How Much Would You Pay to Skip 26 Theme Park Lines?

hey everybody it's molly with all ears here at universal orlando with a brand new video today i'm answering one of your biggest questions is express pass worth it now if you're unfamiliar express passes universal's version of fastpass but it does have a feed it can be up to 200 per person during the busiest times a year but is it worth it that's what we're gonna find out today i've got express pass i'm gonna do as many attractions as i possibly can and hopefully answer that question so you know for your next vacation i hope you're ready i hope you're excited we got a lot to do [Music] okay let's go over the basics of express pass it works on basically every attraction the big one it does not work on is hagrid's magical creature motorbike adventure tm which is arguably the most popular right here so think about that but hulk mummy forbidden journey escape to green gods all of the big attractions other than hagrid's it works on it starts around 100 per person per day and during the busiest season it goes up to almost 200 per person per day so it's definitely an investment but you can hopefully get through at least one if not both parks in one day with the express pass now what i will recommend however is if you stay at a universal premier resort which is royal pacific the hard rock or portofino bay that express pass is included as a perk of staying one at one of their nicer resorts so yes if you stay at portofino bay or hard rock or royal pacific everyone in your party is getting express pass for every day of your stay including your check-in and check-out day so to me that's the way to do it it's a book at least a night at a hotel you know you're probably booking a hotel somewhere anyway so come over to universal for a night get the express pass for your check in and check out day you can get a lot done so keep that in mind but i've got my express pass right here make sure to keep it on you they'll scan it at the attractions and let's get to it so because it does not work at haggard's magical creature motorbike adventure tm i definitely recommend making that your first stop when you get to universal orlando rope drop islands of adventure and get yourself over there if you are staying at a resort you can do early park admission on select days and hagrid's is included with the early park admission so in a dream scenario you stay at one of the resorts that gets you the free express pass you get here for early park admission you ride haggards at least once during that early hour and then you can use express pass on just about everything else point of view the park opened 45 minutes ago you just got off hagrid's you've got your express pass and now we're going to hogwarts since it's still early it's only a 15-minute wave but we're still gonna do it obviously thank you first got to put my stuff in a locker um and the reason i'm gonna do it is i'm very curious where the express pass queue takes you on this one because this might be one that if it doesn't have a long line i may tell you to just go through the regular queue anyway because of all the cool easter eggs and details um if the express fast queue cuts off a lot of that so we're going to check it out i explain this every time i come to universal but if you are unfamiliar they have lockers at the attractions that are a little more thrilling and you have to put your stuff in them so make sure you have your park ticket and keep that with you and then you've got to put your bags if you have a fanny pack you're okay at most of them um but you got to put your bags in your loose objects in here the standard size lockers are free um for while you're on the attraction but the bigger ones if you have a bigger backpack are two dollars so definitely think about that while you're figuring out what bag you are bringing with you and again if you wear a fanny pack you don't have to put your stuff in a locker anywhere except for rip ride rocket and hulk hello express i decided to get your pass really quick perfect they were scared up ahead okay thank you what a nice wizard all right let's see where this cube takes us oh my gosh can you even with how amazing hogwarts is okay so we're skipping all the part with the one-eyed witch with the hump statue and the mirror of air said oh but we're getting to see the portraits hello salazar hope you're well sir thank you for founding the greatest house in hogwarts even though i don't you know completely agree with everything you see held up yes a remarkable young man hunger potter potter potter that wouldn't even make a substitute for the slithering teeth you're mad salazar just watch i'll wage your young mr potter and gryffindor beat slytherin today found her selfie [Music] and i've got videos of all the easter eggs so we can link those because there are so many okay now we're in the defense again and now we're going into the gryffindor so really we just skipped the dungeons with the mirror aeroset and the gardens with the mandrakes um the mirror's really cool so if there is the log line i recommend getting in line at the regular line to see that time to scan my pass thank you easy peasy support please use the tick back i don't ride that one very much because it makes my tumtum rumble because if you get even the slightest twinge of motion sickness this ride will do it for you it's so much harry potter stuff i just now realized for the first time that when you first initially fly and hermione says say observatory she throws flu powder i guess i've never paid attention before i don't know if other people have noticed that but that's how you get to the quidditch pitch because she's like sending you to the observatory anyway great attraction um you do miss a little bit of cool stuff if you go the express queue so if it doesn't have a long line maybe just wait in that if it's like 15 minutes or less um if you're a harry potter fan if you're not a harry potter fan you don't care about seeing the mirror of air set or anything go through that express queue while i'm here i'm gonna do flight of the hippogriff it's only a five minute wait i like this attraction for the buckwheat animatronic and then that way i've done everything in the land ride-wise and we can go venture somewhere else after this flight of the hippogriff is definitely the least exciting of the harry potter attractions um it's more like a kitty coaster it's a little more intense than the barnstormer over at disney but not as intense as like mine train um but if you're a harry potter fan there's one very cool buckbeak animatronic they can only see it if you ride the ride so if you've got express pass or it doesn't have a long line i say why not alrighty i'm in my next land seuss landing and i'm going to use my express pass to ride the high in the sky trolley train ride which i actually find very fun it's got a posted 20 minute wait so this one does have a short high requirement 36 inches you may notice i'm walking upstairs there are more stairs at the queues at universal than disney um so if that's an issue for you talk to the cast members and they'll work it out for you uh now that i've had a great time on the high in the sky trolley train which i legit like that attraction and what's cool about it is if the different trains have different paths so like one of them goes by the water and one of them goes uh through the restaurant so that's a cute attraction i'm actually gonna go get the train over to the other park because universal studios florida closes earlier than islands of adventure and so i want to knock out everything over there knowing i'll have a little more time to come back here another thing i want to mention with the express pass is that there's actually two levels of it the first one is the basic one it gets you on every ride that takes express pass once so of course that one's less expensive and then the unlimited is the one that takes you gets you on every ride that takes it as many times as you want and that's the one that does come with the resort stays that qualify so keep that in mind as well so there is one that's a little more economical but let's say you ride forbidden journey and you're like that's the best thing i've ever done in my whole life i can't wait to ride it again you'd have to go through the regular queue i don't know what's wrong with me it's not like i haven't seen the train a million times but when it pulled out and i saw the hogwarts express and all the steam bellowing i had feelings it's just such a key part of the story that i'm clearly obsessed with and it just is awesome so harry potter friends you gotta do the trick cabin party one party per cabin which is why the line gets so long these days um because normally you can put eight people in here um also they remind you to remain seated keep your mask on um because you're under active surveillance by the ministry of magic and like you don't want to mess with them you don't you'll get a howler you have to go to the to the hearing and it's like a whole bunch of paperwork probably arthur weasley's gonna have to do it you don't want to do that to arthur he's busy so just keep your mask on we have made it to universal studios florida the other park and i'm actually going to go around the park and end in diagon alley since i'm planning to take the train back in a little bit um to finish up over islands of adventure so we're going to go over here do a couple things do you know what time it is it's time to go see the family at fast and the furious supercharged this attraction is currently using virtual queue so there's no posted weight you go into the universal app and get a return time if they're available if one's not available check keep checking back they do pop up from time to time but typically this attraction and jimmy fallon use virtual line but they also accept express so here we go no waiting for us we're going straight to the fam i know you think i'm kidding when i say i like this ride but i'm literally not it is so ridiculous that i love it i'm not telling you it's good i'm telling you it's ridiculous i'm skipping all these people who had virtual mind and i'm guessing that still because of how this ride loads i don't know 30 plus minutes so we're skipping a lot of time right now dom says he doesn't have friends he has family that's me and the pieces you see on these walls are our family well looks like you guys are now going to a fake party so good luck with that i suggest keeping your family together there's safety in numbers or whatever the phrase is i'm stressed so good luck i'm not kidding when i say that if i could have one job at universal orlando it would be to be pat or jamie the people that talk to you and also to ludicrous and the characters on the screen because it would be so fun and it's so ridiculous [Music] wow wow i am sorry that ride is so great in its own right do not wait a long time for it don't watch this and think i'm telling you it's the best ride ever and you should wait a long time for it because i'm not but i'm telling you that this is my face the whole time because it is just ridiculous it's ridiculous and i think that's what a ride based on the fast and the furious should be so just take the entire film franchise and imagine what a ride would be like and that's the answer so yeah it's ridiculous but it's so bad it's good i love it [Music] the next attraction we're gonna do is transformers the ride 3d it has a 30 minute wait in the app all right it's time to go face who i believe are called the decepticons they're the bad robots we're on the good robot team just kidding i think it's called the allspark but i don't think we get to see it in the express like you [Music] i always say this but i actually really like the transformers ride it doesn't make me as nauseous as some of the other simulators and i think it's really fun so definitely write it especially if you've got express pass and don't have to wait in line hello optimists can we take a picture all right sorry robot detour it felt rude like just to walk by when he didn't have a line and not say hey like we just saved the planet together you know [Music] oh but wait there's someone else we should talk to hi hi donkey how's it going everybody how are you i'm wonderful how have you been oh i can't complain i had a great holiday season wonderful new year yeah yeah how about you it's been good it's been a little busy you know do you think more people should follow me oh absolutely they can see you of course that's that was gonna get to that yeah if you uh subscribe to uh we're uh you can definitely see me i don't know what she said but it sounds great yes i'm gonna go see shrek okay that's better okay definitely see me too i will on the big screen i can't wait cause that was meant to be seen okay well as i promised donkey i gotta go to see shrek 4d which i'm actually really excited to see because the way they're loading things right now this often has a very long line because they can't load very many people into the theater at a time so it's got a 25 minute line right now which is pretty long for the day but i won't have to wait in that long line i'll begin to torture you later all of your i really like shrek 4d um and there was a pre-show and i asked and it's just for express so that's a bonus if you're a shrek fan um you get to do a little bit of a pre-show it was really funny and then they seated every other row and had spaces in between it is a little bit of a longer experience but if you're a shrek fan it's really funny it's like mickey's philharmagic or um and captain eo back in the day because the seats actually move and stuff and then it's 3d and then it's got like little water splash effects and stuff so minion mayhem has a 35 minute wait right now that would be a great one to use your express pass on because the way they load similar to shrek 4d very very limited capacity so that would be a great one if you're interested in that casually just doc brown's just casually mingling hi doc how are you i'm good how are you thank you from i'm from here right here by the tree yes i live right here yeah where are you from no valley california yeah what year are you from now a little bit better than last year so well we'll see starting off rocky it'll get better you'll see you promised oh cool all right are you gonna go back to 2020 at all never okey dokey let's bypass the line at the e.t adventure we got to get to et's planet the faster the better is what i say now on the instagram besides my day video where i was at universal i did this three times in a row i would wager that line is probably 15 to 20 minutes so we're gonna skip that there is a scent at this ride the minute you walk into the building you are smacked in the face with it smells good smells great oh boy oh boy okay you gotta pay attention sometimes for the express signs do you see it it's very dark in here but it says keep left you don't want to end up in the other line you're not getting what you pay for if you do that come my bikes the eet adventure is so bizarre it's like part the last 15 minutes of the movie part going to et's planet with him and it's a trip man it's a trip i insist you ride it if you come here especially with this press fast and you can bypass the 30 minute line but it's the only opening day attraction that's still left and you fly on a bike like peter pan let's fly the magic kingdom but it's a bike and i just adore it and i'm glad i got to ride it today without waiting in line i got distracted cause branch is here hi branch how are you i love you so much don't tell poppy i don't know why but i'm obsessed with the trolls my favorite one to me is guy diamond who's the glittery one especially when he's tiny diamond his child strapped to his chest i made it to simpson's land also known as springfield the simpsons ride had a 40 minute wait last time i looked in the app so i'm gonna go ride that first and then i'm going to eat something but i figured it was smarter to ride before eating because we're going to go to the express side and just think it's not even a busy day we're getting to cut so many lines as someone who has not seen a single episode of the simpsons i gotta say i do still think that ride's pretty fun it does make me a little nauseous because it's a simulator but it's not 3d so it's not as bad as some other ones but it's pretty funny they like make jokes about theme parks like stupid humans don't you know the rides always have to end in the gift shop and um theme parks don't kill you if you've got a dime left in your pocket like just funny things so that was definitely what i'm glad i had express fest for it's 45 minutes now um and that's definitely not i wouldn't wait that long for that ride but i'm happy to wait no minutes it's time to get some food so i'm gonna go into the food court here at the simpsons land i've never actually eaten here i've eaten at the taco stand um but the food court has got like several different options all within one place and it's all on mobile order but they've got the iconic crusty burgers you can go to the chicken shack you can get barbecue okay so this is actually super cool you don't go to a counter anything you just go to any table you want to sit at and each one has a qr code on it and in the app when you click prepare my order it prompts you to scan the qr code at your table or manually enter it if it's not working for some reason and then they said hang tight we'll bring you your food which is super cool and if you haven't placed a google order you just come in and sit down if you scan this qr code with your computer app on your phone um it'll open up the universal app and prompt you to mobile order which is so cool i wish everyone did this this is really good note that they've got plexiglas dividers in between the booths and all the tables are spaced out okay for my drink i ordered the iconic flaming moe it's non-alcoholic it smells like fanta but with dry ice let's try it mmm fanta that's got dry ice in it but uh for real i love fanta and these drinks are always cool i mean you gotta keep the cup it's like 8.99 before a discount so if you are a fan and you want the cup it's pretty good for my food i ordered the chicken waffle sandwich it's literally a breaded chicken breast on waffles as the bun and it's got a maple aioli then there's uh lettuce and tomato and then for my side i chose the crusty curry fries and they brought out a tray and they brought over condiments and i can't wait those are really good they remind me of arby's that is very good big chunk of chicken white meat chicken it's a good breast i wish i actually had maple syrup to put on it instead of just maple mayonnaise but this is very good why don't more things have waffles as the bun would i tell you to eat this over harry potter if you don't like harry potter maybe um the food food in harry potter is good but not great but the snacks are where it's at harry potter where but if you're like actually want a meal and a quick service one there's a lot of options here and this is really not too shabby it's actually pretty good i am very happy to have express pass right now because escape from gringotts has a 60 minute posted wait and i don't want to make 60 minutes to make a withdrawal from my vault time to go to the bank look at this oh so the downfall of this one i'm now learning very quickly is that you go off to the side of the amazing lobby which just kind of stop here if you can get out of the way and take a look at it or you may um in the past i don't know if they'll do it now i know you could ask the team members if you could just pop in and look at the lobby and they would let you um because it is really really cool i don't think it's cool enough to wait an hour in um if you don't have to down this somewhat stressful corridor we go wow this is oh wow we're like wow a fabulous attraction a do i say for everyone especially my potter friends um so you don't get to go in the middle of the bank in the express fest queue um but i did ask and in the world when there's pre-shows the team member said you would get to see the pre-show so that's how that one works and i'm glad to have saved an hour okay fellow harry potter nerds i'm about to air a grievance i have with this attraction i can buy that this attraction takes place at the exact moment that harry and ron and hermione are breaking into bellatrix's vault i'll even concede that harry and voldemort run into each other while in the bank that doesn't happen in the books but fine it could have happened but what could not have happened is harry telling bill that they got a horcrux because no one but harry ron hermione and voldemort know about the horcruxes because dumbledore's dead spoiler alert from like a 15 year old book so when harry's like we got the horcrux we got to get out of here and bill's like bill has no idea that's what they're doing they won't tell anyone that because dumbledore scored them to secrecy they should have just said we got what we needed thanks bill anyway um sorry to my non-harry potter nerds i just had to get that off my chest great do you know how to get to platform nine and three quarters i don't carry change with me there's an atm over there though but that's the platform number we have platforms nine and ten huh there's nothing in between okay so i must be confused i'm sorry thank you silly muggles [Music] [Music] [Music] best to do it at a run if you do this got off the train i like to point out that there are some photo markers here it takes a really good picture if you go stand on the end and take a selfie with or have someone take your picture in front of the train um it makes a very very good picture here's mine magic if you want to have a good insta pick okay so we have about an hour and a half before islands of adventure closes and i'd like to do a couple things over at marvel landings hulk has a 35 minute wait so we're gonna go do the incredible hulk which is such an awesome coaster if you're a coaster person you gotta do hulk it is so much fun foreign what has hulk done to my hair anyway hulk amazing always has a long line um it's the end of the day so it's only 35 minutes so we still got to cut it it normally gets very long and it's very good 54 in thai requirement definitely recommend and now i'm headed to dr doom doctor dooms fearful has a 40 minute wait right now but not for us all right 52 inch height requirement on this one so dr doom is kind of like the opposite of a drop attraction i mean it is a drop attraction but the thrilling part is it shoots you up really aggressively where am i going this way uh it shoots you up really fast and that's what's the exciting part and then it kind of like slowly bobs you up and down until you get all the way down again um it's very cool but it's very short so i wouldn't recommend waiting a super long line for it um and also obviously if you have a fair height definitely not for you okay doctor doom is really fun because you don't ever really know when it's going to shoot up and then you kind of bounce down and you get the little like feeling in your stomach so i wouldn't wait very long for it but if it doesn't have a long weight or you've got express and i say do it because i think it's fun even though it's short um and now i am going to go do amazing adventures of spiderman even though it makes me kind of nauseous because i want to do 15 attractions today and if i do this one and kong by my count that's 15. the amazing adventures of spider-man is the same ride system and technology as the transformers ride this one makes me more nauseous though i don't know why it's got a 40 inch height requirement something about this one i don't know if it's like what the screen is doing or the effects that are used but this one makes your girl a little queasy but i did simpsons today so i feel good i feel good nothing makes me as sick as jimmy fallon though so you're not going through quite as cool of a queue that's kind of what i've realized is like you go through less cool cues i guess this is still cool i've got an office here so we're at the office of the daily bugle when you go through the regular queue you go through like the cutting room floor where all the desks are so that was kind of cool oh that'd be a cool selfie wall anyway okay we did spider-man and i remember why this one makes me more nauseous it's because a couple times your vehicle like whips around in complete circles and that doesn't do me well when it's also a 3d attraction um but that's okay we're feeling fine we're gonna go we've got 30 minutes before the park closes i'm gonna go get at least one more thing done let's go ride kong today hasn't been very crowded so express house is expensive as we talked about i don't know if it would be worth the hundred plus dollars per person per day for a day like today where the lines weren't very long but i mean by the time i'm done with the dale i've done 15 attractions across the two parks which is a lot so if you only have one day to do both parks at universal you may want to consider doing the express pass just to make sure you get everything done however if you're coming during a slow season and you do have a couple days maybe it's not necessary but if you're coming during a busy time or a weekend i very much recommend staying at a resort that gets you the express pass because you're probably paying to stay somewhere anyway so why not pay to stay there even if it's christmas and it's 400 a night at one of the hotels four or five hundred dollars a night but it's 200 per person for the express pass that's a lot you know if you've got a family of four that's 800 an express pass and if you only pay 400 or 500 for the hotel you're saving money essentially and you were going to spend money on a hotel anyway so for me that really justifies doing it um is to do it at with the hotel combo i wonder if i get to bypass the scary queue hello all right keep that up get it down there thank you that's another thing i'm learning doing this um you do often go a different route and you skip some parts of the main cube um the places that kind of bummed me out were the harry potter attractions because i think those cues are so cool not cool enough to wait you know an hour when you don't have to cool but other than that like i haven't thought you're missing out on too much this does have a very very cool cue it's very spooky we're kind of going to the side of it right now see here's the scary room [Music] i think they had a little issue with the ride because i've been standing here for like maybe 10 minutes or so without moving at all which is usually not a great sign but we're moving again so it's all good it's all good [Music] it is 601 as i'm getting off calm so we are done park is closed [Music] that ride is fine it has a 36 inch height requirement same ride vehicle and design as fast and furious but it has the coolest animatronic of kong that you need to ride it just to see that animatronic because it is like gigantic and amazing oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh they're testing velocity sir i'm freaking out i'm freaking out apologies for my freak out but they're testing the lobster coaster just supposed to open later this year and it looks amazing and i hadn't seen it moving and i can't wait of any ride at any park i'm most excited for that one that's coming i ran all the way over here watching the sunset behind hogwarts but that is a wrap on our express pass video i did 15 attractions across the two parks in one day i had so much fun i definitely think if you're coming in a busy time if you only have a limited time to be at universal orlando you should definitely consider express pass especially knowing you can get it by staying at certain resorts what questions do you have for me let me know in the comments in the meantime friends make sure to rate review subscribe to our channel follow us on instagram all your set until next time i'm molly and it's been magical want to see more of my videos click over here want to subscribe you can do that right here and also ring that notification bell to make sure you get instantly notified anytime we post a new video thanks for following see you real soon

Channel: AllEars.net

Views: 69,555

Rating: 4.9589043 out of 5

Keywords: Disney World, Disney Parks, Disney Travel, Disney Trip, Disney planning, disney vacation, disney vlog, disney vlogger, disney video, Disney tips, orlando vacation, universal orlando, universal studios, islands of adventure

Id: DQL3OBE91Os

Length: 36min 54sec (2214 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 31 2021