Crowds right now

[DawnM]

What are the crowds like? We are heading down tomorrow.

We have APs but they are the ones that will only allow us in to Islands of Adventure until Friday, when we can hit Universal.

I would not have gotten these passes, but we have always been able to travel off season until now and my son's school is starting on the 20th, so we have to go during a busier time.

Anyway, in reading the crowd calendar tips, it says the busiest times are from 11am-3pm. Is this accurate? I have teenagers, so leaving the hotel by 8am to get there before park open can be very challenging. If we were to come in to the park each day around 3pm, would we experience a bit of a crowd decrease?

Thanks,

Dawn

PS: This is our first ever Orlando trip with no Disney passes, it is going to be very strange.

 

[damo]

From what I've read, crowds are up about 25% this summer but because of the new rides like Transformers and the whole new Diagon Alley section, they don't seem to be bad at all!

 

[DawnM]

Thanks. We have arrived and during the last couple of hours of the drive I downloaded the Universal Crowd App and was very surprised that for a Saturday the crowds weren't as bad as I thought they would be. The worst was 100 minutes but the rest were in the 30-55 min. window.

I don't know that the app is completely accurate but it is a guide.

We will be utilizing single rider as much as we can (my kids are teens and pre-teens) and just figuring a 30-45 min. wait for most rides.

Dawn

 

[DisneyWalle]

Please keep us updated on crowds while you are there......we head down there in about 20 days and I'm very curious about crowd levels

 

[captainmoch]

It may be a little busy with a few long lines, but not anything near WDW levels. I'd recommend you do Despicable Me first thing in the morning, though. It's the worst capacity ride in the park and has the longest lines because of that.

 

[DawnM]

We did Islands of Adventure today and it wasn't bad. We utilized all the single rider lines when we could.

There was nothing terrible at all. We went on

Hulk (25 min. wait without single rider),
Spiderman (single rider, 8 min. wait),
Forbidden Journey (18 min. single rider wait),
Dueling Dragons (15 min.)
Carousel (walk on),
Seuss Trolley (walk on)
Cat in the Hat (said 25 min. but I timed it and it was 12)

It was SO HOT and we have several more days, so we called it a day and came back to the Townhouse to go swimming.

 

[flateacher]

We just got back and we thought the crowds were manageable and wait times fairly reasonable for a summer weekend. Although we had express pass -so we waited no longer than 5 minutes on every ride. I did see a long line for Hippogriff - it was listed as 60 min . FJ was between 30-45 min. Spiderman was about 45 min.

The one time we realized just how many ppl were in the park was around 6:30 when every ride shut down because of weather and they made everyone get out of line. So the walkways etc were pretty crowded!

I was also kind of surprised that not too many ppl were in line with express passes. The express lines were longer than we are used to - like we weren't the first ppl in line - hahha but other than that I thought they were pretty good for a summer day.

 

[DawnM]

Please keep us updated on crowds while you are there......we head down there in about 20 days and I'm very curious about crowd levels

20 days from now should be fine. Most kids are back in school, probably all.

 

[captainmoch]

I went today, and crowds weren't too bad at all. At least, for single rider lines.
- Got there at around opening and managed to walk onto Hulk twice in a row with single rider.
- Spiderman was around 15 minutes in the morning. Single rider didn't open until later. When I did come back later to re-ride it with single rider, that one was around 15 minutes while standby was 60 minutes according to the sign.
- 10 minutes for Doom in morning.
- Around 5 minutes for Popeye in morning.
- Jurassic Park sign said 35 minutes, but the line was actually nearly 15 minutes.
- Forbidden Journey sign said 60 minutes, but single rider made it around 5 once again.
- Dueling Dragons was a near walk-on even with no single rider, although the line is still so overly long and convoluted that it took 5 minutes to walk through.
- 5 minutes for the Seuss trolley.
- Surprisingly, the Cat in the Hat dark ride had the worst wait with around 20 minutes for me.

I do have a question, though. Are the days when AP blackout dates end usually busy? I was thinking of going next Monday for USF instead of just IoA, and I'm not sure if it will be busier then usual.

 

[flateacher]

I do have a question, though. Are the days when AP blackout dates end usually busy? I was thinking of going next Monday for USF instead of just IoA, and I'm not sure if it will be busier then usual.

We have AP which is why were were only at IOA this weekend. I am sorry I am not sure about next Monday. I can tell you that some schools might be back in session and some aren't. BUT all the teachers have to go back by then so maybe that will help?

 

[DawnM]

Went to IOA again today.

The longest line for us was Bluto's Rat Barges. Close to a 45 min. wait. They really need a single rider line for that. So many rafts went by with empty seats!

Dudley' Do Right- single rider was a 25 min. wait.
Forbidden Journey- a 20 min. wait for single rider
Spiderman- 15 min. wait for single rider
Hulk- 12 min. for single rider

That is all we did today.

 

[captainmoch]

Went to IOA again today.

The longest line for us was Bluto's Rat Barges. Close to a 45 min. wait. They really need a single rider line for that. So many rafts went by with empty seats!

Dudley' Do Right- single rider was a 25 min. wait.
Forbidden Journey- a 20 min. wait for single rider
Spiderman- 15 min. wait for single rider
Hulk- 12 min. for single rider

That is all we did today.

Dudley Do-Right has single rider? That's actually some useful information. I had an idea that if I'm gonna go one more time in the summer, I might as well go hardcore and do every attraction. Single rider would make this one a lot easier, as it usually has a very long line and was a bit of a pain when I was trying to schedule of when I'd do everything.

 

[DawnM]

Dudley Do-Right has single rider? That's actually some useful information. I had an idea that if I'm gonna go one more time in the summer, I might as well go hardcore and do every attraction. Single rider would make this one a lot easier, as it usually has a very long line and was a bit of a pain when I was trying to schedule of when I'd do everything.

Yes, it goes down some back staircase thing. It was still about 20 min. but not too bad.