Express pass & harry potter

[christhear]

Not an exact set of dates, but when the UK and US kids are at school then it tends to be a lot quieter. This doesn't apply so much to Disney but Uni and IoA are quieter at those times.

Another way to see the quieter times is to look at the price of a fast pass. The cheaper it is the quieter the park normally is

[noodler]

We stayed at the Hard Rock over October half term and as hotel guests we were allowed into the Harry Potter area at Islands of Adventure park an hour before it officially opened, so from 8am-9am.


After 9 am the whole of the parks opened and we used the express pass which were given free to hotel guests. Although it was UK half term the queues weren't terrible in the parks( average 10-20 minutes without passes) but it was handy to use the express pass as this usually meant we didn't have to walk so far to get on the rides. The only exception was despicable Me at Universal Studios. That was always busy (30-50 minutes average time) and we didn't bother queuing as we weren't bothered about doing the ride.


With regard to distance we got the water taxi from the Hard Rock the first day as we didn't know how far it was to walk. But in fact people who'd walked got there quicker than us. It usually took us five minutes or less to get to/from the park walking.

[donny]

Can I ask ? are you allowed into Harry Potter Universal side early if you stay in a Universal hotel ?
thanks

[Bigblue35]

We were there last year, last week in April, first week in May and it was very quiet, 30mins to get on HP one day about 15 mins the second time, Hogwarts ride as Gringotts hadn't opened yet, one day we actually walked straight on to Transformers, happy days.