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AP passholder nights 8/19, 8/20

Check in was smooth and the employees were nice. We didn't have issues there. As I stated I talked to someone that did have issues. But then again I would never check in closer to 9 as it seemed they did.

Outside of the incidents I stated everything else was smooth. They even had marvel characters out on the street which was cool. But unfortunately for me and others who were around when this stuff happened it put a bad taste in people's mouth. One guy flat out said to the employee he would not be renewing his pass. Now if it was just me this one event would not have me have that reaction. But I am outnumbered in my family, so passes will not be renewed. Probably in 2 1/2 years when my youngest turns 4 we will try again, which lines up nicely with Nintendo opening. But the one guy was very vocal about all the issues he had.

The one that had the most people upset was Kong closing early. That seemed to get people screaming mad. I was not screaming mad, just upset since I had walked all the way from hulk. But there was several very vocal people.

And I was not comparing this to a paid event. I many times last night said to my family and others that Disney would never do this type of event. I was just saying that the clearing of areas before letting you on something was silly and not needed. And the comparison was that Disney does this all the time and doesn't shut down the rides. It seemed that it depended on where you were, the guy said they had holding areas based on where you were. So since we wanted to ride HE we got held up, but we could have gone and done Gringotts but we had just come from there.
 
Got there at 7:15... took 45 minutes just to get in. Went to Gringotts first and rode the train over (thank Goodness, I got the last train before the shutdown to clear the parks). Rode Jurassic and Kong... by then it was 10:30, FJ was still closed, did Dr Doom and Spiderman and went home. Seemed almost silly to even bother with Gringotts in the party since it was literally the only ride open in the Studios.
 
Just a tip for anyone heading tonight who wants a short line for Kong. Assuming you're in the park before 9pm, head to Kong around 8.45/8.50pm as they will be letting the final 'day guests' through the single riders line (still all ride together). I went with my family who are non-AP and waited 10 minutes to ride. Regular standby line for AP holders was over 60. Event was packed out last night and some of the character interactions in Marvel were chaos! Hope that there are more positive experiences tonight.
 
The overwhelming majority of experiences I've seen shared were very positive. I think this was a huge win for building loyalty in Universal's AP community.
I haven't had the time yet to read through much but I based that comment from a quick read this morning of the UOAP FB page (I should have known better than to trust that as the majority's POV!!). Glad that it has been received better elsewhere!
 
I haven't had the time yet to read through much but I based that comment from a quick read this morning of the UOAP FB page (I should have known better than to trust that as the majority's POV!!). Glad that it has been received better elsewhere!
I haven't read it thoroughly either. I'm basing that primarily on my first hand observations last night and the few comments I did read on FB & Twitter. Just about everyone I came in contact was just in a great mood and enjoying the event. To me it seemed a very stark contrast to regular day hours where there always seems to be people upset about something. I don't doubt there were a few issues with this event, but as is almost always the case the few people who run into an issue can quickly become the vocal minority.
 
Still have yet to ride the new Hulk or Kong (the rest of my family doesn't have APs right now). That's my main goal is to just get those 2 done since i'm going solo tonight. Anything else is extra.
 
We all had a great time last night

-Check in took less than 10 mins

-I lost count at how many times team members thanked the group for being AP holders

-Management was everywhere making sure things went smooth and GP was escorted out

-Waited 35 mins for Kong and less than 30 for Gringotts. Everything else was like 10-15 that we did.

Just a great time overall!!
 
I'm just spit balling here and had/have no plans to attend the event. Anyway, does anyone know if UOR is allowed to run any rides past midnight?

Last year at HHN in the studios, it was the first time we had gone when the park was open until 1 AM. I am pretty sure the other years we have gone week two, the HHN closed at midnight. Anyway, one night just after 12 we headed into Diagon thinking we could ride Gringrots but it had already closed. While heading back through the park, I noticed Mummy was also closed.

I'm beginning to think they can't operate rides after midnight and maybe they shut the line down at Kong before the AP event ended because they already had a long wait that could risk them shutting down before curfew?

Maybe they just wanted to get their staff off work closer to the end of the event so they just closed early. I assume Kong would have been the biggest draw for the event.

I'm really not trying to make excuses and they should have (in my opinion) tried to warn guest (I think they could communicate something like this when they gave out conformations or when they checked folks in if this was their reasoning).

I just seem to recall hearing that when Gringrots 1st opened that they would cut the line off earlier than park closing time, so maybe they have some limit on how late they will operate a ride to clear a line after stated closing times?
 
I'm just spit balling here and had/have no plans to attend the event. Anyway, does anyone know if UOR is allowed to run any rides past midnight?

Last year at HHN in the studios, it was the first time we had gone when the park was open until 1 AM. I am pretty sure the other years we have gone week two, the HHN closed at midnight. Anyway, one night just after 12 we headed into Diagon thinking we could ride Gringrots but it had already closed. While heading back through the park, I noticed Mummy was also closed.

I'm beginning to think they can't operate rides after midnight and maybe they shut the line down at Kong before the AP event ended because they already had a long wait that could risk them shutting down before curfew?

Maybe they just wanted to get their staff off work closer to the end of the event so they just closed early. I assume Kong would have been the biggest draw for the event.

I'm really not trying to make excuses and they should have (in my opinion) tried to warn guest (I think they could communicate something like this when they gave out conformations or when they checked folks in if this was their reasoning).

I just seem to recall hearing that when Gringrots 1st opened that they would cut the line off earlier than park closing time, so maybe they have some limit on how late they will operate a ride to clear a line after stated closing times?
This typically is due to maintenance. They have certain inspections and routine maintenance that has to be done overnight. With late night events it often doesn't give them enough time to ensure the ride opens on time the next morning so they have to close certain rides early. This isn't unique to Universal, Disney does this frequently during their late night events as well.
 
This typically is due to maintenance. They have certain inspections and routine maintenance that has to be done overnight. With late night events it often doesn't give them enough time to ensure the ride opens on time the next morning so they have to close certain rides early. This isn't unique to Universal, Disney does this frequently during their late night events as well.
He's right. It's why many rides closed around midnight at the Disney 24 hour events.
 
We upgraded to season passes during our trip :), but man I'm glad I didn't go to the pass holder event. The line to check in was all the way out to Margaritaville. I"m guessing those who got a quick checkout got there early? I felt bad for those people in line because it seemed most of their time would be spent checking in.
 
We upgraded to season passes during our trip :), but man I'm glad I didn't go to the pass holder event. The line to check in was all the way out to Margaritaville. I"m guessing those who got a quick checkout got there early? I felt bad for those people in line because it seemed most of their time would be spent checking in.

I wonder why they would leave it so late to check in? People line up at 3pm to check in for HHN so they should know the drill.

Maybe they had to work but I would have been there much earlier and as the others reported got that out of the way so I was ready for 9:30.

Just don't understand people sometimes, 8000 is not that many and Universal is very efficient in processing from the events I have been to.

Check the ID, check the list and hand you a lanyard. How do they get it backed up to the split when both parks have check in?
 
FWIW, the lanyard pass did say attractions may close before 11:30.

Yes it did. Which I read later. My eye sight is not good right now as I am between eye surgeries. So small print is the death of me. I have increased fonts on my PC and phone. So I couldn't read the lanyard well especially in poor light. Inspecting it further later I did see that.

There was about 20 people in front of us at check in and we were probably there about 10 minutes. So I could see how it could get backed up at peak times. I also would have never checked in closer to 9, but I guess many waited to check in. Which is silly, we wanted to be in to ride things like ET and MIB before those closed down.

Don't get me wrong, I think the event was nice and for many people was probably an awesome experience. I just think they could have done things slightly different in a couple areas and made it even better. I see nothing wrong with pointing out flaws and hoping they improve them for next time. Especially since we know they are looking to do more hard ticket events which would require this same type of procedures.

Three areas that I see they could have improved to make things better for all.

1. Don't shut rides down. At 9pm turn away any guest at entrance that doesn't have a lanyard and direct them to exit which security does their sweep. No one checked our lanyards in the waiting area so I feel letting us on in a single file line while checking would have been more secure anyways.

2. Have a sign at check in that clearly states rides with over a 30 minutes wait may close early and then at a ride that starts to get a long line do the same thing.

3. Hold the event a little more off season so the park can close at 8 and the event can be further from the midnight deadline so most rides can stay open until closing.

I think the above 3 things would have stopped all the complaints I heard. Universal is not the best at crowd control and I feel like there is no reason they can't improve. They have improved with the Mardi Gras parade by putting ropes in most areas keeping the crowds back. That was my biggest complaint of the parades before. They still need to work on the alternate routes as getting stuck in an endless circle around transformers sucked. But I have seen some improvement over the past 5 years with crowd control.

As for check in, honestly I am not sure what Universal can do outside of telling people they should arrive at least an hour before the starting time to ensure they get in on time. I didn't see this disaster, I only heard about it since we checked in at 6pm.
 
I agree it was nice of them to do anything at all. And I'm sure lots of people had fun. I'm glad that some are saying the line moved fast. I just wish that was the case at the regular check in to the parks. Man, that fingerprint thing is so annoying, hahaha. :bonk:
 
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