FOTL Christmas Week

[FreeTime]

I haven't checked room availability yet, but if I can get one we are planning on it! So, what are the FOTL waits like during this week? Last visit we went on July 5-10th and the longest I remember was about 20 minutes at the barges. Will they be about the same on Christmas week?

 

[Aisling]

Bumping this up for any Christmas week info. I have the HRH booked for Dec. 26-31.

 

[Metro West]

I've never stayed onsite since I live only 20 mins away but...I would imagine the wait times will be huge...even with FOTL. I have been at the parks during that week and it's wall to wall people!

 

[A Mickeyfan]

I have been there just before Christmas & even with staying onsite for the FOTL advantage... by mid day, some of the FOTL lines were a 35-40 minute wait! I woud go early when they were less crowded... go back to the room, then head back over at dinner time.... Lines were still fairly long then too...

 

[Syndrome]

Hi,
We usually go between Christmas/New years. The express lines have never been too bad from what we have experienced . I would say anywhere between a few minutes - 15/20 minutes max. I remember some "normal" line wait times were 90-120 minutes !!! The parks were packed and the resorts were at FULL capacity, but the express lines were VERY managable. The longest lines we saw were for cat in the hat ( because it seems it is always breaking down), Dr. Doom (because of the very limited capacity), and show type rides ( just the nature of these type of rides) . All of the big coasters were 10/15 minutes max,........ standby on Mummy was 120 minutes, we went on a few times within an hr, with wait times approx 10 minutes. Spidey was always walk-on, and JP.
Our normal annual routine is to do Universal DURING the "big week", and stay on site for express line. Unfortunately, we are stuck paying the VERY high holiday rates.........BUT........it is a VERY stress free week.......sleep in, swim, and do the parks at OUR leisure, because of FOTL. Then we do WDW, after The Christmas/New years rush. WDW is much more managable AFTER New years, and the rates go way down after the new years for WDW.
This year we are doing a split stay HRH/PBH 12/26- 1/2, then we are going to WDW.....ASM Family Suite untill 1/13. I am more worried about the WDW crowds AFTER the holidays then the Universal crowds DURING the holiday.
Just a tip/word of warning...........
We went to US for the New/Years Bash a couple of years ago........NEVER again! It was just SCARY, how many people were there! The parks and citywalk. I remember the club level to citywalk was packed FULL, but the escalator was still loaded with people going up.........it was mayhem. There was nowhere for all the people to get off/go........finally someone smart, hit the emergency stop!!! We got out of there before 12:00, fearing we would be trampled/mobbed to death when everyone was leaving. We went back the room early, and watched the fireworks from the beach of RPR..........much more enjoyable for us.

Go for it.........as long as you are staying on-site, you will have a nice time.........although many people will be a little mad at you as you breeze past them in the express line!

HTH...........Syndrome