July 16 Trip Report

[techop]

OK so I wanted to post this sooner, but it’s been a busy couple weeks. Usually I go to the park once a year in the summer. However last year I went to USF instead. So after not being to USH in two years, I thought it was time to check out the USH VIP Experience. I must say Universal dose a pretty good job making you feel like a VIP. The day starts off, with your own special entrance to the park. It’s to the right side of the main entrance, next to guest services. There you find an attendant who acts like a "night club bouncer". This attendant checks to see if your name is on the list, if it is they grant you access to the lower VIP gathering room. Once in the lower room they check to see witch tour your on. If your too earlier (more than 30min) which I was. They very nicely give you a VIP pass then kick you back out in to the park until it’s your time to come back. They do this because they only have so much room in the second floor VIP lounge. Once it’s your time to gather (30 min or less) prior to you tour leaving. They let you have full access to all the free water food and ponchos one can consume or carry with them. Note during the tour there are only two places to get free food and drink. This is the first the second is lunch.

The first part of our tour was held on the lower lot, where your guide walks around with you putting you on all the attractions. This was for me just fine, and I really didn’t feel it was anything out of the ordinary. I think for someone that doesn’t know the park, or doesn’t know anything about the rides they would find the guided ride portion much more exciting. Something I rather enjoyed was that while the VIP’s were riding. The guide had to hold all their bags and cameras, that wouldn’t fit on the ride. Thus the guide end’s up looking like an Asian tourist, with 3-4 cameras hanging from there neck. :) I hope everyone can find the humor, I mean no disrespect. Once finished up with the lower lot. We moved to the upper lot for Special effects stage and Shrek. I really enjoyed the new Special effects stage. I think it flows much better, then moving people from one stage to another. Spoiler alert: the motion capture section is prerecorded. I say this with disappoint, I would have really enjoyed it to be live capture. It’s also interesting to note that this at least USH second time flying/not flying an audience member around theater. In the 2010 Special Effects stage (that took place in 1984). In that show they flew an audience member on a customized flying rig similar to what they are doing here. The first rig was developed by Bob Gurr 1983 and the second by Fisher technical services in 2009.

So after a couple of rides and shows later, it was time for lunch. The lunch is catered and was very nice. It seemed there was something for everyone, hands down the best food I have ever had at the park. It was housed in a building to the right of Coke Soak. It was an all you could eat buffet style. (Tip: this is a great place to stock up on more free water!)

The second part of our tour was mostly all tram. Since the park was busy, they had our tram meet us outside the main gate. It you don’t know the VIP tour only has the power tram portion. Meaning it’s just one car long. On the VIP tour of the back lot you can request to stop the tram. It can be stopped for picture taking from inside the tram. Or be stopped for people wanting to get off the tram to take pictures. Not every stop can happen, the tram driver dose his best to accommodate everyone’s request. There are some planed stops along the tram route, my favorite being the prop warehouse. This is a large 3-4 story tall warehouse full of probs. They take off the tram, and walk you thru the warehouse. Where you are even a loud to touch some of the props. This is truly one of the largest prop warehouses in the industry. We all so had a chance, to walk in to a sound stage that was filming a current TV show. One other thing that’s interesting is that the single tram goes in to EQ, King Kong, Fast and Furious and Jaws. The neat thing with this is you get a dead centre seat of what’s going on. For our turn of EQ we had to go thru twice because the first time the tram stopped in the wrong place.

Once our tram tour ended we finished up the day with T2 and Water World, the whole VIP tour was 7 hours. I am told this was on the long side, typically there 5-6 hours. On a side note if you want to come back a second day, you can upgrade to a full season pass (no Blackout dates) for only 25$. In conclusion, if there’s anyone out there that wants a more in-depth back lot tour. I would say the VIP experience is defiantly worth looking in to. If you just want more rides and less wait time’s, then get a front of the line pass. If you’re looking to learn more about the rides and show. Then your all ready in the right place, the great group here on the forum is far more educated than any VIP tour guide. I hope this trip report is interesting and informative.

Techop

[Jon]

Thanks for that informative review. I'm surprised they went full out and offered a catered lunch, but I guess that goes with the price territory.

Thanks for sharing!