Frustrated by Single Rider Lines being shutdown

[RamblingMad]

I just got back from a trip to Universal, and this is the first time I experienced them shutting down single rider lines to up sell their Express pass. The up sell was most blatant for the Kong ride, which was practically a walk on at rope drop.

Half way through the trip we switched gears and entered the parks at rope drop and utilized single rider until the rides started shutting them down, which happened around lunch time. We then left the parks and did other stuff.

Anybody else frustrated?

 

[Disxuni]

Were all the rides shut down, or just happened to be a lot of them. Was it particularly one park over another?

I ask, because for Kong, I'm assuming you're implying that SR was shut down first thing in the morning and if that is the case, I wonder if this seems to be an IoA policy, but not USF policy. As I always have no issues riding SR line at USF first thing in the morning, but have multiple times in the past have attempted to ride Spider-Man first thing in the morning, but was told that it was closed temporarily due to not feeling it was needed.

Also, Gringott's is notorious for closing SR, as a lot of people like to use that line and it ends up reaching at capacity so TMs close it.

The fact that you "switched gears" and did manage to get on rides one day prior to them closing them makes me believe that more than likely what you're describing is essentially what happens to Gringott's at almost a regular basis. If the SR line gets too long, it loads up the short SR queue they have, and on top of that if it gets filled you essentially are waiting longer than the regular queue itself.

 

[RamblingMad]

The single rider lines appeared to all shutdown around lunch time with an immediate up sell to Express. This was most obvious at Kong since they were selling Express across from the ride. Spider-man was the exception.

This was the first time that I’ve been to Universal, where they shutdown the single rider lines. I usually go in the fall, but I decided to go last minute last week.

My new strategy was to hit as many rides as possible before noon. The single rider lines were pretty much walk ons at that point. I never saw a long single rider line the whole trip. I was able to get onto every ride in less than 10 minutes that had a single rider line.

 

[Disxuni]

Yeah, as a SR line frequenter since I often go solo, even if the ride is walk on I typically do the SR line as it saves you time from walking an extra five minutes to get to the end and typically I hit a lot of the stuff I want to do by the early afternoon.

But yeah, I never seen that happen before, especially selling EP right across from an attraction which I have to admit is interesting. However, rides do close and often do in the afternoon sometimes when those lines reach capacity since everyone is in the park by then, but that is too much of a coincidence.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Was the Kong SRL open at any point? I never saw it open at any time during our trip.

Other SRLs were mostly open consistently - on a few occasions one wasn't open as they felt the ride had too short a standby line. Spiderman's SRL was intermittent in the morning, but mostly running the rest of the day.

 

[humphreydog]

Sometimes the single rider line is longer than the regular line so they close it down.

 

[damo]

Sometimes the single rider lines are full and they shut them down. This would seem to coincide with the lunch time time line since that is when there seems to be a greater influx of people in the parks.

 

[bchbetha]

I don't think anything fishy was going on. It's the middle of summer and crowds are high. I think SLRs are always hit or miss and shouldn't be counted on when planning a trip. If they're open, great! But, my expectation is that they will be closed more often than not.

 

[skylock]

I don't think anything fishy was going on. It's the middle of summer and crowds are high. I think SLRs are always hit or miss and shouldn't be counted on when planning a trip. If they're open, great! But, my expectation is that they will be closed more often than not.

And the SRL are more likely to fill up at which point, they close them down. Probably somewhere around noon.

 

[humphreydog]

If they close the SRL while you are on it, you will likely wait much longer than the regular line. They will redirect single riders through the regular line and there will never be an opening for people on the SRL.