Universal and handling crowds

[DisCopper]

I've said this for years, but having just been to see Harry Potter, I'll say it again: Universal is terrible at handling crowds.

In my experience, the wait times are often incorrect. One experience with Revenge of the Mummy: the sign said 45 minutes. We waited 2 hours plus (and that was without breakdowns). Similar experiences on other attractions.

This weekend at Harry Potter, they had the line for Forbidden Journey stretching out of Hogwarts, around the corner, across the bridge, and into Jurassic Park. Once inside, we saw that there were sections of the line that weren't being used. They could have easily pushed that entire line into the castle. I realize parks sometimes do this on purpose. Near the end of the night, Disney will often close off much of the interior line for Space Mountain. People then see the line stretching out the door and assume it's a long wait. But at Harry Potter, this was at 9:30am. All the line was doing was causing traffic problems outside.

Whoever designed the Three Broomsticks was out of their mind. I'm not talking about the theming: it looked AWESOME. But the whole ordering process was crazy. Be directed to which register to pay, then cross a crowd of people to get to where you pick up the food. Then cross the crowd again to carry your food to the dining area. It's clear that no one did any type of efficiency walk-through in the planning process.

Don't get me wrong: I love Universal. I just always come away frustrated that they can't move people well.

 

[Lou Holtz]

You're correct. I don't know when you went that you had to wait two hours for Mummy though. Did you get in line at 4PM on July 4th or something?


When I went, I was frustrated at the crowd control for park opening. They line everyone up and don't open the gates until exactly 8AM. So you have to wait 20 minutes to get into the park out of your extra hour unless you got there an hour early to avoid waiting 20 minutes (which doesn't make sense to me). What is so hard about opening the gates at 7:45 and holding people back just inside until it's time? It's not like the employees aren't all standing there ready to go.

 

[derekburgan]

It's an odd strategy. Same thing happened at Busch Gardens on my last trip. I would think you could even use that opportunity for possible sales to a captive audience. Let them in to a contained area and have a bunch of people trying to sell stuff to people trying to calm down their anxious kids.

 

[Planogirl]

We have luckily never had to wait for the Mummy for that long either. Wow, that would make me crazy.

I do agree that the setup at the Three Broomsticks is odd. I had to struggle through people waiting with a big tray loaded with stuff. Luckily we at least like the food.

 

[PammyK]

I've said this for years, but having just been to see Harry Potter, I'll say it again: Universal is terrible at handling crowds.

...

Don't get me wrong: I love Universal. I just always come away frustrated that they can't move people well.

I cannot disagree with you and only wish someone at Universal would actually realize this and do something to try to resolve it. I'm still amazed that there haven't been serious injuries or even fatalities due to their lack of decent crowd control, especially during special events. It is the one thing that I constantly bring up in surveys or when speaking with managers when at the parks. Unfortunately, they just don't seem to take the problem seriously.

 

[Metro West]

I cannot disagree with you and only wish someone at Universal would actually realize this and do something to try to resolve it. I'm still amazed that there haven't been serious injuries or even fatalities due to their lack of decent crowd control, especially during special events. It is the one thing that I constantly bring up in surveys or when speaking with managers when at the parks. Unfortunately, they just don't seem to take the problem seriously.

I agree completely! Mardi Gras is a perfect example of no crowd control and the main reason I don't go that much any longer. It's a mob scene every night there's a concert and yet nothing seems to improve. There is no crowd movement and won't be as long as they continue to have the conerts in the band shell. I don't see why they couldn't move the concerts to the Fear Factor arena on a first come first serve basis. At least everyone would see and there wouldn't be a log jam of people in the front of the park.

Surprisingly...Halloween Horror Nights hasn't bothered me in the least over the years. I've been going for seven years now and have never experienced a crowd control problem so I don't know what the difference is.

 

[xApril]

I find the wait time thing to be opposite for me. It's always higher than the actual wait.

 

[Jennasis]

Agreed. We found, without fail, that wait times were grossly underestimated. It was extremely frustrating.

 

[PammyK]

Surprisingly, Thursday night at HHN the posted wait times were longer than the actual wait times. Maybe they are starting to take guest feedback more seriously and are erring on the side of caution by overestimating the wait times rather than underestimating them?

 

[damo]

Surprisingly, Thursday night at HHN the posted wait times were longer than the actual wait times. Maybe they are starting to take guest feedback more seriously and are erring on the side of caution by overestimating the wait times rather than underestimating them?

That's been my experience over the past ten years. We go quite a bit and it has been rare that the wait time posted is less than the actual wait. I actually can't remember one time --- so if it was, it was minimal.

 

[*LittleMermaid*]

When you see that line outside the castle so early in the morning is because they are waiting for the lockers...

 

[JenM]

When I went, I was frustrated at the crowd control for park opening. They line everyone up and don't open the gates until exactly 8AM. So you have to wait 20 minutes to get into the park out of your extra hour unless you got there an hour early to avoid waiting 20 minutes (which doesn't make sense to me). What is so hard about opening the gates at 7:45 and holding people back just inside until it's time? It's not like the employees aren't all standing there ready to go.

That happened when we were there last month, too. Fortunately the park was reasonably quiet (WWoHP was crowded, but not unmanagable), but the early entry was ridiculous. The lines weren't moving to get in, they couldn't get the finger scanner working for anyone, they were stopping whole families to get them to sign their tickets if they hadn't done so already. It was crazy.

I think it was about 8:20 when we finally got through the gates, and about 8:30 by the time we got to WWoHP. So much for that extra hour.

The next day when we did it again, we got through the gates a little quicker, but the only ride open at WWoHP was Flight of the Hippogriff. FJ was down, but they were letting everyone tour the castle. Luckily for us it re-opened while we were taking pictures inside, so we wound up getting to ride it twice that morning.

 

[Jason71]

Surprisingly...Halloween Horror Nights hasn't bothered me in the least over the years. I've been going for seven years now and have never experienced a crowd control problem so I don't know what the difference is.

I don't know, coming out of Bill & Ted is often as harrowing as anything I've ever seen at Mardi Gras (except the Sean Paul concert, that was a unique nightmare).

In Universal's defense, after the Mardi Gras parade they do try to steer people out Rodeo Drive. But most guests seem to adopt the herd mentality and try to walk out past the stage.