Just back. Any questions?

[bas71873]

A few observations (note our last trip to US/IOA was in 2009)

Crowds on Friday, June 5 and Saturday June 6 were very manageable. Took a break Sunday. Monday, crowds were definitely heavier. Lots of tour groups on Monday.

Selfie sticks are everywhere!

Some express lines are not very express...Dudly Do Right water fall ride and Hulk are the two that stick out the most. Most express lines did have waits, which is very different from our experience back in 2009.

Did EE at IOA on Monday. Rode Forbidden Journey (why is the que so dang long?). Rode Hippowhatever coaster and then took the train to US. Got to US and Gringotts was not running. They weren't sure how long it would be down. We never went back.

HRH - stayed in a queen delux. LOVED all the extra space! The pull out coach is hard as a rock. Ask for an extra mattress. The queen beds however were heavenly!

We were in room 4099 which is also a handicapped room. That's tough for a family of very tall people like ourselves. I wish hotels in general would put two shower wands in a handicapped room so those of us that don't need the lower one, yet are assigned an H room, don't have to stoop and bend when showering. Same for exhaust fans. Those would be nice too.

Checked in Friday around 10:00 am. Room was not ready, but we were heading to the parks, so we checked our bags and headed out.

Housekeeping was slack the entire time. I think we just had a lazy housekeeper assigned to our section. We left the room at 8:30 on Saturday morning and didn't came back until about 4:30 and our room hadn't been touched. We had to call and ask for it to be done, so we headed to the pool for a bit. Had the same experience on Sunday. We spent the entire day pool side ( we were down there by 9:30) and again, room hadn't been touched when husband went up at 3:30. Had to call again. They did no more than pull up the sheets and replace towels the entire time. Never touched the dirty cups and glasses. I had to leave a note for replacements. I did get a survey via email just after we checked out today and I plan to address these issues.

Pool was awesome as usual. Entertainment was fun, drinks delish and food yummy! Saw attendants going around all day removing towels from chairs that stayed unoccupied for long stretches.

Despite these few things we had a great time as usual!

 

[Music City Mama]

I'm at HRH now. Our housekeeper has been pretty good but I guess it's luck of the draw. We were here last in 2012 and I like HRH better than RPR. Good food and I like the vibe. Parks are more crowded than 3 years ago and we were here later in June last time. Express has long waits at times. Kinda surprised about that. Universal has been opening at 8:30 every day. Loved Gringotts! Having a good time. We move over to WDW tomorrow.

 

[vatmark]

I don't like hearing that express has long waits. When we were there this same time 2 years ago we never had long waits for express. We will arrive this Sunday and I hope crowds aren't too out of control.

Ann

 

[angryduck71]

At one point, they sent us to the wrong line for Dudley Doo Right -- I realized it when we went again and were sent to the "correct" express pass line. I should've looked up and noticed myself but geez...

 

[pigby]

We are there this Friday for a week and visiting from the UK, but are going to Cabana Bay this time - we have been to the other 3 hotels and wanted to do this one so will be the first time we haven't had FOTL. Did you notice how long the standby lines were?

Was the weather the usual mix of hot then an afternoon thunderstorm most days?

 

[bas71873]

We are there this Friday for a week and visiting from the UK, but are going to Cabana Bay this time - we have been to the other 3 hotels and wanted to do this one so will be the first time we haven't had FOTL. Did you notice how long the standby lines were?

Was the weather the usual mix of hot then an afternoon thunderstorm most days?

I won't lie. Standby lines were LONG!! Minions was consistently well over an hour wait, most times posting 85/90 minutes. All the Harry Potter stuff...pure crazy and long lines for everything. Personally, I'd change hotels or buy the FOTL.


Yes. Typical Florida summer weather pattern, although I didn't find it oppressively humid.

 

[pigby]

I appreciate your honesty. However for this trip, Cabana Bay was at the top end of our budget so it was either that, offsite or not go at all - those flight prices from the UK are a killer.

We have been to the parks many times though and if we don't ride so many as normal in the course of a day, so be it - we also plan to disappear back to our pool halfway through the day as we love the look of that pool at CBR. Also most of the clothes in my luggage is 50's style so I would need a whole new wardrobe if I switched resorts.

 

[mamattorney]

I have a couple of questions -

(a) what do you consider a long wait for express pass? Was it more than 15 minutes? We haven't been to Universal in several years (the Year HP opened at IOA) and have never had express pass, so I have no frame of reference

(b) We are going to buy single park tickets (one day at each park - so no Hogwarts Express for us). For EE, how long before 8:00a.m. should we get there? Are there just mobs of people? I see you said the Studios opened at 8:30am. instead of the posted 9:00a.m. What time would you recommend getting to the gate on a Studios day to try to be one off the first wave of people? Are people sprinting to Diagon Alley (Like Anna and Elsa or Mine Train)?

 

[macraven]

most TMs will say that express lines should be 20 minutes or less.


i have been in the line for DE express line and it was longer than the projected 20.

they do stagger the line so that those in standby get inside the building in between allowing so many in the ep lines

 

[RMulieri]

The only time I have ever waited more than 20 mins in express was for Despicable me .Were the waits longer than 20 mins ?

 

[HM]

I appreciate your honesty. However for this trip, Cabana Bay was at the top end of our budget so it was either that, offsite or not go at all - those flight prices from the UK are a killer.

We have been to the parks many times though and if we don't ride so many as normal in the course of a day, so be it - we also plan to disappear back to our pool halfway through the day as we love the look of that pool at CBR. Also most of the clothes in my luggage is 50's style so I would need a whole new wardrobe if I switched resorts.

We are in the same boat for our short trip in July. Looking forward to CB. We've already decided not to do some of the headliner roller coasters (partly because I wrenched my neck a bit last trip on something and don't want to repeat that), go in for EE , and visit the pool midday during our trip. All my prior trips up to last year were staying offsite and standing in lines in the heat of summer or spring break. We did just fine.

 

[Bluer101]

CB is very nice. We tried it for 2 days in March and really liked it a lot. We did not do the parks at all and really enjoyed the resort itself. Then we moved over to RPR.

I was trying to stay next month at CB again for a few days before moving to RPR but the difference between the tower poolside family suite and RPR was only $55 more. So I cannot justify staying at CB for that little savings. We will hit CB after the summer when they have some slow times deals.

 

[macraven]

The only time I have ever waited more than 20 mins in express was for Despicable me .Were the waits longer than 20 mins ?

last october, i timed it and had 2 different waits for 30 minutes.
it's unusual, but it happened when there were tour groups in the parks a few days.

it is also possible to happen near the close of the park day.

 

[Cadiewampus]

Another I noticed a couple of weeks ago was on Gringotts. First time we road it we got in the single rider line. For whatever reason we found it much faster to just do the standby line even if it was a 30 minute wait. As a matter of fact we jumped out of the single rider line the first time after we had been it over 40 minutes and jumped in standby line. It was the part of the line where you get to the winding stairs going up. For whatever reason there were not any groups coming off the elevators in the standby que so big gap and we took advantage of it

 

[HM]

Another I noticed a couple of weeks ago was on Gringotts. First time we road it we got in the single rider line. For whatever reason we found it much faster to just do the standby line even if it was a 30 minute wait. As a matter of fact we jumped out of the single rider line the first time after we had been it over 40 minutes and jumped in standby line. It was the part of the line where you get to the winding stairs going up. For whatever reason there were not any groups coming off the elevators in the standby que so big gap and we took advantage of it

We thought about doing that when the single rider line didn't move for ages and we were right there, but restrained ourselves.

 

[bas71873]

I have a couple of questions -

(a) what do you consider a long wait for express pass? Was it more than 15 minutes? We haven't been to Universal in several years (the Year HP opened at IOA) and have never had express pass, so I have no frame of reference

(b) We are going to buy single park tickets (one day at each park - so no Hogwarts Express for us). For EE, how long before 8:00a.m. should we get there? Are there just mobs of people? I see you said the Studios opened at 8:30am. instead of the posted 9:00a.m. What time would you recommend getting to the gate on a Studios day to try to be one off the first wave of people? Are people sprinting to Diagon Alley (Like Anna and Elsa or Mine Train)?

For me personally, anything over 15/20 minutes is not express and plenty of them were this trip.....Hulk, Dudley Doo Right, Minion Ride, Simpsons, Shrek and even Twister believe it or not on Friday.

On our EE day, we got to IOA right at 8:00 AM (we just couldn't get moving), but we just walked right through the entrance and headed to HP land (and yes, it was like herding cattle cause everyone was being directed there). We went right to Forbidden Journey (no FOTL for this ride) from beginning to end for this ride it took 35 minutes to ride. Thankfully, we didn't need a required locker. That area was a zoo and it really held things up if you needed to store your stuff. The walk through the que for this ride took FOREVER! I wish they had a line for people that don't care about all the stuff in the que. My family doesn't.

Having said all that, I would say if you want to speed things up, get there earlier and 8:00 and don't store anything. After that ride, you can do the Hippo family coaster and the dragons, both have FOTL, pretty quickly. I did notice that as we were walking to the FJ in the AM, people were already lined up to get on the train over to US for Gringotts and there was a line to get into the wand shop too.

I guess if you are an HP fan then EE is worth it, but for us, we didn't find it to be all that smoothly done, but that's really not IOA's fault. I think it's simply just too many people with EE access and everyone is going to the same place with the same plan.

 

[bas71873]

The only time I have ever waited more than 20 mins in express was for Despicable me .Were the waits longer than 20 mins ?

There were a few times. Minions pretty much all the time, but others had longer waits too.