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Old 26 Jun 17, 09:42 AM  
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Mrpenton
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Universal Express passes

Hi all,

After a bit of info about islands of adventure and universal studios.

We are planning on going to Florida august 2018 on our only previous visit we did 2 weeks of Disney but our boys are slightly older now so hoping to take in Universal too.

Looking to book a few days in the last week of August I've heard this can be a quieter period of the summer at the 2 parks!?

Wanted to know if anyone has any experience of visiting around these dates previously and if you think the express/queue jump passes are worth the extra money or are the crowds/queues manageable?

Any advice appreciated
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Old 26 Jun 17, 09:57 AM  
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electo
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best thing to do is get into the park and see how bizzy it is first
thats what we did oct last year
there plenty of stalls about selling them

if you pay with an American express card you can get into the vip room (only a small room near to where donkey from shrek dose the photo shoot) get free snacks (crisps water oat snack bars)

you may be able to get in there if you just show you amex card ? not sure on that one (universal studios)

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Old 26 Jun 17, 10:35 AM  
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BONDY LAD
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Parks still busy at this time,do yourself a favour,if there are d4 of you surely it's cheaper to book a night at rpr/hard rock (whichever is cheaper),then you can enjoy x2FULL days of UNLIMITED passes,mega no brainer surely,check in as early as you like and on checkout simply put any cases etc in your car or hotel will mind them then off to park untill closing, weyyyyyy, no bondy brainer, bondy.
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Old 26 Jun 17, 11:05 AM  
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tiger01204
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as body Lad said. You get two days of express passes for a one night hotel booking. Even if the park is quiet, some rides still have 30-45 minute waits. We went the last two weeks of august in 2015 and the waits were around 30-45 for most rides, compared to 1hr+ last year a little earlier in August.

We wouldn't do Universal without the hotel/express passes now. It's one of the best tips we got from this site.
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Old 26 Jun 17, 12:31 PM  
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Originally Posted by Mrpenton View Post
Looking to book a few days in the last week of August I've heard this can be a quieter period of the summer at the 2 parks!?
We visited in the last 2 weeks of August in 2014. The Universal parks at this time were very quiet - most of the rides had queues less than 20 minutes long. The queue for HP's Forbidden Journey was just 15 to 20 minutes long whilst the queue for HP's Escape from Gringotts (which had only opened just over a month beforehand) was around 50 minutes long. This was the longest queue.

If we had pre-bought Express Passes then we would've found them a waste of money. We would've only used them for the Despicable Me ride, which always seems to have long queues.
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Old 26 Jun 17, 01:14 PM  
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ladyofleisure
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We stayed at RPR for one night half way through the last two weeks in August in 2015, we found it saved us an incredible amount of time, yes the parks were slightly quieter than our first week at Disney, but not quiet by any means. Hulk I remember was queuing about 70 minutes by lunchtime and other rides between 30 minutes and an hour through the afternoon.

I'd say it depends really on how well you cope with the August heat, whether your family will want to go on all (or most) rides? We are staying 2 nights at HRH this August as we also want to visit Volcano Bay, we found we got so much more out of the parks by using the express passes as it allowed more time to rest when we needed to.
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Old 26 Jun 17, 08:03 PM  
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Mrpenton
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Thanks for all the tips.

August heat wasn't a problem last year kids coped really well! Like the idea of getting them to save time and walking/waiting.

Great tip Bondy boy Hotel it is that way we are close to the parks so can pop in and out if we want to have a few hours in between in the pool!
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Old 26 Jun 17, 08:29 PM  
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BONDY LAD
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Originally Posted by Mrpenton View Post
Thanks for all the tips.

August heat wasn't a problem last year kids coped really well! Like the idea of getting them to save time and walking/waiting.

Great tip Bondy boy Hotel it is that way we are close to the parks so can pop in and out if we want to have a few hours in between in the pool!
100% guarantee you won't regret it, further tip,just before you leave park,dependant on what park you are in that is,enjoy a great soaking on rip saw falls. Or Popeye, walk back soaking to hotel,by the time you are there you will be dry,job is a belter, bondy.
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Old 27 Jun 17, 01:00 AM  
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shrek1609
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Book into a Universal hotel that gives you front of line express passes. We have done last two weeks of August and they were still needed.
Here now at hrh and queues of 70+ minutes whereas with express pass under 10 mins. They've been invaluable last two days
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Old 29 Jun 17, 09:15 AM  
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We have visited Universal as day guests before but this year stayed at Royal Pacific, mainly to utilise early access for Harry Potter. This worked extremely well but we underestimated the other benefits.
When we checked in at 11:00 (we had transferred from the Contemporary) our room was available immediately, which was an unexpected bonus. On check in, the staff were extremely helpful and went out of their way to explain the on-site privileges and ensure we got value from them.
RPR is only a 10 minute walk from the entrance to the 2 parks but we found the water taxis to be very efficient. In the 5 or 6 times we used them there was only one occasion when we didn't walk straight onto a waiting boat (although we might just have been lucky!).
The boats drop off a couple of minutes walk from the park gates so you avoid that trek from the garages. All in all, we found travelling between the hotel and parks to be straightforward and quick. I would say the only Disney transport which can compare would be access to MK from the monorail resorts.
Having done it once I wouldn't visit Universal again without staying onsite. We did it mainly for early access but the FOL passes were a great bonus and made the whole experience much less stressful.
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