Express pass ripoff

[chris]

This year in Florida the schools go back later than usual - I think about the 20th and the parks are absolutely heaving.
We decided to go to Universal for the day during the first week of August and it was really busy, going in as the park opened at 9am we went straight to Spiderman and the queue was 60 minutes already!!!
We decided that for the five of us we'd buy 2 express passes so 3 queued and the other 2 of us got the passes. When it came to pay they were $51 each for use in 2 parks, that's an extra £25.50 at current exchange rates each, for 5 of us that would have been £127.50 on top of entry tickets for one day[msnmad].The lady on the desk said it was $15 more expensive each than the previous day as they'd sold out of them by 12 o'clock on that day so they'd put the price up as it would be even more sought after!
What I thought was the worst thing about the system was that when we got to the front of the queue on Spiderman and most of the other rides, they had one complete car for those with express passes and one car for those without! If they fed you into the main queue like they do at Disney then the main queue would go down at a much more reasonable rate. It is so wrong that families with children who've scrimped and saved to go in the first place cannot enjoy the day as much as those with money.

[millie]

I agree with this. It is a terrible idea to have to pay for this. Even worse that they change the price depending on the demand. It just makes it more difficult for families.

Just greed.

[MTP]

That's amazing! What a price hike - 30%, that does seem very unfair.

[wrpac00]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by chris
This year in Florida the schools go back later than usual - I think about the 20th and the parks are absolutely heaving.
We decided to go to Universal for the day during the first week of August and it was really busy, going in as the park opened at 9am we went straight to Spiderman and the queue was 60 minutes already!!!
We decided that for the five of us we'd buy 2 express passes so 3 queued and the other 2 of us got the passes. When it came to pay they were $51 each for use in 2 parks, that's an extra £25.50 at current exchange rates each, for 5 of us that would have been £127.50 on top of entry tickets for one day[msnmad].The lady on the desk said it was $15 more expensive each than the previous day as they'd sold out of them by 12 o'clock on that day so they'd put the price up as it would be even more sought after!
What I thought was the worst thing about the system was that when we got to the front of the queue on Spiderman and most of the other rides, they had one complete car for those with express passes and one car for those without! If they fed you into the main queue like they do at Disney then the main queue would go down at a much more reasonable rate. It is so wrong that families with children who've scrimped and saved to go in the first place cannot enjoy the day as much as those with money.
[/quote]

You must have been really unlucky, my wifes cousin did both Universal & IOA in under 4 hrs with no fastpasses.

[christhear]

We went to IOA today and it was pretty busy - came off Spiderman just after 10 and the queue was up to 50 mins. At least on Spoderman the general public gets 1 kart. All the other attractions we went on (except jurassic Park) the express passholders get to go infront of any one in the normal queue so the nromal queus hardly move. We only have 2 days left on our AP's but not sure if I'll bother when we come back in 2009 if they are still running a 2 tier system in the Universal parks.

[aldridgeclan]

we have only just come back at the end of july, so the american kids were still on their hols, we had no problems with lines, we went a different way around ioa ( turned to the right and went to cat in the hat etc) while everyone went left, by the time we came to hulk etc there was no line and we went on eg hulk twice in less than 1/2 hr. i agree paying for a fast pass is a rip off, you dont need it, just go the opp way round to the crowds.

[msnsmile]

[pieman790]

We were at Universal and IOA in July and as you say the queues were very big. What we found was that if you arrive at 9am and go to the far side of the park then you can almost walk onto the rides. This lasts for about 2 hours before people catch up with you. The big rides such as Hulk, Spiderman always seem busy what ever time you arrive as they are great rides and at the front of the park.
We did get onto Spiderman at opening after a 10 min wait one day.
We were there last November and you could almost walk straight onto any ride or the queue was max 2-3 mins.
If people pay the $50 plus for the express ticket and they are selling out then they are going to put the prices up, as it goes down to supply and demand.

[chris]

The day we went it was just really crowded. At 2pm the queue for Hulk was still 120 minutes. Spiderman was a constant 75 to 120 minutes all day long. At 4pm the queue for Men in Black was 70 minutes (which we did queue for) and then when we went just before the park closed we went on the single rider line and went straight on.

[freddiehollie]

Whats most annoying though is that the tickets are expensive as it is, so why should you pay twice? As stated those on a very tight budget, maybe on a "Holiday of a Lifetime" experience suffer We are lucky in going a couple of times a year, if there is a que we walk on by nowing we'll be back. We would never pay the extra for the Fast Pass.

[ujpest doza]

At IOA we always turn right and go anti clockwise doing Seuss Landing first and have on occasions been around IOA and on everything by 2PM.

It was so quiet the last time in both IOA and US that it was embarrassing and the girl on the desk had advised us against buying Express Tickets as the park was so quiet.