First time Universal Advice Please

Liam'sMimi

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jun 19, 2016
Hello
We booked the Los Angeles portion of our California vacation for August 17 to August 20. I foolishly did not look at the "is it packed" site for Universal. My fault, I know, but I based our dates on last year's visit to DLR where the crowds had lessened the second half of August. I had planned to spend Friday August 18 at UHS. We are staying just a 10 minute walk to the tram. We can be there for the 7 am early entry. My worry is that the entire week is listed as "Yup, it's packed". I'm debating purchasing Front of the Line passes but the $234 price tag has me reeling. Another option is to get a two day pass for $129 and visit for a few hours Thursday evening then again Friday morning. We will have traveled from Manhattan Beach that afternoon and we could probably squeeze in 7pm to 10pm that evening. This will probably be a one and only visit so I'd like my 11 yr old grandson to have a great time. Hour long waits.....yikes! I appreciate any advice, touring plans or pointers you can offer. I had thought of going to Griffith Observatory Thursday evening but if you think I'd be better off with the 2 day USH I'm open to it. I'm just having a really hard time swallowing $234 for Front if the Line passes. Many thanks!
 
Get there as soon as you can, take advantage of early entry, use the afternoon to see the shows you want to see and rest, and then the evening could be spent doing whatever is left.
The worst time typically is 11am to 4pm, as well as being the hottest. I usually go to shows at that time.

If you go to the lower lot, do everything there you want to do, so you don't have to spend time on the escalators again. Check and make sure all the rides you want to go on are open before you go to the lower lot.

The other advice is to use the waiting times in the app or on the website (or on the boards throughout the park) and choose wisely. It's not a big park, and except for going to the lower lot, it doesn't take a lot of time to get from one ride to another.

As far as front of the line, if I can't get early entry or get there on time, I usually go for it, because I usually leave around 5 or 6pm... but if you can get there in time for early entry, you probably don't need it except on the very busiest days.
 
I would try and make it the first night of your arrival. Lines usually go way down after 6pm, and there's the new Hogwarts castle lighting show that you might want to see.
 
Thank you for the advice. Since we are staying close by I'm thinking we will be able to take advantage of the 7 am early arrival. Can you leave the park and re-enter later in the day? We could maybe do 4 or 5 hours then go back to our flat for a rest and head back in after 6:00 the park has 8am to 10pm hours while we are there.
 


I would do what you proposed, go early and do a few hours before everyone shows up, take a mid-day break during the hottest/busiest part of the day then go back in the afternoon. That week will be bad but we'll be there as well - it's the first week after our pass summer blackout ends and the week before school starts again for us. Hit the busiest rides and Hogsmeade early/late and use the single rider lines if possible during the busiest times. Also, Universal "packed" does not match DL packed; Universal on its busiest day does not compare to the wall-to-wall people that is now DL way too often!
 
I would do what you proposed, go early and do a few hours before everyone shows up, take a mid-day break during the hottest/busiest part of the day then go back in the afternoon. That week will be bad but we'll be there as well - it's the first week after our pass summer blackout ends and the week before school starts again for us. Hit the busiest rides and Hogsmeade early/late and use the single rider lines if possible during the busiest times. Also, Universal "packed" does not match DL packed; Universal on its busiest day does not compare to the wall-to-wall people that is now DL way too often!
Thanks, Oakleycat!
We have done DL in August and early May and never found the crowds unbearable. By the second visit I was a pro at utilizing FastPasses! I'll miss not having those at USH. We will make the best of it and I'm sure we will have a great time. I just cannot justify spending over $700 for FOL passes for the three of us. I like the idea of splitting up the day. We get to see the park lit up and I get to take an afternoon rest. My days of being able to stay at a park open to close are long behind me!
 


Thank you for posting that site! I had never seen it before, but it looks like a terrific resource!
 
Thank you for posting that site! I had never seen it before, but it looks like a terrific resource!
I used it for visiting Disneyland and I found it helpful. We went for a few days which were predicted to be "ghostown" and we had a blast with low crowds. I'm not saying the info/predictions are 100% accurate but I have had good luck.
 
What they say in their 'ghosttown analysis' articles makes a lot of sense. There's some good, sound theory behind it.
 
How many people are in your group? We are going with a group of six on a Monday in early August. The Front of Line passes are too expensive, so what I did was buy six "priority passes" on Ebay, five general and one specifically for Forbidden Journey for a total of $120. That should get us on all the rides at least once with little or no wait. For $20 for each pass, that works out to $3.33 per person per ride to avoid a 45 to 60-minute wait. It seemed like a good value to me. I'm also planning to go for early hours and use the single rider line for all the attractions that have it.

The nice thing about the priority passes vs. the front of line is that the front of line only has one use per attraction. With the priority passes, if one ride has a particularly short wait, we can just go through the regular line and then use the priority pass twice on a ride with a longer line.
 
How many people are in your group? We are going with a group of six on a Monday in early August. The Front of Line passes are too expensive, so what I did was buy six "priority passes" on Ebay, five general and one specifically for Forbidden Journey for a total of $120. That should get us on all the rides at least once with little or no wait. For $20 for each pass, that works out to $3.33 per person per ride to avoid a 45 to 60-minute wait. It seemed like a good value to me. I'm also planning to go for early hours and use the single rider line for all the attractions that have it.

The nice thing about the priority passes vs. the front of line is that the front of line only has one use per attraction. With the priority passes, if one ride has a particularly short wait, we can just go through the regular line and then use the priority pass twice on a ride with a longer line.
We are a group of three. I'm going to have to look into the Priority Passes. I had not heard of them nor deen them on the Universal website page where I'll purchase tickets. I don't know how I missed this!
 
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The priority passes are not something you can buy, they are given out by the TMs for things like rides breaking down, long waits, services issues, or general "pixie dust." At least that's how I've always gotten them. I'm guessing the ones on Ebay are being sold by a TM with access to a bunch, which can get them fired but I don't think is illegal. They don't usually have expiration dates stamped on them, so if the current version is being sold they'll probably work in the park. They're not a really common thing, so I would be careful using a large quantity of them on the same ride.

FYI, the Harry Potter TMs also have a "magic word" each day for each of the rides there (Forbidden Journey and Hippogriff) that if you whisper to the TM at the entrance gets you straight to the front of the line. They can give this to guests for things like birthdays, great costumes, etc. - another "pixie dust" opportunity for the TMs. It's really cool but has to just happen, they won't give them out if asked.
 

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