I’m starting to worry about parks hitting capacity during our visit. If we stay at a hotel with ‘priority entrance’ what does that actually mean? Also, Can we go back and forth between USF and IOA? Thanks for your help!
Good question, and I’m also curious about this. I had assumed hotel guests would be guaranteed admission, but maybe that is not the case? We arrive on a Saturday, so we won’t be able to use early access on the busiest day of the week. Hoping that won’t be a problem.
What Priority Entrance means is that they’ve already allocated a portion of their capacity specifically to hotel guests. Meaning,even though APs and day guests don’t need reservations like WDW uses they still track and cap how many can enter in addition to the reserved / allotted number of hotel guests.
You can only travel between USF & IOA if you have a “park to park” ticket. (Universal’s version of “park hopper”)
2 Likes
If you have a park to park ticket and the parks fill up can you move between parks?
Universal has only hit capacity one weekend, Labor Day, during the entire time they’ve reopened.
So unless you are going Thanksgiving weekend or the week of Dec. 21 - 28 you should be fine. They are really hurting for guests these days.
1 Like
Because of the train, they group USF and IOA as far as capacity. So, you can either enter both of them, or neither.
I know the water park hit capacity regularly on weekends this summer. I would guess that as it gets cooler the crowds will switch to USF and IOA.
2 Likes
Weren’t they at capacity this past Saturday for the Halloween Houses? It was a 9-10 on the historic crowd calendar. I just watched a video on YouTube and holy cow it was insane crowds! Looks like crowds were back to normal after the weekend though. Hopefully that was a one-off and won’t be a big problem since it’s a special experience people are coming for.
From what I saw the parks weren’t at capacity, just the houses. You could still get into the parks, but all the tickets / VLPs for the houses were distributed. (kinda like how RotR BGs work)
2 Likes
Gotcha. That makes sense. I think the rides were impacted at least. The video I watched, Shrek was at a 125 min wait! 
1 Like
Oh… they were definitely busy! People went to the houses & then hung out. Or hung out while waiting on their HH VLP times. But there wasn’t the concern that you couldn’t get into the parks.
Doesn’t help that Shrek is directly across from that area either
2 Likes
Oh is it? That would make sense! I was like… who waits 125 min for Shrek??
3 Likes
I thought the exact same thing!
2 Likes
I finally heard from universal- as of now you CAN ride the train from park to park if at capacity. As With all their emails, they added ‘this is subject to change’.
3 Likes
I’ve been watching the crowds… Universal hit capacity again a few days ago. And our trip crowds went to a 10 on the Saturday we arrive (Dec 5). I am worried that because we are flying in at 1:25pm, that the park could hit capacity and we won’t get to go in on arrival day. This would be a huge disappointment and would feel like a wasted day. Already bummed that our flight got pushed from arriving at 9am to now arriving at 1:25pm. Still, we will have 5 days there… so plenty of time. I just don’t want to be stuck in City Walk on arrival day. I assume City Walk has a different capacity than the parks.
Now if only Disney would have After Hours on the Saturday we arrive… then I wouldn’t feel bad at all heading over to Magic Kingdom for the evening 
1 Like
They are staying open later in the evenings and extended hours on weekends now… keep checking hours. An EC evening might be the ticket w/ a nice sit down evening meal
1 Like
Do you know about the Orlando Informer Meet-up Event at Universal on Dec. 5? (Maybe that will help) It’s a special event that goes from 7pm - 1:30am - All inclusive food & drinks + less people.
2 Likes
Yup, I have looked into those. Very tempting! But too expensive for this trip. The only thing I would feel comfortable upping our budget for would be a Disney event.
2 Likes
Yes, that is what I keep thinking/hoping! It also seems like a long-shot, but you never know!
1 Like
have you done one? are they worth it?
Capacity usually occurs late morning to late afternoon. If you do get locked out it won’t be for the full day.
2 Likes