My letter to Universal (re: Sept. closures)

[unclescroogefan]

I dont understand.The water rides and area of the playground where there is water are closed down in October because its cold?From everything Ive heard & read, its still warm in October, in the 80s.We havent been in almost 7 yrs, and we changed our plans to add an extra day and skip one of our length of stay at WDW just to go to US & IOA.

 

[strawberryblonde]

About Fievel's playland and slide......

I was told by 3 employee's yesterday on the phone that Fievel's water slide is already closed as of Sept. 1st and that the entire playland would be closed Oct 1st on. Perhaps they were wrong but I'm not banking on it because they would have liked to have told me it would be open if they could .

Sorry to hear about the height restriction at Barney's playland, the older kids on their own are all polite but add a cousin or two , and they can get hyper! We will have to see how it goes and have back up ideas.

We are all very excited about our upcomming trip. My kids look forward to playing with their cousins most of all. That is why the playland closures have been such a big dissapointment to me when in a few years it wouldn't matter at all. There is no accounting for individual taste and what is the most important attraction to different people. This trip we happened to be counting on the playlands and we will be losing out on those, bad timing, oh well.......

 

[dturner]

I've been hanging out, reading all the posts concerning closures at US/IOA and it's making me nervous.

We will be there the last week of Sept., first week Oct. with DS (7), I saw that Jaws is closing first week in October, anyone know what constitutes first week of October because Oct. 1 is on a Wed? and does anyone know for sure when Ripsaw will be closed down, I've heard/read numerous things and really would like that to be open as we are only doing US/IOA and SW this time.

 

[TigerBear]

The ride closure are nothing like when I went to DL for the first (and possibly only) time March 2002: Space, Splash, & Pirates. Talk about disappointment. Go and have fun!

 

[TigerBear]

Oh - the Blue Bayou was closed too...I think that disappointed me the most.

 

[damo]

At DL right now Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain are closed.

 

[WernerW]

Why did they close down Big Thunder Mountain??

 

[damo]

There was a major accident last week in which a man was killed and 10 others injured because of a mechanical failure on the ride. Check out http://www.miceage.com for details.

 

[robvia]

Sorry to hear it.

Back on topic.

Official Sign in front of DD with ride operating hours.
Fire - 10-5pm
Ice 12-7

Both coasters only duel between 12-5pm. Can you say Joke?

I went there Sunday afternoon at 4pm. The place already seemed dead.
Hulk - 5 min.
Dr. Doom 5 min.
Rip Saw Falls 5 Min
JPRA 5-min
Deuling Dragons - 10 minutes BUT they only had 1 train running.
It seemed to take forever for each train to load, plus there was
no thrill effect of riding one side.

I did my 2nd to front trick. Got the front, rode on ICE. Let me tell you, it was missing something. The encounters we're missing, the ride was nothing. Went to the front of the park and filled out a FEEDBACK form.

People, do this. As you exit the park, head to the left to guest services and ask for a feedback form. Let them know how you feel about late openings and early ride closures.

Not only that. Most of the crowd was leaving at 5pm. It's as if people know the park is about to close, and give up. Meanwhile, I drove my car to Disney and went to MGM, which was closing at 08:30pm. I ate dinner there. I spent a whopping $3 at USF because they closed early. Whereas I spent $20 at MGM and $20 at SWF.

Meanwhile.

SWF opened on Monday Sept 8th with Kracken and JTA open at 9am. Thanks SWF, got many rides. Crowd quickly built up at 11am. But they rewarded the early crowd. This is where I ate Lunch and had a beer for $20. The wood oven Pizza from Voyagers is da bomb.

IOA, open at 9am all the time, and have all rides running full blast.
No excuses.

I mean, I got 4 rides on Kraken (2 front seat), and 1 on JTA, before 10am. Then I ate an early lunch at Voyagers at 11am. Gosh, IOA was barely open at this point.

I don't care if it's the slow season. There we're still alot of people coming to SWF.

 

[TigerLaw]

robvia,

quick question for you, why was fire not running when you were at the park, as by the schedule you posted, both sides should have been running

thanks for the info, while I am still upset over the closures, this was the major one to me, and I am glad to know that there is still some "dueling" going on.

 

[robvia]

Why was Fire not running? It's scheduled that way now.
There is a sign in front of the ride with the hours on it.
One side of the sign is red for fire, the other blue for ice with the times listed. It's a huge sign, you can't miss it as you walk up to the ride.

 

[damo]

I think Tigerlaw meant that you said you were at the park at 4 pm so both trains should have been running, according to the sign.

My guess is that it must have been after 5 by the time you wandered over to DD?

 

[robvia]

Originally posted by damo
My guess is that it must have been after 5 by the time you wandered over to DD?

That is correct. I arrived at 4pm, and went clockwise doing the rides in order. If I had known one side was going to be closed, I would have gone the other direction to DD first.

 

[paulakim]

We visited Universal Studios and Islands in November of 2002 from the 22nd to the 28th and I honestly can't remember any of the attractions being closed including the water rides or play areas. Most days were in the 70's but the evenings and mornings were a little chilly. So if they are closing the water rides due to it being "cold" this must be something new and I will have a couple of very disappointed kids for our next Nov. trip.

 

[MrsMud]

Well, I hate to be the first one to bail, but I have decided against US/IOA this trip (even though I already bought the tickets). There are just too many closures of rides/attractions that my daughters would enjoy, and although most of the "big" rides are open, they can't do alot of them. So, we are going to WDW instead. We will try Universal our next trip (NOT in early Oct.), and I'm sure we'll have a great time then. But for now, we're looking forward to seeing The Mouse!

 

[polkadotminnie]

I hate that we will miss you, but enjoy Disney. We haven't bought tickets yet and I haven't decided what to do. We've been to Disney already this year as well as US/IOA. We may buy the premium Seaworld and Busch Gardens annual pass. We are no longer going to buy the 2 year US/IOA pass (because of closures), but maybe the AP with blackout dates. Have a super trip!!

 

[RedFish123]

Sounds like people are still upset about the closures. I know me and my wife are... If we had known that there were going to be so many this fall, we would have just gone this summer.

Anyways, I plan on making a pest of myself and posting complaints to guest services about this when we get there. (The least they could do is have a tenative closure schedule up a few months ahead of time.)

Tigerlaw, did you ever get s response to your email? Who did you address it to? I was planniung on sending an email and a snail mail myself. Anybody know who the best department it would be to address a letter to?

 

[TigerLaw]

the response was kinda funny. I had called the day before and basically expressed the same thoughts I did in the letter. Now I don't remember giving any contact info out over the phone, but the response I got from the email was essentially along the lines of "we logges your call from the day before and your concerns will be forwarded to the appropiate people" in a way to say the letter was unnecessary. I was hoping that some people would know all of the major universal people to send the letter to like (like how we have the disney addresses on the rumors and news board) but no one gave me anything, so all I could send to was guest services.

 

[RedFish123]

Well, I'm gonna call guest Services this weekend and see what I can find out. Maybe I can get the address of someone who matters at the park.

At least you got a reply.

I think if enough people complain, Universal will hopefully re-think how it does closures. While there are valid reasons to have numerous attractions down at one time, they should really have some idea a few months in advance and tell the paying customers what MAY be closed in the upcomming months. If I had known they planned on this many closures, I would have just gone in early August (which we were planning on doing).

 

[robvia]

I'm sure they know, the suits read this board. Plus I filled out a feedback form, and Lance from Screamscape is writing an e-mail to their PR person because I also told him.

What gets me, is that the parks shut down in September because school is back, yet the weather is great, especially up north, and there are still plenty of tourists from Japan and the UK visiting Florida. Too bad they can't move the school year forward a month.
Take Cedar Point for example. In May, the mornings are freezing. Yet right now, they have perfect days and the park is closed during the week.
It's like IOA is following their lead and giving up for the month of September.