Universal Studios - A Do or a Don't in July?

[MagicalMomAZ]

We have reached veteran status as CA visitors I like to think...we fell in love with the Newport area the first time we took our DD to DL in '02. BUT we promised ourselves THAT year no more summer park visits because of the crowd level, it's just not for us. Well, I went & destroyed that vow by finding an uber-cheap vacation rental 4th of July weekend. Partiers, crowds....we'll see if I can retain my sanity.

Last time I went to Universal I was 21 ('97) & my GF & I were waiting in lines for 3 hrs. It was CRRRAZY. But we were young w/ time on our hands so we didn't mind.

SO! My question is WHAT is Universal like these days...in the summer? Long lines, crazy crowds? Is there a day in the week that's LESS crowded? 4th of July is the middle of the week...not sure if that's good or bad when organizing a visit.

I'd like to make the visit as painless as possible for my crowd-avoiding-DH. After 8 yrs I got him to like DL....I need to branch out you see.

 

[Thundergod]

I am sorry I saw this thread so late but maybe this will help.

We went to Universal two days last year while visiting california, one day was a sunday and the other day was on tuesday, July 18th and 20th.

Sunday the wait times were not bad, probably 15 minutes was the longest we waited and that was on the simpsons ride. We would have had to wait hours for the backlot tour but we did a 2 minute survey when we first entered the park and got front of the line passes for the tour.

It got a little more crowded as the day went along but still the waits were minimal. We went again on Tuesday and the lines were non exitant on most rides.

IMO universal isn't as nice of place as it was back in 96/97 when we were there previous to last year. It's still alot of fun though.