Early Mornings/Late Evenings @ Universal Parks

dizzyc · 15 Oct 18, 05:26 PM

I'm struggling to justify the cost of 3 nights at RPR/HRH next March (over Ł1000) but for around Ł650 I can get 3 nights at Sapphire Falls. Trouble is March is Spring Break time.

I'm just wondering, with Disney it pays to be in the parks early or stay late and I wondered if the Universal parks were the same? I'm happy to be there for 8am as we would get early entry, then we could go back to the pool in afternoon and head back around 6pm and stay till park closing.

Do you think it's doable without express passes if we are there early morning and/or late at night, or is Spring Break so busy that it's crammed wall-to-wall from opening till closing?

Thanks

**Minniebella** · 17 Oct 18, 10:10 AM

We are going for this option too,I’m sure it’s doable and sounds like the best plan of action.
I was really worried about not having the express passes at first, but we are needing 3 rooms at universal and by staying at Saphire falls we are saving Ł765 a room!

dizzyc · 17 Oct 18, 01:48 PM

Originally Posted by Minniebella

We are going for this option too,I’m sure it’s doable and sounds like the best plan of action.
I was really worried about not having the express passes at first, but we are needing 3 rooms at universal and by staying at Saphire falls we are saving Ł765 a room!

It's a lot of savings isn't it! What time of the year are you going? I'm just worried about March because everyone says Spring Break is mental!

LLamb · 17 Oct 18, 02:33 PM

We had a similar dilemma as going memorial weekend (school hols!)
So have decided on three nights in Cabana Bay in a family suite, then 1 night at rpr

There are now a lot of hotels with early access, not to mention virgin holidays guest and the universal partner hotels. Plus it’s not full access to the park, recently it’s only been universal and even then just the mummy, gringotts and hogwarts express

So we can do Harry Potter wand stuff/Dino discovery centre and general walking about early morning/evenings
Plus volcano bay one day as cb has its own entrance.
Then do the rides we want with the ep while staying at rpr
Not for everybody but will work well for us
DS will be 6 when we go but is really tall so already meets the height requirements for nearly all the rides (except hulk and rrr) so this also gives him a chance to have a little look at the rides before committing to riding them

**Minniebella** · 17 Oct 18, 06:16 PM

Originally Posted by dizzyc

It's a lot of savings isn't it! What time of the year are you going? I'm just worried about March because everyone says Spring Break is mental!

We are there for 1st week of June.I think if you stick with your plan and expect the worst,then you are well prepared and hopefully it won’t be half as busy as you expect!

dizzyc · 17 Oct 18, 09:43 PM

Originally Posted by Minniebella

We are there for 1st week of June.I think if you stick with your plan and expect the worst,then you are well prepared and hopefully it won’t be half as busy as you expect!

This is actually really good advice

For me personally (which may sounds weird for some) just being at Universal/IOA makes me happy, it's not even about the rides - it's the whole atmosphere, it's my favourite place in the whole world. So even if I couldn't get on all rides it wouldn't disappoint me so much, as long as I could do the Harry Potter ones...

With 4 full days there, if we get up early and go back in the evenings I'm pretty sure we will get most of it done. So I think I will just book Sapphire Falls and go enjoy myself!

mattyped · 17 Oct 18, 09:48 PM

Late nights? close between 6 and 8 in march depending on which park.

neilhd · 18 Oct 18, 02:33 PM

I gotta say we found early entry a waste of time this year (August). Previously - with both parks open and it being the only way to do Harry Potter with no express pass - it was valuable. And usually a few other rides were open, too.

This year, with only the Studios open, and only Mummy and Gringott's being open - it was a waste of time. Both of those rides were packed because all early entry people (which is now several hotel's worth) were all crammed into there.

Instead, we used the time to get a Starbucks and then position ourselves for where we wanted to be at 9am before the crowds got in.

The evenings we found pretty quiet. Popping back in after dinner was very nice. We had express, but there were basically no queues for things like Transformers and Mummy.

If you could swing even one night at one of the express resorts it'd make a huge difference.