Universal Orlando and Velocicoaster, 12/4/22

My favorite veterinarian, Catherine, was back in town again this weekend, and after having a great time with her family doing the VIP thing at Disney early this year, I was happy to join them for a half-day at Universal. I was able to work the network and score some comps, fortunately, as we don't have passes, for reasons I'll explain.

I really only had one goal, and that was to ride Velocicoaster. I expected the parks to be busy, because it's like there's no real off-season anymore in Orlando. This appeared to be true. We parked at Royal Pacific Resort, where Cath's family was staying, and met up there around 8:30 and headed in to Islands of Adventure first. We met up with the rest of her gang back in Jurassic Park, via the shortcut in Lost Continent. The wait time just before 10 was only 35 minutes, which was excellent.

The lines move really fast, even with a brief interruption. The queue is surprisingly not long. You'll pass the launch track with the raptors following across the superimposed screens, then meet the restrained raptors, which are really cool. They're very convincing. Once you get to the lockers, it isn't clear that there are more further around, but they're there. A staff member is there to give you a paper ticket to scan in the event you have your ticket on your phone, which needs to go in the locker. It's reasonably efficient, and you get your stuff on the other side from the exit. After you stash, you cross the metal detectors, which I always set off because of my belt buckle. Up the stairs, you enter a room with big screens where you see Bryce Dallas Howard (❤️) and Chris Pratt talking about what a bad idea it is to have a roller coaster in the raptor paddock.

The station is well laid-out and bright since one side of it is all windows. The trains are the latest refinement in Intamin's overhead lap bar arrangement, and the seats are quite snug, with the ball-buster on the front and your feet off the floor. The crew is very efficient and they're constantly knocking trains out. I don't know how many were running, but the pause on the uptrack standby brakes for us was very short. Universal's ride operations seem to get progressively better over time.

The ride starts with a pretty quick roll out of the station and into a turn down, where you stop at the front of the launch. Clever use of a short block to keep trains moving. When the block is clear, off you go into the first two inversions, back to back. From there you'll do five or six-ish turns and wacky direction changes in and out of rock work. I recall seeing video of dinosaurs somewhere in that, but I didn't notice them. There is no slow part, and the next step is to hit the full 70 mph to climb the tophat. After that, you'll go through the longest inversion that I can think of, which definitely causes some inverted hang time in your seat. You'll go around a bowl twice before heading back in front of the visitor center, inverted, and finally into the brakes. Much as it starts, it only bleeds off enough speed to get you closer to the station faster, so even the end is well paced. It's 4,700 feet of track, with no slow parts.

Veolcicoaster is obviously the best roller coaster in Orlando, and in the running for best anywhere. Yeah, I think it's that good.

The rest of our half-day in the park is relatively unimportant, but I do want to again draw attention to how horrible the food situation is. The quality is generally poor at most places outside of the Harry Potter locations (Three Broomsticks and Leaky Cauldron), but even then, the way they run is awful. So we roll up to Broomsticks around 11, and there are people queued in front for no obvious reason. We ordered online, so I just walked in. There's no one ordering in person at all, no registers open. Uh, OK. I just clicked "I'm here" on the app, and it's asking for a table number, so now what happens? Three people are running around inside the door, but it's not clear what they're doing. I ask what the queue is for, and they say it's for mobile ordering. But there is a formal queue, and another line of people, and half of that line goes in with the dude. There is no signage anywhere, the humans are not helpful.

One member of our party went around to the back patio, where maybe a third of the tables are occupied. So we go around and sit there, and I put the number in the app. Fifteen minutes later, food appears, and while tasty, it's not particularly hot. I couldn't tell you operationally what was going on, given the lack of signage or helpful staff. Maybe we cut the line, but there were empty tables everywhere. This is another thing where they could learn from Disney. You can implement technology, but you still need humans there to facilitate and answer questions and show clear intent.

So why don't we have passes? Cost is certainly one, because I feel like to get value out of it, you need the best level with the Express after 4 access. The constant food quality and service problems are also high on the list. But the biggest reason is that the hours are still as terrible as ever. This became obvious when we did have passes pre-pandemic. When the parks close at 7 for much of the year, weekday visits are virtually impossible. Simon gets out of school at 4, I'm not going to wrap work until 5 or 5:30, and then driving during rush hour means we could get there in the absolute best case scenario at 6. Then subtract 15 minutes for the walk from the garage to one of the parks. It just doesn't work.

I do love Universal, and have great memories from my single, pre-parent days. The funny thing is, back then, there was no Harry Potter and the parks were never particularly busy. You could get reservations in City Walk the same day. I was a passholder living in Cleveland. These days, their attraction lineup is pretty great, and includes one of the best coasters in the world, but the hang ups above, especially the hours, make it hard to buy-in.

Glad you got to ride Velocicoaster.

Jeff:

The funny thing is, back then, there was no Harry Potter and the parks were never particularly busy.

My wife and I talk about this every trip. We got free park tickets and a cheap room at the Royal Pacific our first few years. That really spoiled us.

Glad to have another Veliciocoaster fan.

You may have hit an off day at because I have had nothing but great service at both Potter quick service restaurants. Once I was there on a busy day where it was mobile only which confused a lot of guests, but I just went to another area, ordered, and came back 10 minutes later when it was time to come back.

I still feel like I get a much better value out of my UO pass than my WDW pass. Yes, the 7pm closes are earlier than I'd like, but it definitely helps them with staffing and with having the ability to host the big money private events. But I can find places to get a table service dinner without reservations, ride roller coasters without feeling the need to pre-book a time or wait in a 60-120 minute standby line, and the entire experience is just more relaxed than WDW feels these days. And I still prefer the walk in the shaded garage to CityWalk and the parks than the walk in the blazing sun from the far ends of the Discover or Create lots at Epcot.

Food service was just as bad when I went early this year, and before the pandemic. Maybe if I lived closer it would be worth it, but right now, with so many weekday closes at 7 (and some at 6), there's no way. WDW has nothing to do with it.

What about going to Universal on weekends and stick with Disney during the week if the hours are an issue? I mean, those parks really don't vary much crowd level wise between weekdays and weekends, so not like that matters at least.

Nothing but good experiences here either with the food options when we have eaten at the park and/or city walk. But also, during Horror Nights or Mardi Gras, all the food/drink shops they setup all over have been great and even on packed HHN nights go quick and zero issue.

But yeah... Velocicoaster > RRR. But just slightly.

To be fair, the worst Six Flags/Busch Gardens food service I've ever experienced > Rip Ride Rockit

Velocicoaster is indeed a fantastic coaster. Velocicoaster also has excellent operations. They clearly put a lot of thought into how to get people quickly onto and off of that ride. The operations are reminiscent of what operations at Cedar Point USED to be like. While in line for Velocicoaster, I found myself wondering, if Universal can operate a coaster like this, why can't Cedar Point?

Standing in line for Velocicoaster > Rip Ride Rocket.

0g:

if Universal can operate a coaster like this, why can't Cedar Point?

https://ridetraining.com/iroc/

I can't speak to Cedar Points training regimen, but I can tell you first hand that Universals is pretty stringent. They put you through several days/shifts of OTJ so you get to experience every position with a trainer until you are comfortable and can consistently demonstrate the job duties before getting signed off by a lead at each position. Also, from my experience, there are cameras on every safety position and there is always somebody watching those cameras, so if there are things being done incorrectly, the leads and management know about and address it pretty quick.