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Rock the Universe? Is it hell?

Jun 21, 2016
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Yes- it's a creative title. Thank you, thank you.

I'm a Christian- but I'm with Ghandi when he said- and I quote "I love your Christ- but hate your generic Christian bands and the crowds that they bring during a trip".

So my volcano bay trip I planned for September now coincides with rock the universe.
My wife and I are 35 and 33- kids are 7 and 3 (will be 8 and 4 a week after our trip)

That all said- what should I expect- and should I call about changing my flight and hotel to the following weekend?

Weds September 6th I'm staying in WDW and seeing pandora for DVC event that evening. Thursday 7th - Sunday the 10th I'm at Royal Pacific. Rock the universe is the 8th and 9th.
Should I expect big crowds? Smaller crowds (like at IoA at night and restaurants). Do the hotels get tons of obnoxious unsupervised teens? Will VB get slammed with those same teens since they're selling 3 park passes?
Universal Orlando

Again- just wanting to know if I should change up my plans to avoid as I have no clue what to expect.
 
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lol i remember when Ghandi said that. i believe it was during Stryper's 30th Anniversary To Hell With The Devil tour. :p
 
Well, if they're like the festivals I used to go to with DC talk and the like, teenage boys are discovering new bits of teenage girls all.weekend...
 
Yes- it's a creative title. Thank you, thank you.

I'm a Christian- but I'm with Ghandi when he said- and I quote "I love your Christ- but hate your generic Christian bands and the crowds that they bring during a trip".

So my volcano bay trip I planned for September now coincides with rock the universe.
My wife and I are 35 and 33- kids are 7 and 3 (will be 8 and 4 a week after our trip)

That all said- what should I expect- and should I call about changing my flight and hotel to the following weekend?

Weds September 6th I'm staying in WDW and seeing pandora for DVC event that evening. Thursday 7th - Sunday the 10th I'm at Royal Pacific. Rock the universe is the 8th and 9th.
Should I expect big crowds? Smaller crowds (like at IoA at night and restaurants). Do the hotels get tons of obnoxious unsupervised teens? Will VB get slammed with those same teens since they're selling 3 park passes?
Universal Orlando

Again- just wanting to know if I should change up my plans to avoid as I have no clue what to expect.

It's actually fine during the day, but during the event - it can be hectic. I know some who prefer dealing with the crowds for HHN than RTU.
 
I've heard bad things... which is hard to imagine for a Christian rock event. Almost like Grad Bash/Grad Night levels of maturity. I guess there's field trips?
 
My experience going is this. The kids can be very rowdy. What happens is bus load after bus load of kids from Christian academies are trucked in. A lot of those kids are only at these schools because they got expelled or were huge problems in public schools so their parents sent them to these Christian schools. Then they are let loose without chaperones into the parks and are usually found "frolicking" in the bushes or smoking substances.
 
The year CBBR opened we had a room booked that weekend. We had no idea the concert was booked then. Kids were running wild outside by the pool. Pretty noisy. I guess they must be repressed at home and go crazy when they get let out of the cage. I don't book that early in September anymore.....I don't know. Maybe things have changed. When I was in school the kids that came from the Catholic schools were usually the most polite & behaved. These certainly weren't the types of kids I knew. They must be from sort of alien domestic situations. :)
 
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Anecdotal evidence, but when there was a similar event at MK, it was even less popular among CMs than New Years Eve. Working the event was a dreaded first year rite of passage. I will say in the literally thousands of times I've parked in the UOR garage, the only time my car was vandalized was during a RTU night.

A friend of mine explained to me that local churches buy up blocks of tickets then have teens hand them out to friends as a way of spreading the gospel. And there are never enough chaperones. So you have middle/high school kids with a free ticket to Universal, no desire to see the bands, and too little adult supervision. Trouble seems inevitable.
 
And its not just the kids that can be bad. From the bartenders at Finnegan's some of the youth pastors were hanging out at the bar and got so drunk and rowdy that they started throwing things like the drinking glasses at the bartenders. It got so bad that Universal no longer opens Finnegan's during the event. Also to the person asking about crowds the parks are fine until 4pm on Friday and Saturday as that s when the RTU crowds are let in. IOA also tends to be extra crowded on that Sunday as many of the groups have Rock Your Weekend tickets that give 3 day admission to both parks and IOA seems to get slammed the most on Sunday.
 
I can't thank everyone enough for the replies. I have several things I'm going to have to try to do to make it work-
Moving flight (via Orbitz)
Moving hotel (via Orbitz)- easy
Moving ticket package (via chase points).

I'll call and try to move but sounds like even if I can't- with the demographic of my kids (7 and 3) and the hours we keep (park opening to about 4/5pm then shower and dinner)- it sounds like it might be a non issue outside of Sunday- which is the day we fly out and might just do a couple hours in park first thing.

Also- were staying at royal pacific- so it likely won't have all the kids there. And we will have express passes if things go south for whatever reason.
 
I always thought the event was fine. Yes, there's big crowds but it is a music festival and kids can be rowdy but I haven't had a bad experience the two times I went. It's always a lot of fun and really positive. Plus if you're not there during the actual event, as it's a separately ticketed, you'll be fine.
 
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