Just back from a spilt stay Universal/Disney..... here's what I learned.

[schumigirl]

I was surprised that Express Pass wasn't Express. I know it was a busy time but we waited over 40 minutes at each EP attraction. Ride the Hogwarts Express both ways, it was amazing. Disney doesn't have anything that compares to HP. We love the frozen Butterbeer! The plain is way too sweet. You will be able to do everything in 1 day with no problem. Have fun!!

Always had a very different experience to you.

We stay 18 nights and do Universal exclusively.

We have never waited longer than 15-20 minutes.......EVER......for a ride with EP. Yours certainly doesn't sound the normal experience. Longest we have waited was just over 20 minutes for minions when regular queue was 100 minutes.

For comparison 2 years ago regular queue for The Hulk was 90 minutes plus.......we walked on 3 times in a row in less than 15 minutes. This is our usual experience with EP.

RRR regular queue was 60 minutes last year.....we walked straight on. I could describe many rides like this.

Just wanted to point out to some that may think EP isn't worth it........it truly is worth it. We stay at RPR and the onsite EP is worth its weight in gold.

 

[geenerbell]

I believe that 30 to 40 minutes is a bit of an exaggeration. I was there during spring break and outside of Minions and Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, the waits were walk on to 10 minutes. Minions varied wildly. Sometimes it was only a few minutes until you were in the preshow room and sometimes it was a half hour or more. HRRR was ALWAYS a long wait for some reason.

Overall it is way better than FP+. And for the record, I love both Universal and Disney, so I don't believe my opinion is biased in any way. We take turns going to them - one year Disne, Universal the next. Last year we did both. And there are many things that Disney does better than Universal - but FP+ vs EP isn't one of them.

We were there Thursday and Friday of last week and each EP was 40 minutes or more.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Hi - depends on the line. In my experience, the longest wait with express pass is on the Minion ride. The Minion ride tends to have REALLY long standby waits so it makes sense. On a lot of rides they typically take one side of the ride and use it for express only (btw people who got Express with their hotel stay and people who purchased it go into the same line, so there is no difference in wait time). Since so many fewer people have express than regular guests, those lines are significantly shorter.

I have always found Disney's FP to be faster than Universal's Express but a couple things make up for it: you can go anytime (no stress of scheduling 60 days out), you can use it for way more than 3 rides, and if you are staying at a deluxe hotel you can ride as many times as you want. I love that flexibility and convenience.

Thank you I can't wait in line due to my health conditions and last time I went to universal they did not have anything like a DAS card. So this I don't think would work for me.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

I believe that 30 to 40 minutes is a bit of an exaggeration. I was there during spring break and outside of Minions and Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, the waits were walk on to 10 minutes. Minions varied wildly. Sometimes it was only a few minutes until you were in the preshow room and sometimes it was a half hour or more. HRRR was ALWAYS a long wait for some reason.

Overall it is way better than FP+. And for the record, I love both Universal and Disney, so I don't believe my opinion is biased in any way. We take turns going to them - one year Disne, Universal the next. Last year we did both. And there are many things that Disney does better than Universal - but FP+ vs EP isn't one of them.

Thank you for your reply. I am still not sure the unpredictability of it would work with my health issues. The most I have ever waited with FP+ or my DAS card has been 15 mins which I can just make.

 

[BabiesDaddy]

My family stayed in October of last year and we wouldn't even consider universal without express pass. We were almost embarrassed how we could keep getting on rides while the standby lines hardly would move. On some rides that had 2 hour waits, we waited only 5-10 minutes at most. Some were almost walk on.

 

[schumigirl]

My family stayed in October of last year and we wouldn't even consider universal without express pass. We were almost embarrassed how we could keep getting on rides while the standby lines hardly would move. On some rides that had 2 hour waits, we waited only 5-10 minutes at most. Some were almost walk on.

That is the experience we have.

Few years ago before Jaws closed, we were "booed" by a group of people in the regular queue........... in fun of course .......as we past them 3 times using the EP line........they had hardly moved.

Even in busy times we usually walk straight on or have a five minute wait.

 

[fivikse]

We went to Uni for the first time last August. Our express experience was also very different from OP's. We waited 0-10 minutes in express, including minions and Spider-Man. (But we didn't do major coasters). Regular lines were over an hour. I'm sorry OP's experience was different, but I don't think it is normal.
Also, we were at Uni 2.5 days and didn't come close to doing everything. But we spent a lot of time in the Potter sections.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Using the word learned in the title is perhaps a bit strong.

We feel very differently from OP. After many visits to both parks over the years, we NOW feel US is the better experience and better overall value.

Express Pass is SO much more relaxing than current FP and ADR's. With EP, we come an go as we please. With FP and ADR's we always feel like we have to rush to be some place specific at a specific time. US feels relaxed, WDW feels hectic.

HP is a home run; New Fantasyland was a dud. I hope the coming WDW additions are better, but I'm not holding my breath.

Our Experience with EP vs. FP was also very different. Many of our FP+ waits are 30+ min, but our EP waits are almost always 15 or less.

We've also lost track of how many ADRs we've experienced. We do our part, and rush to arrive on time, but WDW doesn't do their part. Our last ADR, we AGAIN waited over 60 min PAST our ADR just to be SEATED, plus another long wait before we had any food. THEN we paid an absurd price! At US, we make reservations less than 48 hours before we want to eat, we're always quickly seated, and the prices are much more reasonable.

US appreciates our business.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

We will spend 5 days at WDW and 2 at Royal Pacific Resort at Universal, but only have 1day park to park USF passes this fall. Have never been to Universal, so hoped that the early entry plus the express passes would allow us to see/do a majority of attractions. Hubby & kids do not enjoy roller coasters, so that helps with time management. I was happy to read that you didn't need 2 park days for Universal, but concerned when you said express passes are not express and the early morning entry didn't help much. Our priorities are Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, King Kong and Minions. Spiderman, Transformers, Shreck & Men in Black are secondary. Any advice? Thanks for sharing your insights with us.

As a rule, the Harry Potter rides and Minions are the busiest. Spider Man, Transformers, if King Kong is open that will be busy as well. Use your early entry on the HP stuff, then skip the lines for the other, especially the busy attractions and you should be fine. We waited in a 50 minute Minion ride and the front of the line peeps zipped through so imo it is worth it. I would not buy one but I would stay there for the pass.

 

[LAE7]

We have an AP at Universal and this allows us one express pass per ride from 4pm on - we have never waited more than ~15 minutes with typical waits of walk-on to 5 minute for most rides. Perhaps the express pass waits are longer during the day - might want to focus on HP land in the morning (headliners don't have express pass) and then tour the other areas afterwards. For what its worth, we find FP+ at Disney pretty variable with some longish waits (more than 15 minutes) for some of the headliners (e.g., Space, ToT, RnR).

 

[scrapquitler]

Hotel:Universal Cabana Bay theming is awesome and I didn't hear one door slam or toilet flush. POP needs soundproofing.

We LOVED Cabana Bay! Now if Universal would have something equivalent to Magical Express, I'd be thrilled. I didn't love having to rent a car and pay for parking at my hotel on a daily basis. When we were there in September, the Universal bus driver told us that they are working on an airport transfer process similar to ME>

 

[SaintsManiac]

We LOVED Cabana Bay! Now if Universal would have something equivalent to Magical Express, I'd be thrilled. I didn't love having to rent a car and pay for parking at my hotel on a daily basis. When we were there in September, the Universal bus driver told us that they are working on an airport transfer process similar to ME>

I really hope they get that going.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

For what its worth, we find FP+ at Disney pretty variable with some longish waits (more than 15 minutes) for some of the headliners (e.g., Space, ToT, RnR).

I hope Soarin' improves, but even with a FP, we've always waited over half an hour to ride it.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

My family stayed in October of last year and we wouldn't even consider universal without express pass. We were almost embarrassed how we could keep getting on rides while the standby lines hardly would move. On some rides that had 2 hour waits, we waited only 5-10 minutes at most. Some were almost walk on.

This has been our experience with EP during our Universal trips as well. I also admit to feeling almost guilty walking past the people in standby, especially at the Minions ride.

 

[PantherPete]

We LOVED Cabana Bay! Now if Universal would have something equivalent to Magical Express, I'd be thrilled. I didn't love having to rent a car and pay for parking at my hotel on a daily basis. When we were there in September, the Universal bus driver told us that they are working on an airport transfer process similar to ME>

While I love the Magic Express, you could just get a private town car or van from the airport. About $130 round trip, including a stop at the grocery store. Cheaper than renting a car and paying for parking. They are waiting for you where you pick up your luggage and the area where they park is a very short walk.

 

[Planogirl]

I'm confused by these long wait times in Express. We stayed at Cabana Bay in December and didn't buy Express. We rarely waited longer than the 30-40 minutes in the regular lines with the exceptions being the Harry Potter dark rides and Despicable Me which is always jammed.

I agree with the comments about Cabana Bay. We stayed at both Cabana Bay and Pop during that trip and while we liked Pop it just couldn't compare.

 

[Parker Clan]

We had the exact opposite experience with the Express Pass the last two August's at Universal and IoA!
It was totally worth it, didn't wait more than ten mins. Must have been a peak time when you were there.
I do agree two days is perfect there! We were able to do both Harry Potter lands and a ton of rides multiple times in two days.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

The HP attractions aren't always jammed. We've (more or less) walked on all of them a number of times. (more or less = waited 15min or less)

 

[walker0829]

We were in the "longer than expected or should have been" Express Pass boat this past May(what was supposed to be a 2/10 according to TP). HRR wait was almost an hour in EP. Transformers line was really bad. Last year, we found Hippograffs was a longer wait for non EP(group of kids were laughing at those in the EP line). It got to the point where we said that the premium price of the onsite hotel was no longer worth it when EP lines were that long.

 

[ErinC]

We went to Universal for the first time in April (Easter and the Monday after). I was prepared for large crowds and we stayed at RPH so that we had express passes for both Sunday and Monday. Our wait times were hit or miss. Despicable me was probably the worst. I think we waited almost an hour even with EP and I thought the "ride" was stupid. Probably wouldn't waste my time again even with EP. Loved the HP areas, but didn't find the wait times bad at all without the pass. They have some great rides at Universal and I think overall this DIsney only family was prett impressed. I thought RPH was okay. Certainly not worth the $400 price per night I paid. But I realized it was about the passes, not the hotel.