Wait times for HP per Touring Plans/accurate?

[IBLarsen]

I of course know this isn't an exact science, but do you find when making a personalized touring plan that the suggested wait times are fairly accurate?
I've also typed in various plans at various times of day with my main concern being HP on both sides. (With our date being Sunday 3/15) And according to this it looks as if Gringotts is the about the same wait at 9:00am, 11:00am, and 1:00pm....Is this what your experience has been? And does a 45-50 min wait at all those times seem right during a busy time?
For Forbidden Journey, the wait times are listed at 12 min at 9:15am, and 38 min at 1:30pm.

These numbers seem not so bad, and I'm a bit worried that it may not be worth counting on.... Last summer (mid-June) we were at IOA and at 10:00am we had to wait for 2 hours to get on Forbidden Journey.

(I should add that we are not staying onsite and not doing express pass, but plan on starting at park opening, in one or the other)

 

[HM]

I've been watching the Universal wait time app from Undercover Tourist lately. You might want to download it (Free) and check it out over a period of time to see if the actuals jibe with your touring plan.

 

[johde]

In my experience from early January, the line for Gringotts is less a function of time of day and more a function of how reliably it's been running. When the ride is running full tilt it's a major people eater. But, if the ride has a hiccup the wait times can Balloon.

 

[kathy884]

I only have one day of experience to report on. We used a customized touring plan for a mid December visit. We found touring plans to be pretty accurate. Of course if a ride breaks down, it's anybody's guess, but there weren't any breakdowns the day we visited. Based on the advice of my nephew who worked at Universal during Halloween Horror nights during the Halloween season because Gringotts was a must do for us and he told us it breaks down a lot, we instead of doing it late in the day the way touring plans recommended, did it more mid afternoon. That meant a 15 minute longer wait and a bit of a line on the train too, but gave us peace of mind that we'd get it in.

Because we didn't have early entry or express pass, the touring plan recommendations were for us to first hit popular non HP headliners. That strategy worked really well I thought.

Those time do, though, seem awfully short for spring break, though, I think. But what do I know (not much -- I've only been to the parks for one day). Waits for the HP stuff (Forbidden Journey and Gringotts) mid December were about 35 and 50 minutes respectively 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.. And the train mid afternoon was about 25 minutes. Other than those our waits for everything else were 20 minutes or less with much being walk on. Overall crowd level on this day was a 3.

 

[macraven]

some of the paid subscriptions for park touring are good and accurate.

i went to look at the cost of the ep's for the 15th to get an idea of what UO expects the crowds to be.

i'm looking at the purchase of the unlimited ep and the one time usage ep that anyone can buy.

the unlimited ep wil cost $99.99 for both parks on the 15th.
the limited ep will cost $79.99 for both parks.

these are not high numbers for the above.


if you do studios only, unlimited pass is $89.99 while the limited ep will be $59.99.

i figure this as a moderate day for line waits.
when a park is really going to be crowded, a one day ep for the studios would be much higher than it is listed for the 15th.

since the two main parry hotter rides don't have express, i don't think your wait will be much more than 45 minutes for gringotts.
most newbies do the studios first for gringotts which will push the time up during the morning.
does your touring plans show what the line waits are estimated to be at the lunch hour period?
or right around noonish?

for FJ, i will guess that the time waits will be a lot less than gringotts.

many newbies are drawn to the studios as DA has a lot to offer.
the section in IOA isn't as large of a draw as it has been open longer than the new potter section in the studios.

use the UO app while in the park to get wait times.
and check the signs in the parks that update wait times for rides.

i wish you the best of luck to get everything done and seen without lengthy waits!

 

[IBLarsen]

some of the paid subscriptions for park touring are good and accurate.

i went to look at the cost of the ep's for the 15th to get an idea of what UO expects the crowds to be.

i'm looking at the purchase of the unlimited ep and the one time usage ep that anyone can buy.

the unlimited ep wil cost $99.99 for both parks on the 15th.
the limited ep will cost $79.99 for both parks.

these are not high numbers for the above.


if you do studios only, unlimited pass is $89.99 while the limited ep will be $59.99.

i figure this as a moderate day for line waits.
when a park is really going to be crowded, a one day ep for the studios would be much higher than it is listed for the 15th.

since the two main parry hotter rides don't have express, i don't think your wait will be much more than 45 minutes for gringotts.
most newbies do the studios first for gringotts which will push the time up during the morning.
does your touring plans show what the line waits are estimated to be at the lunch hour period?
or right around noonish?

for FJ, i will guess that the time waits will be a lot less than gringotts.

many newbies are drawn to the studios as DA has a lot to offer.
the section in IOA isn't as large of a draw as it has been open longer than the new potter section in the studios.

use the UO app while in the park to get wait times.
and check the signs in the parks that update wait times for rides.

i wish you the best of luck to get everything done and seen without lengthy waits!

Thanks! You mentioned Paid subscriptions are accurate... I should mention I was using the free personalized plans for Touring Plans (where you select your rides/shows and either let them optimize for you or evaluate your chosen order.
Will this make a difference over the actual paid plans (are they more accurate?)

I would love to hear more about what peoples recent waits have been!
For the free Touring plans, it lists the wait for Gringotts at 12:10pm as being 48 min.... Does this seem right?! I was reading horror stories of people waiting for 4 hours after it opened!

 

[soniam]

Thanks! You mentioned Paid subscriptions are accurate... I should mention I was using the free personalized plans for Touring Plans (where you select your rides/shows and either let them optimize for you or evaluate your chosen order.
Will this make a difference over the actual paid plans (are they more accurate?)

I would love to hear more about what peoples recent waits have been!
For the free Touring plans, it lists the wait for Gringotts at 12:10pm as being 48 min.... Does this seem right?! I was reading horror stories of people waiting for 4 hours after it opened!

Since it just opened last summer, I think that's why the waits had been so long for Gringotts. FJ was the same at its opening. I am using TP for the first time at Uni next week. Maybe we will see you Sunday I don't know how accurate they are for Uni. However, I have used them for WDW before with great success. So I feel that they are fairly trustworthy.

Macraven is referring to the paid app from TP called Lines. They have separate WDW and Uni versions. If you pay for the website subscription, the app is included. I think it is well worth the money.

 

[sjerrott]

I had the same question as IBLarsen - that is, are the paid touring plans better than the free ones. Has anyone compared Touring Plans (I think 6 dollars a month) with Orlando Informer (free)?

 

[johde]

I had the same question as IBLarsen - that is, are the paid touring plans better than the free ones. Has anyone compared Touring Plans (I think 6 dollars a month) with Orlando Informer (free)?

I have not timed out the 2 plans. But, they both look reasonable, the just make different assumptions especially in the 1 day 2 park plan. Touring plans is $6 a year (not a month) and with discount codes you can get it down into the $4's.

I would love to hear more about what peoples recent waits have been!
For the free Touring plans, it lists the wait for Gringotts at 12:10pm as being 48 min.... Does this seem right?! I was reading horror stories of people waiting for 4 hours after it opened!

I've not been there since January, but I know how to fake Universal's app and get information out of it. Today at 12:40 p.m., the App is showing 45 minutes for Gringotts and 45 minutes for Forbidden Journey. Touring plans listed crowd estimates for today as 6 for the studios and 7 for IOA. They were originally predicting 37 minutes for Gringotts and 25 for Forbidden Journey. If you subscribe to Touring plans, you can look back at historic days and see how well their predictions were by ride. The HP rides seem to be the least accurate of the bunch.

 

[macraven]

I had the same question as IBLarsen - that is, are the paid touring plans better than the free ones. Has anyone compared Touring Plans (I think 6 dollars a month) with Orlando Informer (free)?

OI has a decent touring plan.
i have looked at it to see their angle on time frames and advice.

a family member used a paid touring plan and they were satisfied with it.
it was about the same advice i gave son before he bought it.
but then, adult children never listed to mom.......

if a ride goes down while you are in the parks, it can change the touring plans you were counting on.

if it rains while you are in the park, many clear out for shelter or leave the park if there is no let up on the rain.
the ones that stay during a rainy period, usually have no issue with ride line waits.

 

[soniam]

...
if a ride goes down while you are in the parks, it can change the touring plans you were counting on.
...

Yes, but TP's app let's you redo your plan on the fly. It won't necessarily know the ride is broken, but you could remove the ride and re-optimize. Once the ride is back up and you have ridden, you can readjust the plan again.

 

[macraven]

that's true