No more Express Pass machines!

[robvia]

The FOTL is their sell point on hotels, and personally, I wouldn't see staying onsite for those prices at all. I live 4 hours away, so I drive, so transportation is easy and I'd stay offsite if FOTL wasn't given onsite, as would plenty others I'm sure.

We also drive up from Ft. Lauderdale and stay onsite once a year. This time will be at the PBH, then we've done all 3. The reason, is we can bring our lab. The other reason, the pools are great. We also stay offsite to save money, but those pools are boring. So besides the FOTL, the onsite hotels offer great pools, and you "feel" like part of the action. I'd say it's worth the money as a splurge trip if you can use AAA to get a discount.

As to express passes, I agree they need to make it hotel guests only. Regular guests will get frustrated watching mobs of people pass by, and from the reports I'm reading here, it seems the ride ops are not doing 50/50. More like let all the express in. The regular guy who shows up to the park at 11am, with his family, and has never been on these boards, is going to be so frustrated with the long lines.

 

[Pooh Fan]

My personal desire would be to eliminate express except for onsite hotel guests at Universal. I've never like the paid express myself.

I completely agree with you. I don't like the paid express. That seems to have made the express lines alot longer. We always fork over the money to stay onsite because my husband does not like lines. The last 2 trips, we have noticed the lines getting longer for express since they started the express plus for sale.

 

[Whartonbound]

Yea, this move by Universal angered me. It just completely disregards most of their guests. Usually Universal is smart and follows Disney when it comes to things like this. This time they seemed to have liked Six Flags' approach better, so they followed them. I don't know bout you all, but Six Flags is the last park chain I'd like to be emulating.

 

[Notatourist]

I know you don't believe this but the waits are actually shorter than they were with free express.

 

[phamton]

I know you don't believe this but the waits are actually shorter than they were with free express.

You are correct but, unfortunately, we aren't going to convince many of the people here. Although, the records which are kept do prove this, people still think that the plural of anecdote is data. If you went at a busy time of year or happened to hit a ride at a particularly popular time, you assume that express plus has increased your wait time.

 

[Notatourist]

Yeah, I know Phantom, I know.

 

[Peter Pirate]

What records?

 

[phamton]

What records?

We could tell you but then we'd have to kill you.

 

[Shooby doo]

Express pass may or may not have been a good thing,having gone to Us in the "old" days when there wasn't any & queueing for Back to the Future for 2 hours,I could see the hook for them BUT baring in mind if I was there for 2 hours so were the people behind me!! Now it's like standing in line at the cinema & just as you are getting close to the front,the person at the front calls 200 of the friends to come & join them there,no-one is going to be best pleased!
Now Us has always been my favourite park & we normally try to go at least twice BUT if we have a bad experience with "no-express" then it may be our last visit.
Should we therefore buy Express passes,baring in mind that by the time we arrive in Florida our vacation will already have cost in the region of $12000,I feel that we have paid enough!!
SD

 

[bubba's mom]

I guess whoever spends the most gets the prize...so to speak.

Ain't that the way....money talks. While on vacation last year, we knew we were going to USO this year and for a year, I've been saving and scrimping...every spare dollar I had is put away for this trip! Have enuf for everything...well, except eating!! Do we need to eat?? Well, we have some time to go yet...we'll be fine. FWIW, we're staying onsite because of the FOTL....I also have a DH that hates standing in lines....

 

[phamton]

Lol, thats just a nice way of saying she has none.

Surely you aren't naive enough to think that all the themeparks don't keep precise records. I can guarantee you that they can pull up line wait times for every given day. I know for a fact that they can pull it up by the minute on a daily basis. Don't believe me, just stop by Guest Services and ask then to pull up the wait time for any ride at that moment.

 

[Sleepy]

I know WDW hands a piece of paper to select visitors in a standby line. It judges just how long it takes a person to get from point A to point B. It happened to us a few years ago on the Safari ride in AK. Not sure if they still do this, but it can make things pretty accurate for documentation.

 

[phamton]

I don't know how WDW does it but at Universal you can stop by Guest Services and they can pull up the wait times on their computers and tell you what it is for any ride.

 

[Sylvester McBean]

WDW uses a keycard on a lanyard. a CM taps the card on a ROM button and hands it to a guest at the entrance to the queue. the guest gives it to the ride op who taps it again, instant wait time calculation. I'm sure any major theme park can pull up the wait time from any attraction at this moment for years back, that's important data to have.

 

[mill4023]

Surely you aren't naive enough to think that all the themeparks don't keep precise records. I can guarantee you that they can pull up line wait times for every given day. I know for a fact that they can pull it up by the minute on a daily basis. Don't believe me, just stop by Guest Services and ask then to pull up the wait time for any ride at that moment.

I don't think the poster was questioning whether or not the park keeps data on wait times. They were questioning whether or not YOU have all the data and statistical analysis needed to be able to support your claim that the records PROVE that wait times were longer with free express passes.

If I had to guess, I'd say Universal doesn't particularly care about the wait times except in relation to how they affect attendance and revenue. The fact that they decided to stick by the decision to remove free express only means that they must be making more money now, regardless of any affect on wait times.

Unless your job at Universal is to do statistical analysis on wait times, the fact that you work there doesn't mean you have "proof", or even evidence of shorter waits.

 

[Sylvester McBean]

Well said. Clearly phamton was more intent on attacking my post than actually reading it.

I disagree, I believe phamton is simply backing her point. however, standby times at IOA have been horrible lately. US has been pretty close to what it was before the demise of free EP's with a couple of exceptions. I haven't been to UO for about 3 weeks because of spring break crowds, but I'm going off and on next week. I'm interested to see the standby times compared to last year.

 

[AndRu]

Cost of flying my family to Orlando - $5000
Cost of hiring a villa - $2400
Cost of car hire - $1000
Cost of 5 park flex tickets - $1158
Cost of spending money - $4500
Total cost - $14,058+

And now Universal want me to pay again on a daily basis for a Fast / Express pass?

Oh, that's priceless. It's like going to the cinema and having to pay at the door and again before you're allowed to sit down. Having experienced both systems on our last visit in February '05, I don't see what the problem is. The Disney system was (is) good as it allows you to go to a ride at a certain time and once all the FP's have gone, they've gone. At least everyone had a fair chance.

I hate to say this but it will change our plans for our next trip. If the parks are going to be that busy that the queue times are 90+ mins and you have to pay extra to get into a shorter line then there doesn't seem to be any point in visiting. Might as well pay the one off entry fee to Sea World and skip the other UO parks all together.

 

[mattman2k]

They should do away with the express all together and only give FOTL to the onsite guests. Is that treating them special? You bet! But the onsite guests pay well for that special treatment. Just as the WDW onsite guests pay for the Extra Magic Hours. They offer these kind of perks to justify their high prices. And in the case of Universal I think it's money well spent.

$.02

 

[lindalinda]

Cost of flying my family to Orlando - $5000
Cost of hiring a villa - $2400
Cost of car hire - $1000
Cost of 5 park flex tickets - $1158
Cost of spending money - $4500
Total cost - $14,058+

Holy Cow 14Gs for vacation! I save all year for mine but thats college education money to me!

 

[bubba's mom]

Holy Cow 14Gs for vacation!

They're from England...don't forget! You see the airfare??? THAT would kill us alone!!!!