Universal Round Trip

In hindsight, we should have known something was not right. On our way home from an annual vacation in southwest Florida, we stopped in Orlando. Our plan was to spend a day at the area’s newest theme park, Universal Studios. The park had only been open a few weeks when we arrived. My family and I were excited to be among its first visitors.

My parents, siblings, and I arrived just as the park was opening. We purchased our tickets and stood in line, waiting to enter the park. As we made our way through the gates, a park employee handed each of us something that looked like an index card. Excited to get to the rides, we only glanced at the cards, not really taking in what we were holding. It was not until we were in line for the first ride that anyone in my family really examined the cards we all held in our hands. A bright shade of blue, the front of each card was marked with the Universal Studios logo. On the reverse, alongside several lines of fine print and a date stamp was another line, printed in a tiny, typewritten font. It read “Please use this card for a return visit to Universal Studios.” The little card we had been handed at the Park’s entrance, as we presented our tickets . . . was another ticket.

I had been going to theme parks for many years and I had never encountered this. Getting a second ticket . . . for free, no less . . . as I arrived at a park. At first, I could not figure out what was behind this. But, it soon became very apparent. We moved from ride to ride, more and more frequently seeing signs announcing a ride being down for repairs. There was even one ride that broke while my family was waiting in line for it. The free tickets, it turned out, had been an apology, of sorts, for a park that was not entirely ready for business.

At the end of that day, I left Universal a bit upset that so many rides were not working. But, my parents assured us that we would return to Orlando and use the free tickets. More than one decade after that initial visit to the park, my brother and I returned to Universal, tickets in hand . . . and they were accepted. We have since been once more. Today, twenty years after Universal opened, I still have a ticket waiting to be used.