Best Night Rides at IOA | Page 2 | Inside Universal Forums

Best Night Rides at IOA

  • Signing up for a Premium Membership is a donation to help Inside Universal maintain costs and offers an ad-free experience on the forum. Learn more about it here.
Just noticed that the parks are going to be open until 11pm later in March. Is that the latest they've ever closed?

In all of the years that I've been going to the parks, I can't recall the parks ever staying open past 10:00pm, with the exception of special events. Hopefully this is the start of a new trend. Both parks are extremely impressive to walk through at night.

Also, that nighttime video was incredible. It definitely reminded me why the Port of Entry is one of my favorite areas of any theme park.
 
I bet HITSSTTR would offer some great views of the park at night.

It does. And you can even see the Hard Rock Cafe and some of CityWalk. With everything lit up at night, it's a nice ride with really nice views :thumbs:

In fact, I would only do Seuss Trolley at night.

PS: What a mouthful, that name... Lengthy acronym, LOL!
 
I've never understood why the parks don't stay open late like Disney. It's a huge opportunity missed in my opinion.
 
Disney has actually been decreasing their hours the last couple of years, usually the Magic Kingdom. Universal has increased their hours a bit since Harry Potter & Cinemagic. More attendance creates more demand for later park hours. I would wager they will increase their hours again once HP2 opens and attendance spikes. Once Transformers,the new Springfield land, and HP2 opens it will take at least 2-3 days for a tourist to do all the attractions in the parks. Before HP, a lot of tourists were treating each park as half day parks. Of course, if you only do the major attractions, and race through a park without taking time to enjoy the ambiance, you can do any Orlando park, with the exception of Magic Kingdom, in half a day during off seasons.
 
Disney has actually been decreasing their hours the last couple of years, usually the Magic Kingdom. Universal has increased their hours a bit since Harry Potter & Cinemagic. More attendance creates more demand for later park hours. I would wager they will increase their hours again once HP2 opens and attendance spikes. Once Transformers,the new Springfield land, and HP2 opens it will take at least 2-3 days for a tourist to do all the attractions in the parks. Before HP, a lot of tourists were treating each park as half day parks. Of course, if you only do the major attractions, and race through a park without taking time to enjoy the ambiance, you can do any Orlando park, with the exception of Magic Kingdom, in half a day during off seasons.
But I think it would be really cool for maybe just hotel guests to get access at nights to HP or something, but yes I think they need to start staying open later once HP 2.0 opens.
 
But I think it would be really cool for maybe just hotel guests to get access at nights to HP or something, but yes I think they need to start staying open later once HP 2.0 opens.

Yes, that would be so cool. Universal is really beautiful in the dark, but during the off season which is when we go, it's tough to find much night time on he schedule. Hotel guests' late universal hours sounds like a winner to me.
 
Like at least certain rides? Like FJ and all the HP rides and shops, but also like the Hollywood RRR, the JP rides, Hulk, and rides like that.

And I can imagine a lot of hotel guests would go because its not like they have a long way to travel home.