I think Universal is a RIP OFF

[florida2000]

Hi there.

Sorry in advance for the lengthy post but universal really hacked me off :mad2:.

Just back form a brilliant trip on Sunday. All the Disney parks were wonderful but I have a severe gripe about Universal.

Universal have the Express Pass system which is just like Disney's Fast Pass. I had been 5 times before to Orlando (last time in Sep 2001) and the fast pass system is a great idea. It gives everyone equal chance to use fast passes on the rides of their choice.

The problem is that universal seem to have ditched this in order to screw more money out of their customers. They now have the Express Pass Plus (I guess introduced sometime in the past 4 years). In order to use this you need to either be staying at a Universal Hotel or pay $15 per head extra. The Express Pass machines are still there but seem permanently covered over and not in use. I asked about this and was told that depending on crowd levels they open up the express passes. Now I was there on Columbus weekend where the park was very busy with some 1 - 1.5 hour queues and also the next week when the parks were quite empty and on neither occasion were the express passes available. Why would they be? Universal have loads of advertising as you enter telling you about the Express Pass Plus so if they made the Express passes available they wouldn't sell any 'Plus' passes. I’d be interested to hear from anyone when the express passes were last used.

I sincerely hope Disney do not follow suite.

Also, Universal are a rip off for food/drink. As an example a bottle of water that is $2 in Disney is about $2.75 in Universal

And the final one that really made me laugh:
You know on the raft rides in Disney you can look over the start and for some water at the riders as they pass for a bit of fun. Well, you can do this at Universal IOA as well but it costs you a quarter each time !!!!!

I am planning to go back next year and to be honest I doubt I will do Universal because I think their general attitude to their customers leaves a lot to be desired (just look at the Jaws fiasco). Oh yes, on the subject of Jaws, the sign outside leads you to believe the ride is temporarily closed for a short period where in actual fact its closed all the time apart from a couple of times a year.

I do not have a single complaint about Disney. Now, they know how to treat their customers.

[BCKloon]

Last time i saw them in use was easter 2004 , this year in October i never once saw any of the machines in use over the 3 days i was there though we had FOTL access vis our room keys

[BCKloon]

The water cannons for Popeyes barges are free if you use the ones on the SS Olive but yes the ones at the start of the ride do cost 25cents

[kirstielou]

I was also at Universal over the last 2 weeks and think this is a rip off.

Also, we asked staff @ Dueling Dragons when they would add an extra train (there was only one on each side). They told us the q would have to be an hour long before they added another train. The q was 50 mins at times

[chris17uk]

One of my gripes at Universal is the way they tend to have professional photographers with the characters and then stand in your way when you try to take photos with your own cameras, not nice at all! :angry: Disney are mich nicer.
Chris

[loadsapixiedust]

I have to agree with you that Universal staff have a different attitude to guests from Disney CMs. You really can't compare the two.

As for the free Express passes, they were available when we were there in July, but the advertising for the Express Plus passes is very in your face.

[MichelleP1]

Hi,

I agree with you that the Express plus passes are a rip off, you shouldn't have to pay extra when you have already paid your entrance fee. I was actually a bit disappointed with Universal having been to the one in California, it just doesn't compare. I did like IofA but we were very lucky in that the day we were there all the rides were walk-ons so the lack of fast passes didn't matter. But the Universal parks just don't have the same atmosphere as Disney. One think I did notice is that the character floats at Universal are a bit of a mish mash whereas at Disney you would not get two characters on a float/bus together who weren't related to each other in some way. Or am I being fussy??!

[keith&carol]

We don't go to the Universal Parks any more. We got so fed up with poor service etc with DD in wheelchair that we just weren't getting the same enjoyment as we do at the Disney Parks. I'm not talking special treatment here, just common courtesy.
Carol:angry:

[gala]

I didnt mind buying the express tickets. It was a bit of a shock to find that we had to pay but we bought the tickets for both days. It was great! As for the food we ate in both Mythos (not expensive at all ) and Lombards Landing which we found reasonable too. I am a cheapskate - I always refill our bottles. We bring about a dozen empties over to the States and continually use them, so I didnt notice the prices. I dont remember having any problems with CMs but then again, maybe I was lucky.

Margaret

[tinkernell]

i used the express passes last may without any problems, yes i agree that disney is very different to universal, i guess i would say that universal is more "real world" kinda disney without the fairy dust but we still love it all the same

[Suzie&Stuart]

I cant understand why Universal pull the plug on the biggest draws. Jaws has been around for ages now,but its still one of the rides people want to do over and over again,then there is the thing with closing the Wild wild wild West stunt show,that show was brilliant and gave the feet a rest at the same time.......so why close it.........and not replace it.
I notice that they still have the stunt show at their other parks though.

Stuart

[stevey]

Wow... we must have been lucky in June. We had a great time with no problems from the CM's (in fact very helpful). We still used "express passes" that were free to use, however, the pay for ones were certainly pushed every time we went for an express pass. Sorry to hear you were so put off.
Steve

[tiggerfan144]

The express pass you have to pay for was over $30 each when we went there last july/august needless to say i did not buy them

[georgemac]

I have to say I thought the 14 day 5 park flex at £105 was extremely good value, and think we spent 4 days at IOA/Universal

The express pass kiosks at the ride were never open, even on Columbus day Monday when the park was choker.

The wait times never seem to be accurate, possibly because of the express pass system. We went onto ripsaw falls which was showing a 30 minute wait, after 1 hour in line when we got to the front it broke down, and we would have to wait at least another 45 minutes for it to be reoaired, we did not wait - this ride was broken down on numerous occassions when we were there.

I am only going to go back to Universal if I either buy an express plus pass, or persuade DW to stay at the hotel for a night. The price of the pass increases during the high season.

On my last day, I spoke to a friendly scouser who told me he was using his express plus pass for the third day as none of the staff ever change the dates, if a lot of folks are doing this it makes it worse for those without passess

I have to agree that Disney opening their parks early and giving exclusive access to guests is a much fairer way than the method employed by Universal, but as long as people keep going they won't change.

[mallaeus]

we spent 4 days at universal/islands of adventure in may and we used the express passes and they were FREE, the only gripe i had was that unlike disney where you can only have 1 ticket until yr alloted time is open at usf you can get as many as you like so the tickets run out much faster, as for the staff we've never had a problem with them, in fact especially this year we've found them nicer than the disney cm's. Islands of adventure is our fave park and universal is our second so we have no real complaints at all, but certainly wouldn't say its a rip off.
Lee, tracey,raymond and jade

[Heffalump]

We were able to obtain Express passes in Jul/Aug this year and used many. Like Disney, you can only have one at a time though, with a wait period between when you last got a pass and when a new one could be issued (about 1hr 15mins or so, I think). The wait times for the Express line times to come up were often quite long so we did end up with quite a few passes in the end.

I don't think you can compare Universal to Disney as it's a totally different experience. I love IOA and am willing to pay the extra for Express Plus passes if I only have a short time there. We did this in Aug and got all the big rides at IOA and US done in one day - well worth it :thumb: It's a shame you had such a poor experience. As for the CMs, I'm afraid I'm typically British and don't tend to complain, just take people as I find them. It doesn't help to raise standards of service but it doesn't ruin my holiday either as I just don't let it bother me.

If I wanted to see any changes in the way they manage the parks, I would say that they should limit the number of guests so that the wait times are less, but that's never going to happen! LOL :) Express passes and Fastpasses are a perk and they are free. It's unfortunate when they're not working but there are 100s of theme parks who don't even ofer the service in the first place, so take advantage if it's available and wait in line as you would expect to if it is not available. JMO. ;)

T. xx :jump:

[BUSBY182]

Originally posted by Suzie&Stuart
I cant understand why Universal pull the plug on the biggest draws. Jaws has been around for ages now,but its still one of the rides people want to do over and over again,then there is the thing with closing the Wild wild wild West stunt show,that show was brilliant and gave the feet a rest at the same time.......so why close it.........and not replace it.
I notice that they still have the stunt show at their other parks though.

Stuart

They have replaced the Wild West stunt show with Fearfactor show, which IMHO is miles better:D

[georgemac]

I agree about Fear Factor LIve - a lot better than the WW stunt show.

The best show by far for me was Extreme Motor Stunts at MGM

[georgemac]

Also we had no problems with the Disney fingerprint system for entry, worked every time

At Universal, my fingerprint scan worked 90% of the time, my DW & DS fingerprint never worked once, they were never asked to sign or produce ID, just let in by the gate operator pressing the F2 key

At Seaworld and Busch, no fingerprint scan, just had to sign but signatures not checked, never went to Wet N Wild.

[Suzie&Stuart]

Whats the fearfactor show?? was it open last April??

Honestly dont remember seeing it.

Stuart

[nic]

That really p-d me off too when we were there!!! Especially along with the blatant plugging to sell Express Passes. And I'm sure there used to be a single rider line for Spiderman, well there wasn't a couple of weeks ago!!

:(

[disneydaft]

Originally posted by Suzie&Stuart
Whats the fearfactor show?? was it open last April??

Honestly dont remember seeing it.

Stuart

I think it open around that time.

It isn't too bad though its not as good as I remember the Wild West Show to be. (We saw it in LA years ago)

I wouldn't expect it to be there for long though as they have already closed it down in LA and that opened around the same time.

Billy

[McDuck]

I too was really hacked off at universal. We had already paid about $125 per head to get entry into the parks and they want an extra $15 to get to the front of the line. As a family of 5, I didn't bother with it.

Another thing that realyy got my back up at universal is the times posted at the ride entry.
We queued up for MIB as the stand-by line was advertised as 20 minutes. It was fully 1 1/4 hours before we got on the ride that takes less than five minutes.
Disneys stand by times always seem lower than posted where universals seem higher.

[mcpaul]

Disney have Pixiedust, Universal . . . well, this is the DIBB!!!!

[florida2000]

It's interesting to see I'm not the only person who took offence to the extra express pass charging.

I'm not sure Universal are doing themselves any favours. I know it seems like the parks are usually busy and could be perceived as cash cows but I'm not sure that's the case. It takes high crowd levels to service the overheads of these parks and there is lots of competition from other attractions. Looking back, even though I had a 14 day Disney Ultimate ticket and a 4 park flex ticket, I ended up at Disney on 10 days and Universal/IOA on 3 days. This was not a conscious decision to boycott Universal (because I like the parks, especially IOA) but I think the negative feelings did contribute to the split between the parks.

It this happens with a percentage of other people, then Universal will notice this in their crowd levels. They shouldn’t underestimate the importance of goodwill with their customers.

[uklad23]

Universal is in the whole cheaper than Disney so trys to suppliment revenue with extras like the passes. The multiday tickets are cheaper than Disneys as are the annual passes. Many locals use the park due to the annual pass costs. I have been last year and seen the express pass machines used but they have realised that these machines are useless and make lines longer. If you look on some sites you will see Disneyland is starting to realise that they dont work they make the park too crowded as people are not standing in lines for things they are instead wondering round. They have started to remove them from some rides as the previous managment went fastpass crazy. WDW is doing some tests with fastpass where they have disconected Malstrom from the network so that if you hold a fastpass you dont have to wait to get one for that ride as its being run as a stand alone machine. Disney is reviewing the whole fastpass mess and changes will be made just like Universal have done expect to see the machines closed except in huge peaks or removed from some rides. They are just worried that once you give its hard to take away so it will be dome gradually.

[florida2000]

Originally posted by uklad23
Universal is in the whole cheaper than Disney so trys to suppliment revenue with extras like the passes. The multiday tickets are cheaper than Disneys as are the annual passes. ....

I can't see atall where Universal is on the whoel cheaper than Disney. it certainly did not prove so for my particular requirements.

Looking at it in general terms

For an annual pass Universal is $180 for adults and $180 for children. Disney is $420 for adults and $358 for kids. So for adults the disney 'per park' price is greater. And that is fine if you want to stand in a supposed 30min queue (which will probably be 1 hour plus) and watch all those express pass plus people jumping ahead. The alternative is to pay the $15 per day and it only takes 4 visits before the Universal AP cost exceeds the Disney cost. its worse for kids since the starting cost is the same.

I've had a look and its difficult to compare most of the multiday/multipark tickets since you are not comparing like-for-like.

Also, I can't see how the express passes are useless and make lines longer. From the customers perspective it gives the opportunity to minimise wait times at a few chosen rides. The limited nature of the fast pass means that you cannot solely use them in the course of a day since you would run out of time. You therefore do not to queue for the majority of the rides. I think it is an excellent system that gives everyone the opportunity to maximise the use of their time.

From Disney/Universal's perspective I'd think they would rather have people wondering about the park spending their money in the shops and restaurants rather than standing in a line.

But if we assume for a minute you are correct that Universal think the express pass is useless then why did they not simply remove them? Why did they cover them up and now charge for for the useless service. If it's to discourage the masses by pricing them out of the system and leaving it to the elite who can afford it then that is completely wrong and againt the whole ethos of these parks.

[SEVANS2208]

Just out of interest, what EXACTLY do you get for an extra $15? And is it $15 per person per day (including kids)?

[BCKloon]

Its not $15 it can be a much as $35 per person depending on the time of year.

What you get is a ticket that allows you join the express lines (fast pass) at certain attractions for one time only.

The pass can only be used at that park and not the other (if you buy one for IOA you cant use it at Universal Studios and vice versa)

The tickets are limited so if you want to buy them its advisable to get there early to buy.

Every time we go we buy these tickets as it saves a lot of time especially when the parks are busy.

[alison1963]

You can also buy then on-line via Universal website (at present only until the end of December). You need to specify what date you want to use them on.

[jfk]

We went in September this year and the express pass distribution was shut in both parks. However, crowds were light and we never queued more than 20 minutes for any rides in either park. I do agree though that it's a bit much to pay extra on top of your original entrance fee.

IOA was my favourite park and we went there 5 times. I personally never found the staff to be particularly rude and I quite enjoyed the fact you could easily obtain a cold beer and have a sit down pretty much anywhere. Totally different experience from Disney though; far less emphasis on the whole 'magical' experience and a much more straightforward 'in your face' attitude in my opinion.

I suppose it's all about personal experience. Mine was great but it maybe different when we go again next May....

[sharonb]

When we were there in April this year the express pass distribution were all open the only one we used was for the mummy ride as the rest of rides had hardly any queue. I must say I have always found the Cm's at Universal as friendly as disney never had any problems and with the food and drink never found much difference in prices.

Sharon

[andrews]

Express Passes were available at virtually every attraction when we were there 19/8-2/9. Only problem I found was that the 'window' to ride the ride blocked out using Express again. i.e 1.10-2.10pm to ride Hulk. Ride Hulk at 1.15pm but cant then go to Spiderman to get Express for nearly another hour. As I remember at Disney, you can get other FP tickets within 5 minutes of your ride 'window' opening. Am I right or has the last 6 weeks since returning just dulled my mind!!!

[florida2000]

Originally posted by BCKloon
Every time we go we buy these tickets as it saves a lot of time especially when the parks are busy.

I agree, if you have no stance in principle against the policy of charging for express passes and can afford it, then you can use it well to jump the queue.

If I was to go say 4 times to Universal parks with DW, DS and DD the cost for the express passes (over and above the entry price) would be $240 at the minimum $15 charrge and as much as $560 at the $35 charge :eek:

The alternativs are not to pay the extra and watch the stream of 'express passers' walking past me up to the start of the line (thus turning the stated 30min wait time to more like 60 mins) or maybe to avoid Universal.

I guess some will pay, some will not and put up with it and some will avoid the park.

[disneydaft]

There is a sneky trick to getting 2 of the express passes at a time (The free ones).

At US the express pass machines are normally set up for 2 or 3 attractions.

i.e you can pick a ticket for either Jimmy neutron or Shrek at one machine.

What you do is scan your ticket in to any 2 machines beside each other then select a different atraction / time on each machine pressing the buttons at exactly the same time.


We managed to do this a couple of times in September.

[florida2000]

Originally posted by disneydaft
There is a sneky trick to getting 2 of the express passes at a time (The free ones).

At US the express pass machines are normally set up for 2 or 3 attractions.

i.e you can pick a ticket for either Jimmy neutron or Shrek at one machine.

What you do is scan your ticket in to any 2 machines beside each other then select a different atraction / time on each machine pressing the buttons at exactly the same time.


We managed to do this a couple of times in September.

Ahhhh, so that's why they covered over all the free Express Pass machines in October. Its all your fault :grin: :grin:

Here's another little one for Disney fast pass. On a lot of the rides soarin, splash mountain etc they do the child swap by giving you a 'Child swap' ticket that lets three guests go in the fast pass line. Both me and DW wanted to go on with DD but couldn't take DS (18 months). We'd get a fast pass which would be for say an hour later. We'd then go to the CM at the fast pass entry and ask about child swap and they give you the child swap ticket there and then.

So a few minutes later we'd use the child swap ticket first and hence didn't have to wait for our fast pass time before the first person went on.

[highlander447]

U can't compare the parks, they appeal to diffrent people for diffrent reasons, Universal parks do the refillable cup in parks saves u a small fortune, Disney do the cup in resosrts but not parks, Universal AP gets better discounts 20% off merchandise, 15% off dining, Disney do diffrent, we are just back as well Disney had quite a few fast pass machines closed as well, I agree about your point obviously if guests get FOTL and others uy booklets it greatly reduces the free passes, but disney are planning this as well, as their patents registered earlier this year suggest, this was discussed a few months ago, that Disney maybe offering onsite guests stsaying at luxury resorts FOTL:beer:

[Mistaya]

We spent a day at Universal Sutdios and I came away very disappointed. I've been before and remember it being really good, great atmosphere and busy. Maybe we just didn't pick a good day to go but the place was really quiet, great I thought it should be no problem getting on the rides...how wrong I was.

We quickly figured out that there was no fast pass system like at Disney, all the machines were covered. I asked the lady at the shrek ride about getting a time slot as the wait was 45 minutes and she directed me to a shop to buy one. So off we went to the shop only to be told that we had to buy these special tickets at $15 a head, which would have been $45 for dh, myself and DD, who's only 8 and there is no child price. These tickets would entitle us to one ride on every ride in the park with a guaranteed wait time of 15 minutes or less. I was a bit annoyed that I would have to pay extra for these on top of already having bought park tickets. We decided not to buy them and take our chances. Dd didn't want to go on the Mummy ride so Dh and I went on that seperately going through the single riders line, which was good as we got straight on, Fab ride. She didn't want to do Men in Black either. I took her on Back to the future and we waited over 30 minutes. But Shrek was the longest wait of 40 minutes. It would have been pointless in buying the tickets as Dd didn't want to go on all the rides and neither did Dh and I in the end. I was a bit unhappy to see that Jaws was shut, didn't know that was an almost permanant year round situation.

I came away wishing that we'd had an extra day at Disney and if we go back to Florida I'm afraid to say that we won't be doing Universal. Sad really as I have some great memories of it from my previous visits, it's a shame that Dh and Dd don't have the same.

[florida2000]

I think the biggest reason for the long lines is probably not the people who buy the express pass plus because I doubt many people do and as you say they only allow one use of each ride.

The real cause is the people who stay on-site get FOTL privilege. I don't think there are any restrictions on these so people can just continually go on the express lane.

Universal obviously made the business decision to encourage peope to stay at their resorts by giving them this privilege. I hope for their sake it doesn't p**s off too many of their other customers because it takes a hell of a lot more people than 2500 Universal room's worth of people to make their parks pay.

[cklb]

Just come back form 2 week hol. Univ is not what it was - we found that the kiosks in IOA were running short constantly of drinks, hot-dogs etc, none of the express machines were open.
Personally, we did buy the $15 express plus and found them a great buy. It was hot and we wanted to 'do' the park and get to Wet n Wild for a swim. These enabled us to do so. Also, the attendants seem to be quite happy to NOT mark your ticket and let you do one ride more than once - so the kids did Hulk 3 or 4 times, straight to the front every time. Yes, this makes the queue longer for those who haven't paid but this IS the age of capitalism. From an entirely selfish perspective, get the tickets! I of A is a great place and if you bite the bullet and pay the 15$ each it does make your day that much more enjoyable.
That said, if they had opened the express booths it wouldn't have been necessary. I'm just trying to suggest the best way to have fun based on the current situation.

[georgemac]

I think the problems a lot of us saw at Universal is that they were caught out on some days seing crowd levels that they did not expect

also people who bought express pass were not only being able to use them several times on the same day instead of the once, they were also being able to use them for several days as staff were not checking the dates - that's why so many people were in the express lines

on reflection I should have bought the express pass at $15 each for myself and DS, but if you are only allowed to use them once it's not worth it, as we don't want to do all the attractions

[Dude]

Yep I have to agree, last year we went to worlds of adventure and all the q's were well over 1.5 hour long, unless you paid the extra for a fast pass.

Not happy.

Dude

[Claire44]

We have just got back and the wait times at IOA were the longest we have known there. DH was talking to a CM at duelling dragons and asked why they didn't put another car on as the waiting time was 50 mins he was told they wont put another on until the waiting time is 1 hour. We had also picked a day when everywhere you looked there were 'dream flight' parties and they were able to go to the front of the line which was fine but they were allowed to stay on the ride more than once whilst the lines were almost an hour long.

Universal parks used to be our favourites but they have really gone downhill.

[georgemac]

claire, that must have been Friday the 21st? We left IOA after doing Dr Doom and the Dragons and went to Universal. Around 3.15 PM we returned to IOA and managed to get on the Hulk for last ride before leaving for the airport.

I had never heard of that charity, dreamflight but there were hundreds of them, saw parties from both England and Scotland with them.

http://www.dreamflight.org/site/pages/about_us.htm for dreamflight info

[dcmax]

We were at Universal over the columbus weekend and both parks were relatively busy, I would go as far as saying they were as busy at times in IOA as we saw them on Dec 28th last christmas(the Express machines were operating then though). However all FP machines were out of action, now this was not a problem as we had FOTL as we were staying at RPR but I agree that if I was walking in on a ticket and not a hotel guest I would expect the FP machines to be running. It did seem to me cynically to be a ploy to make none hotel guests buy Express tickets on top of the admission..

I also agree with the duelling dragons fiasco, although we had FOTL the waits were still ridiculous due to the idiotic decision to operate only one train on each track, the problem with this on Duelling dragons is its a relatively slow loader and has a long break run outside the loading bay topped by quite a long climb up the chain which adds a significant amount of time to what is a relatively short ride.

[munchkin]

we went to Universal in June having purchased Preferred annual passes on line from the UK. We used our confirmation emails to enter the park and then queued at the annual pass office just inside the entrance to fill out more forms and have our photo's taken before finally receiving our passes.

We were joined on our visit to Universal by our adult daughter who had a 1 day pass.

We tried to use the express pass machines throughout the day but they would not work for us but unbelievably worked fine for our daughter, so she was able to get in the fast line while we joined the long queues for every ride.
We repeatedly sought out members of staff to ask for help and sometimes we were told that the preferred passes we held were in fact express passes as well. some people even swiped them through a machine at the ride. However we were then turned away from other rides when we tried to use them. We even had Universal staff take our cards off us and try to use them in the express machines themselves, clearly thinking we did not know how to use them but nothing worked.

At the end of a frustrating day spent endlessly queueing we gave up & left the park. On the way out we called in at the Annual pass office to tell them about our problem. We were told they were aware there was an issue with the annual passes not working and we should see Guest Services who are outside the park entrance.
We did and were told that they did indeed know that there was a problem with annual passes, we were then offered a card to carry around which would enable us to get express passes but as it was only for that day and we had just left the park it was useless. I asked why they had not given us this card to use at the beginning of the day or told us there may be a problem and to come back if there was. The lady had no answer!

Now back in the UK our so called Preferred annual passes do not even get us onto the Universal annual pass site as their numbers are not recognised. I have emailed Universal 3 times with no reply.
I am wondering now if they will even get us back into the park in Nov should we decide to go.:mad2: :mad2: :angry:

[Claire44]

claire, that must have been Friday the 21st? We left IOA after doing Dr Doom and the Dragons and went to Universal. Around 3.15 PM we returned to IOA and managed to get on the Hulk for last ride before leaving for the airport.

I had never heard of that charity, dreamflight but there were hundreds of them, saw parties from both England and Scotland with them.

http://www.dreamflight.org/site/pages/about_us.htm for dreamflight info

Yes it was Friday 21st, as I said I have no problem with them jumping the lines but I think they should limit the numbers on a particular day as you said there were hundreds of them and I don't think it was fair to let them stay on more than once when people were waiting in long lines. They asked DH his opinion on the park on his way out and he told them what he thought and suggested maybe in future they could limit the numbers for these organisations on each day or even if they closed each ride in turn to the general public for say half an hour maybe that would work out better. They could list the times that each ride would be closed then at least it would save people having to wait.

Normally IOA is my favourite park but this year it's bottom of the list.

[highlander447]

Hi Munchkin have u tried the AP adress for reply its
AnnualPass@universalorlando.com
or for guest services
guest.services@universalorlando.com
u might already have tried these contacts but just in case thought I'd share

[Taioma]

OK, I would like to add an opinion here.

I went to Universal and IoA in September last year. It was fantastic. ALL of the express machines were open and we encountered some of the friendliest people we'd ever met. Although the pass booklet was being advertised, there was no pressure to buy it, there were hardly any waits for the rides and when there was a queue we were happy to wait in line as the presentation of the queues is brilliant (for example, for The Mummy you are queuing inside a tomb).

We love the atmosphere there, it's always buzzy and exciting. We've never has a problem with prices (especially compared to Disney, which in 2003 the first time we went was more expensive)

We chose not to go to Disney last year as we found some of the staff patronising and a few were not as happy to help as you would think.

Overall I am a Universal girl and would go back there over Disney anytime.

As to the bottled water prices - why not buy one of two and just re fill them at any of the water fountains over the parks???

[The-JAXX]

I was there last Xmas and experienced no problems. We love these parks as they are great with the older kids IOA is probably our fav. hopefully going next easter when it is busy, and currently working out my option as to having 1 night in a Universal Hotel just to get the key pass. Is it worth it anyone?

[SusieK]

I was there last Xmas and experienced no problems. We love these parks as they are great with the older kids IOA is probably our fav. hopefully going next easter when it is busy, and currently working out my option as to having 1 night in a Universal Hotel just to get the key pass. Is it worth it anyone?

Worth every cent. We did it this year after learning about it here and it was one of the best things about the holiday. We stayed at the Pacific Royal Resort - fabulous place and the buffet breakfast the following morning was delicious. By having Front of Line Privledges we were able to do Universal one day and Islands of Adventure the following day and do all the shows and rides we wanted to. I would definitely do this next time we go to Florida.

[Sue F]

Yes, Yes, Yes!! Tuckerz If you can afford it a night in one of the onsite hotels is definately worth it - especially at Easter when the crowds are huge!
Don't forget you can check in early morning and get your room keys/front of line passes, which are then valid for that day plus the whole of the next day after you check out. Plus you can go back to the pool for a swim mid afternoon. For the convenience and experience you get we felt it was good value for money compared to buying the Express passes for two days at $30 each!

[dcmax]

I totally agree with the last three posts..We loved it last christmas when we made full use of the FP machines as we were staying offsite..This time we still loved it but luckily we were staying on site..

I think though the thread has gone off track, Its not how good universal is when things are working(the park and rides are outstanding), the original post I believe refers to universals decision to shut down the express machines last month despite the fact a combination of bank holidays(columbus weekend), busy days combining with halloween nights and poor ride management in the case of duelling dragons turned for some people what should be a pleasant day into a theme park nightmare.. I Know I would have been extremely annoyed if I did not have the front of line passes as a hotel guest on the Sat, Sun, Mon of columbus weekend when not a single FP machine was open and the park was busier than I saw it at Christmas peak week.

[peter+lynne]

funny how i said the parks were busy in oct on another thread and was practically called a liar as according to them it wasnt busy. i wish you guys had posted on that one!!
we didnt pay the 15 dollars for the pass as in ioa we only go on popeye,ripsaw,jurrasic and spiderman so it isnt really worth it for 1 go each, i thought it would be better if you could have say 8 or 10 front of the line for any rides so you could do your fav rides a couple of times each.
also on dreamflight did anyone else see charlie dimmock with them??
we did loads of times.

[icatqman]

OK, I would like to add an opinion here.

I went to Universal and IoA in September last year. It was fantastic. ALL of the express machines were open and we encountered some of the friendliest people we'd ever met. Although the pass booklet was being advertised, there was no pressure to buy it, there were hardly any waits for the rides and when there was a queue we were happy to wait in line as the presentation of the queues is brilliant (for example, for The Mummy you are queuing inside a tomb).

We love the atmosphere there, it's always buzzy and exciting. We've never has a problem with prices (especially compared to Disney, which in 2003 the first time we went was more expensive)

We chose not to go to Disney last year as we found some of the staff patronising and a few were not as happy to help as you would think.

Overall I am a Universal girl and would go back there over Disney anytime.

As to the bottled water prices - why not buy one of two and just re fill them at any of the water fountains over the parks???

I agree. Having arrived home last week I found that ALL parks react to seasonal attendances. In Disney they reduced the rides to one train (Thunder Mountain) when 2 would have made better sense, its all about staff levels and costs. All parks are $ extractors...........we supply the $'s.....in an ideal world numbers should be regulated instaead of packing them in...ie MK.
Personally I love IOA and US and discovered Busch Gardens this year........outstanding!!! Never lose sight that ALL of these organisations want your $'s (whether wrapped in Magic or pixiedust!!) Once you realise that, you enjoy your holiday!!!
If you sat down and worke out how many rides you manged to do in a day (peak season) its frightening. Alas as the crowds drop so do the staff......whether its US or Disney!

[florida2000]

Never lose sight that ALL of these organisations want your $'s (whether wrapped in Magic or pixiedust!!) Once you realise that, you enjoy your holiday!!!


Oh, I agree entirely. Of course these organisations like any other exist to extract your dollars.

My issue is with HOW Universal do it. You pay your money to get into the parks then find they are trying to extort more out of you by either charging to jump the line or giving FOTL passes to their hotel guests.

They basically engineer the situation such that unless you pay them an extra $15 - $35 per person per day or stay in one of their hotels, you are a second class citizen and will be treated as such by joining the long queues with he other unfortunates.

That does not give me the feel good factor I desire in a holiday.

As if its not bad enough they do this, they then really ram home the point by letting Expresss Pass Plus people use the pass multiple times in multiple days on the same ride and give the FOTL holders completely UNLIMITED use of the Express Pass lines. Really, do they honestly need to encourage FOTL abuse by having people go on a ride 4 or 5 times in the time it takes a guest (who made the mistake of only paying the entrance fee) to go on once. :mad2:

[georgemac]

At the end of the day it is up to Universal - it is their business.

I won't be back if I am not staying in a Universal hotel for the night (DW will not move out for 1 night!) or the express system is not operating. There are only a few rides we want to go on so it is not worth buying an express pass for one use only as we will want to ride the hulk several times.

Our next trip, if our daughter and boyfriend also come this will be 2 rooms in a Universal hotel so probably would not do this either.

As long as joe public buy's the normal tickets and stands in line Universal will not change.

As I said before, even with the above I still thought our 5 park flexticket was outstanding value, 4 days at Universal, 2 days at Seaworld and 1 day at Busch Gardens for £105 - £15 per day, and we could have used it for 14 days, £7.50 per day!

[The-JAXX]

thanks to Susie K,Sue F,dc max and anyone else who has just made my mind up for me.

[big_dog_ush]

,then there is the thing with closing the Wild wild wild West stunt show,that show was brilliant and gave the feet a rest at the same time.......so why close it.........and not replace it.


This has been replaced with Fear Factor Live.

Without going into too much detail I love Universal, always have and have never had a problem. Re the Express pass thing we wouldn't have needed it at all during the last 2 weeks as every ride in Universal was no more than 20 mins wait time posted but in reality half of that. We actually laughed at those who'd spent extra money to get to the front of a virtually non existant line for most attractions.

I haven't compared Universal and Disney for cost of refreshments etc so cannot comment. The CM's in both parks have always been great and helpful in my view but entering MK last Friday we got the rudest most miserable security guy checking bags and I found this normal with Disney. I have no problem waiting in a line to have my bag checked, security is vital these days, but at least the Universal guards had a smile and a joke with us whilst Disneys guys (generally speaking, not all the time) were rather sullen. Fridays fella was actually rude to me because I didn't open a zip pocket inside the bag for him telling me I was holding up the line.

[SusieK]

It's a pleasure tuckerz - you won't regret it. And the hotels are gorgeous.

[BCKloon]

The FOTL is not unlimited , at certain times these are limited for a set period ie 1 use before 2pm per ride.

Also the FOTL is a perk that Universal gives to its customers staying in their hotels if i can ride the hulk 5 times using FOTL while others stand in the standard line then i have no problem with that - thats why i stayed onsite in the first place , people who dont like it have a number of options

1. Stay onsite
2. Purchase the express tickets
3. Put up with queues
4. Boycott the park.

[florida2000]

I am only going to go back to Universal if I either buy an express plus pass, or persuade DW to stay at the hotel for a night. The price of the pass increases during the high season.


That is exactly my thoughts and to be honest it just will not happen. It would be a logistic nightmare to try and take DW, DS (18months) DD (6 years) to one accommodation then to a Universal Hotel then to another accommodation. It would be easier to have one place for the whole stay then just go to a Universal Hotel as well for a night but then you are paying for two places for a night - plus there is still a bit of an upheaval.

We are in the middle of planning our Oct 2006 trip and we have decided just not to go to Universal. When you have been to Orlando a few times (we've been 6 times) you start to become selective in what you do. For us, the Universal approach has just meant we will drop it this time.

[georgemac]

Steve (BCKloon) has summed up the choices well, but I would not go as far as number 4, advocating a boycott of the park, as I really like both parks. I too like florida2000 would choose to spend my time somewhere other than standing inline at Universal, but if I could persuade DW to stay onsite for a night I would definitely do this and use the FOTL access. I tired to persuade her for this trip but she just would not have it, even although it would only have been a small overnight bag from the villa.

[florida2000]

The FOTL is not unlimited , at certain times these are limited for a set period ie 1 use before 2pm per ride.

Also the FOTL is a perk that Universal gives to its customers staying in their hotels if i can ride the hulk 5 times using FOTL while others stand in the standard line then i have no problem with that - thats why i stayed onsite in the first place , people who dont like it have a number of options

1. Stay onsite
2. Purchase the express tickets
3. Put up with queues
4. Boycott the park.

With reference to your list of options. People who can afford it have the choices you state but for quite a few people who save hard to get a holiday in Florida, I suspect options 3 and 4 are the ones they are left with.

[loopydiamond]

I went to universal and IOA in October and I too was very disapointed because of all of the reasons that have already been mentioned.... I wont be visiting these parks in the future...