Are the parks doing Express Pass right now?

[tbird89]

My main question is are they allowing Express Pass for guests staying at Portofino Bay, Hard Rock and Royal Pacific? Or are they just doing some kind of virtual queue for all park guests? in advance!!

 

[schumigirl]

Hotel Express Pass is operating as normal right now with the exception of Hagrid`s ride.....

 

[only hope]

Express isn’t much needed during the week. Some express queues have been rerouted for distancing. Forbidden Journey now skips nearly the entire queue. Potter fans will want to use standby, when theres a 20+ mn wait so you actually stop in each room. Can’t stand to the side anymore and let people pass you as theres no passing in this age of distancing.

 

[dreynolds1982]

Express isn’t much needed during the week. Some express queues have been rerouted for distancing. Forbidden Journey now skips nearly the entire queue. Potter fans will want to use standby, when there's a 20+ mn wait so you actually stop in each room. Can’t stand to the side anymore and let people pass you as theres no passing in this age of distancing.

Oh wow that's good to know about FJ. My fiancee' has never done it before and it would stink to miss most of the queue. Unless it strangely has a 30+ min wait (which doesn't seem to be the case from what I've seen) think we will do standby. Any other good queues getting bypassed?

 

[only hope]

Oh wow that's good to know about FJ. My fiancee' has never done it before and it would stink to miss most of the queue. Unless it strangely has a 30+ min wait (which doesn't seem to be the case from what I've seen) think we will do standby. Any other good queues getting bypassed?

I dunno of any other covid changes-
my express isn’t valid til after 4 (premier annual pass perk) and I haven’t used it on much since the reopen. For FJ 30mn is actually a perfect wait. I went when it said 15 and it was a walk on, which means the queue can’t be enjoyed since with covid procedures you can’t stand to the side to take it in; you have to keep moving but stay six feet back. I don’t know how much you know about FJ, but depending on how you count it there are seven areas. Personally I can spend several minutes in each area enjoying it without getting bored. Several of the rooms have people talking.

Regular differences as follows: If you are a huge MiB fan, express skips some posters and the coffee break room. Also skips the preshow and elevator ride but those aren’t being done right now. Huge Seuss fan? Do regular on the trolley to see a few neat things. Spiderman is two different queues. Mummy standby has some cool things.

 

[dreynolds1982]

I dunno of any other covid changes-
my express isn’t valid til after 4 (premier annual pass perk) and I haven’t used it on much since the reopen. For FJ 30mn is actually a perfect wait. I went when it said 15 and it was a walk on, which means the queue can’t be enjoyed since with covid procedures you can’t stand to the side to take it in; you have to keep moving but stay six feet back. I don’t know how much you know about FJ, but depending on how you count it there are seven areas. Personally I can spend several minutes in each area enjoying it without getting bored. Several of the rooms have people talking.

Regular differences as follows: If you are a huge MiB fan, express skips some posters and the coffee break room. Also skips the preshow and elevator ride but those aren’t being done right now. Huge Seuss fan? Do regular on the trolley to see a few neat things. Spiderman is two different queues. Mummy standby has some cool things.

THanks! Yeah I've been on FJ a number of times and love the queue, but most importantly my fiancee has never been to IOA period so I definitely want her to see the FJ queue. Sounds like we'll do standby for that one at least. I know that Kong's queue is pretty cool (I actually liked it better than the attraction ha) and I like parts of the Hogwarts Express queue. Mummy is fun but we've both done that one so much. And yeah w/o the preshow for MIB I'd just as soon blast right on through to the vehicles.

 

[andieb0602]

Oh wow that's good to know about FJ. My fiancee' has never done it before and it would stink to miss most of the queue. Unless it strangely has a 30+ min wait (which doesn't seem to be the case from what I've seen) think we will do standby. Any other good queues getting bypassed?

You'll miss the entire queue of Gringott's, too, as well as the preshow (AFAIK). The EP queue almost immediately takes a sharp right when you enter and you walk down a long corridor and eventually wind up at the bottom of the stairs you take up to the cars. (I'm not sure if it was that way pre-covid because we didn't have EPs the last time we were there.) I remember telling DH that Bill's comment of "Still want to open an account?" doesn't make much sense if you haven't seen the preshow. I also (oddly enough) missed the "elevator ride".

 

[CNorwood3]

Waited 35 minutes for Reign of Kong, ride broke once we got inside the gates. Got an express and hoped over to JPRA which saved me 45 minutes It was an interesting experience.

 

[Wreckem]

You certainly don’t need express passes right now. However if you have them you will be able to walk on any ride with a wait or 5 minutes or less(usually just walking the queue). That’s all day even at peak hours.

Also most of the pre-shows in most rides are modified or off right now.

FYI if you get stuck on Forbidden Journey, expect a hour plus wait to get off if they cannot get it going again. Durning my trip the week of Fourth of July we had a VQ for Hagrids and thought we would hit FJ one last time(last day) before our VQ. We got on and got the the part where you take off. Like it literally stopped and we had to wait a hour to be manually moved and evacuated. Fortunately the Hagrid TMs walked us to the front of the line even though it was 15 minutes after park closing.

 

[Wreckem]

You'll miss the entire queue of Gringott's, too, as well as the preshow (AFAIK). The EP queue almost immediately takes a sharp right when you enter and you walk down a long corridor and eventually wind up at the bottom of the stairs you take up to the cars. (I'm not sure if it was that way pre-covid because we didn't have EPs the last time we were there.) I remember telling DH that Bill's comment of "Still want to open an account?" doesn't make much sense if you haven't seen the preshow. I also (oddly enough) missed the "elevator ride".

The Gringotts Express queue has been modified for Covid. It used to now skip the bankers.

As for the Elevator. That preshow isn’t running right now for either express or regular.

 

[Wreckem]

THanks! Yeah I've been on FJ a number of times and love the queue, but most importantly my fiancee has never been to IOA period so I definitely want her to see the FJ queue. Sounds like we'll do standby for that one at least. I know that Kong's queue is pretty cool (I actually liked it better than the attraction ha) and I like parts of the Hogwarts Express queue. Mummy is fun but we've both done that one so much. And yeah w/o the preshow for MIB I'd just as soon blast right on through to the vehicles.

You miss nothing meaningful in the Hogwarts express queue.

 

[dreynolds1982]

Thanks for the info yall! Yeah we're staying at RPR so the unl EP comes with the room. At the time when we originally booked (Dec 2019 for an April 2020 trip) we thought we'd need EP. Now our April trip obv was canceled and we moved to Aug and don't really need the EP anymore, but we still have it so figure we'll enjoy the rapid-riding. I think for our first ride on FJ we'll do standby unless it's something crazy, then if we ride again we'll just EP it. I'm not sweating the other queues too much. FJ is just so unique that the queue is really an experience unto itself (and in some ways more arguably more interesting than parts of the actual ride).

 

[nkereina]

PPs are correct in that you don't need EP currently, but do keep an eye on how things progress as your trip approaches. If FL cases start to trend downward and/or state travel bans are lifted or even when the weather starts to cool off, crowds may increase. If crowds increase, you do run the risk of not being able to obtain a virtual queue time. And in that case, your only option to ride would be with an EP. To my knowledge, this has only happened once since Universal re-opened and that was during the busy AP weekend, shortly after they re-opened.