Originally Posted By sjhym333 Made a quick trip out to Universal yesterday. A couple of quick observations from our day: 1) Preferred Parking: We get it for free but boy are they ripping off guests. We were parked at the far end of the parking garage, which made us no closer than many of the other lots in the place and further than some of the regular lots on other levels. If they are going to charge extra for preferred parking, than at least you should be closer to the center hub. If we had paid I would have been angry. Not to mention, there was only one employee whose sole job was to watch the handicap parking. Besides that it was every man for himself. 2) The parks...both of them...were packed. WWOHP had a 90 min wait most of the time we were there and you could barely move in the entire Harry Potter area. We literally crawled along after WWOHP and it took us a while to get from there out of the HP area because it was shoulder to shoulder people. Long lines for Butterbeer, food and gifts. 3)Mythos had a line out of the door of people waiting to get a table for lunch. While the fast food places were packed also, the other sit down places were walk in. 4) The Rockin Roller Coaster was down the entire time we were there. We could see maitenance guys around the track and the vehicles cycled on occasion, there were no guests on at all. That coaster has really had its problems since it opened. 5) Got to love Single Rider Lines,sometimes. Great at HP (less than 20 mins), a little less great at attractions like The Mummy which was a little shorter than the regular wait time. We saw large groups enter the single rider line in a couple of attraction which made even those lines long. 6) Universal is making some money of Express pass. Long lines of people purchasing the opportunity to get on the attractions faster. I am glad to see Universal doing so well. I think my next trip out will need to be on a weekday when the lines won't be as long.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper Yea. Rockit is a piece of crap. I really think legal action needs to be taken against the manufacturer. Glad to hear it was packed. We need all those butterbeers to fund some expansion! Haha
Originally Posted By leobloom Haven't been on Rockit yet. I know it had a delayed opening, but has it functioned properly for any extended period of time? Or are daily breakdowns normal?
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper Daily breakdowns are expected. It's actually a decent ride, but the lines are always horrible and the break downs don't help in that regard.
Originally Posted By sjhym333 I went months after it opened before I could ride it either because of the extremely long waits or more often because the attraction was not working. When it runs it's a good, not great, coaster. I don't think they have ever gotten to run a full contingent of cars on the track since it opened. One of the things I have come to like about Universal of late is they seem to be in a season of changing and adding things. Consider that Dispicable Me is the 3rd attraction going into that space. While I like Twister, I would be very happy to see a Kong attraction go in there...again it would be the 3rd change for that space.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip We went to Universal Orlando on a Thursday and Friday and ran into none of those problems. The longest wait was 45 minutes for HP's Forbidden Journey followed by 30 minutes for the Rip Ride Rockit which I felt was far superior to Disney Studios' Rock and Roller. Incredible Hulk wait was about 20 minutes, Spiderman 10-15 minutes, and Dragon Challenge was less than 5 minutes each time I rode it. Universal seems to be much more of a locals park than WDW, so I really think it helps to avoid weekends there... especially during the off-season.
Originally Posted By sjhym333 We are local so we usually do weekdays, but my son wanted to head out yesterday. Weekdays tend to be less crowded this time of year. It also may have been busy because Orange County schools were on a three day weekend.
Originally Posted By ChiMike HRRR is a huge disappointment, especially considering the rolling stock gives an inconsistent ride. It's almost like roller coaster roulette. It also ruined the sightlines not only at Studios, but in Seuss at IOA. RoadTrip, don't think your HRRR comment is lost on me. Still remember vividly all the times you argued and criticised my view on RnRC. Glad to see you are finally exposed to better things. I am glad to see you enjoyed your time at the best theme park resort in Orlando.
