Jimmy Fallon and Minions observations yesterday 5/4/17

[janicept]

They had a single rider line at Minions yesterday. I don't know if that will be all the time now or just come and go. Good for me when I'm by myself.

I was able to go on the Jimmy Fallon ride a few times in March before the official open and I think they cut out the first few seconds of the show. I could swear it had started with Jimmy coming out and talking briefly about the race then saying he was going to get the car. Now it just shows him coming out in the car. It doesn't take as long to check seatbelts now since they don't seem to be checking everyone anymore. There must be some type of screen they look at to make sure all beats are locked. Also they seem to require you have a reservation or EP to ride after a certain time. Yesterday the park opened at 9 am and they said after 10 am you need to reserve. I got in before 10 and then made a reservation on the app for near closing. There was not much of a wait at all. They were only using the one side in the morning and both sides at night. No one was getting in the left line so my husband and I basically walked right on. For some reason everyone goes in the right side line.

Going back this morning for EE but it has been raining - hopefully short lines.

 

[jeffbeardreams]

One note on the Fallon seatbelts.

It's in your best interest to help anyone near you that is struggling to latch their belt. If one person in a row doesn't get their latched, as of now they have to release the whole row and start over. That seems to cause all manner of confusion. Just help out anyone within arms reach who is clearly having issues and maybe save everyone some aggravation.

 

[schumigirl]

They had a single rider line at Minions yesterday. I don't know if that will be all the time now or just come and go. Good for me when I'm by myself.

I was able to go on the Jimmy Fallon ride a few times in March before the official open and I think they cut out the first few seconds of the show. I could swear it had started with Jimmy coming out and talking briefly about the race then saying he was going to get the car. Now it just shows him coming out in the car. It doesn't take as long to check seatbelts now since they don't seem to be checking everyone anymore. There must be some type of screen they look at to make sure all beats are locked. Also they seem to require you have a reservation or EP to ride after a certain time. Yesterday the park opened at 9 am and they said after 10 am you need to reserve. I got in before 10 and then made a reservation on the app for near closing. There was not much of a wait at all. They were only using the one side in the morning and both sides at night. No one was getting in the left line so my husband and I basically walked right on. For some reason everyone goes in the right side line.

Going back this morning for EE but it has been raining - hopefully short lines.

Did you like the ride itself......haven't heard from too many people that have done it yet.........

 

[jeffbeardreams]

I rode the ride a couple of times last week, so I'll jump in.

The waiting area downstairs is great for fans of the Tonight Show, with windows dedicated to each of the past hosts ... yes, even Conan O'Brien, bless his heart. Pretty cool stuff IMO. The virtual line function works pretty well. They give you a plastic card with one of the colors of NBC's peacock and once you walk through the downstairs memorabilia section you go upstair and hang until they flash your color. Not much difference between yellow and orange on those cards, so that caused some confusion but otherwise the virtual line works great. That waiting are features little shows every few minutes ... when I was there is was a local version of the Ragtime Gals Barbershop Quartet (minus Fallon of course). Pretty fun way to kill 5 minutes.

The safety video is next and actually entertaining for once thanks to the Roots. The ride as I mentioned loads a bit weird since the seat belts are SUPER hard to engage. Both times I rode this was an issue. The ride itself .... let's just say it's good but not great. The visuals are sharp and the 3D effects are good. The NY street scenes flying by are cool, but I wish there was more of that and less cheap gags like flying by the Statue of Liberty and going to the moon for only slight comedic effect. The store at exit is solid too. Loads of stuff that ties into gags on the ride plus Tonight Show and NBC gear. For me, it's a fun ride and definitely worth doing ... just not a super headliner that you want to do over and over again in the same day. Your mileage may vary, as always.

 

[janicept]

Did you like the ride itself......haven't heard from too many people that have done it yet.........

Yeah, the ride is great. I wouldn't wait an hour for it but then again I wouldn't wait that long for anything. I basically walked right on today. Literally got my card, walked up the steps and onto the ride. Then it took forever for the row behind us to get buckled in. They had to have one lady change seats. Luckily the ride was only half full. The trick with the seat belt is to pull it way out before you sit so that you have some leeway to buckle it.

It was super slow this morning. It had rained and EE at 7 am IoA. I got there at about 7:30 and rode FJ then the HP train, rode Gringott's, MIB, Jimmy Fallon, and RRR then left before 10 am. People really should consider taking kids out of school a day or two to come to Universal. You could easily see most everything during a 9 am to 9 pm weekday in both parks. The only thing that held me up was all the pre-shows for when the rides are busy.

 

[pcstang]

Did you like the ride itself......haven't heard from too many people that have done it yet.........

Rag time gals is the highlight of the ride. Not sure if you will get the references to the songs they sing. Great show none the less.

 

[schumigirl]

Yeah, the ride is great. I wouldn't wait an hour for it but then again I wouldn't wait that long for anything. I basically walked right on today. Literally got my card, walked up the steps and onto the ride. Then it took forever for the row behind us to get buckled in. They had to have one lady change seats. Luckily the ride was only half full. The trick with the seat belt is to pull it way out before you sit so that you have some leeway to buckle it.

It was super slow this morning. It had rained and EE at 7 am IoA. I got there at about 7:30 and rode FJ then the HP train, rode Gringott's, MIB, Jimmy Fallon, and RRR then left before 10 am. People really should consider taking kids out of school a day or two to come to Universal. You could easily see most everything during a 9 am to 9 pm weekday in both parks. The only thing that held me up was all the pre-shows for when the rides are busy.

Glad you enjoyed it.......yep, we won't wait that long for anything either........oh nice tip on the seatbelt......will remember that one. Thanks........

Rag time gals is the highlight of the ride. Not sure if you will get the references to the songs they sing. Great show none the less.

I forgot you'd done it! Doh...........we will definitely go on it this year........not quite sure what I'll think about it......

 

[because]

rode it once each day last week (M-W,5/1-5/3) Walked right on with our EP. The first two times there was never a wait, which I was kind of disappointed in as I wanted to look at the displays of the different hosts.

The pre-show was there with Jimmy saying he would go get the car and meet us in the studio. We must have been lucky because there never seemed to be a problem with the belts, just someone saying over and over again "we are almost ready." Never had to release the whole row's belts.

First time we rode, I was in row 3 behind a tall guy. Couldn't see anything in front of me so missed a lot of the street level action. 2nd time was in row 2 and was fine.

The third time we rode the ride (last Wed morning) it was malfunctioning and running at limited capacity. We had about a 20 minute wait. Nobody followed the instructions to only proceed up the steps on your color - everyone just went upstairs which made for a very, very crowded room. When we finally did board, there were seats with a red strap over them that you could not sit in. We were in row 1 and was a much better experience without anyone in front of you.

The ride was all right, good enough that we rode it once each day but not exciting enough to re-ride multiple times.

 

[janicept]

I agree, not one to re-ride even if they didn't require ticket/EPs. I do like going when I'm there though.

 

[klmall]

We liked it but not enough to ride a second time during our days there last week. We had about a 15 minute wait in the 'game room' before moving on to the ride itself. Since neither DS or I are late show tv fans we were only mildly interested in the exhibits. I did find the seat belt a bit tough to buckle but DS helped his poor clumsy mother!

 

[java]

We were there too! Thursday Friday and Saturday morning.

I have to differ on Friday it got packed with school trips! Tons of middle schoolers. Then they closed at 6 for another grad night. (Which we were unaware of when we planned our trip)

We had a great time but that early closing soured me a bit