Express Waits in Peak Season?

[atigeg]

This is inkkognito posting on my husband's computer:

Just curious...what are the average Express Line waits at the peak times? We've gotten really spoiled and are used to 15 tops. But yesterday (Sat. before Easter), most of the Express lines were literally all the way out to the entrance on the good rides at both parks (surprisingly, Spiderman was an exception). I'm guessing they were a good 30 mins. or more...small potatoes when standby is 60 to 90, but I was still surprised because the small print in the Express Pass propaganda refers to an average of 15 mins.

Since we're local, we can gear our visits around the craziest times, but we were hoping to do some summer parking. We always come after 4 because we have the premier passes. Is summer as bad as Spring Break, or was yesterday just unusual? We've visited several other Sats. during Mardi Gras and the only Express line with a really long wait has been Mummy.

 

[bubba's mom]

We were there the last week of June last year, and we never waited more than 10 minutes in express lanes

 

[macraven]

i have only been to universal in mid june and late august in the summer months.

probably a 10 minute wait at the peak of the day for us then.
we try to avoid saturdays in case that would have a bearing on when you would be there.

love that fotl !!

 

[Tank]

Just got back from UO and the parks where packed. Express lines where running about 20 min in the middle of the day, but they thinned out after 5. Just get there early, take it easy from 12 to 5 and got at it again after dinner.

 

[atigeg]

We're limited in the times we can come, as our FOTL doesn't start till after 4 p.m. (premier pass). We returned to day and the Express waits were back down to reasonable levels (5 to 10 average), so we managed to do all our favorites and slipped in a few multiple rides on Mummy and MIB before hightailing it to IOA to ride Hulk (would have done more but it was threatening rain).

 

[Syndrome]

We have gone during the Christmas/New years week. Stayed at the RPH, with the express passes. I dont think we waited longer than 10 minutes.........15 tops. The parks were PACKED !!! We were there for New Years Eve two years ago and it was scary packed! We left early, fearing we would get trampled if we left with the "late" crowd, and went back to the Royal Pacific to catch the fireworks from the beach. Still the express lines were *almost* walk on.
HTH........
Later.........Syndrome

 

[David R]

I have actually noticed that Express pass lines have been longer than 15 minutes more often than not. Mummy is a classic example of this but not the only one.

While they can't control who goes where when, the occasional back up should be the exception and not the rule. If this involves selling fewer Express Passes, then do it, but we all know that's not going to happen.

 

[inkkognito]

It's inkkognito under my own ID now:

Yesterday it seemed that the biggest Express backups were at the second 'checker' because of all the people trying to slip in with a) regular tickers; b) regular season passes; c) already-used passes; d) nothing whatsoever but some creative b.s story. Once we got past that, the lines were maybe 10 mins. at most.

We had one Darwin family nearly run us down at Mummy to get in front of us at the entrance; I'm not sure how they got past the first checker, especially since they were each carrying a bag as big as your typical carry-on luggage piece and since one of the kids was too short. I think they confused the poor TM so much with their argument over height that he forgot to check their passes. They just had "shorty" rejoin them under the locker ropes. The second checker caught them, but they argued for several minutes, holding up the rest of the legit people (one Darwin said he'd hold all the bags but that the rest of his pass-less party should be allowed on through the Express line...finally they all stormed off). Still, it was quite amusing to watch, and once we got past there, it was walk on.

I've decided that the premier pass is well worth it just for the entertainment value. Probably 50 percent of the time we've got cheaters either in front of us or behind us, and it's endlessly amusing to watch them try to get away with it and get busted. And then they usually have the nerve to get belligerent! Better than any park-produced pre-show...real-life theater of the absurd.

 

[bubba's mom]

The second checker caught them, but they argued for several minutes, holding up the rest of the legit people (one Darwin said he'd hold all the bags but that the rest of his pass-less party should be allowed on through the Express line...finally they all stormed off). Still, it was quite amusing to watch, and once we got past there, it was walk on.

I've decided that the premier pass is well worth it just for the entertainment value. Probably 50 percent of the time we've got cheaters either in front of us or behind us, and it's endlessly amusing to watch them try to get away with it and get busted. And then they usually have the nerve to get belligerent! Better than any park-produced pre-show...real-life theater of the absurd.

I agree....it IS funny to watch "somebody try to get something for free/away with something"..... we saw a few of those last year, and it's SO nice to know you are doing EP legally. Oh, and I absolutely LOVE the people who play dumb...."uh....wha?"

 

[disneyleslie]

just did it this weekend and the longest wait was on hulk and it was 30 min. - the other two times it was 10-15 - all the waits were really no big deal - we had a totally leisurely weekend - slept in - hit the parks for a few hours - got lots done in a small amount of time - it was great!!!

Leslie