So before Covid I was planning on reserving one night at a Universal Hotel to get the front of the line passes because I don’t like waiting in lines
Do you think it is still worth it to do that? Now that the wait times are not bad? Or are they still bad enough to splurge?
What do you think?
How many days are you going? If it’s a single day and you really want to do it all, I’d get the Express Pass.
Also, you can buy the Express Pass at pretty much any gift shop in the parks. So you can wait & see if it feels crowded before you commit. You don’t have to “over pay” for a deluxe resort if the accommodations aren’t a priority.
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What day of the week are you going? How many of you are there?
I have found that one night at a deluxe, which gives us two days with express pass, saves us time (valuable) and money.
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I think the answer to this probably depends also on how many people are in your party. For my family of five, paying the extra to stay at a deluxe resort and get the EP for everyone is always worth it. If it’s just my sister and i, I focus more on the time of year because the per person cost is so much higher.
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Oh, and it looks like weekends have been hitting capacity, so the EP would definitely be worth it on the weekends. Weekdays seem to be lighter.
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Just to be clear, Express Passes don’t give you front-of-line access. They’re like FPPs. You still have to wait, just less than if you don’t have them. VIP tours at UOR give you real front-of-line access.
We are looking at a Friday/Saturday staying over Friday night.
There are 3 of us
Since you are only going to be there for two days you may want to do a deluxe stay to get the Express Passes. (if you are a “do it all” style person) Especially since you are going on the weekend
There are some small story elements you bypass in the Express queues for some of the attractions. However, it’s worth it to get that access.
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The weekend crowds have been high. I would definitely do the one night.
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Given that you are going on a weekend and there are 3 of you, I would do the deluxe stay.
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so I’m going to Universal on Columbus Day (Monday the 12th). If I book a deluxe room for monday night would the express pass work for both monday the 12th and tuesday the 13th? and would i get the early entry on monday even though i cant check until monday afternoon?
Yes to both, but you would check in before going to the park on the Monday morning. You need your room keys.
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Adding on the room key is the express pass and you will need to show it in order to get early entry into the parks.
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Thank you, it would have helped if I’d said why they needed it!
thanks for this! i ended up booking a room at hard rock for sunday night the 11th so we can go over that evening, get our keys, stay the night and be able to walk to the park the following morning for early entry!!!
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This is what I always do but I check in early and go two days but just go in the afternoon the first day (usually grab a morning flight) and then do the early entry the next day. I can literally do every single thing and the best things twice or maybe three times (mummy for me) with those two days of express passed and a day and half. Both those days are open till 8pm and I’ll be there too! If you see a tall 6’5” man with his short 5 and 3.75” wife with their two teens say hi! ;-). I’m hoping the haunted houses are open still too!
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That is awesome!!! I will! and yes I’m crossing my fingers for haunted houses! I’m also pumped they extended the hours… obviously it means they expect crowds but that just means more time for me to sit in Diagon Alley eating Beef Pasties 
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On another of these forums someone told me the virtual passes for the haunted houses became available at 8:40am for a 9am opening and were gone within twenty minutes. They said you can get them even if you aren’t in the park as long as you are somewhere on Universal property and everyone in your group is logged into the Universal app. They said one person can get up to 8 virtual line passes for those people logged in. So thought I’d share here in case the haunted houses are open for you too.
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And Haunted Houses are extended!!!
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