We spent all morning Thursday in the parks. We started with the extra hour in Super Nintendo World. Mario and MineCart were both down. By 10:45, we moved to Dark Universe portal. We went with the group to Monsters Unchained. It broke down a few times while we were in line. We waited about 15 minutes before we got on the ride. We got almost to the end and it stopped at about 45 seconds to the end. We were there for about 20 minutes. We could see them working on the car in front of us pulling wires and stuff. We finally resumed with the lights on for a little bit and got an express pass on the way out. It could be used anywhere except Potter and MineCart. We saw Mario and MineCart were up so we went back to Super Nintendo. We went to Mine Cart to get a return time because it was a 60 minute wait. We used the express pass at Mario Kart. We went back to MineCart and it was down again. They validated our IAC paperwork and gave us an express pass that she said could be used anywhere. There were no restrictions on the back, so I assume it could be used at Harry Potter. After leaving Super Nintendo again, we went to ride the yellow side of stardust racers. It was 25 minutes, so we went right through express. Here is where we had the biggest issue I've ever had at a theme park.
My husband has an implanted stimulator so he can't go through metal detectors. We told the team member at the metal detector and told us to step aside and they called for a team lead. We waited about 5-10 minutes with plenty of people walking past us. Finally the guy who had the hand scanner was beside us and we said can you just wand him so we can ride? He asked the other team member and they scanned him but we still had to wait for a team lead. Finally 5 minutes later 2 people walked down to us and started asking all kinds of very personal questions about medical conditions and things that in my mind went way beyond what they needed to know. They finally said we could go through. Once we got almost to the station the same girl came running after us like we had done something wrong and started questioning my husband about his insulin pump. He kept saying to her it's attached to my body. She clearly had no idea what it was.
The ride was incredible. Best ride in the park that we got on. Unfortunately, the stress and embarrassment from the metal detector set off some of his issues and we had to go back to the hotel. All that to say, it is clear the team members need more training on people who are different at the metal detectors. We had no issue with going around the metal detectors at the front gates, but the ones at Stardust Racers was really really really invasive. I did share that information in the follow up survey we got via email.
Overall, while the IAC isn't like Disney where it's all done in the app (that really was nice), the process was very easy and every cast member was extremely compassionate and willing to go above and beyond, except the team lead and his friend at Stardust Racers. If you have any questions, please let me know.