This event was just OK. I am again reminded that I am the only one in my family that likes Universal
So we start with security. I guess after 5pm you can't bring in open containers. I was not aware of this and pre-filled a water bottle with Gatorade and water because I ate something bad yesterday. Thankfully a lady came over and overrode the guys decision that it would have to be dumped. She smelled it and said yep, gatorade, let her go with it. Pretty dumb rule, either do it all day or not at all. Really confuses matters when I have gone in to the park a bunch of times with these same water containers.
Check in was fine, they give you lanyards which I thought was awesome, my husband was not amused that he would have to wear it during the event though. So strike 2 in his book.
We did studios first before closing and then came out of gringotts around 9:15. Figured we would hop on the train and go to Hogsmeade. Nope. Closed. Won't re-open until they clear area. Which honestly was dumb since gringotts was open and they could just post someone at the beginning of the line to check lanyards, but ok. Our lanyards state 9:30. Other people were complaining. One group made a joke saying it is not Disney. They are passholders for both and said when stuff like this happens they say it is not Disney. They feel Disney handles events and crowds better. I agree, I have been at Disney twice for special events and they don't shut stuff down to clear the park. But whatever it states 9:30. But what annoyed me is 9:30 hit and they didn't open it. They didn't open it until 9:40. So that really made a lot of people mad.
The last thing that happened that had people screaming was they started closing rides early. They closed Kong way before closing. We walked all the way from Hulk to Kong and it was closed. Fj had technical issues. So that was closed too. People were upset and I was too. I get technical issues like Fj, but Kong was running fine.
Don't have an event from 9:30 to 11:30 and open things late and close them early. It wasn't worth it for us. Lines were walk ons outside of Kong, but there wasn't enough time to ride everything because of the logistics. Someone else who was complaining about Kong said they were at the front of park and they didn't get in the park until 10pm because they had them held up there.
So it was ok for me, my husband hated it, and my daughter is now pretty much scared of every ride. So looks like I am out of luck. My in-laws don't like it either, so I doubt I will be able to convince my husband to get annual passes for many years
Maybe I can get out to the parks by myself a couple times in September before my passes expire. Still need to do Kong.
I really do like Universal and I think it is awesome that they have an event like this, but they probably should figure out how to do special events differently. Or maybe do the event in January/February when they would have more hours at night for the event. I also wish they would do less things that piss my husband off lol