View Full Version : Express pass & harry potter
Thinkin of express pass next time, cant bear the crowds !! Cant see anywhere if they are valid for Harry, I'm thinkin not !!
thanks for any advice
No they are not valid for HP.
We are staying at The Hard Rock Hotel for one night to get the unlimited fastpass and early entry into Harry Potter as that's the only way.
We all need to complain about these Fast passes. They are ridiculous! You pay to get in the park, then pay to get on the rides! Fighting with our wallets is the american way! The fast passes are necessary & do not include HP.
Yup, lots of the Disney experts recommend taking a night away from Disney to stay in a Universal hotel just for the early entry and the Express Pass.
When the WWoHP expands, I imagine those hotel rooms are going to be a real commodity.
Just ask for the single rider queue for the Forbidden Journey ride - the queue was 90 minutes long when we went a couple of days ago, but I asked for the single rider queue, was shown down the empty line and arrived at the front of the queue and straight on to the ride within 2 minutes. The ride was as brilliant as usual.
Was thinking of staying at The Hard Rock Hotel or The Royal Pacific for the same reason as gpullan, can I ask, how do you get from the hotel to the park and do you really get in 1 hour before anyone else? was there a few years ago ( not staying in hotel) and was early at the park, got in at 8;30am when it was meant to open at 9am ?
thanks
If you're going during peak then the Express Pass is very useful, but off peak Universal and IoA are fairly quiet and you can get on the Forbidden Journey and other major rides with very little or no wait especially early or late in the day.
When is off peak Roger? I'm not being obtuse there, I genuinely don't know.
Gerry Reed
28-01-2014, 17:01
We've just come back and thought Jan was off peak but the parks were very busy - over an hour wait for the big rides - including HP.
Sue
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.
When is off peak Roger? I'm not being obtuse there, I genuinely don't know.
christhear
28-01-2014, 21:01
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
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.
Can I ask ? are you allowed into Harry Potter Universal side early if you stay in a Universal hotel ?
thanks
Bigblue35
26-10-2015, 20:01
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.