Changes to On-Site Express

[Eclpz314]

Hmmm.....getting down to the wire here and sons are getting more and more excited to stay at RPR as the last countdown days go by. Guess we'll find out how much effect this new change has. 15 yr. old might be disappointed if he can't ride MIB as much as he wants. You know, thinking about this new info...
if you could ride everything only once with fotl room key, WHY would you want to put up with waiting in line again for 45 min to an hour just to ride something again??? I certainly wouldn't... not in the summer heat! How long would it take to ride everything in one park? til 3 pm? Not everyone likes to ride everything there....what do they do? Like my son last year. He didn't want to do ET or Terminator and Spiderman made him a little nauseous, so he occupied himself with MIB and had a blast! My kids really don't care to see some of the shows that my husband and I do. So while we're watching some, what do they do if they can't reride anything until after 3? (and I won't even include the possibility of them waiting in long lines for something!) I would probably find something else to do...either swim at RPR or go off-site for more stuff to do( along with a lot of other "onsite" guests). The fotl is the only reason I decided to do Universal in July again. After doing WDW once in July, I said "never again in the heat" I think if you're going to shell out the extra money that the US hotels are asking...especially with the price jumps since last year....that you shouldn't have limits on what and when you can ride stuff. I can see when they start building more hotels, but now? As much as we enjoyed the RPR last year, I wouldn't have booked again this year if it wasn't for the fotl perk. It would be more acceptable if they had announced something like "starting in 2005, fotl will be discontinued" and informed you, both on the website AND when you called to make a reservation.

 

[Motherfletcher]

DM says it is for select rides. Lets pray that MIB is not one!

 

[GODreigns]

I can say this is pretty upsetting to some. Last time we were there we were talking to some lifegaurds around the pool and they said that they had been talking about ditching Front of the Line altogether!!! I said thats the main reason we come to these hotels.

Front of the Line is the main reason I think the same people come the the resort again and again and again.

Lets hope we get some new news later

in CHRIST,

Gavin

 

[RyGuy]

I spoke with some people at RPR and HRH and they have assured me that this limitation to Express access is only for the Summer and possibly only for July. Apparently the lines have been longer than usual this month and Universal has made this temporary change. The new rule of riding only once is for select attractions only and they are as follows:

Universal Studios: Shrek 4-D, MIB, ROTM, BTF, ET

Islands of Adventure: Spiderman, Hulk, Jurassic Park, Dudley, Cat in the Hat

You can ride these attractions only once before 3PM. After that you may ride as many times as you want.

 

[Lewisc]

Originally posted by RyGuy
I spoke with some people at RPR and HRH and they have assured me that this limitation to Express access is only for the Summer and possibly only for July. Apparently the lines have been longer than usual this month and Universal has made this temporary change. The new rule of riding only once is for select attractions only and they are as follows:

Universal Studios: Shrek 4-D, MIB, ROTM, BTF, ET

Islands of Adventure: Spiderman, Hulk, Jurassic Park, Dudley, Cat in the Hat

You can ride these attractions only once before 3PM. After that you may ride as many times as you want.

Sounds fair to me. Machine issued Express Passes are gone by noon. Really not fair to let hotel guests repeatedly ride the same attraction while the "regular" line is over an hour long.

 

[momof2inPA]

That stinks for the little kids-- Cat in the Hat and ET are both on the list. This sounds like a trial run to me, even if they are saying it's just for July. How permanent did the new scanners look?

It would be fair if the hotels were not so exorbitantly priced. Right now, we pay the prices for the privilege.

 

[Lewisc]

Originally posted by momof2inPA
That stinks for the little kids-- Cat in the Hat and ET are both on the list. This sounds like a trial run to me, even if they are saying it's just for July. How permanent did the new scanners look?

It would be fair if the hotels were not so exorbitantly priced. Right now, we pay the prices for the privilege.

Express Pass Plus cost $20-$25/person/park and only allows one express ride per attraction. That's $200/day for a family of 4. Compare the Universal hotels with the Disney deluxe hotels and they are still priced reasonably.

 

[momof2inPA]

Nobody in their right mind would pay $200 for one day of express pass. They might pay $100 one day, $100 the next.

You can rent a nice two bedroom condo with a full kitchen off of skyauction for under $300 a week, add that to four days of express pass (assume you spend the other days at the pool, Seaworld, or Disney). Total $700.

Compare that to about $200 per night minimum with tax and parking for the Universal hotels. You get $1400. That's the way I see it.

 

[Lewisc]

Originally posted by momof2inPA
Nobody in their right mind would pay $200 for one day of express pass. They might pay $100 one day, $100 the next.

You can rent a nice two bedroom condo with a full kitchen off of skyauction for under $300 a week, add that to four days of express pass (assume you spend the other days at the pool, Seaworld, or Disney). Total $700.

Compare that to about $200 per night minimum with tax and parking for the Universal hotels. You get $1400. That's the way I see it.

You can still get the RP for under $150/night with EC rate (if you book early). It's not really fair to compare the Universal hotels with renting a condo through Skyauction. It's a completely different vacation experience. The condo route may be better for some people but it's fairer to compare the Universal resorts with the Disney Deluxe hotels. The Universal hotels seem to have better rates (most of the time) and even the current FOTL policy is superior to Disney's equivalent of opening one park an hour early.

How many times in a row (or in an hour) should an onsite guest be allowed to ride a popular attraction when the line is over an hour for other guests? My objection would be if the real reason for the restriction is to allow the sale of more Express Plus passes.

 

[714atuf]

With only six days to go before we arrive this is not the kind of news I wanted to hear, BUT..........

There seems to be an awful lot of conflicting information being tossed about. Some say the changes are not for resort guests, some say its only a couple of attractions, some say its already in affect, some say no one there knows about it. But most everyone says they got their info from speaking to someone at Universal. I somehow get the feeling that if I call universal directly, I will get a completely new story.

 

[momof2inPA]

Originally posted by Lewisc
You can still get the RP for under $150/night with EC rate (if you book early). It's not really fair to compare the Universal hotels with renting a condo through Skyauction. It's a completely different vacation experience. The condo route may be better for some people but it's fairer to compare the Universal resorts with the Disney Deluxe hotels. The Universal hotels seem to have better rates (most of the time) and even the current FOTL policy is superior to Disney's equivalent of opening one park an hour early.

How many times in a row (or in an hour) should an onsite guest be allowed to ride a popular attraction when the line is over an hour for other guests? My objection would be if the real reason for the restriction is to allow the sale of more Express Plus passes.

It is a different "experience" and the Universal hotels are nice, but the rooms are small and it just would not be worth it to my family, with my small children, to pay the extra and not get the unlimited front of the line. Really, that's the only reason we are even going to Universal on our next trip. That's the only reason my friends and neighbors are planning trips to Universal. People will choose to spend their money elsewhere.

When I've been in the onsite guest line, they still stagger who gets on the ride, maybe one third onsite guests and two thirds offsite. It's just like the fast pass line at Disney. Only by staying onsite, you're paying for an all day unlimited fastpass. I think that's fair. I can see where locals or annual pass holders wouldn't like that system, but Universal makes it up to them by providing cheap tickets.

 

[palmtreegirl]

Deleted question answered on other board.

 

[phamton]

Just an FYI. I was at MIB most of the day yesterday (July 6) and saw many hotel guests re-riding several times. It may be a new rule, but they are not enforcing it at MIB.

 

[DisneyMombo]

I just returned from a 2 night stay at the Hard Rock and still have the info given to me by the hotel regarding FOTL. Here's what I can confirm:

1. The 3:00 pm rule does apply to hotel guests.

2. It applies to the following rides: Shrek, ROTM, MIB, Back to the Future, ET, Spider Man, Hulk, Jurassic Park River Advent., Ripsaw Falls and Cat in the Hat.

The Hard Rock employee did not tell me whether the change was temp or perm, although they did give me a professionally done flyer detailing the change.

As stated in other posts, the ride employees did not spend much time looking at the hotel keys, so I doubt they would strictly enforce the 3:00 pm rule.

 

[Motherfletcher]

Welcome to the Dis. I wish it was under brighter circumstances. Did you have a good time?

 

[Tinkbell]

Well, if they are only using this policy "just for July", they need to discount their July rooms a bit more. This change stinks. You know, I would not care so much if it were announced earlier. Of course, I have my first trip to HRH and onsite coming up this Saturday. We booked for 4 nights. I would have cut that time in half if I knew this was coming. I'd gladly give Disney 2 more nights of my money. Just seems like false advertising to me.

 

[Familyof14]

I just booked a room for two nights at PBH and nothing was mentioned about this new rule. I even got an email welcoming me to Portofino this morning. The following is what was written about FOTL:

Finally, if you're planning on spending a day at Universal Studios Florida or Islands of Adventure, don't forget your room key. It gives you unlimited access to Universal Express, so that you will not have to wait in line with the general public for most Universal Orlando theme park rides and attractions, an on-site resort exclusive.

Notice the most Universal Orlando theme park rides that is mentioned? Sounds to me like MOST of the rides are limited.
We had planned to do two parks in one day. If we can only ride one ride until after 3:00 (being when we were planning to leave one park for the other park) we will only get to ride each ride once.
I am seriously thinking about cancelling our reservation also. I agree that the July rates are too high if they are going to limit the pass. Only reason we booked onsite because we are going this month.

BTW - To the OP. I bypassed this thread a couple of times and only came looking for it when this "change" was mentioned elsewhere. Perhaps you should change the title as to catch the eye of Universal. Something like... FURIOUS! USO Changes rules for Express Pass (FOTL)

 

[Lewisc]

Originally posted by Familyof14
If we can only ride one ride until after 3:00 (being when we were planning to leave one park for the other park) we will only get to ride each ride once.

NO, You can ride EACH RIDE once until 3:00. After 3:00 you can ride each ride as many times as you want.

It sounds like enforcement will be spoty, basically a way to stop a few people from repeatedly riding the same attraction while the other line is very long.

 

[Duck/Fish]

I'm going in 2 weeks. If they don't have some important looking scanner reading my hotel key, I'm reriding to my heart's content. Take THAT Universal! LOL

 

[Familyof14]

If we can only ride one ride until after 3:00 (being when we were planning to leave one park for the other park) we will only get to ride each ride once.

NO, You can ride EACH RIDE once until 3:00. After 3:00 you can ride each ride as many times as you want.

What I meant is that by the time 3:00 comes around, we will be leaving that first park and therefore would have only been able to ride ONE ride each.

I told my husband and he blew up! Then we started thinking about it and decided that maybe the best thing to do is to go to USF first and then go over to IOA after 3:00. We have never been to IOA, so I know the kids will want to ride the coasters multiple times. We have been to USF before and really only want to hit a few of the new rides. What do you all think of that plan?

Just think about the poor people that don't frequent this board and go down learning about the new rule once they arrive at Universal. Universal really should send out an announcement. What they really should have done was give plenty of warning. On the otherhand, I can understand the frustration of people staying off site that are waiting 90 minutes because 100 people keep going in front of them.