Originally Posted By tashajilek Ok, so i just want to vent a little bit because i am actually really ticked off. I will first talk about my Universal studios Hollywood experience in October. I have been to horror nights 2 years ago and we loved it so much we really couldn't wait to return. Anyways, my mom and brother were joining us this time on a Thursday night. We got to USH at a decent time and in about 4 hours were did the tram and ate dinner. The wait times for the houses were exceeding 2 hours because all of the front of the line people were cutting in and also way too many people were in the park. My mom was really looking forward to Jurassic Park and were waited in the queue for about 15 minutes only to finally be told the ride broke down. It took about an hour before we finally seen employees blocking off the entrance of the ride. So we left the park without doing anything and spending hundreds of dollars. Ok here were go to Orlando. I was really wanting to love this park and in many ways i thought this would make me love this park more than DW. So we knew this was going to be a busy day and we arrived shortly after opening. First thing we headed towards was Potter and they were not letting anyone in the land. Ok, so we walked for what seemed to be 15 minutes to get a time to come back. Why they didn't tell people about this at the front? and there were no signs anywhere just one man yelling in a crowd. Later when we returned to Potter we did not see anyone telling people to get a return time for Potter resulting in very angry and unaware tourists. So we get into Potter and we were able to ride both sides of Dragon Challenge which was great and were debating about riding Forbidden Journey which was 3 hrs! Anyways we decided to wait 40 mins for single rider which worked out. Honestly i don't get the hype about this ride, it had some cool effects but made both of us feel sick. Forget about getting into a store which had at least a 40 or so min wait, so after the few rides we had enough. I wanted to do Hulk and the Single rider line was about 3 hrs and normal at least 2 or so and we did not bother to ride Spiderman. I understand it was a very busy time of year and the lines were not even what bothered me. I am so bothered that there is this nasty greedy front of the line BS that would have cost me an additional $200 for two people to ride everything! if i wanted to ride everything it would have cost us over $400 with the $15 parking for one day when i paid $500 to upgrade 2 people to premier passes which we got 6 days of park hopping, discounts and free parking. I am so disgusted with the front of the line that i cant stomach ever giving any Universal another penny. At least at Disney everyone has a chance to have FP'S and not have to pay major $$$ for them. i really don't get how a lot of people say Universal is top quality??? i guess they are making a lot of money ripping people off more than Disney can dream of. Anyways, i have never felt more ripped off from a company and i will NEVER return. I have given Universal of both coasts 2 chances in the span of 2 months. Anyways at least the rest of my WDW trip went well despite being the busiest time of year.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Funny, I felt so ripped off at WDW last time ,I don't know if I ever want to return. But I hate fastpass in all forms, and if the rumour is true, Disney will be instituting a similar system for folks staying in the deluxe hotels too. Not to mention the issues booking in to restaurants. I did warn you against going at this time of year. All I know is WDW left me feeling very bitter last time and is to date our worst vacation ever (that includes being at DLP for 9/11 and having my passport stolen on a cold war trip to the Soviet Union as was. Glad your WDW trip was better than mine. I did wonder how you got on. But USO/IOA is good when not too busy. All I will say if you do not like queuing, do not come to the European parks (except Europa park, they are brilliant)
Originally Posted By tashajilek The only issue i had with WDW was Hollywood studios was a joke with crowds. I didn't eat at any sit downs besides Saana because we felt it was a good value to eat elsewhere outside the parks. I don't think it was only the time of year because as mentioned i was at Hollywood in October. I am fine with long lines during peak seasons because i know better, but i did have a chance to ride every single E ticket ride at WDW more than once without waiting 3 hours. Universal is only a great place to visit peak seasons if you are willing to shell out hundreds of dollars for one day.
Originally Posted By Mary Poppins What negative experiences tashajilek! I wonder if others share them?
Originally Posted By skinnerbox I've only visited Uni once without staying on property. Never again! Staying on property makes visiting the parks infinitely easier and less draining. That being said, I'm also fed up with the cost of WDW resorts compared to the value received. I no longer stay on Disney property during my Orlando vacations, and split my time between Marriott while visiting WDW, and the Royal Pacific while visiting Uni. And staying at the Royal Pacific allows me to access the shorter queues in the park. If you really want to enjoy the Uni parks during busy times, you need to stay on property. It's the only way I'll ever attend the Uni parks again.
Originally Posted By tashajilek ^^^ Both trip to DL and WDW i heard some comments of how busy the Disney parks were which i expected. On both UNI trips i witnessed people screaming and demanding their money back at the workers. UNI had not very many choices for anything without a 3 hour wait. I was at the MK on NYE which was by far the busiest and i was able to do Space mountain 3 times big thunder 2x the tiki room, COP, people mover, buzz and a few other things and i left at 8pm. At UNI i was able to do almost nothing and that was coming pretty much at opening time. I just wanted to mention my Universal trips because i only hear negatives about Disney when in my opinion Disney does a heck of a lot better job during peak seasons. I do understand WDW will start the advanced FP for deluxe resort guest's but, if everyone else still has a chance at getting fast pass that's still better than UNI. At UNI i felt like i was treated like dirt because i wasn't willing to pay $400 for the day. When we were in the lines the employee's even called them "special passes" Anyways, i didn't let my USH trip get to me and i tried Orlando and it was a huge mistake. Our night wasn't ruined, we had a nice dinner and visited the Boardwalk in the evening.
Originally Posted By tashajilek Post 7 was for 5. On my WDW trip i got a lot of advice to stay on WDW property and i am so happy that i didn't fork out thousands extra. We were able to have great meals off of property and had the luxury of just getting away from the crowds and prices. I would only stay at WDW property during a non peak time and if a dining plan was offered. As far as UNI i am sure that the Resort prices were comparable to the WDW rooms over Christmas which i am never willing to pay. Honestly putting aside my anger my husband and i thought Potter was way over hyped. We enjoyed the look of it and everything but, FJ really didn't do much for us. I was disappointed that there huge E ticket ride was mostly a simulator.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb I'm sorry to read your visit was so disappointing, especially in light of all the praise heaped on Uni and the derision WDW gets. Disney is far better at crowd control, absolutely. I could see that during our visit to USO, even with the comparably light crowds we experienced. If it makes you feel even a little better, Forbidden Journey isn't included in the list of rides that the "Haves" can get line cuts for.
Originally Posted By DlandDug Hmm. My "worst" UniOrlando visit was almost the opposite of yours. I arrived early one day with a friend (Disney cm), and as we entered IOA (planning to visit Studios later in the day), we were accosted on the street inside the entry gates by an aggressive Uni CM who basically ordered us to buy a special pass-- one that would guarantee that we would be able to experience all the marvelous offerings of IOA. (This was before WWoHP.) We debated, then shelled out an extra $75 each, after being assured that this was THE only way to ensure we could get on every attraction. Two hours later we had been on every attraction in IOA, and hadn't even pulled the "special" passes out of our pockets! As we prepared to head over to the Studios, we stopped by Guest Relations to see if there was any possibility of turning in the unused passes, and to lodge a complaint about the aggressive CM who sold it to us (under false pretenses, we felt). And there's where our sorrow began. The woman behind the counter at Uni Guest relations was about the meanest, most hard-bitten employee I have ever encountered. She all but laughed in our faces before ordering us to step aside for "real" customers. The only bright spot was that we were able to recoup our losses when another guest begged us to sell our "special" passes (they were all gone for the day). The guest was shocked when we sold them at cost-- all we wanted was our money back. I have been back to Uni Orlando AND Uni Hollywood many times since. But I always get myself in the proper mindset when I go. It ain't Disney-- that's for sure!
Originally Posted By Pollyana Well now..that makes me wonder if we want to deal with a day there this summer. Our grandson would really love the new Transformers attraction, but I am not spending the front of the line $$. Maybe we will just skip it and spend that additional day in Dland.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance Sorry about that crappy experience, Tasha. $400 for a day for the two of you is astronomically ridiculous. And shelling out the money you did and basically not getting to do anything is total bull. I would be completely angry about it too. I'm all for doing what needs to be done to get short lines, and it sounded like you did everything you could except sell them your first born, and you still did't find short lines, boooo!
Originally Posted By RoadTrip LOVED Universal Florida when we were there last October. In fact for the second year in a row I will be bypassing my annual trip to WDW to go to Universal instead next fall. I thought my Universal experience beat WDW in just about every way and cost considerably less. I love WDW and want to return, but at least for now they have totally priced themselves out of the short-visit market. WDW prices for a 2-3 day hopper pass are absolutely obscene.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom Sorry about your bad experience Tasha. I hope you give Universal as well as WDW another chance. We on the each coast do try to warn others about the insane crowds during in the Orlando area parks during certain times of the year. Regardless of how good the parks are, or the best intentions of cast members, the crowds can make or break a vacation. All of the Disney and Universal parks are great parks, sure they could use some TLC. But, they are all great parks. Just not when they are filled with millions and millions of people. I have never been to any Orlando park during a holiday week. But I know the crowds are crazy when you see rides like "mummy" in Universal where the queue area is larger than the space for the actual ride. I guess in the grand scheme of things is this any different than the lines in DL for Nemo or the Matterhorn? When I visited DL the lines for each were easily 2-3 hours, and that was non holiday season.
Originally Posted By 999HAUNTS Wow, I'm sorry you went through all that, but I have to wonder where you bought your tickets from. Our October trip to USO was fantastic - Each person in our group bought a one-day ticket to USO, a one day ticket to IOA (both with front of the line passes) and one ticket to HHN (with front of the line pass) for around $250 each. We found that buying one day tickets were cheaper than buying a park hopper for two days. We knew we probably wouldn't be visiting again for years - the research piratebrittany did for us prepared us for what to expect, and we knew there was no way we could tackle each park in a day without the front pass. We thought it was well worth the cost. No stress, we could ride when we wanted, and this allowed us to eat leisurely and plan the day out well. On the other side of the token, Universal Hollywood for their HHN was a joke!! We are premium Universal Hollywood annual pass holders, which was no help whatsoever in attacking those massive crowds LOL! We refused to shell out the extra money for front of the line, which was definitely the reason we were so unhappy when we went. The only thing we were successful with was to catch a glimpse of some A-list horror movie stars on the red carpet for the Scream awards. That was fun, but not really worth the price we paid for a ticket to the event.
Originally Posted By tashajilek i bought my tickets directly through the Uni website like i always do. When i was buying the tickets the front of the line add on per ticket was $85 and then buying them at the park was $100. I want to just say that i did have a wonderful trip to WDW and we will be returning again. The only Disney park we felt like we could handle was the studios which we found about as unbearable as Uni was. We had 6 Disney days and we were able to go to MK three times, Dak twice, the studios twice, Epcot twice, All the hotels on the monorail loop, Animal Kingdom lodge and also the boardwalk. I feel for the time of year we did good and we really did enjoy WDW. The only regrets we have was wasting time at Uni and not trying something else. I don't think i can ever bring myself to try any of the Uni parks again.
Originally Posted By SuperDry If you stay at one of the three Uni on-site hotels, your room key gives you front-of-the-line access to participating attractions, along with a one-hour early entry to IOH/WWoHP. If you're going to devote a day or two of an Orlando vacation to USF, it's much cheaper just to stay on-site and get that access for no extra cost than to buy the line pass for each person. Plus, you get the early entry. During that first hour, you have WWoHP with little waiting for anything.
Originally Posted By tashajilek ^^^ That's good to know. I still don't like the idea that you have to spend money staying at a hotel or have a front of the line pass to get a decent theme park experience. I don't even know what the solution would be for USH? Once they have Potter it will probably be just as bad IOA. Does IOA even have a limit to how many people can enter the park? It really seemed way busier than all the WDW except for the MK on NYE. When i left around 3 there were still people coming in.
Originally Posted By SuperDry Another benefit of staying on-site at USF if you normally stay on-site at WDW is that it will open your eyes as to how much the WDW resorts have been let go quality-wise, especially when you compare the price. The contrast is stunning.
Originally Posted By tashajilek Honestly the only chance of me ever staying at Disney property is if i get a killer deal. I go to California twice a year and a few other places we like to visit. I would rather priceline decent hotels and for the price of one Disney vacation at a deluxe resort i can go on 2-3 trips a year. Looking around at a few Disney properties there are a few places i would never stay at. I would stay at the Poly or Dak and never waste money on the Contemporary. I think if we were stuck on Disney property for a entire trip we would go nuts.
