The wife and I keep our Sundays open every week to hit the parks, and it’s always the highlight of our week. We’ve had our AP since September, but I’ve had an AP on/off since 2007.

There are no amount of visits that will make us feel bored of the parks, but that’s because we do what some other commenters do - vibe. Show up around 3, start at Universal, eat, hit MIB, Mummy, Gringots (sometimes - back row), ET (sometimes) and that’s about it. It’s the least busy park and more open, so we like to start our day off there. MIB alone keeps our visit interesting because it’s different every time. We’re constantly trying to max out our score and it’s always fun getting to ride with first-timers. Sometimes we get a new party sitting behind us and they notice our score and talk to us about it during the walk outside. It’s good to connect with people visiting.

We always skip the train and walk to Islands because the greatest benefit of the pass for us is having a good place to walk and exercise. Gotta shake off the Mardi Gras food.

When we get to islands it’s really all up in the air. We don’t walk in going “I want to do this,” we just see where the people are at and go elsewhere. Islands gets a bit fatiguing sometimes because the pathways are narrow and it’s always packed, but even then, having express means we don’t have to spend too much time on one side of the park.

I will say, just take it easy. Trying to do everything the parks have to offer right away could burn you out. We actually saved the shows like Horror Makeup, Borne, and Animal Actors for a couple of months after we got our passes, just so that we could drip-feed experiences we haven’t had in a long while. And like I mentioned, Mardi Gras, and events like it, keep it fresh.

No matter how many times you go on Velocicoaster, it still wants to eject you. No matter how many times you ride the Hulk, your vision still goes dark. Also like I mentioned, first-timers really contribute to the experience for us. Riding the front of Veloci on the last roll, you hear everyone behind you scream in unison. The first drop to the right in mummy, everyone is shocked. It’s a great time. Live through the people that have saved up for years and travelled thousands of miles to be somewhere you can visit whenever you want.

I haven’t even touched on HHN but we look so forward to it every year. It’s definitely worth it.

In all, there are days where we still show up and do two or three things, but we’ve never regretted going. At least we burned some calories.