Capacity Questions

[5lilfish]

We are moving to Florida and I'm considering buying my kids annual passes. Before I do, I wanted to ask a couple questions about how the reduced capacity works.

We will live about 1 hour and 45 min from Universal. If we arrive at the park for opening (or close to opening), do we really have any risk of being shut out? It would certainly stink to drive a couple hours and then not get into the parks?

Once you are in a park, does this capacity policy affect you from being able to take the Hogwart's Express to the other park?

Once you are in the park, if you go out to City Walk for lunch, do you run the risk of not getting back into the park?

Do certain types of passes get any priority for capacity? In other words, if my kids have annual passes and I just buy a ticket, is there any difference between them and me getting in?

Thanks...weighing all of this into our decision about buying passes.

Jess

 

[Mr. Drauer]

AP and regular tickets do not give you any priority. Only on-site hotel guests get priority. Capacity is being increased, so the limited access is being phased out, but yes, you run the risk of not getting in either in the morning or if you leave a park. It is primarily going to be on days when hotel capacity is high, becuase they technically hold spaces for hotel guests as part of their count. Holidays and weekends especially, though this weekend will be telling as to the summer months. I have never seen the HE closed for capacity. FYI - it takes a good 30 minutes at least to get from the parking garage, through security and City Walk, and into a park, so budget that into your travel time.

 

[5lilfish]

AP and regular tickets do not give you any priority. Only on-site hotel guests get priority. Capacity is being increased, so the limited access is being phased out, but yes, you run the risk of not getting in either in the morning or if you leave a park. It is primarily going to be on days when hotel capacity is high, becuase they technically hold spaces for hotel guests as part of their count. Holidays and weekends especially, though this weekend will be telling as to the summer months. I have never seen the HE closed for capacity. FYI - it takes a good 30 minutes at least to get from the parking garage, through security and City Walk, and into a park, so budget that into your travel time.

That's good to know about on-site hotel guest. Truthfully, a lot of the time we would choose to spend the night on property. Does that priority exist for day or arrive and departure too?

 

[Mr. Drauer]

That's good to know about on-site hotel guest. Truthfully, a lot of the time we would choose to spend the night on property. Does that priority exist for day or arrive and departure too?

your room key is all you need, so yes. also remember that if you stay at one of the 3 premium hotels, you get free express pass for the attractions. so if your just one night, you get the EP for 2 days.

 

[5lilfish]

your room key is all you need, so yes. also remember that if you stay at one of the 3 premium hotels, you get free express pass for the attractions. so if your just one night, you get the EP for 2 days.

Definitely part of why we'd still choose to spend the night. Also, we like to have the option of taking a short break mid-day....especially when it's very hot. Plus, while an hour and forty five minutes is very do-able, it will be more enjoyable to not have to make that ride twice in one day with a full park day sandwiched between. At Disney, it's a no-brainer because we have DVC. With Universal, part of why I'm thinking of AP's is so that our only cost is spending the night and our food.

 

[Mr. Drauer]

Definitely part of why we'd still choose to spend the night. Also, we like to have the option of taking a short break mid-day....especially when it's very hot. Plus, while an hour and forty five minutes is very do-able, it will be more enjoyable to not have to make that ride twice in one day with a full park day sandwiched between. At Disney, it's a no-brainer because we have DVC. With Universal, part of why I'm thinking of AP's is so that our only cost is spending the night and our food.

AP rates for USO hotels were just released for the rest of summer - they are much better with AP rate discounts than WDW is

 

[Lisse24]

Also live 1 hour 45 away. Our trips fall into 2 categories:

1 - Day Trip. We drive down, planning to be there near opening, but not necessarily at. This is on lower crowd days. Because we're AP holders, there's always another day trip around the corner, so we're not too worried.

2 - Vacation Trip. This is likely where many of your early trips will be. Anyway, a couple times a year, we'll book an onsite hotel, drive down on an evening, stay the night, take advantage of early park opening to hit rides we might not want to wait in line for on other occasions. We also plan this type of trip when we know the parks will be crowded, like Christmas holidays so we know we'll get into parks AND we get early access.

If we happen to be in Orlando for another reason (work, visiting friends, etc.), we might stop by for a few hours. This is how my sister has already ridden Velocicoaster. She just happened to be in Orlando, heard they were soft openings, and ducked over to the park for just long enough for Velocicoaster and Hagrids.

 

[5lilfish]

Also live 1 hour 45 away. Our trips fall into 2 categories:

1 - Day Trip. We drive down, planning to be there near opening, but not necessarily at. This is on lower crowd days. Because we're AP holders, there's always another day trip around the corner, so we're not too worried.

2 - Vacation Trip. This is likely where many of your early trips will be. Anyway, a couple times a year, we'll book an onsite hotel, drive down on an evening, stay the night, take advantage of early park opening to hit rides we might not want to wait in line for on other occasions. We also plan this type of trip when we know the parks will be crowded, like Christmas holidays so we know we'll get into parks AND we get early access.

If we happen to be in Orlando for another reason (work, visiting friends, etc.), we might stop by for a few hours. This is how my sister has already ridden Velocicoaster. She just happened to be in Orlando, heard they were soft openings, and ducked over to the park for just long enough for Velocicoaster and Hagrids.

I have told my husband a few times, that I will know we have arrived (and are finally living in Florida), when we are sitting home and say, 'Let's go to Epcot (or Springs) for dinner.' or "Let's see if we can spend the night at Disney next week and...."

We are big Disney people, so our trips to Disney are much like you described. We have been there many times before and we will be there again, so no stressing over what we do or don't hit (for the most part) on any given day. It's great! I do hope that it doesn't get old though....I mean, we go a lot, but it's different when you live 1000 miles away and you're escaping winter to go to Disney. I don't think it will get old but I would be kind of sad if it does.

We don't hit Universal as often. We love the Harry Potter parts and enjoy the rest, but we don't usually plan to go as much as Disney. Part of that is because we don't usually have the time to split between Disney and Universal though. I think living close by will change that and I know already having tickets to the park will draw us in. AP rates for spending the night will be a giant bonus too.

We are a big cruising family too. We are super excited about being able to book a cruise (especially jumping on a good deal) and just driving to the port. We are used to long car rides (thanks to travel sports with our older kids), so all of the Florida cruise ports are in play for us. Driving 3-4 hours to go to Miami/Ft Lauderdale is just no big deal. Canaveral is even closer and Tampa is very close.

Jess