on a crowd level 2 day (staying at PBH!) do any lines get long?

[BarbieSmith]

At both IoA and US, with predicted crowd levels under 3 *and* with express pass for staying onsite... are there any rides we should do early on because the lines will be a consideration? The only one I can think of from my reading is Ollivander's... but I have never been to Universal so I don't know

Thanks so much,
Barbie

 

[RMulieri]

Olivanders ,Forbidden Journey and if you have small kids, Pteranodon flyers( it is limited to kids under a certain height).None of them have express pass and get lines even in low crowds

 

[BarbieSmith]

Oh yes, I forgot about PT! We have 5 and 6 year olds, so thank you.

Are there any rides on the US side that need to be prioritized, or do you think all will be under 5-10 min wait (with EP from hotel)?

Thanks again!

 

[RMulieri]

Oh yes, I forgot about PT! We have 5 and 6 year olds, so thank you.

Are there any rides on the US side that need to be prioritized, or do you think all will be under 5-10 min wait (with EP from hotel)?

Thanks again!

Despicable me has waits even with the express pass for some reason and Transformers can be hit or miss ( it had alot of technical difficulties when we went the end of August and it made the express pass lines ridiculous)

 

[Metro West]

Are there any rides on the US side that need to be prioritized, or do you think all will be under 5-10 min wait (with EP from hotel)?

Agree that DM always seems to have long lines for both stand by and Express...although not nearly as long as Express but still a line. You might want to do DM first thing and then come back later for a return ride.

 

[macraven]

Agree that DM always seems to have long lines for both stand by and Express...although not nearly as long as Express but still a line. You might want to do DM first thing and then come back later for a return ride.

agree !

the longest wait i had in the express line for despicable me was 20 minutes last month.

 

[kohlby]

We were there this past week - I think crowd levels were 2-4 except one day was a 6. DM did not get long for us in the Express at all and we did it two different days. Even the regular line got up to 20 minutes max except for the 6 day when I saw it at 30 minutes. I think the hotels were far from filled to capacity as well. The 6 day had an influx of hotel guests but we didn't do DM that day. I did notice that the express line was longer than before - meaning up to 5 minutes instead of completely empty. I also saw them take down the Express Pass booth where you could buy one so I wondered if they sold out of those. (That wasn't until a little after 11am).

FJ is definitely one to do early - the extra hour is wonderful. The 2-4 days were walk-ons for us for FJ in that early hour. The 6 day had us waiting 10 minutes for FJ. We didn't get in the park right at 8am but around 8:15 and then walked over. But it was 40 minutes a couple hours later. Pteredon Flyers was only 10 minutes when we made our way over there one of the mornings - at around 9:45 am. I've never ever seen a line that short but my kids didn't want to ride so we didn't do it. Even on super low crowd days, 30 minutes is the norm. I think it was because we were able to make it over there early thanks to the extra hour in the Harry Potter.

Another tip, rider swap actually saved us time at FJ. You walk through the castle together. However, unlike most rider swaps, they have you go into a different line before the very end. Then they get you on as soon as they can fit your party in well. This should save you about 5 minutes.

Transformers had zero issues for us. We did it on three different days.

 

[macraven]

kohlby is right.
do try for FJ early in the day if you have never been on it.


there are times that the ride goes down and all have to leave the line.

if you waited until the hour before park closes, and that would happen, you would miss out on that ride.

that is the one reason i say do the ride early.



last year i wanted to do rides at ioa on my last night there.
ride went down while i was in the line and didn't come back up.

it wasn't an issue for me as i had 11 days there but if i were visiting for one day only, i would have been sad.


for all the rides in both parks, the line for the ride is not cut off until park closing time.

if the park closes at 7:00, and you are in line at 6:58, everyone in that wait line will be able to ride.

 

[BarbieSmith]

Thanks all! Will definitely hit HP early, and definitely DM. Appreciate the input!