“We have more than one hour of original content, so guests won’t see the same thing twice,” he adds. “We’ve designed it so people are in the environment about 20 minutes before riding,” says Jason Surrell, creative director for Universal Creative, and one of the lead designers of the Fallon attraction.
HOW DOES THE UNIVERSAL BUS TOUR WORK SIMULATOR
Once visitors get inside the show building, however, they may be surprised to find that they have to wait before boarding the actual motion simulator ride. Unlike Disney’s FastPass+, reservations can only be made inside the park on the day guests want to ride. To gain access to the ride, guests need to reserve a time using Universal’s phone app or kiosks that are located near the attraction. The first attraction to feature Virtual Line was Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon, which debuted in spring 2017 at Universal Studios Florida. It may very well signal a radical rethinking of the queue conundrum.įallon’s free-roaming queue experience lasts at least 20 minutes After some initial hiccups, Universal’s new line management program appears to mostly be working well. That is, for those attractions that use Virtual Line, there are no standby options. In both cases, participation is mandatory. The program comes in two flavors: one for its theme parks and one for Volcano Bay, the water park that it opened last year. Starting in 2017, Universal introduced Virtual Line, its attempt to revamp the waiting-to-ride ordeal. (Some of Universal’s premium on-property hotels toss in Universal Express for their patrons as a bonus.)
HOW DOES THE UNIVERSAL BUS TOUR WORK UPGRADE
At Universal Orlando, guests can pay extra for Universal Express, an upgrade that allows them to skip past the lines on nearly every ride simply by flashing their pass. Florida’s Walt Disney World, for example, offers FastPass+, a complimentary system that allows visitors to make advance reservations and bypass a few standby lines on select attractions. But parks have been devising ways to mitigate or nearly eliminate at least some of the lines for their guests. When tens of thousands of visitors pass through the gates daily, most of whom want to score a ride alongside Harry Potter or aboard Dumbo, that’s to be expected. Lines are practically synonymous with theme parks. But there’s one thing that nobody wants to do at parks: wait in line. There are plenty of things that people want to do at theme parks and water parks, including scream like ninnies on thrill rides, be transported to fantastic realms on sophisticated attractions, and cool down on exhilarating water slides. View Gallery: Universal Orlando's Virtual Line eliminates the queue