On our way

Alynw

DIS Veteran
Joined
Oct 29, 2018
Well, were officially on our way to Universal and it feels great. No plan at all, just winging it. That what we love about universal, u can just go and wing it and still have a blast, no planning needed. Hopefully the crowds are starting to drop off, we go every year starting on the 1st cause in years past, this is when the crowds start dropping and should be even better each day. We haven't even decided which park were going do yet, we'll decide when we get there and if it's still crowded, I'll just buy EP on the fly. We have to do all the planning for WDW rite down to ADR but with UO we can just show up and do what we want when we want to. See ya there.
 
I was thinking about going today first thing starting at EE as I was thinking everyone would be too hung over to be in the parks, but since I went to Orlando last night and drove home thought I should probably try to sleep more than a couple of hours.

I hope you have an amazing time! Just looked at the wait times and they seem about average, nothing too insanely busy. The busiest thing is Gringotts at 125 minutes. Other than that a lot of the wait times are either low, or average.
 
I envy you, OP, :)
We love the freedom of Universal. It is so different of the "plan every move" at Disney. We enjoy riding our favorite attraction, MIB, over and over - no problems! It is so freeing to do what you want when you want and over and over if you want:)
I love their resorts too and the free EP is great! The whole park is so refreshing after being at Disney - it's like a breath of fresh air!
Are you going to Universal only, or doing some Disney too? just curious.
 


Thanks guys, we are pleasantly surprised at the low crowd at Studios Side. Looks like the "hung over effect" holds true today, lol. No EP needed at all today. So far, everything is running about 20min under the actual posted time, we've done Minions 30min, RRR only 20min, Mummy was 30min, most of these rides had a 45min posted time but lines are moving really good today. It been a year since we been here but I dont recall having to pay for lockers but it could be just my bad memory but lockers are now $2. Time for HP world and butter beer. We'll be at Islands tmrw and hopeful for even lower crowds since it's a normal work day again and alot of locals should be returning to work, so we'll see but for those on the fence, it's been really nice so far.
PS
Was only 20min wait for chocolate factory seating for the restaurant, without any prior reservations.
 
I was thinking about going today first thing starting at EE as I was thinking everyone would be too hung over to be in the parks, but since I went to Orlando last night and drove home thought I should probably try to sleep more than a couple of hours.

I hope you have an amazing time! Just looked at the wait times and they seem about average, nothing too insanely busy. The busiest thing is Gringotts at 125 minutes. Other than that a lot of the wait times are either low, or average.

You are spot on.
 
I envy you, OP, :)
We love the freedom of Universal. It is so different of the "plan every move" at Disney. We enjoy riding our favorite attraction, MIB, over and over - no problems! It is so freeing to do what you want when you want and over and over if you want:)
I love their resorts too and the free EP is great! The whole park is so refreshing after being at Disney - it's like a breath of fresh air!
Are you going to Universal only, or doing some Disney too? just curious.

We just finished up with Disney last week and this week is our Universal. We like doing it like this for the exact reasons u said, after all the Disney hustle, it's a nice change of pace to just show up and do as u please, definitely a breath of fresh air.

Quick edit: At HP and gringots down to only 60min rite now.
 
Last edited:


OP, the lockers should be free. They installed smaller lockers at the locations that had the free optional/required lockers. The other lockers (I believe are larger) are $2 as you said.
 
.
OP, the lockers should be free. They installed smaller lockers at the locations that had the free optional/required lockers. The other lockers (I believe are larger) are $2 as you said.

Oh, ok. Thanks for the heads up, appreciate it. We just grabbed first ones we seen, I'll be sure to grab the free ones now, thanks.
 
@Disxuni , did u end up going to Universal today? We got a late start today, just now on our way and I'm afraid I screwed up going this late and trying to ride Hagrid's without a 3+ hr wait. One way or another were going ride it but man my back will be broke down from waiting in line that long, hurts worse waiting in lines than walking around. U seem to know these parks really well, any quick tips for Hagrid's. Thinking worse case we will just do single rider line to make sure we at least get to ride.
 
@Disxuni , did u end up going to Universal today? We got a late start today, just now on our way and I'm afraid I screwed up going this late and trying to ride Hagrid's without a 3+ hr wait. One way or another were going ride it but man my back will be broke down from waiting in line that long, hurts worse waiting in lines than walking around. U seem to know these parks really well, any quick tips for Hagrid's. Thinking worse case we will just do single rider line to make sure we at least get to ride.

I'm planning on going on Sunday. Since the ride has been extra unpredictable (yesterday for example been closed essentially all day, but today from what I read people have been able to get on it this morning), I've been suggesting people to look at the app and watch the wait times to see what it's like. Most of the time the wait times have been over exaggerated in order to compensate if there is a delay, but if there are no delays the wait times can be dramatically less. Unfortunately, how much less is hard to determine, ever since the ride has opened people have been reporting as little as only 15-20 minutes less, half hour, or up to half the wait time reported.

I suggest those that do want to do the rope drop for Hagrid's, but do not have the time to wait while during park hours to wait during the whole EE period and once inside if they do not announce a delay to go forward, but if they do announce a delay to wait a little bit and if it does not move, or they do not announce anything after a certain amount of time to ditch.

You can also check the main Hagrid coaster thread to see what has been happening more recently. However, there hasn't been much reported today. I will say that if you do not get on today, tomorrow might be best bet if you're staying in the area still, as Saturday is predicting rain/storms. Which is why I plan on going Sun rather than Sat.

Unfortunately SR line opens and closes frequently and it's rare to see SR open. Which is why I'm still waiting to go onto Hagrid's once things get better since I have an AP anyway and I'm a frequent SR.

I'm sorry about your back. While I do not have the same issue I do not like standing either. I'd rather walk as well, as I feel I get more pain in standing rather than walking. Typically in line if I know I'm going to be waiting awhile and cannot lean, or sit on something I kind of walk in place on and off when the lines not moving. I don't know if it would help, but thought I'd mention it.
 
Well, we ended up not riding Hagrid's, was 240min wait and every time we checked on single rider line, it was closed due to being full, oh well, we still love Universal. They did change the Grinchmas Show from last year, was also really good. It was definitely little more busy yesterday than I anticipated. We fly out early Saturday morning or I'd take ur advise and try hagrid's with the bad weather coming in, good luck if u go Sunday and thanks for tips, we'll get it next year for sure, it's not so bad leaving without riding it knowing were coming back. Hey, overall was a great trip this year and one of our better ones, we'll be back next year.
 
Just an FYI for anyone that goes to universal in the afternoon like we do, the after 4pm EP was $95 which is higher than what it was last year. It might be a little cheaper depending on the day u go. I bought the 4pm> EP and spoke with CM about other EP options and he said they had already sold out of everything except the 4pm EP and was almost out of the 4PM option as well. I explained to him that we'd been coming here and buying the after 4PM EP for several years now and we've never had a issue with getting EP the day we go to the park and he said that they have seen a real significant increase in EP purchases this year. I didnt go into great detail with him of why but I'm just wondering if it's from the new hagrid's ride bringing in more people. Anywho, point being is if u plan on on buying 4PM pass, I'd suggest getting there no later than 2PM and buy EP rite away cause it seems the 4PM EP is gaining popularity.
 
I had no idea of them selling out regular EPs, then again I never get them unless I stay on property. Also, $95 for after 4pm EP sounds insane to me. Even if they’re open later than they normally are at 10pm that is less than a half day. However, more than likely it’s people buying them to compensate for waiting all that time for Hagrid probably like you said.
 
EP is a separate ticket. It changes depending on what day it is. I suggest looking into staying at a hotel that includes unlimited EP if you’re staying that long. Buying EP all seven days would be expensive.
 
I had no idea of them selling out regular EPs, then again I never get them unless I stay on property. Also, $95 for after 4pm EP sounds insane to me. Even if they’re open later than they normally are at 10pm that is less than a half day. However, more than likely it’s people buying them to compensate for waiting all that time for Hagrid probably like you said.

We went to see the 3:45 Grinchmas Show til our 4pm pass was available and I ended up making conversation with guy beside me, long story short he works for universal, we got to talking about the new years eve crowd and then ticket cost, anywho, he told me I should look into buying my tickets direct from universal instead of UT because even though UT has some great deals, they were limited on the EP options. He said yea, u can get those great promo tickets that offer free days but u cant get the special EP pricing with those promo tickets. He said for me to look into buying say a regular 3 day ticket direct from universal and add EP for the 3 days and said by doing this I could get EP for all 3 days for like $100 a day, which is a lot cheaper than saving $50 on tickets and having to pay $150 day to add EP. I'm not sure if this is correct but I'm definitely going check it out and compare the prices. Anyone else firmilar with this. I've always just bought the promo tickets through UT, buy 2 day get 2 day free and then just bought the EP separately.
 
The regular 3 day pass by UO is not as discounted as UT has on their sales

I have not read of paying only $33.33 per day for ep at guest services for the ep add on

Double check with guest services by email to verify that

Prices change at times so really not aware of deals until I get the alerts from UO
 
The regular 3 day pass by UO is not as discounted as UT has on their sales

I have not read of paying only $33.33 per day for ep at guest services for the ep add on

Double check with guest services by email to verify that

Prices change at times so really not aware of deals until I get the alerts from UO

Not $33 a day...$100 a day. He was basically telling me that if I buy my tickets direct through UO and add EP at time of purchase, I would get a discount on the EP and it ends up being around $100 per day. For example, if I buy a 3 day ticket, no promo ticket, and i add EP for all 3 days, it would only cost a $100 a day ($300 for 3 day ticket)but if I were to buy the cheaper promo ticket from UT, i wouldn't be able to add EP at time of purchase and would have to buy later from UO and have to pay the full price for EP which is like $150 a day. I've always used UT to purchase all my tickets so I'm not firmilar with all the options UO offers but here in next few weeks I'm going contact both UO and UT and see what all the options are for adding/buying the EP. He was super nice guy and was just giving me some friendly advice which was pretty cool, what started the whole conversation was he asked where we were from and I told him Indiana and just so happen his son lives in Indiana, small world. He said he has been working for UO for 4 yr now and was talking about how this year was the largest crowd hes ever seen at UO on new years eve day, then we started talking tickets and so on.
 
Last edited:
Well, were going do something we've never done before, were coming back to Florida for a quick trip, basically a long weekend and were going back to UO for 1 maybe 2 days. We ended having some flight credits that expire before our normal trip so its either use em or lose em and I decided to use em so were going fly in January 30th at 3PM and then fly home February 2nd at 7am. Chances are were only going do 1 day at UO so I'm kinda torn on how I should go about it, I'm letting my daughter bring a friend so its going be 4 of us, I can get 1 day base pass for $119 pp and just do 1 side of UO only or I can get a 2 park - 1 day - unlimited EP for $264 pp and literally do both parks with unlimited EP and no waiting. Knowing were not coming back for a year and my daughter's friend will probably never be back, is it really worth $1,100 for 1 day, even though its pretty much a free for all type day.
 
Last edited:

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top