Late start touring plan for USH

OhStuffandFluff

DIS Veteran
Joined
May 7, 2011
We will be visiting USH for one day on a Wednesday in early July. We will be driving in a rental car from our hotel in Anaheim. I want to avoid the heaviest of traffic, but don't want to drag my 3 kiddos (ages 13, 11, 3) out of bed by 5:30am. So I am thinking of leaving our hotel around 9 or 9:30am. That would get us to USH well after opening. Does anyone have a good strategy of how to tour USH with a late start? TIA!
 
How tall is your 3 year old and are you planning to take him/her on Transformers or Jurassic Park? I'd advise making use of the single rider lines as much as possible

Attractions with the Single Rider Line:
  • Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
  • Jurassic Park - The Ride
  • Revenge of the Mummy - The Ride
  • Transformers: The Ride 3D

For Forbidden Journey, single rider can often cut the wait time by 75% or more -- from an 80+ minute wait to a 20 minute wait or less. We went on a Monday in August and got a ton done in the morning before noon (early entry at 8 am), but the crowds were wall to wall in the afternoon and I don't think anything had a wait of less than 45 minutes other than Walking Dead. Even in the evening the waits for everything were still 30 minutes or more. In fact, since there aren't many attractions and the shows stop relatively early, I think the attraction waits can actually get longer in the evening than midday. Personally, I'd go with the drag everyone out of bed at 5:30 a.m. and plan to be done by 3 to beat the afternoon traffic back to Anaheim (assuming you're going back to Anaheim that night), but that's just my anti-crowd perspective.
 
Another suggestion (this assumes you have two adults) would be to drop off one adult and the two older kids in the drop off zone right by the entrance, then go back and park the car and walk in with the 3-year old through City Walk. The walk from the outer parking lots to the entrance is looong, and this would give them a 15/20 minute head start to go on something that the 3-year old can't do.
 
How tall is your 3 year old and are you planning to take him/her on Transformers or Jurassic Park? I'd advise making use of the single rider lines as much as possible

Attractions with the Single Rider Line:
  • Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
  • Jurassic Park - The Ride
  • Revenge of the Mummy - The Ride
  • Transformers: The Ride 3D

For Forbidden Journey, single rider can often cut the wait time by 75% or more -- from an 80+ minute wait to a 20 minute wait or less. We went on a Monday in August and got a ton done in the morning before noon (early entry at 8 am), but the crowds were wall to wall in the afternoon and I don't think anything had a wait of less than 45 minutes other than Walking Dead. Even in the evening the waits for everything were still 30 minutes or more. In fact, since there aren't many attractions and the shows stop relatively early, I think the attraction waits can actually get longer in the evening than midday. Personally, I'd go with the drag everyone out of bed at 5:30 a.m. and plan to be done by 3 to beat the afternoon traffic back to Anaheim (assuming you're going back to Anaheim that night), but that's just my anti-crowd perspective.
This was my plan at first, but I'm worried about overloading my 3 yr old especially. She is 39" now, hoping she will be 40" by the time we go! My husband will not be able to go on very many rides however due to motion sickness. I know my oldest two want to ride most of the big rides. For sure we want to ride Harry Potter and Despicable Me.
 


This was my plan at first, but I'm worried about overloading my 3 yr old especially. She is 39" now, hoping she will be 40" by the time we go! My husband will not be able to go on very many rides however due to motion sickness. I know my oldest two want to ride most of the big rides. For sure we want to ride Harry Potter and Despicable Me.

Jurassic Park is 42" minimum, so that would be out for your daughter. I don't think Transformers is too scary, but you'd save a lot of time if you just did single rider and she skipped that one.

I'd tentatively suggest having your husband drop you and the oldest two off, head to the lower lot and try to knock out the three attractions there using single rider, then come back and meet your husband at Minion Mayhem (downside of this plan is he misses Jurassic Park, but you could head back to it later). Daughter can ride Silly Swirly Fun Ride while she waits. Ride Minion Mayhem. Do the Studio Tour. Watch Waterworld. Ride Forbidden Journey single rider and Flight of the Hippogriff together. Do the new Kung Fu Panda attraction (this is a wild card -- who knows what the waits will be like). Hit Simpsons if you have enough time.
 
Bring your patience and don’t expect to get to ride anything Harry Potter. It will be an absolute zoo, lines are long and there aren’t enough rides to suck up all of the people so they wander aimlessly.
Buy the front of the line pass if you can, that will save you if you are going late.
 
Also know that rider switch on most rides there requires you to wait in the line with the child, and then do a handoff inside, rather than a pass to come back. Someone had to miss out on a couple of rides when we went in January because there was no way my 2 year old was waiting 240 minutes for Forbidden Journey with everyone else.
 


Bring your patience and don’t expect to get to ride anything Harry Potter. It will be an absolute zoo, lines are long and there aren’t enough rides to suck up all of the people so they wander aimlessly.
Buy the front of the line pass if you can, that will save you if you are going late.

I think most people don't realize there's a single rider line for Forbidden Journey -- they certainly don't make it obvious. Even inside the building in the dark you could miss the signage directing you to the line, so my experience is that the single rider line is super short even if the regular wait is 240 minutes.

Any time in July, the Express Pass is going to cost her $259 per person and definitely wouldn't be worth it for her husband and the 3 year old, which means they're still going to need to wait in line for the Studio Tour, Minions and Simpsons. I think Single Rider is a better option.

Another option might be to wait to get to the park and check crowd levels to make a decision on Express Pass. My understanding is that they will discount later in the day if they haven't sold out of the allotment for the day.
 
Rides with Single Rider:

-Forbidden Journey
-Jurassic Park
-Transformers
-Mummy
-Studio Tour*
-Flight of the Hippogriff*

*The Studio Tour has a groups of 2/ Single Riders line on busy days- just ask an attendant if its open.
*Flight of the Hippogriff single rider is through the Express line- just ask the attendant at the entrance for single rider.
 
Thank you all for your input! I'm thinking we may need to try and get to the park at opening.
Another question I have is about motion sickness. Will there be any rides that my husband can go on? He cannot do rides such as Star Tours.
 
Thank you all for your input! I'm thinking we may need to try and get to the park at opening.
Another question I have is about motion sickness. Will there be any rides that my husband can go on? He cannot do rides such as Star Tours.

If it's primarily motion simulators that bother him, Jurassic Park, the Studio Tour, and Flight of the Hippogriff should be totally fine. The Silly Swirly Fun Ride is like Dumbo. Minion Mayham has some seats you can request that are stationary, so it's just like watching a movie, albeit from the first person perspective (like Saving Private Ryan).Is he okay with roller coasters that go backwards? If so, Mummy would be okay. I would say Simpsons and Transformers are definitely out, as they're very much like Star Tours. Same with Forbidden Journey, which is like Star Tours on steroids.

Also, since I didn't mention it before, I'd suggest bringing a swimsuit for your 3-year old and possibly the older two, to play in the water play area in Super Silly Fun Land if it's hot and she's cranky.
 
If it's primarily motion simulators that bother him, Jurassic Park, the Studio Tour, and Flight of the Hippogriff should be totally fine. The Silly Swirly Fun Ride is like Dumbo. Minion Mayham has some seats you can request that are stationary, so it's just like watching a movie, albeit from the first person perspective (like Saving Private Ryan).Is he okay with roller coasters that go backwards? If so, Mummy would be okay. I would say Simpsons and Transformers are definitely out, as they're very much like Star Tours. Same with Forbidden Journey, which is like Star Tours on steroids.

Also, since I didn't mention it before, I'd suggest bringing a swimsuit for your 3-year old and possibly the older two, to play in the water play area in Super Silly Fun Land if it's hot and she's cranky.
Thank you for this info! Also I didn't know they had a water play area! My 3 yr old especially will love that! Thank you for that advice!
 
I agree with what everyone else has said, do the single rider lines for Forbidden Journey (and Transformers, Mummy, etc.). It has gotten us through in 15-20 minutes on very busy days. It's usually just myself and my son (11) as my husband doesn't ride due to motion sickness and my younger son is scared of dark rides. My husband gets really sick on motion simulators (as it sounds like yours does) and he hardly rides anything there - usually just the Studio Tour and Jurassic Park. He is okay on Minions and the Mummy. Simpsons, Forbidden Journey, Transformers are all hard nos and he often has to close his eyes on the simulator parts of the Studio Tour (Fast & Furious and King Kong). The water play area is the best place for a 3 year old to have fun, definitely bring a swim suit. There's also a small playground next to Jurassic Park and the bug ride by Minions, but that's about it for things specifically for small kids.

As for time, in the summer they're open later (usually 10:00) so I'd either get there at opening and leave mid-afternoon to miss traffic back, or stick with your plan of getting there mid-morning and leave later (after 8:00) to miss traffic back. The crowds often thin out significantly in the evening as people who got there early leave, especially in July when it can be really hot! We usually get there in the afternoon and stay until closing. Late morning/early afternoon are the worst on busy days.
 
I agree with what everyone else has said, do the single rider lines for Forbidden Journey (and Transformers, Mummy, etc.). It has gotten us through in 15-20 minutes on very busy days. It's usually just myself and my son (11) as my husband doesn't ride due to motion sickness and my younger son is scared of dark rides. My husband gets really sick on motion simulators (as it sounds like yours does) and he hardly rides anything there - usually just the Studio Tour and Jurassic Park. He is okay on Minions and the Mummy. Simpsons, Forbidden Journey, Transformers are all hard nos and he often has to close his eyes on the simulator parts of the Studio Tour (Fast & Furious and King Kong). The water play area is the best place for a 3 year old to have fun, definitely bring a swim suit. There's also a small playground next to Jurassic Park and the bug ride by Minions, but that's about it for things specifically for small kids.

As for time, in the summer they're open later (usually 10:00) so I'd either get there at opening and leave mid-afternoon to miss traffic back, or stick with your plan of getting there mid-morning and leave later (after 8:00) to miss traffic back. The crowds often thin out significantly in the evening as people who got there early leave, especially in July when it can be really hot! We usually get there in the afternoon and stay until closing. Late morning/early afternoon are the worst on busy days.
Thanks for this information! I like the idea of doing afternoon through closing. If we did that, would we have enough time to do everything my oldest kids would want to do?
 
Another question...If we decided to be at USH for opening, but wanted to take a break in the afternoon, can we re-enter the park in the evening? Where and what would we do for a break?
 
On a mid-week day, you should be able to do everything you want to do if you start early afternoon, stay through closing and are willing to do single rider. Also, they often will sell express passes for a a discounted rate around 4 pm so you could get those if it's more crowded than expected and they're available. For a break, there are a lot of restaurants at City Walk where you could have a nice long lunch in the air conditioning.
 
I think most people don't realize there's a single rider line for Forbidden Journey -- they certainly don't make it obvious. Even inside the building in the dark you could miss the signage directing you to the line, so my experience is that the single rider line is super short even if the regular wait is 240 minutes.

Any time in July, the Express Pass is going to cost her $259 per person and definitely wouldn't be worth it for her husband and the 3 year old, which means they're still going to need to wait in line for the Studio Tour, Minions and Simpsons. I think Single Rider is a better option.

Another option might be to wait to get to the park and check crowd levels to make a decision on Express Pass. My understanding is that they will discount later in the day if they haven't sold out of the allotment for the day.

You don't have to buy it for everyone. The single rider line is fine if you don't have kids, that would not work for us. And my now 3 year old isn't tall enough for either of those rides, only the Studio Tour. I wish we had had it because rider switch wasn't practical. I would much rather have had one adult take one kid with their front of the line pass, and then me take the other kid with ours while the other adult stayed with the 3 year old. It really would have been worth it.
 
The hardest part is hanging back with a toddler ALL day and keeping them busy. There just isn't enough there for them. My daughter was grumpy all day, she wanted to run around and often there was just nowhere to do it because it was so crowded and there aren't enough play or even sitting areas. My MIL went on most of the rides with the older kids while I sat out with the 2 year old because I felt bad leaving her with the temper tantrum. All of the lines were 90+ minutes that day. It was torture for the toddler :-(
 
Another question...If we decided to be at USH for opening, but wanted to take a break in the afternoon, can we re-enter the park in the evening? Where and what would we do for a break?

Yes, you can leave and come back. The parking also comes with in and out privileges, just keep and show your receipt. There's lots of shops and restaurants in the CityWalk area, but not necessarily much of interest to a 3-year old. You could theoretically go to Griffith Park/Observatory. Your 3-year old might enjoy the pony rides and railroad at Griffith Park.

Even on a summer weekday, it's possible to get everything done in a relatively brief time with single rider.

We went again yesterday and just to give you an idea how our day went (isitpacked.com rated it as a "yup it's packed" day, though I think it was on the lower-end "packed" based on prior experiences):
Entered the park at 7:55, made our way to the front of the rope drop crowd. Walked with purpose to Forbidden Journey, were the third group on the ride after dropping stuff in a locker. Rode Flight of the Hippogriff 2x because we could. Was 8:20 by that point, Forbidden Journey was still only 15 minute wait. Used the restroom, filled water bottles and wandered through the shops and took pictures until 8:50.
Waited by Simpsons barrier until it was opened at 9:00, went on Simpsons. Finished around 9:20, walked over to Minion Mayhem, stopping to take pictures along the way.
Rode Minion Mayhem, finished at 9:45, stopped for another restroom break, headed to the lower lot.
Were first in line for Jurassic Park at 9:55, ride was experiencing technical problems, so they didn't open on time and emptied the line around 10:10.
Headed to Mummy and walked right on single rider (literally, didn't even wait one train cycle), while regular line was 25 minutes.
Waited 20 minutes for Transformers b/c my kids didn't want to do single rider (we would have walked right on single rider).
Went back to Jurassic Park, which had just opened back up, and waited 20 minutes in the regular line (same, kids didn't want to do single rider, but they were loading pretty fast from the single rider line)
Went back to upper lot, stopped for popcorn and restroom break
Got in line for the tram tour at 11:30, which had a 35 minute posted wait. That proved mostly accurate, got on at almost 12:00.
Tram tour finished at 12:55 and we headed for lunch at Three Broomsticks. We had a six-hour drive back home, so we left after getting lunch and another popcorn refill.


So in 5 hours, we did all of the currently-open attractions with only one use of single rider. We could have cut about 25 minutes off by using single rider on Transformers and Jurassic Park. If the new Dreamworks Theater had been open, we probably would have headed there and then tried to catch the 2:45 Waterworld show. That still would have had us done by 3:30 or so.
 
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The hardest part is hanging back with a toddler ALL day and keeping them busy. There just isn't enough there for them. My daughter was grumpy all day, she wanted to run around and often there was just nowhere to do it because it was so crowded and there aren't enough play or even sitting areas. My MIL went on most of the rides with the older kids while I sat out with the 2 year old because I felt bad leaving her with the temper tantrum. All of the lines were 90+ minutes that day. It was torture for the toddler :-(
Thank you for this information. This is one thing I am worried about! My husband will be in charge of keeping the 3 yr old happy so I can take the big kids on the rides.
 

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