Doing Universal/IOA with no Express passes and no early entry

[sclarked]

hello!

My husband and I are arriving in Orlando in a few days and have 3 day park-to-park tickets (actually we had only planned on doing 1.5 days but we managed to get an extra day free) - and are planning on spending up to 2.5 days there. We are mostly interested in WWoHP. We aren’t planning on getting Express passes and are happy to ride Single rider wherever it is available.

If we are planning on heading straight to the WWoHP sections on each day, how early pre-opening do we need to arrive for minimal wait times, say <20 minutes for the rides? (I’m really hoping that the answer is not “earlier than you are arriving at Disney to get on Flight of Passage without a FP”)

My plan was to kind of rock up on Day 1 whenever I wake up, have had a coffee and feel human (I arrive into Orlando at 8:30pm the previous night after 26 hours travelling...but my husband has been on US time for 2 weeks already) and stay for just a few hours, then hit the park at opening on Day 2 and stay for most of the day. Day 3 we can assess how early/late we want to arrive based on what we haven’t achieved the first two days - but we’re going to WDW for MVMCP in the afternoon.

Am I daft not having a more detailed plan than this?? Do I need a more detailed plan than this?

 

[damo]

Just go and enjoy!!! You should be fine!

 

[kiwi0621]

If it helps, we just got back from our WDW/Universal vacation. We had a 2-Park ticket and went on Sunday, October 29th. We arrived at opening at 8am but did Universal rides first before heading to Diagon Alley.

We were a little worried bc we also didn’t have Express Passes and told ourselves if lines were really bad, we would purchase the Passes in the park. We ended up not and I’m glad we saved the money.

The longest ride we waited in was Escape from Gringotts (which we loved!) and it was 45 minute wait. That was around 12:30pm on a Sunday. I think if he headed to Diagon Alley first thing st 8am, the line would have been way shorter and would have been less crowded. But even midday, it wasn’t awful.

Hope this helps a bit! If you have any questions let me know!

 

[sclarked]

Great, thanks good to know that its not insane lines and that you don't need a minute by minute plan (I got a little freaked out reading some of the Disney boards). I was thinking along the same lines to not get the express pass if we didn't need it, but I figured with the flexibility over a few days, we likely wouldn't need it.

I think we'll head to WWoHP areas first each day and try and knock those off first. Is it much different after dark? My other thought was maybe to do the last few hours before closing on that 1st day.

 

[peabody58]

DW and I check in today at CBBR. Like you we have no express pass and no early entry (only because DW is not a morning person ). Appreciate the updates on crowd size and EP applicability. With 3 P2P days, I'm sure we will get to see all we want without having an EP.

 

[bchbetha]

Book end your days at Harry Potter. Sometimes rides break down and if you wait to ride them until night, you might miss them.

Be sure and check the hours as if you don’t have early entry and the park closes super early, you’ll want to maximize your time.

 

[chescat]

If it helps, we just got back from our WDW/Universal vacation. We had a 2-Park ticket and went on Sunday, October 29th. We arrived at opening at 8am but did Universal rides first before heading to Diagon Alley.

We were a little worried bc we also didn’t have Express Passes and told ourselves if lines were really bad, we would purchase the Passes in the park. We ended up not and I’m glad we saved the money.

The longest ride we waited in was Escape from Gringotts (which we loved!) and it was 45 minute wait. That was around 12:30pm on a Sunday. I think if he headed to Diagon Alley first thing st 8am, the line would have been way shorter and would have been less crowded. But even midday, it wasn’t awful.

Hope this helps a bit! If you have any questions let me know!

I echo all of this. We were there on the same day and went straight to Diagon Alley at opening (arrived at the park right around 8am, so didn't get there early to wait for opening). We actually did the wand show and browsed some shops before getting in line for Gringotts, which was about a 20 minute wait. We didn't purchase express passes and were likewise glad we saved the money.

 

[danielocha30]

definitely laid back on your first day, stick to your plan of using single riders lines and enjoy! Do try to eat at Mytho’s at IoA is a great place to relax and break from the park frenzy

 

[klo1335]

We just checked which park was early entry and went to the opposite park and this was Thanksgiving 2016. The one morning we went to Studios when IoA was early entry and walked on The Mummy and did it 3 times in a row.

 

[sclarked]

Hi all,
Just back from our first day at US/IOA and thought I’d write back to let you know how we went.
Firstly, we didn’t get there until about 10:00 and we started at IOA. My husband used single rider for The Hulk and was back to me in about 15 minutes. We rode Kong with maybe a 10 minute wait.
By the time we got over to Hogsmeade, it was 11 - but we walked slowly and stopped a lot. We didn’t see the single rider entry for Forbidden Journey but I reckon it can’t have taken more than 20 minutes from leaving our bag in the locker and getting to the front of the line. Flight of the Hippogriff stated a 15 minute wait, but I don’t think we waited more than 10. I went back on Forbidden Journey using single rider and I was out pretty quickly. Not much of a wait for the wand show either.
We were over to Diagon Alley by about 2pm and used single rider for Escape to Gringotts - there were only 7 people ahead of me, so we were done pretty quickly.
We didn’t do much else in terms of rides - but it’s been a really good day!
Tomorrow we’ll start with US and be there a bit earlier.

 

[imprint]

Excellent first day! Sounds like the crowds are very light, so it's a perfect time to be there!

 

[sclarked]

Despite our intention to be there at opening, we actually didn’t get there until 10am today.
Rides that we did, using single rider when we could:
- Mummy Returns was a walk on
- Transformers was a walk on
- Simpsons was a 15 minute wait, no single rider queue
- Escape from Gringotts took me 8.5 minutes from entering the single rider area to having my butt on a ride seat, wait time was posted as 55 minutes
- Men in Black was a walk on, no single rider queue (also my least favourite ride so far)
- Forbidden Journey was a walk on
- Spider-Man was a 10 minute wait, no single rider
- Hulk was a 5 minute wait, no single rider queue

I have nothing but raves for the single rider queue!! The only things we haven’t done so far are Minions and Rip Rockit - which are top of our list for a 9am start tomorrow.