Crowds in May... Onsite or Not

[DVC_Corrys]

I am going to be taking the wife on a trip in May 5/12 - 5/15 (Sat - Tue) and was trying to decide to stay onsite at RPH or at the Doubletree across the seat.

Will it be busy enough to justify Universal Express? It is $400 dollars more to stay at RPH.

The Universal package for the Double Tree includes early entry for Harry Potter but I am worried about the rest of the day.

Thoughts on crowds being low enough to skip Universal Express?

 

[blackjack68]

Which dates in May? Earlier is better, Memorial Day weekend, not so much.

 

[Metro West]

Which dates in May? Earlier is better, Memorial Day weekend, not so much.

Agreed...early May isn't an issue but late May might be...especially during a holiday weekend.

 

[saintstickets]

We are going May 20-25th...during the week before Memorial Day. Any ideas about crowd levels those days?

 

[Metro West]

We are going May 20-25th...during the week before Memorial Day. Any ideas about crowd levels those days?

Shouldn't be too bad but it's hard to estimate. Weekends will have higher crowds than mid-week so try to stay away from weekends if at all possible.

 

[DVC_Corrys]

SORRY for the delay. We are going 5/12 (Sat) - 5/15 (Tue)

Our main days in the park are Sun Mon Tue

Would it be worth it????

 

[DVC_Corrys]

Added my dates to original post.

 

[accumax]

In the last 4 years we have gone twice around that same time, (mid May-last week of May) and found the crowd levels to be low. No express pass needed and we stayed off site. We had a great time and lines were short 15min, to walk on. Hit HP early, then take in the rest of the park going back to HP late in the evening to recap the area I think is a good plan for you. Sunday-Tuesday are great days to go. We are going back again in May 2013 ourselves.

 

[DVC_Corrys]

Cool, we went in Sept 2009 and it was beyond dead. walk on for most items. Harry Potter wasn't open yet.

were most waits 10 minutes in May when you have gone mid-month?

 

[mutiger]

How about week of Memorial day...we will arrive the day after memorial day and our US/IOA days are W/Th/F...any idea how crowds are then?

 

[accumax]

Our last trip was that week. We went to Gatorland Memorial Monday (which we loved) to avoid crowds. We started our 4 days at US/IOA, tues-fri. I would rate the crowd levels low for most of the trip with it being busiest on friday. Still, we didn't have EP and line waits 15min max on average most of the day unless the ride was having some type of mechanical issue that delayed the que. Walkon is great, but I don't mind the 15 min wait. Some of the ques are so well themed it takes some time to see and take it all in. Things t consider,
1. Even now, HP seems to bring in crowds during non peak times.
2. Local schools are still in session, but some are taking school organized day trip for that class, or grade.

 

[damo]

Fridays can have massive crowds with school groups in May. We have encountered Fridays that were ridiculous when the Thursday was empty.