Staying onsite at Universal for Memorial Weekend

[neil2jo]

Hi, I am hoping someone might be able to offer some advice/opinion as to whether this is a good or bad idea.

I am travelling 20th May until 3rd June - 2 Ad and 2 children aged 4 and 7. From going once before at the same time of year I know the second week of my holiday will get extremely busy. We are staying in a villa this time but I am considering booking 1 night at a Universal hotel for the Sat/Sun or the Sun/Mon of memorial weekend so that we can have full use of the passes for what will be 2 busy park days.

Does this seem crazy or worth doing and has anyone done something similar before?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[neil2jo]

Anyone!!!

 

[Kath2003]

I've not done on-site at Universal BUT...

• I've done Spring Break at Universal at least 4 times, never have we waited more than 20 minutes for an attraction because we arrive at opening. The first and last two hours of the day are GOLDEN. Don't miss them.
• The Express Passes are excellent. We received two after a Universal error ruined basically a whole afternoon of my previous trip. They saved us a lot of time (we used them on the Saturday afternoon of the Easter weekend - it was PACKED but with the passes we were able to ride all the headliners with about a 10-15 minute wait for each).
• Even with the passes, you'll need to consider whether you can cope with the sheer volume of people in the parks in the afternoons, but if you're staying on-site you could use this time to go for a swim etc.

My only other piece of advice would be to leave the parks for lunch and dinner - even though City Walk will still be busy, it won't be anything compared to the parks.

 

[gertiesquidge]

Sorry I'm no help at all as we're hoping to do this too, so I'm interested in seeing what others think

 

[neil2jo]

I've not done on-site at Universal BUT...

• I've done Spring Break at Universal at least 4 times, never have we waited more than 20 minutes for an attraction because we arrive at opening. The first and last two hours of the day are GOLDEN. Don't miss them.
• The Express Passes are excellent. We received two after a Universal error ruined basically a whole afternoon of my previous trip. They saved us a lot of time (we used them on the Saturday afternoon of the Easter weekend - it was PACKED but with the passes we were able to ride all the headliners with about a 10-15 minute wait for each).
• Even with the passes, you'll need to consider whether you can cope with the sheer volume of people in the parks in the afternoons, but if you're staying on-site you could use this time to go for a swim etc.

My only other piece of advice would be to leave the parks for lunch and dinner - even though City Walk will still be busy, it won't be anything compared to the parks.

Thanks for the reply, still trying to decide what to do

 

[Kath2003]

Thanks for the reply, still trying to decide what to do

The way I see it, you have 2 "bets":

1. Stay onsite, use the Express passes. More $$ but you're guaranteed to be able to ride what you want to ride.

2. Stay offsite, arrive early (i.e. 30-mins before published opening). Less $$ and you almost certainly will get everything you want to see within the first 2 hours with a 30-minute wait or less, but it's a gamble.

Personally I'm of the "get there early, quit around lunchtime" camp but I don't have two small children!

 

[fuse04]

In 2008 we stayed at HRH for 4 nights over the memorial weekend and also stayed at HRH last August just for the express pass perk. I donlt recall the crowds being heavy for memprial weekend but having said that we wopuldnl;t notice as we have the express pass. The express pass makes the stay muich more relaxed and no worries baout fitting everything in.