Universal Express Plus Passes

[Guest]

Has anybody ever used the universal express plus passes and are they woth the extra money. We are going in August will the queues be bigger now that the free fast passes are not available ?

[Lady]

I always thought these were a complete rip off, until this year. We got back on friday and spent 3 days in Universal the crowds were hugh the wait times were long 85mins for the hulk and 75 for Rip saw falls Jurrasic park was around this too even the cat in the hat was around 50-60 mins. So my husband who has no patience to queue bought them. They are so worth the money, we never waited more than 10 mins for any ride , we done every ride in about the time it would have taken us for 2 in the standby lines. So if you dont mind forking out $40 each for them then def get them!

[orlandofan]

We bought them in May this year. We are really glad that we decided to pay the extra as it was well worth it as the queues were long. The only thing I would say is you can only usually go on the ride once as they get marked by pen.

[igoefamily]

We are just back and the queues at Universal where a nightmare. The express pass can differ in price from $35-$50 depending on what day of the week you go. We enquired about it because you could be waiting over an hour to get on a ride. We did not buy because they entitle you to go front of the line once only on each ride. This is ok if you will go on EVER ride but with children they are not always big enough or brave enough to go on all the rides, so for us it was not going to be value for money. We actually found ourselves steering clear of the Universal Parks (despite having Orlando Flexticket) because the queues were simply horrendous.
Its a total rip off really but if you family will go on all the rides it beats spending half your day in queues.

[joblot]

Queues on some rides were hectic for ourselves as well. We had just made the decision to go back to the hotel and come back later that night hoping that the queues would be shorter when somone stopped us and said that they were leaving the park and we could have their express tickets. Spiderman was 80 mins wait, with the express tickets we went straight onto the ride. When we went to leave later we passed the tickets onto someone else.

[Guest]

Oh No!
We went 2 years ago and it was great (June) - same system as Disney so we just worked it with the passes. Last year we went the last 2 weeks in August and found ourselves queuing (although I think the longest was for the Ripsaw ride). Those with the Fast Passes obviously sailed on by...
In my view they (Universal), are taking the **** We have paid enough for our holiday and to have pay out again I alos didn't realise that you could only use them once for each ride? We could afford to buy them (just) but won't on principle. Unfortunately my DD's love Universal so we will be going again. I love it too though!

[Sue]

Does it not work out cheaper to stay at one of the Universal hotels for one night - get TWO days FOTL pass (which means you can go on each ride as many times as you like not just the once as in the Express pass) - than to pay for say 4 people in a group to get the Express passes?
Thought that is why many Dibbers did it, even when they have accommodation paid for already.

[Guest]

We've used them in the past and found them to be worth their weight in gold. Slightly different because we used them during the HHN were the FOTL access does not apply. Excellent value and saved us lots of time.

[Guest]

I'd definately recommend a night at one of the Universal Hotels for FOTL! The Express Passes are only valid once per ride, but if you stay onsite you get unlimited FOTL access for 2 days!

[Diane1971]

Help please... what's FOTL mean?

I'm heading there during Xmas & New Year - does this mean nightmare-ish queues?!