Universal Resort Guest Entrance when Parks are at Capacity?

[Liz&Griff'smom]

My family and I are visiting Universal Studios in a few weeks and I have a question about park entrance. I have noticed that the parks have reached capacity a lot lately. We will be staying at Royal Pacific and I was wondering if we can still access the parks if it is at capacity? I have seen posts with some people saying that you can and some saying no. I wasn’t sure which is correct. Thanks!

 

[Befferk]

You are not guaranteed entry. Once at capacity, you get "priority" entrance as guests leave (you will get in before non-resort people).

ETA: Your best bet is to utilize Early Entry. We are going NYE and NYD and definitely plan to use EE.

 

[Liz&Griff'smom]

Befferk thank you! We will definitely use early entry during our trip.

 

[cieslack]

We were there over the Thanksgiving Holiday until Saturday and the parks were at capacity twice. It May have been dumb luck, but we were able to walk into the parks via the resort guests' entrances with no wait. I did not see any resort guests having to wait in line, but I do not know if my experience would translate to the end of the year crowds. I agree that Early Entry is the way to relieve anxiety.

 

[jdrum3]

Hotel guests have separate line, we walked right in on Sat when both parks were at capacity after we went back to room to take naps.

 

[Rags123]

Thanks for sharing Your experiences. We’re going over Christmas. We plan to use early entry, but would like to see the parks at night as well. We don’t have the stamina to last all day, and I was hoping we could take a mid-day break and go back. I know there’s no guarantee, but this makes me feel a little better.

 

[DL1WDW2]

Hotel guests have separate line, we walked right in on Sat when both parks were at capacity after we went back to room to take naps.

What resort did you stay at? I was atCabana Bay and they told us to stand in long line with guests arriving from parking structure with no special entrance for resort guests. It was a zoo Saturday morn!

 

[Rags123]

We went over the weekend on two capacity days. Both times the message communicated by Universal on their social media, on the capacity hotline, and from employees was Resort guests could get back in. Both days we took a break at 12pm and went back at 4pm and stayed until close. Both times, the parks had already reopened when we arrived. If you’re going over the holidays, I highly recommend using early entry if staying on property. The evening hours are far more pleasant than the afternoon, but wait times still aren’t as low as the first couple hours of the day. Early entry was awesome (even with teens)!

 

[Alynw]

Was there today and both parks hit capacity at 11:15am. They have a specific line setup for guest staying onsite where u just have to show ur room key and will granted entry. They also have a standby line for offsite guests that can gain entry after a certain time but no guarantees on how many will be let in, today they let in the entire standby, they also have it setup for guest that leave and come back. Per my conversation with the cast member controlling the entry line and from what I saw, all onsite guests were allowed entry into the park. For what its worth, I was also let in even after the regular standby line was closed as I was going solo and they noticed and asked if I wanted in.

 

[Donnask8pro]

We were there all last week. Sat was a Zoo, we went very early and left around noon. Went back at night. We stayed Portofino and used back entrance 1x maybe Thursday, boats after that. Didnt have an issue getting in but we also didn't go for the Height of the day. Bought our first AP's this year.

 

[atricks]

It closed to capacity at 10:55 yesterday, and today it closed at 10:15. At this rate if you want to go the week after Christmas, get there before the park opens.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1341402928679153669

 

[Alynw]

I imagine alot of people showed up Monday after park reached capacity and therefore made an effort to get there earlier today causing park to close gates even earlier. Yesterday, I went through the main drive in parking/gates at 1130 and they told me parks reached capacity few min ago and gave me option to exit or go to city walk, I went to city walk as thats where I was heading anyway but there was literally no vehicles in line at all, I drove straight up to the booth and into the garage which is very odd, normally at this time the boothes are packed with a line of vehicles half mile long. So I can only assume alot of people thinkn its a Monday just casually showed up whenever only to find parks closed. Obviously they didn't make same mistake twice. My main UO days are next week so this is def very good info to know, could make the difference between having a good trip or possibly ruining a trip if u dont get in.