December Visitors-Your Experiences

[barkley]

thinking of going early in 12/19-possibly the 2nd thru the 12th so most of trip would be weekdays. can anyone w/experience in the parks that time of year let me know what crowds are like? i've looked at multiple crowd calendars and know that fri-sun seems the busiest (and best to get ep for if not already getting it through hotel) but the other days, the weekdays-was ep make it or break it for you? on average, what kind of wait time at the 3 different parks.

thanks in advance. i can read all the sites but personal experience speaks volumes that those sites rarely offer.

 

[Suprachica79]

My wife and I stayed at PBH December 1-8, 2018. It was probably our best vacation ever to Universal. EP was not make or break, but having it was incredible. Never looked at wait times while we were there until Friday, it was under 10 min for every ride with EP.

 

[glamdring269]

We were there in between Christmas and NY in 2017. It was really busy but if you did RD it was fine. Express Pass lines were still really long on some of the attractions, HP and Kong immediately come to mind. Plus the Hogsmeade area got very ridiculous during the nightly shows so you'll need to keep that in mind if they're still doing those.

 

[gotomu212]

My wife and I stayed at PBH December 1-8, 2018. It was probably our best vacation ever to Universal. EP was not make or break, but having it was incredible. Never looked at wait times while we were there until Friday, it was under 10 min for every ride with EP.

Same experience for us during early December. Most rides with EP were literally walk on (or wait for the next car to come to a stop). EP, for us is so nice to have, but the parks are almost dead those two weeks. The one nice thing is that we found pretty reasonable rates and discounts at the EP inclusive hotels.

 

[crazywig]

We were there Dec 11 &12th 2018, a Tues and Wednesday in the middle of our disney trip. It was fantastic. Super light crowds. We stayed 1 night at HRH and had express and did use it (no wait ever. maybe a min or 2 for gringotts) but it was not needed. Great time to go. We'll be heading back for a few days again this year during the first week of December.

 

[barkley]

The one nice thing is that we found pretty reasonable rates and discounts at the EP inclusive hotels.

about how far out did you find these?

 

[crazywig]

about how far out did you find these?

I booked HRH garden view room on July 26, the aph rate was $214. I was watching for the rate release so I'd guess that is the day they were released for my dates of 12/11. I later switched my room to club, that was about a month out from the trip and the aph was still available for a club room.

 

[Sheila E.]

My wife and I stayed at PBH December 1-8, 2018. It was probably our best vacation ever to Universal. EP was not make or break, but having it was incredible. Never looked at wait times while we were there until Friday, it was under 10 min for every ride with EP.

Awesome to hear we will be going the first week in December as well we decided to spring for the royal pacific one night to get unlimited express pass since we are doing both parks one day only.

 

[Mysteryincorp]

thinking of going early in 12/19-possibly the 2nd thru the 12th so most of trip would be weekdays. can anyone w/experience in the parks that time of year let me know what crowds are like? i've looked at multiple crowd calendars and know that fri-sun seems the busiest (and best to get ep for if not already getting it through hotel) but the other days, the weekdays-was ep make it or break it for you? on average, what kind of wait time at the 3 different parks.

thanks in advance. i can read all the sites but personal experience speaks volumes that those sites rarely offer.

We’ve gone around this week two years in a row. Keep checking for rates for RPR, I booked about 9months in advance and kept stalking the website....they did seem to fluctuate. We got our rooms for about $190/night with the stay more, save more rate.
Crowds were great ....EP was not an absolute must but really nice to have. The longest we waited was for Hogwarts Express, everything else was less than 10mintues but mostly walk on. Including the HP rides. I think it’s a great time of year to go, before the holiday madness but with all the decorations up. And while weather is never consistent in Florida, it was great the two years ina row we went!

 

[schumigirl]

thinking of going early in 12/19-possibly the 2nd thru the 12th so most of trip would be weekdays. can anyone w/experience in the parks that time of year let me know what crowds are like? i've looked at multiple crowd calendars and know that fri-sun seems the busiest (and best to get ep for if not already getting it through hotel) but the other days, the weekdays-was ep make it or break it for you? on average, what kind of wait time at the 3 different parks.

thanks in advance. i can read all the sites but personal experience speaks volumes that those sites rarely offer.

Just seen this post........

Yes, it’s a fabulous time to go......2017 we went for a week first week in December, last year we had 10 nights beginning Nov 29th and it is a great time to go.

Crowds are decent and having EP is something we always enjoy light crowds or not........weekdays were quieter but we did have a couple of lines where we were glad of EP. Yes, weekends are always busier that midweek generally. If you don’t go for a hotel with EP please don’t buy EP ahead of time.......they are date specific and can’t be exchanged, so would be a shame if you felt you didn’t need them. You could buy them on the day if you did feel the lines were longer than you’d like to wait in.

Weather wise both years we had one or two freezing cold days........but the rest of the time it was lovely.....we had light hoodies for evenings usually for when we needed them.

We are going back again same time this year for 11 nights......RP again.......I’m sure you’d love that time of year.

 

[barkley]

I think it’s a great time of year to go, before the holiday madness but with all the decorations up.

i'm looking forward to seeing universal all done up. for years when we lived in california we would always plan disneyland trips for this same time period precisely to enjoy the decorations but avoid the crowds.

If you don’t go for a hotel with EP please don’t buy EP ahead of time.......they are date specific and can’t be exchanged, so would be a shame if you felt you didn’t need them. You could buy them on the day if you did feel the lines were longer than you’d like to wait in.

that's our plan. i could see possibly needing them on the weekend days but i suspect otherwise we will be fine without them-and if we need them we could still add them on. when i priced out the types of rooms we wanted the savings between sapphire falls and the hotels w/ep is so significant that it would take several days of having to pay for all 4 of us to get ep's before we hit the break even point (and having that sapphire suite will be heavenly from all i've read).

Weather wise both years we had one or two freezing cold days

freezing cold by what standards? florida or reality? right now it's hovering around 8 degrees where i'm at and over the next 48 hours we are looking at up to another foot of snow (on top of about 7 or 8" that dumped over the weekend).

 

[schumigirl]

that's our plan. i could see possibly needing them on the weekend days but i suspect otherwise we will be fine without them-and if we need them we could still add them on. when i priced out the types of rooms we wanted the savings between sapphire falls and the hotels w/ep is so significant that it would take several days of having to pay for all 4 of us to get ep's before we hit the break even point (and having that sapphire suite will be heavenly from all i've read).



freezing cold by what standards? florida or reality? right now it's hovering around 8 degrees where i'm at and over the next 48 hours we are looking at up to another foot of snow (on top of about 7 or 8" that dumped over the weekend).

Sounds like a good plan!! We`ve had the Sapphire Suite a couple of times and the Hospitality Suite too.....both are lovely....

Well, with the cold.....I detest cold with a passion...….it was 8C but, it was the wind that was bitter.....one of the girls from the lounge told us it was really nasty and freezing and a very cold wind chill, we didn't imagine how nasty till we walked out the door....she was right.....the wind was just icy. I turned around and walked straight back in the hotel and sat in the lounge all morning. Husband and son went in the park and lasted barely two hours.

That was the coldest day we have ever experienced in Florida. But, it was just one day out of 10 last year...can`t complain too much...….