Really disappointed in Universal's "Express"

[corgi_monster]

We will be using EP for the first time from 1/10-1/13. Do you think my waits will likely be less than 20 minutes for all rides? Even the HP ones? Touring Plans has the crowd levels at a 4-6 for that time period.

Do any of you use a touring plan when you have EP?

 

[Seeker615]

I think the longest we waited with express pass was 20 minutes and this was for the ET ride!
Love express pass - we will not do Universal without it.
A few years ago we visited the Magic Kingdom for the Christmas Party and we were in line for Peter Pan. The wait was about 30 plus minutes and my husband was getting crabby. He muttered "this is not nothing like Universal."

 

[bchbetha]

We will be using EP for the first time from 1/10-1/13. Do you think my waits will likely be less than 20 minutes for all rides? Even the HP ones? Touring Plans has the crowd levels at a 4-6 for that time period.

Do any of you use a touring plan when you have EP?

I have never been impressed with the Universal Touring Plans I've seen. They seem illogical with the order and they really don't take into account enough sightseeing time, for my liking. The only plan I think you need is eating an early lunch to avoid the lines as there are no EPs for restaurants. The beauty of EPs is just going wherever you want and not worrying about where the crowds are. You should be fine on those dates.

 

[macraven]

We will be using EP for the first time from 1/10-1/13. Do you think my waits will likely be less than 20 minutes for all rides? Even the HP ones? Touring Plans has the crowd levels at a 4-6 for that time period.

Do any of you use a touring plan when you have EP?

If staying onsite, go the hour prior the park is opened and do potter sections and the one ride non potter in the morning
Potter, for some, are the big draw to the park
Do those rides early and use the ep lines

I do not rely on touring plans

I have not looked at a calendar to see if your stay included weekends

If weather is great, many locals go to the parks on the weekends

 

[prink022]

I'm sorry you had such a bad time with the Express pass! Unfortunately, I think you just had bad luck - I've waited a max 20 minutes and that's about it with the express. I guess the thing to keep in mind is the express pass actually only cuts down about half the wait time, though sometimes you can get luckier with it.

 

[bumbershoot]

Do any of you use a touring plan when you have EP?

I don't ever use a touring plan for Universal. Ever. It's just not Disney.


The longest consistent EP lines I've been in are Shrek and Despicable Me. But their standby lines are much MUCH longer than what the EP is. Those rides have preshows before the preshows, so the line even before the first preshow room you see is long.

I've literally never seen an EP line longer than a standby line.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

We will be using EP for the first time from 1/10-1/13. Do you think my waits will likely be less than 20 minutes for all rides? Even the HP ones? Touring Plans has the crowd levels at a 4-6 for that time period.

Do any of you use a touring plan when you have EP?

Our crowd levels were in that range and did not have waits longer than 20 mins. We did once skip Despicable Me and come back later because the line looked long in the morning but it was not a big deal. The line was fine later.

Yes I've used touring plans for Universal. I used it last year because it was the only way for me to keep up with all the changes (and lack of publishing times) for all the holiday events. I love Uni but give them epic fail status for publishing times for events. They don't do it, don't put some of them on their website (paper times guide only .. huh?!), then they do finally post them, and then change the times day of. This may have been because we went opening weekend of the holidays last year but I found it handy to just pull up my TP and see what the latest change of plans were.

I'm actually toying with renewing for that reason. I probably won't. You really don't need it. But I do like getting the notifications that the parade has changed kickoff time (again) since we are again going the opening weekend of the holidays. It's inexpensive and lets me easily loosely plan our day and gives me a realistic idea of what we can actually get done. But if you don't already use it and like it for Disney, I definitely wouldn't bother for Uni.

 

[bchbetha]

Our crowd levels were in that range and did not have waits longer than 20 mins. We did once skip Despicable Me and come back later because the line looked long in the morning but it was not a big deal. The line was fine later.

Yes I've used touring plans for Universal. I used it last year because it was the only way for me to keep up with all the changes (and lack of publishing times) for all the holiday events. I love Uni but give them epic fail status for publishing times for events. They don't do it, don't put some of them on their website (paper times guide only .. huh?!), then they do finally post them, and then change the times day of. This may have been because we went opening weekend of the holidays last year but I found it handy to just pull up my TP and see what the latest change of plans were.

I'm actually toying with renewing for that reason. I probably won't. You really don't need it. But I do like getting the notifications that the parade has changed kickoff time (again) since we are again going the opening weekend of the holidays. It's inexpensive and lets me easily loosely plan our day and gives me a realistic idea of what we can actually get done. But if you don't already use it and like it for Disney, I definitely wouldn't bother for Uni.

The Universal app has all of the showtimes.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

The Universal app has all of the showtimes.

Hopefully they've changed that. Last year the app did not have the superhero M&G times. You could only get those from the printed times guides.

 

[corgi_monster]

Thank you all for the very useful information. I feel a lot more confident about our January trip!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We stayed on-site at RPR and had the resort guest "Express" access.

I just want to say that I found it very disappointing. We visited last week and every "Express" line was long (we rarely waited less than 20 minutes and waited 60 minutes for the Harry Potter train) and, in some situations, the "Express" line took longer than the regular line - e.g. our friends, who did not have "Express", entered the Transformer standby line at exactly the same time as us yet came out 10 minutes before us.

By contrast, Disney's FP+ was brilliant - we never had long waits in any FP+ lanes (but, of course, sadly were restricted to three initial selections per day). Avatar FoP was 180 minutes standby and we waited 10 minutes in FP+ lane; I bet you that would have been nearer an hour in the "Express" equivalent.

Surely UO has years of analytics and experience with Express now and should do a much better job of speeding it up / pushing more people through express and fewer people through standby?

I can't speak to actual EP usage but I'm fairly certain the wait times haven't for the majority been as bad as you experienced.

One thing I would note is comparing EP to FP is like apples to oranges (yes a very used phrase). You see they don't operate the same way at all.

1) Unlimited EP allows you go through the line again and again and again and again. You cannot do that with FP without the FP being available in their system

2) Regular/Once through EP still allows you to do far more than the 3 rides you can pre-book with FP.

EP and FP are not designed to function the same way so comparing them doesn't make much sense. It also seems your main issue with EP was you experienced higher than average (as other posters have attested to) waits. If the waits were a lot lot less then I'm betting you would favor EP over FP for the reasons of not being restricted (except for what rides are available to EP).

 

[cschaaf]

The Universal app has all of the showtimes.

We found this to be hit or miss on our last trip. I'd look on my phone and no show times would display. My wife would look on her and they were showing. Or vice versa. Sometimes we'd both see times, sometimes neither one of us would see times.

 

[macraven]

I did not have that problem when I did my vacation at UO this month

It helped me stay on schedule as sometimes there were adjustments from what was printed out on show times listed on the park guide maps

 

[FSU Girl]

I like having the Express pass, but I have had to wait almost an hour both times I rode the King Kong ride. Most rides were quick, but if the normal line was an hour the Express was usually a half hour. The more crowed the long the lines will be with Express. I do like how Disney you never have to wait long with FP, but it is nice being able to go on all the rides with Express and not have to plan out the day down to the minute like you do with Disney.

 

[wilbret]

This

ditto

 

[wilbret]

We love EP. It is far superior to FP, in our opinion... one trick would be to not get into a line that is long? Hogwart's Express will always have a long wait if you wait until the surge to ride it. On HHN days, it will get crazy crowded, or any night when IOA has longer hours. It's better to just walk.

Escape from Gringott's I have seen at 30 minutes, but it doesn't seem that bad. Kong I admit does a terrible job pushing people thru. I don't know why, but they could stand to up the % of EP holders at a time, perhaps.

Everything else is awesome.

 

[GoingSince1990]

Those who go to Universal on a very busy day expecting Disney FP-like waits of 15 to 20 minutes for every ride using Express are likely to be disappointed. We’ve waited over 40 minutes in Express for both Despicable Me and Gringotts, and when I asked about the wait I was told that Express guarantees no better than a 50% shorter wait compared to standby.

 

[schumigirl]

Those who go to Universal on a very busy day expecting Disney FP-like waits of 15 to 20 minutes for every ride using Express are likely to be disappointed. We’ve waited over 40 minutes in Express for both Despicable Me and Gringotts, and when I asked about the wait I was told that Express guarantees no better than a 50% shorter wait compared to standby.

Wow!!

We’ve never waited longer than just under 20 minutes once when the regular line was 110 minutes for Despicable Me........this past trip lines were usually around 60 minutes and we more or less walked straight on every time.

EP is supposed to be around the 20 minutes mark, never been told to expect half the regular line........unless there’s an issue of course which is common with Kong. Dont think we’ve ever waited longer than 20 minutes ever for any ride that didn’t have an issue.

TM will usually make sure the EP line moves quicker even if the regular line is long.

 

[GoingSince1990]

Wow!!

We’ve never waited longer than just under 20 minutes once when the regular line was 110 minutes for Despicable Me........this past trip lines were usually around 60 minutes and we more or less walked straight on every time.

EP is supposed to be around the 20 minutes mark, never been told to expect half the regular line........unless there’s an issue of course which is common with Kong. Dont think we’ve ever waited longer than 20 minutes ever for any ride that didn’t have an issue.

TM will usually make sure the EP line moves quicker even if the regular line is long.

Our 40+ minute waits have all been on Thanksgiving weekends.

 

[schumigirl]

Our 40+ minute waits have all been on Thanksgiving weekends.

That explains it then........