Universal Orlando Resort Reviews

by Bricklesmom

I downloaded UniversalOrlandoResort at the beginning of our 6 day trip with 6 adult-aged (according to Universal’s standards) people in order to streamline the process of paying for meals, etc. I was only able to sign in ONE time after setting up the account, then it logged me out and I haven’t been able to sign back in to my account again. It keeps giving me an error message and telling me to “try my action again.” It also only allowed me to scan 5 of our 6 passes into my account, then gave me an error message about too many bad scans (I only scanned each pass once!) and wouldn’t let me scan my son’s pass in at all. I have to be physically present for every food purchase, credit card in hand, running the risk of dropping it or losing it, or handing out cash to 4 different teenagers to run and get what they want to eat or refill their cups. UniversalOrlandoResort is glitchy, the wait times are inaccurate, and I can’t even use UniversalOrlandoResort for the purpose I intended. When I asked an employee about it, I just got a shoulder-shrug. (I definitely prefer the service, cleanliness, and streamlined processes at DW over Universal.) UniversalOrlandoResort is a waste of phone space.

by Service Needed Mom

I made the allegedly forbidden request to have no cream on my Butter Beer. If you know the drink it is a frozen drink with a cream topper. I love the drink but the cream is tough on my stomach. I ordered the drink and requested no cream. I paid with no problem. Then I was told by the drink server “it is a signature drink and changes can’t be made”. When I explained to the server that I have ordered with no cream several times over the years she shrugged her solders. I asked if I could please be accommodated and she said no. She told me to go back to where I paid and ask for a refund. The manager came out and spouted the same nonsense about no changes to signature drinks. I received my refund but... I just don’t understand why I could not receive customer service. The cream is added to top after the drink is dispensed. All they had to do was not put the cream.

I am disappointed that I could not get the drink the way I wanted. More importantly, I am disappointed with the lack of customer service.

by Zenbuddy55

UniversalOrlandoResort should not advertise its “virtual line” feature – or make it more explicitly clear that it is only currently available on a few not in demand rides. I would have not purchased tickets if I knew the truth about this feature.

Otherwise, UniversalOrlandoResort has practically no useful features that would not be available in a brochure or map, other than the ability to buy add-ons, see wait times and to order food, which is useful enough for an app in development.

However, in my opinion, Universal should not deceive its guests by advertising this feature prominently on their website (no matter how many stars or fine print) until it is at least rolled out to a majority of rides – or at least those with the longest wait times... I wonder is universal reluctant to roll out this feature because of possible lost revenue from fast-pass sales? Fine. But at least don’t advertise it on the website.

by Unhappily Advised Guest

The first time I attempted to make the purchase my account was charged then the transaction was reversed. When I called to get assistance to find out why I was told that it is impossible to find out the decline reason on universals end(I had already contacted my bank to find out if it was on their end). I was told that it is impossible to find out the decline reason because the people who can do that research do not speak with customers and the employee manager(Mike) could not take my care number to provide them with to look the decline reason up. He also said that they(the department that can look up decline reasons that does not speak with customers) could not look up the profile attached to the card to look up the card number find out why my card declined. Their only solution was to a different way of purchasing the tickets or re-download UniversalOrlandoResort . I am lucky that I was able to purchase the tickets after I re-downloaded since they could offer me no help if it hadn’t. I understand that the people who assist with the transactions themselves do not speak with customers but their must be a way for the customer service center to put in a research request.

by Csm10393

The Universal Virtual line system is one of the most broken, frustrating systems I've ever had to deal with. If you want to ride any of the popular rides or attractions you're screwed unless you get in the parks at the time the gates open. It punishes you for not getting up at the crack of dawn to be in the parks. I am an annual passholder. I love going to Universal. And I understand with the pandemic going on things need to change to ensure people don't get sick or spread the virus. But this virtual line system is deeply flawed in its execution. Universal needs to stagger its release of tickets and be clear about when they release them at the very bare minimum. It's getting deeply frustrating to go all the way to the parks, and for those without a pass to pay for parking and admission, to come and not even be able to do the things you wanted to do because the virtual tickets were all snapped up by the first people in the park.

by Kindly Kyle

Should have explained virtual thing at guest services when we checked in. Long long lines even with fast pass. This has not been very fun for my family and my boys. Wasted a lot of my first of two days here. 👎

....Got universal app and used virtual pass system and only got offered jimmy fallon ride at 8:00 am each morning. I luckily checked at 6:45 the next morning and got Hagrid’s motorcycle ride. Otherwise I spent my entire time attached to my phone desperately hoping to get into a virtual line. I was hoping to detach from my electronics not be forced to sit on the curb with thousands of other parents trying to get their kids on the “good rides”.
I Spent a lot of money on season passes and fast passes for 6 people and still couldn’t get on a number of rides. When we got to the virtual line at our appointed time, it was still a 2 hour wait in the line
......Need a better system 👎

by Momma Bee17

My husband and I really used to like this park. I no longer do. I looked at the ride guide online and saw that many of the rides showed a wheelchair and did not picture a wheelchair going to walking. (Meaning you have to get out of the wheelchair) My son has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and fell and broke his leg in May. He did this by standing and attempting to go to the bathroom. That leg is 50% healed. Also after getting off the train to go to Islands of adventure when we got to the elevator the employee motioned for us to keep walking. We did only to come to a STAIR case. How was my son suppose to get DOWN? We go back to the elevator line to be told there are 2 people ahead of us. When we had just been there a couple of minutes ago. I told the lady you sent us down to the end. I was upset! She said I wish there were signs. Then a couple of minutes later she came up to us to say if you go to guest services you could tell them we need signs. REALLY. I was beyond angry. I couldn’t even talk to her because it would not have ended well. We will not be coming back and I would not recommend UniversalOrlandoResort ark to anyone in a motorized wheelchair. The labeling on the rides is misleading.

by DayG85

UniversalOrlandoResort is extremely frustrating to use and appears to have bugs in every function. When updating my home address it says that it was updated successfully but it never actually makes the changes. I’m actually not able to update my address to make sure the correct one is file. I had a similar experience with updating my card payment info although after 5 attempts it finally went thru. I didn’t change any info each time I tried. It just didn’t want to accept the changes until the 5th try. The most frustrating part tho is I’m Florida resident purchasing tickets at the resident rate. My billing address IS a Florida address however every time I go to purchase the tickets it gives me an error that says my billing address must be a Florida address to qualify for the resident rate... I’ve now been on hold for 1 hour and still waiting just so I can buy tickets. I should have been able to do this in 5 minutes in UniversalOrlandoResort . Please use more of your abundant resources to create a better user experience. It’s the least you can do.

by Fmaylett

Great idea but incredibly difficult to use. First, every time you change screens it defaults to the title screen when you came back and have to wait. Second, if you’re going to use UniversalOrlandoResort for payment or scanning into lockers, you have to go through numerous screens to pull up your data. Coupled with the default back to the title screen while it loads can make for some uncomfortable waits while people and waiting behind you. The maps are hard to navigate and really find anything. The virtual passes are a great concept but today 4/19 in the park only 2 rides are represented. One is Hagrids and unavailable from the moment we arrived at the parks opening. The second was Jimmy Fallons ride which worked great. No others available. Bottom line, you’re held captive to use UniversalOrlandoResort and they just need to work on the UX and make it really usable. Put it back into the oven and finish what you started.

by Apeyhoehne

UniversalOrlandoResort does not allow for proper day planning when you are in the park, or even before you go. It doesn’t show the showtimes for all of the shows, in fact, you have to go to a special page to pull up the showtimes for any of the holiday shows. It also should show the menus for the restaurants in the park, both quick and full service. The Disney World app has this feature and it is very helpful. When you get hungry and want to figure out where to go to eat, it’s much more helpful to be able to pull out UniversalOrlandoResort and find a place suitable for you. It’s a pain when you find a place on UniversalOrlandoResort , walk over and look at the menu and find out there’s nothing there that you want. Also, it could help the lines at the food stands if the guest can look at UniversalOrlandoResort and view the menu to decide what they want before they get to the counter. The only helpful thing with UniversalOrlandoResort is wait times, which don’t always appear to be accurate.

by Yessap

UniversalOrlandoResort is functional. It does show users where rides are located as well as shopping, eating, shows and other services. There are many flaws. The zoom feature on the maps is inconsistent in usability. Ticket purchasing is extremely clunky and basically takes the user to a mobile version of Universal's web pages.

Overall, Universal is full of slight of hand scam artists. While picking up express passes purchased for a specific day, I realized that I failed to purchase enough for my whole party. Universal charged me Double per express pass and didn't disclose the individual price for that same day. Price gauging and lack of pricing disclosure is shady and demonstrates the extent to which Universal is trying to take your money!! Buyer beware. Universal's ticketing process is not user friendly to begin with. This creates lack of transparency and thus leads to no trust.

by TechWifeA1A

Today was the first time we’ve used UniversalOrlandoResort . As a method of making your way around the park and locating everything, it was great. However, we primarily were concerned with knowing the wait times for rides so that we could plan accordingly and that feature was not working all day. I tried refreshing multiple times throughout the day and made sure it had nothing to do with my WiFi connection. Occasionally, it would give a wait time for a ride or two, but for most of the day, it kept saying that the rides would open at 9:00a or would not give a wait time at all. We have annual passes, so we’ll be coming back soon and hopefully will find that this feature of UniversalOrlandoResort is working as the developers intended. I will be sure to update my review at that time.

by A. Busy Mom

UniversalOrlandoResort is easy to use and right on track with the wait times for the rides and attractions. It would have been great if UniversalOrlandoResort actually utilized the Notifications as we lost out on one evening in the parks because they closed 3 hours early. I checked notifications several times and even hunted down what event caused the closure, EVEN Universal’s website didn’t have a date noted for the event that we discovered was the reason. It would also be SUPER helpful if app users to post notifications - like tonight would have been great to know that the Spider Man ride was down and they didn’t know when it would be up and running. We discovered that it was a faulty car which was stuck on the track near the end (we saw it as we left without going on the ride). Other than that UniversalOrlandoResort was great to use.

by Lbsheheiejeheb

I wish I could see the nutritional information on UniversalOrlandoResort when ordering. Especially now that we aren’t ordering in person. Other than that I don’t have any complaints about UniversalOrlandoResort .

Edit: forgot to mention my experience with the virtual line. Maybe you could have instructions or a tutorial on how to do it for first timers. I didn’t struggle with it like others seem to have. I just noticed the the wait times aren’t always up to date so I have to click all the times until one works. Maybe you could take a page out of Disney’s book when it comes to their fast passes. Although I hate how you can sign up months in advance on their app. Please don’t ever do that. Keep it on property. That is all. :)

by SonyaSonyae

This is a very nice app. However I did run into a major problem. I decided to buy two park to park tickets through UniversalOrlandoResort. I paid for both together. My transaction went smoothly. No issues. I entered in everything currently. It even asked me to enter in my guest name for her ticket. I did so and received my confirmation number via email. However, one major problem happened. I paid for two tickets but only one ticket showed up 😱. I had to call Universal studios for help. After being on hold for 10 minutes. My issue was resolved. The customer service lady was not sure why this issue happened. But it was fixed. Not cool app. Not cool at all. This issue needs to be resolved. Other than that it’s still a great app that I do recommend.

by SkinnyFatHulk

Excellent graphic performance, excellent graphics. Quick response. Never freezes. BUT, it’s annoying to navigate. You can only surf through one park at a time; if you want to switch parks you have to exit and then choose the other park. They should let you surf multiple parks at one time to help you decide where to go next. Also, instead of showing the wait times on the little attraction icons they show an icon for what type of attraction it is (3D, thrill, etc.) So you have to waste time by clicking on the icon to find the wait time, then to go back to the map it’s even more clicks and navigation. They should make the map configurable to show wait times on the map or attraction type.

by SwirlsALot

This was our first visit to Universal and Islands of Adventure in Florida and we had a blast! We didn’t want to leave and we can’t wait to visit again! The Express Pass is so worth it! We didn’t have to wait in line a long time and in some instances at all:)! The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is amazing even if you are not a fan! I will miss the butter beer so much, frozen and regular:). The two best rides in my seven year old daughter’s opinion and mine is The Forbidden Journey in Hogwarts Castle and The Jurassic River Adventure! So much fun!! I can’t count how many times we rode those two! I recommend staying at a resort on site as you get free shuttle services to and from the parks! We stayed at Cabana Bay in one of their tower rooms and it was great and not as expensive as some of the other on site hotels! We will be back!

by Manuel400

The only thing that’s bothering me is that we can’t have our Tickets/Annual passes on the digital wallet (IOS), therefore, i need to have my annual pass on my pocket/wallet and having to constantly taking it in and out for the rides or to have my discount at the shops, or have it hanging from my neck (where i run the risk of losing it).

I tried on UniversalOrlandoResort itself to scan my Annual Pass but it pops out an error saying that it has already been linked. So neither one or the other options i have.

by Msjawine

We have a great time with family but got very disappointed when My phone died. I needed to charge and there’s no place to charge! For this big of a theme park, you should invest in things like this. Other parks have designated areas where you can charge and even have a choice of USB ports or real plug ins! I feel that it should be addressed the soonest and not just point us to buy portable power banks! For me, however fun it wAs at the start, got dampened because I couldnt use my phone to communicate thus limiting us with exploring the park we have to always be together since we have no way to communicate. To me that was a big real failure to deliver!

by Divaherself

For the expensive park price, all rides need to be working and none need to be shut down. And the park is too expensive for any rides to be shut down, unless weather related. But to just shut the rides down and or open up the park at 12noon when the park should be open up at 9 am. It is a huge problem. I am visiting in January the second week of January 2022 and I expect for the price I pay for all rides to be running and open. And or I will be suing the park for stress, and loss time . I am catching a plane so I am of course out of town and this will be my son 10 year old birthday celebration and I need all rides open the second week of January 2022.

by VCorbin

UniversalOrlandoResort was useless unless you already knew what you were looking for. It was good at showing you where you already were, but not so much at telling you how to find things. After using UniversalOrlandoResort at the park, my phone rapidly lost charge. After I left and charged my phone back up, I found numerous “burst” photos of up to 25 shots and at least a dozen videos that I had not taken. They were all dark, so obviously had been taken from inside my bag. I also found that the timer on my phone kept being mysteriously set, even after I had turned it off. No wonder my phone died so quickly. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but my phone had never behaved in this way before. I deleted UniversalOrlandoResort and if I ever return to Universal, I will be using a paper map.

by Ayesha0825

Very few rides in between multiple gift shops, dining facilities and more places you can spend spend spend. It’s taking consumerism to a new level. Pay a large sum to enter a park and then keep spending as you move alone while you wait hours and hours in long lines. It doesn’t stop there, you can buy an express pass for almost the price of the ticket to enter the park, which only prolongs the lines of ppl who could not afford to pay more for express. Unless the park is spending more money and investing in running a separate ride (portion) for express passers then why ask a regular person to wait longer in line because they need to make room for ppl who get to skip ahead?. Like I said, it’s the consistent distractions where one can spend spend spend. While the parks job is to also make profits, there needs to be a limit as to how far can you go as a business.

by Newsie350

First off people, this is not the place to review the park. This is for reviews of UniversalOrlandoResort .

I would’ve assumed UniversalOrlandoResort would have been up to par with Disney’s App. I don’t understand why you can’t pull up the maps of the parks and see the wait times. You have to push the ride icon to get that info which to me is a waste of time. They only allow you to sort the rides by thrill, water, 3D-4D, and kids. I want to be able to see all rides and wait times at the same time, on the same screen. Also, you cannot add or access hotel reservations. There are no hotel maps. The only thing UniversalOrlandoResort is good for is buying tickets.

We are Orlando residents and frequent both Disney and Universal. We’ve stayed at most the resorts because of our Florida discount. By far, Universal is our favorite park and we know it like the back of our hands. But for people who aren’t familiar with the park, they deserve better.

by Gnoe77

I called a few times with questions about the premier package, and was told I would receive one ticket per year to Halloween Horror Nights. I was also told that with purchasing the most expensive plan, there would be no black out dates. As I called today to see if I needed to reserve the date for my HHN ticket, I was then informed, after 3 calls of questions, that I could not use it on Thursday, October 11th. I am very disappointed that this was not disclosed to me in earlier calls. I was told No black out dates! I already booked my hotel, and was going to do islands of adventure the 12th. I will no longer be doing that, and I will no longer visit universal studios in the future. I am very disappointed in your customer service representatives giving me false information.
Signed,
Ex Universal Studios customer from Florida

by Carmen J H

We were very excited to go to Halloween Horror Nights fue the first time. Our expectations where high and we very disappointed. To begin with they confiscated my husbands brand new tact flashlight. No remorse and would not work on returning it to us after the evening was over. The wait to get in was horrible. We had the fast passes and still had to wait minimum of 40 minutes to get in. We were not scared at all. The haunted houses had so many things hanging and touching us and again we were never scared. The money we paid between entry tickets and fast passes where definitely not worth the experience. Very dissatisfied and would not go it again. Oh abc the prices for the beverages and food was ridiculously over priced.
They owe us a flashlight we paid $20 for. Won’t do it again.

by Tuffaznails

Have season passes but our favorite rides always have too long wait time or don’t have fast pass. I feel like I’m throwing money out the window and thinking twice about keeping the passes. I feel your season pass holders are your greatest asset because it is residual monthly profit for your company and there should be better benefits for us. There really should be some solution for the long wait times. After standing in line for one-two hours for a less than five minute ride is outrageous we’re tired after that and don’t even feel like walking around to enjoy the rest of the park. I am considering getting passes to a different park possibly Disney.

by Pano Z

Extremely impressed with the development of Universal Orlando! I went as a teenager every few years and loved it. My wife and I (28 years old) decided to make a trip to Orlando for a couple of days and stayed at one of the on-site hotels. It was amazing, having both the relaxed, hang by the pool & drink resort style vacation with the adventure & entertainment style vacation. City walk had all the great restaurants and bars we enjoy. The entire experience only gets better every time we go, and they continue to add attractions in entertainment.

by Lpryor

UniversalOrlandoResort has a lot of good info, maps, wait times, etc. However its wallet only works at Volcano Bay, not City Walk, Islands of Adventure, or the Studios. Also, would be awesome if you could load your annual passes to the iPhone Wallet. They're not something I generally carry around all the time. As a local that would make the spontaneous evening and weekend trips a little easier. As far as I can tell you can't associate your account to your passes at all.