Crowd level drop at Universal vs. Disney?

[Darcy03231]

SO we are one of those families who typically would just do Disney - but now we are splitting the trip. Which I thought was a good idea until I read about the express passes and all that. Now I'm not even sure it's worth going since I wasn't budgeting for those. Or maybe I'll stay at the resort with the toddler to save that ticket money and get the boys passes. We don't usually split up on vacations like that. We are going over Easter so I know it's going to be busy no matter what the crowd trends are.

We've been to US/IOA multiple times during busy times of the year (spring break and summer) and not had the express pass and did fine. Be in line for rope drop. We found that the lines didn't really get long (except for the HP attractions and Minions) until around 11 am (they'd be 15-30 min). By noon they were around 20-35 min. By one the bigger attractions had long lines, while the not so popular ones were still manageable. We found the best time to do the HP rides were around dinner time or right before park closing. We also took advantage of the single rider lines.

The year we went with a toddler we switched off with her so everyone could get what they wanted to do in. We had four adults and each of us spent a period of time in Seuss' Landing or in the play areas.