Please offer ride strategy for DS going w/band

[mickeymom629]

My son is going to IOA/US for the first time with his high school band. They will be in IOA on Friday, Feb. 27 sometime after 9 a.m. until the park closes at 9. At some point, they will be performing that day.

The following day (Sat. 2/28) they will be in US from 9-9.

He loves all thrill rides! Our family has had our fast pass strategy for WDW and how to make the most of our time there for seeing what we want. We know nothing about Universal and I have no advice to give him.

Could you offer a game plan for him, and he obviously won't have FOTL passes.

Any advice is helpful!

 

[macraven]

he could buy the express pass plus which would allow him to use the express line once for each ride and attraction.

if he bought the epp for the saturday, it would save him a lot of wait time in lines. i'm assuming he is going with his school group and not with the family.
it might be worth it for the epp since it is only for one person.

saturdays are always crowded.


congratulations to your son for being able to perform at universal!


once he knows his set up time and performance time, hopefully he will be able to be free to check out the park and the rides.

 

[swilshire]

The Express Pass won't help him unless his friends have one also. He'll just wind up waiting in line with them if he's anything like my kid.

Our band is going in March. The cost was way more than I thought reasonable. They leave on Thursday before our Spring break the following week. Spend Friday and Sunday at Universal and Saturday at the beach. We are just taking the family down two days early and will let DS join his friends on their Universal Days (we have annual passes). The Band Directory still hasn't agreed to let him march with the band. Our older son did this a few times with choir and dance groups at Disney. It was never a problem to let him join the performance only.

Sheila

 

[mickeymom629]

The Express Pass won't help him unless his friends have one also. He'll just wind up waiting in line with them if he's anything like my kid.

That's what I was thinking would happen.

(I'm so glad that he's not marching in Disney World (like the band usually has done) because I would be soooo tempted to try to get there myself! But we did APs last year and went 4 times and, times being what they are, I can't afford to have another family trip for a while.)

Though I would like us all to get to US/IOA, the fact that I don't know what I'm missing is making it easier

Anyway, checking the rides, it looks like there's just a few thrill rides to check out and several other 'must do's'. It seems like a lot of rides/attractions are comparable to WDW, which we have been many times.

I was just hoping someone could give me a good order of attractions that he could try to get to for each park (like TGM does for WDW).

 

[swilshire]

I was disappointed that our band did Universal and not Disney. This is my 12th year as a band parent and none of the kids ever went to Disney. The only trip I ever went on with them was to London for New Years. Terrible weather, but a good (though expensive) trip.

At Universal, other than the ones in the Macy's parade, the bands seem to just march through and it's not that big a deal. DS says he won't even be disappointed if he doesn't get to march, as long as he gets to hang out with all his friends the two days.

Sheila