Simpsons ride disappointment

[jewels1207]

I was last in Florida 10 years ago. I'm not big into huge coasters I've never managed to go on anything big but I love simulator rides. So when I was last here the likes of Simpsons and Spiderman were really modern and so well done and I came home saying the Simpsons was my favourite ride.
Back this time have rode the Simpsons 3 times and have been disappointed, not so much with the ride itself but possibly more the way it's run if that makes sense.
First time this trip we did child swap which worked great, me and my older son rode first while my husband and the youngest who was too small waited in the child swap room. This was good because there were distractions and videos playing for him and kept him entertained. Swap went without any problems.
Second time we went to do the same except this time my husband and toddler were told to wait on a bench behind the 8 rows of ppl waiting to go into each pre ride room. When I came out the ride there were no staff around and you get swept down the winding path outside with no direction back to childswap. When I got to the bottom of the Ramps I found a staff member to ask how to get back to childswap and he told me to wander back up and go through "the blue door". I said "the one that says staff only?" He said "yeah just open it". Got back up and in the door to find myself hopelessly wandering through the corridor where all the rooms are, no staff to be found and am now in front of 8 rows of ppl waiting to enter the rooms. Eventually a staff member appears and when I ask where child swap is he says "uh behind them people" pointing to the rows of folk all squashed in line. So I ask if I'm just meant to shove through them. He then says "no go through there" and points me through a section of barrier about half a meter wide which is blocked floor to ceiling with a vent pipe! I had to crawl through the barriers separating the rows of folk with my son to find my husband at the "child swap" (just a bench).
3rd time we went to ride as my son loved it, I said to my husband child swap isn't worth it so let's just one of us take him on. So I took my son with our express passes while my husband and toddler went off to ride Kang spinners. Got to the front of the queue and the cast member said the photo here isn't working on the boys pass. "do you know this man?" And shows me his machine. The picture is of my husband and I told him this. He said I can't let you side unless he's here then. I said the pass has my son's name on it and my husband is elsewhere in the park. He said "nothing I can do unless you have your husband because it's his pic". I retrieved my husband got him to come to the queue at which point the cast member was swapping shifts. He asks me to hang a second then says to his colleague "uh that picture machine isn't working" . I lost it at this point and said "hang on you made me leave the queue to get my husband for his picture and now you tell me it's not even working?" He kind of mutters something and shuffles away and the new guy just tells me to "go ahead" without even checking the passes! I was livid.
Anyway it's a rant but all of these just taint my previous great memories of this ride.
I think so many other rides in universal have the child swap set up so well and this was just really disappointing.

[Rac20]

That does sound extremely confusing OP. I’d have been worried I’d end up lost! 🙈

I think child swap when done well is really good. My DH and eldest DS were most impressed with the child swap at the Hulk ride. It had just re-opened after its refurb and they let DH and Ds ride it twice each whilst I waited with youngest DS. Also had a good experience at forbidden journey child swap when they walked along the queue asking if anyone was wanting child swap. Saved us about half hour in queuing.

Luckily we are almost beyond the child swap age. Just have to wait and see if youngest DS is brave enough to ride some of the more thrill type rides.☺️

[minnie29]

Last couple of times sounds very annoying! Why couldn’t you just have followed the same process that you done first time? If you knew of the child swap area, could you not have just went straight to it, explaining to the staff member of your previous experience? I’d have been very angry to have been made to do all that knowing there was a waiting room. I’ve alwYs found Universal’s child swap so much better than Disney because of the little rooms that they have, or choice of queuing with you (which is a great option on the older HP ride as it’s in the castle, so can be fun for little ones). Seems different staff have different ways of doing things - you’d think they’d know what to do!

[lizzie145]

Contact guest services with your complaint. They need this sort of feedback

[MrIncredible]

Fairly typical of Universal customer service in my experience.

[jewels1207]

When I when on the ride the second time I didn't realise they'd been sent to a different child swap area. I just assumed they'd been sent to the original room so asked to get back there when they pointed me through that stupid non existent path.
I agree that forbidden journey child swap room is brilliant. Same with Gringotts and Spiderman

[Katie C]

I had a similar experience with our express passed in Universal- they weren't working properly so we went to the nearest shop that sold them and they said the only way to get them fixed was to leave the park and re queue up at the ticket booths outside- I pointed out this would waste a load of time and they essentially said it wasn't their problem!
In the end I went into guest services into the park instead and had a rant and they gave us new express passes, but there were still glitches with it all day.

[mummyroo1]

I was super disappointed by my experience of Universal child swap. So disappointed that my youngest was expected to wait for ages in the line for a ride he wasn't allowed to ride. It was frankly cruel and hence in one week we only did it once for a chance of riding Forbidden journey. Why not have a return pass like Disney?

[rafjen]

We child swapped Simpson and were sat on a bench in the loading area- I would rather have been in a room with cartoons- The repetitive pre-show was really annoying.