Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
view of the crowds at the Universal parks overall. To get a quantitative grip on
crowding, let's look at attendance figures compared with the size of the parks. On a
day of average attendance, USF sees about 140 guests per acre, while Disney's Hol-
lywood Studios sees about 203. Because both parks contain almost the same number
of attractions, this means Disney Studios is 45% more crowded on an average day
than USF. Contrasting the Magic Kingdom with IOA, the latter averages 200 guests
per day, per acre, while the Magic Kingdom—the attendance leader of all the world's
theme parks—registers a whopping 460 guests per day, per acre. Depending on how
you define
attractions
, however, the Magic Kingdom has about 31, versus 22 at Is-
lands of Adventure. Even so, there are still more than twice as many guests for each
Magic Kingdom attraction as for each IOA attraction.
LILIANE
In order, Mondays, Sundays, and Saturdays are the best days to
visit Universal Orlando.
UNIVERSAL EXPRESS
SIMILAR TO DISNEY WORLD'S FASTPASS
+, Universal Express is a system whereby any
guest can schedule an appointment to experience an attraction later in the day with
little or no waiting. Unlike FastPass+, however, Universal Express is not free for
everyone.
Universal Express is a complimentary perk for guests at all Universal hotels
ex-
cept
Cabana Bay Beach Resort; they may use the Express lines all day long simply by
flashing the pass they get at check-in. This perk far surpasses any benefit accorded to
guests of Disney resorts and is especially valuable during peak season.
Guests staying at Cabana Bay or day guests can purchase Universal Express for
an extra $30-$110 (depending on the season), which provides line-jumping privileges
at each Universal Express attraction at a given park. (All Universal hotel guests, in-
cludingthosestayingatCabanaBay,mayenterbothparks'WizardingWorldofHarry
Potter themed areas 1 hour before they open to the public.)
