At WDW, the usual pattern is that Thanksgiving week is busy through Saturday, then crowds drop precipitously on Sunday. I don’t know if it’s the same at UOR.
I’m sure that’s true at UOR as well. I only booked / extended my stay to include that weekend because it only added about $250 - $300 to my trip. I got a crazy good rate by arriving on “Black Friday” and staying the next week.
2 Likes
Another possibility is to swap the order of UOR and WDW:
- Fri Nov 28—fly in (noon-ish), check in to WDW hotel for 6 park days / 6 nights
- Wed Dec 4—check out of WDW early, check into Hard Rock early, IoA & USF (park hop, Express Pass)
- Thu Dec 5—IoA & USF (park hop, Express Pass), check out of HRH, check in to Aventura (late)
- Sat Dec 6—Epic Universe, stay at Aventura
- Sun Dec 7—check out of Aventura, fly home
That still puts Epic on a Saturday. 
I wonder if it would be more or less busy than Thanksgiving weekend though.
Any guesses as to how much Express Pass would be for one day that time of year? (Say, Mon Dec 1?)
Does EP still exclude Hagrid’s?
I wonder if it even matters what time of the year or day of the week, for Epic. Will it just be at capacity for the whole first year or so?
2 Likes
This is what I’m betting!
Here’s the UXP rates for this year… for the one ride per pass “basic” UXP. UXP does still exclude Hagrid’s. I wonder if that will change when Epic opens???
This is probably going to be a personal choice. It depends on what you want to do at WDW.
2 Likes
I had shared a lot of info about Aventura hotel in my last TR in case you wanted to browse it. Maybe you just came for the WDW part of the TR, because how can I forgot this: 
4 Likes
Aww, thanks for the callback!
I probably didn’t pay close attention to the Aventura details then, but I’ll go back and reread now! 
3 Likes
Ohhh, this supports the theory that crowd levels drop off a cliff on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Maybe I’ll wait to fly in on Saturday instead of Friday next year.
3 Likes
If a prime concern is maximizing our one day in Epic, should we consider SN/TL? Would that potentially put us closer to the front of the pack for early entry to Epic, compared to Aventura?
(Not sure I want to pay the upcharge for Helios, but I’ll check the price anyway.)
Thoughts?
@bebe80 @darkmite2
2 Likes
I did a mileage check and from Aventura / Sapphire Falls / CBBR it is going to be about a 15 minute commute. The buses will have there own dedicated lanes to avoid traffic, but Epic is still much further from any of the current UOR hotels.
The closest distance is from Endless Summer resorts where it should be 7 - 8 minutes. This is pretty comparable to the distance to the CityWalk bus depot.
The SN / TL hotels are going to be 5 minutes from the entrance…
I’m not sure I’d plan an entire stay on if my bus gets to the park 10 minutes faster than another hotel.
IMHO - Stay at where you will get the best rest / relaxation. If you want to stay at SL /TN because they are newly built with newer beds / amenities then go for it. Or for any other reason!
(That’s why I stayed at Dockside my first two years. Everything was still 100% new. Even after only 4 years of operations I can already see small maintenance issues)
4 Likes
Thanks for doing the research!
I don’t think we’ll be doing much resting! 
Except for our check-in day, and sleeping at night.
I think @heathernoel mentioned on another thread that she’s hoping there’ll be a walking path from SN/TL to Epic by the end of 2025. Do we have any reason to believe this might be in the works?
If we decide on the budget–budget–premier strategy to get the “free” Express Passes on days 2 and 3, I think we’ll go for SN/TL for the first two nights, as those nights will bookend our Epic visit.
If we forgo the premier hotel on the third night, we’ll probably just go Aventura all the way.
Decisions, decisions. 
1 Like
Trip Report 10/18-10/21 2024
Sad to say it’s been 8 years since our last adventure. WDW in 2015 and Universal in 2016. Was planning on going in 2020 but we all know how that turned out. So, thrilled to report we just got back from 3 days 3 nights at Universal and we are crawling home.
Gonna try to include a few things I noticed, highlights and lowlights.
Day 1. Arrived Friday using the Star Shuttle tours to Royal Pacific at 3PM, super easy. Did notice we drove right past the site for the new Epic Universe. It will take an organized bussing system to shuttle guests over that are not staying at one of the new hotels. If you are like me and have questioned some of the decisions and stances WDW has taken in the past few years, I get the sense that Universal sees a possible opportunity to go all in on being the premier attraction in Orlando. They already are for us. The Epic Universe Looks absolutely massive. So we checked into RP, paused and made our way to Islands of Adventure for 4:30. With Hulk growling at us we saddled up and took on the beast. Well not sure if age finally has me but graying out badly on the second loop never used to be part of the experience. At least from what I could remember??? Both my daughters reported the same thing. We are rollercoaster junkies. Been on everything from Kingda Ka to the “Grey-Out” King Intimidator 305 at Kings Dominion. Hulk was great but left its mark. (Of note: there is no tucking your phone in your pocket. Mandatory free lockers with metal detectors at check-ins make sure of that. This is true on RRR and VC as well. No big deal). Then off to Spider-Man, Kong, and Jurassic River. All three, same as trips past. I’m a bigger fan of Kong than most. Officially having that feeling of being on a park vaca. Then it was time for the Velocicoaster!!! WOW!!! Truly amazing. Great queue. Easy to use locker system where you put your things in a locker and pick them up from the other side on the way out. ONE AWESOME BADASS RIDE!!! True adrenaline. Smooth as silk. Little to no gray out. And SO intense. Ride gets faster as it goes. Two great launches, Multiple inversions (including the money shot, a full inversion on a high speed line probably only 15 feet from the water as you’re finishing off the journey). Lines didn’t get under 100 minutes so the upgrade to a premium resort and those express passes are in my opinion a must. Then it was over to Hagrid’s Magical Motorbikes. Only ride in the park where express passes don’t work. Queue said 90 minutes. So grabbed a beer with my 21 year old daughter 
and went for it. After making our way through the outside queue for about 40 minutes, we made our way inside and winded down various rooms with ornate decorations for about an hour until we came to a narrow hallway and a complete stop. We all knew what was happening. Sure enough “A few of Hagrid’s Motorcycles need some adjusting, we can’t estimate how long this process will take. We apologize”. We were committed and it was approaching 9:00 PM. Finally and expectedly, they called it an evening, thankfully giving us express passes for a future ride. My impression is that the queue on HMM takes even longer than posted times. When you go you absolutely need a plan. Then it was time for dinner. Made our way to Big Fire. 2 burgers and a terrible chicken sandwich took 40 minutes to deliver. But…… VELOCICOASTER—all good. !!! Awesome night!!!
Day 2. Buffet breakfast at RP for $100 which was decent but not that decent, and off to Universal Studios. A walk past Rockit and straight to a family favorite, The Mummy. A lot of great memories about this ride for us. Brendon Fraser may have aged a lot since that ride opened but its story, props and pyrotechnics have not. Always great. Then to transformers, and Gringotts. Both were great as remembered, I personally like Transformers more than Spider-Man. Less spinning lol. Then Men-in-Black, where my oldest beat me wtf, Simpson (which needs an update) and E.T. by which time a ginger candy was needed (great for the spins). Then we took a break at the Universal Horror Make-Up show that we loved. Then Despicable Me, and finally Rip Ride Rockit. Which brings me to a lowlight. Rocket hurt my brain!!! Now this, I know, wasn’t the case years ago. We used to go on several times in a row. Now after one time I needed Advil. I just don’t remember it being as shaky as it is now. Both this and Hulk are not as enjoyable as I remember. Then Mummy again, and an attempt to kings crossing to IoA. A 50 minute wait with express pass cured that so as we walked out towards IoA but looked at the time and made the executive decision, walk back to RP and take a break and shower. Love those express passes.
After we were rested and cleaned up we headed back to IoA and straight to Hagrid’s with our express pass. Now a highlight. I was expecting to come home raving about Velocicoaster as a new must ride coaster. I’ve never been a Harry Potter Person, more GoT here, and I was kinda expecting HMM to be something between Rockin-Rollercoaster and Snow White’s Mine Train. OMG Was I wrong. This ride is also completely amazing. Less intense than VC but dare I say, more fun? With multiple launches, silky smooth ride quality, several themed visuals, a little Everest added in and an unexpected drop; for more than 3 minutes this ride crushes. On top of it, the motorcycle ride position is super comfortable if you get it. Nuts, but imo the two best coasters in all of Orlando now sit within a few hundred yards of each other. After, it was back to VC again, then finishing off with some Dr. Seuss throwbacks to laugh and reflect. Over to catch our reservation at toothsome. 20 minutes early but were informed it would be 40 minutes at least. Exhausted, we made our way back to the resort for an easy dinner.
Thrilled by Hagrid’s, we decide to wake up early and for another ride on HMM. Arrived at IoA at 7:45 to a large crowd all thinking the same thing. Have to hand it to IoA. Never fails to amaze me how organized things are with both WDW and USO. After the stress of shoulder to shoulder through the Check-In Kiosk, we walked to park staff organizing a line starting between Seuss Landing and the Mythos Restaurant where everyone from the morning found their place. A short 50 minutes later we were ripping around with the exhausts going for a second and last time. Then Velocicoaster again…. And we came to the conclusion, neither is better than the other. We settled on different but equally amazing. Great stuff. Hungry, we went to three broomsticks for an inedible breakfast. Disgusting. Plan a protein bar or something else. Really gross. Harry Potter’s Forbidden Journey and then it was time to get wet. Jurassic River, Rip Saw and Bluto’s Barge. Have to say. JR is always classic and fun. The other two; maybe I’m just old, maybe it’s post pandemic messing with everyone, but I really felt like I wanted to bathe in Purell after. Quick over to Spider-Man and then one more time to rattle the brain and bones on hulk. Back to RP for a 2 hour nap before getting ready to get our scream on.
First time ever doing Halloween Horror Nights. 3 tix and 3 single use express passes. WORTH EVERY PENNY. This is a huge tip. If you are paying to go to HHN, and paying on the food and everything else, PAY PAY PAY for the HHN express passes. This night was so much fun. But I can’t imagine paying so much to be there, planning and everything, only to hit about 4 houses and dredge through those lines for hours. The crowd was HUGE. Gates open and straight to a movie favorite of ours “Quiet Place”. Great theming, layout and service to the story. Phenomenal time. Little did we know, it would end up being mid for us. Off to the best reviewed “Insidious”. Great house and landed as everyone’s favorite. Awesome rooms w unexpected surprises. Scared the heck out of my daughters (only-lol) multiple times. As the night went on all the houses were fun (express pass!!!). For my girls, they loved both Goblin’s Feast and Eternal Bloodlines. The scare actors in both did awesome jobs. Slaughter Sinema 2 was fun as was Monstruos. Ghostbusters had a fantastic set design even if the least on tension. The show Nightmare Fuel Nocturnal Circus was spectacular. Mummy, Gringotts, MIB and ending the night with a headache again on Rockit.
Cliff Notes:
Velocicoaster - Absolutely Amazing
Hagrid’s Magical Motorcycles - Might be even more Amazing
Hulk - Little more gray out then I remember
Rip Ride Rockit- Definitely more hurting of my brain than I remember
The rest are as good as they have ever been (Simpsons needs an update)
Halloween Horror Nights is Amazing but can’t imagine it without an Express Pass
Epic Universe looks to be an All-In Move by Universal, Looks Incredible
We set aside 2026 to go back. The Epic Universe looks to be amazing. Can’t wait to navigate our way around it. But even more, I can’t wait to have these times with my girls again.
10 Likes
Agreed! I’m so glad you all had a great time, and I enjoyed your report.
3 Likes
Question Is UOR aware that it is Christmas soon? Do they know that some theme parks offer upcharge events at Christmas? That people can book in advance. Would it help if I called them and suggested they maybe think about this? No rush or anything. Just something for them to consider. Calmly. In their own time.
8 Likes
3 Likes
How much closer is Hard Rock to the parks than Royal Pacific, walking-wise?
I’m seeing HR as $56 more than RP ($28 each) for the one night, wondering if it’s worth it for less walking and also the novelty, since RP is the only UOR hotel we’ve stayed at and we’d like to try something different.
1 Like
What a great recap! I love how excited you got just talking about it. I could hear your enthusiasm in your writing!
Epic will have its own dedicated traffic lane for all their buses. I found a great reel about it a while back and posted it in the Epic news thread. Here it is for you!
2 Likes
5 mins Vs 10 mins 
6 Likes
Lately, UOR has started putting up Christmas decorations in late October. I think around Oct. 25 last year.
So I think they should start decorating for it soon. I would HOPE they announce Christmas offerings around the same time…but I have this remembrance that they took their old sweet time last year.
1 Like