I was at IOA yesterday. It took me about 45 minutes to talk to someone in guest services. Extremely unacceptable. I spoke to a manager about the long wait and she compensated us with an express pass for one ride but I was still bothered with the fact that someone has to wait over 45 minutes to speak to someone, especially when two service windows were not in use. Universal needs to improve there ticketing booths and overall front entrance. It shouldn't take someone an hour to buy tickets and go through the turnstiles.
But overall, I totally agree with your customer service argument. Universal has a long way to go on that front. For every nice person (guest service booth) I found, there were 3 other unfriendly people (boat driver girl, Cabana Bay cafeteria lady, everyone at Starbucks).
That being said, just so I don't get accused of being a Disney pixie duster,...
All the times we've rode the boats, and they are many, we've only had one mean miserable driver. Whenever we see him on a boat, we both simultaneously say, "It looks like Grumpy is working today. We've even tried saying nice things to him but he just glares menacingly at people. He's short, stocky, looks over 60, and has a mustache. Every other water taxi driver we've ever had has been friendly except for that one rude dude. Overall, though, we've always had excellent experiences with the CM's & TM's at Disney & Universal. A lot have gone out of their way to be helpful. I think they all do pretty good customer service wide, especially considering their pay scales are moderately low.Same thing happened to me when upgrading our tickets to season passes. But the good thing is once you finally got up to the guest services booth, they were nice and gave me their full attention and I didn't feel pressured to hurry. I think the reason for the long lines is that a lot of people are changing their paper fastpasses for the card ones.
But overall, I totally agree with your customer service argument. Universal has a long way to go on that front. For every nice person (guest service booth) I found, there were 3 other unfriendly people (boat driver girl, Cabana Bay cafeteria lady, everyone at Starbucks). At Disney, I had an elderly worker come up to me on his own and ask me if I needed help, just because I was looking at a park map. Little things like that go a long way, and its something that Universal definitely needs to work on.
That being said, just so I don't get accused of being a Disney pixie duster, there was one particular lady in the cafeteria of Cabana Bay who was so super nice. I wish I could remember her name. I just remember her being so sweet and british. It totally made up for how the rest of the staff there was treating me. Maybe british people are just nicer or something? (I'm not british, so I don't know).
All the times we've rode the boats, and they are many, we've only had one mean miserable driver. Whenever we see him on a boat, we both simultaneously say, "It looks like Grumpy is working today. We've even tried saying nice things to him but he just glares menacingly at people. He's short, stocky, looks over 60, and has a mustache. Every other water taxi driver we've ever had has been friendly except for that one rude dude. Overall, though, we've always had excellent experiences with the CM's & TM's at Disney & Universal. A lot have gone out of their way to be helpful. I think they all do pretty good customer service wide, especially considering their pay scales are moderately low.
We've tried. It doesn't work.Plan for HHN, Kill him with kindness
All the times we've rode the boats, and they are many, we've only had one mean miserable driver. Whenever we see him on a boat, we both simultaneously say, "It looks like Grumpy is working today. We've even tried saying nice things to him but he just glares menacingly at people. He's short, stocky, looks over 60, and has a mustache. Every other water taxi driver we've ever had has been friendly except for that one rude dude. Overall, though, we've always had excellent experiences with the CM's & TM's at Disney & Universal. A lot have gone out of their way to be helpful. I think they all do pretty good customer service wide, especially considering their pay scales are moderately low.
We've tried. It doesn't work.
Sounds like you know him, or who he isI think with mass kindness applied over days he will see that working a boat over 60 is not such a bad gig and all the carefree vacationers will have bills to pay when they get back home. In any case I will do my part, he just needs an adjustment then the GS reasoning might come into play. It takes time, he didn't get there overnight.
The preferred pass is only $40 more with free parking, early access and discounts. It's practically a no Brainerd. Universal's high AP renewal discounts keeps the AP holders since it is expensive not to renew.
If the passes are too cheap then why buy multi day tickets?
Just double checked and passes are still renewing at the old renewal rates. Good way to keep current AP holders happy. I am going to make a point of giving Universal positive feedback about this.
The Orlando Sentinel article mentioned many locals are feeling like a lower priority than on site guests since they get much earlier access to reserving the passes. On site guests have always had access to extra magic hours. Universal just gave preferred/premiere AP holders the same early access as on site guests, which looks like a big one upping of WDW.
If they don't raise the renewal rates the same for all the passes this is a huge positive and I greatly appreciate it. I believe most (certainly myself included) automatically assumed this meant that renewal rates were going to increase as well. After the earlier price hike, end of grandfathering, and now this it seemed like they were beating up the pass holders that have been with them for a long time.