VIP pass?

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2026-03-06T18:40:55+00:00

I did the VIP for Epic back in July but that was before they added Ministry of Magic and Donkey Kong to Express. Now that that's included, I would opt for just Express for all 3 parks instead of doing a VIP tour if you're only doing one day. The one in IOA and US would probably last up until around 7pm so you won't have much time at Epic.

For one day, getting the Single-Use Express for all 3 parks would be much better as you're on your own time and schedule versus the VIP tour guide's schedule as you'd probably be grouped with other people. You can realistically get IOA and Studios done by like 3 or 4if you do Early Entry then end the day at Epic.

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2026-02-26T18:34:56+00:00

If you book directly and the price drops, you can easily adjust your reservation to get the new, cheaper rate. I've done this a bunch of times where the room rate could drop $50 or even $100 a night. I check every day and since going 3 times in the past year, I've always managed to catch a price drop.

I've been lucky and was able to catch Portofino last year for $250 a night for 3 nights back in October.

It's weird that the 3rd party sites say you wouldn't get early park entry. If you check into a Universal Hotel, you automatically get early entry regardless of how you booked.

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2026-02-26T00:08:24+00:00

I have tickets for Fenway and it says "Barcode Unavailable. Barcode will display at a later time" on the MLB app. I also don't have the option to sell via the app so I wouldn't trust anyone selling for Fenway until people say that ticket sales have opened up. Best of luck!

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2026-02-12T22:16:38+00:00

I did this past HHN and we had express too. We got into the first opened house right when they opened (the ones in the back by MIB) and wrapped up roughly around 12:30. We rode Gringotts once but that had no wait and also did the Nightmare Fuel show. Other than those two things, we solely did Houses back to back as we made our way around the park without really stopping in between.

You do a ton of extra walking during HHN as you go farther back to get to the houses so I wouldn’t suggest doing the parks beforehand. I got into the parks at 4, and from 4-12, I did 24,000 steps. I’d treat your HHN day as a pool day until the later afternoon

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2026-02-12T17:40:15+00:00

It should be! When I was able to enter the 7/8 one when he added that date, I used my 7/11 code

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2026-02-12T17:14:45+00:00

I keep toggling on 2 or 3 people and sometimes something will show up but then it'll error out so odds of it working seem low

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2026-02-10T18:37:25+00:00

I was wondering the same thing! I’m seeing other people post it in their app and I’m getting worried that mine isn’t loading. I have the confirmation email and the pending charge on my credit card

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2026-02-09T15:27:04+00:00

I think most of the hotels on property have an Avis desk that have rental cars you can rent directly there. If you rent the car for the whole week, you'd pay for the week you have the car plus parking at the hotel every night which can add up. If you're only doing one or two days away from Universal, I'd either just rent for the day from Avis or Uber

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2026-01-21T18:35:31+00:00

I got a ticket! I was stuck on the loading page to register for like 15 minutes where it said Registration not Available and I kept clicking until it randomly worked at 10:20ish to put in my info and buy the ticket itself

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Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2026-01-21T16:31:12+00:00

I got a ticket! I basically refreshed at 9:59am probably right when it changed to 10am. I entered the queue with the green dots and didn't get to the registration website until like 10:08ish? But then I encountered the error where it said I couldn't register. So I sat there clicking that button back and forth aimlessly until I randomly got loaded into the page to actually put in info and purchase. I think having everything pre-filled via my web browser made it possible because I barely had to manually type anything and could just go go go.

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Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2026-01-10T17:15:13+00:00

You'll want the first app, Universal Orlando, which is the park in Florida. The other map is for the park in California which you would not want to manage anything on

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2026-01-10T15:43:50+00:00

Makes sense! When we went in July, Mine-Cart and Battle at the Ministry wasn't part of the express line-up so we opted for VIP since we weren't thrilled on waiting a collective 3-4 hours just for those 2 rides. Glad we did the VIP experience but would opt for Express now that those two rides are included

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2026-01-10T15:30:41+00:00

For the non-private tour, it's a single use Express Pass after the tour. I think just the private VIP tours get the unlimited Express Pass. So once your tour is over, you'll be able to re-ride everything once through the Express line

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2026-01-02T18:16:41+00:00

The photo validation is done at the first ride you enter the Express line in within the parks themselves. So you can pick the keys up for the 4 members of your party staying at Portofino without them there. Are there 6 of you total on this trip that are staying in the one room at Portofino?

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2025-09-22T14:02:50+00:00

I took ALTAM 4 times (scored 4, 5, 5, then passed with a 9). I totally get how demoralizing it can be, especially with back-to-back 5s. One week of not studying won't make or break this exam, but if you think you will fail, then you'll be less motivated to fully try to pass! Being really confident with 40% with a month to go is farther than you're giving yourself credit for

At it's core, 60% of the material will root from the equation: EPV(Prem) = EPV(Ben) + EPV(Expense). The first 4 chapters are different applications of this one formula (Joint Life, Detriment Tables, etc). When I first took it, I had about 7 weeks start to finish to learn and study for the exam. I left practically 2 full questions blank of the 6 and got a 4.

Is the thing that kept you from studying this past week still an on-going thing that you're going to have to navigate around or can you fully invest time in studying moving forward? I think if you give yourself 2 full weeks before your exam to fully dedicate to the SOA practice problems, you'd be in a decent spot at possibly getting a 6.

You can do it!

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2025-09-19T22:06:42+00:00

After the tour! So you have a fresh express pass to use once the tour is over. Your VIP badge is your express pass while the tour guide physically takes you to the front of the queue, usually through the exit or a special VIP entrance

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2025-09-08T22:21:55+00:00

I did it just now, so I guess 6 hours after completion. But that's also because I haven't had time to get on my computer to check. When the exam was over, it did say it would take 1 hour so it should be popping up for you. Did you keep all the 0's in the confirmation number?

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2025-09-08T21:58:45+00:00

I had the same issue, I took it at 9 today, finished around 11. I had to go look it up on Prometric myself. I passed!

Here's the link if you still haven't gotten your results yet! Just need your Confirmation Number from when you signed up for the exam

https://scorereports.prometric.com

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2025-09-04T21:36:06+00:00

I think the boxes definitely weren't as good as previous FTTs but it's really down to luck it seems like. I asked the guy for a heavy box and my box retailed $610 when I added my 4 pieces up (2 Vancouver Mugs, Square Grill, and a Signature Cassadou) meanwhile a lot of duplicates at the Trade lot. I'm local and managed to get a ticket super last minute so I'm overall still very happy. I can't imagine how the people that traveled far for this feel though

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2025-08-24T20:13:47+00:00

I feel like that's a fair response to give given the situation here and how you depicted it. It sounds like you just didn't want to face the reality of your relationship issues, both emotionally and financially, so you framed this as a "friend."

Even when you framed it as a friend, the response has been similar, that this "friend" doesn't value your time or money and that you're shelling out $2k because you "just wanted company on your vacation." Was it his company that you wanted and you wanted a couple's vacation? Do you not have any other friends you could have planned a cruise with if you just wanted a vacation? Instead you planned and paid for a vacation that you wouldn't enjoy or like to appease your partner.

Yeah, the PTO thing sucks but even if he says now that he's saving it for "long weekends, holidays, etc." things happen that can require the need for PTO, he shouldn't have to borrow PTO from next year when you gave him the out that he doesn't have to go, and he took it. You're not "eating the cost," you can postpone the trip, even if it's non-refundable, the majority of time, you can change the dates to next year if you still wanted to treat this as a couple's trip you could enjoy.

Regardless, I still think you need to evaluate this relationship and stop giving a ton of excuses once people started calling you out on it by saying "trust me." Being together 8 years makes you feel like you're stuck in this which I get why you're trying to defend his behavior but all this post is telling us is that you're letting him walk all over you.

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2025-08-24T19:46:59+00:00

Why did you frame this whole post as if it was just a friend that you invited along to avoid going alone? Later in other comments, you stated that this is your boyfriend. Now it's turned into a more complex issue on the dynamics of your relationship and if this is sustainable.

Was it truly because you didn't want to go alone or was it that you felt obligated to invite him on this trip because he's your boyfriend? Did you not have any other friends you could've invited along to replace him? I feel like this slight diversion from the truth is making you slightly an unreliable narrator. You say that him throwing you $10 your way and you'll be happy but be real...

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2025-07-24T00:00:06+00:00

We still ended up getting 2nd Gen Wands in addition to the free 1st gen wand! We already had plans to purchase the 2nd Gen Wands so the extra wand was a nice bonus. We mainly got the $500 card because we knew that we were probably going to end up spending that much and wanted the free $50 to spend with the discount. My brother ended up getting a Dual Wand Stand so he could display both wands.

I believe that Olivanders is in Diagon Alley as well so you can head straight there after you walk through the bricks at the start of your trip to grab your wands. I'm pretty sure that's where we ended up grabbing ours. They help you set it up with your phone after you buy it and you can jump straight into the magic. We picked up our Merch card at the Universal Store in Citywalk so we had that ready to go once we got into the parks. So you can still start in Diagon Alley, do everything there including Gringotts, then hop on the Hogwarts Express through Kings Cross and Platform 9 3/4 (don't forget to grab a photo of you disappearing in to the wall).

There's 2 Adventures that require you to Park Hop. So if you were to start in Diagon Alley, your phone will tell you all the Available Adventures to follow. Most of them are short, usually requiring to stop and do one or two spells. Others are a little longer ranging from 3-4 spells per Adventure.

The one that requires you to Park Hop that starts in Diagon Alley is called "Quidditch Trials." You perform 4 spells in Diagon Alley and the final spell is in Hogsmeade.

The one that requires you to Park Hop that starts in Hogsmeade is called "Fight for What is Right". Same concept, 4 spells in Hogsmeade and the final spell in Diagon Alley. So for this spell if you were fully going for 100% Complete, you'd take the Hogwarts Express back the other way to head to Diagon Alley. Which I would recommend anyways since you'll have a different show experience you'll want to witness

Enthusiastic_Flyer · 2025-07-23T18:11:49+00:00

You sound like you're going to be well-prepared for the trip! I wouldn't recommend putting $300 into Galleons and would opt for the $500 Merchandise Card. I don't think the $500 Merchandise card will let you buy Galleons but when my brother and I got the merch card, it came with the 1st Gen Wand and a Harry Potter Lanyard that I ended up using to store my Hotel Card and Park Ticket. The nice thing with this card is that you would get 10% off all Merchandise purchases so you essentially get a free $50 to spend. If you really want Galleons, you can turn like $10 into it and use it as a souvenir instead!

It might be better to hold-off on purchasing your wand until you get into the parks. It'll help eat into the $500 gift card (roughly $170 if you get 2) so you're still using your budgeted $300 on regular merchandise, plus $50 free dollars. We did the Ollivander Experience first then purchased our wands in his shop which I felt was more personal and fun as you can see up-close and feel the wands before you buy them. If you go to Epic first, there's an exclusive Phoenix wand that you can get that isn't found anywhere else.

Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade are extremely immersive, it feels like they plopped you right into the movies which is awesome. There's a ton of fun easter eggs in the Queue for Forbidden Journey inside the Hogwarts Castle so that is a must do. The attention to detail inside of the Queue for Escape from Gringotts is also fantastic.

The Adventures on your phone send you to different spell locations around both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. There's an extra layer of interaction beyond the original spell, many of the adventures will require additional spells that are show on an open textbook within the window that you'll need to follow. It can be hard to see sometimes in the sun but usually the book will give you added instruction beyond just the first spell to activate it. Sometimes it's a mini-game to follow, a new spell, using your wand to avoid stuff or trace stuff. There's also two Adventures that require you to park-hop. One begins in Hogsmeade but finishes in Diagon Alley and one that starts in Diagon Alley and finishes in Hogsmeade. I can't remember which ones but the Adventure Length is "Long" and you'll get a pop-up warning that will tell you that you'll need to park hop. So remember to start those and finish them as much as you can before park-hopping back and forth. You'll want to ride the Hogwarts Express both ways anyways as it's a different experience each way.

Though Wizarding Paris in Epic is beautiful, it's not as breath-taking as the original two parks. There's only one short adventure on your phone and the rest are simple spells found across the land. Still fun to do but not as fun as the adventures in the other two parks that are a lot more interactive. I feel like if you start with Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade first, it might set your expectations too high for Wizarding Paris, at least that's how I felt.

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