They invested so much into this event, even things we know nothing about such as D&D we were taking in all the detail and effort that had been invested. Can I also add that feedback on here about the actors not coping with malfunctions in the first week was addressed – we did Star Trek 40 times, no kidding, and in that time there were a few malfunctions such as doors not opening. Each time the actors would argue with the computer, try and do overrides on the LCARS panels, run diagnostics, etc and did a super convincing job of buying time – if it weren’t for us being aware this was not normal it blended and worked perfectly. Heck oneone occasion only a single turbo lift opened and after delaying us for a while the other group were transferred to us - again the actors blended into the storyline the malfunctions. Also let me add an extra piece of admiration – when we moved from set to set the actors in the prior set stayed in character, for example when in engineering as the doors to the shuttlebay closed my daughter and I observed the character in there still madly doing diagnostics on her pad and looking up at the force field frustrated why it had failed. Detail the majority would not have even been noticing.
I presume something must have happened on Saturday though because while on Friday there were security hiding in each set within an alcove, on Sunday night they were annoying very prominently hovering about each set. It was really quite jarring walking in and seeing uniformed officers doing there thing and a black dressed security person, sometimes two or three, walking about. All night long. A shame they weren’t dressed in gold security uniforms to at least blend into the scene.
So now that I’m mentioning a negative let’s get stuck into my beef. Given as I mentioned we made a very big and expensive trip from Australia specifically for the bridge, it is a whopper. Universal went to great pains to specifically boast they had the actual bridge set from Star Trek: Picard Season 3. Their promo photos specifically show people stepping on, looking around, posing, having an absolute blast being immersed in the bridge set. The entire point of the attraction, the entire climax, is stepping onto that bridge. Did I mention the whole point is going on to that bridge? Just in case I haven’t made it clear, the sole purpose of that event is experiencing that bridge and it is what we flew half-way around the world for.
So what was the actual experience? A wonderful storyline (they had to come up with something), and PHENOMENAL additional sets. A brilliant transition between each culminating in stepping onto the bridge. The second you step on there……….. you are immediately blocked by an actor or security and forced down to sides to the front of the bridge. If you try and force your way elsewhere they very firmly stated “NO DOWN HERE”. The storyline is fast, it’s over before it has even started, and the conclusion is cheesy and uncomfortable - trying to force the crowd to get super excited about what just happened when they are still grasping being herded like sheep. Then in the same moment they are telling people to be excited they also declare “please exit via the transporters”. Please leave. NO! Come down from there please exit the bridge. RIGHT NOW. GET OFF THE BRIDGE. Hell the only thing they didn’t do was swear at us. Each and every time.
Let me make it really clear – herded on the bridge like sheep, rushed through a silly scenario, then told to get the hell out of there immediately.
My daughter and I were confronted by many fans – one thought I was an actor playing Picard, several people asked us to be in photos with them, at dinner we got to know others and bumped into them multiple times in the night. So we chatted with many other equally obsessed Star Trek fans. Let me say this as nicely as I possibly can – they were livid and upset at how the bridge experienced went. For non-Trek fans we saw them confused and even uncomfortable (when they were being told to be excited) and startled by the whole thing.
I have to say my daughter and I were heartbroken. We travelled half-way across the world at great expense specifically for this experience that Universal had promised and were instead shoved in and shoved straight out. So we quickly made a pact – we would repeatly go in, wait for the red alert to end, and while the actors were still busy doing the cheesy “get excited everyone we just made first contact” crap quickly do a few poses and photographs. Rinse and repeat over and over until we got all the photos we wanted.
We got into serious trouble twice, but got away with it the rest of the time. Three of the actors (two from one rotation and one from another) got to know us and knew what we were doing, the others you could see were getting pretty cross with us.
One of the times we stepped onto the bridge security were man-handling a lady who had refused to step off the bridge from the previous group and was trying to take photos. There was also a guy in say his 50s on our Sunday visit on his own who was trying to do selfies but again forced off – on our next few rotations he was just sitting on a stone wall by himself. I’m the biggest introvert there is but my heart hurt looking at him so I went over and had a quick chat, is he okay, who is he with, etc. Turned out his wife is not a fan and didn’t come and his friends couldn’t come either, so he had come on his own and then just been through the whole jettison from bridge no sooner than you are on it routine. So I told him what we had done on Friday night and offered to use our next round in there to photograph him while the actors were busy doing their stuff. He was super grateful, but again this shows the impact of how wrong it all went.
Again I emphasise my admiration of what Universal did, they spared no expense or effort, but utterly screwed up the bridge experience. Not by a little – they completely and utterly failed at the climax of the entire point of that experience. What’s really sad is in my opinion this could have been easily fixed with nothing more than this:
“Oh my gosh do you know what this means – we just made first contact”
(delete the next 30-40 seconds of cheesy failed attempts to make everyone excited)
“Please spend the next 30 seconds to take in and photograph this amazing moment and then make your way to the exits.”
(30 second delay)
“Please now make your way to the exits. Live long and prosper”
Done, solved, easy, fixed, simple, and suddenly makes the cheesy moment not so cheesy in fact tying directly into the climax of the storyline.
I am genuinely confused how Universal could make such a monumental stuff up - the point was that bridge experience and they screwed it.
Overall the event was outstanding with only a few minor quirks. Both nights we were there the screens throughout the park said Mario Kart closed at 12:00am, the staff were telling us 2:00am, and the signage at Nintendo World and the Mario Kart ride itself said 10:00pm. It closed at 10:00pm. It was actually funny how they could mess that up!
Simpsons signage said open until 2am but most of it was closed at 6pm – reopened again an hour or so later. Weird no idea what that was about,.
BTTF we all got the same impression from Universal that they were “recreating” the DeLorean travelling through time which obviously didn’t happen, but easily dismissed given how outstanding everything else was. One set of the actors was a stand out compared to the other.
We also found that, contrary to our understanding was that only select things would be open during FFN, the entire park open bar Transformers (which is closed anyway) and Waterworld.
The biggest surprise to me though is seeing photographs posted in the many BTTF and Star Trek groups I am in and the sheer number of people replying in awe and having no clue that this event was on.
That said, during one of our 40 (again very serious, we got to 39 then rounded it off to 40) Star Trek experiences there was a professional film crew on the bridge during one of them. Assuming this will be for future marketing since obviously they had limited opportunity before this one.
Anyways hope this is an interesting perspective of the event from someone who has never been to anything like this before, not even a comic-con or anything.