We did HHN a few weeks back and I wanted to do a trip report, but we're still dealing with no internet at home thanks to Hurricane Michael (which hit home while we were in Universal).
Instead, I will run down a solo trip that followed.
I was attending a conference over at Disney at the Coronado and I had some spare time to spend at Universal. We bought APs last Christmas and I figured it was my last chance to take advantage of mine.
I'll break this into a few sections:
Day 1
I drove down on Saturday and parked in the garage at 4PM. The Studios park was closing at 5 for HHN, so I went to that side first. Walked directly to MIB - and I quickly learned to love Single Rider!
We'd never been to Universal without EP - the first time we went, we bought EPs. From then on, we've stayed at one of the on-property hotels that include EP.
MIB showed a 70 minute standby wait. I figured wait times would probably be inflated to discourage people from getting in line so close to close, but I made the hike to the back corner anyway. I walked in the Single Rider line and, after a brief pause to merge with some EP users, the chain was lifted and I walked down the stairs and was the only single rider in line. One car got loaded up with EP folks and I was on the next car.
I don't know if the standby line was actually 70 minutes or not, but it did look pretty long.
Next up, I wanted to ride Mummy. I saw the sign that said everything had to go in a locker. I've also always had a backpack when touring, so I always needed a locker. This time, I only had sunglasses, a phone, a wallet, and car keys. I went and got a small locker, then walked to the entrance. Standby showed 35 minutes, Single Rider was at 20. I probably waited 10 minutes in the SR line. And I'd say about 40% of the people in line were staring at their phones the whole time - so I could have kept mine with me.
It turned out to be a critical error. I think I would have had enough time to make it to Rip Ride Rocket when I exited Mummy. I went to retrieve my stuff from the locker and the locker area was a mad house. There was a huge crowd standing at the locker bank next to mine, surrounding a TM. When I got to my locker bank, the screen said the lockers were full and when I scanned my ticket, there was some error and the locker wouldn't open. That's when I noticed that all of the locker banks had red lights above them. The locker system had been shut down.
So I got in the line to get to the TM. She was super stressed, understandably so, and wasn't handling it all that well. Neither were the customers.
When people would get up to the TM, they'd say the locker bank they were in and she'd say, "I'm only dealing with this locker bank right now. Go wait by your lockers."
So she was trying to stand in one place and clear up that locker bank despite the fact that there were dozens of other people waiting - and probably waiting longer.
Customer would get up to her and scream that she needed more help. A fact that I am pretty sure she already knew. She'd say that she called for help and will help anyone at that locker bank, and they'd just continue to yell that she needed more help.
It was getting hot in the room and people were really angry.
Eventually, another TM came and he was trying his best to jump from bank to bank trying to clear people out.
The next issue was - they'd ask you your locker number and get huffy if you didn't know it. I didn't remember mine - with the ticket scan lockers, there's usually no reason to remember your locker number. You remember which bank, go scan your ticket, and the locker pops open. I knew the general area - I could narrow it to 2 lockers, but I didn't know exactly which one.
Other customers had no clue even which bank they were in - which really complicated things.
Also, when they would get your locker open, they wanted to see either your ID or for you to unlock your phone. Not a big deal, but it did slow things down. It took over 20 minutes for me to finally get my stuff back - far too late for RRR. Oh well.
I walked over to IOA and checked Hulk. 120 minutes for standby, 90 for single rider. Nope, not doing that, so I left the parks and headed out to find dinner. I tried to find a place in downtown Orlando and wasn't able to find it, so I decided to just head to Coronado. Unfortunately, I struggled finding my way there without running into a toll road on-ramp that offered a cash option. Everything I was finding was Sunpass only.
If your city's economy is largely based in tourism, why would you make toll road on-ramps that only accept a form of payment that many of the tourists will not have? Doesn't make much sense to me.
Anyway, on to Coronado. I went past Disney Springs and considered stopping there for dinner, but it looked jammed. Both garages showed full. I continued on and checked in at Coronado and figured I would get dinner at the food court.
Continued in next post...
Instead, I will run down a solo trip that followed.
I was attending a conference over at Disney at the Coronado and I had some spare time to spend at Universal. We bought APs last Christmas and I figured it was my last chance to take advantage of mine.
I'll break this into a few sections:
- Day 1 - USO
- Coronado experience
- Day 2 - USO
- Day 3 - IOA & USO
Day 1
I drove down on Saturday and parked in the garage at 4PM. The Studios park was closing at 5 for HHN, so I went to that side first. Walked directly to MIB - and I quickly learned to love Single Rider!
We'd never been to Universal without EP - the first time we went, we bought EPs. From then on, we've stayed at one of the on-property hotels that include EP.
MIB showed a 70 minute standby wait. I figured wait times would probably be inflated to discourage people from getting in line so close to close, but I made the hike to the back corner anyway. I walked in the Single Rider line and, after a brief pause to merge with some EP users, the chain was lifted and I walked down the stairs and was the only single rider in line. One car got loaded up with EP folks and I was on the next car.
I don't know if the standby line was actually 70 minutes or not, but it did look pretty long.
Next up, I wanted to ride Mummy. I saw the sign that said everything had to go in a locker. I've also always had a backpack when touring, so I always needed a locker. This time, I only had sunglasses, a phone, a wallet, and car keys. I went and got a small locker, then walked to the entrance. Standby showed 35 minutes, Single Rider was at 20. I probably waited 10 minutes in the SR line. And I'd say about 40% of the people in line were staring at their phones the whole time - so I could have kept mine with me.
It turned out to be a critical error. I think I would have had enough time to make it to Rip Ride Rocket when I exited Mummy. I went to retrieve my stuff from the locker and the locker area was a mad house. There was a huge crowd standing at the locker bank next to mine, surrounding a TM. When I got to my locker bank, the screen said the lockers were full and when I scanned my ticket, there was some error and the locker wouldn't open. That's when I noticed that all of the locker banks had red lights above them. The locker system had been shut down.
So I got in the line to get to the TM. She was super stressed, understandably so, and wasn't handling it all that well. Neither were the customers.
When people would get up to the TM, they'd say the locker bank they were in and she'd say, "I'm only dealing with this locker bank right now. Go wait by your lockers."
So she was trying to stand in one place and clear up that locker bank despite the fact that there were dozens of other people waiting - and probably waiting longer.
Customer would get up to her and scream that she needed more help. A fact that I am pretty sure she already knew. She'd say that she called for help and will help anyone at that locker bank, and they'd just continue to yell that she needed more help.
It was getting hot in the room and people were really angry.
Eventually, another TM came and he was trying his best to jump from bank to bank trying to clear people out.
The next issue was - they'd ask you your locker number and get huffy if you didn't know it. I didn't remember mine - with the ticket scan lockers, there's usually no reason to remember your locker number. You remember which bank, go scan your ticket, and the locker pops open. I knew the general area - I could narrow it to 2 lockers, but I didn't know exactly which one.
Other customers had no clue even which bank they were in - which really complicated things.
Also, when they would get your locker open, they wanted to see either your ID or for you to unlock your phone. Not a big deal, but it did slow things down. It took over 20 minutes for me to finally get my stuff back - far too late for RRR. Oh well.
I walked over to IOA and checked Hulk. 120 minutes for standby, 90 for single rider. Nope, not doing that, so I left the parks and headed out to find dinner. I tried to find a place in downtown Orlando and wasn't able to find it, so I decided to just head to Coronado. Unfortunately, I struggled finding my way there without running into a toll road on-ramp that offered a cash option. Everything I was finding was Sunpass only.
If your city's economy is largely based in tourism, why would you make toll road on-ramps that only accept a form of payment that many of the tourists will not have? Doesn't make much sense to me.
Anyway, on to Coronado. I went past Disney Springs and considered stopping there for dinner, but it looked jammed. Both garages showed full. I continued on and checked in at Coronado and figured I would get dinner at the food court.
Continued in next post...