Going to Universal tommorrow with no Express. Comments on my touring plan?

sportbettor

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Joined
Apr 28, 2008
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We've been to Universal before over Christmas. We are going tomorrow morning with no express pass. Our plan is to get there at opening. and ride these rides in this order:

MIB twice
Jaws
DIsaster
Twister
Jimmy Neuron
Terminator
Animal Actors

Is this the best plan? Im worried that everyone will be going to the Simpsons first thing so everyone will be starting in the same area we will be starting in and also moving in a counterclockwise direction. We really want to ride MIB more than once but not really for the other stuff. We really want to minimize waits if possible. Any comments on this plan is greatly appreciated.

I also read in the FAQ that they open the parks early sometimes. Is this really true? What time should we get there then? 8:15 or so?
 
Everyone went to Simpsons first when we went about two weeks ago, however MIB stayed around 10 minutes. Out of your rides listed, I'd say Disaster might have the longest wait, the others shouldn't be an issue IMO. If you don't mind single rider line, you could always use that on MIB if the wait was a large issue.
 
i don't know when the rides are open tomorrow but when i went in the fall last year, jaws did not open until 10 in the morning.
same for a few other rides over the columbus day weekend last year.
 
Everyone went to Simpsons first when we went about two weeks ago, however MIB stayed around 10 minutes. Out of your rides listed, I'd say Disaster might have the longest wait, the others shouldn't be an issue IMO. If you don't mind single rider line, you could always use that on MIB if the wait was a large issue.

My son is 6 so single rider is out. We are also not used to this heat at all so I want to get as much done is as quick a time as possible. We went today to IOA rode spiderman (40min wait), Cat in the hat 3 times and one fish two fish and he was done for the day.

Do you know if Jaws was open earlier than 10am when you went? And did they let people in earlier than 9:00am like it says they do in the FAQ if its busy? Maybe we should do MIB then disaster then jaws. Its backtracking a little if i remember the layout correctly but since you said disaster gets a line this might be the most efficient.
 

Jaws wasn't open at park opening, so I'd imagine 10am is when it opened for us too (we didn't go that way to be honest) .. we didn't get there before 9AM, but they might let people in by 8:45, I'll still be there just incase, and you could always grab breakfast on the way in.

As long as you do them all before 11 (Disaster, MIB mainly) you shouldn't have to worry much about lines.
 
thanx. Youve been a lot of help. We are going do Disaster immediately after MIB whether or not Jaws is open I think. And also show up at 8:30 and hope it opens early.
 
i have always been able to get inside the park around 8:30ish even though the official opening time is 9:00.


not all rides will be open before 9 though.

if you do IOA, the hulk will be open early.
 
i have always been able to get inside the park around 8:30ish even though the official opening time is 9:00.


not all rides will be open before 9 though.

if you do IOA, the hulk will be open early.

Thanx for the help. We are definitely going to get there before 8:30 now maybe shoot for 8:15. As long as I can stop typing on this computer and get some sleep :) .
 
Yep, sleep is definitely good. Disaster was around 25-30 minute wait when we arrived around 10AM, and MIB was about a 10, however tomorrow is a weekend and we went on a Monday. If you plan to ride Simpsons, ride it early.
 
Not sure if anyone is really interested, but here's my results today:

BTW Jaws, twister, disaster didnt open until 10am, terminator opened at 10:30am and the first show of the animal actors was 12.

8:10am Arrived at Universal gate.

8:40am Gates opened (they would've opened sooner but something was wrong with the scanning machines at the gates and they had to use handheld scanners)

8:41am Decided to rent a stroller for the first time(this might have been the best decision of the day, that and arriving well before 9am)

8:43-8:45am Everyone held at rodeo dr. by security

8:50am arrived at MIB after walking very very fast. Got funny looks from the Simpson CMs (probably not called CMs but I dont know) as I passed the ride since I was well ahead of everyone else but didnt stop there
8:50-9:30 got locker then rode MIB 3 times. first 2 times we were the only people riding. the 3rd time there were about 10 people in the group.

9:40 arrived at Disaster and waited 20min for first show
10:00-10:25 rode Disaster. show was less than 1/2 full.

10:30 arrived at Jaws and waited 20minutes in line
10:50-11:00 rode Jaws

11:10 arrived Twister and waited 20 min in line (sign said 15min wait) we basically had to wait for one group in front of us to enter the show then we were in the next group.
11:30-11:40 saw Twister

11:50 arrived Animal Actors waited 10 min for first show to start
12:00-12:17 watched animal actors

12:20 arrived Terminator and basically walked into show
12:30-12:55 watched terminator

1:00 arrived Jimmy neuron and waited 22 min in line (sign said 30 min wait)
1:22-1:32 rode Jimmy neuron

1:33 Arrived shrek and waited 15 min in line (sign said 15 min wait)
1:48-2:05 rode shrek.

2:05 We decided that since we had a stroller and my son wasnt tired we would go ride our favorite ride, Spiderman fully expecting an hour wait or so wait.
2:22 arrived Spiderman and waited 15minutes in line :) (sign said 35min wait).
2:37-2:50 rode Spiderman

So all in all it was a very good day. Renting a stroller was key as we could never have got to MIB as quickly as we did w/o the stroller. Also we would probably have left the park right after the animal actors show due to fatigue.

If I were to do this again I would have changed a few things. First I would have rode MIB a 4th time. There was no line at either Jaws or Disaster before 10am and we basically wasted 20 minutes waiting for Disaster to open. Second I would have done Jaws before Disaster. It seems that Disaster was probably a more popular show but the line at Jaws moved very slowly and there were a ton of people using Universal Express (which contributed obviously to the stanby line moving so slowly). we could've have waited at Jaws from 10:50 or so and been one of the first people riding it, then walked on at Disaster as there wasnt a line when we exited it after riding at 10:00am. i think maybe riding Jimmy Neuron would have been better before Animal Actors and then saving Twister for later but not really sure.

Probably tldr but thanx to everyone who gave me info for today. It worked out pretty much perfectly.
 
the employees are universal are referred to as TM
team members.

CM is a disney term for cast members
 















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