Wow. They’re literally pushing it?!?
Yup! I guess our vehicle had gotten off the track in some way so four mechanics/ride engineers pushed it 15 feet to the unloading area to try and get it back on.
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Walked on to Kong, Spider-Man and Dr Doom.
5 min posted wait for the Hulk but that one was very tight in September so I tried the test seat again and it’s a no go. They’ve got a modified seat, but that just accomodates more room in the stomach and chest and not the hips, so didn’t help.
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Bummer to hear the Bonus Bites zones aren’t working. It was supposed to a fix for long food waits, but sounds like a lot of kinks to work out if they’re going to continue with them. I appreciate that they try new things out to make the experience better, but of course that just means those doing it for the first go-round are the guinea pigs.
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Agree. Love how receptive they are to feedback. And the idea of the Bonus Bites Zones is probably not bad, just need to iron out some things. And to be fair I don’t have anything to compare it to!
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Seuss Trolley is no People Mover but it has some nice views. We also grabbed some Buffalo Chicken and Green Eggs and Ham Tots.
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FJ x 2, a butterbeer and some more spells around Hogsmeade and it’s time to say goodnight to IOA. Heading to US to close out the night. Gonna go do Jimmy Fallon since we haven’t before and then probably finish out the night in Diagon Alley.
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That’s a great shot/angle with the ominous clouds behind
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Line for Florean’s was still super long so we skipped that. 2 more rides on MIB (got my highest score on the last ride even though I missed the 100k bonus). Last ride was Jimmy Fallon, we’ve grabbed a few drinks to go and we are officially heading out. My feet are exhausted so I’m ready to get to the car…just have to hike through City Walk first 
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Back at the hotel and getting a shower and passing out ASAP. We are gonna sleep in just a hair but I’d like to be on the road by 10 to get home at a decent time. I’ll plan to put together some final thoughts on the event overall once I get home and settled tomorrow.
Goodnight!
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Thanks for the boots on the ground info! My friend and I are headed to one of these in December. She is 5’9” and I’m now worried she may run into issues on some of the rides. At least I can prepare her in advance that some of the ride seating is very small. What a horrible feeling to be told you don’t fit. 
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@TarHeelTiff - Hope you are home safely & rested!! Would love to hear your final thoughts about OI meet-up…
Since I’ve been debating doing this since 2018 & it’s still postponed for me I’m excited to get your thoughts as an objective visitor - not a vlogger or sponsored. It seems like, IMHO, that you have to get about $75 - $100 worth of food & drinks to make it “worth it”. That appears to be 3 entrees, 2 snacks and 2 - 3 specialty drinks (Butterbeer).
I made a virtual TP trying to do all the things in the daytime that would be “too busy” to do during OIM - like Hargri’s / Velocicoaster. Then focusing on areas outside of WWOHP for my rides as it seems like Hogsmeade & DA are both still pretty busy during the event.
All the videos I see make it look like the food queues are super long for the first couple hours. However, since the food stops one hour before the event does waiting help? Like if I wait until the last 80 - 90 minutes before the food stops and run around the park grabbing food items, would I have time? Do I need to “mix in” meals / treats while I’m in those park areas to avoid backtracking, even if the queue is long?
I could probably ask a dozen questions like this, but I’ll give ya time to get back online!
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I wouldn’t do the event for the food personally. But I don’t like most of the food so the few places I would have eaten had long lines I wasn’t willing to kill time in when literally every ride except Hagrids was a walk ok and better than EP lines. DH was easily able to grab churros, turkey leg, hot dogs and drinks from the snack carts with no wait and the wait for Simpsons main food area was about 15 min but I thought the food was terrible so I just ate a couple of bites. DH got a stomach ache and not sure if it was the burger there or the hot dog from the stand right after. He said the churros were stale and not as good as Disney’s. The things I wanted like tacos and Florean Fortescues had very long lines and then were closed the last hour so i didn’t eat so I could do rides.
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haha, my DH said we have EP and I’ll buy you all the butter beer you want so no to the OI.
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Thanks!
My thinking on this event is a way to “sample” all the places my family never wants to try - because they’re very picky eaters AND have dietary restrictions.
I realize a sandwich from Blondie’s, pizza from Louie’s and a burger from Wimpy’s are going to be “meh”. However, my goal is to try a lot of these places for the first time. Even if I only eat like 1/4 of a sandwich.
I still want to get on about 8 - 10 rides throughout the park, not on Hagrid or Velocicoaster, while I do it though.
From your description, it sounds like I have to choose either mostly eating or riding. Thoughts?
Yes @darkmite2! Sorry I meant to post a recap and my overall thoughts but got caught back up in the swing of things with work. I will preface this by saying that I am definitely more of a Disney fan than Universal, so that always colors my opinions a little.
Personally, I found this to be a great way to do UOR if it isn’t a place you visit often. I went for the first time in maybe 20 years last September for one day, and then did the two days at the meetup. To me, it was a good way to see the parks and get to do everything I wanted without spending a ton of time in lines or out in the heat of the day. You could probably accomplish the same amount of rides with EP (never had them) but you’d still have to deal with the crowds in the park in general.
Crowds were super low and very much felt like a Disney After Hours event if anyone has done one of those. We walked on to everything except Hagrid’s. There were occasionally posted waits of 10-20 minutes but those were still walk ons for us. I do wish from a re-ride perspective they had allowed some pass throughs - specifically for MIB. It was a pain to walk around the whole building and through the line again, and we would have probably done it twice as many times if we could just hop back on (and we still did it like 10 times over the course of the two nights). I will say that I do not personally think Universal rides have a ton of re-rideability in a single night. I can think of a number of rides I would do over and over at Disney, but I dont feel the same way about the Universal rides with a small handful of exceptions. When you are doing things in quick succession you also see how little variety of rides UOR has. They do their coasters and 3-D Motion rides well…but those get to be repetitive at an event like this. If you love the UOR rides…you may have an even better experience though! Hagrids was an hour basically the entire time both nights. Which is how long we waited with a VQ during the day. So, I wouldnt say that you get much benefit for Hagrid’s specifically if you know how to get a VQ. That very much could change for the upcoming December meetups with Velocicoaster being available and pulling some of those crowds.
The rain was a bummer for this particular weekend, even if it didnt impact our ride plans a ton. Think it made Hagrid’s lines a little longer since it wasnt open the whole time. I just hate spending hours feeling damp. But that’s not a reflection of the event at all of course.
Food wise, many more options that the DAH (where its just popcorn, ice cream and drinks). However, I think the food in general is pretty weak at UOR, so even when you can get a handful of fun things like tacos, tots, etc, I would not attend this just for the food. I would personally view it as an added bonus, but I think if your main goal was to eat your way around the park, you’d be disappointed. Many locations just have your standard pizza, burgers, salads. The second day we really didnt go out of our way for any food, just picked something up as we went and that was more successful. The lines for the food in general were not an issue at all. Most of the snack carts had no lines, and even the quick service type locations had 5-10 minute waits at max. The big exception were Floreans - this had a massive line all night and we never got to try it, which was a bummer, Three Broomsticks - at the start of the night, another huge wait, but closer to midnight it opened up a lot. The food there is basically the same as Thunder Falls, so a possible better option. We popped into Hogs Head about 15 minutes before public park close and grabbed a beer and got to sit in an empty Three Broomsticks to at least experience the atmosphere. Hoppin Pot and the Butterbeer cart outside Three Broomsticks also had long lines most of the night, but there were multiple other carts where you could walk right up to get a butterbeer. So generally, lines not a huge issue once the exclusive hours got started.
They also did a Bonus Bites option for this meetup where during regular park hours you could go into specific locations that were reserved for OI guests for a meal. The menu was not particularly exciting, and the one “unusual” item - the Orange Blossom Sriracha Chicken - was not available at Monsters Cafe the first night and had a long wait at Comic Strip Cafe the second night. This was the longest food line we waited in all day as well, and all the food was in a single line, so you couldn’t just jump up and grab a cookie or a piece of pizza without waiting with everyone else. I don’t think the idea overall is bad, but they definitely have some fine tuning to do here. I know in the past they gave a QS DP card for one meal instead and I would have MUCH prefered this to be able to eat at a food location that wasnt going to be open during the meetup.
Two nights was the right call, in my opinion. We could do almost everything we wanted to the first night, and could spend the second doing the couple things we missed and then doing all the things we wanted to do again. We also had plenty of time to just take in the atmosphere, explore the details, etc which was nice without the crowds. If you were to only do one night, just keep an eye on the hours. For example, Saturday this time went until 1:30, but several rides have to be clear by 12, so the exclusive hours are really crunched for those rides and probably contributed to longer Hagrid’s lines Saturday.
I’ll also note that I dont think this is a reflection of the event in any way, but getting evacuated off a ride each night was pretty crazy. The ride situation in terms of fitting in seats is frustrating, but not a reflection on the event, just Universal being less accessible than I think they should be. I could write a whole post on that though.
Overall, I do think this was a good value. It would be a good way to do UOR during a Disney Trip - although dont do a park during the day of the event and save some time the next day to sleep in. I don’t personally feel the need to go back to Universal for a while, but I would definitely consider this event again once I am ready to return.
Any specific questions, feel free to ask away!
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Hogsmeade stayed relatively busy all night, but that I think is because of the setup there. It’s such a bottle neck and the lines for Three Broomsticks, Butterbeer and general groups around Hagrid’s cause that. I think that will be helped a lot once they open the bridge between the Lost Continent and Jurassic Park. And even the “crowds” that were there were drastically smaller than during park hours. I will check and see if I have any pictures, but during the day Hogsmeade was wall to wall people.
DA was MUCH more open than Hogsmeade. I’ll add some pictures to this post, but besides the line for Florean’s you could fully explore all the nooks and crannies of DA without many people to bother you.
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Food lines were not super long for us at all. Again, only exceptions were Three Broomsticks and Florean’s. Most stands were a walk up, or behind one or two people. QS like getting Green Eggs and Ham Tots was less than 10 minutes easy. You definitely can eat as you go and not be waiting in big lines.
The unlimited food starts 1 hour after the park closes to the public and restaurants do close 1 hour before the event ends, although the snack carts are open the whole time. So your exclusive food hours are relatively limited. Friday it was 8-11:30 for restaurants and Saturday it was 9-12:30
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This entire paragraph is what I needed to know! Awesome!
I’ll be doing a solo year of Universal AP trips where I don’t have to be a “Dad” or “Family Travel Agent” juggling everyone’s preferences & fatigue.
I wanted a weekend in my plans that used my AP to go RD through “After Hours” to cram in as much Universal as I can. (Either to kick off the year or the final event as I plan to start my AP in December)
Sounds like I’ll have a great time, but need to manage my expectations about the QS food due to it being available for about 2.5 - 3 hours of the event.
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