Transformers: The Ride - Summer 2013

[TylerDurden]

I've been continually seeing pictures on various sites showing Transformer's extended queue filled with guests since the attraction's debut, even through the rainy weather.

no you havent--not the one that exteded into the streets. As a matter of fact, theyre reduced the size of that queue by about half.

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Plus, Universal playing their cards so close to their chest until the last minute might not have worked for them in this case. We didn't get an official opening date until what...a month before? And advertising didn't even begin until it was open. But more importantly than the news spreading is the word of mouth for this ride which is great.

Which was one of the reasons I outlined in it not drawing as many crowds as people were led to believe. Maybe I misunderstood, but there was alot of speculation that this would be the Studio parks biggest summer ever. It isnt. Guest spending in many areas of the park have been down from last year. Whereas in IOA, when HP opened, nearly every area of the park benefitted. US hasnt even been hitting 'high' crowds up until last week.

 

[TylerDurden]

Especially when they didn't even announce a Grand Opening date until 50 days prior to Grand Opening.

My sources have been telling me that Universal is darned pleased with the response to the attraction and Merchandise sales. They are more than thrilled with the not even "open" yet Springfield.

Tyler's point sounds more like what He was expecting, not what Universal had projected.

And it is ALWAYS better to be over prepared than face the PR nightmare of being under-prepared and ill equipped.

Yes, its good to be prepared and yes I never once said I would be for sure right or that anything "failed". Its just that there comes an expectation when the park is blacked out, an overflow queue extends into the park streets, and park budget goals are super high. Maybe I looked too far into it, but the park hadnt filled up to the point of rendering those blackouts necessary, hadnt filled that overflow queue, or met those budget goals in most locations on most days.

Ive been a strong fan of the ride since its beginning and was the first review on this site of the Orlando version--it was glowing btw. I never thought the attraction would fail. I simply made an educated assumption based on certain facts to discount theories that the Studios would host unprecedented amounts of people, simply for the sake of discussion. And at this point Im not trying to argue with anyone, just back up this claim so as not to seem like a complete crackhead. Maybe nothing was overhyped, and there wasnt any need to simmer down any expectations.

In any case, I didnt think so many people would become so defensive because, as far as I know, there are no members of Universal management or UC on this board lol. I had taken what I had heard and what I had seen and drawn a conclusion which many of you have disagreed with and thats ok--debate makes the world go round

In any case, I love the ride and think its a success in its own right, and any post I made that seems to contradict that was not my intention, and there is a marked difference between failure and underwhelming performance.

 

[Skubersky]

It's true that attendance all all Orlando parks was a little lagging earlier this summer, mostly due to exceptionally wet weather and a still-sluggish economy. But anyone saying that Universal is significantly missing their per-capita spending targets needs new "inside sources" ;-)

As for Transformers, keep in mind that at 1800 riders an hour, it is one of the faster loading attractions at the resort (just behind people-eating champs FJ and Spidey). So the fact that the extended queue isn't completely filled only means that the ops are hitting their throughput targets, not that the ride isn't popular. And the temporary extended-extended queue in the street was always more for worst-case scenarios than regular operations (and you may still see it used during HHN). Most of the rides have potential extra queue space that is seldom or never used, that doesn't reflect on their popularity.

For a little perspective, Radiator Springs Racers @ DCA has a THRC of 1500, and it's standby queue has been peaking daily between 90 to 120 minutes over the past 2 weeks (put aside how many more FastPasses there are compared to Universal Express, artificially inflating Disney standby times). Transformers (with 20% more capacity, in a park that had 1.6mil fewer visitors last year) has had peak wait times of at least 100 every day, and sometimes hit 180 min. Does anyone want to call Radiator Springs Racers a failure?

The real surprise isn't the wait times at Transformers, but at Despicable Me. Families are waiting 2+ hours for a cute (but not life changing) simulator. Proves the massive impact of 1) a prominent location near the park entrance 2) a mega-hit franchise 3) relatively low rider capacity.

 

[TylerDurden]

It's true that attendance all all Orlando parks was a little lagging earlier this summer, mostly due to exceptionally wet weather and a still-sluggish economy. But anyone saying that Universal is significantly missing their per-capita spending targets needs new "inside sources" ;-)

As for Transformers, keep in mind that at 1800 riders an hour, it is one of the faster loading attractions at the resort (just behind people-eating champs FJ and Spidey). So the fact that the extended queue isn't completely filled only means that the ops are hitting their throughput targets, not that the ride isn't popular. And the temporary extended-extended queue in the street was always more for worst-case scenarios than regular operations (and you may still see it used during HHN). Most of the rides have potential extra queue space that is seldom or never used, that doesn't reflect on their popularity.

For a little perspective, Radiator Springs Racers DCA has a THRC of 1500, and it's standby queue has been peaking daily between 90 to 120 minutes over the past 2 weeks (put aside how many more FastPasses there are compared to Universal Express, artificially inflating Disney standby times). Transformers (with 20% more capacity, in a park that had 1.6mil fewer visitors last year) has had peak wait times of at least 100 every day, and sometimes hit 180 min. Does anyone want to call Radiator Springs Racers a failure?

The real surprise isn't the wait times at Transformers, but at Despicable Me. Families are waiting 2 hours + for cute (but not life changing) simulator. Proves the massive impact of 1) a prominent location near the park entrance 2) a mega-hit franchise 3) relatively low rider capacity.

As to the inside sources comment, my job deals with things like this lol...Im sure Supplu Vault and Studio Store hit their budgets daily but elsewhere the parks performance has been lackluster.

Also, RSR has been around two summers...it has a huge draw even with the novelty worn off.

Also when talking about Transformers capacity, remember Spiderman down the street has a similar capacity (slightly higher even) and yet has attracted comparable wait times despite being over a decade old.

Again, just backing things up, not claiminh Transformers a complete failure.

 

[IzzyB]

the word 'fail' was never used. Underwhelming was more like it. Up until the last few days, the extended queue never filled, the park had no need to black out any level of pass, and budget goals parkwide were not being met. That is a classic case of overhype. Of course, now that has all changed, so everything I predicted is moot, and it seems the precautions Universal took in anticipation of what one of their biggest summers ever actually do have merit now, even if it took a while to get there.

Also, capacity has nothing to do with it, when you look at a similar attraction right next door with higher wait times.

But no matter, Universal has finally started reaching its crowds. Better late than never. Just know that nobody claimed it had failed in any sense

Was it later than expected? Because seasonal summer shows sometimes don't start until the end of June, because that is when crowds start to pick up. Most people vacation in July or beginning of August, because schools get out at different times in June and if you live up North you never plan a vacation in June, because if it snows too much school can go very late into June (had this happen to me my Junior year of High School). Because of the higher rates during 4th of July week, many people start after the 4th of July holiday. And look at this, crowds increased a ton after the 4th of July Holiday. TM blackout being lifted had little or nothing to do with this. Also, I think Universal was smart to start the power pass blackout when it did. It didn't want this level of crowds early on, because TF was so new. Do you really want a bunch of locals that probably don't spend a ton of money coming to the park to ride just this one ride? Probably not. You want to keep crowds manageable for a little to get everyone up to speed.

I think projecting that the summer crowds were going to be down and this was underwhelming addition was a little premature and that is what we have all been saying.

Also, I don't think we can compare even spidey to TF in terms of line length, because it is in two different parks. Uni has way more people eater shows and other attractions than IOA has. Therefore, most of the lines are going to be longer in IOA because there is less to do.

 

[sierrak5]

Monday night Transformers had a 120 minute posted wait time and the Express queue filled outside the building at 9:30pm. I thought I was being smart showing up late.

 

[Skubersky]

Also when talking about Transformers capacity, remember Spiderman down the street has a similar capacity (slightly higher even) and yet has attracted comparable wait times despite being over a decade old.

Spidey's THRC is significantly higher (about 2400), but IoA gets almost 2mil more visitors a year, and Spidey is one of the park's only indoor E-tickets (water rides & coasters have shut down daily this month due to storms). Even so, Spidey's daily peak wait time has consistently been 20 to 30 min shorter than TF's peak for the past few weeks.

 

[Mad Dog]

Tyler: The queue next to Monsters has generally been described as the extended queue. I don't think anyone but you has referenced the street as the extended queue. That's only a temporary area that isn't really utilized as a true extended queue as the extended queues on other attractions. And it's nothing personal but you kind of profess to have insider info but it's generally at odds with most of the other information out there. Your info confuses the issues since it's contrary to eyewitness and true insider reports and your knowledge of the parks seems to be really lacking at times. I'm just an out of town twice a year tourist but at least I know the park's operating hours and if there's blackout dates for some AP's. Once again, I think your info sources may be suspect and therefore inaccurate.

 

[quickfire609]

I mean in the end, its a theme park ride...I dont think you need to get upset over it

Who are you?

 

[TylerDurden]

Look guys, I'm not here to argue and I clearly hit a nerve, which was not my intention in any way. The crowds ended up coming and in the end I was wrong! All I did was make an educated prediction which has been disproven in the last few days. Though I generally expected bigger crowds to come for the 4th of July week (generally one of the busiest times of the year), clearly the park has seen a pick-up in attendance.

Anyway, in the process of generating this discussion I didn't mean to step on anyone's toes. It's obvious you guys take your parks pretty seriously, and I really haven't had the same attitude--I was always under the impression this was more just lighthearted discussion. Although it is kind of interesting how everyone got very vocal only when the place started getting busy.

I do want to protect my reputation by saying that I didn't make anything up, and I don't pull stuff out of my butt lol. I do deal with things like this and observe things like merchandise sales and numbers with an educated eye. The conclusion I came to with said info, however, just turned out to be a little less than right. I'm sorry if I ever seemed negative or got anyone upset--like I said, I didn't think people would get so heated what I thought was just a simple theme park discussion.

That being said, c'mon guys, not everyone is going to agree on everything all the time. At least things got spiced up a little bit right?

 

[Mad Dog]

Look guys, I'm not here to argue and I clearly hit a nerve, which was not my intention in any way. The crowds ended up coming and in the end I was wrong! All I did was make an educated prediction which has been disproven in the last few days. Though I generally expected bigger crowds to come for the 4th of July week (generally one of the busiest times of the year), clearly the park has seen a pick-up in attendance.

Anyway, in the process of generating this discussion I didn't mean to step on anyone's toes. It's obvious you guys take your parks pretty seriously, and I really haven't had the same attitude--I was always under the impression this was more just lighthearted discussion. Although it is kind of interesting how everyone got very vocal only when the place started getting busy.

I do want to protect my reputation by saying that I didn't make anything up, and I don't pull stuff out of my butt lol. I do deal with things like this and observe things like merchandise sales and numbers with an educated eye. The conclusion I came to with said info, however, just turned out to be a little less than right. I'm sorry if I ever seemed negative or got anyone upset--like I said, I didn't think people would get so heated what I thought was just a simple theme park discussion.

That being said, c'mon guys, not everyone is going to agree on everything all the time. At least things got spiced up a little bit right?

Yes, it's all in the spirit of the discussion. As a man far wiser than me once said, "We can all agree to disagree".

 

[Nick]

the word 'fail' was never used. Underwhelming was more like it. Up until the last few days, the extended queue never filled, the park had no need to black out any level of pass, and budget goals parkwide were not being met. That is a classic case of overhype. Of course, now that has all changed, so everything I predicted is moot, and it seems the precautions Universal took in anticipation of what one of their biggest summers ever actually do have merit now, even if it took a while to get there.

Also, capacity has nothing to do with it, when you look at a similar attraction right next door with higher wait times.

But no matter, Universal has finally started reaching its crowds. Better late than never. Just know that nobody claimed it had failed in any sense

You can't in anyway directly compare TF and Spiderman just by the wait times. There is far more rides and more to do in USF than in IOA. Those extra diversions and attractions could drastically affect wait times.

 

[TylerDurden]

You can't in anyway directly compare TF and Spiderman just by the wait times. There is far more rides and more to do in USF than in IOA. Those extra diversions and attractions could drastically affect wait times.

I just said I was wrong

let it go big guy

 

[Nick]

I just said I was wrong

let it go big guy

I'm just stating facts.

Sorry I didn't feel like reading through the past few pages

 

[Capacity]

Spidey's THRC is significantly higher (about 2400), but IoA gets almost 2mil more visitors a year, and Spidey is one of the park's only indoor E-tickets (water rides & coasters have shut down daily this month due to storms). Even so, Spidey's daily peak wait time has consistently been 20 to 30 min shorter than TF's peak for the past few weeks.

The most Spidey puts through is about 1900. 2400 is impossible with that dispatch interval.

Transformers wait times will randomly spike when they experience downtimes or issues with one or two of the elevators. Which is when you might see the extended express queue out front.

 

[Kevin38]

They just posted to facebook that they have had 1 million thru this ride

 

[Hatetofly]

They just posted to facebook that they have had 1 million thru this ride

Not bad

 

[LikeMike]

1 million! And it's only been open over a month? That is impressive indeed.

 

[Cupcakes]

Sure can't be denied that Universal has a real winner with this one.

 

[Shadow Carelli]

So i guess we're looking at Best New Attraction award for this ride this year? I think it deserves it regardless if it is a clone or not.