Hey hey hey Addicterinos! Wookiee here with one heck of a ramble for your viewing pleasure. Viewing you might ask. Well, let me just say I hope you like pictures because this one has a ton! Basically this lucky guy got to do something awesome and had so much fun, I felt I had to share with the awesome readers here. Click more for my adventure to…….. SPRINGFIELD!!!!!!
It was a cold and rainy day in Florida when the Wookiee found himself in the Sunshine State outside of Universal Studios. The kind of day that makes you feel like the fake Hogwarts castle might actually be real. I never got an owl (I guess Wookiee’s are born muggles) so away from the Islands of Adventure I went to the main park. Never someone to let a little weather ruin something amazing, I was prepared for awesomeness come rain or shine.
My destination on this journey, to visit a place I used to only dream about. A town that I’ve seen countless times but never imagined could be a reality. A place I love so much I became an Addict of a game that let me build my own. Let the Warts wave their wands and pine for butterbeer and a moving Hogwarts Express, this furry resident of Kashyyyk was off to Springfield, USA.
Universal Studios in Florida is quite a cool place. Where else could you be turned in to a minion, help the Autobots defeat the Decepticons, escape from The Mummy, laugh along with Betelgeuse, soar with E.T. AND hang out with your favorite yellow cartoon characters all in one day?
I guess I was born lucky because I just happened to pick a day when hardly anyone decided to tourist in the park. As I made my way from the Spongebob Squarepants store, I caught my first glimpse of Springfield. Apparently no one really visits that section of the park until later in the day so, apart from a few others, I had my run of the place.
I must admit I probably caught a fly or two as my mouth was perpetually open in a big pie-eating grin. From the Springfield sign, it was just sooooo cool to see my favorite TV show brought to life. Music played through the speakers and included instrumentals and Simpsons pop music. Remember The Bartman? Let’s just say if you can do it you’re bad like Michael Jackson. With my phone firmly in hand and some serious enthusiasm and joy, off I went all over taking pictures.
Bumblebee Man’s Tacos 
Lard Lad Donuts 
Wiggum and his cop car (Appropriately by the donuts of course)
Duff Gardens and Duffman
Jebediah Springfield Statue
Moe’s Tavern
The Kwik E Mart with Milhouse and Nelson outside
This serves as the gift shop to Springfield (in addition to a shop at Duff Gardens). The merchandise is way cool and I’m sure anyone can find it with a simple Oogle search of Universal.
A food court aka Krusty Burger, The Frying Dutchman, Cletus’ Chicken Shack and much more.
Wowee wow wee… so much to see! The detail put in to everything was simply astounding.
Even The Android’s Dungeon was there even if it was a not so cleverly disguised restroom area.
Did I mention that there are not one but two rides there as well? The Simpsons Ride is basically where all our content from Krustyland comes from.
It’s a motion simulator where you get to escape from Sideshow Bob’s murderous plans towards our favorite family while they visit Krustyland. You just happen to be in the ride car right behind them. The queue of the ride is enough to give an uber nerd like me goosebumps, but the ride is magnificent and hilarious.
Add to that the carnie games of chance from Krustyland that flank the entrance to the ride and this day was a complete nerdgasm… and I wasn’t even done.
The next ride was of course Kang & Kodos’ Twirl N Hurl. I may have written about the ride here, but going on it just seemed so surreal.
It basically spins in a circle while you make your saucer go up and down using a control stick. Not much to it except that you aim for citizens of Springfield as you spin and they say hilarious catchphrases when you successfully pass one. The whole premise is that the ride is a cleverly camouflaged mind control device.
The signage for the ride alone had me giggling like a school wookiee.
With both rides done, off I went to take more pictures and encountered Jillian, one of the Universal photographers. My luck continued because she just happened to be a player of TSTO. Excited to help someone who blogs about the game, she hooked me up by taking a ton of pro shots of Springfield for all of you to enjoy. All of the awesome pics with the Universal Logo were taken by her. The others are from my phone and any issue with quality are based on the skill of this author. Thanks lady!
Had to wait a little for the food court to open (doors don’t open until 11 am, despite my feeble attempt to barge in to Moe’s).
Totally worth the wait as I got to enjoy a Krusty Burger and Duff Beer. As burgers go, this one ranks in my top 3 of all time and I’m from California and have Inn N Out whenever I want it. I consider myself a bit of a foodie and this food was so good.
Alas, my stomach and bank account aren’t large enough to try everything but everyone I spoke to while in Florida who has been there raved about it. I have it on good authority that the Chicken and Waffles at Cletus’ Chicken Shack are to die for. The big pink donut is also quite exceptional.
Duff Beer was as good as I expected and sitting in a booth at Moe’s while I enjoyed it goes down in my list of favorite memories. (You can also sit in Krusty Burger or the main eating area.)
While you enjoy your food and beverage (the girls had Buzz Cola which tasted like a better version of Cherry Coke), TVs play clips from The Simpsons specifically chosen for the area you are eating in.
All in all, I would endorse this so much for anyone with the means to go for a visit. A special thanks to a TSTO buddy (Chris J.) for convincing me to go while I was in Florida. I know everybody can’t go so I figured I’d share my experience for all of you. I give this vacation spot two enthusiastic (and furry) thumbs up! If I had more hands, it’d be an even higher score lol.
Hopefully these pictures and words give you an idea of the experience. Please feel free to ask any questions you have and I’ll do my best to answer them. If I could sum up how much I like Springfield, I could just say that the kids I was with had to drag me away to other areas of the theme park. I took these last pics as I headed off to other cool stuff which never quite compared with my brief time in Springfield.
They’ll just never understand the sacrifices we adults make for them, right? At least I have some cool new gear to help me remember a day I’ll always remember. Best part about writing this is it’ll help me remember as I get to Cranky’s age. Just kidding buddy, you know I looooove ooooooooo.
Well, my childlike glee has already resulted in enough words and images for one day. I so feel like singing…
Springfield, Springfield…. it’s a hell of a town!
Y’all stay classy addicterinos… Wookiee out!
P.S. Hogwarts and Hogsmeade were cool too but that’s something for a wizard to blog about.