Is Transformers coming to Universal Orlando?

In a recent interview, legendary director and major influence on Universal creative, Steven Spielberg, recently spoke to Orlando Sentinel and possibly suggests that the Transformers franchise is coming to the east coast.

 “I always like to hear that people are still coming to the attractions we already have in the park. I know everybody’s going to Harry Potter right now. But we think Transformers is going to pretty amazing. We’ve been working on that for about three years now. It should be ready soon. I don’t have an announcement, yet, but it should be coming there soon,”

TBA: Transforming Universal
Hollywood and soon Orlando?

Earlier this year, I suggested that Universal might be anticipating a removal of Spiderman and replacing it with the Transformers ride that is going into the Hollywood and Singapore park. However, Universal are currently spending a lot of money on improving the digital projection of Spiderman, so the future of Spiderman and for the moment, Marvel Superhero Island seems to be in tact. So where would Transformers go? Personally I'd love to see it replace Twister in the Studios but by the looks of the plans for the other parks, the building doesn't seem big enough. There is however, a big space between MIB and The Simpsons Ride... 

Or is Spielberg merely getting his Universal parks mixed up? Who knows, perhaps we shall find out in the near future.

Child Swap: An increasing problem?

For those who might not have had the joy of child swap, the premise is that a member of a party with a young child, waits off of the ride with the child (either in a room at the attraction or at some parks, not in the attraction at all) whilst the rest of the party rides. When the party come off the attraction, the person that waited off the attraction is allowed to ride with none or limited wait time, with 1 other person (Disney I believe allow 2, or they did in 2009).

SheiKra: Busch Gardens' Child Swap
appears to work efficiently.

Firstly, Busch Gardens (Disney also do, however, didn't have to use Child Swap at Disney!) actually have the best system in place. The person waiting with the child is free to stroll around the park, perhaps waiting in a kid's area for the rest of the party. Those in the queue have a child swap ticket that is stamped at the top of the queue by the ride op. When the person re-rides, this ticket is collected. (For some reason the system was a little different at SheiKra, though the TM seemed to not have a clue what he was doing!) A system that doesn't allow for people to completely abuse Child Swap, allowing people to merely walk up the exit, re-ride the attraction or use multiple combinations via the Child Swap queue. Which brings me to Universal...

At Universal, Child Swap lines are often
easily accessible through the exit.

Now I am a 100% full-fledged Universal fan. The abuse of this queue isn't even the TM's fault. People would merely go round and round the Child-swap again as there was no proving that the rider who stayed off with the child hadn’t already been on (no receipt). One day there was a receipt system in place at Rip, Ride and Rock It, however, I still witnessed families going round and round again with different combinations of family. Some people even had the audacity to enter the ride through the child swap line (often it’s very accessible through the exit) and claim they were using Child Swap, and then proceed to ride again and again. Ultimately this makes the queuing time longer for everyone else, including the almighty Express Pass lane.

Whilst it’s not a huge issue currently at the parks, it’s something that theme parks should take note of. This is a form of queue jumping which shouldn’t go unnoticed! What are your views? Please post them in the comments below!

Tomorrow: WetnWild’s unique selling tactics!