Good riddance. I was hired at UO right before VB opened and it was THE talk of the company for months. From the jump, I was skeptical of the TapuTapu but didn’t think much of it being a new guy/still learning the ropes.
Over the course of its opening, though, it was obvious to everyone but those that had put a lot of time and money into its development that it wasn’t gonna work. Digging into my memory bank here, here’s really what was wrong:
1.) Capacity—park capacities are determined with full queues in mind. If you consider that IOA has, I dont know, 6 rides that consistently hover at an hour-long queue…and those rides churn through 1,000 people an hour…that’s 6,000 people in lines at any given time during the day. IOA’s comfortable capacity is around 22-24k, so over a quarter of the park’s capacity is expected to be holed up in cattle pens at any given point. Further, lines are kept manageable on traditional rides because the prospect of standing in one spot for 2 hours at a time is a deal-breaker for most people. Walking up to Krakatau and seeing a 400-minute line wasn’t like doing the same at Velocicoaster, because there was no psychological sense of how long that really was when you removed the annoyance of having to stand through it. This led to even less people riding rides than at your traditional park, so everyone clogged up the walkways and pools, which led to…
2.) Inability to Deliver the Promised Experience — in theory, people were supposed to spend their time waiting enjoying a resort-style experience lounging, drinking, eating, etc. They delivered on the offerings themselves (enhanced menus, premium options, better beach chairs, etc.) but didn’t consider the infrastructure. Deluxe food isn’t as appealing when everyone who should be in line for rides is actually standing between you and the cash register. Then Universal had to limit the menus to improve delivery, a microcosm of the cuts to the luxury aspirations that were necessary to serve the masses.
3. Confused Marketing — when Universal said, “no waiting in lines,” guests heard, “no waiting, period.” You can explain the benefits of virtual queueing until you’re blue in the face, but it’s not gonna placate someone who came into this (premium-priced) theme park expecting to get Express Pass-style access. No matter how buttoned up Universal got operationally, that stigma was never gonna go away.
I honestly wonder if this was in the works since the most recent transition of leadership, and they just had to ride out a contract with the TapuTapu suppliers. Removing the sunk cost fallacy of it all, it objectively didn’t make sense in our books after all was said and done.
Also, while I’m at it, here’s a hot take…I knew someone who worked at the construction company contracted to build the bulk of the park, and he told me that yes, the plan was for Krakatau to be fully enclosed and it was a budget cut. It’s a secondhand account so who am I to say for sure, but always thought that was interesting given the discourse going on when the park opened.