Off Season - unlimited EP or not?

[Gentry2004]

If we visit a random weekend in Jan or Feb, not near a holiday/3 day weekend, what would our experience be like without express pass. We’ve never been before, plan to spend 2.5 days in the parks, and would like to spend a lot of time in Harry Potter but also hit the other thrill rides. RPR is about $300 the nights we are considering but still a lot considering we won’t be there much.

Thoughts?

 

[Hook326]

We went the last week of August which was a slower time and we stayed at RPR. We had more park days than you are doing but I was glad to have the express pass because it meant more rides in less time so we could do other things and not feel rushed. We hadn’t been in 18 years so we had a lot to take in and didn’t do everything even.

If you’re getting a 3 day ticket park to park, I would encourage you to look into buying it off undercover tourist or another discounter and then upgrade one of the tickets to a seasonal pass when you get there. You can book your hotel with an APH rate then. Right now we are looking at the second weekend of February and RPR is $216/night with APH. There is a thread with a link to APH rates on this forum.

 

[Gentry2004]

We went the last week of August which was a slower time and we stayed at RPR. We had more park days than you are doing but I was glad to have the express p*** because it meant more rides in less time so we could do other things and not feel rushed. We hadn’t been in 18 years so we had a lot to take in and didn’t do everything even.

If you’re getting a 3 day ticket park to park, I would encourage you to look into buying it off undercover tourist or another discounter and then upgrade one of the tickets to a seasonal p*** when you get there. You can book your hotel with an APH rate then. Right now we are looking at the second weekend of February and RPR is $216/night with APH. There is a thread with a link to APH rates on this forum.

Thank you! I was trying to look up APH rates and couldn’t figure out how!

 

[Hook326]

https://www.disboards.com/threads/o...for-universal-loews-hotel-properties.3771155/
Here’s the link to search for APH rates.Getting the lowest seasonal pass saved us a lot on the hotel and it only cost me $21 to upgrade my ticket. That’ll vary based on what ticket you’re upgrading from. I had a promo for buy 2 days, get 3 free.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Willingness to use single rider lines also effects how important EP is.

 

[greg9x]

Read a lot of people say they don't need Express Passes on low crowd days.

You can always wait until your there to decide if want Express Pass.. but if considering a Deluxe hotel stay to get them for free, need to compare that price vs price of another hotel plus buying Express Passes... There is also chance of a rate drop at Deluxe hotel between now and your trip.

Look at predicted crowd calendars for any dates you are considering, while they aren't always accurate, will give you an idea of if your missing something for your dates that will make the parks more crowded than expecting.

 

[Disxuni]

Considering the time frame you're going you should not need unlimited EP.

If you stay at any of the resort hotels you get EE which gives you a little bit more time within the park when it's less crowded and get ahead start on Diagon Alley. Also, if you use SR lines, especially first thing in the morning, you should easily be able to achieve a lot in the morning in general whether using EE, or not. I do it all the time when there. I would say generally you should be good to stay at any of the resort hotels and be good with time.

However, as @greg9x suggested, I would say check "crowd" calendars perhaps. Or maybe even double check and see if there is any events in the Orlando area that might peak the days you're thinking of going? However, generally Jan/Feb is the non-peak season.

Also, while $300 seems to be a lot. It's $99 for unlimited EP for both parks if you buy it per ticket (not counting when it's higher during peak season), so putting that into account if it's just you and one other person, it's almost like paying for $100 room and the rest is for the unlimited EP.