Aug 28 - Sept 3 Trip - Need Advice :)

[icecreamforbreakfast]

Hi,
We have been to UIoA once 6 years ago for a couple hours, so we are basically first timers to the Universal parks as we saw so little on that trip. We will be in Orlando for the dates Aug 28 - Sept 3 and have 2 days that we can do Universal (have 2 day park to park tickets). I am having a hard time making decisions about a few things.

1. Do we need to worry about express pass? We are a family of 6 and have a house rented for the whole time, so adding a 2 hotel rooms or one large enough to hold 6 is an expense that would be cheaper then buying the passes in the park, but we are wondering what the crowds will be like, do we need the ep, or is this an unnecessary expense?

2. Which days would be the best to go? For some reason Universal has the ep at $84.99 for the Thursday and $89.99 for the other days. Most of the crowd calendars I've looked at disagree as to which days will be busier or quieter. Which days would you recommend. The one other thing to consider when picking days is we bought Photo Connect on sale on Black Friday and it will cover 5 days, so the two park days can be a maximum of 4 days apart to take advantage of the Photo pass on both days.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer

 

[macraven]

august 28 is a sunday.
sundays are usually very calm in the parks.
people are returning home on sundays.

i would go for the S-M-T-W dates.

labor day is Monday sept 5th and when holidays fall on a monday, quite a few families do a 3 day holiday weekend visit to the parks.

if 8/28 is arrival day, go with m-t-w for the parks and go early, stay all day.

i have not looked at any crowd calendars so can't help you with that.

is the $89.99 ep cost for combined both parks?
or is it for one park only?

if it is for a combo of parks, don't think you will be seeing large crowds.


i'm sure others will add their thoughts along the way.

 

[icecreamforbreakfast]

Thanks for the quick reply!

We are arriving in Orlando on the Saturday, so Sunday will be a possible choice.

The ep prices I quoted are for both parks as we have park to park tickets, so I thought we'd want park to park passes. I'm not sure why the Thursday would be cheaper - maybe a anticipated lull day before the labour day crowds?

 

[macraven]

that is possible.
i don't know if the local schools in orlando area have their school dates/days off listed on websites yet. (concerning that thursday)

hulk wll be operating again when you go and Kong will be opening late summer.
that could make ioa have the same amount of crowds as the studio usually has.

but at a price of just umder $90 for both parks eps, it is not bad.

you could wait until you are in the park before you decide if you need the ep
you might just want to buy the ep for only one park.

it will still be very hot in orlando for your dates, families will be getting the kids ready to go back to school.
tour groups aren't big for doing the parks during all of your dates.

i think you won't be facing horrible crowd levels when you go.

i can see park attendance rise for the labor day weekend.

 

[tinydancer09]

And if it rains one day go that day! I love rainy days in the park... everyone goes home

 

[macraven]

so true.

parks clear out quickly when it rains.
peeps wait in the stores waiting for it to stop if it is a heavy rain.

and some just call it a day and go home