Necessity of express pass Easter week?

[Tattylou]

We are coming for one overnight stay mid-week the week after Easter. It is DH, myself, 6 and 8 year old boys, and my parents. We will get 2 separate rooms. We will only be at the parks 1 day. Harry Potter is the main event for us and we plan to use early entry to get to HP. I am a WDW vet and literally have no clue about Universal. I've done WDW at Easter and know how crucial fastpasses are and how insanely crowded it gets. I'm debating on staying at Cabana Bay or Royal Pacific. Obviously, RP gives us express passes. So, is it worth the extra $220 for the night to stay at RP and get the express passes? THANKS!

 

[bchbetha]

You'll want them for sure. It'll be mobbed.

 

[schumigirl]

Definitely do RP!

It can be insane that time of year......

Since you are new to Universal, make sure you read the stickies on top of the forums, full of info on hotels, parks, rides and restaurants.

Also the website has good info too www.universalorlando.com

 

[Owl X]

Note that the Star Wars Celebration convention is from April 13-16 in Orlando.
There may be an extra 40K people in Orlando just for the convention.
I suspect many of those will be spending time in theme parks.

 

[bumbershoot]

In case having only one park day is at up all for debate, it's worth knowing that one night at rpr gives you two days of early entrance and express passes. You would have to buy the two day pass of course and be there early in checkin day to get that first day of early entrance.

 

[Tattylou]

Note that the Star Wars Celebration convention is from April 13-16 in Orlando.
There may be an extra 40K people in Orlando just for the convention.
I suspect many of those will be spending time in theme parks.

OMG I did not realize that!! Wow, Easter weekend and a Star Wars convention at the same time. Holy crowds. We were thinking of going to Universal the 19th- 20th.

 

[Tattylou]

Definitely do RP!

It can be insane that time of year......

Since you are new to Universal, make sure you read the stickies on top of the forums, full of info on hotels, parks, rides and restaurants.

Also the website has good info too www.universalorlando.com

Thank you. I need to do some prep research for sure.

 

[Owl X]

OMG I did not realize that!! Wow, Easter weekend and a Star Wars convention at the same time. Holy crowds. We were thinking of going to Universal the 19th- 20th.

Star Wars Celebration is an international convention that changes location every year.
It was in London in 2016, Anaheim, CA in 2015, Germany in 2013 and Orlando in 2012.
They had over 50K in attendance in 2015 when it was in Anaheim.
It is possible that the upcoming Orlando convention matches the 2015 California attendance.

 

[Tattylou]

Star Wars Celebration is an international convention that changes location every year.
It was in London in 2016, Anaheim, CA in 2015, Germany in 2013 and Orlando in 2012.
They had over 50K in attendance in 2015 when it was in Anaheim.
It is possible that the upcoming Orlando convention matches the 2015 California attendance.

Actually, now I think of it we were at Disneyland when that convention was in Anaheim in 2015 and Disneyland was not overly crowded at all - clearly remember we walked onto BTMRR with no wait. I was pretty impressed with how uncrowded DL was that week, especially after being used to WDW crowds in April.