My trip to Universal. (pt. 2)

[Epcot_dude]

Ok you have not read part 1, do so. In part 2, I am going to tell some things that bugged me at universal. Here we go.


NUMBER 1.

Cleanliness.
The park at a glance may seem clean but if you looked hard there would find the standard spilled cup, popcorn boxes, staines, and other trash. Now it didn`t really bother me too much, but some parts of the park were filthy and had no reason not to be cleaned up. Again, not too big of an issue, but still bugged me.

NUMBER 2.


False wait times.
If you read part 1, you know exactly what I am talking about. Men in Black had a 20 min. wait time but we were in that queue for at least an hour. This was the most disappointing of our trip. They also had some rule where you could not take purses or backpacks on the ride, so me, my mother, and my cousin, were cut off from communicating with my Dad. Of all the the things that bugged, this is the biggest one.

NUMBER 3.


Certain employees.
I`m not talking about ALL the employees, most were nice, but there were some that were kinda crude. Like in the Horror make up show. I know I talked about this before in part 1, but let me stress, if you have young ones, do not take them to see this. Not only for the people on stage, but it really might scare them(the masks and fake corpses.) However, if you are a horror movie buff, go see it. It really was fascinating to see how the monsters are made. There were also other employees that were kinda strange but I won`t get into too much detail.


NUMBER 4


Better queue lines.
Simple as that. Some queues were plain unattractive and boring. Now don`t get me wrong some queues were awesome. JAWS and Mummy being my favorites, and some were awful, Men in black being the worst(in my opinion). In fact I`m going to take MIB for an example. If there would one thing to add to this queue, it would either color or TVs. All you get(until you get inside and you see some aliens, and even THEY get a little boring,) is just grey walls, some elevator music, and 2-4 posters. Now the actual ride is great. Bottom line, spice up the queues, Universal.


So there you have it. My 4 things that bugged me about Universal studios. From what you read in part one and this part, you may think I despise Universal, some things I do, but overall it is still an enjoyable park with great theming. In fact, my favorite roller coaster of all time is the Hulk, and that`s not in Disney. I have read some of you guys posts on part 1. I know I can be cynical at some times.(Especially about the whole horror make-up show disney joke thing.) It just kinda upset me is all. And I DID enjoy the show, sometimes the people were funny and I laughed out loud. No we did not ride E.T or simpsons because, honestly, we did not want to take any chances for another long queue wait time. I`m serious. Besides, I`ve done E.T before and liked it. It`s funny how E.T would say your name at the end,too(right?). Overall, the trip was sort of a example to see how much WDW and US differ. WDW is more kid friendly and pays so much more attention to detail while US is definitely more intense and geared towards the older generation(I know, there is a kids zone woody woodpecker thing.) Obviously I`m going with Walt Disney World. Thank you for reading all this and don`t take it too seriously.

[RuddyWDW]

THE best queue out of any ride in florida, in my opinion of course is E.T, infact I almost enjoy walking through the queue as much as I do riding it.

[albino_pygmy]

All these rants you've already made clear in the first part. I was hoping to have read about your second day and visiting IOA. As I've said before in the first part, all of your complaints about Universal can be found at Disney as well. I'm not saying Universal's better than Disney, nor am I bashing Disney, they both have these faults and that doesn't make them any less of a great place to have fun. To be completely honest with you, I've seen MORE garbage at the parks at Disney than I have at Universal, and I've worked at both parks and visited both parks numerous times. It saddens me to see people trash both places, but it happens, and Universal IMO is quicker to pick up trash.

The no backpacks rule for MIB and Mummy are a pain in the butt to deal with, but they are there for your safety (as corny of an excuse that sounds.) MIB used to allow bags on their cars. I remember they had a green mesh bag in front and a yellow hook to hang your bags. They also had seatbelts and a lapbar for the whole row which made for a great arm rest to steady your aim, but that's beside the point. They removed the hooks and mesh bags because people weren't using them properly, and during the spinning in the ride, things were flying out of the cars hitting the aliens, show scenes, and the other car riding beside you. Mummy has never allowed any bags on simply because there's no room. For both locations, you can rent a locker for FREE for a certain amount of time. It's usually based on the queue time plus 10 or 20 minutes, just enough time for you to wait in line, ride the attraction, and come back and collect you belongings.

My advice for you if you plan to visit again, is to either stay on site and use the advantage of your room key acting as a front of the line pass, or purchase express pass plus at the parks. I would normally say go during the slower seasons, but that's not that great of an idea since Universal seems more conservative and delivers half of what you could expect on a normal day which I personally don't like, but I can understand them doing that if they're really that slow. So I'd say visit during a timeframe between the slow season and peak season, closer towards the peak season but not quite there since you don't want the crowds, but you want them to be busy enough where everything's up and running and you get your money's worth.

[ERich2010]

see i never see the big deal with ET. ive been on it twice and hated it both times. i thought it was the cheesiest thing i'd ever seen. its like they took something that was good, but then ruined it with some stupid kiddie-ride back story.

on the other hand, i can never get enough of spiderman/the mummy/deuling dragons. and im sure harry potter is gonna be pretty beast. but it still just doesnt have that feeling of disney. it feels too much like cedar point. nice day trip, but i wouldnt plan on staying there, ya know?

[tdf192]

OMG again I agree with pygmy (something is definitely wrong with me lol). The garbage is general in all parks.
The lockers are for safety.

The wait lines aren't necessary false, i would have thought that they dont change the times too often, i haven't seen those red tags at Universal unlike Disney who seem to give one to evry 50th guest or more. You never know you could have gone on MIB just as everyone else had, the ride had a problem or needed to be stopped / slowed for disabled access various times.

As you said you have been before, so am a bit surprised that you missed out some of the rides u had previously enjoyed.

Thanks for the postings though, its good to discuss these types of issues

[albino_pygmy]

OMG again I agree with pygmy (something is definitely wrong with me lol).

I don't think I've ever seen you not agree with me but whatever illness you have where you're always agreeing with me, I like it. Don't ever change, lol

[HauntedGabe]

see i never see the big deal with ET. ive been on it twice and hated it both times.

And ET is one of my favorites. Both the queue and the ride had so much imagineering. Hard to find fault.

but it still just doesnt have that feeling of disney. it

It shouldn't have the feeling of Disney, nor should Sea World, etc.
If it was just like Disney, why build a different theme park and then get chastised for copying Disney.

Disney got ding'd back in the late 80's for rushing to open MGM to beat Universal to the punch. Basically Disney opened a half park while Universal waited until theirs was complete. So there is a bit of lifting of ideas on both Corps. part.

[zippitydoodah]

All these rants you've already made clear in the first part. I was hoping to have read about your second day and visiting IOA. As I've said before in the first part, all of your complaints about Universal can be found at Disney as well. I'm not saying Universal's better than Disney, nor am I bashing Disney, they both have these faults and that doesn't make them any less of a great place to have fun. To be completely honest with you, I've seen MORE garbage at the parks at Disney than I have at Universal, and I've worked at both parks and visited both parks numerous times. It saddens me to see people trash both places, but it happens, and Universal IMO is quicker to pick up trash.


My advice for you if you plan to visit again, is to either stay on site and use the advantage of your room key acting as a front of the line pass, or purchase express pass plus at the parks. I would normally say go during the slower seasons, but that's not that great of an idea since Universal seems more conservative and delivers half of what you could expect on a normal day which I personally don't like, but I can understand them doing that if they're really that slow. So I'd say visit during a timeframe between the slow season and peak season, closer towards the peak season but not quite there since you don't want the crowds, but you want them to be busy enough where everything's up and running and you get your money's worth.

I totally agree with this. I like Disney World about 100 times more than Universal, but it's just cause Disney feels like HOME to me. I get homesick for it. That being said, I love Universal, and especially IoA (in my opinion US doesnt compare to IoA). I think the theming and the rides are great, and yes it's maybe not as kid oriented... but they're not TRYING to be kid oriented. They're a whole different park and they have a whole different thing going on.
The bag thing does bug me as well and I love that Disney has it so you can bring all your stuff with you on every ride, but thats my only big complaint. Disney also for sure pays more attention to detail... but IoA has more thrill rides (this REALLY bugs people when they prefer universal for the thrills, but some people DO prefer those kids of rides and have no interests in princesses or peter pan. Yes, disney has thrills, but overall its more family-oriented and so they're more spread out. Anyways, theyre different parks and aren't really comparable. It's like trying to compare Disney with Seaworld... TOTALLY different theme/aim/atmosphere so they really aren't comparable.

If I only have the option of visiting one, its going to be Disney... but any time I have the time/money to do both I've definetly taken it!

[zippitydoodah]

see i never see the big deal with ET. ive been on it twice and hated it both times. i thought it was the cheesiest thing i'd ever seen. its like they took something that was good, but then ruined it with some stupid kiddie-ride back story.

I think it's the queue more than the ride that people are amazed at. It IS a pretty great queue, you have to admit!

on the other hand, i can never get enough of spiderman/the mummy/deuling dragons. and im sure harry potter is gonna be pretty beast. but it still just doesnt have that feeling of disney. it feels too much like cedar point. nice day trip, but i wouldn't plan on staying there, ya know?

And really? You think it's like Cedar Point? I thought the theming of the Seuss land is great (I walked around for hours and still kept finding new, hidden things from the books!) as well as the comic area. The transitions are a little sloppy but by building it around a lake I don't think they were aiming on hiding each land from the others (like Epcot).
I think it's lacking the nostalgia of Disney (and I'm sure that when I'm 85 I would still enjoy just walking/wheeling around Disney), but it's definitely a theme park and not an amusement park like Cedar Point.

[NC_WDW_Daddy]

I enjoyed reading your posts and opinions, thanks.

[Epcot_dude]

For those who are wondering, no, I do not despise Universal in any way. The theming is great(movies) and IoA is truly one of the greatest theme parks of all time. Honestly,(this is it) I just didn`t get entertained as much as I would in Disney. I still got entertained, but got bored near the end of the day.(On a side note, I found 2 movie posters for JAWS and The Invisible Man! I love them!)

[Yensid_Retlaw]

I agree with you Epcot_dude. I went as an 18 year old teenager when it is supposed to appeal to that age and it took me a whole 2 hours to get through IOA and was bored to tears after. I planned on going back but just couldn't bring myself to do it. I still have those tickets. Oh well it's just a bigger Wonderland to me and I hate Wonderland. But I don't hate IOA or US Movie Park, just boring.

[Tmntrans]

Well my annual Univeresal Pass expires in October so I won't be renewing. The only ride I absolutely gonna miss is the Mummy and a close second is Dudley Do rights log ride.

[thegoz85]

I'll just weigh in on the bag issue quickly. I don't mind having to deposit my bag in a locker for the duration of the ride. If I had to pay for the locker I'd be irked, but the lockers are free if you're using them just for that ride.

And all I usually carry in my bag is a couple bottles of water, a few snacks, a camera, and some other odds and ends. So I've never been cut off from other members of my party since my cell phone is always in my pocket.

Thanks for posting these reviews, by the way. I enjoy discussing Universal also, so I appreciate you putting these on the boards.