Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Ministry of Magic - General Discussion Thread

[darkridelover]

Universal made it very clear when you bought the AP preview that this is a technical rehearsal and some attractions and effects might not be available.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Universal made it very clear when you bought the AP preview that this is a technical rehearsal and some attractions and effects might not be available.

Of course, but they didn't make it clear that Virtual Line will be utilized for one of the park's major attraction.

Nobody is arguing that downtime shouldn't happen, but the lack of significant announcements on how to use the new VL is perplexing. There's also a separate discussion of whether or not a park that isn't operating efficiently should charge near regular day pricing.

 

[Tbad556]

Of course, but they didn't make it clear that Virtual Line will be utilized for one of the park's major attraction.

Nobody is arguing that downtime shouldn't happen, but the lack of significant announcements on how to use the new VL is perplexing. There's also a separate discussion of whether or not a park that isn't operating efficiently should charge near regular day pricing.

My issue isn’t even that there’s a virtual line. It’s that the VL is apparently so busted that even people like @Speed, @Alicia, and @saint.piss can’t get it to work. That doesn’t bode well for regular, paying guests.

 

[AvoidTIMtation]

Sheesh.... I should probably mentally prepare myself to miss out on riding this in June LOL

 

[UniversalRBLX]

My issue isn’t even that there’s a virtual line. It’s that the VL is apparently so busted that even people like @Speed, @Alicia, and @saint.piss can’t get it to work. That doesn’t bode well for regular, paying guests.

Hearing reports its also being released a few minutes after the expected release time which is ridiculous.

 

[boomerthom]

Gonna be watching this like a hawk on Thursday to see if the VQ is even worth attempting when I go on Friday. Sounds like a mess, and the tickets for people I’m going with are currently linked to separate accounts anyway.

 

[Mad Dog]

VQ where people are in line for one//two hours. What's the point. Do a regular stand by, no complications, or IT skills needed, line. ....Retreat from your high tech castle, Universal/Disney techno addicted management types.

 

[Jones14]

Moving this to here (and to add a bit, this also comes from convos with those who rode it today):

__
So I know it's a limited perspective--one I won't be having the actual physical one until my 2026 trip; but I wanted to share a non-spoiler thought on Battle at Ministry.

It feels from the things I've been able to see and know of; that this is the FJ of Epic Universe. Doesn't seem nauseating of a experience, but it seems like a first pancake that you make for breakfast. It will be a good pancake to eat; daresay great even--but you know you have potential with another pancake.

Technologically it seems really stunning and is a great blueprint for future growth. The blending of screen and physical media seems incredibly impressive especially early on.

Makes me excited as hell to see what it's like in person next year though.

This is how I felt after riding. It’s a great ride, but it’s rough around the edges, especially when it comes to how they chose to represent certain characters. I preferred the more focused and polished nature of Monsters, but Ministry is making bigger swings, so your mileage may vary on which you prefer.

Spoiler

I *really* wish they would drop the projected faces and do regular animatronics. None of these look as good as Victoria, and even that one doesn’t look great if you’re not standing in the right spot.

 

[HandsomePete]

I guess I have always just seen it as the park is set to open in May. I imagine the surprise/risk/change is how much they are charging for previews? I hope UNI understands the risk/reward behind it all!

There’s a real danger that all of the glowing review videos from last week could be replaced with “I paid $150 and half the rides were down so don’t bother coming until next year” videos. And the word “preview” isn’t going to be in any of them.

Charging $50 on 12k people a day would result in about $25M less admissions revenue over the preview period. $50 says preview. $50 says some things might not work. $50 says we genuinely appreciate you being a passholder and recognize the money you’ve given us over the years. If I feel like I’m getting a great deal getting in the door, I’m definitely spending more on drinks and merch. It’s important to say that nothing bad has happened yet because free is free for TM previews, but I personally would not be rolling the dice on nearly full price previews for $25M when the bad side of that dice is “we torched our marketing campaign.”

If it looks like things are going south on a preview day like it sounded Sunday went, it’s time to pull out the free snacks and sodas and return coupons for dates in the fall.

 

[Mad Dog]

Pricey Preview for sure. But it's what the market will bare. The high prices keep the demand reasonable and the capacity more comfortable than it will be once the park opens. A $50 price point would probably result in huge demand and difficulty getting tickets if they limited them. A $99 price point for a Preview might have been fairer, yet still limiting demand and capacity. The present price is probably a tad too high for a Preview. But evidently, there's no shortage of people willing to pay. Kind of reminds me of the super high priced concert tickets for Tribute bands of classic rock bands that have one, or none, of the original band members. Yet people flock to them and pay the big buck.....And, yes, this could result in some negative social media posts....but they'll be mostly drowned out in all the positive, paid for, avalanche of news.

 

[TheHaunter]

Only a 1 day visit to Epic Universe is crazy though considering all of this stuff that is happening. Hopefully these issues get fixed soon because if they don't I could see alot of people being unhappy since they paid so much for just one ticket and they might not even be able to ride the attractions that they want to. I know this is only previews but It does kind of make me scared for when the park actually opens.

 

[Mad Dog]

Only a 1 day visit to Epic Universe is crazy though considering all of this stuff that is happening. Hopefully these issues get fixed soon because if they don't I could see alot of people being unhappy since they paid so much for just one ticket and they might not even be able to ride the attractions that they want to. I know this is only previews but It does kind of make me scared for when the park actually opens.

The history of newly opened attractions is one of lots of initial downtime. Now we have an entire park of new, some very high tech, attractions. There's going to be significant individual ride downtime. To think otherwise is to be overly optimistic. This is why I stay away from new attractions during their first months of operation, especially if they're super high tech............I see Potter, Monsters, Donkey Kong being most problematic for the summer.

 

[darkridelover]

I was at the park both Sunday and Monday. Virtual Line was set up differently yesterday than it was on Sunday. So expect daily changes.

Sunday they gave out a ton of VL reservations resulting in long lines and most people who had a VL were not able to experience the attraction. Yesterday it was nearly impossible to get a VL reservation. I, like many others failed at getting one at all 3 drops.

Because I waited for 3 hours in line on Sunday before they dumped the queue, they gave everyone in line 2 express passes both good until June 1st. One was a limited express that included most attractions at the park and the other was an Express Pass Plus which was able to be redeemed at the Ministry. I used that pass yesterday to get on the ministry ride and there was No Line. We walked right through the entire queue only stopping on the steps before the load station. They were only operating 2 of the 4 load platforms.

I expect Virtual Line to have more passes available today than yesterday but no where near what they released on Sunday. They are actively testing and adjusting these totals daily.

The history of newly opened attractions is one of lots of initial downtime. Now we have an entire park of new, some very high tech, attractions. There's going to be significant individual ride downtime. To think otherwise is to be overly optimistic. This is why I stay away from new attractions during their first months of operation, especially if they're super high tech.

Also, the park doesn't officially open for 5 more weeks. The whole point of the preview period is to work through bugs and procedures before opening. That expectation is clearly set.

 

[Mad Dog]

I was at the park both Sunday and Monday. Virtual Line was set up differently yesterday than it was on Sunday. So expect daily changes.

Sunday they gave out a ton of VL reservations resulting in long lines and most people who had a VL were not able to experience the attraction. Yesterday it was nearly impossible to get a VL reservation. I, like many others failed at getting one at all 3 drops.

Because I waited for 3 hours in line on Sunday before they dumped the queue, they gave everyone in line 2 express passes both good until June 1st. One was a limited express that included most attractions at the park and the other was an Express Pass Plus which was able to be redeemed at the Ministry. I used that pass yesterday to get on the ministry ride and there was No Line. We walked right through the entire queue only stopping on the steps before the load station. They were only operating 2 of the 4 load platforms.

I expect Virtual Line to have more passes available today than yesterday but no where near what they released on Sunday. They are actively testing and adjusting these totals daily.



Also, the park doesn't officially open for 5 more weeks. The whole point of the preview period is to work through bugs and procedures before opening. That expectation is clearly set.

Yes, I said that in my previous posts on Previews.

 

[rabbitsmoon]

Sheesh.... I should probably mentally prepare myself to miss out on riding this in June LOL

What I'm telling myself to cope as someone also going in June:

Since previews started, this has gone from not operating at all to very limited operation. Hopefully there's a similar capacity bump between now and Memorial Day, more RVs come online, and more slots become available.

I'm also curious about staffing levels, in case anyone has that info. If they're not fully staffing TM preview days, hopefully a full team can handle some of these downtimes more efficiently park-wide. But I'm truly ignorant on that front. Maybe they're throwing as much maintenance staff as they possibly can at these attractions already.

Like I said, it's all cope since it's what I want to be true when I go! I bought 2 single-day tickets from Orlando Informer, half-planning to refund one of them as we got closer to opening, but I think I'm gonna have to swallow the cost and go both days for my own sanity.

 

[Wesker69]

Still, the key word is 'Preview'. There's going to be breakdowns and shortened capacity. That's part and parcel of the Preview status....

Yea but when Velocicoaster breaks down, the raptors don't eat the tourists. Captain Cacao might glitch & activate Freddy Fazbear mode!

 

[Alicia]

I’d have rather the ride just be closed than have had that stress. And we didn’t access any Concierge Kiosks for regular guest services for hours after each drop due to the hour-long queue filled with folks who had issues with the virtual line drops. (We had to wait once and it was an hour. The TMs were killing it though, the app issues certainly weren’t their fault but they were incredible.)

I’m okay with rides being closed. The ticket says it A LOT when checking out and buying them. I get it. But somehow this is worse lol

But hey, who knows, maybe they’ll already be on standby by Thursday for all we know. Or they’ll have fixed many of the error messages or person not in park or starting 3 mins late issues with their virtual queue system by then.

I’m hopeful for a better day then than before no matter what.

(Also it wouldn’t have been such a hard blow if it wasn’t for Monsters Unchained being down 90% of the day too. It’s going to be a touch pill to swallow, even in previews, if guests cannot do at least one of these two new dark ride experiences.)

 

[Rhian]

I expect Virtual Line to have more passes available today than yesterday but no where near what they released on Sunday. They are actively testing and adjusting these totals daily.

The ride appears to be closed today and the virtual queue signs aren't out. It looks like they're just letting people see the queued for the moment. Who knows if it'll open later though.

 

[sjago13]

I am going Friday with my wife and 3 other friends. We all have our own accounts for the app and each of our passes are linked to our own accounts. How are they telling people to link their tickets? The instructions in the app are useless. I've messed with my wife's app to try to remove her pass so I can scan it into my app but I don't see a way to release it from her account. If they are doing VQ I ideally wanna be set up ahead of time and not worry day of waiting in a guest services line instead of enjoying our day but also don't want to just not try to get a VQ if available.

 

[rabbitsmoon]

I’m okay with rides being closed. The ticket says it A LOT when checking out and buying them. I get it. But somehow this is worse lol

This makes total sense. Better to go in knowing it's closed than to have your hopes dashed after stopping your day multiple times trying to get in.

I get why they did it, but it's also not helping my FOMO that they ushered through all those influencers to hype us up for a ride that's not really working right now.