October crowds and Express

[mill4023]

We are thinking of doing a Sea World/Universal trip the second week of October.
We've stayed onsite in the past and definitely loved the Express privileges.
But I'm not sure what kind of lines to expect in October so I'm debating whether it's worth the cost.

Now that we are a family of 7, having to get two rooms makes the extra cost of staying on-site a much bigger factor. It's hard to justify spending $450 per night when we can get a large suite or a condo off-site for $150/night or less. I saw that the first few days in October had some APH rates of $144, so if we see similar rates for later in October, then $288 per night for 2 rooms is much easier to swallow, but still quite a bit more than off-site.

What kind of crowds and lines can I expect in October? We are looking at going sometime between the 6th and the 13th, probably for 3 or 4 nights. Do you think the benefits of staying on-site during that time are worth the much higher cost?

 

[mesaboy2]

We are thinking of doing a Sea World/Universal trip the second week of October.
We've stayed onsite in the past and definitely loved the Express privileges.
But I'm not sure what kind of lines to expect in October so I'm debating whether it's worth the cost.

Now that we are a family of 7, having to get two rooms makes the extra cost of staying on-site a much bigger factor. It's hard to justify spending $450 per night when we can get a large suite or a condo off-site for $150/night or less. I saw that the first few days in October had some APH rates of $144, so if we see similar rates for later in October, then $288 per night for 2 rooms is much easier to swallow, but still quite a bit more than off-site.

What kind of crowds and lines can I expect in October? We are looking at going sometime between the 6th and the 13th, probably for 3 or 4 nights. Do you think the benefits of staying on-site during that time are worth the much higher cost?

I think crowds that week will be no worse than moderate. I doubt Express privileges will be needed, assuming you are doing two park days or more. YMMV.

Don't forget that there are six headliners across the two parks that offer single-rider queues at least part of the time. That can be a great way to reduce wait times without costing extra.

 

[macraven]

We are thinking of doing a Sea World/Universal trip the second week of October.
We've stayed onsite in the past and definitely loved the Express privileges.
But I'm not sure what kind of lines to expect in October so I'm debating whether it's worth the cost.

Now that we are a family of 7, having to get two rooms makes the extra cost of staying on-site a much bigger factor. It's hard to justify spending $450 per night when we can get a large suite or a condo off-site for $150/night or less. I saw that the first few days in October had some APH rates of $144, so if we see similar rates for later in October, then $288 per night for 2 rooms is much easier to swallow, but still quite a bit more than off-site.

What kind of crowds and lines can I expect in October? We are looking at going sometime between the 6th and the 13th, probably for 3 or 4 nights. Do you think the benefits of staying on-site during that time are worth the much higher cost?

with the hard ticket HHN events on the 4th-5th-6th-7th-10-11-12-13-14, the onsite hotels could be close to sell out (for one of the hotels) sometime in september.
the hhn dates have not been released yet but the above is based on last years event.

book now if you know the dates you want to stay onsite.

the ap rates are only up to oct 4th at this point.
it could be more ap dates for that month won't be released until they see how many empty rooms will be available.

i booked my room for 10/2-11th and only had a few nights with the ap rate.
the promo SMSM is what i used for the rest of my dates.
if you book 4 nights onsite, you can get a decent discount with that promo of SMSM rate.

i've been going to UO for the last 8 years in the time period prior to columbus day weekend. i'm there for 10 days onsite.

the past 2 years i have seen more crowds on the weekends and on columbus day.
weekend crowds begin in the late afternoon, mornings and early afternoon are fine in the parks.
m-t-w will be great for lower park crowds.

hell week is in the mid of the month.
(some Fl schools have a few days off in october)
it can bring crowds to the parks.


if you book now w/ the smsm rate, you can always switch to the ap rate when it comes out.

 

[mill4023]

Thanks.
We will definitely be doing at least 2 park days. Maybe 3.
I'm not sure of the dates yet, but we picked that week because Monday, Oct 8th is a teacher workday, so the kids will miss fewer days. I don't mind having them miss some school, but I don't want it to be too much.

We might do something like:
Sat, Oct 6 - drive down from North Carolina
Sun - Sea World
Mon - US
Tues - IOA
Wed - IOA
Thurs - drive home

So you think that M, T, W will have fairly low crowds?

Last time we were at Universal without staying on-site, they still had free Express passes. (2005 or 2006 I think). I'm used to using Disney's FP a lot, so I'm a little nervous about not having that option. But I can also think of a lot of things I'd rather spend money on instead of 2 on-site rooms if the lines won't be bad.

 

[macraven]

Thanks.
We will definitely be doing at least 2 park days. Maybe 3.
I'm not sure of the dates yet, but we picked that week because Monday, Oct 8th is a teacher workday, so the kids will miss fewer days. I don't mind having them miss some school, but I don't want it to be too much.

We might do something like:
Sat, Oct 6 - drive down from North Carolina
Sun - Sea World
Mon - US
Tues - IOA
Wed - IOA
Thurs - drive home

So you think that M, T, W will have fairly low crowds?

Last time we were at Universal without staying on-site, they still had free Express passes. (2005 or 2006 I think). I'm used to using Disney's FP a lot, so I'm a little nervous about not having that option. But I can also think of a lot of things I'd rather spend money on instead of 2 on-site rooms if the lines won't be bad.

i would plan on sunday and tuesday for UO days.
Monday is columbus day and last year it did bring crowds in around noontime.
no idea if that will happen again this year.
mondays and fridays tend to be busy in the parks.

check out the express plus pass chart and see what is the cost for the epp's for your dates in mind.

it is a decent indicator of how uo expects crowd levels to be.
if the cost on a day for the park is under $30, the park tends to be a low crowd day. (no crowds at all in the park)

if the costs are in the middle range, moderate crowds which is not a problem for those in the parks.

when the epp starts at $49.99 and up, that is when it could be crowded in that park.

the epp costs are adjusted up to that date.
this will give you a far out idea of what to expect on the dates you are considering.

third choice i would pick would be oct 10th, wednesday.

you can use the epp chart as an edge in picking the best days of the week for each park.

many families vacation monday to monday.
they do a park once they arrive in orlando.
this is why you will see more in the parks on that day of the week.

i know MK is extremely busy on mondays.
there are other parks in orlando that have crowds also on that day.

if you are not able to switch days around for the parks you listed above, go ahead and do your itenary.
go early before opening and hit the major items first and utilize the single rider lines.

wishing you the best and fun on your vacation.

 

[mill4023]

I assumed that weekends would be more crowded due to locals and school being in session. I know that's not true for Disney, but I thought Universal might have a larger percentage of locals.

Since we haven't been since before WWOHP, I think we will probably want 2 days at IOA. One to fully explore HP and one to hit the other popular attractions.

So 2 days at IOA, 1 at USF, and 1 at Sea World.
But I'm totally flexible with which days we do what and open to moving our dates around as well. If we stay off-site, it might be nice to have Sea World in the middle. If we decided to stay on-site, we'd probably want to do Sea World first and stay somewhere cheaper for the first couple nights.

 

[macraven]

if you stay onsite, the hotels provide free rt transportation for their guests to Sea World, Aquatica, Wet and Wild daily.




you do have a nightly parking fee for your car in the hotel parking lot.

 

[SharonK0527]

We visited US and IOA last year in October, the same week you are talking about going. We did not stay onsite and did not need Express passes. The longest we waited for rides were Forbidden Journey and Flight of the Hippogriff (both had about an hour wait). DH waited about 45 minutes for HRRR. Other than that, all other rides were 20 minutes or less. I believe we visited US on a Sunday, IOA on a Thursday and then re-visited both parks on Friday. While Express passes would be nice, I'm the type that would rather stay offsite for cheaper if Express passes aren't necessary.

We are going again this year in October (13th-20th) and staying offsite. We will visit IOA for 1 day, Sea World for 1 day, and MK and Epcot for 1 day each.

Enjoy your trip!!

 

[mill4023]

We visited US and IOA last year in October, the same week you are talking about going. We did not stay onsite and did not need Express passes. The longest we waited for rides were Forbidden Journey and Flight of the Hippogriff (both had about an hour wait). DH waited about 45 minutes for HRRR. Other than that, all other rides were 20 minutes or less. I believe we visited US on a Sunday, IOA on a Thursday and then re-visited both parks on Friday. While Express passes would be nice, I'm the type that would rather stay offsite for cheaper if Express passes aren't necessary.

We are going again this year in October (13th-20th) and staying offsite. We will visit IOA for 1 day, Sea World for 1 day, and MK and Epcot for 1 day each.

Enjoy your trip!!

Thanks!
That's good to hear.

 

[Metro West]

If the weather cooperates, October is a great time to visit but remember October is still in hurricane season so tropical weather is definitely possible.

 

[mill4023]

What are the park hours typically like in October?
I'm just wondering if the HHN nights are going to mean the park closes a lot earlier than on the non-HHN nights.
If we aren't doing HHN, would it make more sense to do our Universal days on non-HHN days?

 

[Metro West]

What are the park hours typically like in October?
I'm just wondering if the HHN nights are going to mean the park closes a lot earlier than on the non-HHN nights.
If we aren't doing HHN, would it make more sense to do our Universal days on non-HHN days?

Typical October hours for the Studios is 9-6 but on the night HHN is staged, the park closes an hour early at 5pm. IOA is typically open until 7pm most nights. October is usually slow enough that you wouldn't miss that extra hour at the Studios.