flume rides in Florida and California, there's been nonstop online speculation (not to mention ugly "anti-woke" whining) about the long-running attraction's Princess and the Frog–themed replacement. Following a social media blitz from Disney — which included a point-of-view video that did the ride zero favors — fans like myself finally got to preview the new Tiana's Bayou Adventure early last month ahead of its official opening June 28.
After all the buildup, anyone anticipating a brand-new experience should dampen their expectations, because for better or for worse, Tiana's trip is still the same old Splash in many ways. The flume path and profile of the drops — including the iconic finale plunge — are entirely unchanged, and the old log-like boats are back, merely bereft of their Br'er bunny ornaments. The tree-stump peak was pruned and covered with fresh faux vegetation, turning the mountain into a mossy molehill, and the queue redecorated with Easter eggs like Tiana's beignet recipe. But if you closed your eyes and plugged your ears, you'd be hard-pressed to tell what has changed.
Of course, if you did that you'd miss out on the upbeat original music and fluidly animated figures that populate the redecorated show scenes. These next-generation electrical animatronics are amazing (when they work), but there are noticeably fewer of them than in the old ride; projections fill in some of the gaps, with mixed results. The updated attraction admirably embraces an inclusive atmosphere that won't alienate or intimidate anyone, as the old version could. However, Dr. Facilier is MIA, and without any villain the storytelling lacks dramatic tension.
All that's academic, since actually riding Tiana's Bayou Adventure requires the aid of "friends on the other side." There's no standby line for now, so you must snag a reservation through either Disney's free Virtual Queue or the paid Genie+ service (soon to be called Lightning Lane Multi Pass). I was lucky enough to enjoy a near-ideal ride-through during previews; but despite snagging a single-digit boarding group on opening weekend and arriving at the Magic Kingdom for rope drop, technical delays kept the attraction from operating until afternoon. By that time I'd abandoned the sizzling park; I'll attempt it again in the autumn after a few months of fine-tuning.
Penguin Trek at SeaWorld
When I toured Penguin Trek's construction site back in February, SeaWorld promised that their family coaster replacement for the ambitious-but-abandoned Antarctica trackless ride would debut in "spring," but its eventual ribbon-cutting didn't happen until July 7. Perhaps it should have been allowed to cook even longer, because although riders during early previews declared it "smooth," my opening-day experience — directly behind the Scouting troop of ceremonial first riders — was anything but.
After navigating a blissfully air-conditioned "research station" queue, Penguin Trek begins inside a brief "dark ride" through sculpted ice caverns and past an unconvincing video vista before launching outdoors, which is when the serious issues arise. I found myself rattling uncomfortably around my tipped-back bucket seat, unable to brace myself with my dangling feet, as the vehicle vibrated beneath me like a shopping cart with a chipped wheel. There were particularly violent jolts around the second launch and entering the brake run, which would have made me think twice about re-riding even if there weren't a three-hour standby wait posted.
Unless SeaWorld significantly improves on the two-minute dispatches between snowmobile-style trains that I timed on opening morning (which equals just over 500 riders per hour), I predict summertime guests will be grumpy by the time they disembark the coaster ... especially when they discover that there's no exit except through the dark, frigid and, er, fragrant penguin enclosure, which may require a lengthy wait to walk through.
