We had a great experience at the Meetup this last weekend!
We went to the first night of the Meetups last December, and there were a few hiccups (food, no cut through, long Hogwarts Express lines). It sounded like Taylor and the team sorted out some of those issues for the remainder of the meetups last year, so we decided to give this year another try - this time doing two nights.
Honestly, I don’t have any complaints! I’m glad we did two nights instead of one - it allowed us to not feel so rushed, and to try a lot more food options (your stomach can only hold *so* much, especially when you’re riding those rides)!
I got in the check-in line at 2:30 both days (your entire party doesn’t need to be there - just the person who bought the tickets, with the email QR code and your photo ID). Apparently there were some hiccups with Universal the first day, so the line didn’t start moving until ~3:15. The second night, we were through the line in less than 15 minutes.
We didn’t have separate day tickets, but we were able to enter the parks immediately both nights - we just picked which park we wanted to enter; you’re not restricted to the park that you picked up your credentials at. I heard someone else say that they were turned away by a team member and told to return at 5, but that wasn’t our experience either night.
We liked having the $15 gift card - it allowed for a lot of flexibility. We had crepes on night one (the Holiday Turkey season one was voted the winner) - but make sure you get in line before they shut it down for the light show in Universal. We were the last in line for crepes; they shut it down ~55 minutes before the light show started.
We stayed at Portofino Bay so that we’d have Express Pass for the few hours before the parks closed to the public. I second-guessed if this was worth it, but I was so glad I kept it. It made a huge difference for those few hours before the parks emptied.
We successfully got virtual wait times for Hagrid’s 3x during regular hours (2x Friday, 1x Saturday). We were able to move the Saturday time to be after dark so that we’d be able to ride at night. By some miracle, we happened to get front row all three times! We didn’t bother with Hagrid’s during the meetup - it was the longest wait time, hovering around 30-50 minutes (although I’ve read many reports saying the actual wait time was about half of that). It was just too short of a window with it being cleared by midnight.
We loved the RAP-tors right outside the entrance to Velocicoaster- don’t miss them! Velocicoaster was a walk-on for us both nights. I read someone’s report on Friday night saying they were able to stay on 9x in a row (I don’t think my body could physically handle that!).
Food highlights during the meetup: Fortescue’s (line moves fast, don’t get scared away), tots in Seuss Landing (we enjoyed them, and didn’t have a long wait - unlike previous posters), Cinnabon, apple pie at Three Broomsticks, frozen and hot Butterbeer.
The hour-long wait for the food to open after day guests leave was loooong. We did find that a lot of the kiosks/booths opened early (as much as a half-hour) - many of them were just waiting for guests.
One of our unexpected highlights was the carnival games outside Simpson’s. We hit those as soon as the park closed to regular guests. They needed a minute or two to put prizes away, but we were able to free play nearly all of them. It was a lot of fun to be able to play as much as we wanted to, and to try games we wouldn’t otherwise without shelling out $$$$.
Happy to answer any questions anyone has!
The last time I spotted a lot! Also agree about the tots. Just not impressed, but thankful we did not have a long line when we went in.
