Regular lines vs Express Pass wait times

[Vols1977]

I'm sure this may have been discussed before, but can someone give me an idea of what the Express Pass wait times are vs the regular wait times with no Express pass? My family of 5 is going in July and we will likely purchase the Unlimited Express Pass. We only have one day to visit the parks.

 

[Monykalyn]

I'm sure this may have been discussed before, but can someone give me an idea of what the Express Pass wait times are vs the regular wait times with no Express pass? My family of 5 is going in July and we will likely purchase the Unlimited Express Pass. We only have one day to visit the parks.

We went in June-I am not sure buying the unlimited express is worth it. With only one day it is unlikely you'll have much time to re-ride something multiple times anyway. When lines are highest-mid day-the EP can still be a wait, but obviously less than standby. Because EP isn't scheduled there isn't a great way to predict how long EP is. Many rides have single rider as well.
I'd look at getting the one time EP if you really want it, or if you think you will really need EP possibly look at getting a room for one night at one of the deluxes-for a family of five this works out to be less than buying EP unlimited.

The disney strategy of getting there at open really works well at Universal, hit the big rides first before lines build. Even HP isn't getting the huge lines right away.

 

[Vols1977]

This is intriguing. So if we stay one night in a deluxe, all 5 of us would receive the Express unlimited?

 

[AJ1983]

This is intriguing. So if we stay one night in a deluxe, all 5 of us would receive the Express unlimited?

Yes! And you would get two days worth of Express Passes - for the day you check in and check out!

 

[macraven]

You are going to end up talking your family into 2 days at the parks if you do one night at the deluxe hotels.

 

[Cornucopiaoflove]

We went in May, and we got the express pass even though the park wasn't supposed to be that busy. I think that the longest line we had was for FOP, and it was maybe 5 minutes max. Definitely helped us get in more rides since we only visited on one day!

 

[Suprize2017]

You are going to end up talking your family into 2 days at the parks if you do one night at the deluxe hotels.

Is there not a way to do one night at their deluxe hotel and only one park day?

 

[Vols1977]

I looked into it and we saved money by booking one night in a deluxe room. Purchasing EPs for my family of 5 was going to cost us $798. By booking a room at RPR, we got a deluxe room (includes EP) for only $437. Its unbelievable that purchasing EP alone costs that much more than getting a room with EP included.

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

I looked into it and we saved money by booking one night in a deluxe room. Purchasing EPs for my family of 5 was going to cost us $798. By booking a room at RPR, we got a deluxe room (includes EP) for only $437. Its unbelievable that purchasing EP alone costs that much more than getting a room with EP included.

It often works out this way (and probably always works out with 5 people), which is why it is so frequently recommended here.

 

[TommyJK]

Is there not a way to do one night at their deluxe hotel and only one park day?

Absolutely. Yes indeed you don't have to do 2 days in the park. It's just that you *can* do 2 days in the park since you automatically get 2 days of Express Pass with a one night stay. I think Mac was just hinting at the fact of "Well, since we get 2 days of EP, let's add another park day!"

 

[macraven]

TommyJK read my mind....lol

I see it as since the check out day still includes free ep, buy the park ticket and take advantage of the free ep

But if you only want to buy a one day park ticket, it’s one of the choices you have

Many peeps do not check into the hotel until after the park is open

So their park day starts after the general public enters

If you do the second day at the park, take advantage of the early entry time

One hour before the general public can enter is a good thing

Do what works best for your family

 

[Suprize2017]

Absolutely. Yes indeed you don't have to do 2 days in the park. It's just that you *can* do 2 days in the park since you automatically get 2 days of Express Pass with a one night stay. I think Mac was just hinting at the fact of "Well, since we get 2 days of EP, let's add another park day!"

TommyJK read my mind....lol

I see it as since the check out day still includes free ep, buy the park ticket and take advantage of the free ep

But if you only want to buy a one day park ticket, it’s one of the choices you have

Many peeps do not check into the hotel until after the park is open

So their park day starts after the general public enters

If you do the second day at the park, take advantage of the early entry time

One hour before the general public can enter is a good thing

Do what works best for your family

Thanks! I understand now. We fly in and arrive mid afternoon. We plan on checking in and letting the kids have fun swimming and do the park the next day. Last year we went in early with the rest of the hotel guests, and stayed until they shut the park down. The first part and last part of the day were the best with little to no lines on some of the more popular rides. We are hoping to have the same experience when we return!

 

[macraven]

Kids swimming pools!!

I’m sure they will be thrilled to do the pool once you check in to the hotel

Find out when you check in, which park has the EE for the next day

You can check out that next day and store all your luggage with valet-bell hops

Then hit the

 

[macraven]

I dread each time I get the message page can’t load or website reloading

Hit the park for ee that next morning
and have fun!

 

[MSPeeler]

I'm going to piggy back off of this thread if that is ok:

What is realistic expectation of time differences in wait times using EP -vs- No EP?

We are using EP with a resort overnight stay. 1 day Park to Park ticket. I am using touring plans and wanting to map out a plan that will minimize walking (I have a bad knee, and MIL was in an accident years ago and can't get around quickly anymore), but I also don't want to waste time.
We are starting with the Grinchmas Character Breakfast at 8am in IOA, so we will start at Seuss Landing, but I don't know what to expect as far as wait times. My touring plan is giving me under 10 minute wait times on 80% of my rides selections.... I find that hard to believe the day before Thanksgiving!

Thanks.

 

[gotomu212]

I'm going to piggy back off of this thread if that is ok:

What is realistic expectation of time differences in wait times using EP -vs- No EP?

We are using EP with a resort overnight stay. 1 day Park to Park ticket. I am using touring plans and wanting to map out a plan that will minimize walking (I have a bad knee, and MIL was in an accident years ago and can't get around quickly anymore), but I also don't want to waste time.
We are starting with the Grinchmas Character Breakfast at 8am in IOA, so we will start at Seuss Landing, but I don't know what to expect as far as wait times. My touring plan is giving me under 10 minute wait times on 80% of my rides selections.... I find that hard to believe the day before Thanksgiving!

Thanks.

We’ve been there at the same time and the only time an EP line was more than 10 minutes was when a ride broke down and no one was moving. In fact we’ve never spent more than 15 in an EP line (other than breakdown and that includes Christmas, thanksgiving, and the middle of summer.

If you’re trying to minimize walking I’d start at breakfast and just move clockwise or counter clockwise and hit the rides as you come to them. I don’t think you need to use any other strategy unless it seems like volume starts to surge in one park and you want to hop to the next.

 

[macraven]

I would down load the UO app so you can check wait times now

It might give you an idea which rides have the longer waits

Ep lines would be less than 20 minitesnfie the more popular rides

Many times my line waits in the ep line are at the most 10 minutes

With you going before thanksgiving, can’t say yet what type of crowds you will have in the parks

With the hotel ep, You will have unlimited rides usage

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I Its unbelievable that purchasing EP alone costs that much more than getting a room with EP included.

Yep. That's why my family of 5 wouldn't stay anywhere but deluxe for Uni. The value of the EP for 5 is incredible. If you book early enough you can sometimes get RPR for half of that but the EP is still over $100 a person.

It often works out this way (and probably always works out with 5 people), which is why it is so frequently recommended here.

Probably always.

To your other question about wait times, we were in the parks last year 2 days before Thanksgiving and crowds had really been building from when we arrived on Sat. The only ride we took a pass on because the EP line was too long was Minions. And that was only during the middle of the day. We went back later and rode it. We didn't wait more than 20 minutes with EP (full disclosure, we didn't ride Gringotts, Kong, or the Mummy that day). Even though it was a crowded day, it really didn't affect our touring much. I would just map out the shortest path to things and maybe plan to hit Minions either early or late.

 

[skylock]

I'm going to piggy back off of this thread if that is ok:

What is realistic expectation of time differences in wait times using EP -vs- No EP?

We are using EP with a resort overnight stay. 1 day Park to Park ticket. I am using touring plans and wanting to map out a plan that will minimize walking (I have a bad knee, and MIL was in an accident years ago and can't get around quickly anymore), but I also don't want to waste time.
We are starting with the Grinchmas Character Breakfast at 8am in IOA, so we will start at Seuss Landing, but I don't know what to expect as far as wait times. My touring plan is giving me under 10 minute wait times on 80% of my rides selections.... I find that hard to believe the day before Thanksgiving!

Thanks.

I was there Thanksgiving week last year and I would say that is accurate. Our longest wait was about 20 min and that may have only been one ride. Every ride had at least a small wait but others said they were able to walk right on. Minion was the only thing we had no wait on, but that was because we hit it exactly when the show was loading up again.

I sort of figured out EP line was a fourth or less of the time stand by line was. So if standby is 60 min, No more than 15 min in the EP line. Plus since you are starting so early, you will hit a lot of rides probably with no wait. We come to the park later in the day. Not before 10 I would say and we have had lunch before we got there sometimes.

There is no "plan" needed. Just pick a ride, then move to the next. If you want to ride the same ride again, you can do that before you move on to the next.

The only thing I can think of you might want to plan out, is how you are going to deal with HPland and riding the train. As in, do you want to finish one park then move to the next, or do you want to ride the train first thing then hop back and do the rest of the first park.

I am telling you, EP will spoil you. I now hate the fast pass system so much at Disney, that even though I love Disney, I have not been back for 4 years.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

The difference between EP and non-EP varies quite a bit, even over the course of a single day. For us, we've been to Orlando enough times that we often choose to skip any attraction that has a long wait if we don't have EP (and maybe check back later in the day). As others have said EP rarely exceeds 20minues, often is far less, but also fluctuates a bit unpredictably between 5 and 20 min per attraction.

With EP, we ride just about everything whenever we want to ride it. Even without EP, standby waits fluctuate over the course of the day. Flight of Hippogriff is a good example. Sometimes the standby is 30+, other times it is short. Personally, I just wouldn't really ever wait in a long line for it. Your touring style might be different. Our attitude is also relative to things like weather and how hungry we are.

So for us, EP = very relaxed touring, where non-EP = more selective touring.

IMO, if we don't see an onsite hotel price we like, then we don't tend to buy EP.