Hello! We are going Sunday eek! We have express pass and early entry. It’s driving me nuts that I’m not sure what will be open. Nintendo world is our must do so my plan is:
I’m planning to save ministry of magic for when we see a wait time of 90 min or less. Is there a way to set an alarm for it to notify me when a wait time is low?
What would you do for early entry? I hate winging it, which is why I’m a Liner 
Is there a way to see express pass wait time online?
We stayed at Helios the last few days and I was obsessed with watching how the entry rush plays out from the window of our room.
My main takeaway is that, unless you are near the front of the main entrance pack, you are better off going to Ministry first.
Even if all of Helios goes for Ministry (seems like it’s 60-70% in reality), it is not actually that many people and only 10% from the main gate seem to make that move. We decided to super casually roll down for back of Helios pack, went to Ministry and were off by 9:30 (despite it saying it would open at 10).
90% of the giant mass at the main gate goes for Mine Cart. Granted, it may look deceptively terrible because of the bottleneck through the pipe.
At the end of early entry, we got in the Mine Cart line and had about a 45m wait.
About what time did you walk down to wait for entry through the Helios park entrance? About how long did it take to get through security and into the park at that time?
Also, what are your general thoughts on Helios? We are considering 2 nights at Helios (with 1 day at Epic), but some not so good reviews of Helios have me hesitant so we might just drive to Epic for a day while stying on-site at Disney.
The day we went for Ministry, we probably went down at 8:45. Were through security/tickets in 10m tops.
I also read the reviews and was a little worried but I place a huge premium on being able to pop up to our room if needed so went for it anyway. Maybe it was because of the low expectations but we were happy with the choice (and didn’t have some of the room issues others had early on). We also really enjoyed watching the fountain show each night.
This! After staying at the Disneyland Hotel in DLP, I’m gonna always choose this option. Being able to pop back to your room in 5 minutes is fantastic!
Especially in the case of Epic’s kind of brutal lack of shade! But I really do just enjoy watching parks from the comfort of a room.
I will say, that we were also pleasantly surprised by how well it went to pop over for a Disney day from this location. So I don’t think the reverse would be bad either if you hate the disruption of a split stay.
And on the flip side, I found visiting the og parks to be a pretty big ordeal even though it was as comfortable as they could reasonably make it (never had to wait for a bus etc) but I am spoiled by mostly staying at HRH when going to those parks in the past. It basically took as much time or
More to bus there/do security/march through CityWalk than to uber to a Disney park.
So my order of preference for working epic into a mostly Disney trip would actually be 1. Helios split stay 2. Just uber from your Disney onsite 3. Any other universal hotel if that makes sense.
I am doing 4 nights in Helios Dec 15-19 and then 5 nights in SSR thru 12/24 with this plan:
Dec 15 early PM flight arrival so head to City walk for the BTTF Escape Room (Love the JW one) and then dinner back at Helios from the bar at the top to watch the fountain show
Dec 16 - Epic
Dec 17 - Epic
Dec 18 - USF/IOA day
Dec. 19 - Hotel Switch and MVMCP (assuming it’s available on this day)
Dec. 20 - I have daytime DHS tickets but probably lunchtime arrival combined with JN assuming that’s happening this day
Dec. 21 - Disney Springs for late brunch in Wine Bar George and Cirque du Soleil
Dec. 22 - EPC for Extra Evening Hours so we can sleep in a bit here and arrive lunchtime
Dec. 23 - AK
Dec 24 - Home
I’m travelling with two 21 year olds and an 18 year old and tbh I am also a night owl, so leaning that way to make us have mostly lunchtime arrivals except at USO where we’ll RD. But I’m splitting my stay but will have to use those buses from Helios for Citywalk and for our OG park day. I’m sure it’s not ideal but I figured Helios would matter more since Epic is the focus. And the reason for the entire trip but when in Florida Disney math requires a full stay in WDW (which started as a can we do all four parks in one day sitch and disney math’d its way in 5 nights ofc)
I will also state we’ve stayed in Surfside with a car so parked in the garages and did the whole long bridge walk, security, long walk thru citywalk to the park and yes it’s not as nice as the hotels with a boat but I wasn’t miserable either. So I think we can do it for a couple of days. I feel like that’s less hassle than switching hotels this time around and I purchased EXP for OG parks and it was still cheaper than staying in RPR for partial stay which is why I decided not to split it. It was cheaper because I have two rooms because 18 and 21yos don’t want to share nor do the parents want to share a room with them! LOL
I think the other key difference is December vs late June - I’m a way better sport about that walk in that weather for sure!
That sounds like a really fun plan and I surely wouldn’t add an extra hotel switch either.
Yes, I’m doing my best to avoid the east coast parks in Summer. They are going to be a Nov-Mar kinda thing for me. I am going to DLR in August but I can tolerate a dry heat much better with way cooler evenings.
We’ll be there Sunday too! I’m also struggling with the early entry approach (no express passes for us). I have a feeling we may just head to Ministry of Magic since that’s what the area the kids really want to see.
The Universal app has wait time alerts. Find the ride in the app and you’ll see a little bell symbol labeled wait time alerts.
No one in my family likes Harry Potter otherwise, I would totally do that approach, as it seems to be secretly open at 9 am, which is amazing! My family is however obsessed with Mario so I feel like that’s my best choice. 
Is it crazy to stop at Stardust Racers on the way to Ministry?