USH - 1 day with Express or 2 days regular ticket?

goodeats

DIS Veteran
Joined
Aug 6, 2005
I haven't been to USH in over 20 years. DD turns 10 this summer and wants to see all the Harry Potter stuff. This will be a one and done trip - we live far enough away (South Orange County) that I have no desire to drive up to Hollywood on a regular basis. There may be deals with multi day tickets though that may make financial sense though.

Her birthday is in July so we are considering driving up to Hollywood on July 6, staying two nights at either the Sheraton or the Hilton and then visiting USH either on July 7 and July 8 or just July 7. I'm assuming a Sunday in July will be crowded. Is Express worth it? Who gets Early Entry? Do we need more than one day? DH and I get sick with the screen/simulator rides so I'm really not excited, lol.
 
There really aren't that many rides and most have single rider lines which helps. Granted its still a slow period, but I was there last Tuesday and got on everything multiple times in about 2.5 hours. Not sure how July is. With Jurassic World opening back up soon I'm assuming crowds will increase quite a bit.
 
This will be a one and done trip - we live far enough away (South Orange County) that I have no desire to drive up to Hollywood on a regular basis

Ok I’m just saying that I live in Washington state and have been to USH 3 separate times. It’s actually a pretty fun place that’s pretty darned unique.

We were there for the minions 5k two weekends ago. Rather than two days this time (which we did last time), we decided to splurge on the EP, and I was about to buy it from USH.

And then I went to undercovertourist and found a unlimited EP ticket for less than the normal EP ticket through USH.

Bought it. Had a great day. Saw every show (we had never seen Animal Actors!). Went on every ride we wanted to ride. It was spectacular just walking up to the EP line without a worry. And the fact that it was cheaper than the option we’d been about to get made it even better.

It was a great way to do the park.

I bet we’ll do it again the next time we’re there, which we will be, even though we actually have to have plane tickets to get there.
 
For the cost of a 2 day ticket, we just got a "rest of the year" pass. Sure, I probably won't come back after my 2 days in June...but you never know. My kids would love to go again and again, I'm sure.
 


For the cost of a 2 day ticket, we just got a "rest of the year" pass. Sure, I probably won't come back after my 2 days in June...but you never know. My kids would love to go again and again, I'm sure.

That’s what we’ve done before, too. Wredid actually go back, since my brother lives in San Diego. (We’ve also gotten similar passes to sea world when they moved closer to that park)

It’s such a great option.
 
Last year I took 2 grandkids for two days. We had more than enough time to do all shows and rides plus plenty of time to spend shopping (teen girls). This year I am taking another group of teenage grandkids in August but they are less interested in shopping. So we are going just one day with the express pass to do all the rides and at least the WaterWorld show. I really liked the Harry Potter rides but Transformers, Simpsons, Mummy not much. Studio Tour and Despicable Me were Ok.
 
I would favor the EP and one day. I think you can do it all in one day for sure. I can't ride motion simulators, and even the rest of my family (who can ride them) was ill by the end of the day because they are literally almost all motion simulators in that park. We got the unlimited EP which was about $40 more than the one ride/day EP, and that was great, but we could have probably just done the cheaper one ride/day EP since no one wanted to ride anything a second time other than the HP ride. You also get priority seating in all of the shows and on the studio tour with this pass. You do have to watch the times of the shows if you want to see several, as they all tend to be at the same time as each other. So look at those times early in the day and plan accordingly.
 


EP is the best bet... especially for the Tram and Jurassic attractions. Not to mention EP gets you priority for shows as well. Totally worth it. No need going for 2 days, especially that you live here in SoCal. We have passes with EP, so we use it each time we go and I can't imagine NOT having it.
 
We were there Wednesday June 12. The park hours were only 10 -7 (9:30 for us with early entry). We got the express pass and were really glad we did. There was no way we could have fit it all in within one day without the express pass. We saw all 3 shows and did all the rides.

Express was absolutely worth it for us-- no way we could have seen all the shows and done all the rides in one day without it. The rides like Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and the Simpsons and a couple of others had 60 minute lines for a good part of the day. We have done express in both Orlando and Hollywood, and we found that the lines for express were longer in Hollywood, but still much better than the standby lines.

Hyatt and Sheraton have early entry. We stayed at the Hyatt. We thought it was a good location and we were happy with the hotel. The early entry worked out great. We were able to get there and get in line for Forbidden Journey (we weren't at the front of the group and I think it was posted at 30 minutes- but it wasn't yet- it was still about walk on). Since with the Hollywood Express pass it is only each ride once, we did Forbidden Journey by the early entry line, so DD and DH could do it more than once if they wanted (once is my limit on that one). Of course, if he wants a wand- you may want to do that first-- DD already had a wand from Orlando and even though she forgot to bring it (I don't even know if it would work in Hollywood), we were not buying her another one. It looked like that line grew really fast, but someone else could tell you better on that. I know in the early entry race, the groups were splitting between running to Ollivander's and running to Forbidden Journey.

If you get sick with the screen simulator rides, I would definitely try to do the shows in between (we really liked all 3 shows) or just get him to spend a lot of time rooming the Harry Potter area-- might be worth a wand just to get him to spend time in there and not on the screen rides! For us- I would say either the express pass or 2 days to get it all done. The rides are mostly screen/simulators-- so I would lean towards one day with express pass.
 
Thanks everyone! After some research I've found that since we're going at Peak time (a Sunday in July, next Sunday the 14th) the express pass is out of our budget. We also decided against a hotel so we're going to leave our house by 7:00am.

Two more questions:
1) Will Jurassic World be open next Sunday and if so should we head there before HP Forbidden Journey?

2) I can either buy 5 1 day tickets from USH website for $614 (one child, 4 over 10s) or 5 2 day tickets (having to go back before end of Sep) for $586ish from Undercover Tourist. The ones from USH include Early Entry (only 30 min) and I'm assuming the ones from UT don't. As of now I don't especially want to go twice, but maybe I'll want to? Which would you do assuming you don't have Express Pass?
 
Jurassic World will probably be in technical rehearsals, so you might get to see it. But don’t go there first. It’s on the lower lot, which opens later.

I would definitely get the two day. My 10yo Potter fan spent most of a day casting spells in March — and she can’t wait to be back there casting them again. We’re on our way today, using the second of our three-entry Costco tickets. Plus when we went last time (just finally posted my trip report to this board, if you’re interested in the details) the early entry people got in only a little earlier than everyone else.
 

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