How bad will President's Day week be? (Feb 18-22)

[The Gatekeeper]

You can just look at the price of express passes on the days you want to go. It shows what Universal anticipates the crowds to be. The more expensive, the more crowded they think it will be. All crowd calendars are educated guesses, but Universal is basing it on their internal data which should be the most accurate.

 

[Dakota731]

You can just look at the price of express passes on the days you want to go. It shows what Universal anticipates the crowds to be. The more expensive, the more crowded they think it will be. All crowd calendars are educated guesses, but Universal is basing it on their internal data which should be the most accurate.

That’s a great idea though their January pass prices aren’t out yet. I will check in a few weeks though we need to submit vacation time soon. Thanks!

 

[ClapYourHands]

Would it be bad even with express passes?

Express should make getting on most rides quite manageable. The walkways will still be super crowded. It will be harder to do some of the atmospheric things like checking out the themed shops or doing the 'magic' windows in the Potter areas. Expect the line for ice cream to be out the door in Diagon Alley, and there to be lines several people deep at every magic spot, so you can easily wait 10-15 minutes for your turn. Some of the rides might still be longish waits, but overall, you'd still be way better off than at Disney where your LL are limited, and can go fast.

That said, you were to use the whole 4 days at UO, you'd be fine. Early morning and before park close are going to be the best times to get on things, so with multiple days, you can go until you feel over crowded, and then bounce, and come back later for some more. I would highly recommend you make reservations for table service restaurants, bring your own food, or plan to leave the parks for an offsite restaurant (many in the area with a quick Uber/Lyft). The quick serve is ridiculously slow, even with mobile ordering, and you will get hangry.

What wouldn't be fine is if you are planning to do one day at UO, a day or two at WDW, and a day at SeaWorld. Expect large crowds at ALL of those locations. It will be exhausting navigating through those crowds every day as you try to cram in "everything" at each park, and expensive paying for one or two day tickets for multiple parks (as they all front-load the price in their tickets with multiday tickets costing considerably less per day).

 

[MarBee]

How about the weekend after President’s Day? We were thinking of either going that Saturday-Monday or Sunday-Tuesday but only for one day. Would we need Express Pass to be able to navigate it on this short trip?

 

[weather_lady]

We've visited Universal and Walt Disney World each twice over President's Day week. My advice, based on our personal experiences, would be:

1 - Avoid Walt Disney World on a holiday week at all costs. Disney is a nightmare when crowds are high, and the only way to avoid it is to pay for Genie+, which everyone else will be doing too, thus largely destroying its value. In our two experiences during this particular week, we've found that Disney will not increase hours or ride capacity to deal with February break crowds: it's treated like every other week in February, and guests will simply be made to wait longer for everything. After getting burned twice with February visits, we've sworn off of them altogether, and will not visit Disney World except during less-popular times of year.

2- Universal is a completely different animal, with a skip-the-line system that is better managed and scaled than Disney's, and it is possible for impatient people like my family to have a fantastic time there even during February break. Stay at a Premium hotel or purchase Express Pass, to make your touring more stress-free. Be reconciled to the fact that you may have to wait 40-60 minutes for a few attractions (e.g., Hagrid's, Minions, Velocicoaster, Spiderman), although this can be ameliorated by visiting those attractions first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Otherwise, your waits should be fairly short -- longer, perhaps, than if you visited on a non-holiday week, but still very reasonable (in our experience, no more than 10-20 minutes for most attractions).

3 - President's Day week is a holiday for much of the northeast, but locals will also have Monday off, and many of them will spend the long weekend at the parks before heading back to school on Tuesday. This means that the biggest surge is from Saturday-Monday, with crowds diminishing a bit on Tuesday and continuing to peter out slightly as the week goes on. If you're not planning on being in Orlando for the entire week, push your trip (or at least, your park days) as far into President's Day week as you can.

 

[weather_lady]

How about the weekend after President’s Day? We were thinking of either going that Saturday-Monday or Sunday-Tuesday but only for one day. Would we need Express Pass to be able to navigate it on this short trip?

The weekend after President's Day will be better than the weekend before, since it won't be a 3-day weekend for the locals, and the out-of-towners will be departing to return to school/jobs.

If you're only going for a day or two, you'd absolutely need Express Pass if you wanted to make the most of your limited time, although a one-day visit would be a bit of a whirlwind regardless, and you'd have to resign yourself to the fact that you'd only be able to cover a fraction of the two parks. (FWIW, if you stayed at a premium hotel for one night, you'd get express pass included for two days -- all of your check-in day, and all of your check-out day.)

 

[Smugpugmug]

If you guys are talking about the weekend of Feb 23-25, be aware that on Feb 23 and 24, the Orlando Informer Meet up will be taking place which brings in more crowds for the event and the parks will close slightly earlier than usual. The "mix in" time of OI guests and regular guests can get quite crowded as well.

The weekend of March 1-3 shouldn't be too bad.

 

[DisneyFan1985!]

im going from march 2nd to march 6th, supposedly those dates and not crazy after presidents week but before spring break, easter, etc