Sunday at Universal - how busy?

[Goosieloosie]

The only day we have free to visit Universal Studios is a Sunday as we fly into LAX on the Saturday afternoon and staying the night nearer to Universal before driving to Vegas the following Sunday Evening, as our two adult sons will be with us we thought we would take them to Universal before the drive to Vegas but as it will be a Sunday I'm worried about how busy it will be? Friends of ours who are going in August are buying VIP tickets which gets them to the front of the line for the rides but they're over $350 and we can't afford that x 4 of us. Do you think we will manage to get around and get on most rides before the Q's build as we'll be up at silly o'clock with it being our first morning in the US? We can't go at the end of the holiday as our sons fly out from Vegas.
Sorry forgot to put that this will be in June,the 10th to be exact.

[400ixl]

VIP tickets are expensive and do give an extended studio lot tour as well as front of line as many times as you like. There is also the Front of Line pass which allows you to do the front of line once for each ride but doesn't do the extended studio tour, just the normal one. This is cheaper than the VIP pass.

If you buy the normal tickets directly from Universal then you get early access to the Harry Potter world (1 hour) to do those rides which means you are already in the park for when the rest of the rides start. We did this and then went to the tour for normal opening to get that done. In a full day you can get everything done with the early access on a normal pass, even in peak times.

[landandword17]

Yes I agree. We were there over labour day weekend and even then it wasn’t “Orlando busy”. We got everything done by mid afternoon. Drive to Vegas should be okay too on a Sunday as the traffic is all coming out of Vegas on Sunday afternoons.

[Goosieloosie]

Thank you both, so you reckon we'll be ok buying ordinary tickets direct from universal and getting around the rides quite quickly then? That's good to know . I was thinking of booking the tour around lunch time ish when the rides will be getting busy and hoping by say 2pm the Q's might be dying down a bit to go back on the rides, is this a good idea?

[400ixl]

You can't book the normal studio tour, its like any ride, you queue up. It tends to be longer queues as the day goes on. We always found it better to do Harry Potter world in the extra hour and then head straight to the tour for when it opens. Usually only a 15-20 minute wait for it then.

[Olympiad]

Have only ever been in August when all times queues grew to 2+ hours by early afternoon.

Getting there early gives the best chance of getting on things before too busy (but unfortunately the early opening for Harry Potter has slightly negated this as more people now turn up early).

It's generally viewed as a good idea to go on the studio tour ride as early as possible and I'm sure there is a guide somewhere on line that gives a suggested itinerary to try and minimise queues.

Bear in mind that you can buy the Front of Line passes (or whatever that are called now) as an addition in the park on the day so you can take a view when you get there ( these are limited so don't wait until it gets too busy if you do choose to buy).

[Goosieloosie]

Thank you for the information. DH is a bit hesitant to buy the Universal tickets this far in advance directly from them as they're non refundable & he's worried about flight times changing etc. How late do you think we should leave it before buying them directly? DH is also worried about the tickets selling out if we leave it too late . We also though perhaps we could buy just 2 'Universal Express' tickets for our boys and just ordinary tickets for ourselves as we're not too fussed if we don't get on all of the rides, would that work do you think?

[400ixl]

Last time we went we bought them from the website the day before. This was in August.

[folkie]

My son was there last Sunday, so outside holiday time. They were there 9.30am - 4.45pm and did everything they wanted to do, and didn’t queue for longer than 1/2 hour anywhere.

[daytonababe]

I can’t imagine tickets will sell out , or flight times change so much you couldn’t go that day.

But don’t you only save $10 each buying in advance? So it wouldn’t matter if you bought on the day.