Any Rumors of Universal Expanding EE?

[PrincessWithABlaster]

With Aventura opening soon and the other hotel (I forget the name) taking reservations, are there any rumors of more rides being open during early entry? When we went in Nov last year IOA was the EE park. FJ had a 45 min wait during EE which was actually higher than it was shortly after park open. It would seem that with many more people eligible the value of the EE perk is going to degrade significantly. I'm wondering if Uni has any plans to fix that. And what ride or attraction would you add to EE if you could pick?

 

[skylock]

I agree, something is going to have to be done with the hotel additions.

We usually sleep in but have managed to make EE a time or two and I was truly surprised at the line wait time we saw that early in the morning the last time we made it.

 

[nighttowll]

We are going tomorrow for early entry, and I’m actually worried about how it’s going to be with more hotels open than ever and only one park running early instead of the usual two. I hope it’s still worth the early start. I think I need to get up about 5:30 . Hopefully, it’s not too bad. I’m counting on the fact that people on vacation are lazy.

Hmm, what ride to add... ET (for group riding, you can usually do single rider anytime), Spiderman or Transformers. Those seem to be our favorites that get long lines. Maybe Trolley Train Ride. I really love that ride (great views), and it can be hit or miss with long lines.

Oh, and the train!!! Drives me crazy you can’t get on it until after park opening. They could at least start 15 to 20 minutes early. Time it so you arrive right as the park opens, or let us go over, but keep the rides still closed until start time. This way you could do the spells and take pics while it was still fairly uncrowded. How hard would it be to keep people confined to the HP sections, and you wouldn’t need people to run the rides, just let us go get in line early.

 

[bchbetha]

I enjoy just walking around when crowds are light + exploring HP stuff.

 

[ItsNotMuchofaTail]

I went to EE today at US. We didn’t quite make it yesterday after checking in to RPR at 8:15 instead of 7:30 - perils of traveling with a teenager). I am not sure it’s worth it. It was great to walk around Diagon Alley and let my DD cast spells (which weren’t working very well today FYI, lots of frustrated kids), don’t get me wrong, but with no express pass allowed until 9:00, we waited to ride Gringotts until then. But they failed to tell anyone in the espress line that ALL the standby folks would be allowed to pass the merge point before any express people would. The express line waited longer than the posted wait time of 25 minutes. Now maybe yesterday was just much less crowded, but we rode Gringotts 3 times by 9:30. Today - twice by 10:00 and then my DD rode single rider. We rode it a total of 7 times over 2 days, so I am not complaining, but getting up at 6:30 am is hard and I am not sure casting a few spells is worth it. It was still decently crowded, she always had to wait to try a spell.

We have had a wonderful time (we only do the potter stuff, didn’t do one other thing this time) and we are looking forward to our relaxing day at cabana bay tomorrow before we head to the house of Mouse.

 

[maverik85]

Yea seems like the bigger benefit is just getting int he park and further back in it to hit the other rides at park opening before crowds.
Opening another ride or two would be great too though. Think opening stuff in other areas would be good to help disperse the crowds from the start. Even if not a whole land jsut having another ride or two. Like Spider-Man and/or Hulk in IOA, and Simpsons or Mummy, Transformers, or Fallon in US

 

[Lewdannie]

Begs the question. If you are staying at an Express pass hotel is there really any benefit in the early entery now that the Harry Potter rides are included?

 

[Valbot]

Begs the question. If you are staying at an Express pass hotel is there really any benefit in the early entery now that the Harry Potter rides are included?

There really isn't. If you have express might as well sleep in until 830. Went two weeks ago never went to EE and with express had no issues with getting on any ride with little wait.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

It was great to walk around Diagon Alley and let my DD cast spells (which weren’t working very well today FYI, lots of frustrated kids), don’t get me wrong, but with no express pass allowed until 9:00, we waited to ride Gringotts until then.

Is that a recent change? Last year we were able to use EP during EE. I did feel like maybe we shouldn't have with the wait at FJ being so long so we only did it once. I guess that's one way to improve the benefit EE for non-EP people without adding new rides, I guess.

Begs the question. If you are staying at an Express pass hotel is there really any benefit in the early entery now that the Harry Potter rides are included?

I think it's worth going to have a lower crowd while doing spells and get a shorter line for Olivanders. And more total park time during the slower seasons since Uni sometimes closes pretty early. But yeah, definitely more of a lifestyle choice now - morning person or no? Last year we only went during EE one day.

 

[bobbie68]

Hi when we were there a couple of weeks ago the same thing happened to us in DA. We had the ep and we had to go through the stand-by line for Gringotts. There were a lot of people from the non-ep resorts. We also ended up waiting about 20 minutes. Since it just happened a couple of days ago and to me a couple of weeks ago it looks like it is a new policy at least for now. Last year I was able to use the ep line during ee. I wasn't happy about this new change.

 

[mick1229]

Good to know...Im taking my Daughter down on Monday for her Sweet 16...(staying at the HRH) ...so no sense in busting it,just to get the Early Entry in when we we have the Express Pass....looking forward to it!!

 

[nighttowll]

Went today as planned, I didn’t get to arrive as early as I would have liked. I was shooting for 7:30. We arrived at the parking garage at 8:00. We were in the park by 8:15, 8:20. Then we wasted about 5 minutes on a fruitless search for a gluten free pastry which I had heard a rumor might exist, but didn’t. Since we arrived so late, I can’t say for sure, but it did seem much more crowded than usual, and not just during the early entry hour. The first couple of hours the park was open, the lines seemed longer to me. It seemed like the crowds built up much faster than I remember them normally building up in the mornings. My guess is more people getting up for EE = more people in the park in the morning overall. When before without EE, there would have been no benefit for many of them to get to the parks in the first half of the morning.

We went Sunday night, and I think we did about the same number of rides Sunday night as we did this morning.

Sunday night: Arrived a little before 6:00; Cat in the Hat, Dinner at 3 Broomsticks, Train, MIB (x2), ET, Nutcoaster, Mummy, F&F, and Gringotts. Plus, we wandered around some, got snacks, window shopped, etc. Left at closing at 10, so 9 rides and one meal in about 4 hours. F&F really messed us up, or we could have done much more. Wait was posted at 20 minutes. They lie! It ended up being closer to 45.

Today: Arrived about 8:20, Mummy, Transformers, Minions, Starbucks, Spiderman, Trolley Train, Forbidden Journey, Mythos, Poseidon’s Fury. We window shopped and bought some fudge, then left about 2:30, so 7 rides and one meal in about 6 hours.

Neither day was really planned or maximized, so obviously we could have done much more than we did had we planned. This was just us wandering around, doing whatever we came across that we felt we could ride without too long of a line. The one thing that really hurt us was that the single rider lines were not open yet on many of the rides this morning. The standby lines weren’t horrible, but longer than I’d wait. For example, we skipped Kong because the wait was posted at 60 minutes, and the single rider line wasn’t open yet. Spiderman was posted at 20 minutes, but I knew from where I could see the line ending that it was closer to 30 or 35 minutes and again single rider was closed.

Note: We did not have EP either day, so everything we did was either standby or single rider. We get in early with our AP. We aren’t staying onsite.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

What's the deal with the single rider line on Kong? When I was there, throughout each day the line was always 60min + (sometimes very much +) and it was never open. Though one day they told me it was, and would split off once I got in line, which was not true... the ride attendant said it hadn't been open all day.

 

[macraven]

For the rides that offer SRL, they are not always open.

Many times I have gone to spiderman ride and only the general and ep lines were available.

I go solo and have the hotel ep but still use the srl at times.
I don't care where I sit on the ride, just want to be on.

When the srl is open, there usually is signage out to direct peeps to use that line.

 

[cgattis]

Wait, am I understanding correctly? The “value hotels” now get EE but not EP? So if I stay at Cabana Bay, I could still knock out the big wait rides in each park before the regular and EP crowds show up? Are the Potter rides still the longest waits or are the coasters about the same now?

Possibly going over Pres Day weekend, but really want to stay at Cabana Bay so my teens and I can all three have our own beds. (We normally stay at RPR but have physically outgrown it!). EP will likely almost double our ticket cost so really not wanting to splurge for it.

 

[macraven]

All the onsite hotels have been allowed EE/ early entry
One hour for the designated park prior to the official park opening

Only 3 hotels have the free unlimited express pass perk

 

[macraven]

Cbay is very popular
I’m sure you will enjoy that hotel

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Note that only a few rides are open for EE. But all rides have short waits when the parks first open anyways, for a few minutes at least.