Express pass Vs No express pass

[Bradyboy89]

Hi everyone,

I need a little help deciding what to do on my trip coming up Nov 10th. My girlfriend and I are planning on doing both UO and IOA on Nov 10th. We plan to be there as early as it opens and to stay as late as they let us. We're young enough that we can probably move around the parks fast enough. My question is, what is the best choice for us regarding express passes? The unlimited express pass only seems to be $50 more than it would cost to buy the regular express pass. That would be a no brainer obviously but I'm not sure if well have enough time to really ride the same rides more than once while doing two parks in one day. Which option in your opinions would best work for us? Also how effective is the express pass? Is it better than fast pass at Disney or does it just cut the wait in half?

Thanks for all your help.

 

[damo]

Hi everyone,

I need a little help deciding what to do on my trip coming up Nov 10th. My girlfriend and I are planning on doing both UO and IOA on Nov 10th. We plan to be there as early as it opens and to stay as late as they let us. We're young enough that we can probably move around the parks fast enough. My question is, what is the best choice for us regarding express passes? The unlimited express pass only seems to be $50 more than it would cost to buy the regular express pass. That would be a no brainer obviously but I'm not sure if well have enough time to really ride the same rides more than once while doing two parks in one day. Which option in your opinions would best work for us? Also how effective is the express pass? Is it better than fast pass at Disney or does it just cut the wait in half?

Thanks for all your help.

There are differences between Disney's fastpass and Universal's Express Pass. The express pass doesn't have time limits on it. You use it whenever you want. Since there are fewer people using it, the lines tend to be shorter than the Disney fastpass.

Remember that you don't need to order the express pass ahead of time. What you should do is wait until you get there and see if you really want it. If you do, it can be purchased in many locations inside of the parks.

 

[jasonflk]

My first thoughts considering it's a Sunday is to get a standard once only express pass, you won't have time really to do each ride more than once.

However plan your day well, you might get away without an express pass and if the crowd gods are with you, you can save a few more dollars, so buy when you get there.

With the savings from the express pass you can get a nice meal out

 

[AJ1983]

To the OP, my fiance and I went to US on our arrival date, so we spent roughly 4.5 hours in the park...the following day we did IOA and were done by 12:00 (8 am entry). We stayed at RPR and therefore had Express Pass both days.

Because we had such limited time, we really enjoyed having the Express Pass because there was no pressure-we knew we would definitely be able to fit everything in. So I would definitely recommend purchasing EP if you are only there for a day. Personally, I'd rather spend the extra $40 or whatever it is per person and basically guarantee that I could see everything. Also, whether you should get unlimited or one time use, I think you should look at how many different attractions you wish to do and then see if you could realistically do them multiple times.

Is it possible to do two days (or two partial days) at the US parks? If its in your budget, one night at RPR for about $250.00 would give you one night accommodation, plus unlimited express pass for the day you check in and the day you check out.

Have fun whatever you decide!

 

[macraven]

Hang on to the money you have set aside for the express tix.

Wit until you are in park first to gauge the line waits.

Buy they if you feel the waits are worth the money

If waits are UO to 45 minutes,buy then

 

[SammiL]

Yeah definitely wait until you get there.. depends on what the crowds look like. Last time I decided to fork over the extra $ for an express pass. Probably didnt need to with the low crowd levels but I was only spending one day there and wanted to hit every ride in the park. I started in IOA about an hour after rope drop and was done with both sides at 4pm. Note it has some exclusions like forbidden journey..

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[kohlby]

Agree to wait until you're there to decide. Also, use single rider line! Many years ago, my husband and I would go pre-kids and we always did tons - even though we went after Christmas, during the busiest season. We even did IOA/US new year's eve and managed to do everything we wanted and more. (Like over 20 times on Dueling Dragons and over a dozen for Spiderman and Hulk). Single rider helped us out a LOT. I'm not sure what rides have single rider now, but it made touring really easy even with the park being at max capacity.

 

[Jess30]

Wait until you get there. We only had one day to do US/IOA this trip. We went last Friday and we didn't need the express pass. And we weren't a particularly fast group (we had our 7 year old and my parents, and it was our final park day after being in disney all week. We were tired!!). We even got there a little late (around 10) and US closed at 5 because of HHN.

Our plan was to do what we could do and not worry if we couldn't do it all. We rode all of our favorites (FJ, Spider-Man, hulk, and dueling dragons) and then went to US and rode rip pride rock it, the mummy, explored the Simpsons area and then did MIB. We didn't get to do transformers or despicible me, or do a lot of exploring. But for a short day, we did a lot!