Touring Advice when staying offsite?

Planogirl

I feel the nerd in me stirring
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Aug 11, 2000
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My biggest concern will be riding The Mummy, Spiderman and MIB as many times as possible while we're there. I'm ordering the low cost 1 week passes and we'll spend at least 4 days in the parks. We will be there mid-June and should be in the parks Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday finishing up with TNA that night. (We're going over to MGM on Saturday for Star Wars weekends :thumbsup2 )

Any advice?
 
My biggest concern will be riding The Mummy, Spiderman and MIB as many times as possible while we're there. I'm ordering the low cost 1 week passes and we'll spend at least 4 days in the parks. We will be there mid-June and should be in the parks Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday finishing up with TNA that night. (We're going over to MGM on Saturday for Star Wars weekends :thumbsup2 )

Any advice?

i'm going to write a book on touring plans. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
this is the 3rd touring plan i'm doing tonight. i love doing it but trying to individualize best touring plans for what you have given.

wed and thur are very good days to be in the parks. you will cover more of the parks in those two days. you will also be fine for friday up to noon.
you might have more crowds on friday afternoon and will have crowds on sunday.


any park will have their crowds if you are hitting memorial weekend for UO or disney. you are going at the end of star wars and tourist season will have begun for all the parks at that point.

you have 4 days in the parks. are you going to spend the entire day, each day there? if so, i can give you a better plan in case you are leaving early and doing only partial days at UO.

be at the parking garage before 8. it opens at 8 but be in line for entering the garage.
be at the turnstile at 8:15, the park will open around 8:30 if there are people in line to get into the parks. do you like coasters? if so, hit IOA first.
go straight to hulk, you have a great chance of getting front row if you are there when it opens. you can do a repeat of this ride and still miss crowds.

next do dr doom. i say that cause i love that ride....you are shot up quickly and the ride slowly drops down. when you are told what door number to stand by, tell the TM you want the door that gives you a view of the park.
number 3 is great.

then head next door to spiderman. don't forget to pick up the 3 D glasses. you said you wanted repeat rides on this one. you will have plenty of time if you are at the park early. spiderman has a single rider line. it will open when the crowds start. take the single rider line if you come back to spidey later in the day and want to repeat it then.

follow on to the back of the park. jurassic river ride is good. you don't get real wet if you duck at the drop. it only has the one drop. think splash mt.

next coaster is dueling dragons, it has two sides ice and fire. do one side and you can take the shortcut way after you get off and do the other coaster side then. you don't have to leave the ride building to repeat the other side.

stop by mystic fountain. if young kids are there, that alone is the show.

sinbad and poseidon are decent shows to be seen once. check the guide map books for the show times. don't think they start until after 11

IOA circles. you go from one land to another, you don't have to branch out and take a different route to see the park.
seussland is the last ride area. it's not just for kids. quite a few rides here that everyone will enjoy. it comes straight out of dr. seuss ' s books.

when you leave this land, you circle back to marvel.

there are other rides at IOA but the ones i mentioned are the highlights.
POE is port of entry. this is the straight way area you walked thru to get to hulk. merch shops, food places are located in this area.

if you start early, you can hit the highlights by noon. if you do the two shows, you will not be done until the afternoon. save the shows for another day.

eat at off times. most people eat at noon and 7. have lunch at 11 and dinner 4ish to avoid crowds.

if you can stay ahead of the crowds, you will be fine with no long lines to wait in.
you can hop back and forth to both parks with the special promo ticket you have.

around 11, you will find IOA having crowds. people off site tend to arrive after breakfast. parking the car in the garage will delay to when they enter the parks. since you arrived early, you will have finished many rides before they even get thru the turnstile.
now, hop over to the studios side if ioa is too crowded. i'm guessing it will be around or close to noon then.

on one of your days, start the morning at the studios.
do the same early arrival as you did for ioa.

at the studios, most people will go to jimmy neutron or shrek as they are the first two main rides they see when they enter.
don't stop there. go to the back and across from finnegans resturant, you will see the mummy. do this ride, do it twice. its an indoor roller coaster with a story line. there is a lot to look at when you are in line. there is a single rider line for mummy if you want to come back later and avoid long waits in line.

then go all the way to the back and do MIB. another repeat type of ride.

you might want to do this ride many times. also this has a single rider line. it is faster to use that then the express lane line.
think buzz lightyear.

at this point, try to back track to do shrek. if there is a line, you will be under a covered area from the sun. there are monitors in the line area. the show on the monitors is a hoot. well worth it passing time watching it while waiting in line for shrek. if it is before 10 at this point, do jimmy neutron after shrek.

check the guide maps for show times. animal planet, horror make up show, my favorite, beetlejuice are decent shows you should try to catch.
ET is fun and very colorful. don't go to ET when the animal planet show lets out as most of the crowds head to ET then. this makes a long line.
try to do jaws in the morning as this ride gets long lines around 11ish.

depending on lines, you might be better off doing jaws after MIB.


spend two days at the studios. take in T2, lucy tribute, see the characters, try out for Fear Factory, check out the merch shops.

earthquake, twister.....worth doing it once.

let me know if you are doing full days at the park or partial days.

do you know the layout of the parks? there is an interactive map on the UO website. you can call guest services and ask them to mail you a current park guide map so you know before you leave home how to get to the rides

hope this helps get you off to a good start.

post again if you have questions.
 
That's why I made my web site. The problem is the touring plans change depending on whether the people have kids or if they want to only do the thrill rides.

Do the early morning thing. The rides mentioned in the OP have single rider lines when things get busy.
 
I should have mentioned that we've been to Universal and know how to get around but haven't been strictly offsite for a long time. It's going to be strange for us. I will also be there with a 14 year old who is leery of Hulk and we both won't ride Dr Doom (fear of heights). The rest is fine.

Lots of good ideas here! We'll spend all day each day except for a break for lunch in Citywalk. I like to get out of the parks and recharge for an hour or two around midday.

We had the most trouble with Jaws the last time we visited just for a day and were offsite. We kept finding long lines and they moved so slowly!

Twister is a pet favorite for me and Terminator is for the kid but we never had trouble seeing them so we'll go whenever.

Thanks for the ideas!
 

Don't forget the single rider lines, espcially for MIB.
 
planogirl, do a trip report when you return, we love to read them
 












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