First Timer Help Please

JoeCamel

JoeCamel

Well-Known Member
If you got a confirmation number with your express passes you can print them at the kiosk near Guest services. GS opens before the park does and the kiosks even earlier.

If the park opens at 8 then you want to be at the gates by 7:30 as they open early most of the time.
 
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Disneykings

Disneykings

Active Member
Original Poster
JoeCamel said:
If you got a confirmation number with your express passes you can print them at the kiosk near Guest services. GS opens before the park does and the kiosks even earlier.

If the park opens at 8 then you want to be at the gates by 7:30 as they open early most of the time.
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Thanks JoeCamel, thats such a great help. We purchased them from the Universal team based in England. We received what I thought was tickets but on checking them, the multi-day passes are tickets and the express passes say 'exchange at Universal Orlando ticket window for express pass'. We will just plan to arrive early to get sorted for the day. We will be up by 4am anyway, I hate jet lag. Thanks again.
 
JoeCamel

JoeCamel

Well-Known Member
Disneykings said:
Thanks JoeCamel, thats such a great help. We purchased them from the Universal team based in England. We received what I thought was tickets but on checking them, the multi-day passes are tickets and the express passes say 'exchange at Universal Orlando ticket window for express pass'. We will just plan to arrive early to get sorted for the day. We will be up by 4am anyway, I hate jet lag. Thanks again.
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Sounds like you will need to visit the ticket window not Guest Services, they open before the park and if you are near the head of the line it will only be a few minutes til you can proceed through the gate. One thought is if you are early you probably won't need express til later in the day and you could go out and collect the express to use the rest of the day after you get a few rides in.
 
Disneykings

Disneykings

Active Member
Original Poster
JoeCamel said:
Sounds like you will need to visit the ticket window not Guest Services, they open before the park and if you are near the head of the line it will only be a few minutes til you can proceed through the gate. One thought is if you are early you probably won't need express til later in the day and you could go out and collect the express to use the rest of the day after you get a few rides in.
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Good idea, thanks very much JoeCamel for all your help. So used to staying at Disney and being spoilt by them preparing everything for you. Taken down your locker advise too and will read the link later :)
 
RMichael21

RMichael21

Well-Known Member
Express Pass will be helpful, we were able to get through everything we wanted to do in both parks by 7PM (starting with our 7AM early admission) this past Sunday (July 24th). We used Express Pass on all of the following except those that don't offer it (mentioned below) and the water rides as our pass was left in our locker. We did the water rides all at around 9-10 AM, and the lines were all 5 minutes each.

We were able to do the following, in one day in about 12 hours:

Forbidden Journey (x2) (No Express Pass) - Walk On
Flight of the Hippogriff - Walk On
Reign of Kong (No Express Pass) - 20 Minute Wait
Spiderman - 5 Minute Wait
Dr. Doom Fearfall - 5 Minute Wait
Ripsaw Falls - 5 Minute Wait
Bilge Rat Barges (x2) - 5 Minute Wait
Jurassic Park River Adventure - 5 Minute Wait
Dragon Challenge - 10 Minute Wait
Hogwarts Express to London and Back (No Express Pass) - 10 Minute wait on both ends
Lunch at Mythos
Walk to the studios
Escape from Gringotts (No Express Pass) - 45 Minute Wait
Shop in/Explore Diagon Alley for 2 hours
Men in Black: Alien Attack - 10 Minute Wait
E.T. Adventure - 10 Minute Wait
Transformers - 20 Minute Wait
Rip Ride Rocket - 15 Minute Wait
Despicable Me - 15 Minute Wait
Dinner at Hard Rock Café - Early Night back at the hotel.

We had planned on two days at Universal, but being the theme park commandos that we are, we knocked out everything we wanted (plus time for shopping for 2 hours in Diagon Alley) in a day, so got a full refund for our second day and went to Animal Kingdom instead on Monday.

But, like I said, we powered through everything extremely quickly, so if you prefer a (even a slightly more) relaxed pace, two days is perfect. But, don't be afraid to cross between the parks if you have a park to park ticket. Don't limit yourself on one park per day.
 
Disneykings

Disneykings

Active Member
Original Poster
RMichael21 said:
Express Pass will be helpful, we were able to get through everything we wanted to do in both parks by 7PM (starting with our 7AM early admission) this past Sunday (July 24th). We used Express Pass on all of the following except those that don't offer it (mentioned below) and the water rides as our pass was left in our locker. We did the water rides all at around 9-10 AM, and the lines were all 5 minutes each.

We were able to do the following, in one day in about 12 hours:

Forbidden Journey (x2) (No Express Pass) - Walk On
Flight of the Hippogriff - Walk On
Reign of Kong (No Express Pass) - 20 Minute Wait
Spiderman - 5 Minute Wait
Dr. Doom Fearfall - 5 Minute Wait
Ripsaw Falls - 5 Minute Wait
Bilge Rat Barges (x2) - 5 Minute Wait
Jurassic Park River Adventure - 5 Minute Wait
Dragon Challenge - 10 Minute Wait
Hogwarts Express to London and Back (No Express Pass) - 10 Minute wait on both ends
Lunch at Mythos
Walk to the studios
Escape from Gringotts (No Express Pass) - 45 Minute Wait
Shop in/Explore Diagon Alley for 2 hours
Men in Black: Alien Attack - 10 Minute Wait
E.T. Adventure - 10 Minute Wait
Transformers - 20 Minute Wait
Rip Ride Rocket - 15 Minute Wait
Despicable Me - 15 Minute Wait
Dinner at Hard Rock Café - Early Night back at the hotel.

We had planned on two days at Universal, but being the theme park commandos that we are, we knocked out everything we wanted (plus time for shopping for 2 hours in Diagon Alley) in a day, so got a full refund for our second day and went to Animal Kingdom instead on Monday.

But, like I said, we powered through everything extremely quickly, so if you prefer a (even a slightly more) relaxed pace, two days is perfect. But, don't be afraid to cross between the parks if you have a park to park ticket. Don't limit yourself on one park per day.
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Thats amazing, we where looking at one park per day but riding the Hogwarts Express on one day. But going to rethink it now. Can I ask, did you use a locker when entering the park? This is one reason we thought sticking to one park was a good idea. I need to carry food for my daughter due to her peanut allergy. Is it easy to use ride lockers instead?
 
RMichael21

RMichael21

Well-Known Member
Disneykings said:
Thats amazing, we where looking at one park per day but riding the Hogwarts Express on one day. But going to rethink it now. Can I ask, did you use a locker when entering the park? This is one reason we thought sticking to one park was a good idea. I need to carry food for my daughter due to her peanut allergy. Is it easy to use ride lockers instead?
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We didn't use a locker at the entrance to the park, simply because we thought it would be a pain to go back and retrieve something if we needed it.

But, every ride where you can't have a bag on the ride, there are lockers where you can put your stuff. They're free for a certain amount of time, and then you can pay to extend it. It gets kind of tedious to take your stuff out of a locker and put it back in, but even if you wanted to keep your locker and pay for it, it would be better to have it at a ride (which is closer to other things) than at the front of the park.
 
Disneykings

Disneykings

Active Member
Original Poster
RMichael21 said:
We didn't use a locker at the entrance to the park, simply because we thought it would be a pain to go back and retrieve something if we needed it.

But, every ride where you can't have a bag on the ride, there are lockers where you can put your stuff. They're free for a certain amount of time, and then you can pay to extend it. It gets kind of tedious to take your stuff out of a locker and put it back in, but even if you wanted to keep your locker and pay for it, it would be better to have it at a ride (which is closer to other things) than at the front of the park.
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Thank you so much, that does make it easier. Is it easy to walk from one park to the next? We're used to walking from one to the other in Paris. Guessing its the same, about 10 minute walk including security? Sorry for all the questions.
 
RMichael21

RMichael21

Well-Known Member
Disneykings said:
Thank you so much, that does make it easier. Is it easy to walk from one park to the next? We're used to walking from one to the other in Paris. Guessing its the same, about 10 minute walk including security? Sorry for all the questions.
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It's not a problem! You go through security before reaching the entrance, so you don't have to go through security again when switching parks. Generally, it's easier to take the Hogwarts Express, but walking from Hogsmeade to Diagon Alley (the Hogwarts Express was a 30 minute wait at that point, so we decided to walk because we had already ridden both ways earlier in the day) took us about 30 minutes. Probably should have just stuck out the wait, as it ended up being a similar amount of time, just with more walking.
 
RMichael21

RMichael21

Well-Known Member
Disneykings said:
Thank you so much, that does make it easier. Is it easy to walk from one park to the next? We're used to walking from one to the other in Paris. Guessing its the same, about 10 minute walk including security? Sorry for all the questions.
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To add on, walking from one front gate to the other takes less than 10 minutes, a very similar distance to DLP.
 
JoeCamel

JoeCamel

Well-Known Member
Disneykings said:
Thats amazing, we where looking at one park per day but riding the Hogwarts Express on one day. But going to rethink it now. Can I ask, did you use a locker when entering the park? This is one reason we thought sticking to one park was a good idea. I need to carry food for my daughter due to her peanut allergy. Is it easy to use ride lockers instead?
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Lockers are explained here
http://orlandoinformer.com/universal/rental-ride-lockers

Allergies
http://orlandoinformer.com/2013/guests-with-food-allergies-visiting-universal-orlando/
 
Disneykings

Disneykings

Active Member
Original Poster
RMichael21 said:
You should have a great time, have fun! If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. :)
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Hi, sorry to bother you again :oops: Just wondering? .. Due to Studios closing early during our trip, 5pm for Halloween nights. Does that mean the Universal Cinematic Spectacular, 100 years of movie memories wont be on? Thanks
 
RMichael21

RMichael21

Well-Known Member
Disneykings said:
Hi, sorry to bother you again :oops: Just wondering? .. Due to Studios closing early during our trip, 5pm for Halloween nights. Does that mean the Universal Cinematic Spectacular, 100 years of movie memories wont be on? Thanks
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As stated by @JoeCamel, the show won't run. But, I wouldn't stress about it, as I haven't heard the best things about the show.
 
Disneykings

Disneykings

Active Member
Original Poster
JoeCamel said:
Correct during HHN season the spectacular does not run
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RMichael21 said:
As stated by @JoeCamel, the show won't run. But, I wouldn't stress about it, as I haven't heard the best things about the show.
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Thank you both. Not to worried, nothing will ever beat Dreams for us anyway. How about the parade, I had assumed that was at lunchtime but currently its on around 7pm ish. Again not to worried, just trying to get an idea of what to aim for on each day. Thanks again
 
RMichael21

RMichael21

Well-Known Member
Disneykings said:
Thank you both. Not to worried, nothing will ever beat Dreams for us anyway. How about the parade, I had assumed that was at lunchtime but currently its on around 7pm ish. Again not to worried, just trying to get an idea of what to aim for on each day. Thanks again
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I can't answer that, as we didn't see the parade. I'm sure someone around here knows the answer though. :)
 

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