What to expect - July crowds & touring

[lilchief27]

My son (13yo) & I are tagging along with my hubby & daughter as they attend a convention at Gaylord Palms. We (son & I) are headed to IoA THIS Friday. We plan to be at the gate by 7:30 a (park opens at 8). We will be driving from Gaylord Palms hotel.

Here are my questions...

1) Should we be at the gate before 7:30a?

2) Is it possible to cover most of the park without Express passes?

3) What in the 1 day touring plan can we drop since he is a teen? (I am using a touring plan from Orlando Informer website)

We can do single rider BUT since it is just 2 of us & it's our 1st time here, I'd prefer to experience as much as possible together.

Through my work, I can purchase a 1 day base tix for $99/ each. The express pass for our day is $85, which is almost as much as the 1 day ticket.

A little extra background. Hubby & daughter will join us in IoA later that night along with the rest of the convention go-ers. (The convention group will choose between US or IoA so maybe they ALL won't be in IoA with us

) We, as a family, plan to return to Universal fall 2016 when the crowds are lower so we can really get our fill of the parks & see EVERYTHING. We are also going to Sea World on Sunday.



Many thanks for your input!

 

[macraven]

suggest you go to www.universalorlando.com and read up on the rides and all that you will find in the park.
you'll get a decent description of the rides and that way, you and son can decide what rides to avoid for this day trip.

i have taken my sons with me at times and we do the single rider line if it is shorter than the express lines.
many of the rides we can't converse on so it hasn't been an issue for us or need to sit together for rides.
but, some rides it is enjoyable to have the person next to you and i can appreciate that.
coaster rides, dr doom, RRR, hulk, you couldn't hear a person talk to you once you are on those rides.
simple rides such as MIB, TF, T2, simpsons, et, or water rides are nice to be with a friend or family

know the route you need to drive from the hotel to the parking garage.
give your self an extra 30 minutes for lining up to enter the garage and park your car.
once you leave the garage, it can be 15 minute walk to the parks.

a couple of times i drove from disney to universal and planned it to miss the rush hour trafic on the main route but was held up 20 minutes in the line that was waiting to enter the parking garage.
when you go early to be at the gate 30 minunites before it opens, you can lose precious time doing so.
we found we preferrefed being in front of the other cars for getting into the garage and not waste that time

our style of getting to the park was to go real early and be ahead of all the other cars goig earliy also.

do buy your your tickets early before you go to cut done wasting time.
our goal was to paek that car and get into the park before 5ooo others did
but tha is just our way we did the plans for the day.

all of us were very excited to get in the parks and hit the rides before line waits would form.

that won' bother you if you are not in rush to hit the ground running as many say.

study the maps that UO and and find the quickest way to your first ride you want to be on

 

[lilchief27]

Thank you. Actually my hubby will be dropping my son & I off so we won't have to deal with parking. Hopefully that will help with our timing.