Not staying on-site

[kathy884]

Crowds lighten up at the end of August and predictions I've seen for your dates are crowd levels of 4-6 (pretty good), with the lightest crowds at the end of your stay. I'd personally just stay in your lovely offsite condo resort the whole time and be sure to hit the new HP stuff at Universal at rope drop vs. later in the day (should be better then than when more people arrive and you should be pretty good even though onsite guests will in all likelihood have early entrance). Like other posters have said, if the crowds seem like they are too much and you want an express pass, you could book a room for another night and / or buy express passes. I don't think you'll need them.

 

[elaine amj]

US/IOA is a park most people would say can be done in about 2 days. With more days you will be able to see the lesser attractions and have more re-rides, but essentially, 2 days will cover all your major ones....preferably 2 days with an express pass. But even without, with a good touring plan most people I have talked to/read trip reports seem happy with 2 days.

Take this with a HUGE grain of salt since I have never been there (just been researching going) - but I would imagine that with a good touring plan and 4 full days, you should be able to cover all the major things and leave satisfied.

e.g.

Day 1: rope drop HP in IOA.
Day 2: Rope Drop HP in US
Day 3: rope drop IOA (non-HP)
Day 4: rope drop US (non-HP)

I know in MK, I can usually cover all major rides in 2 lands before the crowds build at 11am. Could Universal have worse lines? Especially if you time yourself to go mid-week?

 

[macraven]

with the opening of HP2 coming up, it would not surprise me to read about long lines in the park up to mid september.


i'm booked for early oct to the 17th.
i pulled up my dates on the UO booking site and still now, limited room types at the hotel for my dates.

i booked last year to lock in this fall trip.
good thing i did.

 

[ICan'tWait]

We were there end of August last year. If you go at rope drop it's pretty good. We hit HP during one drop and then just a couple more rides. Then on another rope drop day we hit the other main attractions in the morning and they were mostly walk on. The lines did extend by late morning but firth thing everyone was heading to the HP area and the other areas were left wide open. My husband and son returned in the evening and they said there was no wait for the big rides in the HP at that time.

 

[2girlsmom]

I went late August last year( August 18-23rd), and the waits were still quite busy for the non-Potter stuff.I was surprised at how busy it was..45-90 mins for Spiderman, Despicable me ,Transformers.45 mins for Mummy, Hulk.Cat in the Hat 20-30 mins..

That is surprising to me! I am in no way doubting you saw longish times, but we were there last year for Memorial Day weekend and also for mid June, both times over weekends, and found MOST rides with lower wait times than what you saw. I will say that early in the day was the shortest wait times, and this year on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend was slightly longer in the afternoon, I did see 45 minute wait times on Simpsons, Despicable Me, and Transformers, though Mummy was only 15 minutes.

 

[RMulieri]

That is surprising to me! I am in no way doubting you saw longish times, but we were there last year for Memorial Day weekend and also for mid June, both times over weekends, and found MOST rides with lower wait times than what you saw. I will say that early in the day was the shortest wait times, and this year on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend was slightly longer in the afternoon, I did see 45 minute wait times on Simpsons, Despicable Me, and Transformers, though Mummy was only 15 minutes.

It was surprising to us too since schools went back that week and the crowds calendars were predicting low crowds..it was not low crowds.Now it wasnt horrible,AND those wait times were around lunch time( we left the parks to go swim around 1130-1230 everyday) ,but they were suprising to us ..I am glad we stayed onsite and had express pass.

 

[smidgy]

mac craven.. now you have me worried!!! lol

we are Royal Pacific fans., but really wanted to try out the new cabana bay.

we will be there 4 nights, starting sept 15

I am nervous about not havign the express pass.. but we like to try new resorts, and honeslty, we do like the value resorts at disney.. our favorites at disney are the moderates. (although, lately with renitng DVC pints, we have grown QUIT fond of the boardwalk..)

we figured, with 4 nights, that would give us 3 days in the parks. we know the park housrs are shorter in sept.

also, do you know anything about universal's version of the GAC/ DAS? . my husband has macular degeneration and can't see very much anymore.. the ines are realy hard, with it being dark in them (for him) and all the turns and chains and people chomping at the bit on his heels.


by the way, my nephew has arrived in Osaka japan, to begin singing in the frog choir at hogwarts http://ayearinhoguwatsu.blogspot.com/?m=1
AN EXCERPT:

A couple months later, I received an email with an offer to sing in the Frog Choir, an a cappella quartet. It was the closest I'll ever come to an owl flying through my window with an actual Hogwarts invitation. .....

I love that line!

 

[Bluer101]

mac craven.. now you have me worried!!! lol

we are Royal Pacific fans., but really wanted to try out the new cabana bay.

we will be there 4 nights, starting sept 15

I am nervous about not havign the express pass.. but we like to try new resorts, and honeslty, we do like the value resorts at disney.. our favorites at disney are the moderates. (although, lately with renitng DVC pints, we have grown QUIT fond of the boardwalk..)

we figured, with 4 nights, that would give us 3 days in the parks. we know the park housrs are shorter in sept.

also, do you know anything about universal's version of the GAC/ DAS? . my husband has macular degeneration and can't see very much anymore.. the ines are realy hard, with it being dark in them (for him) and all the turns and chains and people chomping at the bit on his heels.


by the way, my nephew has arrived in Osaka japan, to begin singing in the frog choir at hogwarts http://ayearinhoguwatsu.blogspot.com/?m=1
AN EXCERPT:

A couple months later, I received an email with an offer to sing in the Frog Choir, an a cappella quartet. It was the closest I'll ever come to an owl flying through my window with an actual Hogwarts invitation. .....

I love that line!

Go to guest services and explain what he needs help with. They will issue a GAC card. You will take that card to each attraction. Normally if the wait is over 30 minutes then they will write the return time and sign it. You then will return at that time and enter the express line.

From what I have seen they have been following this policy pretty much since the Disney GAC issue went public.

I love new resorts but I would never stay a full vacation at Cabana Bay, maybe one night to try then switch. I don't think I can wait in the regular line to ride things I have ridden many times.

 

[owensamo]

We did 2 days at Universal last summer (late June - right before July 4th) offsite from our timeshare and had no problems. We had park to park tickets, so both mornings we got there pretty much at opening and headed to Forbidden Journey. The first day our wait was about 30-40 minutes, second day was closer to 50-60, but DD got in all of the Harry Potter she wanted. At IOA the only other line we waited in was for Spiderman, but that ride stopped at least twice while we were in it. Everything else was pretty much a walk-on. We're not huge coaster fans, so no Hulk. We were done by 2pm, and headed back to the hotel pool for the afternoon.

On our second day we hopped back over to US after riding Forbidden Journey, and really didn't have too many problems. We rode everything we wanted to - except Transformers, which had just opened. Our longest wait was 2 hrs for Minion Mayhem. We were done between 3 and 4, and again, headed back to the hotel for more swimming.

We're heading down to US/IOA as part of a WDW trip this fall (November) and hoping to fit both park's HP sections plus Transformers (and maybe Spidey again) into a single day. I haven't purchased passes yet (might get multi-day if the price isn't too different just in case) but knowing what we enjoy and how we travel, I think we can fit it in - from offsite, without express pass!

 

[Freezing Maine Mama]

We went in Jan with my mom, stayed offsite and actually noticed people with express passes having just as long as a wait as we did in the standby line, sometimes longer because they were re routed a different way. We went at rope drop and had no problem riding things we wanted. Only a few long waits by afternoon.

However my mom went in March with my brother's family and stayed onsite and got express passes and said they definitely helped because the crowd levels were much higher. She said it would have been much more difficult without them, but my brothers family also sleeps in and misses rope drop. My family are all early bird rope droppers.

She did say they spent as much on one night in the hard rock as we spent for the whole week in a timeshare, so that makes a huge difference too.

 

[smidgy]

I have never waited 2 hours for ANY ride, and never will! yikes.

there are a lot of things at universal we don't care about (twister, shrek, disaster.) a lot of the things we really like are the shows. and, just like at disney, they time them to make it very difficult to do them all in one day.

we love the beetle juice show, and the gory gruesome makeup show. we could do them over and over! lol