BEWARE of the Universal Express system!

[Claire L]

Having got our Universal Express tickets we used them for Hulk when standby time was 30 minutes or so yet our Express pass only saved ten minutes or less meaning we waited 20 minutes! Even worse to come with MIB Alien Attack as we got to the ride at roughly the same time as the standby line, 35 minutes!!! Now how does that happen I ask myself? Well the answer is simple if you stay at a Universal hotel you get unlimited Universal Express in your room card, meaning flash your room card and you get in the Express pass line straight away. This means that Universal cannot say how many people will be in the line as there is no limit (except full hotel capacity on one line, perish the thought a 24 hour Express wait time!!!!!). I think that soon this perk for hotel guests may be gone or altered if the feedback is much the same as mine, which is don't use Unversal Exprss pass as the wait time may be longer than some standby times!!
Universal will be getting my feedback. Has any one else had the same problem??
Claire

 

[TracyK]

I've never experienced this problem before and I've been at very busy times. This may be caused by the recent opening of the third and largest Universal hotel Royal Pacific. I hope they don't alter the system too soon as I'm staying at HRH in August and I was looking forward to using this perk.
Thanks for the info
Tracy

 

[vernon]

Unfortunately the parks can't cover EVERY possibility and as you correctly point out, if you join a queue just after everyone else who's staying at the Universal hotels then it's likely to be a long wait. Any program that offers some preferential perks to the hotel guest will have the same potential problem. I welcome any efforts made by the corporations ( Disney or Universal) to add perks for people staying at their hotels.

That doesn't mean the program is a bad idea, neither does it mean they will or need to do away with it in the future.
I'm sure your feed back will be appreciated by the company if it is done in a constructive manner and that they will look to improve the way they do things. Perhaps you could suggest, if it isn't already done, a wait time indicator outside the entrance to the queue as is done for the "regular" lines. At least that way it might spread the fastpassers around the park a little and help to avoid all of you waiting in the same queues all day.
I am 100% certain that Universal will continue some form of perk to the guests of the Universal hotels (IMHO it's their "ace in the hole" to encourage people to pay the extra to stay on site), if the numbers of guests grow to a level where it makes fast pass inopperable I would think they will try some form of early entry or late night system similar to those Disney has offered in the past. I think the late night offering would probably work better for these parks as the shops etc stay open for a while after the rides close anyway, so they do still have staff that they are paying for and with the proximity of City Walk it would encourage people to eat (spend money) on Universal property.

I do feel that had Universal not been using the current system your wait time would have been significantly longer than it was, as all those in the "fastpass line" would have been with the rest of us in the "regular" line.

 

[Claire L]

Vernon,
Having been at Universal/IOA last year I have to disagree as I had no problems with either the regular or Express line systems back then, in fact it was better than Disney. I think Universal have made a big mistake allowing their hotel guests unlimited entry. The reasons are last year I could hold up to 3 Express passes at one time, this has now gone down to one (even with multi day tickects) and you cannot get another ticket until a) you have used the current ticket, b) two hours have expired since issue or c) the one hour time slot to the attaction has passed. These three options I found to be annoying as at Disney you can get another fastpass five minutes into your one hour time slot!
It has made me question whether I will visit Universal/IOA again if they continue with this format. The only answer is to take away the unlimited entry to hotel guests and give them the old style three ticket option, at least they still have a perk as ospposed to none for Disney hotels guests at the Disney parks now that EE has gone. Disney still seem to be able to fill their hotels fairly well considering 9/11 even with very few perks. I don't think Universal need to worry about losing hotel business if they change their system slightly as it will benifit all guests.
Claire

 

[vernon]

While Disney's occupancy has picked up a little recently, I have to disagree on them having had no problem in filling their hotels since Sept 11, Disney has been forced to discount it's hotels massively over the last 9 months and it's occupancy rates have still been significantly lower than in previous years. Considering this has been the 100 th Birthday of Walt I think that is a very worrying fact for Disney management. They were expecting this to be a bumper year and it certainly has not.

I'm more than a little confused at your post, are you complaining that by offering extra perks to their hotel guests they are disadvantaging their "regular" walk in customers? Or are you complaining because they have changed the way the run the fast pass system for all their guests and draw the conclusion its the fault of the hotel guests that you were inconvenienced? Personally I don't have any problem with hotel guests getting advantages in the parks, even if I am unlikely to stay on site at Universal.

While I think Disney made a mistake in removing EE and you may well see it reinstated when their occupancy rates get back to previous levels, there is a huge difference between the logistics of staying off site at Disney while using the parks and staying in cheaper accommodation on I-Drive while visiting Universal. Universal faces much stiffer opposition along it's borders than Disney does and IMHO HAS to offer park perks in order to make it worthwhile for customers to pay the exra money to stay at their hotels. Universal is also much newer into the hotel market and has to attract people into it's offerings. Disney has been going for 20+ years and it's hotels were among the first major ones in the area. It has built up an established repeat customer base and there are a massive number of people that stay on Disney and never go off site. Universal doesn't have that cushion of client base and will have to market aggressively to get market share.

 

[Claire L]

Vernon,
Are the Universal hotels not run by a large established chain?? If so then from heir reputation there should be no trouble filling them.
The problem with the Express line is soon that even hotel guests will be inconvenienced as the line aimed at getting you to the attraction quicker is in fact slower or the same as the standby line which is what I have experienced in the past ten days. Therefore Universal are doing themselves no favours as who wants to pay more yet only get into an attraction on average 10 minutes before a non hotel guest? Admittedly at some of the less popular rides you may be able to walk straight on. Even still I think they need to change their system. Another thing that suprised me was that you couldn't cess the Express system for many attractions until the park had been open for at least an hour so you couldn't plan your attractions in advance of that time and by 9.30 the queue at Hulk and Spiderman was getting to be rather long.
Claire