Explain details on virtual line?

[disneylover102]

I know you can get a virtual line pass for the Jimmy Fallon ride and Fast and Furious. Can you get one for both and can you get multiple for both? And these are no extra charge (like Fastpass+), right?

 

[damo]

Yes you can get them for both and there is no charge.

 

[MikeNamez]

I have only done this with Jimmy Fallon but from my experience the virtual line is infuriating.First, I want to point out that the time needs to be reserved in your Universal App which there was very little direction from any of the TM's. No biggie, I eventually figured it out and had a return time window a few hours after I had made it (They give out return times windows similar to disney FP+).

Once we showed up about half way through the window we were sent into the building and waited in a hallway. After about 25 minutes they let us into a large room and handed us colored cards. The cards represented in what order you would be transferred to the next room (Room after room after room after room after room is what it felt like) as the big NBC logo on the wall lights up when its your turn.

After 20-30 minutes of waiting there our color was called and we were herded upstairs to ANOTHER WAITING AREA. This wasn't as bad as the previous one as they had some interactive tables, some sofa's/chairs and some singers/dancers performing with a guy dressed as a panda (Apparently the panda is a known Jimmy Fallon thing?)

However, this is where they really started to lose me. Once we were up there we had to wait again for our color to be called. Now naturally you would assume if you have made it this far and your number is called you should be prettttttty close to getting on. NOPE. We waited for 3 or 4 more colors to be called before ours was so another 40 minutes of sitting around.

Color was finally called and then into another line before finally loading into the theater. So all-in-all from the time I reserved the virtual line time to actually making it onto the ride was about 4 hours. INSANE especially for how poor the ride is. I would NEVER EVER do virtual line again and that included FF even though I haven't been on it. Either a EP is needed or walk on only so at least I expect a long wait. What a way to kill 4 hours.

This may not be everyone's experience, but it was my first go at it and will never try again.

 

[macraven]

Not a fan of the virtual line.

I had a 40-45 minute wait in the virtual line.....


Did it three times and they all had long wait.

Ride itself was a fail for me.



Guess I was lucky as it took MikeNamez about 4 hours.....

 

[MikeNamez]

Not a fan of the virtual line.

I had a 40-45 minute wait in the virtual line.....


Did it three times and they all had long wait.

Ride itself was a fail for me.



Guess I was lucky as it took MikeNamez about 4 hours.....

Worst part was we were all the way in JP/IOA and was thinking about just skipping. We hadn't done the ride before so we rushed back over to UO and then all that happened. Maybe the perfect storm but either way just left me with a sour taste. Total wait time in the ride was probably an hour and a half but 4 hours from "Wanna try virtual line?' to "God that was awful"

 

[glocon]

Is the virtual line the only one that does the colors? Or is that how it works for the standby and EP lines too?

 

[macraven]

I had the hotel unlimited ep and received a color.

My wait was very long ...........

The vitual line was not my friend when I did that ride.

 

[slpeters]

My understanding, someone correct me if I'm wrong, is that the EP doesn't actually skip the rooms and the colors and the like, you just get to start all that without reserving a time and coming back.

 

[pattyw]

My understanding, someone correct me if I'm wrong, is that the EP doesn't actually skip the rooms and the colors and the like, you just get to start all that without reserving a time and coming back.

Yes- you're right!

 

[MikeNamez]

I had the hotel unlimited ep and received a color.

My wait was very long ...........

The vitual line was not my friend when I did that ride.

Well this is disappointing.

 

[schumigirl]

We were lucky with EP in that ride...….we walked straight on with the colour we were given.

That was the highlight of the ride for us as it sucked!!!

But, heard many complain about it...….

 

[JohnnyB2]

Last trip we tried Jimmy Fallon with our Hotel EP and had the same long waits as mentioned, we'll be back in Sept and have no plans which include the Jimmy Fallon ride but we will try Fast & Furious. Hopefully F&F will be a much shorter wait time, we will have the hotel EP again.

 

[nighttowll]

I’m feeling really lucky as I don’t care for this ride very much and would have killed someone if I had to wait hours to ride it. I’d be like “what, I waited how long for that?”

First time I ever did this was during soft opening. They gave me a card similar to the old paper FP with a time to return during. Very simple, then we only waited in the room with the smart tables for maybe 20 to 30 minutes. It was a great break from the heat, and everyone was happy to sit and play on the tables for awhile. Didn’t really care for the ride, but no real loss trying it out.

The next time we did it, there was no wait at all. We simply went in and were on the ride almost immediately. Again, we were never sent through any rooms, except the one with the smart tables, and it turned our color within minutes of entering. I don’t think I even had a chance to sit down.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

there is just no way NOT to wait in line if there are other guests.

So you pay a lot of money for this "skip the line" pass (or get it as a hotel promotion) sooooooo... you sign up digitally for a loading time on a ride, whereupon then you go stand in another physical line to do something else (like ride or shop or eat), then you come back to said Virtual Line which is obviously a REAL line... and you stand in yet another line with several dozen? hundred? thousand? other people who also paid for this perk while waiting for the show to begin/ride to load? I'm so confused... LOL

this all sounds like crazy attempts to push guests throughout the park into less popular areas instead of consistently cramming up the headliner rides with 4 hour waits. Which would be more accurate towards informing a guest of their potential experience.

At least Disney makes sense and goes with the expectation that there WILL be lines and you WILL be waiting in them. In fact they want you to plan and manage the time spent in line - they want you pre-booking FP+ either 3 at a time (or more with CL assistance), then only 1 more at a time, they want you booking ADRs, they want you using mobile ordering. The Universal express pass just seems like a farce in random time because you cannot predict how many bodies are GOING to be physically standing in the line when you take your place according to your Express Pass time that you signed up for digitally.

 

[MikeNamez]

there is just no way NOT to wait in line if there are other guests.

So you pay a lot of money for this "skip the line" pass (or get it as a hotel promotion) sooooooo... you sign up digitally for a loading time on a ride, whereupon then you go stand in another physical line to do something else (like ride or shop or eat), then you come back to said Virtual Line which is obviously a REAL line... and you stand in yet another line with several dozen? hundred? thousand? other people who also paid for this perk while waiting for the show to begin/ride to load? I'm so confused... LOL

this all sounds like crazy attempts to push guests throughout the park into less popular areas instead of consistently cramming up the headliner rides with 4 hour waits. Which would be more accurate towards informing a guest of their potential experience.

At least Disney makes sense and goes with the expectation that there WILL be lines and you WILL be waiting in them. In fact they want you to plan and manage the time spent in line - they want you pre-booking FP+ either 3 at a time (or more with CL assistance), then only 1 more at a time, they want you booking ADRs, they want you using mobile ordering. The Universal express pass just seems like a farce in random time because you cannot predict how many bodies are GOING to be physically standing in the line when you take your place according to your Express Pass time that you signed up for digitally.

I will say though regardless of how bad virtual line with Universal I don't need to decide if i want Chinese or Italian 6 months before my trip or decide the exact time i want to get on a ride 2 months before. The relaxed environment is worth its wait in gold to me so I'll take the good with the bad. Unlimited EP > FP+

 

[Monykalyn]

Last trip we tried Jimmy Fallon with our Hotel EP and had the same long waits as mentioned, we'll be back in Sept and have no plans which include the Jimmy Fallon ride but we will try Fast & Furious. Hopefully F&F will be a much shorter wait time, we will have the hotel EP again.

We did F&F this am without any wait, the virtual line wasn't even operational yet. I've been keeping an eye on Fallon ride and when we left at noon the virtual line wasn't open there yet either, as standby was 15 minutes.
We got the pass with the after 4pm EP (one ride each) and yeah- there's still lines, but it beats the 70 minute line at Hulk! Our Kong experience took longer but they were removing a ride vehicle and stated there would be an 5-8 minute delay (for everyone). Still beat the extra 35 minute wait standby.

I'd suggest first thing in am if you want to do F&F without worrying about EP or virtual line.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

We had good luck with the Jimmy Fallon EP. Yes, we had to go and wait in the room with the games and singers for our cookie to be called but in 3 rides I think the longest we waited was many 20-30 mins.

I thought the ride was fine, a little meh but the kids loved it (only reason we went on 3 times). Which I never would have expected. Unfortunately that means that "H's are eh!" is a common phrase in our house.

 

[Monykalyn]

Ok so now have done Fallon with Virtual line. We showed up 10 minutes into our window. Went straight upstairs and waited about 10 minutes til color called. We actually enjoyed the attraction- sure the “race” sequence is a bit cheesy but it’s still fun. My hubs and I are Fallon fans though so we get a lot of his schtick. And we got a pic with Hashtag Panda!