Universal Orlando Resort

To get 5 stars, things would have to be perfect. To get four, close to perfect. Although I think this place is incredible, the issues we have experienced are the reasons I have to rate it 2 stars. Not everyone will experience these issues. When we arrived 20 minutes early thinking the park would not be open for everyone until 9 so we should be able to get into the park before the crowd since we had early access, they did indeed open the park right when we walked up. So much for thinking we would get in before the crowd that was there. Oh well, right? We should have gotten there at 8. So we just got in line and waited. Then when we finally got up for them to scan our tickets, there was a major glitch in the system for my last child to go thru. Instead of reading her ticket, it read the guy in line behind her. So every time it scanned her ticket, his name would pop up. Yes, that is strange. But instead of seeing that it was a glitch in the system and letting us go on our merry way in which they would fix the issue in their own, they made us stand there and wait for 20 minutes to solve the issue, in which they did not but came over and told us that as soon as their system was back up properly they would fix the issue and we could go ahead and enjoy the park. Why did they not say that from the beginning?! And this is only the first full day. I hope everything runs smoothly from now on. The park is incredibly beautiful.

The shuttle we took over from our hotel ran every 10 minutes and dropped us off at CityWalk. We went to the park mainly wanting to see the Harry Potter attractions. We were beyond impressed. It felt like we really went to Hogwarts. We almost walked right past diagonally not realizing you had to walk through a wall to get in! As soon as you walk in, you feel like you are in the movies and then you look up and you see the giant dragon ontop of Gringott’s Bank! The ride Escape form Gringott’s Bank was one of my absolute favorites. Hagrid’s Magical Bike ride was fun, but we waited over 90 minutes to ride. Because we went on Wednesday and Thursday the lines weren’t as bad, but that was one of the longest that we had to wait in. We checked out the rest of the alley, and then took the Hogwarts express from Kings Cross Station over into Hogsmeade. Again, I was blown away when we walked in and it just felt like we were there in the tiny town of snowcapped buildings. We went into all Enders and watched a little girl get her wand chosen for her. Then we chose our own ones and went around doing little spells around the town. We eventually left Hogsmeade and entered Jurassic Park, which blew my mind. The VeliciCoaster ride was by far my favorite roller coaster I’ve ever written. It was too cold when we were there, but I’ve heard that the Jurassic River ride is very cool! We wrote a few more things and then ended our six hour day at the park. We went back the next day. We rode some of our favorite things and finished writing. We didn’t get to do the first day. Everyone we encountered in the park was so helpful and kind the park was so clean. It was just such a really amazing experience.

The Universal app for ordering food doesn’t work properly. I tried it several times and so did your staff. After 20 minutes I asked to pay cash. Most of your associates are rude and don’t pay attention when asked questions. We booked with Hilton a Universal partner hotel and were told we were entitled to EPA. After getting up extra early and finding a bus we arrived at 8:17am and were turned away from entry! We had to wait half an hour to get into the Marvel side of the park only to see select people allowed in and one person actually riding the Hulk by himself. We were first at the barricade but when it was opened the other guests pushed past us!! We finally made it to King Kong at 9 only to find it didn’t open till 9:30. We came from out of state and spent a lot of money for just one day in this park and it was not enjoyable and definitely not worth the price of the tickets to be pushed around by rude foreigners and people who constantly walked in front of us as we were trying to take pictures! The interactive wand experiences did not work either. I used to visit every year and was looking forward to the new Universal Experience, but I will have to think really hard about coming back here again. I definitely did not enjoy the aggravation and stress I was forced to endure today.