Need feedback from someone who has done Universal WITHOUT express

[sugarnspicex4]

We are going to Universal for the first time this July (looking at 7/13 and 7/15). Our trip will primarily be a WDW trip, and we have booked one day onsite (at AofA Family Suites) with the rest of the trip offsite at WBC. I had budgeted for two days, single park passes at Universal but now am realizing I should probably bite the bullet and do park-to-park passes so we can experience Hogwarts Express (we are all Harry Potter fans). With our family of 6 (2 who are in the 3-9 age group) this means going from $796 for 2 days of single park tickets to $1036 for 2 days of park-to-park. Adding unlimited express passes brings it up to a whopping $1600! And with a family of this size, we'd have to book a larger room to accommodate us, so it doesn't appear to be a cost savings at all to stay onsite (especially when we already have WBC booked for less than $200/night).

I would love to hear from people who have done Universal in peak season staying offsite WITHOUT express passes. How many rides can we expect to get in? Will we be hating life and wishing we paid double for express passes?

 

[RMulieri]

I havent done it...BUT my neighbors did last summer..They broke down and bought the express passes after one day..This is without the opening of Diagon alley..wait times per my neighbor werent bad for aboout 2hrs in the morning..then they were 90-120+ mins ..I would plan on getting there for rope drop, have a plan and prepare to buy them if neccessary.Wait times will be long.Express passes wont help in Diagon alley or WWoHP ( only 2 rides accept it there).But the rest of the parks will be busy because it is summer.

 

[Bluer101]

I have in the early 2000's, never do it again without being onsite.

 

[flfun]

We are going to Universal for the first time this July (looking at 7/13 and 7/15). Our trip will primarily be a WDW trip, and we have booked one day onsite (at AofA Family Suites) with the rest of the trip offsite at WBC. I had budgeted for two days, single park passes at Universal but now am realizing I should probably bite the bullet and do park-to-park passes so we can experience Hogwarts Express (we are all Harry Potter fans). With our family of 6 (2 who are in the 3-9 age group) this means going from $796 for 2 days of single park tickets to $1036 for 2 days of park-to-park. Adding unlimited express passes brings it up to a whopping $1600! And with a family of this size, we'd have to book a larger room to accommodate us, so it doesn't appear to be a cost savings at all to stay onsite (especially when we already have WBC booked for less than $200/night).

I would love to hear from people who have done Universal in peak season staying offsite WITHOUT express passes. How many rides can we expect to get in? Will we be hating life and wishing we paid double for express passes?

Honestly, because of Diagon Alley opening this summer, I wouldn't even attempt it offsite (truthfully even staying onsite or having express passes wouldn't be enough for me to try it this summer, but that's just me).

 

[hermionesnape]

We are going to Universal for the first time this July (looking at 7/13 and 7/15). Our trip will primarily be a WDW trip, and we have booked one day onsite (at AofA Family Suites) with the rest of the trip offsite at WBC. I had budgeted for two days, single park passes at Universal but now am realizing I should probably bite the bullet and do park-to-park passes so we can experience Hogwarts Express (we are all Harry Potter fans). With our family of 6 (2 who are in the 3-9 age group) this means going from $796 for 2 days of single park tickets to $1036 for 2 days of park-to-park. Adding unlimited express passes brings it up to a whopping $1600! And with a family of this size, we'd have to book a larger room to accommodate us, so it doesn't appear to be a cost savings at all to stay onsite (especially when we already have WBC booked for less than $200/night). I would love to hear from people who have done Universal in peak season staying offsite WITHOUT express passes. How many rides can we expect to get in? Will we be hating life and wishing we paid double for express passes?

You can do it. My family went (without me) over Christmas Break or Thanksgiving break for the past 4 years. Those weeks are just a busy as mid summer. They are a large group of 8 so they get an offsite condo. They manage doing a lot without express passes. The best times in the day crowd wise was first thing in the morning and last 2-3 hours of the day.

I will offer one suggestion. See how much more it would be to stay at Cabana Bay Beach Resort. The rate is around $180 a night to $200 a night in the summer. Their queen room hold up to six people and you get the extra hour early benefit. If you do decide to stay onsite at Canana Bay it only takes about 15 mins to go rest in your room/pool during the mid day sun and crowds. If you feel like you haven't seen enough come the second day you could always buy the single use express pass. Less expansive then unlimited but one one express trip per ride.

 

[flfun]

 

[glocon]

Personally, I wouldn't even try that this summer, not with the opening of Diagon Alley. I would just do a WDW trip, and come back some other time when either the crowds would be less, or we could stay onsite for the express passes. I just don't think it would be fun to stand in lines all day long, especially in mid-summer heat.

 

[RMulieri]

Personally, I wouldn't even try that this summer, not with the opening of Diagon Alley. I would just do a WDW trip, and come back some other time when either the crowds would be less, or we could stay onsite for the express passes. I just don't think it would be fun to stand in lines all day long, especially in mid-summer heat.

agree..I am only going if I win the Today show contest..Otherwise I am not even attempting it till Jan 2015, and I always stay onsite.

 

[sugarnspicex4]

If you feel like you haven't seen enough come the second day you could always buy the single use express pass. Less expansive then unlimited but one one express trip per ride.

Does Universal still offer the express pass? I didn't see this option on the website, just unlimited express.

 

[RMulieri]

Does Universal still offer the express pass? I didn't see this option on the website, just unlimited express.

Yes.Prices are adjusted to projected crowds.The higher the crowds, the more the cost.you can buy them anywhere in the parks.Do not buy ahead of time.they are date specific, park specific and completely NON REFUNDABLE should plans change

 

[JessicaR]

Just got back last night - did 1 night at Cabana and the rest at Portofino. Not a chance for me to not have hotel express in the future. During your dates it would be miserable.

 

[sugarnspicex4]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I think I'm leaning towards not trying to do Universal in two days, but potentially stretching it out over a three or four day visit (deciding this on how we feel after the first two days and visiting guest services to upgrade the tickets if we go that route). This way, we won't feel like we have to cram everything in from rope drop to park close. My plan is to hit the park before rope drop, leave before lunch and spend the hottest part of the day at the pool before returning for the last 3-4 hours before park close. We would pay $912 for four one-day park passes (x 6 people), which seems to be the better bang for our buck.

 

[Dznefreek]

We do it all the time but we do single rider lines since we do not care about on ride photos.

 

[jennc27]

We went last May the Wed, Thur, and Friday before Memorial Day. We stayed at the Drury Inn. Wed and Thur was great. Friday was bad. We decided to ride Spiderman around 11:00 or so. At that time it was a 45 min wait. Three hours later we finally was able to ride and we wished that we had the express pass. Our next trip we are planning on the express passes. There was only 4 people in our family and because we booked a package with Universal we were able to enter the park early which help on seeing Harry Potter before the crowds.

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

We just did three days of Universal, and elected to buy a three day pass for one park each day, no park hopping and no express pass. It worked out great, BUT we are "Disney Rope Drop" people so did that at Universal. I think the parks opened at 9 AM for the general public and we were in line by 8:15. We did one day at I of A and two days as USF, as the third day we had another family with us with two small girls and we felt that USF was a better choice for them for the day (and we were right!).

We found that a large majority of people go to Islands of Adventure first, so the other park had very short lines until around noon. Have a touring plan in mind so you don't walk back and forth all the time. At I of A, go straight to Harry Potter to ride that, then ride the other rides after that. We are not crazy about water rides, so for us I of A had less of interest.

We were very glad we did Universal, but in the end we are really Disney people!!

 

[sugarnspicex4]

We just did three days of Universal, and elected to buy a three day pass for one park each day, no park hopping and no express pass. It worked out great, BUT we are "Disney Rope Drop" people so did that at Universal. I think the parks opened at 9 AM for the general public and we were in line by 8:15. We did one day at I of A and two days as USF, as the third day we had another family with us with two small girls and we felt that USF was a better choice for them for the day (and we were right!).

We found that a large majority of people go to Islands of Adventure first, so the other park had very short lines until around noon. Have a touring plan in mind so you don't walk back and forth all the time. At I of A, go straight to Harry Potter to ride that, then ride the other rides after that. We are not crazy about water rides, so for us I of A had less of interest.

We were very glad we did Universal, but in the end we are really Disney people!!

Thanks for your feedback! Glad to know other people have made the single-park passes work. I wonder how the traffic patterns will change once Gringotts is open. Will that divert an equal amount of guests to USF?

 

[macraven]

Thanks for your feedback! Glad to know other people have made the single-park passes work. I wonder how the traffic patterns will change once Gringotts is open. Will that divert an equal amount of guests to USF?

i'm sure the the HP2 ride opening, the studios will be crowded.
new traffic patterns will begin and hopefully those that experience it, will tell us about it.

 

[dedex13]

We did IOA two years ago at the beginning of August. We got there when the park opened at 8:00 am we did Forbidden Journey, Dragon Challenge, JP River Adventure, DDR Ripsaw Falls, and Spiderman. We left around 1:00 pm since my daughter wasn't feeling well. So, five rides in five hours -- not a very good return on the investment.

 

[Kcross3625]

We were at the parks this past weekend (May 17 & 18) and the lines were very manageable with minimal wait times. We did not have express passes as we stayed at Cabana Bay. We got into both parks at 10 am. Saturday we were at Studios. When we got in, the Despicable Me was a 50 minute wait so we went straight to Transformers for a 10 min wait. Then to RRR which had posted single rider at 20 min and the regular ride at 35 min. Those wait times turned into a 60 min wait when they added another train to the ride while we were in line. After RRR, we rode Despicable Me at 60 min wait. This was the longest wait time we had all weekend. But glad we rode it because it went down later in the day. Then we hit Twister for a 5 min wait and Mummy with a 15 min wait. We skipped Beetlejuice and walked right into Disaster.

MiB posted a 30 min wait but it was more like 25 mins. Simpsons posted 20 min wait but it went down while we were in line and it was 25 min also. ET was a walk on and we left the park after that.

On Sunday our girls got into the park at 8am for early admission and rode Forbidden Journey with a 10 min wait. We arrived in the park at 10 am and Hulk was 5 mins. Then Spiderman for a 30 min wait. After that we took pictures with Capt America and Spiderman with minimal lines. While we were passing the dining reservations booth, we stopped into inquire about lunch reservations for Mythos and were told it was "all booked." Then we rode Cat in the Hat with a 10 min wait. It seemed most rides in Suess had minimal wait times. While we were heading to Poseidon, we stopped in at Mythos to check to see if we could possibly get in later only to find out that our party of 8 could be seated right away. This was at 11:45 am. After lunch we did Poseidon with a 30 min wait. Then we headed to WWOHP and the wait time for Forbidden Journey was ....30 mins. This was around 2pm. Then Dragon Challenge with a 5 min wait. We shopped in Hogsmeade with very low crowds. Then Jurassic Park River Adventure which was a walk on. No one wanted to get wet so we skipped the water rides in Toon Lagoon so I'm sorry I don't know those wait times. When we came back through the Marvel, the wait time for Spiderman was down to 20 min.

I think the crowds were low because most schools are not out yet for the summer and all the HP fans are waiting for Diagon Alley to open in June. I would go again at this time of the year and not worry about having the express pass. We are planning on going again in August and well definitely be staying a RPR for the express passes.

Have Fun !

Kim

 

[startingtopanic]

Glad to know other people have made the single-park passes work.

Just remember that if you do not have park-to-park passes, you won't be able to ride the Hogwarts Express between parks.

We went the first week of April this year, and stayed at Cabana Bay. We loved CB and we had a good trip, but I have definitely been contemplating staying at a different on-site hotel next time for the unlimited express passes. There were several rides we did not get to experience, because the waits were 60-90-120 minutes, and we just weren't willing to wait that long for one ride.

If we were going in July -- HOT -- PLUS all the new Harry Potter stuff happening -- there is no. way. I would do it without those passes. And just so you know, we are a homeschooling family of five on a pretty tight budget. I would rather spend the extra $ on a credit card and pay for it for years, honestly, than to do what you are talking about doing. Obviously, that is just my $0.02, since you asked for it. Good luck & have an awesome trip!