How have the crowds been?

[gatorchinsky]

Thinking of going to USO for a quick day trip next week and wanted to know how the crowds have been. We won't have express passes so I was just wondering how much can we really get done? We usually don't go in the summer, but friends will be there so we were thinking of spending the day with them at USO. We will definitely get there at least 30 minutes to opening and do as much as we can. For those that have gone recently how was your experience? Thanks.

 

[Planogirl]

We'll be there around the same time so I'm curious to see what others say. Hopefully the crowds will have died down a bit!

 

[jarrdisney]

We went to USO since a buddy of ours is in town. The crowds were some of the biggest I have seen at USO. Despicable me had a 60+ minute wait from the time the park opened until when it closed at 10pm. We were able to do Mummy (2x's), ET, Horror Show, MIB, and Simpsons, before the heat and crowds became unbearable around 12pm.

We came back around 8pm and Despicable Me had a 70 min wait and most the other big attractions were at least 45 minutes. The crowds stayed strong after the Nighttime Show at 9pm and we decided to ride HRRR with a 45 minute wait. Despicable Me still had a long que after the park had closed and guests were no longer admitted into the attraction.

I love the parks and I live here, but I can't say I enjoy going much over the summer. Unfortunately, that seems to be when a lot of people want to visit even though I tell them it's the worst time of year.

 

[GreyStr0ke]

I was there last Thursday and all the major attractions were posting 90-120 minute waits all day. I usually never go during summer so those crowds were quite a shock.

 

[Ed J]

I was there last week also and compared to the crowds we see on our fall trips the place was super crowded. I kinda enjoyed the crowds though as the things were wanted to do didn't have waits, Finnagains was half empty when we went there to eat and Lombardos was the same. The shows weren't an issue either, getting to them 10 minutes before start got us good seats. We had express passes so the lines on the rides weren't an issue, I'd recommend them if you can make it happen.

 

[schumigirl]

Our previous trips have been either last 2 weeks in August or Sept/Oct time so July was a big change of pace for us.

It was really busy. Most days Despicable me was anywhere between 70-100 minutes regardless of time of day. Other headliners were similar.

We had hotel EP so it wasn`t an issue for us, but The Mummy ride one day EP queue was about 25 minutes....longest we have ever waited for anything. The Brazillian tour groups certainly took up a lot of room, but excluding them in the parks it was still busy.

We still had an amazing time though

 

[patrickpiteo]

Been here the last two days and the crowed have been huge... 90 min wait DM Spiderman 75 min.. Staying on site saved us... I will say this IOA very very early was doable.. Not so on the studio side..

 

[gatorchinsky]

It sounds like we might be leaving the parks early. We have APs and plan on going Labor Day weekend (staying on-site) so a quick morning tour won't be so bad for us. We will ride DM first thing when the gates open which will make my son very happy. Other than that, we will play it by ear. Thanks for all the responses. The tour groups should be gone, right?

 

[carly chloe]

OMG!! We will be there next week too. That sounds worse than when Harry Potter first opened!!!!!

 

[BrinkofSunshine]

I don't think the crowds have been all that bad this summer, honestly. On Monday evening Forbidden Journey was a 20 minute wait. On all of my visits this summer I've seen waits in the 10-30 minute range for rides like Mummy, Hulk, MIB, etc.

 

[francie57]

We will be there next week also but thankfully we are staying on-site so we will have the unlimited express pass. I have been checking the app on our Ipad and the wait times have been unbelievable. The other day Dr. Doom had an hour wait - even the storm force spinning ride by hulk has had waits over 30 min. It seems the crowds are at Universal now and the expected large crowds at Disney (touring plans has them at an 8 or 9 out of 10) have been lower. The wait times at Disney haven't been too bad from what I have seen on the Ipad. Today Toy Story only was 60 min. which is unsual. Hopefully with some of the school systems going back on Monday the crowds will start to lower. We go every year at the same time and we have never had a problem at Universal or Disney - hoping that holds true at the end of next week into the following week.

 

[gatorchinsky]

Just got an email about the August ap benefits and it says that ap holders will get into USO an hour early for DM and Shrek. Thank goodness. That will be very helpful for our day next week. We should have no problems being able to ride it a couple of times before opening and then head over to RRR. I am assuming it is for power pass holders as well as premium and preferred. Does anyone know if this is the case?

 

[gatorchinsky]

I just re-read the email again and I noticed that the early admission was for DM and RRR, not Shrek. That's even better. My son will be so happy.

 

[4mykidz127]

We actually just got back today from a week at the Universal parks and it was very crowded in my opinion. To be fair I have only gone in September in the past so the crowds were huge compared to then. The first 4 days we didn't have express because we stayed at Bonnet Creek but our last 3 days we stayed onsite and had the express pass and here is what I noticed.

When we didn't have the pass we got there at park opening and walked on Spiderman, Hulk, Storm Force, Jurassic Park, Pluto's Barge and Ripsaw falls only had a five minute wait but we wanted to wait until later in the day to do it but when we went back it was a 60 min wait. FJ was posted a 45 min wait but we were on and off in only 20 min. The next day over at the Studios DP had a 10 wait at opening, we walked on ET, MIB had a 5 min wait, Mummy had a 10 min wait, Simpsons was a walk on and Rip Rocket had a 10 min wait. I found that if you got there at opening you could ride most without much of a wait but by 11 or so the lines were super long with about a 60 to 90 min wait. So without the express we usually left by noon when the lines were too long but with the express we were able to stay the entire day and enjoy the rides multiple times. However, on some rides even with the express pass later in the day you still had a little wait, for example DM was still 30 min for express but standby was 90 so it still beat waiting in the standby line. I don't know if next time we would give up the space we had at Bonnet creek for the express pass. We still got to ride everything we wanted at least once as long as we got there when the park opened.