Less than a Day in Universal- December Crowd?

[arthursiew]

We will be stopping over in Orlando for a day trip before our flight to LA for a Disneyland trip. Our flight will be arriving at 9:00am and plan to get a 7:05pm flight to LA the same day. Since we will be doing online check in, that will give us a little bit more time to stay in the park.

Since we do not have a lot of time, I wanted to know what kind of crowd I should expect in December. Specifically, I will be going on December 19. This is not my first visit to Universal so I'm familiar with every ride, but I do not have any plans of returning again in the near future. We want to get on the rides that are not in the Hollywood one such as Harry Potter, Mummy, Hulk, etc. Anyways... on December 19... do you think it's necessary to get the Express Plus? Since Harry Potter is not included, we were thinking about lining up no matter how the long the line is and then going on the other rides with the Express Plus before the end of the day. We do not want to purchase the Express Plus if it's not necessary. Thanks!

 

[Metro West]

The closer to a major holiday the busier the parks become. The 19th is a Monday so the parks shouldn't be too terribly busy but WWoHP will be crowded as always. I wouldn't recommend purchasing the EP ahead of time since you are talking about only doing the attractions not at USH. You can purchase them at either park should you feel the need after checking out the wait times. You aren't giving yourself a lot of time but it sounds like you're going to be spending more time at IOA then the Studios. Head to the Studios first and then back to IOA for the remainder of the day.

 

[damo]

We will be stopping over in Orlando for a day trip before our flight to LA for a Disneyland trip.

You couldn't get a direct flight from SF?

 

[arthursiew]

The closer to a major holiday the busier the parks become. The 19th is a Monday so the parks shouldn't be too terribly busy but WWoHP will be crowded as always. I wouldn't recommend purchasing the EP ahead of time since you are talking about only doing the attractions not at USH. You can purchase them at either park should you feel the need after checking out the wait times. You aren't giving yourself a lot of time but it sounds like you're going to be spending more time at IOA then the Studios. Head to the Studios first and then back to IOA for the remainder of the day.

I am planning to visit the Studios as well. However, I am mostly going to ride the major attractions there such as the Mummy, Jaws, MIB, etc. There are probably more rides in IOA that I'm interested in, but I fear that I won't have enough time to ride some rides at least once without an EP.

You couldn't get a direct flight from SF?

I am going to San Juan and LA for December so I thought it would be nice to stop by Orlando before our last stop.

 

[arthursiew]

Any other opinions? I will probably be at the park between 10-5:00pm so I'm still unsure whether it's necessary.