How important is Express Pass?

[Bigwands]

When we started planning for our end of July/beginning of august trip I figured we'd suck it up and pay for the fancy unlimited pass. BF likes Roller Coasters and I don't, so I wanted to cut down on the amount of time I'd spend waiting around/on my own, but as we get closer our budget is looking tighter and tighter. I got laid off last month, and apparently bf spent a good chunk of money on a shiny thing I cannot complain about, so now I'm reevaluating. We're going to a special after-hours event at the two HP parks (which is going to be $175 each), so maybe we can manage without the express passes? Or get them for one of the two days, so we can be sure to get the coasters or anything big done?

If I could count on full open-to-close park days I probably wouldn't worry so much, but we're attending a con and there's going to be events and programming we've paid for.

 

[Darcy03231]

We've been during that time frame before and if you arrive at the turnstiles about half an hour before the listed park opening, you should be able to do the big rollercoasters with little to no wait as long as you do them first. We found that most everyone bee-lined for the HP section of the park. We found that the lines for the other rides didn't start until late morning/early afternoon (other than minions). We also took advantage of the single rider line for every ride that had it.

 

[Bigwands]

I'd forgotten about single rider which is perfect for the roller coasters. I don't have to worry so much about the lines for the HP rides (wouldn't be able to use the express for some of them anyway) and we will NOT be going anywhere NEAR anything with Minions. Dear god. I'm so sick of those things lol.

 

[Bluer101]

I never leave home with out it.

In all seriousness sounds like single rider will work for him.

 

[CTDisneyfan816]

I get it because it is the only way to get on the water rides on a day like today. And while it still took me 45 minutes to get on the Minion ride, standby was 120 minutes or in other words no chance in hell