Universal Studios Islands of Adventure theme park is a good park with a fair amount of rides/attractions. The best are Hulk, Spider Man, Jurassic Park, Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges and Dueling Dragons. They need more rides though and need to add more large attractions. When the new Harry Potter 'island' opens, hopefully it will alleviate some of the construction that restricts access to the current 'islands' and will add more rides.
The main complaint I have about Universal is their 'class' system. You can pay extra to have line jumping privileges. Basically you can pay more to cut in line. That means those that paid full price (more than $75) are relegated to the back of each line. I felt like the passengers on the Titanic - those that paid the most get a lifeboat, everyone else has to wait and hope there is room for them. It gets very frustrating to sit in line and watch one hundred people bypass you while you do not even move.
To make matters worse, their wait time system is just completely incorrect. The wait time system is the amount of time they project you to wait before getting on a ride and it is shown around the park and at the entrance to each ride. We repeatedly got in line with their sign saying '10 minutes' only to watch all the first class citizens pass us and the actual wait being 30 minutes. Here are some samples:
Hulk - stated wait time 45 minutes, actual wait time 61 minutes.
Dr. Dooms Fearfall - stated wait time 30 minutes, actual wait time 49 minutes.
Dueling Dragons - stated wait time 10 minutes, actual wait time 33 minutes.
Jurassic Park - stated wait time 20 minutes, actual wait time 31 minutes.
There is nothing worse than setting an expectation for a customer that you do not keep. All day the actual wait time was longer than the stated wait time. When I asked an employee at the entrance to a ride about it, I was told "I don't know how they come up with those times."
As an added benefit, the class system extends to the parking lot. You can pay extra to have premier parking or pay regular full price and be the furthest possible distance from the entrance. We paid regular full price and we were parked in the furthest possible location within their parking garages from the entrance. We got there before the parks opened and passed empty lot after empty lot on our way to the entrance.
My recommendation is to go to a park that appreciates their customers more - any Disney Park or SeaWorld. If you must go to Universal and only get a limited number of vacation days per year, pay the extra money to be a first class citizen and to get the most efficient use of time for your trip.
The main complaint I have about Universal is their 'class' system. You can pay extra to have line jumping privileges. Basically you can pay more to cut in line. That means those that paid full price (more than $75) are relegated to the back of each line. I felt like the passengers on the Titanic - those that paid the most get a lifeboat, everyone else has to wait and hope there is room for them. It gets very frustrating to sit in line and watch one hundred people bypass you while you do not even move.
To make matters worse, their wait time system is just completely incorrect. The wait time system is the amount of time they project you to wait before getting on a ride and it is shown around the park and at the entrance to each ride. We repeatedly got in line with their sign saying '10 minutes' only to watch all the first class citizens pass us and the actual wait being 30 minutes. Here are some samples:
Hulk - stated wait time 45 minutes, actual wait time 61 minutes.
Dr. Dooms Fearfall - stated wait time 30 minutes, actual wait time 49 minutes.
Dueling Dragons - stated wait time 10 minutes, actual wait time 33 minutes.
Jurassic Park - stated wait time 20 minutes, actual wait time 31 minutes.
There is nothing worse than setting an expectation for a customer that you do not keep. All day the actual wait time was longer than the stated wait time. When I asked an employee at the entrance to a ride about it, I was told "I don't know how they come up with those times."
As an added benefit, the class system extends to the parking lot. You can pay extra to have premier parking or pay regular full price and be the furthest possible distance from the entrance. We paid regular full price and we were parked in the furthest possible location within their parking garages from the entrance. We got there before the parks opened and passed empty lot after empty lot on our way to the entrance.
My recommendation is to go to a park that appreciates their customers more - any Disney Park or SeaWorld. If you must go to Universal and only get a limited number of vacation days per year, pay the extra money to be a first class citizen and to get the most efficient use of time for your trip.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
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