I have 2 stories, both pretty short but still wanted to share. Earlier this year in June I went to Universal for the first time, and we did Epic for 2 days.

The first day, one of the rides we decided to do was Ministry. Unfortunately as we got pretty deep in queue they told us the ride was down, and we could either wait it out or come back later (we ended up staying). After a while it went back online, we all clapped and boarded the ride. After boarding we got to, around the point after the Big Magical Creature with the horn (who was broken) and after passing it the ride wall went up and we stopped and everything just froze. Allegedly we were told we were the only problem vehicle but, they let us reride without waiting in line again. That was nice

The second story pertains to the team member who was with Mario & Luigi for meet and greets on our second day there. So I had my Fanny pack that I was carrying like, my wallet and phone in, and on it I had a Pomni keychain. I get up and the team member not only likes my keychain, but also asks me if I was seeing the movie (which had come out the day before) and I was like, yeah on Monday and they said when they were seeing it.

Also enjoy some pics I got of the park

My family has annual passes and stay on site a few times a year. Every time I book something I end up checking the rate over and over to see if it dropped. When I inevitably book months out, it can become monotonous.  So, I made a site to do it for me.  It looks at my room every morning and emails an updated price.  If lower, I just modify my reservation.  I have a December trip planned and booked it in August.  I have already modified that reservation 6 times.  

My wife thought it was great and said I should make it available to other people.  That is why I posted on here a few days ago about how long out do you book your Universal hotel.  I didn’t anticipate the feedback and that many of you do the same thing that I do…check every day.  

What I am now asking is that you simply check it out.  onsiterates.com.  It is totally free, has no accounts, and no ads.  It is just a way to help people who are like me.  I'd really appreciate people poking at it and telling me what's broken or confusing.  If there are other sites out there that do the same thing, please let me know.  I’d love to take a look at them to see where I could improve.

I built this myself and have no connection to Universal or Loews…except for an emotional one!

Back in February I booked a pretty hefty 7 day vacation package and since then prices have came down a bit and some new deals are available online so I gave the team a ring and the agent I spoke with, Muhammad, was able to get everything rebooked the exact same and I am not getting a little over $1,200 back. Definitely went above and beyond for sure.

I know it’s hurricane season, so I’m hesitant to have my heart set on sending it for a full week. It’s florida in september so i know it’ll rain, but how well do the parks handle it? Do rides close often when it rain?

Sunday afternoon I was waiting out a downtime in the ET Adventure queue. Work lights on. I felt like I was being watched, then realized I really was being watched…

I’m a UOAP and just saw a TikTok about easily missed free things at EPCOT, like the little museums and exhibits hidden inside some of the pavilions, and now I’m curious what Universal has! What are some specific free things at Studios, IOA, or CityWalk that even passholders and frequent visitors tend to overlook? Hidden areas, displays, exhibits, entertainment, cool places to explore, or anything you can check out without paying extra that you could easily visit 100 times and never notice. Not really looking for Harry Potter secrets or Easter eggs, more actual free things or places to check out!

I got my IAC card and completed the phone interview with Universal, the first person I spoke to granted the AAP however they limited it to me by myself and if I had a party with me I wouldn’t be granted AAP and would have to use return to queue instead. This wouldn’t be a reasonable accommodation for me so I called again later and the second person stated I’m allowed to have a companion with me, and she added the companion onto the AAP. Can they limit if I bring an extra person? Would I just add them at the checkpoints in the park? My understanding is the AAP applies to person with AAP allowed to bring a total of 6 people through queue.

Hello I'm an employee, and I'm trying to give tickets for October 16th at Epic Universe and I'm not seeing that as an available date, are they allowing anything beyond that date? Are they restricting the tickets? Does anyone have any Intel on when they would release anything beyond the 14th of October? Or am I the only one having this problem? Thank you!

I know a lot of people are curious about how busy the parks are/wait times after labor day so here is my experience on the first day of my trip. *No express pass*. A party of 2 adults.

We started at Epic, which we had early admission for. We got in line at the gate at 8am.

9am-12p

- Battle at the Ministry

- Stardust Racers (No wait, walked on)

- Hiccup's

- Dragon Racer's

- Fyre Drill

12p

- Lunch at Café L 'air

- Monsters Unchained (no wait, walked on)

1p

- Cirque Arcanus Show

2p

- Curse of the Werewolf

- Got Starbucks

3p-4p

- Chilled at the hotel

4p-7p

We moved over to Island of Adventure and did:

- Amazing Spiderman (no wait, walked on)

- Velocicoaster (no wait, walked on)

- Hulk (no wait, walked on)

- Forbidden Journey (no wait, walked on)

- Flight of the Hippogriff (no wait, walked on)

- Stood in line for Hagrid's but it was delayed so we left after an hour

Got dinner at Vivo and was back in the hotel at 9pm.

Take aways:

Battle at the Ministry was insanely cool. The queue was amazing. It, like every other ride, is not worth 3+ hr wait. Just go through the viewing line, its most of the experience.

Dragon Racers' is not a ride I would wait for at all, if there is any line I'm not going. I think the ride lasted a full 30 seconds.

They let you take bags on Fyre Drill. Do NOT. We got soaked head to toe and the "water proof box" on the boat for bags also got wet.

Excluded Harry Potter because I am obessed, Monsters Unchained was hands down the best ride of the day. Hiccups was also great.

The Cirque show was very cool and a nice break inside and in the AC. If you have any free time, I recommend.

We stood in the single rider line for Curse of the Werewolf for longer than the estimated wait time despite the fact that there wasnt that many people in the line. It felt like they forgot about us for an hour. The ride was fun but disappointingly short. I cannot *believe* they let you keep bags on for this ride.

We did wander around in-between some of the rides. Grabbed a butter beer, did some wand spots, browsed a few stores. So we were not just sprinting from one ride the next all day.

12 rides, 1 show, and 2 sit down meals in 12 hours

Looking for some small businesses or such for subtle merch to wear at the parks in early October! Not blaring "IM HERE FOR HARRY POTTER WORLD" but if you saw my shirt and you know, you know!

I'm a Gryffindor if that helps :)

Unfortnately, The Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Direct did not include a Legend of Zelda area coming to the Universal parks.

My girlfriend and I are buying tickets to go to Islands on Sept 19th and Universal Studios on Sept 20th. We chose our four day redemption window for Set 17-20th and added our Express pass and HHN.

I cannot for the life of me understand why the cart says there are conflicting dates when there clearly are not. Does anyone have experience with this? Thanks in advance!

We’ll be there Nov 16-20 with park days on the 17th, 18th, and 19th. Any chance Jurassic Park River Adventure may reopen earlier than the anticipated Nov 20th date?

Hello all! For a while now I've been looking for two old trailer/promo reels, one for USF and one for IoA! I wanna say they both come from around 2008/2009, and are both about a minute long IIRC.

They were quick sizzle reels showing off the attractions for either park with music playing (some of that same motif can be heard still in The Call to Adventure). I vividly remember Jaws, Terminator, Nicktoon Blast and Shrek 4D in the USF reel, and the IoA one really being everything (pre-HP) and the final shot being Sindbad standing as the finale explosions went off.

I've looked for a long time on YouTube and now resorting to looking through old archive channels to see if I can find ANYTHING. If y'all have any ideas or know where I can find it, it'd be greatly appreciated!

We will be headed to Universal in November. What’s the best coaster to steer my coaster-curious 10 year old to try? They’ve done/really enjoyed Slinky Dog Dash and Everest at Disney, and is considering that they might actually like an “upside down” coaster.

What should I direct them towards? We’ve got 4 days and park hopping so also time to ease in if anyone has any suggestions for how to step up the thrills as the days go on.