Universal and Disability

[LCoulter]

We are traveling with another family that has a disabled child. They are familiar with using the disability service at Disney but they don’t have a clue about Universal. There will be 4 adults and 5 kids.

How do lines work with a disabled child that can’t wait in a line for extended periods of time? Should we still look into getting express pass? If it makes a difference, we will be going during a very busy spring break.

Is there somewhere that they can get more information?

 

[NMK62303]

Sent you a private message

 

[DisneyElite4]

Sent you a private message

We will be there in a week with our autistic son and two typical kiddos - he uses DAS at Disney. Can you please PM me too?

 

[MomOTwins]

We went split stay Disney/Universal over spring break. On prior trips, we'd only done disney and just used fastpass for our autistic DS. This trip, DAS pass was necessary at Disney--our DS basically has a ride or two at each park he wants to loop over and over, and usually we could pick up endless fastpasses one after the other for his favorites since they tend not to be super popular (e.g, Magic Carpets at MK). But without fastpass, and with spring break crowds, there were loooonng wait times everywhere so DAS pass was a life saver. Still, it was a lot of waiting around for our return time to arrive--we'd go get him a snack or just explore and he'd play with his bubble wand, but with the long wait times it was never walk on--always a return time. When we were at Universal, though, we did know they had an option similar to DAS, but we decided just to stay at a hotel that had express pass included and were glad we did. The express pass worked pretty much everywhere and we loved that there was no downtime waiting for a return time. We rode Hippogriff ride sooooo many times in a row! I think express pass is so superior it's worth it if it is in budget.

 

[monroe18]

Interested to learn more about this too. I don’t see much on their website

 

[ArielRae]

Here is a photo of the disability pass I got from Universal on our last trip. We were there over Easter and only needed to use it for Hagrids and Minions.

 

[monroe18]

Do you go to guest services to get this similar to how it's done at Disney? When you say you only needed to use it on those 2 rides, is that because wait times were low on the other rides?

Here is a photo of the disability pass I got from Universal on our last trip. We were there over Easter and only needed to use it for Hagrids and Minions.

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[ArielRae]

Do you go to guest services to get this similar to how it's done at Disney? When you say you only needed to use it on those 2 rides, is that because wait times were low on the other rides?

We picked up ours at the guest services inside islands of adventure. You let them know just like Disney why you need it. We only needed it for only those two rides cause we always arrived an hour before opening (they let you in the park with the early morning entry people even if you don’t have early morning entry, you just can’t pass a certain point in the park). During early morning at Universal Studios they let everyone even those without early morning to ride Transformers and The Mummy before the park opened. At both parks (1 park per day) we were able to ride almost everything with very little wait (under 30min) even though it was Easter week. Please note this was when the park attendance numbers were topped at a lower number they have since been raised. We left a couple hours after lunch everyday before it got crowded and hot. I do recommend that if you have someone that will want to ride a ride over and over that you purchase the express pass as that will get them on the ride faster if there is a higher wait time posted.

 

[macraven]

Guest services handles the Attraction Assistance Pass
If wait time is 29 minutes or less, you can enter the line for the ride

If present wait time is 30 minutes or more, your card will be marked with eligible return time for the ride

 

[KK505]

We picked up ours at the guest services inside islands of adventure. You let them know just like Disney why you need it. We only needed it for only those two rides cause we always arrived an hour before opening (they let you in the park with the early morning entry people even if you don’t have early morning entry, you just can’t pass a certain point in the park). During early morning at Universal Studios they let everyone even those without early morning to ride Transformers and The Mummy before the park opened. At both parks (1 park per day) we were able to ride almost everything with very little wait (under 30min) even though it was Easter week. Please note this was when the park attendance numbers were topped at a lower number they have since been raised. We left a couple hours after lunch everyday before it got crowded and hot. I do recommend that if you have someone that will want to ride a ride over and over that you purchase the express pass as that will get them on the ride faster if there is a higher wait time posted.

Just trying to clarify—if we are not staying on property we can still get into the park early to go to guest services to secure the disability pass? Do you just tell them at the gate that you need to go to guest services to gain early access?

 

[CindyPA]

There is a guest services desk outside the gate as well. They will date the pass to match your ticket dates.

 

[ArielRae]

Just trying to clarify—if we are not staying on property we can still get into the park early to go to guest services to secure the disability pass? Do you just tell them at the gate that you need to go to guest services to gain early access?

Not sure how it works if you are driving and parking in the parking garage. We walked over from the Clarion across the street. They let everyone in the theme park gate during early hours, you just couldn’t pass a certain point once inside unless you were staying on property. We went in with everyone and went to the guest services inside the park to get our pass then just sat and waited for the park to officially open and they let us into the rest of the park. You can also take care of everything at the guest services right outside the park too.

 

[mamaofsix]

Thank you for this thread - very helpful. Has anything changed since last year, or is the process similar? We are headed to Universal this spring.

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Thank you for this thread - very helpful. Has anything changed since last year, or is the process similar? We are headed to Universal this spring.

I went through the same process described above in August to receive my guest assistance pass. I highly recommend using guest services inside the park, it is a lot quieter and sees less traffic than the guest services outside the park where your wait could be a lot longer. Also, the team members have to use mental math to calculate your return time and we noticed it wasn't always correct so make sure to check the time they write on your pass before you leave the attraction.