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

P. 625: Harry Potter Ministry of Magic revealed!

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^I was not trying to downplay your point. I was actually trying to strengthen it. I know you have been there, but I distinctly remember being told to completely empty my pockets on Karnan.

Yes, right before you BOARDED THE TRAIN, not before you got in line. OMG. Please just stop talking. You're not strengthening any point, you're making it dumber. Please stop.

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- The fact that if there is a long line (and I've often seen Hulk or Rockit with a 45 minute line) you can't bring your phone in line with you to pre-occupy yourself with! Name another park in the entire world that does this. I'll bet you can't. You know why? BECAUSE IT'S STUPID!!! That's why!

Six Flags Great Adventure does. They have people standing in front of the queue preventing guests from even getting in the queue if they have anything in their pockets, and they also have security pull people back out of line if they sneak a phone through that checkpoint and have a phone out in the queue. I personally witnessed this happen in the queue for El Toro; the guest was pulled out of line, told to go to the kiosk, put their phone in a fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo, and re-enter the queue at the very beginning again. Bonus: The park actually charges guests to use that fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo.

I rode El Toro last year and this never happened. If that is new this year then that's equally as stupid as Universal's policy and that would unfortunately cause me to ride El Toro less frequently.

Edited by robbalvey
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I know a park with ridiculous operations and the strictest loose articles policy known to man.... Fuji Q. I mean I once got unlocked to put a small tissue in the fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo I didn't even realize was there myself and had to put a watch in the fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo to be replaced by an even larger band.

Right. But this happens IN THE STATION. My whole point is that I cannot think of another park or have witnessed any other park that forces you to put all your stuff into a locker

 

BEFORE YOU GET IN LINE.

 

There are many parks that make you empty your pockets right before you get on a ride. But I have yet to experience at any other park except for Universal that makes you empty your pockets and go through a metal detector

 

BEFORE YOU GET IN LINE.

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I rode El Toro last year and this never happened. If that is new this year then that's equally as stupid as Universal's policy and that would unfortunately cause me to ride El Toro less frequently.

 

Yea, this policy is new to this year. It's not just on El Toro, either; Joker and Kingda Ka each have similar rules. They station security guards outside of each entrance in order to check and direct people to the lockers. Zippered pockets are no good, either, they want nothing in your pockets. My brother and I have just walked past the coasters and not ridden them on a few of our visits as a result. It's really unfortunate and is a major step backwards for the park IMO.

 

 

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^ Ugh... Well, just like Hulk and Rockit, those are two rides I won't be riding at Great Adventure during my next visit, sadly. I absolutely REFUSE to go on any ride that makes me put EVERYTHING in a locker and then stand in line. I have secure pockets with either a zip or button pouch. I've been carrying my wallet, keys, etc on rides since I can remember without any issue. If a park wants to FORCE me to have a more inconvenient experience in line waiting for a ride, then I choose not to ride.

 

I will gladly remove those small items out of my pocket and place them off to the side before I BOARD A TRAIN, and I will more than happily pay for a locker to put a larger item like a backpack, etc, but if I'm going to stand in a long line for a ride, and I cannot have my phone to use for social media, taking pictures or video, etc, seriously, I won't be riding El Toro on my next visit to Great Adventure.

Edited by robbalvey
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I know a park with ridiculous operations and the strictest loose articles policy known to man.... Fuji Q. I mean I once got unlocked to put a small tissue in the fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo I didn't even realize was there myself and had to put a watch in the fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo to be replaced by an even larger band.

Right. But this happens IN THE STATION. My whole point is that I cannot think of another park or have witnessed any other park that forces you to put all your stuff into a fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo

 

BEFORE YOU GET IN LINE.

 

There are many parks that make you empty your pockets right before you get on a ride. But I have yet to experience at any other park except for Universal that makes you empty your pockets and go through a metal detector

 

BEFORE YOU GET IN LINE.

 

Yea, that was my point. That if even a park like Fuji Q with a super strict loose items policy can let me keep my phone in line, I don't know why USO can't.

Edited by Garet
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Forgive me if it's been brought up but have they ever given a justification for the policy? Logically I would think the intent is to increase throughput, we've all seen people floundering at removing their stuff at the station, but applying logic to Universal's decisions of late is probably not a winning strategy. I do get there's always THAT PERSON who has shit flying out their pockets but it just seems punishing to people with a modicum of intelligence.

 

On my most recent visit there a few months ago, there was a guy loudly arguing with the Dragon Challenge detector attendant about how his phone was in a zippered pocket. I actually had forgotten to put mine away too so I turned back before dealing with it and good grief that was a LONG walk back to the lockers from where they have the detector set up. And then allll the way back up the line again. Never mind there was a constant stream of foot traffic from all the people being turned back. Never mind that DC's storage area is (was) the worst arrangement in the park, IMO.

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Forgive me if it's been brought up but have they ever given a justification for the policy?

 

Justification? Universal thinks the GP does not have the time or energy to be responsible, so the parks will take charge instead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or so I think. Would be nice if an employee could shed some light on this.

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I do get there's always THAT PERSON who has shit flying out their pockets but it just seems punishing to people with a modicum of intelligence.

THIS!!! THIS RIGHT HERE!!!! (The highlighted part in your post!)

 

I think if I were to sum it all up, it really comes down to that. Punish the people that are morons and do stupid things. Don't punish the people who are smart and come to parks with their stuff obviously secured. I think that really is my biggest frustration with policies like this. It's as though the parks are saying "Well, in order to come up with the best solution, let's just treat EVERYONE like they are criminals."

 

I'm sorry, I don't pay money to go to a place to be treated like that.

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Just chiming in a bit on my experiences last year with El Toro because I went to the park so many times and I witnessed so many people on the ride take out their cell phones. I have ended up just sitting towards the front of the train lately because I got tired of covering my face up in the back of the train cause I could see some selfish moron with their cell phone out a bunch of times. At least if I'm in the first few rows it lessens the odds of this happening plus I can actually yell at the people to put it away.

 

The park was sued last year because someone said they were blinded in one eye from a cell phone hitting them on El Toro. I think thats the major reason the park put this policy in for this year but it's still half assed because I've seen people with their phones out this year as well on the ride and I've easily been able to walk into the line with stuff in my zippered pockets just by telling the guard I didn't have anything.

 

I don't like the current policy but it's becoming a real problem because some of these people are just selfish morons that only care about themselves and taking shitty videos on the ride. Personally I would like to see stiffer penalties for people being caught with their phones out on the rides, from what I've seen and read the park doesn't really do anything. These people should be thrown out and banned for a few years. Maybe if the parks would start setting examples out of people it would wake some of these idiots up.

 

It's a shitty situation and I agree I don't like paying money to go to a park just to be treated like I'm an irresponsible moron but I just don't know how you fix it since there are always going to be stupid people.

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There's a seemingly easy way to improve it on both rides. Both rides have queue sections leading up to the stations beyond the Flash Pass merge point that are immediately adjacent to the exit path. Wand people there, put lockers there then you kill two birds with one stone.

 

1) You don't need as many lockers since the only people who will need one are people currently in the station and on the ride. You won't need capacity for everyone in the queue (because neither ride has enough lockers and when Fright Fest gets really busy it'll be a disaster).

 

2) People will only be without their phones for about 5 minutes tops before boarding a train (unless they wait for the front I guess) and nobody will care.

 

Sorry to go off topic and talk about Great Adventure but it would apply at Universal too. People would be far less annoyed by this if you had all of your stuff for the duration of the queue and only had to put your crap in a locker a couple of minutes before you actually board the train.

 

But yeah, I've seen El Toro cease operation for a solid 30 minutes while maintenance went to go get a phone off of the track that landed right on the running rail, I've seen countless phones fly out on Kingda Ka's camelback and go flying straight into the queue area at high speed before exploding onto the concrete (thankfully people were paying attention and saw it coming). People are insufferable idiots and I understand why the park is doing it, I just wish they came up with a way to make it less invasive and put the lockers at the end of the queue right before you actually board the train.

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Hey everyone! I’m going to Horror Nights this coming Wednesday, and it will be my first time! Do you guys have any tips on how to get to most of the houses and still get on the available rides? Also, can you enter the park before the stated time of 6:30? I’m just wondering if it is like Mickey’s Not So Scary where you can enter at 4:00 but the ticket says 7:00. Thanks in advance.

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And for sure they do not wish to carry the dubious honor of being the first park to scrap not one but two classic B&M inverts, right? Really, I think Universal needs the money to build whatever will be replacing Dueling Dragons. Why else would they scrap a functional B&M invert?

 

Because if I'm not mistaken, behind Hulk, DD had one of the highest operating times of any B&M in the world? And with that much operating time comes a highly fatigued machine that was mostly only designed to operate for a certain lifetime.

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And for sure they do not wish to carry the dubious honor of being the first park to scrap not one but two classic B&M inverts, right? Really, I think Universal needs the money to build whatever will be replacing Dueling Dragons. Why else would they scrap a functional B&M invert?

 

Because if I'm not mistaken, behind Hulk, DD had one of the highest operating times of any B&M in the world? And with that much operating time comes a highly fatigued machine that was mostly only designed to operate for a certain lifetime.

 

The problem is that people do not seem to understand the decisions were made for business reasons. The company does not care about enthusiasts or about any history related to the rides. All that matters is if the rides are going to drive ticket sales, annual passes, merchandise etc. It makes no difference if the rides were in good enough shape for another 20 years or even another 50 years.

 

Why scrap a functional B&M invert? Because they care more about the returns from a possible replacement then the existing ride. Why scrap it instead of selling it? Likely because they do not want another park to get what used to be a signature ride. Also used rides are often sold for a fraction of the original cost, the small return is just not worth it to a company like Universal.

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Why scrap a functional B&M invert? Because they care more about the returns from a possible replacement then the existing ride. Why scrap it instead of selling it? Likely because they do not want another park to get what used to be a signature ride. Also used rides are often sold for a fraction of the original cost, the small return is just not worth it to a company like Universal.

 

Seriously? If a park wanted the same ride they could ask B&M to manufacture it.

 

Why scrap it? manpower and time

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Seems the ride is being taken apart very carefully for use at another park.

Visible from Interstate 4, too? Yee-owch.

 

It's the equivalent of ancient warriors sticking the heads of their defeated enemies on spikes in order to send a message. It's Universal's message to coaster enthusiasts.

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Don't worry, the clumsy contractors have simply scuffed the track a little when taking it down. It just needs a bit of a touch-up, and we'll be seeing Dragon's Challenge at another park soon, right? RIGHT?!

 

 

To be honest as soon as they announced it was closing I knew we'd never see the ride again, even if it had more years in it yet. I think Universal are too narcissistic to let anybody else have it. It says something that now I'm looking to Epcot for my next Orlando coaster credit

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