A few questions regarding Universal Orlando/Florida

[Matt N]

Hi guys. 2 months from tomorrow, I will be getting on a plane to Orlando, Florida for a 2-week holiday, and I could not be more excited! It’ll be my first time visiting Universal in 7 years, and there’s a strong possibility that I could be visiting SeaWorld and Busch Gardens too! I’m sure it’ll be great, as there’s so much to look forward to. It’s our first time ever going for the full 2 weeks rather than only 10 days, it’ll hopefully be my first time getting on rides like VelociCoaster, Hagrid’s, Iron Gwazi and Ice Breaker, my grandparents are coming with us for the first time in nearly a decade, it’ll be an epic return to parks I haven't been to in 7 years… it should be awesome, and I can’t believe it’s only 2 months away!

With this trip now being rather close, I do have a couple of questions for you guys regarding Universal Orlando. We have been multiple times before, so I’d like to think that we know the basics by this point, but I did have a couple of queries. These are:

1. Is Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure a ride that we need to prepare to wait a very long time for? I’m familiar with waiting a very long time for Harry Potter rides, having waited 3 hours for Gringotts in its opening year and having waited over an hour for it in 2016, but with Hagrid’s now being 4 years old, I did wonder if it still had its early popularity. Is it a ride that we’ll have to commit a significant proportion of the day to doing like Gringotts was in 2014? I would also ask the same question about VelociCoaster, but I’m sensing that it won’t have quite the same wave of popularity as a Harry Potter ride.
2. Are the single rider queues worth using? With me being quite a bit older than I was last time I went to Universal, there’s a decent chance that I may get the opportunity to ride some rides on my own, and there’s even a chance that I may get to spend a whole day at Universal on my own, so with Universal having quite a few single rider queues, I was curious to know whether these are worth using if you’re on your own. My limited experience with single rider queues on The Smiler at Alton Towers and Saw The Ride at Thorpe Park has mostly been very positive, with significant reductions in wait time being gained by using them, but I wondered whether Universal was a different ballgame. I’m guessing that Universal’s SRQs are not quite the unknown entity that the Smiler SRQ at Alton Towers often seems to be…
3. Is it likely to be busy in June? I’m aware that American holidays might begin while we’re out there (we’re in America from 10th-24th June), but I know that the British and other Europeans are not on holiday, so I hoped that it might be less busy than it was in April, when we last went. April is often flagged as an insanely busy time to visit Orlando, while June isn’t mentioned as often, but I’d be intrigued to know what your experiences have been.
4. I know that waterpark knowledge may be less prevalent around these parts, but does anyone have any tips or things I should know regarding Volcano Bay? This is the one park at Universal that I have never been to before, so I would appreciate any tips or advice regarding Volcano Bay.
5. And in general, is there anything that has notably changed within the last 7 years that I should know about?

I would also appreciate any tips regarding SeaWorld and Busch Gardens. Although I have been to both parks before, I am still somewhat unfamiliar with Busch Gardens in particular, and seeing as I haven’t been to either in 7 years, any tips or changes I should know about would be greatly appreciated.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. I can’t believe that our trip is only 2 months away… I’m so excited!

 

[Galaxy]

Hi Matt!

I went to Orlando last summer and it was absolutely amazing, so I'm sure you'll have a great time too.

When I went, Hagrid was definitely still an insanely popular ride - pretty sure it got up to 180 minutes in Early Park Admission (which is before the park is even open to non-hotel guests). However, the queues are usually a little overestimated. One afternoon it was posted at 90 minutes and we waited just over an hour, so don't always be put off if it has a high queue time posted. I'd recommend either heading straight there or doing it last thing at night. For VelociCoaster, the queue times weren't TOO crazy last summer but since then it now offers Express Pass which has significantly slowed down the queue from what I've seen so probably best to use the same strategy for that one. Regardless, both rides are amazing and worth a wait!

I didn't use the single rider queues so can't really comment on those, but definitely don't rely on for Hagrid and VelociCoaster as a lot of the time I saw these closed due to being "at capacity" - didn't see this on any other rides though. I've also never been to Orlando in June, but when I went in July it was decently busy but not absolutely crazy, if that helps! There are loads of crowd calendars online too which might be helpful to take a look at.

Volcano Bay is a really difficult park to navigate to be honest - we went to that park 2 times and both times the virtual return times for most of the rides were 120+ minutes and the highest I saw was 250 for Krakatau! Definitely get there as early as you can and get Krakatau done first, as it's the most popular (and the best, in my opinion) ride there. Honu and the Drop Slides are the other ones to try and get done early from what I remember too. Also, if there's a storm, try to stay if you can as it often gets a lot quieter because so many people leave.

I didn't visit SeaWorld or Busch Gardens either so can't comment on those, but I hope my Universal advice helped. Feel free to ask any more Universal questions you may have - I'm sure you'll have a great time!

 

[Matt N]

Hi Matt!

I went to Orlando last summer and it was absolutely amazing, so I'm sure you'll have a great time too.

When I went, Hagrid was definitely still an insanely popular ride - pretty sure it got up to 180 minutes in Early Park Admission (which is before the park is even open to non-hotel guests). However, the queues are usually a little overestimated. One afternoon it was posted at 90 minutes and we waited just over an hour, so don't always be put off if it has a high queue time posted. I'd recommend either heading straight there or doing it last thing at night. For VelociCoaster, the queue times weren't TOO crazy last summer but since then it now offers Express Pass which has significantly slowed down the queue from what I've seen so probably best to use the same strategy for that one. Regardless, both rides are amazing and worth a wait!

I didn't use the single rider queues so can't really comment on those, but definitely don't rely on for Hagrid and VelociCoaster as a lot of the time I saw these closed due to being "at capacity" - didn't see this on any other rides though. I've also never been to Orlando in June, but when I went in July it was decently busy but not absolutely crazy, if that helps! There are loads of crowd calendars online too which might be helpful to take a look at.

Volcano Bay is a really difficult park to navigate to be honest - we went to that park 2 times and both times the virtual return times for most of the rides were 120+ minutes and the highest I saw was 250 for Krakatau! Definitely get there as early as you can and get Krakatau done first, as it's the most popular (and the best, in my opinion) ride there. Honu and the Drop Slides are the other ones to try and get done early from what I remember too. Also, if there's a storm, try to stay if you can as it often gets a lot quieter because so many people leave.

I didn't visit SeaWorld or Busch Gardens either so can't comment on those, but I hope my Universal advice helped. Feel free to ask any more Universal questions you may have - I'm sure you'll have a great time!

Thanks @Galaxy; all of your points are really helpful!

I did wonder if Hagrid’s would still be reasonably popular. I guess it’s the newest Harry Potter ride, and Harry Potter is always going to be popular! I’m glad to hear that VelociCoaster wasn’t too bad, though I will keep in mind what you said about Express Pass.

Yikes, I’ve never heard of an SRQ hitting capacity before! Maybe I shouldn’t bet on that being a good option for Hagrid’s and VelociCoaster, but hopefully some of the other rides won’t be as bad…

Wow, that sounds really busy! I’ll definitely keep that in mind; I think the fact that the park is queueless might make for an interesting change… did you find that there was plenty to keep you occupied while you were waiting for a ride?

We’re well versed in waiting out storms at water parks; on our trip in 2016, there was an absolutely biblical storm on our first day at Aquatica, but we had a brilliant day after the storm cleared up!

 

[Burbs]

SRQs are always a bit of a gamble anywhere really, especially if you can’t see a lot of the actual queue line from outside the ride to determine how many people are waiting in it. We tracked someone joining the Velocicoaster SRQ at the same time as we joined a 50 min main queue last year, and they were still nowhere near the station by the time we got to it.

 

[RicketyCricket]

The single rider queue on Forbidden Journey is class. Walked straight on every time.

 

[jon81uk]

I know that waterpark knowledge may be less prevalent around these parts, but does anyone have any tips or things I should know regarding Volcano Bay? This is the one park at Universal that I have never been to before, so I would appreciate any tips or advice regarding Volcano Bay.

Volcano Bay tips,
If you are staying on site at Universal use the early entry to ride the water coaster, get in that queue first. Otherwise there will be a several hour long virtual queue later in the day for the water coaster which blocks you from getting more return times.
Keep an eye on the virtual queue times, if you tap into an hours wait you then can't tap into another queue, so if something else has a short wait consider getting a return time for that first. Anything showing "ride now" you can just ride without collecting a return time first and you can hold a wait time and still do the ride now stuff.
There are three banks of lockers and it might be worth considering what part of the park you'll spend most time in, I felt like we tracked back to the lockers a lot, but we were next to the main food place so it was convenient for lunch and to get drink refills.
As always at Universal Cole Freestyle is around $15 for the first day and $8ish to reactivate so often worth doing and this can be used at Volcano Bay. Icee slush is now included in the free refills too.
The fast river is a lot of fun, but watch out you don't graze limbs on the side walls or floor. I also lost a tapu tapu band on there when my wrist was caught by a water jet! Had to get my ticket back from the locker to get another one issued and linked to my account.

We stayed at Saphire Falls last September so feel free to ask questions.
I don't think I can comment too much on wait times as they were pretty low across the whole resort, longest waits were around a 60-90 minutes for Velicoaster and Hagrids. We ended up doing Hagrids in the dark and it was great.