Comments on: My magical experience at A Celebration of Harry Potter: Day 3 (and two additional stories from guests critical of how Universal handled the event)

By: Nuuk

Nuuk — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 16:42:50 +0000

The VIP-guests experience is SO NOT OK to me!! Nononono!
To pay that amount of money to come there and it’s just ‘extra openeing hours’ is not okay. False advertising is not ok.
Ugh, I hope a bunch of the guests will complain and ask for a compensation, or their money back. Not ok Universal!
I’m an overseas guest (from Denmark which is in Europe and Greenland), traveled to Fla. a lot of times, always visit the parks for a lot of days when vacationing.
Universal have had me more and more disappointed each year. Not bc of the rides, but bc of their all-round customer service and the feel of each and every employee.

Generally when you ask employees about anything, they seem like they don’t care and most of them seem upset all of the time.
What the h*** is up with that? 🙂 Do they have extremely poor working-conditions?
Whatever the reason; I hate it. Ppl should know guests pay A LOT of money to have a great time in the parks.
Live up to that!

By: ChewBeccca

ChewBeccca — Sat, 01 Feb 2014 05:19:47 +0000

As a annual pass holder who attended the expo on the first day, I totally agree with the suggestion that the expo should have had special hours for VIP guests. The line for the non-VIP attendees to get into the expo was ridiculous. At the one point, the line didn’t move for 40 minutes and they then announced that they would stop letting people in to the expo at 6:00 (NOT the advertised 7:00) because they wanted the expo to be cleared out by the time the park closed. Thankfully, they continued to let people in to the expo even after 6:00.

I understand the fact that the VIP package holders spent an exorbitant amount of money to have their VIP passes, but Universal totally shafted a lot of annual pass holders. I talked to a bunch of people in line at all of the events and the large majority of them were annual pass holders and locals. There wasn’t a huge incentive for pass holders and locals to buy the VIP package, even though they are loyal patrons to Universal.

I feel like the best thing Universal could have done to make the wait better for general admission attendees was to keep the line moving. Every group they sent in to the expo was purely made up of VIP pass holders. Even if they just sent in 5-10 general admission attendees, that would keep the line moving and would have made everyone muuuuch happier.

Another large complaint that every one I talked to seemed to have was the lack of knowledge of the event from employees. When asked which queue was for which panel or when a certain even was supposed to happen, many of the employees simply had no clue.

By: shahjameel

shahjameel — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 18:22:04 +0000

I completely agree, these events are what you make of them. We bought the special passes in 2011 and loved it. I do agree that I think Universale did a really bad job of informing people about everything then. We didn’t know the Today show was going to be there, but overall we figured it out and made the best of it and had a great time. Last weekend at the celebration we ended up not buying the special event passes and we were very happy that we didn’t. We went to every event with the exception of the Saturday night gala that we didn’t have passes to and of the three Q & A sessions, we saw the first one and didn’t see the last two. We decided from the beginning to hit what we wanted first time it was available in case we didn’t get in. So we stood in the standby line, sometimes for over an hour. I don’t know how you couldn’t have realized that you had to stand in line whether you had a special pass or not, that I thought was made very clear. Also, just because you had the speical pass it was still your responsibility to show up on time. If you seriously thought you could walk in 5 minutes before it started and still get a seat in the very front, your expectations were completely out of wack. All you had to do was look around and see that clearly there were lines forming for a reason. The couple that showed up late and thought they’d be in the front, that’s on you. just because you had a pass, you still had to show up on time, which means early. I think it was posted to be there even 15 minutes early – duh!! We had great seats for everything, there isn’t a bad seat in Toon Lagoon. Also, the duaghter and mother that couldn’t find the amphitheater, what were you doing all day Friday when the first event was at 4 pm? Serioulsy? Did you walk around at all? Not to mention they have maps everywhere, like when you first walk in and the amphitheater was clearly listed. If you’d walked around not only would you see it, but you couldn’t possibly miss the huge sign they had out front with all the Celebration of Harry Potter events listed. Your tickets were for three days that came with the package. There was no excuse to not have done your homework and research ahead of time to find out where everything is.
I’m confused as to how someone with a event pass was unable to get to the expo? This baffels me. Friday, I get it, they closed the line at 4:30. We went Saturday evening (yes the night of the gala) stood in stand by for around an hour with them telling us it was a hard close at 7pm and no guarantees we’d get in, still managed to get in by 6:15 ish, being one of the last in line. We had a good 45 minutes to see everything. It was quite, not crowded and we got to see everything, do everything but the sorting hat. It was great. We went back on Sunday, stood in standby for less than an hour and did the sorting hat and repeated everything a second time. So absolutely no excuse for not getting into the expo, espeically if you had a pass. You see while we were standing in line anyone with a pass walked up in their speical line and they were the next ones in. We were passed by many pass holders. Sunday was even quiet, as we purposely went during the last Q & A session, knowing that would be the biggest draw! DUH… a little planning and common sense and you get to see everything. On a side note, I’m pregnant, pretty big and moving about as slow as can be, so it’s not like we ran anywhere (I’m waddling slow and taking breaks). We didn’t rush or push to get good seats, we went with the flow. Because I’m pregnant obviously I’m not riding rides. I did ride or “do” a few of the tame rides on Friday because it’s a theme park and those I could do. My husband rode many rides while I waited in line. We made sure we got there at opening and had a plan. We didn’t aimlessly wander around not knowing where we wanted to be and when. We live in Michigan and have been to Universal many times but it’s not like we are pass holders. We just knew what we wanted to see and we saw it all. We figured we saved over $500 by not buying the package, we have a time share and didn’t need the hotel. We actually were going to buy the cheaper package for five people and got to when they said it was non-refundable, non-exchangeable that we didn’t finish the purchase. We had called and talked to two diffferent people the day before they went on sale to make sure they could be refunded, as we were involved in an international adoption and we could have been traveling during that time. Turns out we didn’t travel and only 2 of the 5 came down for the weekend. So while I truly feel Universal has missed the boat on communication and many things could have been better, I also feel that it is your personal responsibility to be prepared and do the research before you get there. Know where everything is located so when you get there you can go straight to the event you want. Never assume that just because you spent money and got a speical ticket that you are going to be “special” and can walk in late and still get a great seat. I read of people arriving at the park after close to go to the speical event and couldn’t get in. Why would you show up late?? Seriously, that’s crazy! Get your butt in gear and get in gear early. There is no reason to not get to do everything you want to do. Plan on waiting in line. Having a speical pass doesn’t mean a speical person guiding you around by the hand. The comments about wanting to just leave early, at that point it’s obvious your not even trying to have fun. So do everyone a fave and leave early.
The gala in 2011 was amazing and I’d love to do another. I can’t say anything about this event as we weren’t there, but I think it’s worth doing. You have to keep in mind that a lot of things are keep hush hush because of security for the stars. Lets face it, some fans are real bone heads and cause all types of problems trying to get to the stars.
Go with a great attitude and plan some patience and it’s a great trip and super fun event!!

By: MumtoPotterheadtwins

MumtoPotterheadtwins — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 00:35:03 +0000

2011 celebration was EPIC. This “celebration” was just a ploy to make money off us Super fans. Very disappointing event.

By: CassieRyan

CassieRyan — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 21:32:02 +0000

I was faintly under the same impression that there would be some sort of meet and greet, but I didn’t get my hopes up. As a local Floridian and an annual passholder, I’m pretty glad I didn’t get a VIP pass since I’m hearing quite a few complaints. Whether it’s Universal’s handling of the event or the VIP’s fault is irrelevant; this event definitely had its flaws in how it was set up, but I still had a great time. I think if they do make this an annual thing, it would be great! But there is still room for improvement. Just my two cents. 🙂

By: JodyRakowWaltman

JodyRakowWaltman — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 19:34:44 +0000

It seems that these complainers did not make the effort to actually read or understand what was included in their vacation packages. As an attendee of the 2011 event, when I read the details for the 2014 package, it was CLEAR that this event was NOT going to be like the previous one. These types of tourists ruin it for the rest of us… Instead of educating themselves and being prepared, they whine and complain when things don’t go the way they think they should. No wonder they didn’t have an enjoyable time – they made it miserable for themselves! (Seriously, who pays all that money for the vacation package and then shows up three hours after park opening… and without bothering to read a map in order to navigate to the amphitheater!?)

Your experience in an event like this is, largely, what you make of it. Those who choose to focus on the negative are going to have a lousy time. It’s a shame that Universal’s customer service will now have to pat their backs and probably offer them some sort of compensation in order to make them feel better.

By: Glo1365

Glo1365 — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 19:32:56 +0000

It wasn’t a cake walk for those of us with Premier Annual Passes. We were originally told that our passes (since they are the most expensive ones) would be treated just as the VIP package holders sans free meal, special Saturday night event and rooms. We would get special seating at the sessions and early entrance. Once we arrived at the park we learned that NONE of this was true. We couldn’t get into Friday nights event because there were too many people and we arrived at 6:45am Saturday morning to find out we were going to be allowed into the park early (8am, which usually happens anyway) but would be let into the sessions with regular guests, NO PRIORITY SEATING. Cast members seemed to have no idea what was going on and over the three days we were there, we never were able to get into the Expo. We had gotten rooms at Portofino Bay specifically so we would have plenty of time, which we did. Plenty of time to do the things we have done a million times, as we have had these passes since 1998. I can’t believe after all the events they’ve had at UO, this event was so unorganized. Sorry Universal but this was an EPIC FAIL!

By: StefanieWalsh

StefanieWalsh — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 19:09:38 +0000

Sorry, but these complaints are BOGUS. We also had VIP tickets. We figured out where to go for each panel, the Expo, and the Tribute AHEAD OF TIME. Not that it was hard to figure out anyway. As for reserved seating, we showed up to each panel we went to no more than 30 minutes ahead of the scheduled start time, and we got decent seating each time. If you were in the back it’s because you showed up way too late. It’s not that they roped off seats for VIP tickets holders, it’s that that line went in first, followed by the stand-by line.

As for meeting the cast, I don’t know where people were given the impression that they would get to meet them. We knew that they would be there and we would get to see them, but we had no illusions about meeting them. You think they were going to wander through the crowd on Saturday night? Yeah, look what happened when they walked to their own reception behind the Three Broomsticks. People swarmed the security guard. For the cast to just walk around would have been dangerous at best, and for them to walk back out into that crowd would have been insane. Being a sensible person brings good fortune apparently, because as luck would have we did get to meet the cast when we just happened upon them on our way back to the lockers from Dragon Challenge. We said a polite hello, so did they and we went on our way because they were trying to avoid attracting the attention of the crowd that chased them EVERYWHERE. I love Harry Potter, and I love my fellow fans, but some of you guys need to seriously cool it.

By: OrlandoInformer

OrlandoInformer — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 18:38:28 +0000

An addition comment about Universal’s handling of the event: I also saw many comments on Twitter and Facebook from regular admission guests who were upset they couldn’t get into the Expo. (For example, I believe Maureen said the general admission queue closed at 5:30 Friday evening when the Expo itself didn’t close until 7:00pm.)

Along with these comments, someone mentioned that this happened by VIP guests were allowed quick access, whereas all general admission guests had to wait. This person explained that it might have worked much better for Universal to have VIP hours, for example, the first two hours each day, and that after that point create one line for admission into the Expo. I thought that was a good idea.