UO Plastic Annual Passes coming June 3

[IzzyB]

I would say I get into Disney the fastest, then Sea World, then Uni. And I think the only reason Sea World is a little faster is because like others said they turn off the finger print reader if there is a long line. So I feel I get stuck in the longest lines at Universal. Disney I may have 3 people in front of me if that. And I was going close to park opening where the trams were packed to the point not everyone got on and the monorail had long lines. And still there was barely a line at the front gate at Disney. But there is ALWAYS a line at Uni. Sea World there is a line, but normally half the length of Uni.

I will say that the pass scanning part that Uni seems to be better than Sea World, but that could be because we have a 2 year pass at Sea World and it was really faded at the end. So it could be more to do with that vs. one being better than the other.

 

[Galaxy Defender]

Of all the passes I have had over the years the Sea World ones fade the fastest by far. Caused me no end of headaches at the front gate.

 

[Miketheboss]

And still there was barely a line at the front gate at Disney.

The Disney Difference. Lol

At universal you wait to get into the parking garage. You wait in "lines" to get checked by security. You wait forever to buy tickets. You wait to enter the park. A great start to a day at the parks.

 

[WAJAS]

Of all the passes I have had over the years the Sea World ones fade the fastest by far. Caused me no end of headaches at the front gate.

Same. This is why I'm getting the hard stock Guy Harvey ones the asap.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

The Disney Difference. Lol

At universal you wait to get into the parking garage. You wait in "lines" to get checked by security. You wait forever to buy tickets. You wait to enter the park. A great start to a day at the parks.

Are you really suggesting you don't have to wait for security or to enter the parks at Disney? Seriously?

 

[Nick]

Are you really suggesting you don't have to wait for security or to enter the parks at Disney? Seriously?

Well if we really want to get into it, security is faster at Disney in my experience (and I get chosen for the metal detector a lot). That said, Universal isn't normally that bad either unless it's extremely busy.

Security being faster doesn't mean anything though as at WDW, I have to walk/tram to the front entrance or take a monorail or ferry. All of that adds up to take way longer than anything security related, so Universal easily beats out all Orlando parks here.

 

[quinnmac000]

The Disney Difference. Lol

At universal you wait to get into the parking garage. You wait in "lines" to get checked by security. You wait forever to buy tickets. You wait to enter the park. A great start to a day at the parks.

At Disney you wait for a tram at the parking lot or you wait for the ferry/monorail if you are going to Magic Kingdom. You wait to get your bag checked, then if you are like me you always get selected for security where you wait some more. Then if you don't have tickets you wait to buy them and then you wait to get into the park with scanners not working. Sounds like just the same amount of work to get into either park.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Well if we really want to get into it, security is faster at Disney in my experience (and I get chosen for the metal detector a lot). That said, Universal isn't normally that bad either unless it's extremely busy.

Security being faster doesn't mean anything though as at WDW, I have to walk/tram to the front entrance or take a monorail or ferry. All of that adds up to take way longer than anything security related, so Universal easily beats out all Orlando parks here.

At Disney you wait for a tram at the parking lot or you wait for the ferry/monorail if you are going to Magic Kingdom. You wait to get your bag checked, then if you are like me you always get selected for security where you wait some more. Then if you don't have tickets you wait to buy them and then you wait to get into the park with scanners not working. Sounds like just the same amount of work to get into either park.

Simply reducing it to "the Disney difference" with no lines based on some anecdotal evidence is not doing the discussion any service. WDW and UOR's entry ops are vastly different and have benefits and negatives to both. If I was to compare two procedures it'd be DLR and UOR, which both have a centra parking area that goes through a shopping district and a single security area to entry ways for two parks.

 

[Nick]

Simply reducing it to "the Disney difference" with no lines based on some anecdotal evidence is not doing the discussion any service. WDW and UOR's entry ops are vastly different and have benefits and negatives to both. If I was to compare two procedures it'd be DLR and UOR, which both have a centra parking area that goes through a shopping district and a single security area to entry ways for two parks.

Don't point the finger at me, i'm not saying anything about "The Disney Difference" (if it even still exists)

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Don't point the finger at me, i'm not saying anything about "The Disney Difference" (if it even still exists)

I'm not, just continuing the discussion and spinning off your and quinmacc's post

 

[IzzyB]

Are you really suggesting you don't have to wait for security or to enter the parks at Disney? Seriously?

I will be honest with you, yes you wait for trams and monorails at Disney and that does delay things where at Universal you can walk in. However that is the only area that is slower at Disney. And if you go to any other park other than MK you don't even have to wait for transportation you have the ability to walk in and it is probably the same or less distance as walking from the parking garage to the park at Uni.

In my experience and I have gone to the parks a lot all different periods of time. Disney moves faster. At Universal you always wait at the ticket window, there is many times I have just walked up to a ticket window at Disney. Sea World by far has the longest ticket lines though. Security is way longer at Universal. Those metal detector areas can have massive crowds and take forever where Disney does random metal detector and the bag checks are not too long. The front gate is by far the biggest difference. With magic bands allowing more "turnstiles" open with less employees (one employee works 4) I very rarely wait in any kind of line going into Disney no matter what season or what time of day I am going. At most I may have 3 or 4 people in front of me. Universal and Sea World ALWAYS have a line to get thru the turnstile and if you pick the wrong line (like I did last time) it can even make the wait longer. The parking garage is another issue. It is much faster to park at Disney. Sea World depending on the day can be faster or slower, but is always faster than Universal. At Universal the parking garage seems to take FOREVER to park. I remember the one time it took 10 to 15 minutes from the ticket gate to actually parking the car. Then the metal detectors were crazy long and took forever to get thru there. We were meeting friends so I kept giving her updates which is why I remember it taking so long. We were going at 5 PM on a Saturday, so it is not like we were going first thing in the morning. Also, their parking people are not nearly as good at parking cars than at Disney. So many times it gets confusing and seems to delay it more.

So yes, in my personal experience getting from Parking Booth to inside park you wait in more lines and longer lines at Universal than at Disney. I would say Sea World is about equal with Universal. Disney by far handles the parking and ticket situation the best.

I will say Magic Kingdom is the one park at Disney where it takes the longest to get from car to park. So I will agree that you always have to depend on transportation and there can be long waits there at certain times. You almost always have to take the tram too. So if I had to pick a single park to say it takes the longest it would be MK, however after that would be the 2 Uni parks, then Sea World, then the 3 other Disney parks.

 

[Brian G.]

I hope we realize that TestTrack was just pointing out Mike's post making it seem it's only a "Universal problem", not that one or the other are faster.

And since we are on this topic.... It's hard to compare the entry to any of the 4 WDW parks to the entry to Universal since, as TestTrack later stated, Universal is the hub to 2 parks and a entertainment district. The 4 WDW parks have it's own dedicated parking.

 

[IzzyB]

I hope we realize that TestTrack was just pointing out Mike's post making it seem it's only a "Universal problem", not that one or the other are faster.

And since we are on this topic.... It's hard to compare the entry to any of the 4 WDW parks to the entry to Universal since, as TestTrack later stated, Universal is the hub to 2 parks and a entertainment district. The 4 WDW parks have it's own dedicated parking.

I agree with that. That they all have advantages and disadvantages and it is hard to compare them. I also agree Disney's system is not perfect and I complain every time I go to MK about how long it takes to get into the park. But as much as everyone here hates Magic Bands, they did fix the ticket turnstile issue, they are a breeze to get thru now vs. the other parks. Which was my original point.

 

[UNIrd]

Tickets: I definitely think Universal has the longest lines for tickets and guest services. Just horrendous. Followed by SeaWorld and then Disney. Disney's the winner on this one as their ticket booths are usually adequately staffed.

Security: I don't even remember SeaWorld security so the wait must have been extremely negligible. The crowd in front of Universal security in the parking garage can seem intimidating but it actually moves really fast. Disney's security actually seems to move the slowest and has the longest lines, but in their defense, they're checking a lot of strollers with crazy compartments, diaper bags, etc.

Park Entry: I think it's actually in order of attendance. Disney parks have longer lines than Universal parks which have longer lines than SeaWorld. It is what it is.

 

[Nick]

I agree with that. That they all have advantages and disadvantages and it is hard to compare them. I also agree Disney's system is not perfect and I complain every time I go to MK about how long it takes to get into the park. But as much as everyone here hates Magic Bands, they did fix the ticket turnstile issue, they are a breeze to get thru now vs. the other parks. Which was my original point.

Well, MagicBands didn't fix it, the new infrastructure did. The could've only spent money on the turnstiles, tap to pay stations and FP+ and I would have had no complaints with MM+. They just went wayyyyy overboard with all the other useless stuff.

That being said, I love my Haunted Mansion MB and pretty much forget about it after it's on.

 

[Nick]

Park Entry: I think it's actually in order of attendance. Disney parks have longer lines than Universal parks which have longer lines than SeaWorld. It is what it is.

Are you saying because MK has higher attendance the line is longer than to get into USF? Because that simply isn't true.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

I hope we realize that TestTrack was just pointing out Mike's post making it seem it's only a "Universal problem", not that one or the other are faster.

And since we are on this topic.... It's hard to compare the entry to any of the 4 WDW parks to the entry to Universal since, as TestTrack later stated, Universal is the hub to 2 parks and a entertainment district. The 4 WDW parks have it's own dedicated parking.

Exactly. All parks have their unique problems when it comes to entry. Cedar Point, UOR, WDW, and more have pinch points AND ways around them. For every UOR parking issues I have my "I just stay at the resorts!". For every "short" wait at security at Disney I've also seen long long lines. Boiling down a one minute interaction every few days, weeks, or months and extrapolating it out into a narrative doesn't do the discussion any do service. Let's talk about the actual effectiveness of security screenings, what the actual efficiency is of Disney's new entry methods vs UORs, and the benefits and shortcomings of parking lots vs garages.

Personally, in the past 20 or so years of going to parks I've only encountered two unacceptably long lines for entry for anything: CP AP preview nights lines and this past trip's ticket stations for the Hogwarts Express.

 

[Nick]

Exactly. All parks have their unique problems when it comes to entry. Cedar Point, UOR, WDW, and more have pinch points AND ways around them. For every UOR parking issues I have my "I just stay at the resorts!". For every "short" wait at security at Disney I've also seen long long lines. Boiling down a one minute interaction every few days, weeks, or months and extrapolating it out into a narrative doesn't do the discussion any do service. Let's talk about the actual effectiveness of security screenings, what the actual efficiency is of Disney's new entry methods vs UORs, and the benefits and shortcomings of parking lots vs garages.

Yup, in the grand scheme, each resort is very different and thus will have some things that are faster/slower. It's human nature to compare, but it doesn't mean it's a fair comparison.

 

[anihilnation]

Yesterday at Universal, some security lines had a baggage scanner, seems to work much faster than when they have to open bags. I didn't have bags, but there was no no bag line.

 

[Nick]

Yesterday at Universal, some security lines had a baggage scanner, seems to work much faster than when they have to open bags. I didn't have bags, but there was no no bag line.

I would personally love all parks to install a baggage scanner at the security gates. Not only would it make it easier on security, but it would be a big plus operations wise as it should speed up the process.