Universal Touring Plans

[joedplumber]

I just built a touring plan for our April break and it seems to good to be true. It's for our day of arrival and it pretty much shows that we can get everything done except the HP area and still have 2 hours to mosey around the park. We will be using express passes, but do they really make that huge of a difference? Please let me know what you think of their expected wait times and if you have any experience with touring plans. TIA

 

[macraven]

What are your April dates?

 

[joedplumber]

What are your April dates?

Arrive on the 13th for a 3 night stay.

 

[TommyJK]

Some of those "waits" I see being at least a tad low. A "wait" IMO will always be at least 5 minutes in terms of waiting for say at least one ride vehicle in front of you and factor in unload of it and then the load.

I'd say to tack on 5 minutes to each of your attractions and it's probable closer to the overall reality.

 

[bchbetha]

Liked I said in your other thread, the walk times are disingenuous. When you have spring break crowds, it’s not going to take a minute to walk anywhere!

 

[bchbetha]

Also, do you have a dinner reservation secured?

 

[joedplumber]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I updated the plan as though we don't have an express pass, even though we do, and increased the walk times. I want to be as conservative as possible. The plus side is I will still have a full day in the park the following day to explore and hit the HP area and anything we missed. Thanks again for all of the advice, super helpful!!!

 

[Disxuni]

I know you said you have EP, but just talking out loud...

The walk through the queues is the reason why I take the SR line (EP is pretty quick too though) regardless of whether it's a low wait time, or not in the regular queue, as it saves you more time to do other things in the future. Sometimes it feels as if you walk five minutes just through the queue itself. However, if it's a good queue that's another story. However, you'll have time to catch up on the HP stuff later like you said.

 

[soniam]

I have found TP's Universal plans to be overly optimistic using Express Pass. RRR will probably take 27 minutes or more with EP. I don't ride it and always wait forever for DS and DH. I think most of the other times are too long using EP in your non-EP plan, the last you posted. Also, Fallon and Fast & Furious won't take 20 minutes. You will definitely walk on to F&F. With EP on Fallon, you will be waiting for the next show or the one after. Not long. We just went during Thanksgiving week and 2 weeks ago (3rd week in March). Despicable Me with no EP at 3:30pm will have over an hour wait. With EP, it could be 15-30 minutes at that time. It gets really busy, since it's a long ride and at the front of the park.

 

[SA mom]

We love touring plans for WDW, but don’t use them for UO when we have EP. We like using the Lines app to decide what to do instead of using a plan.

 

[joedplumber]

Also, do you have a dinner reservation secured?

Yes.

 

[Mark Hammond]

We love touring plans for WDW, but don’t use them for UO when we have EP. We like using the Lines app to decide what to do instead of using a plan.

Does the Express wait time generally relate to the standby time? I’ve set out a Touring Plan using Express Unlimited, but as was replied to the original post on this thread, the Express waits given by Touring Plans is considered to be quite a way off the expected times. I’m not sure how people with the regular Express Pass would use their one pass for each ride. If the Express wait “does” more or less go with the standby times, I’m going to see if I can swap things about a bit to avoid the peak times. As well as the rides, we want to watch the shows, which obviously have set times, and I’m trying to avoid too much back-tracking between areas as we’ve got two young kids.

 

[SA mom]

Does the Express wait time generally relate to the standby time? I’ve set out a Touring Plan using Express Unlimited, but as was replied to the original post on this thread, the Express waits given by Touring Plans is considered to be quite a way off the expected times. I’m not sure how people with the regular Express Pass would use their one pass for each ride. If the Express wait “does” more or less go with the standby times, I’m going to see if I can swap things about a bit to avoid the peak times. As well as the rides, we want to watch the shows, which obviously have set times, and I’m trying to avoid too much back-tracking between areas as we’ve got two young kids.

We were last there in 2017. We found most express pass lines to be no longer than 20 minutes. The exception was Minions. That one is always 30-45 minutes for us, no matter what.

We usually just tour spontaneously. We also check the lines app for what is in our area that is short or keeping an eye I those attractions that we are most interested.

 

[schumigirl]

We were last there in 2017. We found most express pass lines to be no longer than 20 minutes. The exception was Minions. That one is always 30-45 minutes for us, no matter what.

We usually just tour spontaneously. We also check the lines app for what is in our area that is short or keeping an eye I those attractions that we are most interested.

That’s a terrible time to wait with EP!!!

Minions has always been less than 10 minutes for us, one time 20 as the regular line was over 100 minutes......

We’ve just come back after visiting during Spring Break and again, it had very long lines and we walked on most times or had moments to wait!

Wonder if there was an issue as we’ve never waited that long for any ride with EP! I like Minions, but not sure any ride is worth a 45 minute wait. Certainly our experiences have been vastly different to yours........hope you thought the ride was worth it.......

 

[SA mom]

That’s a terrible time to wait with EP!!!

Minions has always been less than 10 minutes for us, one time 20 as the regular line was over 100 minutes......

We’ve just come back after visiting during Spring Break and again, it had very long lines and we walked on most times or had moments to wait!

Wonder if there was an issue as we’ve never waited that long for any ride with EP! I like Minions, but not sure any ride is worth a 45 minute wait. Certainly our experiences have been vastly different to yours........hope you thought the ride was worth it.......

It was spring break crazy.

 

[skylock]

We just got back from a visit last week. No EP lines were longer than 15 minutes and they were busy. I was very happy.

Most were around the 5-10 min range.

 

[joedplumber]

We just got back from a visit last week. No EP lines were longer than 15 minutes and they were busy. I was very happy.

Most were around the 5-10 min range.

I am loving what I am hearing! Fingers crossed for this weekend into Tuesday!

 

[Mark Hammond]

We were last there in 2017. We found most express pass lines to be no longer than 20 minutes. The exception was Minions. That one is always 30-45 minutes for us, no matter what.

We usually just tour spontaneously. We also check the lines app for what is in our area that is short or keeping an eye I those attractions that we are most interested.

I’ve heard that from lots of different places about Minions. We’re going to Universal in late May, will have Unlimited Express, and there’s 8:00am Early Entry available into USF each day. On our first full day, we’re heading straight to Diagon Alley at Early Entry to ride Gringotts, as I want to go through the full queue the first time we ride it. I’m in two minds whether to work our way ride by ride back around the park from there, or to hike it straight back over to Minions to try getting it out if the way before the regular opening at 9:00am. If it means avoiding a long wait for Minions, it might be worth it. Plus we’ll be working with the general flow of the masses rather than against them for the next hour or so.

 

[soniam]

I’ve heard that from lots of different places about Minions. We’re going to Universal in late May, will have Unlimited Express, and there’s 8:00am Early Entry available into USF each day. On our first full day, we’re heading straight to Diagon Alley at Early Entry to ride Gringotts, as I want to go through the full queue the first time we ride it. I’m in two minds whether to work our way ride by ride back around the park from there, or to hike it straight back over to Minions to try getting it out if the way before the regular opening at 9:00am. If it means avoiding a long wait for Minions, it might be worth it. Plus we’ll be working with the general flow of the masses rather than against them for the next hour or so.

I don't think you really miss anything doing the EP queue for Gringott's. The EP line does not do the outside part, but they don't send people through there early in the morning anyway. Plus, there's nothing really out there, assuming the line even gets long enough to be out there. The EP queue runs next to the standby queue starting in the bank and for the entire queue. In fact, the two pretty much merge before the elevator. However, we like being in Diagon Alley during EE, because it's not as crowded.

 

[Mark Hammond]

I don't think you really miss anything doing the EP queue for Gringott's. The EP line does not do the outside part, but they don't send people through there early in the morning anyway. Plus, there's nothing really out there, assuming the line even gets long enough to be out there. The EP queue runs next to the standby queue starting in the bank and for the entire queue. In fact, the two pretty much merge before the elevator. However, we like being in Diagon Alley during EE, because it's not as crowded.

Oh right. I had it in my head that both Gringotts and Forbidden Journey had parts of the scenic queue that you’d miss when using Standby. Is it just a greenhouse or something that you miss on Forbidden Journey?
We’re just doing the Gringotts and Forbidden Journey rides on our separate USF and IOA days, and then setting a full day aside to do the entire Harry Potter stuff, so we’ll hopefully make use of the low crowds in Diagon Alley on that day.