We haven't been to universal in April for a couple of years but visited during the summer and thanksgiving vacations when it's usually pretty crowded. We haven't stayed on property because we own Disney Vacation Club property and stay there. We always do both parks in one day. This is our plan of attack: 1)We get to the parks right at opening. 2)We start at IOA and hit the Hulk 1st, Spiderman 2nd, Jurassic Park 3rd, Dueling Dragons 4th, Posiedon's Fury 5th. Haven't done the water rides in November but usually check out the wait times . It used to be a lot easier when they had the free express passes! 3) Now it's around lunchtime and we walk over to US. The two most popular are The Mummy Ride and Men in Black so we check these out first. Then we walk around and hit the other rides if the waits aren't too bad. 4) They do sell express passes if you want help to get through the lines if you don't plan on staying on property, although we've been pretty lucky without them . You can do both parks if you do some planning and get there right before opening.