Forget EE we may be sleeping in and doing evenings

[lschism]

so I am going to write a trip report later but we arrived at HRH today and got to the parks with our express passes at 7pm. We rode minions with a 5 minute wait then RRR with 15 minute wait then ate in Springfield , rode Simpsons and MIB with no wait sat and enjoyed a big pink donut then headed to Gringotts which was a walk on twice in a row .... We were the only ones in our cart both times... Then enjoyed a leisurely stroll out of universal taking pictures of everything with no crowds in the way. We are staying 7 nights so evening touring might become our new plan. We will probably do EE one day to see DA in the daylight but that's it. Off to a great start !!

 

[macraven]

what a great way to start a vacation!

no lines........very little waits.....

 

[schumigirl]

That's fantastic......no waits.

 

[Bluer101]

Nice start.

We sleep in and don't do EE unless it's around a grand opening.

 

[AthenaBolina]

That's awesome! Can't wait for our trip in a few weeks!

 

[johde]

Glad you're having a great start to your trip. Possibly it's because Universal is a bit more of a locals park but you've found one of the best times to visit for vacationers. For some reason, Universal parks really start clearing out about 7:00-8:00. It could be the locals going home because they have work the next day. At Disney, you don't seem to see that drop off until 11:00 or Midnight. With the parks now open until 9:00-10:00 you get a couple of hours of near walk on conditions at most of the park. Plus the parks, especially Diagon Alley and most of IOA are beautiful lit up at night.

In the off season when the parks close early, you don't have the crowds during the day but they are more likely to stick around closing so you don't get as big of a drop off.

 

[sydneysmom]

Glad your trip is starting off so well ! and what a great idea to sleep in and start late, after everyone is starting to go..... that's something to remember for later!
I sure know my husband will like that option!

 

[HM]

Glad you had a great night!

We are going to do both next month. EE until lunch, pool until dinner, parks again until close.
But, we only have three 1/2 days there, unlike your week.

 

[larslovesyou]

We only did EE one day and were shocked by how crowded it was. The busiest we saw WWOHP was during EE. You couldn't move anywhere, the lines for FJ were 60 minutes at 8:05 am. We went at night and it was empty! Posted 20 minute wait for FJ, but it was walk on. All of the shops were peaceful, and the restaurant only had a few tables full. This was at 7 pm, with a park close of 9 pm.

During EE we bailed WWOHP and waited for IOA to open the rest of the park.

 

[jm106]

This is making me feel more at ease about our visit in a few days. We wont have EE so plan to do some park opening stuff then may leave for a break an return to finish the night. Hope we have the same luck

 

[macraven]

This is making me feel more at ease about our visit in a few days. We wont have EE so plan to do some park opening stuff then may leave for a break an return to finish the night. Hope we have the same luck

sending you tons of mummy dust that you won't have long line waits.....

 

[RMulieri]

That worked well for us on our August trip too..Our January trips it didn't help at all.The parks close earlier and everyone seems to hang around till closing

 

[Bluer101]

That worked well for us on our August trip too..Our January trips it didn't help at all.The parks close earlier and everyone seems to hang around till closing

Summer months and holidays it works great.

This is one of the things we enjoy for our week summer stay. We enjoy the parks in the am, swimming, eating, relaxing by the pool, and then dinner / parks at night.

We were just there and can't wait till next weekend to go again, nice relaxing week.

 

[Cheesehead9]

We only did EE one day and were shocked by how crowded it was. The busiest we saw WWOHP was during EE. You couldn't move anywhere, the lines for FJ were 60 minutes at 8:05 am. We went at night and it was empty! Posted 20 minute wait for FJ, but it was walk on. All of the shops were peaceful, and the restaurant only had a few tables full. This was at 7 pm, with a park close of 9 pm.

During EE we bailed WWOHP and waited for IOA to open the rest of the park.

I've only done early entry at IOA once, and they only had about 1/3 of the benches running on FJ. That resulted in a 20 minute wait, which would have been a walk-on if all benches were running. At the end of the day they have them all running.

Is reduced capacity on FJ common during EE?

 

[cinderella'smommy]

We were there last Friday through Sunday, and noticed the same thing. We did not take advantage of EE; but were there later in the evening. We did Minion Mayhem twice; Shrek; then headed to Diagon Alley and rode Gringotts with no wait on Friday. Saturday was the same---just hardly any lines to speak of anywhere.

 

[carmiedog]

We're here now and loving the evenings (especially after the rain clears out half the park). Of 3 early entries we've done, 1 we spent waiting in line for a broken down Gringotts, and the other (yesterday) we were on Forbidden Journey when it broke down and by the time we were evacuated we lost an entire hour (spent a while on my back staring up at the Whomping Willow and we got to see some of the interior with lights on, which was super cool, but we didn't get any worthwhile compensation). Trying EE here again this morning since it's our last day and hoping for better luck! Hopefully we'll have a nice evening to close out the parks, too.