Universal-WWOHP Passholder Event... Sheesh!

[ka8911]

Hey everyone,

Just thought I'd post my little complaint here. So, my family and I live in Tampa, FL and we have been passholders at Universal/Islands for 7 years now. We have been very loyal customers and spent a lot of good money there. I was starting to wonder if they were ever going to have a passholder event for the WW.

 

Imagine my excitement this evening as I found a fancy looking card in the mail that read (in the classic Harry Potter font) "After Hours Passholder Event- The Wizarding World of Harry Potter." "FFFFIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNAAAAAAAALLLLYYY!!!!!" I thought!! I was teaming with excitement as I read- "To mark the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 movie, we invite you to attend an Annual Passholder event in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Islands of Adventure.- Saturday, November 20, 2010 8pm-10pm... Space is limited... Premier and Preffered Passholders must RSVP..."

 

Great, I thought. I wasn't worried at all about the limited space... I figured that if I just got the letter today, and I live but an hour away, the registration must have just opened today as well... Boy was I wrong...

 

Once my father got home from work (around 8pm) I ran it by him and he was just as excited as I was. I ran to the computer and entered in the web address from the card... A wonderful, exciting page came up about the event. I entered in my passholder information and pressed enter...

 

Here's what came up...

 

"This event has reached capacity... We apologize for any inconvinience. Please check universalorlando.com/annualpass for other exciting passholder benefits and updates."....................... WTF??? Is this some kind of joke? I get an invitation to this event when it's already SOLD OUT?? Where's the logic in that? I would expect better treatment after 7 years of continued service to this place!!

 

I then searched the web and found that registration had opened 8 days ago. Once again... WTF??? I recieved no email notification (and I'm on the passholder email list), no phone call, and I just got the card in the mail today! Was I expected to somehow telekinetically know that there was a passholder event?? My A$$!!

 

So I'm not too happy with Universal right now...

 

Thanks for reading,

Andy "Universal really let me down on this one" McEwen

[MrMorgan]

Wow, I can totally understand why that would be frustrating! What a bummer! If you do send some kind of note to "complain" to the park, it has been my experience that you always have a better chance of getting what you want if you are actually nice. You may be asking yourself "How can I complain in a nice way?". Well, just put yourself in the shoes of the person who may or may not be able to get you into the event. Wouldn't you much rather help someone who was kind, reasonable, and explanatory than someone who was whiny and rude? I'm not saying YOU are because I don't know you, of course, but from my park experience, I have noticed so many times people standing at Guest Relations and totally whining and b-itching. I always think, "Who's gonna want to help those people???"

Anyways, If I were you, I would write a letter to the park with the subject "Guest Relations: Harry Potter Passholder Event", (or something similar). Begin the letter talking about how much you love the park, how much time you've spent there as a passholder, and maybe add some fun memory of how much you and your dad enjoyed riding "Forbidden Journey" for the first time and how cool you think it is. Keep the tone very light and personable. Then, explain how excited you were to get the invite for the event, and that your dad was looking forward to taking you, and how suprising it was to find out that the event was already booked out even though you tried to register the same day you got the mail. I would include the fact that you found out registration started more than a week before you got the mail, but keep it light and not whiny. Then, to close, I would ask them for some advice on how to make sure you are one of the first to know about the next event, and that if there is any possible way to still get into the current event; or onto a possible waiting list for it? Then, I think you've done everything you can. Who knows, someone in Guest Relations might be able to help you. If and when you get a reply, be sure to note if the letter comes from an actual person with a name, or if it is a general letter from the department. If there is an actual persons name at the bottom, it might not hurt to try and call to actually talk to that person a few days later to say "Thank You" for replying, and then ask again in a funny way if there isn't maybe a possibilty that you can still come

 

Wow, that turned out to be a long response! Hope I could help!

 

By the way, what did you think of Forbidden Journey? I was a little disappointed and still think Spiderman works better. It's definitely fun though!

[BeemerBoy]

If you do send some kind of note to "complain" to the park, it has been my experience that you always have a better chance of getting what you want if you are actually nice.

Excellent advice for any situation.

[dougstanton]

While I can't speak for the mailer, I got an email from Universal about this event well over a week ago. You may want to check your spam settings to make sure you are getting all of the emails. Occasionally my emails from monthly newsletters like Universal get sent to spam.

[jarmor]

Personally I knew about it for a while now but im not going. I dont see whats special about it. 2 extra hours to be in the area? I never had a congestion problem so thats not a selling point for me.

[robbalvey]

While I can't speak for the mailer, I got an email from Universal about this event well over a week ago. You may want to check your spam settings to make sure you are getting all of the emails. Occasionally my emails from monthly newsletters like Universal get sent to spam.

Agreed. I actually heard about this event at least a week ago as well.

 

I'll be honest, as someone that runs a business that does a lot of "email notification" we'll get a lot of people who will be all "How can I opt out of the newsletter" then it's the SAME people who complain when they didn't hear about something and missed out.

 

I know it might not be what you want to hear, but if it turns out the park did in fact sent out email notifications in a timely manner, and for some reason you didn't get one either due to spam settings or an incorrect email address, or just the fact that some ISP's are slow, you really can't fault the park *that* much.

 

When you have hundreds of thousands of customers, it's impossible to cater to each one personally.

 

--Robb

[ka8911]

Mr.Morgan,

Excellent advice, this is always the best thing to do in a situation like this. I already sent them a nice email. I understand that if I want respect from someone, I must show respect first. (I've been next in line behind the guy shouting at the poor customer service girl... Oh boy!) I was just blowing off some steam last night... Haha.

 

As for the Forbidden Journey, when I first rode it during technical rehearsal, I was amazed. I'm real big on the technilogical stuff on these rides, so I was astonished by the KUKA arms; and once I figured out the screen turntables I couldn't get over how ingenious they were. So my first few rides that day I really loved, especially as I started to look and see all the behind the scenes stuff.

 

My next visit I was much less impressed. I realized a lot of things now that the initial excitement had died down. I realized "Hey it's cool that I can see the behind the scenes stuff and see the KUKA arm next to me but.... I'm not really supposed to see that." And you see the arm next to you A LOT! I also found the projection scenes were very blurry and there was somthing just generally "off" with them. I think maybe the foreground (Harry and friends on their broomsticks) and the background (Hogwarts and what not) weren't synched up quite right. Whatever it was it made the projection "strange." It also seems to be what makes a lot of people dizzy and sick on the ride. I also found that the story.... well, there wasn't one. It was just a mishmash of "experiences" from the Potter movies. It moved along way to quickly and made for one disorganized mess of a ride. And then at the end a lame flat projection of Harry and friends tells us that we somehow did an honorable job and won something... Okay?

 

In the end I think the ride is still very fun and a good experience overall. I do fantasize over "What if Disney had done it?" Haha, but as Universal's standards go, this is a great ride. I do think spiderman is better as an overall ride with a story that's actually there. My favorite dark ride is still definitely Indy @ Disneyland, but that's a whole different ball park!

[ka8911]

Robb,

I should have checked to see if anyone else got an email for the event. I usually get the newsletter from Universal, I'm trying to figure out why I didn't get this one. I checked my settings and junk box, nothing wrong there. As I said in the post above^, I was blowing off a little steam when I posted this last night. I soon composed myself and wrote a friendly email to customer service. I didn't blame them for the email, but asked them if I had somehow been withdrawn from the email list. Heck, for all I know maybe I accidentally did it without realizing. If I did I asked them how I could get myself back on. I am certainly not the kind to b*tch at customer service, they get enough b*tching as it is!

[jarmor]

ka8911, I would also suggest (and this is for anyone) that if you have a pass for a park its good to find a good fan site for that park as well. I would suggest http://www.orlandounited.com/forums/forum.php for things to do with universal orlando. If it weren't for that site I wouldn't have known as much about the park and the pass options as I do and did for my trips there.