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AP passholder nights 8/19, 8/20

Damn a month earlier than I will be there. A lot of the value pass holders prob aren't going in august. I wonder if this is actually a bad sign in that they haven't hit the numbers they wanted to for universal.

I don't see it as a bad sign, I would think if they were looking to prop attendance, it wouldn't include a Friday night.

Sapphire opened this summer and I would think that helped guest spend quite a bit.

They usually have some sort of passholder event when a new ride opens (I do not think they did for Diagon, but I think that was because the ride took too long to get issues worked out). Anyway, for Transfomers as an example, they had a few days were APHs had an hour before park open to enjoy it.

This time, we have Kong and Hulk is back...so they add in a few more hours and show off IOA at night to what I imagine are mostly locals...sounds like they also have Diagon open which is really easy to isolate from the Studios.

Anyway, I see it as something nice for pass holders, if there is an alternative motive, my guess is that would be more along the lines of evening operations at IOA, but that might be just because I want to see that park in the dark sometime w/ Hulk and Kong so my mind keeps going in that direction.

Just my opinions
 
I'm hoping to upgrade to a season pass when I get there next week. Hopefully there will still be spots available by then. That would be my last night before going home and it would be an awesome way to end the trip.
 
So question. I'm technically a pass holder but I haven't activated my pass yet, I bought them last month and coincidentally I'll be on the parks on the 20th-22nd and would like to go to this but I don't have my passes yet so I don't have the pass holder code needed to reserve a spot. Any way to alleviate this?
Not a Florida resident.
 
So question. I'm technically a pass holder but I haven't activated my pass yet, I bought them last month and coincidentally I'll be on the parks on the 20th-22nd and would like to go to this but I don't have my passes yet so I don't have the pass holder code needed to reserve a spot. Any way to alleviate this?
Not a Florida resident.
Unfortunately the 20th is already full.
 
Hey does anyone know what time you have to check-in by? It says that it starts at 4:00 PM but doesn't say when check-in ends.
 
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
 
I went last night. I seemed to have a nearly opposite experience of @IzzyB everything went very smoothly. I started at IOA very easy and smooth process to pick up the pass. I went to USF to see some HHN street stuff while waiting for the event. I watched the fireworks then went into DA, rode Gringott's came out and took the HE express back over to IOA where I spent the rest of the evening. The limit of 8,000 didn't exactly create complete walk ons but it was fairly close. The thing that really stood out more to me than anything else is everyone was so friendly with each other and everyone seemed to be having a good time enjoying the parks. There was nothing really special about it beyond just having a couple extra hours in the park, but that's pretty much what I was expecting. Overall it was a really great event and a nice way for UO to show appreciation for the pass holders. I won't bother trying to compare it to Disney events because the simple fact is Disney would never even do anything like this for their pass holders.
 
I went last night. I seemed to have a nearly opposite experience of @IzzyB everything went very smoothly. I started at IOA very easy and smooth process to pick up the pass. I went to USF to see some HHN street stuff while waiting for the event. I watched the fireworks then went into DA, rode Gringott's came out and took the HE express back over to IOA where I spent the rest of the evening. The limit of 8,000 didn't exactly create complete walk ons but it was fairly close. The thing that really stood out more to me than anything else is everyone was so friendly with each other and everyone seemed to be having a good time enjoying the parks. There was nothing really special about it beyond just having a couple extra hours in the park, but that's pretty much what I was expecting. Overall it was a really great event and a nice way for UO to show appreciation for the pass holders. I won't bother trying to compare it to Disney events because the simple fact is Disney would never even do anything like this for their pass holders.
What time can you check in for the event? I'm going tonight.
 
What time can you check in for the event? I'm going tonight.
It starts at 4. I checked in around 6 and there was no wait at all, I know the lines got very long later in the evening although I didn't see it personally. Also they have a person at the Coke thing in CityWalk with a sign pointing people to check-in. Check in is at both parks they just seem to be flipping the sign to balance the crowds. So if you are planning to start at one park don't think you have to go the way they're pointing you, you can go to either park.
 
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