We are going to arrive evening Saturday, December 6 so touring Sunday, Dec 7 and Monday, Dec 8. Crowd levels are projected to be “2”. Do we need the Express pass??
Hello! I am going to say no, I don’t think you will need the express pass at that time of year and at that crowd level. I have been in Jan and Feb during similar or slightly higher crowd levels and felt no need for the express pass. With a rope drop start and a plan you should be more than fine. The Harry Potter areas were the only parts of the park that ‘felt crowded’ to me, but these areas aren’t eligible for express pass anyway.
Here are a couple of good blogs about planning your time at uni and how best to fit in the new Harry Potter stuff, which you may find interesting and helpful.
http://blog.touringplans.com/2014/07/31/new-universal-orlando-two-daytwo-park-touring-plans/
It depends - if there are a lot of things that you want to fit in during your visit, then XP might help you out. Make PTPs for the days in question with everything you want to do, optimize them both with and without XP, and see if the additional expense is worth it for you.
Level 2 seems to argue against Express. What are your waits like on your touring plan? Seem to recall that the passes are dynamically priced: so cheaper when there’s less demand. Another thing to consider. What’s the added cost? And, will you be staying off site? So, no early entry?
Thank you guys so much for the quick, detailed responses!
We are planning on staying onsite, so we will be there for EE. I was just deciding which resort to stay at, actually, to see if we could get away with staying at the cheaper resort that doesn’t include XP. I will input the data into a touring plan to check. I honest to goodness did not know you could do that. 
Thank you so much!!!
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One additional thought here. When you stay at a “premium” UOR resort for 1 night, you actually get 2 days of EE and XP - check-in day and check-out day. To save a little money you could stay at a cheapo off-site motel Saturday night, get up early on Sunday to check in to your UOR resort (if your room isn’t ready just have them hold your bags at Bell Services), get your tickets/XP validated, and then hit EE.
Cabana Bay gets you EE too albeit w/o Express. Totally affordable and a cool resort
Ooooh, never thought of that. I’m much too lazy, but I love the way you think!
That’s what I’m thinking we will do, so I guess my question was actually not should be buy the XP, but can we get away with staying at Cabana Bay and not having XP at that time of the year…
Thanks so much, everyone. You’re awesome, what a great response to my first ever question 
Guess a personalized TP can be helpful. By the way, I stayed at Cabana and bought into XP