Is the Express Plus pass worth it?

[JzeroT1437]

My friend and I are going for a four day trip to Orlando. We're staying at Disney, and want to spend one day in Universal, so I bought the Express Plus pass thinking that it would help allow us ride everything we want to ride in both US and IoA in a single day. Is it plausible to expect this, since I now have the Express Plus passes? How much shorter does it usually make wait times?

 

[ksdave]

It is all dependent on what time of the year you are going. If you go around Christmas, spring break, summer, etc., it is definitely worth it. If you go in September, it is not. I have walked on Shrek repeatedly in September, but seen 120 minute waits around the holidays.
My preferance is to stay at one of the resorts and get the Express that comes with the room. I've found the resorts at UO better than the comparatively priced resorts at WDW, you are much closer to the both parks and Citywalk than at Disney, and many of the restaurants at UO are awesome.

 

[JzeroT1437]

We're going in mid-October (19th-22nd).

The main rides we want to hit at UO are:

T2: 3-D
Back to the Future
Shrek 4-D
Jaws
Revenge of the Mummy
Men In Black
ET Adventures
and the Universal Horror Makeup Show

At IoA, we want to rideL

Dualing Dragons
Dr. Doom
Incredible Hulk
Spiderman
Jurrassic Park River Adventure
Storm Force Accelatron
Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls
and Poseiden's Fury.

Does this sound remotely feasible for one day, or do we need to try for 1 and a half?

 

[ksdave]

I don't think you could do all of that on the weekend due to Holloween Horror Nights. It is possible to do all of this, but only with Express, if you arrive about 20-30 minutes prior to gate opening, and don't plan to do any browsing in the shops, etc. I would start at IOA with Hulk, Spidey, etc., and then go to Studios in the afternoon. I did both parks in one day once on my own and that is how I did it. It was a Sunday in January, so it was really slow (you can see pics on my website link below that show how slow it was. See Feb. 2002).
Good luck, hope you have a blast.

 

[OKWMom]

It would have been possible either day last Friday 9/28 or Saturday 9/29. It would require, as the other poster stated, that you be at the gate prior to the park opening. DH and I just returned and we were there at the opening of a park on each of the two mornings. There were no lines at all prior to 10:30 am and not much of a line after that. We rode everything we wanted, had a nice sit-down lunch both days and still had time for a afternoon nap prior to attending HHN. We could have done both parks in a single day if we hadn't been planning on attending HHN.