Should I buy a Universal Studios Hollywood Express Pass? Is it really worth spending extra 60-70$ to get Express Pass? Is the Universal Studios Express Pass really worth it? These are some of the questions that everyone who is visiting Hollywood Studio asks.
The first question that you should ask yourself is for how long are you planning to visit the park. If your plan is to visit Hollywood Studios for 2 days getting an Express Pass is a clear No, 2 days are more than enough to explore Universal Hollywood Studios.
Before answering this question Pass you should know what Single Rider Entry is. Most of the rides in Universal have 4 seats in a row so let’s say there is a group of 3 people and no one from the normal queue is ready to split into smaller groups which is usually the case and they onboard one person from Single Rider queue. So if you are okay with splitting your group and don’t mind sitting alone on the ride you would probably like to skip the Express Pass. I found that the Single Rider Entry queue is as fast as Express Pass. So the only case in which you would consider buying an Express Pass is if you are in a group and going for 1 day. If your group is like me who loves rides and would like to cover all the rides in a day, taking an Express Pass is a good idea. It’s impossible to cover all the rides in a day through normal lines and sometimes it can become frustrating. On a normal day, a wait time of 20-30 is normal for any ride and for famous ones like Harry Potter it can even reach for 2 hours. Time we went to Harry Potter ride the wait time was around one and a half hour and through Express Pass we could onboard the ride in less than 15 minutes, similar was the case with Transformers instead of waiting for around an hour we were sitting in the ride in 10 mins.
If you would rather like to enjoy the park, stroll around, more interested in shows and not want to rush into talking all the rides then Express Pass is probably not for you. All the rides have a storyline build and it starts in waiting area even before entering the ride, so If you are thinking you might get bored while waiting for the ride then Universal has taken care of you. There is no reason to buy an Express Pass just for this. Shows have a different line for Express Pass but that is more for a reserved seating area, sitting capacity of shows are enough to accommodate everyone who is in the queue, so you don’t have to worry about missing a show.
If you are really interested in doing all the rides in a day with your group then It’s not just worth it but it is a must-have.
The Itinerant Analyst 