Universal Studios Orlando | The Race Through New York Experience (you probably won’t get)

Right above the Jimmy Fallon Race through New York ride, there is a balcony, almost hidden from park goers. It’s above the bathrooms on the left side of the building. What a view. 

On the balcony there is a compass on the ground which is the center of Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, City Walk and Volcano Bay. It is the center of Universal Orlando. 

Let me tell you about how we got there. We were curious about the new Jimmy Fallon ride. We opened the Universal Florida App where you could only do a virtual ride for almost at closing time. We were confused by the cryptisity of the ride line so we went to ask someone. 

At the entrance of the ride there were spiffy suits with an NBC emblem. Very official.  Very professional. This is when we meet Jeffrey.

I politely greet Jeffrey. He makes a comment about my Hufflepuff shirt, he mentions he’s a Slytherin. I said “so is my boyfriend.” He said “if you’re lucky he’ll marry you.” I said “if he’s lucky he’ll marry me.” We both laugh. 

I proceed to ask him about the line situation for the ride. He said this is a virtual line only ride, if we wanted to ride we would have to make the virtual line via the app. We got a little sad about that. We thanked him and walked away. 

As we were pass the front of the Jimmy Fallon ride store, we hear psst and another louder pssst. It was Jeffrey. He said “its your lucky day” and motions us to follow him. He was moving fast and weeving in and out of the people traffic. We hurried to catch up. He said he had something fun for us. 

We followed him into the elevator where we met hashtag panda. And honest I had no idea who the hell hashtag panda was. Eek. Sorry, Hashtag Panda. But I know now! Anyway he was cool and fun. Very pleasant. 

We get to the second floor where Jeffrey leads up to a balcony. Its very fancy. It feels like a New York building up there. So sleek. So stylish. 

This is where Jeffrey tells us that the building we were standing in was a scale down version of 30 Rock in New York. Which was really neat. 

Then he leads us deeper on the balcony where we find a seal of a compass on the floor. Jeffrey tells us when you stand in the middle of the seal you are in the middle of Universal Florida. You are smack dab in the middle of Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, City Walk and Volcano Bay. So. Effing. Cool. I took a pick of my shoes on the seal. 

Once we’ve taken our fill of pics on the balcony, he takes us inside again where he walks us down hallways into a room. It’s a small room with two screens where he shows us some cool stuff. Jeffrey shows there are two seats in the auditorium in the ride that can be removed and an entire wheelchair can be placed in the place of a seat so they too can experience the ride just like a normal rider would. I thought that was soooo amazingly thoughtful. How brilliant! 

He then escorts my mom to a very fancy waiting room so she can relax in ac and chill as she waits for us to get off the ride. 

Because as if that super cool tour and bit of neat trivia wasn’t enough… he puts us front row on the ride (no virtual line and no irl line). It. Was. Amazing. You gotta do it. Make the virtual line as soon as possible and do it! Do it twice. We did. We went back the next day. Better the 2nd time around. 

If you even find this Jeffrey from the Jimmy Fallon Ride Through New York Ride in Universal Studios Orlando, thank you. We went back after the ride to find you, but weren’t there. Someone told us you were at lunch. Jeffrey, thank you for the most special experience we’ve ever had at any Orlando theme park. It was fun. Exciting. And the Jimmy Fallon ride was amazing! Very cool. I’m so grateful. You were amazing to us.