Help for Offsite Group

[amy1115]

Hi! I'm looking for some help with how to start our day at Universal Studios. We will be staying offsite, group of 9, and will not have Express Pass. My family has been before but the other six are newbies. My problem is that the one day we will be there (May 31st) both parks have early entry for resort guests. Originally only IOA had EE, so now I'm very unsure of how we should start the day. Top priorities are Harry Potter and the big coasters. Any advice on which park/rides to start off with would be appreciated!

 

[amy1115]

169 views and no replies. Does this mean there really isn't a good plan and we'll just have to wing it?

 

[Skippyboo]

Both parks are 9am - 9 pm with 8am early entry. You can probably dismiss trying to get Hagrid’s or VelociCoaster first thing in day since you will be behind early entry people. I would probably start on Studios side take care of Gringotts and RRR, minions if you want then go for IoA rides later in the day.

 

[ajsamett]

Agreed with above! I stayed onsite when both parks had EE. We did all but Hagrids in ee and hopped to us at park open. We got delayed (personal reasons) and didn't get to US till like 940. We only waited like 30 mins for Gringotts. I would also suggest ending with Hagrids if you stay till park close. You can get in like right before park close (after watching the beautiful show on the castle). With all the BIG ones at IOA, most people don't hit US in the morning. Also take advantage of single rider lines if your party doesn't mind getting split up!

Are you only there 1 day? What would be the top like 10 rides to hit?

 

[amy1115]

Agreed with above! I stayed onsite when both parks had EE. We did all but Hagrids in ee and hopped to us at park open. We got delayed (personal reasons) and didn't get to US till like 940. We only waited like 30 mins for Gringotts. I would also suggest ending with Hagrids if you stay till park close. You can get in like right before park close (after watching the beautiful show on the castle). With all the BIG ones at IOA, most people don't hit US in the morning. Also take advantage of single rider lines if your party doesn't mind getting split up!

Are you only there 1 day? What would be the top like 10 rides to hit?

Thanks for this info!! Going to Studios first and straight back to Gringotts was my initial plan before both parks had EE, but wasn't sure if that was still the best way to go since they are both open. Looks like we'll stick with that plan and hope for the best.

Yes, just one day, ugh. I know it'll be tough. Our top 10 are probably:
Hagrids (HATE not having EE to knock this one out)
Forbidden Journey
Hippogriff (for the littles)
Gringotts
Minions
Velocicoaster
Hulk
Rip Ride
MIB
Kong

 

[Skippyboo]

I would suggest doing RRR and minions before Gringotts. With the early entry the HP Section is open before rest of park so early entry people will be at Gringotts.

 

[ajsamett]

I do think that's possible to do it all! I'd spend some time looking at wait time patterns to see if you should do minions then Gringotts or vise versa. I think you can do it all though! It'll be a LONG day. Hippogriff is a pretty long line and stays long all day which sucks. I went end of April on a Saturday for 1 day and stayed for 15 HOURS open till close (8am EE, 10pm close). Just to give an idea of what we did, but my group took a lot of breaks and did a lot of shows

EE Velocicoaster, Hippogriff, Forbidden
Break for personal reasons
Train to US Gringotts
Show and ice cream break
mib single rider
Simpsons carnival game
Lunch
Superstar parade
Hulk single rider
Water ride
Butter beer stop
Doctor suess
Dinner while waiting for mardi gras
BOOKED IT to train (the line jumped 30 mins after the parade)
Hogwarts show
Hagrids
SLEEP

 

[amy1115]

I do think that's possible to do it all! I'd spend some time looking at wait time patterns to see if you should do minions then Gringotts or vise versa. I think you can do it all though! It'll be a LONG day. Hippogriff is a pretty long line and stays long all day which sucks. I went end of April on a Saturday for 1 day and stayed for 15 HOURS open till close (8am EE, 10pm close). Just to give an idea of what we did, but my group took a lot of breaks and did a lot of shows

EE Velocicoaster, Hippogriff, Forbidden
Break for personal reasons
Train to US Gringotts
Show and ice cream break
mib single rider
Simpsons carnival game
Lunch
Superstar parade
Hulk single rider
Water ride
Butter beer stop
Doctor suess
Dinner while waiting for mardi gras
BOOKED IT to train (the line jumped 30 mins after the parade)
Hogwarts show
Hagrids
SLEEP

We are leaving on the 27th and are driving (18 hours split into two days) and my plan was for myself and my niece to keep up with the wait times throughout the mornings and then make our plan. It will be a super long day so we've scheduled a "sleep in" day the next day instead of rope dropping a park. Thanks so much for the detailed information. I feel somewhat better about things.

 

[amy1115]

I would suggest doing RRR and minions before Gringotts. With the early entry the HP Section is open before rest of park so early entry people will be at Gringotts.

I was wondering about this too. How long do you think the wait for Gringotts might be if we did these first? Just an estimate of course.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I did a day at Universal Studios and Islands last week (5/11) as an offsite guest. I would completely ignore Hagrid's in the morning and come back later in the day. It went down at the beginning of early entry and when it came back up it had a 120 minute wait. I went on line around 4:30 when it was a 60 min wait and that was the lowest I saw it go all day. Also this is just me but if you are unable to do it all and need to skip something I would skip Kong. My friend and I had Express so we just walked on but IMO it isn't worth anything more than a 20 minute wait at most. When we got off it was at 50 and I think that's too high.

A lot of your must dos have a single rider line so absolutely use those for a reduced wait though with Forbidden Journey and I think Gringotts you skip the cool parts of the queue. I probably wouldn't do single rider for Velocicoaster though - it didn't seem to be moving at all when I was there.

 

[amy1115]

I did a day at Universal Studios and Islands last week (5/11) as an offsite guest. I would completely ignore Hagrid's in the morning and come back later in the day. It went down at the beginning of early entry and when it came back up it had a 120 minute wait. I went on line around 4:30 when it was a 60 min wait and that was the lowest I saw it go all day. Also this is just me but if you are unable to do it all and need to skip something I would skip Kong. My friend and I had Express so we just walked on but IMO it isn't worth anything more than a 20 minute wait at most. When we got off it was at 50 and I think that's too high.

A lot of your must dos have a single rider line so absolutely use those for a reduced wait though with Forbidden Journey and I think Gringotts you skip the cool parts of the queue. I probably wouldn't do single rider for Velocicoaster though - it didn't seem to be moving at all when I was there.

Thank you! We will only do Kong if it's under 30 minutes at most. We've done it before and I agree I can take it or leave it, but we have some in our party that we think would really like it. Do you remember if Hagrids actually was an hour wait or if it was more or less than that?

 

[Smugpugmug]

Thank you! We will only do Kong if it's under 30 minutes at most. We've done it before and I agree I can take it or leave it, but we have some in our party that we think would really like it. Do you remember if Hagrids actually was an hour wait or if it was more or less than that?

IMO the Kong animatronic was the only cool part of the ride. The rest of it is meh, not really that exciting or fun.

Yes it actually was an hour. The wait time was not inflated like they are at Disney. I put my phone in the locker so when I went to get it I saw that it was around 5:40-50 pm. I grabbed a Dragon Scale beer from Three Broomsticks and just chilled out on line. It was a long wait but the line was consistently moving and there's neat stuff to see in the queue.

 

[ajsamett]

I think the only inflated wait times are late at night (we got in line for Hagrids like 915, 80 min wait but we were off by 10:05)