Leaving next week.....not buying Express passes, wait times?

[cakesnjammom]

We will be in the parks next Sunday....anyone want to guess the avg. wait times we will face? We are new to Universal/IOA and we did not budget for EPs.

 

[lmf70]

There is a free universal orlando wait times app (not officially by universal tho) that has been fairly accurate say within 5-10 minutes. I downloaded that before we came and checked it periodically throughout the day to get an idea. Not even the wait times board in the parks was spot on- we went to IOA Thursday and posted wait time at 9:15 am for hulk was 25 minutes but we only waited maybe 10 minutes to get thru metal detector line then it was a walk on. Gringotts and RRR were the most lengthy with waits between 45-75 minutes at any given time.

 

[Hootch]

I did RRR in the morning, a little before 10 AM. and the wait was about 15 minutes. It was closer to 45 an hour later. The Gringots wait was lower in the evening when we were there.

I did look at the Undercover Tourist wait times while we were there and they were relatively close.

 

[2Gma]

Check out the Orlando Informer website as they have a spreadsheet with average wait times for low/mod/heavy crowds. Check under "crowd calendar" and there is a link with wait times. I have no idea how accurate it is but it might give you an idea. Try to get to the parks early...we were there in May (considered low crowds) and by mid-day the most popular rides had 35-60 min waits.

 

[Nohal]

DH & I were there last weekend and the wait times weren't that long. I downloaded the Universal App and it was pretty accurate. Make sure you are there when the parks open. USF opened at 8:30. IOA opened 1hr early for on site guests (only Harry Potter area was open). You can get a lot done early in the morning. We used single rider lines when available and it was so worth it. It seems like there rides break down a lot so having the app is a real plus. Have fun.

 

[chrystie4141]

I would hit the big ones first thing right when they open. Studios - Despicable Me, Transformers, Rock It and I would do HP in the evening. For IOA - if you are okay riding single rider on Harry Potter do that for sure (we walked straight on and the line time was 120 minutes). We have a 8 year old but you get off right a child swap and he knows to wait there. SpiderMan and The Hulk are the other two that get packed fast. Another trick we learnt is from Despicable Me was if the park closes at 10 and at 9:30 the wait says 90 minutes chances are it is not 90 minutes. We had express and it was 8:45 with the park closing at 9. The wait time said 60 minute for the normal line. We walked out at 9:05 and there were sending in the last bunch of people.

I also do agree on the single rider line. SpiderMan Single rider was walk on, The Mummy has a short single rider line normally. You can alot more in the single rider line for sure.