Express Pass wait times?

[jenhelgren]

We are a little over 2 weeks away from our first trip to Universal!!
We are staying onsite and will have Express Pass for our 3 park days. I read that with EP the ride waits are usually 5-10 minutes with the exception of Dispicable Me which is about half the posted wait time.
Is that about right most of the time? Are there any rides that will have long waits even with EP like Kong?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jess30]

Kong took us about 30 min with EP last week.

Otherwise it was largely 5-10 minutes. Simpsons was maybe more like 15-20.

 

[schumigirl]

We didn't wait any longer than 5 minutes with EP in any ride last few weeks........... we had 18 days and made the parks almost every day at some point.

Despicable Me should never be around half the regular queue, that's far too long for EP.........we saw the regular queue vary between 45 minutes and 110 and we still never waited long........always less than 5 minutes and usually we just walked on. A friend said she did wait just under 10 minutes last week when the queue was over 90 minutes, just unlucky with line moving times.

Kong we always just walked on with EP........just a tiny queue to get on the vehicle........regular queue was 30-45 minutes...........

Only once when they had an issue and cut some ride vehicles did we wait around 10 minutes to get on.

 

[tony67]

As others said - the wait time is pretty much nothing with EP - basically 5 minutes at most.

I did wait 10 minutes or so for Kong an a weekend - but during the week it was pretty much walk on

 

[toonaspie]

Is it possible to do all the Express attractions in one day minus anything Harry Potter? I'm thinking of buying Exp pass for only one day and save all the HP stuff for its own day.

We also plan to skip RipRideRockit, most of the stuff in Marvel Island (except for Spiderman), and all the shows basically.

Forgot to mention that we will use the park2park option.

 

[Dis_Fan]

Is it possible to do all the Express attractions in one day minus anything Harry Potter? I'm thinking of buying Exp pass for only one day and save all the HP stuff for its own day.

We also plan to skip RipRideRockit, most of the stuff in Marvel Island (except for Spiderman), and all the shows basically.

Forgot to mention that we will use the park2park option.

Granted it was during September trips but I have gone to both parks (Park to Park) in one day and gotten everything I wanted done with and without Express Pass. Thats not every EP ride ( I do not do Hulk and some others) but everything I wanted including Harry Potter.

 

[macraven]

UO states that ep lines should be under a 20 minute wait

Only a few times I have encountered a wait that long
Happened to me in October at DM

 

[Patch'sD]

Depends on where they have EP enter for Kong. Once we entered where the Amnatronic figure speaks about Kong and that wait takes about 20 Minutes. If you enter after that then it is going to be about 5 minutes. I have seen Spiderman go from a walk on to 15 Minutes if the back and forth queue before you board is full. Dr Doom can take longer depending on the number of cars running.

 

[imprint]

Despicable Me always feels longer to me, since there are two pre-ride videos to watch. Granted it's more entertaining to watch the videos than to just stare at the back of the head of the person in front of me. Same with the Simpsons and its pre-ride videos.

Regarding Kong, when we were there a few weeks ago, we only rode once. The express time would have been 5-10 minutes, but the ride broke down during the wait. It was only down 10 minutes though. Kong isn't the best ride there by any means, but it is a great addition to the lineup.

Regardless of any inherent or unexpected waits, the express pass is worth its weight in gold.

 

[EdgeOfGlory]

We were granted an EP for Hogwarts going down last week right as we were about to board. The parks were pretty slow overall but Transformers had a 45 minute standby wait. We decided to use the passes for this but still ended up waiting almost 20 minutes in the EP line.