Mumsnet Talk

yes they go up and down according to the demand - or Universal's expected demand anyway. Sometimes they are so high that a night at the Hard Rock would be cheaper and of course the FOTL passes can be used multiple times unlike the bought express passes.

Ahhh thanks. I'm not going for a fright night. Too scary for the kids.
So does the price vary for the fast pass system then?
I had a look at them the other day but didn't realise that the prices changed!

There isnt a free one like there are for WDW ihatethecold - its a paid one, if you google it will come up. Check to see whether you are going to be there for one of their horror nigts though - that will have a knockon effect.

You can usualy tell for free whether Universal expect it to be busy by the price of the express passes, if they are high then they expect it to be busy iyswim.

Where can I find the calendar that tells me the days that are busy at universal.
I'm going at the end of oct and need to plan

Hulababy I think ours were about 175 a night. That was over a Mardi gras weekend though so you MIT be able to get it for less through a good TA. You can get an AA discount too. All the best discounts are for 3 days though.

You are there at the same time as we were, the weather was perfect for us, watch when presidents day falls though as the parks got super busy.

2 weeks in Disney, at the end of August, we spent time at 4 main parks and the two water parks, plus downtown Disney (and a side trip to NASA). I think we visited each park at least twice, and didn't spend a single day being their until we dropped. We also spent quality time at our Villa chilling and swimming. So it was a holiday rather than a military campaign. We had some early days, and so late ones. Kids were 15, 12 and 8, the youngest two also enjoyed collecting autographs.
But we have done the US a lot, and Disney before.

We took a taxi once from I Drive to City Walk and with tip it cost us around $70 there and back.

I would ditch Disney Express and hire a car.

Just seen they are building a phase 2 to HP land in teh other Universal park and joining the two with a Hogwarts Express - probably take a couple of years - looks like I'll be returning in a few years time too!

Referring back to the earlier suggestion Im Not sure a night at the hard rock would help us though would it since we would still have to use taxis to get there from our Disney hotel. We have no hire car since we are using the Disney express from
The airport

Over 2 weeks we normally do 3 (or 4) days at Universal, 1 day at the Space centre and every other day in Disney. Still not done it all.

Well since posting earlier I appear to have booked flights to Orlando for a week in February half term!!!

We are planning in one day in each park - so all 4 Disney parks, and both Universal ones.

DD adored HP bit. I have to admit it was stunning when we went. We spent hours there. The attention to detail was amazing. The main ride in Hogwarts is fab!

We spent a day in each and a third day going between the parks. Absolutely love Universal - possibly even more than Disney

I wouldn't spend two weeks in Disney alone, personally.

2 weeks in Disney alone ? Sheesh. That's slow

You would need at least a full day in each park. We personally prefer islands of adventure. But the original is good to.
Alot depends on queuing times as well. We go in January and queues are minimal. We went in march this year and the queues were longer so we needed longer in each park.
There are several websites that give estimated queue lengths, bases on averages of previous years.

We planned to go to Universal on our last Orlando trip but didn't have time as we did Disney, that was in 2 weeks. Don't try and do too much. If we went again we might do Universal instead, at least a day per park.

The Harry Potter bit is badly planned. Too small.

Are Virgin still doing the 6am breakfast visit to HP at universal?

Can I just as a quick question - roughly how much is a one night stay at Hard Rock? DD is trying to persuade us to return next year and this was one of the things I was considering but wasn't sure on cost.

We are doing the one night thing at the Hard Rock Hotel. You can check in early on the first day and even if the room isn't ready, leave your bags with the concierge and head off to the parks with your front of line pass. Get up early the next day to take advantage of extra hour and then do the other park!

We stayed 2 nights in the middle of a Disney stay as well for the front of the line passes. If you do get a taxi though it's about 30dollars each way. There are bus options but they are long and tiresome. I would really crunch the numbers for one night at the hard rock hotel against taxis etc.

We were staying at Disney but did one night at one of the universal hotels which meant you got a express pass for both days (can't be used on all rides) & got into Harry Potter world an hour early which was great. However everyone else in hotels also getting there early. Watching people run at 7am was hilarious! Disclaimer I can't run cos of rheumatoid arthritis.

You really do need to do a full day in each and if you want to do HP world at IOS you need to head there as soon as the park opens (its at the far side) as sometimes they close that area off when it is really busy.

We were there a few weeks ago and the most popular HP ride had queues of well over an hour within an hour or so of opening.

Hmm, I'd planned on us going twice during the two week we are there. Maybe I'd better plan for another day there too since they are bound to want another trip to harry potter.

We are staying at Disney so this is going to cost a packet in taxi fares!