Just back and rather DISAPPOINTED

[sumrgurl99]

My mom, best friend, and i(both 16) spent last week in melbourne and went to US, IOA, and Disney Quest while there. our day at US was great! and we ate at HRC(ask to sit at the bar if the wait is long we got taken right up!)but IOA was a different story! we went 4/13 and there were a ton of problems! we arrived around 11 which wasnt early enough but with an hour drive to get there it was early enough for us. we went around and almost all of the express passes were gone so we got the ones we could. we wanted to go on spiderman so we went and found the line to be 120 min. long. when we asked about single rider they said they had just closed it and to come back in 20 min. so we came back to find the ride to have broken down! so we decided to wait and this way we'd be first in line. we waited nearly an hour but it was worth it and we rode twice more. however the one time i was seated next to a man who rode the ride while talking on his cell phone. this made me very mad they didnt tell him to put it away as it was a distraction to everyone else! we then moved on to JP river adventure where when we went to get on found someone had gotten sick and they seemed rather annoyed when we informed them of this. we then proceeded to get stuck for a while at the bottom of the lift to take us up to the big drop. we then moved on and found problems on cat in the hat. where the rode continuously broke down with us on it. that nite my friend and i went to ride the hulk and had to wait in the hour line. which ended up being even longer becuase the ride broke but they never informed any of us of this. my mom told us when we got off and had we known this im not sure we would have wasted all that time in line for a broken ride. so for the least to say my second visit to IOA i was rather disappointed with. i found the people at universal and even disney quest alot more patient and friendly.

 

[Bchamp]

Sorry that you had such a bad time, it really is a wonderful place to go if you have FOTL.
Maybe next time you can stay at the HRH or portifino and then you will know what a big difference it can make. Make sure you buy the entertainment book to get a better rate.
Don't you just want to grab the cell phones out of some peoples hands! How rude to talk on a phone during a ride, especially with other people. Some people have absolutely no class.
I think driving while talking is bad, grocery shopping while talking is even worse, but this has got to take the cake!

Barb

 

[Robinrs]

Believe it or not I had a bad day at IOA just like that one...

I went on a Saturday at 11am and the lines were ALL over an hour. The entire day we only rode 3 rides.

The next time I went I took the VIP tour. It was incredible!

The next time I went was in off season in January. Longest line, 30 mins!

My next trip will be with FOTL access. If this didn't exist I would've taken another tour. I am WAY too impatient to deal with long lines!

I'm so sorry you had to deal with this, and especially the &*$%# on the cellphone! I actually started a thread on the Community Board about the "rudest use of a cellphone you've ever witnessed". The answers were unbelievable, but YOURS takes the cake....

-------------------------

MOM
Mother of Michael
Proverbs 3:5-6

<font color=purple>Co-Moderator of the Community and Universal/IOA Boards</font color=purple>

 

[sumrgurl99]

FOTL would be nice however we have family that live in melbourne. so to pay for a hotel just for that would be ridiculous my mom thinks. and even the day we were there the ppl with FOTL were told they just had to wait in the express line so that wouldnt have helped all that much.

 

[CindyZ]

How long did it seem that the hotel guests were waiting in the FOTL line?

CindyZ in CT, and Mom of 3!

 

[spielbergfan]

Wow, we were there on the 13th also. We encountered no problems with ANY of the rides. Infact I was extreamly pleased with the amount of Improvement of rides like Spider-man, and Jurassic Park River Adventure. I do remember during the day that Spider-man was 120 minutes,at one point. As a matter of fact, we laughed at the people who had to wait in line, because we had fast passes for it. But as for these things, Disney has the same problem with them running out of them early. Example Test Track ran out at 11.
We got to IOA at like 10, and we got fast passes imediately for Hulk which was 5:10 to 6:50, and Spider-man which was already 8:50 til 9:45.
I am sorry about your experience because IOA is definately one of the BEST theme parks in the world. I think you sould give it another try. And on that particular day I personaly noticed major improvement in the rides,(trip report will be up shortly). So the matter with the breakdowns, is rather surprising.

 

[nhrenee]

That's awful you had such a terrible day. Maybe you'll give it another try sometime. I've been to IOA several times and have not encountered a day when so many things were broken.

I'm glad you enjoyed your rides on SM. What kind of a jerk would talk on a cell phone during the ride? It's surprising it didn't go flying (maybe next time!LOL).

Did you get a chance to enjoy the scenery at IOA? What a feast for the eyes.

 

[DisOrBust]

And what you say is correct! We stayed at PFB and the boat driver had said all the Express passes were gone by 11am. It was hot and the walk across "sizzlewalk" to IOA was almost unbearable. The employees at IOA were rude but they seemed overwhelmed by the heat and the crowds. Many of the attractions broke down for us as well. FOTL was great but it was so frustrating with broken rides and bad attitudes we gave up after 3 hours. The next day at USF went MUCH better. I think the park and the employees are much better organinze and trained then IOA, probably since it ha been around longer

 

[erica_mutterer]

i'm sorry your experience was not good. We were there on the 13th also but we got there about 15 min before the 8:00am opening. we never waited more than 15 min. for anything and had done all the rides and shows, except the 2 water rides in toon lagoon by about 2:00. had a relaxing lunch around 11:00 and took a break from the heat and crowds around 2:30 at the hard rock hotel then went back later to to just walk around the park and look in shops. i can see why the fast passes run out because most of the time we saw employees just handing out handfulls of express passes to anyone that walked up and wanted one and i did notice that by lunchtime most express passes were gone. If the system was used properly this may not happen. We did not stay on sight so did not have FOTL but by getting there at opening we did not need it nor did we need express passes but did get one for JP so we could eat lunch and then ride it after.

again, sorry for your bad experiance.

 

[sumrgurl99]

Waits for FOTL guests seemed to range from 20min-half an hour on most rides which is far from what i would have expected if i was one of those guests. the worst wait i would have to say was on JP river adventure and the attendent was very rude! we were about 15min early with express passes and were told we had to wait the 15min. so we stood there quietly for our 15min(eventhough there was no on else entering the line) and then were told to move into the line where we waited ATLEAST 30min! we could have wasted our 15min in that line! the other big disappointment was on the popeye barges i got a bruise the size of a fist on my thigh because of one of the drops that caused me to slip under a piece of wood fastened onto the side of my seat. it's now been a week since being on the ride and the bruise remains on my leg. that was my 2nd trip to IOA and i plan on giving it another chance but i was very disappointed in them on this trip!

 

[IOATech]

I will not spend too much time on the arrival-time issue, during this time of year it is imperative that you arrive early, no way around it. Aside from that, the rest of the day was pure bad luck. On that day the park had, actually, a small number of downtimes and it seems you saw a little of all of them. The option always exists for people to voice valid complaints and almost always problems are rectified to the guest's satisfaction. I do stress to most people in these situations, that planning is everything and during Spring Break if you arrive at IOA after 10 AM you simply must be prepared for a rough time. This is the nature of the beast.Don't let this experience tarnish your view, though it may be difficult. There are times during the year that you could really have the place all to yourself.