Universal Orlando Resort (USO, IOA) Discussion Thread

Honestly, I think unless both sides were bike style, I think a half and half would cause chaos for the groupers and slow down the queue because you'd end up with a bunch of people probably wanting 'bike style' after waiting in line or even some groups of friends maybe breaking up to a row each to ride the bikes instead of together.

It's worked fine for this ride since 2007....

I still haven’t been back to Universal Orlando since they opened the original side of Harry Potter at IOA. I was fortunate to get to ride Dueling Dragons while it dueled once. The other two times I tried to ride it, the dispatches weren’t together. But those were some amazing and forceful inverts. I will miss them, but am looking forward to the Harry Potter experience now that there’s a new

coaster to try. I am interested to see how the Guardians roller coaster turns out in Epcot to see how Disney manages to tell a story on a roller coaster that’s faster than “7 Dwarfs Mine Train.”

10 hours. Sounds like a party

I think I can wait, oh, a few months, from the comfort of my home, before experiencing this attraction.

Can I ask a stupid question?

We're going to Universal in October and since it looks like this ride isn't on Express (though that could change but I'm not counting on it since the other Potter rides went YEARS before being on express), I actually considered staying on property to get Early Admission.

That said, it sort of looks like they don't tell you what park will even be on early admission in advance (right now I only see the schedule through June) and right now Islands isn't open early for resort guests.

The only reason I would stay at one of their hotels instead of a hotel where I could use my Choice / Marriot / Hilton or IHG points would be for that perk but is there a way to see the schedule in advance?

We're visiting in September, so naturally I decided to install the app this morning. In the app, it looks like IOA is back on early admission starting August 1 through December 12 (as far out as the calendar currently goes).

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10 hours. Sounds like a party

I knew it would be bad, but dang.

Wonder what the single rider line looks like if there is one.

Also remember how everyone freaked out about Avengers being too long to not have a bathroom break?

I don't care who you are - if you're waiting ten hours (!!) for a roller coaster, you need to reconsider your life choices. That being said, obviously, congratulations to Universal on a successful opening!

this is why I always wait for months before riding a new ride.

I have a question... IoA is only open until 9 pm today. I assume they’ll let anyone who’s in line by closing time ride, correct? But what happens when the line is 10 hours long before noon? The park is only open until 9. Are they going to close off the line at some point? How does it usually work with new rides?

From the sounds of it, Hagrid's seems a bit disappointing (theming wise) and not that much better than other regional park family coasters in recent memory.

...and ten hours is crazy. I'm assuming that this is mostly locals? I can't imagine traveling all the way to Orlando and spending almost a full day in a line for any single ride. Hell, even being a local and doing that sounds crazy.

Cool, it's opened! Now we can focus on the upcoming Jurassic Park coaster Which...should be a more fitting 'replacement' for the thrill/intense coaster void, right?

I'm curious on everyone's thoughts to this:

Would you have rather seen Universal put in a Dueling Dragons-thrill level Harry Potter coaster instead of Hagrid's and then add a family thrill for the Jurassic Park coaster? Or how it's currently looking to progress with the family coaster (Hagrid) and the thrill coaster for Jurassic Park?

I'm curious on everyone's thoughts to this:

Would you have rather seen Universal put in a Dueling Dragons-thrill level Harry Potter coaster instead of Hagrid's and then add a family thrill for the Jurassic Park coaster?

I assume Rowling wanted a more family vibe to the rides there.

Honestly I'm very disappointed in how this ride turned out. The immense lack of theme is just striking to me. As a Potter fan myself, and seeing how much went into Gringotts, and the Forbidden Journey, just to get a ride that has been reviewed as "being able to tell you're in a big a show building" is immensely disappointing.

On top of that Dueling Dragons: Fire was my first roller coaster, so there was some sentimentality about losing that ride. While we didn't get a thrill ride to replace it, it just feels very underwhelming. Even just looking at the cars for the trains, I just wished they'd have painted them to mimic the movie, or something of the description to the book.

I feel like this is one of those rides I'll end up passing on unless I can get a quick ride on the single rider queue (assuming it has one.)

Other than that I'm very excited for what's to come in the Jurassic Park area.

Cool, it's opened! Now we can focus on the upcoming Jurassic Park coaster Which...should be a more fitting 'replacement' for the thrill/intense coaster void, right?

I sure hope so. To be honest, I'm not holding out too much hope that it'll be as intense as we'd all like it to be, or even as intense as Dueling Dragons was. While I'd LOVE it if they built something on the level of Maverick and made up for the lack of Dragons, I see them targeting the family audience once again and making something on the level of Cheetah Hunt. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the new high bar of "thrill" Universal is willing to approach but not exceed. But again, I hope I'm wrong.

I'm curious on everyone's thoughts to this:

Would you have rather seen Universal put in a Dueling Dragons-thrill level Harry Potter coaster instead of Hagrid's and then add a family thrill for the Jurassic Park coaster? Or how it's currently looking to progress with the family coaster (Hagrid) and the thrill coaster for Jurassic Park?

That's a tough question. If Dueling Dragons were truly "at the end of their life cycle", as was Universal's talking point, I wish they'd just done the same thing as Hulk; torn down and re-built. Maybe if they'd plopped down a clone of i305 and themed it to Hagrid, I'd have been more forgiving. But what's done is done at this point. Again, I'll love it if the Jurassic Park coaster truly amazes us and rights all wrongs, but I'm just not holding my breath. At least it's from Intamin.

Can I ask a stupid question?

 

We're going to Universal in October and since it looks like this ride isn't on Express (though that could change but I'm not counting on it since the other Potter rides went YEARS before being on express), I actually considered staying on property to get Early Admission.

 

That said, it sort of looks like they don't tell you what park will even be on early admission in advance (right now I only see the schedule through June) and right now Islands isn't open early for resort guests.

 

The only reason I would stay at one of their hotels instead of a hotel where I could use my Choice / Marriot / Hilton or IHG points would be for that perk but is there a way to see the schedule in advance?

They don't post the EPA schedule in advance except for like 2 months out at best. I would say it's a likely thing that IOA will start having EPA due to this ride. My best advice would be:

1. Book both Universal and Points rewards hotels but make sure both are fully refundable.

2. Non-Private VIP tour will have front of the line access on this ride.

or 3. You could do a Timeshare tour which all give 7 Day PTP tickets that include EPA if you wanted to, and end up costing about the same as a 1 day PTP at regular price. There's really no reason to buy Universal in advance anyway.

I'm excited for this ride as a Harry Potter fan and a fan of great, themed attractions. Especially since the theming and experience is not fully reliant on screens. I will never forgive Universal for removing Dragons because that was a bunch of corporate nonsense, but I am fully onboard with all the locals and mega-fans (there are millions and millions of mega-fans of the Harry Potter franchise, Universal Resort's attendance has doubled since this landmark themed area debuted in 2010) who are out there today waiting however long the coaster's wait actually is, they've really been waiting for 2 years or more for this ride so six hours or so is nothing relatively.

Thanks!

We're not buying anything yet anyway since we're waiting to see how long the lines for this ride end up being a few months down the line, I'm just weighing some options. Their website is frustrating though.

I was just wondering, is it kinda hard to really theme an outside coaster of this proportion?

Anything over an hour is too much of a wait for me, but the 6-10 hours being reported for this are just ludicrous. If you wait in a line like that, you've essentially paid well over $100 to ride ONE ride. NO ride is worth that.

Someone is live tweeting their experience in the line right now. It was a posted 6-hr wait when they got in the line. 2 hours in and they are still in The Lost Continent section and it just started raining on them haha. Oh but Universal did have food vendors going up and down the line selling hotdogs....for $9!!! Captive audience I guess ha.

10 hours... I don't even want to imagine what that looks, or smells like... in Florida in June. Hell I've head some breathtaking experiences waiting in line for 20 minutes in Sandusky in May. Ugh.

That said, looks like they have a hit with their fans. I know some people are saying it was a let down but Twitter was full of praise from what I saw.

I saw the line went down to *only* 5 hours, but it looks like the afternoon thunderstorm has now rolled in.

I saw the line went down to *only* 5 hours, but it looks like the afternoon thunderstorm has now rolled in.

Yup, in the live tweeting thread re: the wait, they are 3.5 hours and still in The Lost Continent (by the talking fountain). And the last hour was spent in waiting in the rain. Woof.

I really shouldn't have to remind people, but obviously I do because the world is now full of fucking stupid people. If anyone posts illegal POVs or even tells people where they are and suggest they should watch them on this forum they will be INSTANTLY BANNED no questions asked. Got it?

Hey Robb, What are the hourly capacity's of this ride, how many trains do they run? I can't believe a ride with high capacity could ever have an 8 hour wait.

From the sounds of it, Hagrid's seems a bit disappointing (theming wise) and not that much better than other regional park family coasters in recent memory.

 

...and ten hours is crazy. I'm assuming that this is mostly locals? I can't imagine traveling all the way to Orlando and spending almost a full day in a line for any single ride. Hell, even being a local and doing that sounds crazy.

If this theming is disappointing then I must be missing something???? I rode dueling dragons when it actually used to duel and it was an amazing experience. Seeing another train coming at you full speed going into the flip was incredible. I think after the GP ruined the dueling aspect, the ride became expendable. It’s a damn shame. This new ride really looks like a fun experience!

I hope to get to Orlando in the next couple years to try this and Guardians.

Hey Robb, What are the hourly capacity's of this ride, how many trains do they run? I can't believe a ride with high capacity could ever have an 8 hour wait.

That's a good question. I know they have a dual drop track to increase capacity and someone had told me that they could run up to TEN trains because of that and they way they do their loading system. From what I could tell on the media event, it looked like they were running maybe 4 or 5 trains. So I'm not sure what the actual capacity is and not sure how many they were running today.