Another thing to keep in mind is that UOR is more agile and probably trying new things during COVID, so even if TP had them pegged a month ago, things are different now. And they are trying much harder to lure locals to keep the park busy, which only works on weekends and holidays so you will probably have large variances depending on local school schedules that wouldn’t be quite as pronounced at Disney given its size and ability to absorb more visitors.
P.S. I’m doing EP for much the same reason as others have mentioned.
I just checked the cost of EP for our days in May. $130 pp/pd. This doesn’t bode well for expected crowds. But the price is a complete non-starter for us and exactly why I hope Disney never goes to any form of Fastpass, including paid! Basically Universal has come up with a system where you pay a lot to get in, and then pay a lot more to guarantee you can actually ride.
I then looked at predicted CLs. While they are hovering in the 4 to 6 range, when I have been looking at TPs predicted levels for the last month, they have been almost exclusively under estimating CLs…often significantly so. So…I guess we need to come up with a backup plan of things to do in the park that isn’t necessarily rides. Touring WWoHP is a given.
Same for me. It would be $300 for one day for just my daughter and I to get EP. However, the deluxe hotels are (or were - not sure there is availability now) over $550/night. We have three days and the hours are 8:00 - 10:00, so we’re just going to try to make do without EP or early entry. We first went to Universal Hollywood when their HP stuff opened. I didn’t really understand the EP and when I did, I hated it. I still do. I loved that when you walked through the gates of Disneyland (before MaxPass), everyone had the same shot at everything (unless you had a plaid) regardless of financial means.
Growing up on the east coast / WDW I’m just used the idea that on-site guests get either early entry or late hours (although they haven’t done the late hours in forever)
It’s one of the few benefits, especially these days, of even staying on-site at any theme park.
I’m not a “morning person”, but I much rather get up super early so I’m not in long queues and/or shoulder-to-shoulder with others at attractions like interactive wand spots. I like that vibe and then eating a very late breakfast / early lunch (10:30 - 11:15am) to catch my breath for an hour. Then I get back out there when others are just getting hungry / going for “resort / pool” breaks
Following along with my “virtual” TP (sounds cooler than “Fake TP”) it’s been a crazy week at UOR.
After about the first hour of operations, my USF / IOA plans are habitually reworked.
I saw this a few minutes ago on Twitter:
The line for Universal Studios Florida stretches through CityWalk all the way to the Universal Studios Store. Universal Studios is still open, but Islands of Adventure and Volcano Bay are already at capacity.
This is the Spring Break crowds. As long as you aren’t going July 1 - 5, you shouldn’t have too many issues. (I mean you’ll still have a good size crowd on the weekends because it’s summer, but not crazy like a holiday)
Universal appears to raise the price of EP as you get closer to your date. I purchased Jun 4 EP for $89.99 pp for hubby on March 4th I think it was maybe it was earlier. This week on Mon or Tues I got them for daughter and her friend for $159.99. I noticed next months are $279.99. I think if you can grab them way in advance you have a chance they are reasonable. But I usually stay onsite and don’t even have to worry about this.
We were AP holders last year, and noticed at the end of the year, after they offered that buy 1 day get the whole year, the crowds started growing exponentially. Then they dropped off in January, and now they are ridiculous again. So i agree they are overselling.
The deluxe hotels are they way to go, in terms of express passes.
Keep in mind you get them for the day you check in and the day you check out. So for a family for the Rooms pay for the EP’s.
I looked in advance - January for April travel and it was $149/day/person. I do not want to know what it would cost now if it only goes up! That was for the pass that gives you one ride front of the line not unlimited.
yup so is the $89.99 I paid for 2 people and then a few weeks later I paid almost double at $159.99 to add my daughter when she decided to come. Sigh But now we had it I had to add it for her. Stuck in a hard place I was. And they are non-transferable so I couldn’t just give her ours…though I do think that they don’t really check from my experience.
So then if my daughter shows up as me then she’s good. I don’t think they did this last Oct but we had the paid ones. In the past I remember taking a photo at the machine in the hotel lobby of HRH for them.
I wonder if they are multiple days then they want the photo but for single day less concern of you handing them off?
Edit: I will admit to sharing Flashpass at Six Flags but only because they sold out and we had bought so many and then added more people to our day and couldn’t add on. So we took turns using it. So I have cheated the system but I would have paid the money if they would have let me. But since we already had them for some of us it would have been mean to make them wait 2 hours while we rode in 15 min. But I do understand why they use the photo since I’ve cheated. But they’ve never checked ID to see if the name I put on the EP lines up with the person using it so I think I could have gotten away with my daughter and her friend, using mine and hubby’s consistently. But just in case I chunked the $320+ tax down. Ouch
