Express Pass Hot Take: You don't need them, even when it's busy.

[Pumpkin1172]

I think Transformers is just an old ride at this point. Hardly any wait for it when I went in early March.

Can I just say, as someone who has recently been able to experience it for the first time....we LOVED it!!!! It maybe a bit of an " older ride" but if you are a huge transformers fan...it still is an amazing ride. Especially when Optimus Prime gets down and points to you!!!

You may have ridden it a gazillion times, but for someone experiencing it for the first time...it's still kind of mind blowing I wish I could " complain" about the ride being old lol. We would be theme park junkies if we lived closer

 

[Westerner]

Actually Spiderman opened in 1999 and Transformers in 2013.

Thanks, didn't know that. Maybe Spiderman just feels more timeless than Transformers.

 

[EveDallas]

For me it's a matter of money. The EP hotels have gone past what I can comfortably afford and the Endless Summer resorts are affordable (plus my family of three can each have a real bed in the suites). I'd rather be in Universal without EP than not go at all.

 

[snoopboop]

Can I just say, as someone who has recently been able to experience it for the first time....we LOVED it!!!! It maybe a bit of an " older ride" but if you are a huge transformers fan...it still is an amazing ride. Especially when Optimus Prime gets down and points to you!!!

You may have ridden it a gazillion times, but for someone experiencing it for the first time...it's still kind of mind blowing I wish I could " complain" about the ride being old lol. We would be theme park junkies if we lived closer

I still geek out and get chills every time Optimus Prime tells us we did a good job.

 

[EveDallas]

I still geek out and get chills every time Optimus Prime tells us we did a good job.

"Welcome home, freedom fighters"

 

[mamapenguin]

I would say today 3/26/22 Express is needed. In the morning it wasn’t bad, but now most lines are crazy. Waiting for Jurassic Park river adventure. It’s 4:29 and I have after 4 express- standby is 50 minutes.

 

[RamblingMad]

Thanks, didn't know that. Maybe Spiderman just feels more timeless than Transformers.

Spiderman was based off of the 90s Spiderman cartoon. You can stream it on Disney+. The queue is awesome. They also redid the footage for the ride, so it's the same one that originally came out. I love it. Transformers is basically Spiderman on steroids. Too bad they have don't anything with Bumblebee. I like that one the best in the franchise.

 

[mlreed328]

We stayed at CBBR for 5 days on our first trip, but only went to the park 3 days. I booked a room at RPR for one night that we didn't use to get an express pass. The difference between the experience of having EP for the first two park days and not on the last day to me was remarkable. I simply won't do the parks without express pass again (but we are from out of state and go during school breaks).

It comes down to the spontaneity factor for me as well. When we walk on transformers in 5m rather than waiting 30+ and my son says, "let's do it again!" I like being able to say, "let's do that as many times as you want!" vs. knowing each subsequent ride is another 30+ minute wait.

 

[AJA]

When we first started visiting Universal our daughter was 6 years pld and Universal only had the three deluxe hotels on site with Express. That was an amazing perk when you have young kids and need to do as much as possible in a certain amount of time.

Fast forward 12 years, dozens of visits, and none of us feel we need Express with our schedule. We are usually onsite for 6-9 nights at moderately busy times or less.

If your group is ok using the single rider lines and they are willing to use early entry then IMO express isn’t really needed, especially after your first visit when you start to be familiar with the parks.

 

[macraven]

If you are solo, you could use single rider lined instead of express.

I stay at a premier hotel so ep is a given

 

[gorkt]

I think EP is priced perfectly, and this thread shows it. Its enough extra money that you really have to think twice, and many people don't bother doing it, so not enough people do it so it impacts standby lines less.

That being said, I paid for one night at a throw away resort on my last trip, and I found EP to be worth it for the length of trip we take, which is typically 2-3 days tacked onto a Disney trip. We did our first trip without EP, and it was...fine, but we really were only able to ride the few things we really needed to ride, and spent more time in line than we wanted. EP increased the enjoyment of our last trip immensely. I will likely do this again.

 

[Pooh's World]

Before Hagrid's I felt the EP was kind of useless if you've been to Universal alot.
I mean it does shorten the wait for alot of rides but really the only ride I want to do is Hagrid's a million times.

And then things like MIB and Gringotts has a single rider line so those are short if I really have to ride them.

 

[Squirlz]

Before Hagrid's I felt the EP was kind of useless if you've been to Universal alot.
I mean it does shorten the wait for alot of rides but really the only ride I want to do is Hagrid's a million times.

And then things like MIB and Gringotts has a single rider line so those are short if I really have to ride them.

Unfortunately Hagrid's has no EP yet.

 

[gharter]

Our last trip, we stayed at Portofino and LOVED having EP.
We did rope drop each morning to do Hagrids and Velocicoaster.
Then we had NO planning for the rest of the day. Short lines for anything we wanted to do. Made the trip so easy.

 

[skipper]

I know EP's are a hot topic around here, and when people ask should they get them in many instances I will say yes, but no one ever "needs" them.

We Stayed 6 nights at CB over Thanksgiving and while it was very crowded we got to do pretty much everything we wanted in 4 park days without EPs. Of course this would not have worked as well if we only had 2 park days, but even then we wouldn't have "needed" them. I think many of us have been so conditioned by Disney planning that we measure the success of our trips by how many rides we get on. When I let this notion go and leaned into the spontaneity of Universal, it made for a much more relaxing vacation despite the crowds.

We had such a great time, and CB is so awesome and affordable that we decided to go again during the kids spring break, which is the week before Easter. Sure there are a few things we didn't get to last time that are a priority for us on this trip, but the #1 thing we didn't get to do enough of was Volcano Bay because it was a little too cold for some members of our family. If I were too add EP for any day it would be $400+ for my family and I would try to get the most out of it by getting everyone to the parks early and trying to ride every ride in both parks in no matter the weather etc... I know this can be a lot of fun, and I planned some Disney World days w/ FP in the past that felt like even though I planned every minute, it all came together and worked great! That wasn't every day though, and some days would start with me trying to get very sleepy kids out of bed to get an 8am bus so we could make a 9am FP that I woke up in the middle of the night months prior to get.

While I have plans and reservations for our upcoming, there is absolutely nothing that can't be moved or cancelled. In fact I make multiple reservations for meals expecting to use only about half. If my kids get to the parks early and get tired around lunch, going back to the hotel and just relaxing by the pool is fine by me and I don't feel like I'm out $400 or am missing out on a reservation that took a lot of effort to make. If different people want to split up and do different things? I can accommodate this easily.

Of course EPs are great, and I get a bit jelly when I'm watching people breeze by me as I spend an hour in line for the Hulk but I have chosen to spend more time in the parks instead of "maximizing" less time. The thing is there are many things you can't even use EPs at like shows, parades, Hagrid's, VC, and not to mention all of Volcano Bay. My main point though isthere isn't a single attraction where you NEED a FP!

An hour in line? Forgeddaboutit. My ankles already swollen just thinking about it.

 

[MichelinMan]

IMO, Express Passes are worth every penny of staying at a deluxe resort.

We were at Universal for 5 days in total last trip, but met up with friends for 1 day who didn't have Express Pass, so we did the queues with them that day - big mistake. Massive queues for every ride, and the wife ended up suffering with rash on her legs so badly (the Disney rash) that she ended up at the hospital for treatment. So we wouldn't ever contemplate doing Universal again without the deluxe hotel Express Pass perk. I don't think they are worth the money to pay out of pocket for without the hotel stay though.

 

[Dug720]

I'm going to take the unpopular opinion and agree with @SPJoeG and say that Express Pass isn't necessary. And I'll take it a bit further - I don't even enjoy it. (You can all gasp now!)

A bit of background - for me, Cabana Bay is home. It is the first Universal hotel that I stayed in and I like just about everything about it - the food, the vibe, the pools, the smell, and I can even deal with the buses - and after 10+ stays, I will chose it over any other place. Being that we usually don't have EPs, we've learned most of the tricks on how to do everything we want without them focusing mainly on going at low crowd times (mostly but not all of our trips), using early entry and single rider, and being willing to come back to something where the wait time is more than we want to spend. We also are multi-year annual passholders so our trips aren't "one and done" affairs. If we happen to miss something (and we usually don't), it isn't earth-shattering.

But after reading for years about the magic of EPs, I finally broke down and booked a split-stay with our first night at Hard Rock Hotel when I found a killer APH rate. The hotel was okay (I wanted to like the location more than I did and I was unenthused by the quick service selections available). We wound up altering our touring style to try to take advantage of having the EPs and hit the big line rides, but that was almost more "work" than our usual style. We just didn't see the value in it as there were times the EP line was longer than the single rider line, which is what we usually do. When we walked into the lobby of CB, it like a breath of fresh air and it felt like our vacation had finally begun.

This January, I decided to try again. I was traveling with my best friend (who is familiar with the parks, but not my usual Universal partner) and I was doing the runDisney Dopey challenge (running 3.1, 6.2, 13.1, and 26.2 miles on consecutive days). In an effort to save my feet for the races and maximize the limited park time that we were going to have at the start of the trip, I booked the first 2 nights at Royal Pacific. There were definitely more people in the parks and the stand-by lines were longer, but so were the EP lines. And since I had spent the darned money on the EPs, I felt a pressure to use them even if it didn't make sense. Finally by day two, I was ready to let go of that and bail on the parks when the crowds go to be too much and my energy/patience was depleted. We also wound up getting out of an EP line that was probably going to take us 10-15 minutes and ducked into a single rider line that had us on the next set of cars. For the rest of the trip, we were at Cabana Bay and the last 1.5 days (after the races were over), we had no problem getting to do everything that we wanted to - and I felt a lot less stress about doing it.

Is there a time and place for EPs? Yes! If you are only going for a day or two at a busy time and are a "one and done" trip, absolutely. Are there a particular type of group that they work particularly well for (i.e. a family unit that can't or doesn't want to use the single rider lines)? Yes! But I see so many people on the boards who seem to believe that they MUST HAVE THEM for their trip to Universal to successful and are willing to break their budget/stress themselves out beyond belief/give up things like trying the park food or buying their kid a wand to do so. And that makes me sad because I know that you can have a fabulous trip without them. I hope that that never changes about Universal.

Thanks for this. I'm contemplating a trip in April - it would be solo (so I can do single rider lines) and I'd probably do the 2-park 5-day park to park since I'm REALLY not a water park girl (honestly debating park to park, but that's another subject). I'm thinking that even though it would be the week after Easter, being solo and having 5 days I'd be ok. The pricing difference between Dockside and one of the Premiums is absurd, especially since the EP wouldn't even cover what I'm most interested in (Velocicoaster). So it's good to hear that it's doable without.

 

[sandam1]

Thanks for this. I'm contemplating a trip in April - it would be solo (so I can do single rider lines) and I'd probably do the 2-park 5-day park to park since I'm REALLY not a water park girl (honestly debating park to park, but that's another subject). I'm thinking that even though it would be the week after Easter, being solo and having 5 days I'd be ok. The pricing difference between Dockside and one of the Premiums is absurd, especially since the EP wouldn't even cover what I'm most interested in (Velocicoaster). So it's good to hear that it's doable without.

Five days/four nights is what we usually do and is the perfect amount of time IMHO. I would highly recommend getting a park-to-park ticket or take a look at what the cost would be to upgrade to an annual pass. I've always viewed the two parks as one large park and go back and forth multiple times in one day. Just like people say that they would never be without EP, well, I would never be without a p2p ticket.

We stayed at Dockside for our last trip and it is a nice hotel. As I said in my post, Cabana Bay is home and there were things about CB that we missed at Dockside (the food isn't as good, the bus service is less frequent, we don't have the option of hopping on the Sapphire Falls boat, there is no lazy river). But for a quick (3-day, 2-night) budget trip, it was perfectly acceptable.

 

[UOAP-Naples]

Thanks for this. I'm contemplating a trip in April - it would be solo (so I can do single rider lines) and I'd probably do the 2-park 5-day park to park since I'm REALLY not a water park girl (honestly debating park to park, but that's another subject). I'm thinking that even though it would be the week after Easter, being solo and having 5 days I'd be ok. The pricing difference between Dockside and one of the Premiums is absurd, especially since the EP wouldn't even cover what I'm most interested in (Velocicoaster). So it's good to hear that it's doable without.

For solo, I'd skip the express. The single rider lines are great at Universal on all but the three coasters that only seat 2 people in each row (Velocicoaster, Hagrid's, Rip Ride Rocket). You're usually better off usually waiting in the regular line for those. The rides that seat 3 or more on a row need single riders much more frequently.

Definitely consider park-to-park tickets.

The biggest reason we think they're needed is the weather. If there are storms, almost everything at IOA will close. These rides are outdoors at IOA: Hulk, Dr. Doom, both water rides in Toon Lagoon, all three rides in Jurassic, Hagrid's and Hippogriff in Wizarding World, and Suess Trolley and One Fish, Two Fish in Suess Land. The only rides left open are Storm Force Accelatron, Spiderman, Kong, Forbidden Journey, Hogwarts Express, Cat in the Hat and Caro-Seuss-el.

Studios only has two rides impacted by weather - Rip Ride Rocket and the Woody Woodpecker coaster. Everything else stays open. We start days with rain predicted at IOA, then head to Studios before the rain starts. We can stay there the rest of the day or go back to IOA if the rain stops and we still have things to ride there.

 

[wdwrule]

Thanks for this. I'm contemplating a trip in April - it would be solo (so I can do single rider lines) and I'd probably do the 2-park 5-day park to park since I'm REALLY not a water park girl (honestly debating park to park, but that's another subject). I'm thinking that even though it would be the week after Easter, being solo and having 5 days I'd be ok. The pricing difference between Dockside and one of the Premiums is absurd, especially since the EP wouldn't even cover what I'm most interested in (Velocicoaster). So it's good to hear that it's doable without.

I use the SR line very often, even with express after 4:00 AP. We sometimes opt for SR over express due to length of wait. Velocicoaster is our favorite and as you mentioned, it does not have express. Hagrid’s is another high wait, also does not offer express. If you hit rides in the morning (not even crack of dawn) you can get TONS of rides in and even multiple walk on after walk on using SR line. I wouldn’t recommend it though to families with young kids or infrequent visiting.