Crowd's Oct 15-17 vs 18-21

[Gravydeen]

We will be going to Universal Oct 15-17, the days that the Halloween Horror Nights are not going on. Are crowds worse during the day on HHN or non-HHN? What can we expect? We have gone twice the second week in December to Disney but never to Universal. December has gotten much worse through the years.

 

[Metro West]

We will be going to Universal Oct 15-17, the days that the Halloween Horror Nights are not going on. Are crowds worse during the day on HHN or non-HHN? What can we expect? We have gone twice the second week in December to Disney but never to Universal. December has gotten much worse through the years.

The crowds during the week in October are fairly light so you shouldn't need to worry about getting the Express Pass. On the days when HHN is taking place, the crowds will really start picking up the afternoon for the folks doing the Stay and Scream. By 6pm or so, you can definately tell something is going on due to the throng of people waiting to get into the park.

 

[robvia]

Here are the park hours.
http://www.universalorlando.com/cal..._park_hours.html&year=2007&month=10&year=2007

Crowds will be very light 15-17. The parks close at 6pm and this miffs some people who are used to Disney hours. But the early closing is no problem, because you can easily tour a park and see everything. At night you visit a Citywalk restaurant or go to bed and get ready for an early start the next morning.

Disney commandos are programmed to stay the entire day, even if they're dragging around cranky kids. Universal is different, you don't have to stay the whole day. In fact, I tell everyone to do the two visit approach. Show up early at 8am and wait at the front gate. Go in and take a lap around a park. Return to your hotel and rest. Return to a park in the afternoon.

In your case, you'll have to come back around 3pm, and then you'll have about 3 hours to tour before the parks close. But that's still plenty of time to see everything. The rides and attractions at Universal don't have long pre-shows like they do at Disney.

If you don't want to leave that's fine, some people don't like the extra walking all the way back to the parking garage. You could probably eat a 2 hour lunch at Mythos, or watch a show and do indoor attractions to get out of the heat.