Queues You Don't Want to Miss

[Herdman]

Our family is going to Universal for a 3 day, 2 night stay over Memorial Day weekend. We are staying at the Royal Pacific resort so we'll have Express Unlimited passes. From what I've read we won't really need a defined touring plan with the passes, but what attractions have such detailed queues that you wouldn't want to use the Express pass on your first time riding? We were last at Universal in November 2016, but we've never been with Express passes so we don't know what you miss by using the Express lines. One person on our trip has never been before, and I wouldn't want to skip something in the Express line that they should see. I would suspect we shouldn't use Express on the Potter attractions. For those of you who have toured both ways, what other attractions should we use the standby lines for instead of the Express Passes? Thanks!

 

[lebeau]

Memorial Day Weekend? Use the heck out of Express Pass. You won't miss anything that would be worth waiting in standby to see.

The Kong queue is a big part of that attraction. But the wait will be over an hour for a lot of that weekend. If you happen to get there and the wait is reasonable, sure check it out. That's not likely to be the case over a holiday weekend. I would just enjoy the perk of EP to the fullest and don't worry about themed queues.

 

[Rob562]

The Potter attractions you see the bulk of the queue through the Express lines, so no harm there.

Kong was mentioned, there's definitely a few parts of the queue worth seeing. If queue is under 15 minutes I'd say it's worth doing once, though it doesn't have to be the first time.

Spiderman's express actually goes through a few different offices at the Daily Bugle than the Standby, so it's interesting to see both.
Mummy you miss a couple minor things along the Standby, but doesn't have to be your first ride.

Only attraction I can think of whose Express queue should be skipped on the first ride is Men in Black. The set-up to the ride makes more sense through Standby. The Express and Single Rider lines were shoehorned into a still-unthemed formerly backstage hallway.

-Rob

 

[Herdman]

Thanks for the replies. We were actually thinking of heading straight to Kong at rope drop to use the standby before the lines get too long, then just circling back toward the front of the park using Express Pass as we go.

 

[JT3000]

Kong's queue is overrated to be honest. It's mostly dark hallways. The only thing you really need to see is the shaman's room, which Express passes by anyway. You just won't hear her entire spiel... repeatedly.

Men In Black tells a portion of its story through the queue, which will be missed by using Express. Same goes for Mummy, assuming you can actually hear the televisions over everyone's talking.

My choice would actually be E.T. Adventure, believe it or not. The path through the forest is shortened considerably by using Express, but also in many instances where the stand-by line simply isn't long enough to have more of the queue open. It has some charming details that can be easily missed.