Universal/Hard Rock Hotel xmas week? Some Q's...

[mollies_mum]

Hi guys,
I'm thinking about taking my daughter here xmas week, maybe xmas eve 2011 for just one week as an xmas treat or maybe a bit earlier ie 20th Dec?
I was wondering how busy, im assuming very, the park would be... but I'm thinking that if I stay onsite I will get the front of the line passes which would ease the queuing situation or would these queues still be big?
We weren't going to bother with Disney as my daughter is a bit older now (10) and we've always missed Universal/IOA due to spending all our time in Disney.
Any thoughts or advice would be great, I know that it's a way off yet but if we agree to go for it I want to get in early and start pricing up to see if it is realistic for us.
Thanks in advance

 

[damo]

If you can, go right before Christmas. Crowds are much lower than.

It is tough to anticipate what it is going to be like next year since The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is going to change the crowds as we are used to seeing them.

 

[msmith07101]

We just came back from US & IOA from 12/21 to 12/23. Stayed at Royal Pacific, so we had the FOTL passes. Not that we really needed them...most of the lines were rather short. We had spent a few days at Disney before, and the crowds there were much heavier than anything we experienced at US & IOA. We did use our FOTL passes rather than wait in 10 or 20 minute lines. I did see some of the lines get longer as the day progressed, but we had already done everything we wanted. I hear that the week between Christmas and New Years is quite busy, which is why I went before Christmas. Good luck planning!