Where do you head first in each park?

[MouseMamaToMany]

Hi all! I leave next Saturday for a week at Universal. I’ve been once before, but it has been many years. I’d love to have a little bit of a plan for which rides to tackle when I enter the park, And which I should leave for later in the day. What are your usual touring plans? Help!

 

[GatorChris]

I've only been there once last October. Going back this December. Islands of Adventure: Hagrid's! That might change with the new Velocicoaster, but we know that Hagrid's will be a crazy long line later in the day. For Studios, Gringott's. One day we hit the RockIt Coaster (?), walked on, and then went to Gringott's. But the wait was pretty long because of that. I'm pretty sure this is the way most people tour at these parks.

 

[cschaaf]

IOA - Hagrid's. At least the times we've been, it builds a longer line than Velocicoaster and seems to have more downtime during the day. Both of those rides get long lines and, as of right now, there is no express pass option.

USO - Gringott's. Probably builds the longest line in USO. Express Passes, if you have them, make this less of an issue.

 

[BrotherCraig]

Where would you head first with Express Passes and getting early admission?

 

[Deb1993]

Hi all! I leave next Saturday for a week at Universal. I’ve been once before, but it has been many years. I’d love to have a little bit of a plan for which rides to tackle when I enter the park, And which I should leave for later in the day. What are your usual touring plans? Help!

We've been many times and have our favs. A habit is to start Studios with Mummy - sort of a tradition. At Islands, we do early entry to get to Hagrid or VelociCoaster. Are you staying at one of the 3 hotels that offer Express?

 

[MouseMamaToMany]

We've been many times and have our favs. A habit is to start Studios with Mummy - sort of a tradition. At Islands, we do early entry to get to Hagrid or VelociCoaster. Are you staying at one of the 3 hotels that offer Express?

I’m not. I’m staying at Aventura. Because I’m solo, the value for the included express pass vs. room rate wasn’t quite there for me. I’m hoping that the crowds will be slowish on weekdays. I do love coasters, ans can’t wait to ride Hagrid and Velocicoaster. Last time I was at Universal they were still running Dueling Dragons, so it has been a while!

 

[ILove2Travel]

Remember that Universal has lots of single rider lines, too. That can really help when lines are long. You will lose a bit of the pre-ride experience but you’ll be able to ride more rides in less time.

 

[mrd7896]

does hagrids even do single rider now that VQ is a thing most days?
i read that velocicoasters' single rider isn't too bad

i would still head to hagrids right away or try to get a VQ then over to velocicoaster.

at US--gringotts like a pp said but also despicable me gets a long wait too!

 

[cschaaf]

Where would you head first with Express Passes and getting early admission?

Same advice I posted before.

IOA - Hagrid's. At least the times we've been, it builds a longer line than Velocicoaster and seems to have more downtime during the day. Both of those rides get long lines and, as of right now, there is no express pass option.

USO - Gringott's. Probably builds the longest line in USO. Express Passes, if you have them, make this less of an issue.

During EE, the ride choices are limited - but they usually open the rides that get the longest waits during normal hours. USO typically opens Gringotts and one other ride (Mummy or Minions are the most common, I think). IOA usually opens Forbidden Journey, Hagrids, Velocicoaster, and Hulk.

Our preference is to go to EE and ride whichever of the HP rides are open. That allows us to get those rides in while the HP areas aren't too crowded, then we can avoid those areas the rest of the day if we want to.

The second priority is any of the non-EP rides - right now, Velocicoaster is the only non-EP ride that doesn't fit rule #1 above.

 

[BrotherCraig]

Same advice I posted before.

During EE, the ride choices are limited - but they usually open the rides that get the longest waits during normal hours. USO typically opens Gringotts and one other ride (Mummy or Minions are the most common, I think). IOA usually opens Forbidden Journey, Hagrids, Velocicoaster, and Hulk.

Our preference is to go to EE and ride whichever of the HP rides are open. That allows us to get those rides in while the HP areas aren't too crowded, then we can avoid those areas the rest of the day if we want to.

The second priority is any of the non-EP rides - right now, Velocicoaster is the only non-EP ride that doesn't fit rule #1 above.

Thank you.

 

[MeridaAnn]

A note on the single rider lines - they can be pretty hit or miss on the bigger rides. On my most recent rides of Hagrid's and Velocicoaster, I noted specific people at the end of the single rider line as I got in the regular line and I ended up seeing those same people again right before boarding, so we rode only a couple minutes apart.

For the Veloicoaster, I think the main line was a 35 or 40 minute wait and the SR line was backed up nearly to the line entrance, so if the wait is longer than that and the SR isn't past the entrance, then it might be a shorter wait in that case, but it wasn't when I rode. For Hagrid's, it's a bit harder to tell since you can't see the SR when you first get in the main line, and it was closed when I got there, so it's hard to tell how long they had been there already, but for the ones at the back of the SR line when I passed them (where the two lines come beside each other right outside the building entrance) they ended up riding maybe a minute or so before me (they were a couple people back from the loading area as I entered the final room with the switchback lines). So they might have saved a few minutes or they might have been there a bit longer than me, I can't be sure, but it was at best very close to the same as the main line.

For both of those it was worth it to me to wait in the main line even though I was solo myself - even if it *had* saved me a few minutes (which was a gamble as I was getting in the line and definitely not guaranteed), I would rather have a few extra minutes waiting to be able to get the motorcycle on Hagrid's instead of the side car that the SRs are almost guaranteed to end up with. And on Velocicoaster, since I went through the main line, I was able to request the front row seat, which was awesome!

The SR line *is* awesome for Men In Black, though - it's often essentially a walk-on and it moves pretty quickly even when there are others in line. For Gringotts, I've seen it both ways - usually, the SR line only goes a little way back past the stairs and it's usually a fairly quick wait, but I had one time where it was backed up all the way to the door out of the entrance hall and I stood there for about ten minutes with basically no movement before giving up because it was clear it was going to take way longer than I wanted to spend waiting there.

Also, if it's your first time, a lot of the queues are really well themed and the SR lines usually skip all the interesting parts and any preshows they might have (I'm not sure if Gringotts is doing their preshow elements right now, but they're really well done, so I would recommend going through them at least once. For Veloicoaster, there are some cool visuals in the main queue that get skipped by the SR, but the SR line does get the preshow video. For Hagrid's, sadly, they haven't done the preshow for *anyone* since about the first week it was open, which is a shame because it was really fun the one time I got to see it and it gave a nice explanation for why there are so many motorcycles, etc.

 

[cschaaf]

A note on the single rider lines - they can be pretty hit or miss on the bigger rides.

In general, I think any ride that's 2 seats makes the single rider line more of a risk. We've seen similar to what you reported where we note and keep track of people in the single rider line.

The first time we did that on Hagrids- there was two women in the regular line behind us. The standby by line was backed up to right as you enter the castle. They decided to bail out and go single rider.

When we got to the Standby/Single Rider merge point, we met up with them exactly. We had an odd number, so one of our daughters ended up riding with one of the ladies. When we got off the ride, our daughter said she asked the lady and that was their second time through the single rider in the time that we went through once in standby. So I learned the lesson to try to identify more than one or two groups in the single rider line to be able to judge which line was faster.

For Hagrid's, sadly, they haven't done the preshow for *anyone* since about the first week it was open, which is a shame because it was really fun the one time I got to see it and it gave a nice explanation for why there are so many motorcycles, etc.

A friend was there last week and said the Hagrids pre-show was running intermittently. During Early Entry, it was in B mode each time they tried but during regular park hours, there were times when it was playing. You could stand and watch, or you could walk through. I hope they keep it like that forever - I only need to see the preshows once. I don't care about the story, I just want to ride!

 

[MeridaAnn]

A friend was there last week and said the Hagrids pre-show was running intermittently. During Early Entry, it was in B mode each time they tried but during regular park hours, there were times when it was playing. You could stand and watch, or you could walk through. I hope they keep it like that forever - I only need to see the preshows once. I don't care about the story, I just want to ride!

Oh, that's great! Hopefully it becomes more consistent and sticks around!

 

[Deb1993]

I have found that single rider is a breeze on Gringotts - did it 3x in a row in middle of the day with single rider, not a single person on line other than me.

 

[RamblingMad]

I have found that single rider is a breeze on Gringotts - did it 3x in a row in middle of the day with single rider, not a single person on line other than me.

Yep. We once road it 5x in one day. Of course, the single rider line eventually closes in the afternoon. Now, this was my experience in 2018. No idea what this is like post the pandemic.

I also recommend Transformers and Spider-man. They're both pretty much the same ride, but they're worth it.

I also typically go into the park that I'm not going to eat lunch and then take the Hogwarts express to the other park for lunch. Wait times are reduced at lunch time. But they get busy when one park closes while the other remains open longer.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

So we like to spend one day at Harry Potter on both sides.. it's at the back of the park.
When you are there for more than one day I would work each section.