Anyone There Now - How Are The Crowds?

[mtmbyck]

We are headed down in just over a week and plan on doing IOA and US over 7 days. We did not get the express passes and I am wondeirng what the wait times are oh the big rides right now. We plan on doing these parks between the 5th and the 10th.

 

[Bearvet]

We just got back, so I'm not sure how helpful this will be.
Mon 2/18 - IoA - empty! 5-10 min wait for most rides (Hulk, DD, etc)
Tues 2/19 - Studios - a bit busier but not bad - Mummy 5-10 min wait,
Disaster 15 min wait, MIB walk on
Wed 2/20 - US/IoA - same
Fri 2/22 - IoA/US - much more crowded! Up to 40 min waits

I thought about purchasing Express pass for 1 day before we left home, but decided to wait until we were in the parks. The Monday pass was most expensive (online) and the Friday pass the least $$. I figured Fri would be the least crowded day and Mon the busiest. It was the complete opposite!

My best piece of advice is to get there before the parks open!! The first hour is fairly quiet and just ride all the Big rides as many times as you can. Also, use single rider line if it's open.

I'm not sure when spring breaks begin in March, so it's hard to say how crowded it will be when you're there. I offered the Express pass to my boys (ages 12 & 14) for one day and they didn't feel they needed it. This was during Presidents' week which can be very busy.
Hope that helps!

 

[MassMom94]

We just got back, so I'm not sure how helpful this will be.
Mon 2/18 - IoA - empty! 5-10 min wait for most rides (Hulk, DD, etc)
Tues 2/19 - Studios - a bit busier but not bad - Mummy 5-10 min wait,
Disaster 15 min wait, MIB walk on
Wed 2/20 - US/IoA - same
Fri 2/22 - IoA/US - much more crowded! Up to 40 min waits

I thought about purchasing Express pass for 1 day before we left home, but decided to wait until we were in the parks. The Monday pass was most expensive (online) and the Friday pass the least $$. I figured Fri would be the least crowded day and Mon the busiest. It was the complete opposite!

My best piece of advice is to get there before the parks open!! The first hour is fairly quiet and just ride all the Big rides as many times as you can. Also, use single rider line if it's open.

I'm not sure when spring breaks begin in March, so it's hard to say how crowded it will be when you're there. I offered the Express pass to my boys (ages 12 & 14) for one day and they didn't feel they needed it. This was during Presidents' week which can be very busy.
Hope that helps!

Wow - we were there the same time as you and our perception of the crowds were quite different! US on Friday morning - even through noon - seemed pretty empty. MIB was a walk-on for the "regular" line at around 10:30 AM, which I never saw the rest of the week. Tuesday and Wednesday seemed pretty busy in both parks, and Monday afternoon (that's when we arrived) seemed the most crowded - I figured it was due to locals who got President's Day off.

Then again, we had FOTL so anything that was more than a walk-on may have looked like a long line to us!

I agree that the best piece of advice if you don't have FOTL or the day Express Pass is to get there at opening and beat the crowds to the most popular attractions.

 

[morningstar]

We were also there same time. On Friday, IOA was very crowded with big groups. We left there around 10:30 am and walked over to Studios. Much quieter and waits weren't bad at all. We ended up leaving around 1:00 because it was hot and wanted some sun at the pool - so I don't know how the afternoon got.

 

[Breezy_Carol]

Fri 2/22 - IoA/US - much more crowded! Up to 40 min waits

Wow - we were there the same time as you and our perception of the crowds were quite different! US on Friday morning - even through noon - seemed pretty empty. MIB was a walk-on for the "regular" line at around 10:30 AM, which I never saw the rest of the week.

We were at US Friday 2/22 all day. I never saw a wait time longer than 15 minutes. We never waited longer than the time it took for the pre-show or the walk through the line. I thought it was pretty empty.

 

[phamton]

I was pretty surprised on how busy it was on Sunday (yesterday.) Normally this isn't a busy time. It seemed like everyone took a quick trip to Orlando to get out of the ice and snow. I expected Saturday to be crowded because of Mardi gras but was surprised when Sunday was crowded also.

 

[Bearvet]

I guess I should clarify - on Fri 2/22 we went to IoA first at 9:15 AM. It was much busier than it had been all week. We stayed until 2:00 and then went over to US. I agree that US was not nearly as busy as IoA - Mummy was 15 min, MiB 5 min etc.

On Monday 2/18 we walked right into Mythos without a reservation. On Friday there were tons of people waiting to get in there. It wasn't at all what I expected for the week.

US never seemed as crowded as IoA at any thime though....