Universal Orlando Resort (USF, IOA, Epic) Discussion Thread

[thepoint4life23]

I think we would have a better understand how everything will work by next week. 

Your question is valid and I would also like to know. Its harder to leave my family and stand in a 30-45 min line why they might be doing something way more fun with out me. 

I looked at VIP tour pricing and that might be in your budget but not for me. 

[Zand]

2 hours ago, bejackso said:

quick question on express passes. i am going to epic on thursday 06/05 and friday 06/06, open to close both days. i have my tickets and trip all planned out. HOWEVER, i did not think to buy express passes until now, and i see they are all sold out.

1. will they be available to buy day of inside the park?

2. if not, and we are unable to get express passes, how big of a deal is this? will we still be able to hit most the rides? i don't care about riding every single thing, just want some of the biggies (stardust, ministry, monsters, maybe 1-2 more).

any advice/thoughts on rope drop strategy and getting around the park would be appreciated. i realize that's probably been spelled out in this thread already but i don't have time to comb through it all.

Someone else will have to answer about the express pass end of things. As for question #2 obviously the crowds could be much different when the park is officially open compared to preview, but I pretty comfortably got on everything except HP in about 7 hours when I was there last month. My 2 cents...

1. If you don't have early entry, save Nintendo World and Harry Potter for later. These two are your early entry lands and the lines will be massive by park opening. I would recommend going to Berk first and then Dark Universe.

2. If Nintendo and Potter haven't died down yet, usually a good time to ride Stardust Racers. When both sides are open that thing chews through people. Seems like the line never gets much longer than 30-40 minutes.

3. I think 2:00 is roughly the time that the lines get more bearable in Nintendo and Potter. The last couple days I've watched Ministry drop from a 4 hour line to a 2 hour line by mid afternoon. If you don't care that much about riding it I would recommend saving it for last because you never know how much of your day it is going to ruin if it keeps breaking down.

4. I got lucky on Minecart Madness by catching the singles line shortly after it reopened. Like Velocicoaster and Hagrid it moves very slowly and closes often. The regular line is often insane too. But if you catch the singles line right when it opens it can save you over an hour, and unlike Velocicoaster you can actually see the line once you're in it to judge for yourself.

Ultimately the park has 11 rides. Dragon Racer's Rally is a ride you can do elsewhere if the line looks long (and it usually is because the capacity isn't great). Fyre Drill is usually pretty short. Wing Gliders is usually 45-60 minutes which is why I recommend going there early. Monsters Unchained rarely has a huge line and moves fast. If you check the app a few times you should be able to hit it when the line is 20 minutes or less. Werewolf is hit or miss, again if you check the app you can probably grab a 15 minute line, or sometimes it can be an hour. Carousel never has a huge line. Mario Kart is insane early but usually under 45 minutes later in the day. Yoshi never has much of a line. Minecart you need to play the singles game or be prepared to wait a while. Stardust usually under 45 minutes. Realistically you can do all of the above in 6-7 hours unless they really pump people into the park after opening day. Then there's the wild card of Ministry if it's a must ride for you. 

[bejackso]

thank you zand! this is exactly the feedback i was looking for. for further clarification: the rides we would like to do are: stardust racers, ministry, monsters, mine cart madness, wing gliders, curse of the werewolf. the arcanus show, carousel, and mario kart would all be bonuses if we can get to em. anything other than those i dont care about.

 

also do you know what the hours will be for the park? i can't seem to find this anywhere. i am guessing 9am-10pm?

[Zand]

They do have the hours in the app...mostly 9-9 on weekdays including the days you'll be there. For some reason they're not clearly listed on the website. 9-9 is kind of lame for a new park seeing as IOA is open till 10 those days.

Since you have two consecutive days what I would do is try to get everything done on day 1 that isn't Ministry. If things go well maybe you'll still have time for Ministry at the end of the day and your day 2 would be much more leisurely. And if you don't have time then at least you will have ridden everything else you wanted so you won't have to really worry about them on day 2. But long lines, breakdowns, and real life get in the way sometimes so your approach may very well be different!

[bejackso]

got it, thanks. i saw the hours on the app are 10am-9pm (early admission 9am). we don't have early admission so i am hoping 10am-9pm both days will be enough to do everything. i also want to go to the rooftop bar in helios to check that out as a "must see" item.

[prozach626]

On 5/19/2025 at 10:22 AM, prozach626 said:

Additional question: Does the express pass save you enough time to be worth it? I want to ride every coaster once, but take as little time away from my family as possible. If we're still talking 30 minute express pass waits on the last Tuesday in July, I'll skip it for better and more important memories with the three of us.

Edit: My question is in reference to Islands of Adventure.

Crap. Sorry. My Express Pass question was about Islands of Adventure in July.

[Chiselphane]

We went to the last Epic preview day on the 19th.   They are NOT ready for full opening.   I know its a preview yadda yadda but only 2 of the rides that we were even able to ride were fully operational and I dont see that changing in 3 days.

 

On 5/19/2025 at 9:29 AM, bejackso said:

quick question on express passes. i am going to epic on thursday 06/05 and friday 06/06, open to close both days. i have my tickets and trip all planned out. HOWEVER, i did not think to buy express passes until now, and i see they are all sold out.

1. will they be available to buy day of inside the park?

2. if not, and we are unable to get express passes, how big of a deal is this? will we still be able to hit most the rides? i don't care about riding every single thing, just want some of the biggies (stardust, ministry, monsters, maybe 1-2 more).

any advice/thoughts on rope drop strategy and getting around the park would be appreciated. i realize that's probably been spelled out in this thread already but i don't have time to comb through it all.

There were places to buy express in the park but if it's already sold out then I wouldn't hold out much hope, but it's at least worth a try.   Unless some miracle occurs between now and then I would say express is a must if Ministry, Mario Kart, and Donkey Kong are on your list.   We didnt get to ride Ministry because it broke down before it even opened, opened back up hours later for about 30 minutes, then was broken the rest of the day.   MK's standby line is SLLOOOOOWWW but you could see Fastpass people breezing through.  DK is similar but not as slow as MK.

If you have early access, don't go to Nintendo World, go to Ministry and hope it opens on time.

Bring an umbrella, the sun was PUNISHING especially in Celestial Park.

[Zand]

So far today the lines have been far shorter than they were during preview. Even the Mario stuff is 15 mins or less. 

In other unsurprising news, Ministry opened to a 5 hour queue and then has been down for the last 3.5 hours or so.

[bejackso]

i wonder if the lines are short today because they limited capacity for opening day ONLY. curious to see how crowds are in the coming days/weeks.

in other news, express passes are indeed now on sale for when i will be there on 06/05 and 06/06 for a whopping $300 each. i'm not getting them..........yet.

[prozach626]

Anyone have any feedback about express pass question for my IOA July trip? I have no idea how much of a time saver it is. My fear is "wait less" means like an hour instead of 15 minutes. We plan to hit the park on a Tuesday. According to quick AI and search engine results Tuesdays are among the best days to visit.

[Zand]

I wish I could answer your question but I'd have to shoot myself before I went to Florida in July so I have no idea how the crowds stack up during the summer. Other times of year, on Tuesdays I've generally found most things to be a walk on depending on what time you get to them. Hagrid and Velocicoaster will probably be 1.5 hrs and 45 mins respectively. Water rides will probably be long. Usually almost everything else is very short. I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to get through the whole park without express on a Tuesday.

In Epic news...it's day 2 of regular operations. Ministry currently has a 1 hour line. I seriously am starting to think that they sold more tickets during preview than they're selling now. Fingers crossed it's still like this on June 2, I will have a blast that day if it is.

[prozach626]

^Thanks for the input!

[Chiselphane]

21 hours ago, Zand said:

I wish I could answer your question but I'd have to shoot myself before I went to Florida in July so I have no idea how the crowds stack up during the summer. Other times of year, on Tuesdays I've generally found most things to be a walk on depending on what time you get to them. Hagrid and Velocicoaster will probably be 1.5 hrs and 45 mins respectively. Water rides will probably be long. Usually almost everything else is very short. I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to get through the whole park without express on a Tuesday.

In Epic news...it's day 2 of regular operations. Ministry currently has a 1 hour line. I seriously am starting to think that they sold more tickets during preview than they're selling now. Fingers crossed it's still like this on June 2, I will have a blast that day if it is.

Yeah I am totally kicking myself for going during preview instead of open, but who could have predicted this turn of events.  I mean I'm glad I was wrong about them being 'ready', clearly they took in a lot of feedback (such is the state of the world that shocked is the response to a corporation learning a lesson or two and implementing it) but I can't help a twinge of bitterness, as I won't be able to get back until at best a year.  But then I remember the night ride I had on Stardust Racers and I feel better again.   It'll be interesting to see how well things scale up as attendance rises though.

There's talk that they've fixed Ministry by removing a drop move towards the end of a ride.  People who have ridden it prior to 5/23 reporting it's just skipping that movement during its' scene

[tndank]

Hagrida added an Express line today. 

[Zand]

Yup, and currently Hagrid has a longer line than Ministry.

I'm glad I'm not in love with it...will be down there this weekend and it doesn't bother me to skip when it has an insane line. If I can ride Velocicoaster 3 times in the time it takes to wait for Hagrid once, I know what I'll be doing.

[Zand]

Adding express to Hagrid seems to be going swimmingly.

 

Edit: in the past 50 minutes it has apparently gone down to 1.5 hours. That pretty cool that they went through 2.75 hours of line in 50 minutes and no one else got in!

 

Edit edit: I'm currently at Epic Universe and it's unfortunately one of the busier days it's had so far. I'm in line for Ministry and...

...it's not the longest line in the park. I haven't seen that happen yet. Did I walk into some sort of miracle?

[Zand]

Wanted to post some thoughts from my 2nd trip to Epic and first since the park officially opened. For future reference, today was a Monday and the general consensus amongst regular park-goers is that today was on the busier side for Epic.

Despite staying on property at Aventura I decided not to get up early for early entry and I'm glad I made that decision. Apparently the security line was a mile long before they opened and then they didn't bother checking for hotel reservations to get into the lands so everyone was able to get in. Therefore lines in Nintendo immediately went over 75 minutes and Ministry was over 3 hours within 15 minutes of opening. I would've been pretty pissed if I got up before 7 to experience that.

We ended up hopping on the bus right at 10:30 and in the park around 10:50. After getting shut out on Ministry last trip, that was my #1 goal today. Stopped at the French cafe thing on the way in for a crepe for breakfast which was pretty good, nothing spectacular. Hopped into line for Ministry right at 11:50 which was posting a 150 minute wait. We were sent into the outdoor section but only for 5-10 minutes before making our way to the Floo network. The queue is jaw dropping, there's no other way to put it. Our wait ended up being about 1:45-1:50 and I don't think there were any breakdowns. If you're trying to judge times, I would say once you're through the Floo network it's going to take you 1.5-2 hours. And then add to that with any of the queue outside being used.

The ride itself is absolutely one of the best dark rides I've ever ridden, a nice blend of technology and storyline. Not gonna throw out tons of spoilers here. To me it was worth the wait once for sure. If it was 3+ hours? Maybe not. But for the line it had today it definitely met expectations. Thankful to have finally ridden it and for not having to deal with any virtual queue systems to do so. Be patient with this, the line will be insane right from the get go. But it usually comes down a bit midday. Just be careful if you want to save it for later, they capped the line just before 7:00 today. I thought waiting in the a/c during the midday sun was the best choice and my plan worked very well.

Stardust Racers is incredible with the dueling aspect which I didn't get to experience. Night rides are mind blowing. They kept it open an extra hour tonight which was terrific of them to do. They got each side running 3 trains later in the day and the line does not stop moving when they do that. The green side is indeed very slightly more intense than the yellow side, but you can often get on in about 3 less ride cycles on the yellow side because everyone chooses green. I think I still cast my preference to Velocicoaster simply because it has the mosasaurus roll which is my favorite element of all time, but I absolutely understand how people can put this ahead. It hits from beginning to end and is frankly one of the best ejector air machines ever built. This ride is a home run and extremely rerideable. I can't say enough good things about it. 

Nintendo World was a circus. I love hanging out in there but this area badly needs that rumored expansion to happen asap. Rode Yoshi but even that was 30 minutes for a short ride. Mario Kart and Mine Cart almost never dropped below 2 hours today.

Monsters Unchained was a lot of fun the 2nd time around. I think the first time my expectations were a little unrealistic. I had a great time on it tonight, the line was very short and fast moving. The ride was great and if anything wasn't working than I couldn't care to notice. Definitely my 3rd favorite ride in the park. Skipped the spinner as it never really got below an hour.

Hiccup was a quick 25 minute wait around 6:30 and was fun as always. The restraints blow and I wish they would've done a little better with that. But the ride it zippy and fun and the theming is adorable. Also viewed Untrainable Dragon which is a bit short but a lot of run. Go check it out!

Want to point out two negative experiences from today. First of which was Pizza Moon. Went in there around 4:00. Ordered a Space Cowboy which is essentially BBQ chicken pizza. People next to us sat down 5 minutes later and they had their two pizzas and a salad before we got ours even though the app said our pizza was ready. After about 20 minutes we asked a staff member who was like "oh those take extra long to make but it will be out soon!" (then why would the app say it's ready)...so ok. The people next to us are their pizza, left, and the next seating sat down and ordered and still no pizza for us. It was 45 minutes in at this point so I asked again and this time the waiter sent over a manager who had a terrible attitude and made us feel like shit for even asking about it. But he radioed something in and a few minutes later our pizza finally came over just as the people next to us (keep in mind this was the SECOND seating at that table after we ordered) got their meal. 

The pizza was very good. I still have no idea why it took almost an hour. And some of the staff members here need to remove the stick from their ass when people ask about something. Something obviously happened with our pizza. Just apologize and say you're working on it instead of being a complete jackass about it, and don't gaslight me with "oh that one takes longer" when the app clearly showed that it was done and ready. 

2nd negative experience was that goddamn Carousel. We got in line at 7:55 with a posted 15 minute line and a couple switchbacks full. Just after getting in it changed to 25 minutes, understandable because it was one of 3 rides actually open during a small shower that passed through. At 8:45 I saw Stardust running again and finally bailed after being 50 minutes into a 15 minute line and still being multiple cycles away from riding. They were taking at least 7/8ths of each cycle from Fastpass. And the load times on this are atrocious, usually 5+ minutes. The ops are just obscenely bad on this. How can you screw up the ops on a Carousel?

All in all definitely a fun day but I'm done with this place till they add it to the annual pass. It's a gorgeous park with 3 great rides and a few other very good rides, but it needs a lot more to keep up with the crowds it is going to get when they open up to max capacity. I shudder to think of how long the lines will be when they allow 100% capacity. Even if it was dead, I'd still rather be at IOA. In a few years this park may very well eclipse IOA but I don't think it's close right now. It's gorgeous and especially stunning at night, but the lack of shade is draining during the day.

[prozach626]

You think it's possible to hit every coaster in a couple hours by myself with the express pass if I get there at park opening? I was thinking about briefly bailing on the family during a pool and rest day. I'm only interested in the roller coasters.

[Zand]

1 hour ago, prozach626 said:

You think it's possible to hit every coaster in a couple hours by myself with the express pass if I get there at park opening? I was thinking about briefly bailing on the family during a pool and rest day. I'm only interested in the roller coasters.

If you're staying on property I would go right to Mine Cart for early entry. If not then you might be screwed (unless what they did yesterday is the new norm and now everyone can go right in for early entry). Mine Cart will immediately have a 1-2 hour line and usually doesn't get any shorter all day. Also it's not on express.

You won't have any problem getting the other 3.

[teacherkim]

Thanks for the review. Since we don't have to work on a school schedule anymore we are going the first week in October for the bonus of hitting HHN and the vain hope that the worst of the kinks will be worked out and hopefully lower crowds that time of year. How did you like Aventura? We have always only stayed at Royal Pacific but since the express won't work at Epic and I have to pay for two rooms I opted to try one of the more affordable options. Of course then they go and add express to Hagrids, lol.

[Zand]

2 hours ago, teacherkim said:

Thanks for the review. Since we don't have to work on a school schedule anymore we are going the first week in October for the bonus of hitting HHN and the vain hope that the worst of the kinks will be worked out and hopefully lower crowds that time of year. How did you like Aventura? We have always only stayed at Royal Pacific but since the express won't work at Epic and I have to pay for two rooms I opted to try one of the more affordable options. Of course then they go and add express to Hagrids, lol.

I love Aventura, it's my go-to. It's a bit more adult orientated than most hotels. Laid back and quiet and the bar on the roof is really neat. I like how everything is in a small footprint and you don't have to walk a mile to get to your room. No long lines for the bus. And best of all the price is usually not bad, often $150-200.

[teacherkim]

13 minutes ago, Zand said:

I love Aventura, it's my go-to. It's a bit more adult orientated than most hotels. Laid back and quiet and the bar on the roof is really neat. I like how everything is in a small footprint and you don't have to walk a mile to get to your room. No long lines for the bus. And best of all the price is usually not bad, often $150-200.

Yeah we got a really great price on it and I know we can just walk next door to Sapphire Falls to catch the boat to CW so that's actually what we were hoping for on this trip and sounds like it will suit us well. I always thought RP was worth it for that express and I'll probably miss it, but now that we are in a situation where sharing a room isn't ideal double the price isn't always an option. Particularly since I rented some DVC points and we're spending a couple of nights at AK Lodge before we hit Universal, I just always wanted to stay in a savanna view room and something had to give financially on this trip.

[jedimaster1227]

As the Halloween Horror Nights season approaches, Universal Destinations and Experiences has started to release news on some of the offerings which will be found at this year's event...

https://www.ign.com/articles/universal-studios-halloween-horror-nights-2025-to-feature-the-first-ever-fallout-haunted-house 

IGN can exclusively reveal that Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights in both Orlando and Hollywood will be getting a new haunted house based on Prime Video’s Fallout series and that HHN’s Five Night’s at Freddy’s experience will be based on the movie, the latter of which will be brought to life with the help of the legendary Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, who also did the animatronics for the film.

While we don’t know much more about the Five Nights at Freddy’s experience, Fallout’s haunted house will open on August 29 at Universal Orlando Resort and on September 4 at Universal Studios Hollywood, and it will allow fans to relive the greatest moments from Fallout’s first season and more.

Guests will first enter Vault 33 and follow Lucy LacLean as she tries to escape a bloody massacre while also learning of an “evil hidden secret.” The journey will then take guests outside the vault and into the Wasteland, where they will need to dodge attacks from both Scavengers, Raiders, and even mutated cockroaches known as RAD Roaches. Throughout the trek through the Wasteland, guests will visit the Super Duper Mart, encounter the Ghoul, and even meet Maximus and his massive T-60 armor.

To learn more about this exciting and terrifying trip to the nuclear wasteland, we had the chance to speak to John Murdy, Creative Director / Executive Producer at Universal Studios Hollywood, and Matthew Flood, Senior Show Director at Universal Orlando Resort, for IGN Live. Among other things, these big fans of Fallout shared how they and the team are doing all they can to make this the best Fallout experience ever.

“As you go through these environments, we want fans to say, ‘I recognize this, I'm in a Fallout vault. How cool is that?!’ Flood said. “Where else are you going to get to say that you walked through a Fallout vault and then into the Wasteland and saw ghouls?

“And you can see and understand what the world is just by what you pass, including the bodies when Lucy first exits the vault. That type of thing is really good for us in Halloween Horror Nights and… yes, it’s gruesome, which is what our fans want at Halloween Horror Nights. It’s also scary and provides great characters, good monsters, all the mutated creatures, and the ghouls. That’s ripe for the picking when it comes to Halloween Horror Nights.”

Fallout also offers the team a chance to do something they’ve never done before.

“Fallout is kind of retro futuristic, and a lot of the aesthetics of it are very 1950s,” Murdy said. “The fact that we get to deal with the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust is very exciting for us since we've never done anything like that at HHN before. It’s like tapping into a whole different realm of horror.”

What’s also interesting is that Hollywood and Orlando will each have unique aspects to their Fallout experience, including for the T-60 armor.

“It's massive,” Murdy said of the T-60 Armor. “We work really closely with the people who are producing Fallout, and they've shared an incredible number of assets with us. We've done a lot of really big stuff over the years with Horror Nights, but this has got to be, I think, one of the biggest things we've ever had to do. We also thought it’d be cool if each park had a lot in common but also some differences. So, for Hollywood, the Power Armor is a full animatronic; we’re doing it as a fully animated figure.”

“In Orlando, we do have kind of a final battle moment,” Flood added. “I’m not going to reveal too much, but yes, T-60s will be part of that battle. We also got a chance to fit in Filly, and I think having a moment to get a real-life Fallout battle happening there is pretty cool.”

Murdy also teased that each Fallout house will have its own “creature takes,” and Hollywood’s will be the horrifying Yao Guai Bear.

With ghouls and mutated bears and murderous scavengers abound, this haunted house is meant to be a chaotic thing, but Flood, Murdy, and the team have taken great care to have it be more than just non-stop terror. Murdy told us that his writing treatments for this Fallout experience averaged 100 pages, which feature both a narrative guide and a technical breakdown from start to finish.

“It's that detailed because we need to spell it all out for our team so they know exactly what to create,” Murdy said. “And what Horror Nights is known for is our attention to detail. And what we're aiming for alongside the casual guest is the uber fan. We want to have so many different Easter Eggs that certain people won't particularly notice, but that the real hardcore fans of the video game and the series will.”

Flood teased that there is a Pip-Boy they’ve been working on that will be a treat to find, and he teased that guests should look in all the windows of the storefronts or sides of buildings, as there will be “little things scattered around.”

“If you're here for a second or third time through the house, and you get a chance to glance down when you're not totally terrified, you can see a lot of those Easter eggs existing throughout the house,” Flood said.

Lastly, we asked what the pair what they were most excited about bringing to life for Hollywood Horror Nights.

“For me, it was obviously the Wasteland,” Murdy said. “It is fun to go from the vaults where you're in a claustrophobic environment to then kind of open it up into the Wasteland. However, when I think of it purely from what Horror Nights delivers, it’s Super Duper Mart.”

Speaking of exciting fictional businesses, we were able to get one more exciting quote for the Five Nights at Freddy’s experience at this year’s Hollywood Horror Nights, and it’s making the wait for more details even worse!

“When you experience this, it is literally like living in the movie,” Murdy said.

 

https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/universal-halloween-horror-nights-five-nights-at-freddys-2025 

Every year, horror fans from around the world flock to Hollywood and Orlando for Universal's Halloween Horror Nights, a fall festival of fear that always features some of your favorite monsters from across pop culture. Every year the attractions pack in tons of new horror fun, and every year fans have their own special wish list of which properties will get haunted houses this time around. 

Well, Five Nights at Freddy's fans, this one's for you.

Universal announced over the weekend, via the official Halloween Horror Nights account on X (formerly Twitter), that FNaF will get its own haunted house during this year's festivities, and the attraction will be coming to both Hollywood and Orlando versions of the Horror Nights experience. So whichever coast you visit, Freddy Fazbear and all his friends will be waiting.

Sadly, we don't have any more details yet, but the post does promise that Five Nights at Freddy's will be presented in "a whole new way" at this year's Halloween Horror Nights, so fans of the franchise will definitely want to keep their eyes out for more news, especially since there's a new movie on the horizon. 

Beginning with the original video game from Scott Cawthon, which released in the summer of 2014, Five Nights at Freddy's has spent the last decade expanding into a mega-popular horror brand that features everything from numerous video game sequels and spinoffs to a series of books to loads of merch. In 2023, the franchise reached a whole new fandom when the first Five Nights at Freddy's movie, starring Josh Hutcherson and Matthew Lillard, landed in theaters and on Peacock. 

And the mayhem continues in 2025. Universal and Blumhouse Productions announced last year that Five Nights at Freddy's 2 would hit theaters December 5, just weeks after Halloween, and back in April we got a first look at the teaser trailer for the new film, which features returning cast members Hutcherson, Lillard, Elizabeth Lail, and Piper Rubio, along with new cast members like Skeet Ulrich, Wayne Knight, and Mckenna Grace. 

Halloween Horror Nights returns to Universal Parks this fall. 

[jedimaster1227]

The Universal Orlando Resort has quietly confirmed that the end is near for Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit to make way for a new experience. The coaster will close on August 18th, 2025, so guests have only a few months left to take in the thrills of this unique attraction.

https://www.universalorlando.com/web/en/us/things-to-do/rides-attractions/hollywood-rip-ride-rockit 

Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit will permanently close on August 18, 2025 to make way for a new experience. More details will be available at a later date.

[Zand]

I did take what will likely be my last Rockit ride on Tuesday night and, in fitting fashion, it was a certified shitshow! They were only running 3 trains and for some reason the trains kept setting up on the last 3 brake runs even without a train in the station. We got stuck on the 2nd to last brake run for a minute or two and could see a train on the brakes in front of us. Also my last ride was in row 4 which is the worst row on the ride because it's rough as shit and for some reason the crotch molds seem to protrude backwards more in this row than the others and yeah...such a fitting last ride. I'll kind of miss it and wondering why there's so many songs about rainbows, but I can't wait to see how good the replacement coaster is bound to be. Rest in pieces!

I also had back-to-back lemon rides on Spiderman which was interesting. The first time through we got to the gravity ray section and then the effects and sound stop and the car kept stopping and then slowly meandering to each scene. Most of them were either quiet or no sound at all and the car awkwardly listed to the left, and then the car started playing sounds from 4 scenes prior and...yeah. The ride ops told us to go through the child swap line and ride again. The second time around it made it all the way to the final drop scene but then it did it again. I've ridden this thing a ton and it's usually flawless so it's interesting to get a couple technical difficulty rides.

Lastly, one of my fears everytime I ride Velocicoaster on a showery day is that it'll be sunny when I walk in and then after 20 minutes of being cut-off from the outside world things will drastically change by the time I get on the ride. This time around I got on the ride and it was fine, but I started feeling a few sprinkles going up the top hat. When we hit the brake run the skies opened up and because they were running all 4 trains we had the pleasure of sitting on the brake run for a good two minutes with no escaping the deluge. And naturally the firehouse shut off just as the brakes released and we rolled into the station.