To start wrapping things up, our last day on Friday (Which feels like a life time ago now
) was spent at the pool at CBBR and then Universal in the afternoon followed by genuine panic trying to pack everything into our suitcases. We ended up taking 3 cases home with 2 slightly over the limit plus 3 full hand luggage cases then followed by 2 full bags of duty free. Arriving in Glasgow and getting to the car with only 2 people was a struggle.
The only ride I haven't mentioned yet is DC. This still bums me out that it doesn't duel any more. The coaster is probably a step above ok now, it could be that it's a good coaster but I feel that I know how good it used to be that it's bringing down my opinion. Something I've found this year that I've never really thought before is that B&M are kind of boring coasters. Technically, they're mechanically beautiful but I've started to feel that they're playing things to safe and when they're new, they're great but they're not aging well as one of the great benefits is how smooth they are and once that wears off after years, it loses a lot of it's appeal.
I felt like the rest of the day at Universal was incredibly frustrating. The whole locker system is becoming a joke. They have staff shouting out over crowds to put the bags and any lose articles away and people are ignoring them. The locations are always cramped and the system feels a slow resulting in queues always forming. People were constantly being sent back through the metal detectors and I understand that the staff are just as frustrated having to repeat themselves for hours on end but I felt like they were starting to be rude and impatient with guests.
As a whole, I don't think the staff at Universal are at the level they need to be. I feel like the resort has came on leaps and bounds since Potter first opened and the staff should be at a higher level to compliment the resort. Some of the staff was great but the majority seemed uninterested and at times useless. Asking members of staff where the nearest freestyle machine was often met by vague answers.
These are others things that bugged me and I know this is nitpicking now I still feel that it's relevant. When the parks are so good, the smallest things can stick out more than normal. The bins were disgusting. I know it was unusually warm recently but I felt like the bins were lying far too long before being emptied and stale fizzy juice in the heat is one of the nastiest smells. I love the freestyle machines but the screens were hard to read in the sun, half were turned off or frozen, a lot were out of ice, they were always busy and poorly spaced out. You'd find some in close proximity and others far apart. I don't think their locations are on the maps either. The app is buggy and often out of sync for wait times and just purely laid out. For a park that's owned by a major ISP, the wifi sucked. It was slow and patchy and often faster to use 3G. People were constantly skipping queues and jumping into the express queue without staff saying a word. On DC, staff were competing to try and get the most trains dispatched which is nothing new but it was getting to the point where it was getting uncomfortable. They were slamming down restraints and running around like it was a giant game. Completely unprofessional.
CityWalk wasn't much better. An after hours event was on in Islands and HHN in the Studios and there was zero crowd control. The restaurants were packed which was expected but the staff were handling it so poorly. In Toothsome, there was no queue in the gift shop and the staff were serving people like it was a bar. Some people were waiting a long time while other people barged in to get served.
This is going to be a very unpopular opinion here but in terms of experience, I would say that overall, SeaWorld is as close to Universal as Universal is to Disney.
I really appreciated all the new development that has been made. Diagon blew my mind with how well hidden it is, it's truly like arriving into a different world and Gringotts is a wonderfully done ride.
However, I'm concerned about the future. Hulk and Kong were major disappointments. Hulk some how feels just as rough as before, the on board audio is terrible and the queue, as pretty as it is, offers zero plot until you're just about to board the train. Kong may be the longest ride in the resort but it feels like nothing happens and for all the advanced technology, it offers nothing new. I know not every ride can be the best but if it can't be the best it should at least be something different. F&F is looking like it will be even worse. I have hope for Fallon, I think it will be a fun ride but I fear that it will only be a fun ride the first few times and then it will be something similar to Shrek.
The bright side are the hotels are world class and Volcano Bay, I think is going to redefine the water parks in Orlando. I know Nintendo is looking like it's going to bring back the great experiences but I think adding smaller rides to fill the void in the mean time is just bringing disappointment. I can't tell if UC are severally over stretched with how much they have going on. F&F, Fallon, VB, 6th Hotel, (Possibly something new at CityWalk), Nintendo, SLOP, possible DC replacement, possible new MSHI ride and a 3rd park and that's just Orlando.
Don't get me wrong, I do love Universal, more than Disney, its just that the small things are bringing it down slightly and it's well within their reach to fix and I'm sure they will.