Universal Orlando (Studios/IOA) : General Discussion

[Craig]

I would imagine it's a combination of wanting to capitalise on the success of the Hollywood and Singapore along with the realisation theme lost a big chunk of capacity in what is a relatively small park anyway with the loss of jaws. That and the fact there's still a while before the next phase of HP opens, so they have a need for an additional ride to tide things over. I'd imagine things will be very busy construction wise for HP later next year so they'd rather get transformers out the way sooner rather than later.

 

[Benzin]

24/7?! They must be desperate to attract more people to the Universal Studios side now IOA has taken over in popularity.

Well... Harry Potter is popular... The rest of the park seems to be dead...

 

[Alastair]

24/7?! They must be desperate to attract more people to the Universal Studios side now IOA has taken over in popularity.

Well... Harry Potter is popular... The rest of the park seems to be dead...

Not really, Marvel Island is still absolutely packed and probably has the best selection of rides in the park, the Seuss kids section and the Lost Continent are still busy due to them being in the path to HP (and therefore people go on stuff on the way). Probably the quietest part of the park is Toon Lagoon and Jurassic Park due to them being on the opposite side, but even then what you would class as quiet is still extremely busy - Ripsaw Falls regularly has queues over an hour and a half and that's just a flume!

 

[Ollie]

Yes but it seems it is only after about 2pm that the rest of the park actually fills up! The old morning rush to the Hulk is gone, replaced by a stampede almost to HP.

EDIT: Obviously the water rides get mobbed when it's hot as well, sorry I left that out.

 

[BigAl]

(queue times are peak)

Guests are evenly spread around IoA, in my opinion. Although the Harry Potter area is slightly busier (as expected), the queues for Forbidden Journey and Dragon Challenge weren't massive at all. Forbidenn Journey's queue is never more than an hour (probably down to the epic capacity though ) and the only reason the queue for Flight of the Hippogriff is the longest in the park (pretty much 90 minutes for the entire day) is because of the dire capacity and the amount of people that go there.

In fact, the queue for Dragon Challenge was usually 5 minutes at the beginning and end of the day and never more than 15 to 20 in the day, whereas Hulk averages about 30 minutes.

Compare the Potter area to Toon Lagoon's queues. Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges and Dudley Do Right's Ripsaw Falls remain between 60 and 80 minutes for most of the day (unless you go on single rider, then they're about 10 ).

Apart from Spiderman, Seuss Landing gets bigger queues than Marvel Super Hero Island. The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train and The Cat in the Hat rides both remain around 40 minutes from around an hour after the park opens to about 6pm which is when most people with kids go because of the second load of buses back to the hotels.

 

[Sam]

Seuss Landing and Jurassic Park are always quieter than the rest of the park because the rides in those areas are a bit rubbish.

 

[BigAl]

River Adventure was great. As was One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish!

 

[Alastair]

(queue times are peak)

Guests are evenly spread around IoA, in my opinion. Although the Harry Potter area is slightly busier (as expected), the queues for Forbidden Journey and Dragon Challenge weren't massive at all. Forbidenn Journey's queue is never more than an hour (probably down to the epic capacity though ) and the only reason the queue for Flight of the Hippogriff is the longest in the park (pretty much 90 minutes for the entire day) is because of the dire capacity and the amount of people that go there.

In fact, the queue for Dragon Challenge was usually 5 minutes at the beginning and end of the day and never more than 15 to 20 in the day, whereas Hulk averages about 30 minutes.

Compare the Potter area to Toon Lagoon's queues. Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges and Dudley Do Right's Ripsaw Falls remain between 60 and 80 minutes for most of the day (unless you go on single rider, then they're about 10 ).

Apart from Spiderman, Seuss Landing gets bigger queues than Marvel Super Hero Island. The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train and The Cat in the Hat rides both remain around 40 minutes from around an hour after the park opens to about 6pm which is when most people with kids go because of the second load of buses back to the hotels.

The HP section IMO only appears really busy because of the way the street is built - being Hogsmeade the houses had to be close together and so people are bottlenecked between the Dragon Challenge entrance and the bit just past Ollivanders.

 

[BigAl]

But the paths in the Jurassic Park and Lost Continent areas are narrow and neither of them are quite as crowded as the Wizarding World.

 

[BigAl]

Bump!


Some more images of the work being done at Universal Studios for the Transformers attraction have been released...

Images of the work on Diagon Alley have also been released. The third and forth images could be the start of the Gringotts Bank roller coaster...

And finally, the area outside the Simpsons ride has had some work done, as the previously fake façade of amusement games is being converted into real games stands...

More images can be found here.

 

[Jem8472]

Some nice photos, looking forward to what they are building. But Not sure if I will get to go back to see it for real.

 

[PG Ricey]

Whens this new phase of WW aimed to be finished for?

 

[Adam James]

Apparently for after the Transformers ride (or whatever attraction is for that location) has opened - so looking at around 2014/15ish according to a number of sources.

 

[Maelstrom]

Transformers Summer 2013 (they are working 24/7 to build it)

Harry Potter Late 2014/early 2015- They are first building up the area around the lake where the Amity games units where, this will also be london themed and open soon, this will tidy up the area around the lake while the HP construction is going on.

 

[Tim]

I'm curious as to why they are building the Transformers ride. Isn't it just a slightly less impressive version of Spider-man next door? If I was them I would have just focused all the effort on the expansion to the Wizarding World.

Of course it's probably just because the franchise is popular that they’re milking it now before that cash cow runs out.

 

[Benzin]

It's really based on the success the Singapore and then California rides have seen after they've opened... Makes sense for chain parks to capitalise on successful brand rides/attractions, hell it's the reason we now have 3 Midway Manias and Hollywood Universal is getting Potterland Lite...

 

[Sam]

Does anyone give a toss about Transformers, as an IP? I mean, the movies might gross well, but does anyone actually like them?

I always presumed it was the sort of thing that people just saw on a long-haul flight because there's nothing else on.

 

[BigAl]

I like Transformers. Well, the first film anyway. I assume it's the same for others or else they wouldn't be building it.

 

[Tim]

It's really based on the success the Singapore and then California rides have seen after they've opened... Makes sense for chain parks to capitalise on successful brand rides/attractions, hell it's the reason we now have 3 Midway Manias and Hollywood Universal is getting Potterland Lite...

You see while that was my initial thought as well I wonder if it will be as successfully as the Singapore and California versions. For both of these parks the Transformers ride is their equivalent of The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. But Orlando already has this ride which not only has a better long lasting IP but was refurbished earlier this year to bring it right up-to-date.

---

Edit: I've just watched a video for the Transformers ride and it is literally the same plot as Spider-Man (even including the same plummet off the building at the end) but with a rehash of the end of the first Transformers film replacing the Spider-Man story.

---

Surely this makes it a bit of a wasted investment for a park that already has one of these rides? The expansion to the Wizarding World however is likely to be something brand new that we’ve never seen before. Hence why I'd put more effort into creating another attraction or improving what they already have planned for that.

 

[BigAl]

Here are a couple of reviews of the Transformers ride, as well as an interview with Thierry Coup and John Hallenbeck, the creators of the attractions...


Transformers Singapore (Published: December 1, 2011 at 11:51 PM):

SINGAPORE - Imagine if you could cram all the action of a Transformers movie into one five-minute, 3-D package.

If you tried, you wouldn't do better than Transformers: The Ride, which officially opens to the public tomorrow morning, Saturday, December 3, at Universal Studios Singapore. I got the chance to ride during a media preview today.

That's me with EVAC, a new Autobot Transformers character created especially for the new ride. EVAC's speciality is transporting personnel and classified materials at high speeds. He can take the form of a robot (above), a hybrid battle vehicle and a street vehicle.

And when he does that, he looks pretty much like this:

If you think EVAC looks a bit like SCOOP from The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, I wouldn't disagree. Transformers: The Ride is, at its core, the same type of ride as Spider-Man - motion-base ride vehicles moving through a show building where you watch action heros battle bad guys on 3-D screens embedded into the show scenes.

But Transformers takes the experience to new levels - with action that's faster, wilder and more three-dimensional than Spider-Man. When I say "three-dimensional," I don't just mean in the sense of stuff popping off the screen in front of you. I mean that Transformers makes more effective use of three-dimensional space. It's not just robots moving back and forth and side-to-side. Riding Transformers, you really get a sense of height, and the vertical scale of these multi-story Autobots and Decepticons fighting in front you.

My favorite moment? When you're swooping through a skyscraper canyon, then suddenly whipped into an office building. The transition from outdoors to indoors as you crash through the building's glass wall amplifies your sense of speed. Flying indoors you're just inches away from the objects hurtling past you, instead of yards away from obstacles as you were outdoors a split second ago. Transformers: The Ride is filled with moments like that, when your senses of speed, direction and even touch turn instantly. (Watch for water, steam and heat effects, in addition to the visual mayhem.)

The story is set up in the queue, where you're recruited to join NEST - the military command that assists the Autobots in their battle to defend Earth from the Decepticons. Borrowing from the main story arc of the Transformers movies, your job is to help protect the Allspark, the last remaining core source of energy for the Transformers, and to keep it away from the Decepticons.

EVAC's going to help us, the riders, do that by taking us and the Allspark out of the city and away from the battle. Frankly, when I heard this twist in the story, my heart sank. I've railed so many times against the whole "we're evacuating you from a battle" storyline that shows up so often in Six Flags roller coasters that it depressed me to see Universal Creative going to the same well. But Transformers' design team, led by Thierry Coup, wisely reject that lame conceit.

"Cowards run. Heroes fight," Megatron mocks us as the ride's battle focuses on its climax. But EVAC won't let us down. We stop running away. We fight back. We get to be heroes. And Universal transforms what could have been a tired narrative into something worth cheering for again.

Source.



Interview with Thierry Coup and John Hallenbeck (Published: December 3, 2011 at 2:44 AM):

SINGAPORE - After getting my turn on Transformers: The Ride Friday morning, I got the chance to sit down with Universal Creative ride designer Thierry Coup (the man behind Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, as well as Transformers) and Universal Studios Singapore Vice President for Operations John Hallenbeck, to talk about the ride and where it fits within Universal Studios Singapore.

Universal Creative's Thierry Coup

During our conversation, Thierry described the ride in great detail (skip over his first two answers if you don't want to read spoilers), then got into some of the ways that Universal builds detail into rides, not only to make them creatively engaging, but operationally functional, as well.

I also asked Thierry if Transformers would come to Orlando. At a press conference immediately before our conversation, Thierry denied that there were any plans to bring the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to Singapore. (I'll be posting a video of that press conference, which included Transformers film director Michael Bay, later.) But he demurred on that topic regarding Hollywood, saying only that Universal has "great plans for that park."

Robert: Set up the ride for a new visitor. What can they expect?

Thierry: The premise is that the guests are coming into the NEST facility. NEST stands for Nonbiological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty - it's an alliance with the Autobots and the government to protect the Earth from Decepticons. They really are protecting the Allspark shard, which is the remain of the Cube, which is the source of power for the Transformers. Autobots are the good guys; Decepticons are the bad guys.

So we're coming in, as guests, to be recruits, and we make our way deeper and deeper into the NEST facility. First, we meet General Morshower from the films, who welcomes us to the facility and tells us what our orientation is going to be about, that we'll be meeting some of the Autobots, then we'll be introduced to the Decepticons through monitors and then see control rooms and the Allspark shard, which is housed in an incredible chamber.

Eventually, we find out as we are getting deeper into our orientation that Decepticons are coming and they are about to break into the NEST facility. So our orientation is cut short and we have to be recruited to go on the mission to take the Allspark to safety. We find there is an Autobot named EVAC, which has been designed to take military personnel and equipment to safety. It's a very fast robot, with weapons. We meet him on the monitors and see that he can transform into three modes: He can be a robot, and he can be a car in regular mode, or in hybrid mode - hybrid mode is fully weaponized, with all these incredible weapons.

[EVAC] welcomes us and says that he wants us to come along with him on this mission because we are new recruits. He's new to battle, too, so it's kind of nice that we have that connection with him. We're new. He's new. He's asking us to be part of his team, to go take the Allspark to safety.

We see him transform on the monitor, and when we come around the corner, we see him in the station, at the loading dock, and we get on board and take off on our mission.

Robert: And then, in great theme park tradition, something goes terribly wrong.

Thierry: Yeah, it has to. It gives us a chance to be heroes, and to try to save the day.

So we end up running into Ravage, one of the Decepticons, who steals the Allspark just as we're about to retrieve it. Bumblebee stops him, takes the Allspark and hands it to us. Our Autobot, EVAC, takes it in and we take off. We're then chased by some of the meanest Decepticons. We face Megatron multiple times. Optimus Prime saves us a few times and eventually we're caught into Devastator's vortex, who takes us into his body through this giant vacuum, inside his guts, and we're spit out the back. We survive this because of our battle shield around EVAC, which saves us from being completely crushed.

Then, Starscream [grabs us and] takes us for a ride above the buildings, above the city, and we end up crashing into a building. Then there's a final battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron. We think that Optimus is left for dead, and it's just us and Megatron. Then suddenly, Optimus comes back, he's not dead, but it's our turn to take charge and say, this time, we've had it. We end up inserting the Allspark into Megatron's stomach, as it was done in the first film. Megatron blows up, but pulls us on his way down, falling off the building.

We have this giant fall down, aiming for the street. At the last second, when we think we're going to crash, Bumblebee comes to the rescue to save us. He catches us in his arms, but we crash through the street down into a lower level, though we survive.

Optimus thanks us. Basically, it's the farewell from Optimus, and we get so close to him, you can really feel his breath right there, right in his face, and he's thanking us for making the world a safer place.

And then we're off to our wonderful retail store, which has incredible merchandise. (Laughs.)

Robert: What were a few of those little details in the ride that maybe aren't part of the main narrative, the little things on the side that you're particularly proud of?

Thierry: People can ride 10 times, and you'll find something new each time. If you start looking to the side of the main character, the sweet spot on the screen, you'll see there's other characters. Where Devastator first appears, at one side you'll see Ratchet shooting at Devastator. Down below, when the train track collapses, on the left side you'll see Ironhide, one of the other Autobots, telling us where to go, pointing the way for us to escape. So there's a ton of stuff like that. It's fun because you discover new things every time you ride.

In scene three, for example, which is when Bumblebee comes, Sideswipe comes in through the door and attacks Bumblebee in the back. In the back of this broken door, there's Michael Bay's airplane. A lot of Michael Bay's favorite numbers are in the ride, like E7, which is something that Michael Bay loves. In all the films he's done, he's put E7 in as numbering for warehouses for vehicles, so we have some E7s placed in the ride.

For the team that worked on the attraction, we always try to place [their] names in the sets. As you travel through the city, a lot of the theaters, the hotels, some of the stores, have some team members' names on them. It's a nice little reward for the ones who worked really hard on this attraction, so they can say "Hey, I'm in that scene with the characters."

I'm also glad that we were able to bring a lot of the real voice actors to this film - Peter Cullen, Frank Welker - it all contributes to making this richer and more real. It's the pattern we've been following - to go back to the source and work with the creators to bring the original cast on board to make the experience true and authentic.

Robert: My favorite moment was when we go crashing into the office building, just because of the contrast of being outside, and then - boom - you're inside, flying past the desks, which are right there next to you. It makes it feel so much faster than when you're outside where objects are farther away.

Thierry: (Smiles) You know who's idea that was? Steven Spielberg's.

Robert: Really?

Thierry: Yes, he's been our creative consultant for all the parks. When we first had a chance to talk with him about the concept, he said wouldn't it be cool to go through a building? So, that was a perfect opportunity for us, because Michael Bay was shooting an office interior [for Transformers 3] - so we'll use the same office interior that's in the last film. That same office where Witwicky and the others were in the building that was collapsing? That's the same office we're in.

Robert: So Spielberg and Bay were involved in making this attraction? That's a lot of Hollywood big hitters there.

Thierry: Absolutely. And having the ability to work with ILM [Industrial Light and Magic] was a real treat - the same animators, the same cinema effects guys, the digital effects supervisor who was on the films, they all worked with us on this. We were able to be in complete synch with Michael Bay and what he was going to do with the last film.

Robert: One of the things that impressed me in the ride was the way you were able to create this sense of speed. In comparing it with Spider-Man, this is like Spider-Man times 100 - just fast, fast, fast.

Thierry: It's by adding little cues that make you feel like you're moving very fast. First of all, being able to be photo-realistic, so you have a better sense of the reality of how fast real objects are moving past you. On Spider-Man, being comic-book-style, there's less detail in the environments, so it's harder to get a sense of what is real and how fast you're really going. And the new generation of vehicles we have in this ride allow us to have much better cues for giving you a sense of acceleration. They're much more precise.

In Spider-Man, we started to develop the media - we locked in our camera moves - three years before we opened the attraction, which got us stuck with some camera moves we didn't want to use in the end. They weren't ideal to give us the proper motion. But we're about to change that, too, because we're working on re-doing the Spider-Man attraction. What we've learned from Transformers, we're applying to Spider-Man now.

It [Transformers] is the most action-packed ride experience we're ever created with the visuals, but it's easy to ride. With the technology available to us, we can create a much smoother ride experience that really supports what's going on in the visuals. It's still limited to 42 inches because of the safety restraints, but its very comfortable. You can ride it multiple times and it's a real pleasure.

John: A nice thing for us, as the operators, is that Universal Creative always has the operators in early to help work on that. The way I look at it is, you can have the greatest, coolest thing in the world, but if only 10 people per hour can see it, it's never going to get built. We start out, from the beginning - we know what we want to do as far as capacity; we know how to make that happen. And then they let us come in and poke holes in it: How will this not work? How can we not get 2,000 people per hour - what are the things that would prohibit that, and then they work with us on [fixing] those parameters. To get a commitment from upper management to put a lot of money out for an attraction, it's got to get a lot of people through and sell a lot of tickets.

Universal Studios Singapore's John Hallenbeck

My entire career in theme parks has been with Universal and I'm really happy that we've been allowed to do that. I've not worked for other companies, but I've heard that operations is kind of an afterthought in a lot of different places, and it has never been that way here. From queue design to graphic design, we have a voice.

A good example of that? In Asia, people are more predisposed to have motion sickness. It's just something that we've noticed. So we sat down, months before everything was finished, and we went through the ride profile and Thierry's group said, will this work? It ended up that this is the profile they're using everywhere and it does work here - it's been proven in the few weeks we've been in technical rehearsal. You don't want this great thing, then everyone's getting off the ride and not feeling well. It turns out we were successful in doing that then and making it what it is now.

Robert: The top question I've gotten about Transformers from my readers is: Is this coming to Orlando? And for a broader question, which gets to the recent rumors is, how do you decide what moves from one park to another park? Is there a drive to make all the Universal parks be the same, or do you want things that are unique to specific parks that never go someplace else?

Thierry: First, we look at market studies to see if certain properties do well. If Transformers was not a popular property in Asia, we would not have tried it here. Then each park has a different need - a park might have a sufficient amount of high-thrill attractions, of coasters, or of live shows. So we see where there is a need, based on feedback from operations, from marketing and others, and we start looking at, okay, for this type of attraction, these are the properties that would fit well in that market and that's kind of how we decide.

We don't want things to be too similar next to each other, obviously. There are multiple factors that come into play, but having the same attraction in Orlando and in LA is not going to hurt us because they are far enough away. But something as a fully immersive 3-D ride, we have Spider-Man [already] in Orlando. They don't have Spider-Man in LA, so why not put Transformers there? So far, no plans to have Transformers in Orlando. It doesn't mean that it may not happen if there's high demand for it, but.... (shakes head).

Robert: Talking about meeting needs in a park, looking five years, 10 years down the road, where do you see the needs for this particular park? What kind of attractions do you need to be looking at for the long term?

John: I think it's really looking at the demographics of this region, again, family is a huge thing. Asia is very family-driven. Any attraction that we can get more from the youngsters to the grandparents is going to be more of a blockbuster for us.

We've seen our front gate. We have a lot of larger groups - almost 20 percent of our attendance are groups of eight people or more. And that's not a tour group. That's a family. That's grandma, grandpa, maybe an aunt and uncle, maybe mom and dad, a couple of kids. They travel together in [extended] families here a lot. So that's something we definitely need to take into consideration.

We opened Battlestar Galactica, the world's tallest dueling steel roller coasters and they are popular, but there's a segment of people who look at it here in Asia and go, "No way I'm going to ride that thing." So it's taking all the pieces we have and really looking at, as Thierry said, where that next need is for us. It's not always going to be a huge, blockbuster attraction that's going to drive the business. It could be something like parades, which we're going open at New Year's Eve - our Hollywood Dreams parade is going to start here. So it's taking pieces of that to put the puzzle together, long-term.

Robert: So Thierry, what are you getting excited about moving on to next?

Thierry: Finishing the one in LA. I just can't wait for that one to open as well. It's going to be really fun - LA has not seen anything like it. The market there is pretty savvy. They've been to other parks, they've seen a lot, so it'll be great for them to finally see a ride like this.

Source.



Transformers Hollywood (Published: April 23, 2012 at 10:13 AM):

Sunday afternoon I completed the Singapore/Hollywood double by getting my first chance to ride Transformers: The Ride 3D at Universal Studios Hollywood.

But long-time readers of Theme Park Insider have read all that before. Let's get to the fresh question: How does Transformers: The Ride 3D fit in Universal Studios Hollywood?

Transformers essentially replaces Backdraft, a fire effects show that long ago had ceased being an effective attendance draw for the park. The Lower Lot soundstage that houses Transformers also used to be home to Special Effects Stages, but that show's found new life in a much-improved form in the Castle Theater on the Upper Lot, so the additional of Transformers to the park turned out to be a plus for that show, as well.

With Transformers, Universal Studios Hollywood now offers two of the world's best 3D attractions, joining the Studio Tour's King Kong 360:3-D. Personally, Transformers is my third-favorite ride in the world at this point, behind Harry Potter and Tokyo DisneySea's Journey to the Center of the Earth. Yes, that makes Transformers my favorite ride in Southern California right now, the first time I've said that about any ride outside the Disneyland Resort.

If there's a knock to be made on Transformers, it's that it continues USH's tradition of stranding its attractions without themed lands to "set the stage" for these shows. The fix to that problem is one of the many things I loved about Universal Studios Singapore. There, Universal created themed environments for each of its attractions: a well-themed, immersive Egypt for Revenge of the Mummy and a Far, Far Away for Shrek, in addition to full lands for Madagascar and Jurassic Park.

The Singapore Transformers calls Sci-Fi City home. That urban setting works as the hidden-in-plain-sight NEST headquarters, tucked inside the corner on a city street. In Hollywood, there's no attempt at setting the stage for this show. There's a huge soundstage at the end of the street. Walk in, and boom, you're in NEST. My son, who's a huge Transformers fan, said that even though he loved the ride, he still prefers Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey as his all-time favorite ride - simply because of the far better exterior set-up for that attraction. I agree.

Note that in Hollywood, where the ride is announced with a giant, two-dimensional mural, Universal's appended the "3D" to the title of the ride. It doesn't that extra "3D" on the sign in Singapore, where a three-dimensional Bumblebee greets visitors from atop the ride's marquee. As they say in journalism school - show, don't tell.

But that's nit-picking. That we're discussion Transformers' place among the very top rides in the world should say it all. Once you're on board, the ride's the same in both Hollywood and Singapore, and equally amazing (sorry to borrow your word, Spidey) in each. And a 20-minute drive sure beats a 20-hour flight when I want to experience it again.

So let's talk business. Universal's the third-most popular park in Southern California, trailing Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. Can Transformers help Universal close that gap?

From the time I've spent in each of the three parks, my impression is that USH relies on a higher percentage of foreign and out-of-town visitors than either of the Disney theme parks, which have a huge local base of hundreds of thousands of annual passholders. It's not the Universal hasn't tried to court locals. It's "buy a day, get the year free" plan nets Southern California residents an annual pass for just $77 - $122 less than Disney's cheapest annual pass, and with 147 fewer blockout days. (Universal's pass is good only until the end of 2012, and not for a full 12 months, but that Universal pass bought today still gets you in the park for more days than Disney's ticket.)

Universal had offered to let local bloggers in for a preview day on Transformers, but then said that it would leave preview tickets at Will Call on a day of our choosing instead. When I showed up Sunday morning, no one at Will Call knew what the heck I was talking about, so I went ahead bought the $77 annual pass tickets for me and my son instead. The ride was in "technical rehearsal" (i.e. soft opening), so we got on anyway, with no wait. And then, we went around and got on again.

The last time I bought the "buy a day, get the year free" deal, I have to fess up that I never came back for the second day. Once I'd done everything in the park on my first day, I just didn't feel the need to come back and experience anything again that year (outside of covering media events at the park, of course).

But now, with Transformers in the mix? Brian's already asking when we can come back again. And I can't wait to ride again, either. With these tickets in hand, Transformers might help make Universal Studios Hollywood the best theme park deal in Southern California.

Source.


Don't know if any of this will help with any opinions, although it's still too difficult to say without having experienced either of the Transformers rides to compare them with my rides on Spiderman in Islands of Adventure, but I enjoyed that ride and I like Transformers, so I assume that these rides are great as well and the addition of one alongside a 2nd Wizarding World can only be a good thing for the Orlando Resort.

A few other people who have read these reviews and interview and haven' been on either of the Transformers rides say the same about not being excited about the ride and not being able to understand the appeal, etc... However, once people ride them, it seems to be a different story.