No Early Park Admission in January?

[aggiegirl1234]

Hi everyone. I just looked at Universal's website to see which parks would be open early while we're there next January (two weekdays during the last week of January), and it doesn't look like they're opening early at all. We were planning to stay at one of their resorts to take advantage of the early opening. Am I missing something?

 

[macraven]

January EE park has not been released yet

 

[aggiegirl1234]

January EE park has not been released yet

Doh! I didn't even think of that. Thank you!

 

[macraven]

You are welcome

Ask any question you have and there are many of us that will help find the answer for you

It is possible that the EE park and park hours could be released in October

Sometimes I have seen delays when they are posted but there have been times some months schedules are released earlier than usual

 

[damo]

If you want an idea of what it might be like, go backwards in the calendar to last January.

 

[aggiegirl1234]

You are welcome

Ask any question you have and there are many of us that will help find the answer for you

It is possible that the EE park and park hours could be released in October

Sometimes I have seen delays when they are posted but there have been times some months schedules are released earlier than usual

Thanks! That's why Disboards is the best I'll keep checking their schedules!

If you want an idea of what it might be like, go backwards in the calendar to last January.

I had no idea you could go backwards It looks like last January they had EE for the Universal side. I'll take it!

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

We are planning a trip to Universal Studios in February, 2017, doing a split stay with a Universal Studios hotel then a Disney resort, and trying to decide which to do in which order based on the early admission dates. I understand from above that early admission has not been released yet. Is there normally one park open early each day, or are there days where neither is open early? Since we plan to do the park to park tickets it doesn't matter which one, but it does matter in the planning if neither one opens early!

thank you for your help!

 

[damo]

We are planning a trip to Universal Studios in February, 2017, doing a split stay with a Universal Studios hotel then a Disney resort, and trying to decide which to do in which order based on the early admission dates. I understand from above that early admission has not been released yet. Is there normally one park open early each day, or are there days where neither is open early? Since we plan to do the park to park tickets it doesn't matter which one, but it does matter in the planning if neither one opens early!

thank you for your help!

Always one park open early.

 

[macraven]

Way to soon to have the EE park listed for February

It will be listed later

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

Always one park open early.

Thanks! Next question if I may...we are taking 11 year old granddaughter and family, it is her first time and of course the draw is the Harry Potter rides. If we plan to go two days to the Universal parks utilizing the early admission and do the Harry Potter rides both days first thing, will this work? I really don't want to spend the money on the Express Pass and was planning on staying at Cabana Bay which does not include this, the hotels that include it are out of our budget as we need two rooms. Unless of course the experts tell me it is necessary!

thank you!

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

Way to soon to have the EE park listed for February

It will be listed later

Thank you, please see above question if either of you can help me with this question.

 

[khgreen]

They didn't release the September hours until almost just before September. It was very frustrating. For us the same park is open early both days we are there. And it is EARLY. Meaning during our trip, only Universal Studios has EE both days. Its regular opening is 8- meaning EE is 7:00 on both days. IOA doesn't open until 9:00-which made our schedule a little different than I originally planned.

The 2 main Harry Potter Rides (Gringotts and Forbidden Journey) don't take Express anyway. SO if they are you main reason for going then you don't need to get Express.

If you have the same scenario as us, where the same park is open early both of your mornings...you can go there for EE then take Hogwarts Express to the other park as soon as it is available and still beat the morning crowds. If you are lucky each park will have an EE during your visit and that will be even easier.

On our last trip we had neither Express or EE and we were able to do HP as much as we wanted over the course of a few days. Mornings-even without EE were great. Late morning seemed busy- so we went to other parts of the parks and then later in the afternoon the waits weren't that bad.

 

[damo]

Thanks! Next question if I may...we are taking 11 year old granddaughter and family, it is her first time and of course the draw is the Harry Potter rides. If we plan to go two days to the Universal parks utilizing the early admission and do the Harry Potter rides both days first thing, will this work? I really don't want to spend the money on the Express Pass and was planning on staying at Cabana Bay which does not include this, the hotels that include it are out of our budget as we need two rooms. Unless of course the experts tell me it is necessary!

thank you!

When in February are you going?

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

The week before Presidents day, park days are February 13-17. I'm assuming crowds should be lower early in the week so trying to decide if we start off with Universal for two days (Monday and Tuesday), then Disney at the end (Thursday and Friday) or vice versa. Taking middle day of!

 

[damo]

The week before Presidents day, park days are February 13-17. I'm assuming crowds should be lower early in the week so trying to decide if we start off with Universal for two days (Monday and Tuesday), then Disney at the end (Thursday and Friday) or vice versa. Taking middle day of!

You should be fine, then.

 

[macraven]

The week before Presidents day, park days are February 13-17. I'm assuming crowds should be lower early in the week so trying to decide if we start off with Universal for two days (Monday and Tuesday), then Disney at the end (Thursday and Friday) or vice versa. Taking middle day of!

I would do Monday/Tuesday for the darkside
Don't think Valentine's Day will be busy since it is a weekday

Stay at Cbay and use EE to hit potter places
Take HE to hop to the other park

I think you will do ok and not suffer with crowds when you go

Do think about other sections in the park to do

Jurassic discovery center is very entertaining

 

[TommyJK]

The week before Presidents day, park days are February 13-17. I'm assuming crowds should be lower early in the week so trying to decide if we start off with Universal for two days (Monday and Tuesday), then Disney at the end (Thursday and Friday) or vice versa. Taking middle day of!

We went at this exact time frame this past February (the week leading up to Presidents Day). We did UO/IAO on the Wed and Thrusday (while staying at Cabana Bay so no express passes) and here are my observations/what we did that worked well with the Harry Potter worlds

- Universal side had Early Entry
- Got in and did Minions right away (it's open for EE). This ride almost ALWAYS has ~60 min or more wait during the day. Right at EE you walk right on in the first or second group. Worth riding but not at a 60+ minute wait.
- Then walked up to Daigon Alley and did Escape from Gringott's which had about a 15 minute wait by this time. After we rode this, we hung about in Daigon alley for a little bit checking things out until close to 9:00 when Hogwarts Express opened up to head over to Hogsmeade
- Hit up Forbidden Journey which had maybe a 15 minute wait at this time. Which is fine as it's about the right amount of "wait" to walk through Hogwarts and see all of the cool stuff in the queue.
- Then we toured around and soaked up Hogsmeade (rode Dragon Challenge and Flight of the Hippogriff) for the next little while.
- Hopped back onto Hogwarts Express to go back to Diagon Alley and spend more time exploring there.

Now IF Early Entry is in reverse when you go this year (IOA has EE) I would recommend doing the following:
- On one day, do the above in reverse (start with Forbidden Journey and then once available, get on the first Hogwarts Express over to Daigon for Escape From Gringotts)
- On the second day I would go to Hogsmeade and do Forbidden Journey again (and other exploring), then get into the queue on the bridge that is waiting to be opened to go down to Kong. Lines will likely still be really big for that early next year so if you can get onto that early (from what I've ready they open up the bridge to let people down there about 10 minutes early).

Overall crowd levels I found on those days was "medium". Most rides had waits of 20 minutes or less, except the following:
- Simpson ride for some reason had LONG lines almost all day. We were lucky enough to find a window earlier in the day where it was about 25 min wait
- Rip Ride Rockit had long lines almost all day. I'm talking 45 min+. We did single rider line for this (which still took a good 20 min to ride).
- Transformers was hit and miss in terms of wait times. There were a few times it was 10 min or so wait but other times it ballooned to 40+ minutes.

At least now both Hulk is back open and Kong is now open as well so hopefully the extra "premium" rides helps disperse the crowd more.

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

You guys are all the best, so helpful!

I'm going to cut and paste all of these suggestions and print it all out!