Express Pass worth it?

[lilclerk]

My nephew and I are heading to Universal on 2/10, doing both parks in one day. I'm not a fan of paying for "fastpass"-esque things, but given our limited time (the parks are open 9-6) it may be a good idea. In Feb 2007 I went just to Universal, not IoA and we were done in the park by 3, and that included over an hour of being a test audience for a new show and taking a survey on it, and a few rides being down.

It seems like a good idea, I guess I'm just looking for testimonials before I slap down another $60.

 

[NemoRocks78]

Early February on a weekday... I'd say no. Y'all shouldn't really see anything over 20 min.

 

[albino_pygmy]

Take a look at the express pass prices, the cheaper they are, the less likely you'll need to use them. This is a great way to tell how crowded the parks will be. You should be able to do most of both parks in that time frame without express, no sweat. Have fun!

 

[lilclerk]

The price that day is the cheapest, I believe $25.99 Thanks guys, that's what I wanted to hear!

 

[kcnole]

Unless money is just no object to you then I say no. They're way too expensive to really be useful. However if you stay in a Universal hotel you get them for free while you're there. That is an amazing benefit. If you consider that during the busy times they can be 50 dollars a person. If you have 4 people in your family you're looking at theoretically knocking 200 bucks off your room bill for every day you spend in the parks.

 

[krankenstein]

Nah, you'll be absolutely fine in early Feb. without it.

 

[rwdavis2]

I'll offer a different perspective. Since you said you plan to do both parks in 1 day consider this. Let's assume the longest waits are 20 minutes for the most popular rides: Mummy, Simpsons, Hulk, Spiderman, Jaws, Men In Black and Dueling Dragons. We just got back and had Express Passes and all of the above were walks-ons with the EP except for Simpsons and MiB. That's seven rides at about 20 minutes each, over 2 hours of waiting in lines you could avoid. Even if the regular lines are short you're talking about at least one hour of time over the course of 9 hours which may mean you get to do more.

It depends on how you quickly you want to tour the parks or if you want to save the $50. The EP allowed us to rider the Mummy as 2 times in a row as walk ons. No waiting at all.
Bob