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Universal Orlando Resort (USO, IOA) Discussion Thread

p. 623 - New Epic Universe details, including Celestial Park!

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What's the for the Dragon Challenge about? At a 15 minute wait time you can ride it more often in one day!

That's awesome, yes! The sad face is that for some reason that ride got the love from the GP it deserved.

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I am pretty sad to see Jaws go even though I only rode it a few times when it first came out way back when. I know this was an older ride but it still was a fantastic fun experience. I wonder with the amount of land that it took up, was it only time before they did the demo and capitalized on the amount of land that jaws took up? Or was it more of a popularity dated issue with the ride? I would think that this is premium land for Universal and Jaws had been on the chopping block waiting for something like Potter

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^ I have heard a number of stories, one of them being that Jaws was considered to be removed a couple of years ago for a project that never happened, another that it's gone now because, the original Potter expansion that was supposed to go where Poseidon/Sindbad/Mythos is now, was given the thumbs down by Miss Potter herself because the two worlds the attractions are based on are not near each other, and therefore they could not be near each other in the parks.

 

Universal took note - and figured it would be a great (if not evil genius) idea to have Potter in BOTH parks, which basically forces Potter fans to buy a two-park ticket to get the "whole Potter experience."

 

Now we just have to hope that Potter has enough staying power to keep people clicking through the turnstiles now that the books and movies are done, otherwise in 10-15 years it will all be gone again!

 

--Robb

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Thanks for the update Robb, as you said it's very sad to see Amity in pieces. I was lucky enough to take my first trip to the park literally weeks before the destruction began, was a fantastic ride but i suppose we look forward. Maybe im asking a question that has already been answered, but have any plans been drawn for a possible replacement on that site?

 

Also, excellent pictures. Thanks for putting the effort in.

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I can't believe how massive that piece of land looks. I haven't been on Jaws since I was a kid but I never remember it having a footprint like that. Wow. I'm not a Harry Potter fan at all but I welcome a new roller coaster anytime! The IOA Harry Potter section was cleary a huge success, overcrowded often, so this expansion seems very logical. I have seen some of the films but I don't recall a scene in a bank/vault.. What movie will the new coaster be themed after? I'd like to watch the scene in question to see what kind of show sets we might expect.

 

Robb, I agree with your comment about hoping these attractions will "last" so to speak 10 years down the road. I imagine they will still be popular two decades from now, Jaws was still quite popular as an attraction and the film came out a long time ago. I saw Jaws part 1 maybe once, in bits and pieces and it was.. ok to me, maybe I would have appreciated it more when I was a kid. The ride, however, was awesome to me just for the sheer excitement and elaborate set design. I have a feeling the high-tech 3d dark ride and the indoor roller coaster they will build will still be wildly popular down the road, even if the next generation doesn't appreciate Potter the way kids do nowadays. I hope so anyways, I wish Universal all the luck in the world with this project, but I know they don't need it.

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Robb, I agree with your comment about hoping these attractions will "last" so to speak 10 years down the road. I imagine they will still be popular two decades from now

 

Just throwing something out there, but Potter's been around since the 90s, which is a pretty long time for a series of books/movies to keep their popularity. If Potter didn't have staying power, it wouldn't be as popular as it is now.

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^Yeah, I don't think Potter's "staying power" in much in question, whether you love or hate the series. (Hell, Lord of the Rings has been around a lot longer, and it wasn't even a big hit when the books were first published.)

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Remember that rumor I posted back in January about Universal Orlando making some kind of big change to the Universal Express system? This was followed up by a survey from Universal in Mid-March asking about possible names for a new version of Universal Express that would feature a hand-held reservation unit of some kind? Well… check out the little yellow gadget hanging from the belt of a crew member at Islands of Adventure that was sent in over the weekend.

If you’ve never seen one before, that is a Q-Bot, a nifty little wireless ride reservation system device. You don’t need to go to the attraction to use it, you can put yourself into the virtual queue and select your ride time from anywhere within the park and just show up when its your time to ride. I’ve used them myself at Six Flags and Dollywood and they work very very well. So looks like either Q-Bot is coming to Universal… or at least Universal is testing out the system for consideration.

 

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^Not just their own system, but their own, better system. I would rather have a paper ticket to skip lines without waiting than hassle with a q-bot and wait for reservations all day. This could remove a lot of the advantage of HHN express...

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^Disagree. Q-bots make everything so much easier.

 

Same. QBot is by far my favotie "skip the line" system used at any park. Especially when you can upgrade them for shorter wait times. I'd love to see these rolled out at Universal, as well as every other major park. It just makes it so much easier to spend a day at a park and get on all the attractions you want without stressing about it.

 

dt

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^Disagree. Q-bots make everything so much easier.

 

Same. QBot is by far my favotie "skip the line" system used at any park. Especially when you can upgrade them for shorter wait times. I'd love to see these rolled out at Universal, as well as every other major park. It just makes it so much easier to spend a day at a park and get on all the attractions you want without stressing about it.

 

dt

 

While I agree that a lot of people on this site are absolutely in love with Q Bots, I do question how this is a good thing for guests at Universal. With the current system, you enter the line whenever you want and only have them scan a paper ticket. A Q Bot would actually give you less rides and you would have to deal with the device. I know that they work well at Six Flags and Dollywood but this would be a downgrade to Universal's current system. A Q Bot can't possibly be easier than a paper ticket that gives you immediate access.

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While I agree that a lot of people on this site are absolutely in love with Q Bots, I do question how this is a good thing for guests at Universal. With the current system, you enter the line whenever you want and only have them scan a paper ticket. A Q Bot would actually give you less rides and you would have to deal with the device. I know that they work well at Six Flags and Dollywood but this would be a downgrade to Universal's current system. A Q Bot can't possibly be easier than a paper ticket that gives you immediate access.

 

And how do you know how Hotel Guests Q-Bots will be programmed. Is it possible that Hotel Guests Q-Bots will not be subject to wait times and hotel guests just scan them at the ride entrance making it as easy to use as a paper ticket.

 

Q-Bots allow the park to monitor Express line usage instantly.

 

The current system is not "perfect" or the park wouldn't be changing. What is the current process if paper Express Passes are lost? Is that a burden on manpower? Do people leave the park early and sell their Express Passes for others to use? Maybe someone knows those answers, I don't.

Edited by larrygator
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I've never been to Universal during the most peak times but, from what I've seen during my travels, the current system works very well.

 

From a hotel guest perspective- I stay at one of the Universal hotels solely for this benefit... This is Universal's trump card.

 

For an upcharge Universal Express pass person- I ride all the rides once that might have lines.

 

From a person who doesn't fall into either category- I don't feel like I'm waiting a longer to ride since the universal express pass queues rarely have lines.

 

 

I love q-bot, but I don't really see what benefit it would provide Universal. The only way I see this helping Universal's bottom line is if there is a huge Harry Potter following that would pay for an express pass/q-bot simply so they could ride Harry Potter over and over again. Oh $hit, there probably is a market for that.

 

Otherwise q-bot is just a complicated, revenue grabbing layer, that Universal doesn't need....

 

-Chris "I still love you q-bot, please return my phonecalls" Con

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Is it possible that Hotel Guests Q-Bots will not be subject to wait times and hotel guests just scan them at the ride entrance making it as easy to use as a paper ticket.

 

But if Universal's qbot is anything like those at other Parks, it means you have to carry around a $250 replacement-value electronic device that isn't waterproof. A paper ticket, even if they had a nominal replacement fee, sounds a lot better to me.

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What Universal needs more than Q-Bots is an educational video at the front gate for people to learn how to use the single rider lines. If you have a group of 8 people, DO NOT USE THE SINGLE RIDER LINE. In fact, they should restrict the single rider line to groups of 2 or fewer. Because it's REALLY obnoxious when I get in the single rider line and come up behind a monstrous group of people all wearing matching t-shirts thinking they're getting a shorter wait because they're in the "short" line, when in reality they are causing the line to bog down and making the wait twice as long as the regular line.

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