Steal My Universal Islands of Adventure Early Park Entry Strategy
There is a TON to do at Universal Orlando and it’s important to take advantage of every second! Early Park Entry is a special perk given to select guests to get up to an hour of extra park time in the morning. BUT there is a bit of strategy to it, so let’s talk about my favorite way to to EPA at Islands of Adventure.
What is early park entry?
Early Park Entry (EPA) is essentially bonus time in the park. Typically either Universal Studios OR Islands of Adventure will allow guests into the park to experience select attractions up to one hour before the general public. The advantage is hopping on a few highly popular attractions with shorter waits.
It is important to remember that typically only one park at a time will have EPA so be sure to check the Universal Website for current EPA dates, attractions, and times. FIND THAT HERE.
Who Qualifies for EPA?
Guests who are staying at a Universal Resort automatically get to take advantage of EPA! You must have theme park admission for the day that you wish to use it.
Guests who have select tiers of Annual Passes also get EPA included with their pass. You’ll want to make sure to check your AP perks for your specific pass to make sure that you qualify. FIND THAT HERE.
Additionally, guests who maybe aren’t staying at a Universal Resort, but book a multi-day ticket with a Travel Advisor also get to enjoy EPA. Remember, you must have a multi-day ticket as single-day tickets do not qualify with this perk. Looking for a Travel Advisor? My Friends at Goofy Getaways would love to help! Just click the button below to get started on a free quote.
how does it work?
Once you arrive to the park, you will simply scan in with your ticket like you normally would. Then once you enter the park, you’ll be asked to scan your hotel key, ticket, or annual pass to continue on to the attractions. If you do not qualify for early entry, they will simply hold you in a different location until official park open.
When we did early entry at Islands of Adventure, they actually let us in the park around 10 minutes before EPA was set to start. That being said, it is important to get to the ticket gate at least 30 minutes (45 minutes-1 hour if it’s an extra busy season) before EPA is set to start so that you can be ahead of the crowds.
Once you’ve passed the EPA ticket check, you’ll simply hustle to your first ride! DO NOT RUN! We do not run in theme parks…
Not every attraction will be open during EPA, for Islands of Adventure, it is typically Hogsmeade (aka Wizarding World of Harry Potter) and Velocicoaster in the Jurassic Park area. Again, this can be subject to change, so check the website before your trip for a full list of available attractions.
My Strategy
When we did EPA the available attractions were as follows:
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey™
Flight of the Hippogriff™
Jurassic World VelociCoaster
Ollivanders™
Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure™
Our goal were to definitely hit up Hagrid’s and VelociCoaster, but I’m going to include the other attractions too!
Hagrid’s is definitely my number 1 stop! This ride is NOT included with Express, so if you want to be able to experience this one with a low wait, make it your first stop.
For us, EPA began at 8am. We arrived to the ticket gate at 7:30am, scanned into the park around 7:50am, got in line at exactly 8:00am, and boarded the attraction at 8:25am!
If you don’t count the ten minutes of walking, we waited a total of 45 minutes from when we arrived to the park when we got on the ride! That does still sound like a decently long wait, however a good 20 minutes of that was BEFORE the park even opened, so we didn’t have to waste that time during actual park hours.
AND by the time we got off the ride, the wait had already jumped up to 120 minutes, so it definitely still pays to get there early!
By that time it was around 8:30am, so we wanted to head over to the next big ticket ride. VelociCoaster is included with Express if you have it, but if not, this is also a good one to try and get done during EPA.
We got over there around 8:40am and basically walked on to the attraction. You still get to go through the whole queue, which is fun to see all the details, but it was a breeze to get to the ride!
Truly as long as you can hop in this line before normal park open (which for us was 9:00am) you should be able to ride with a pretty short wait! Only five minutes after park open, the wait had jumped up to 45 minutes.
These two rides may make up the bulk of your early entry time, BUT if you also want to hit up the other attractions in Hogsmeade, I would head over to those next. They typically will be a little slower to get long waits, but I would probably do Forbidden Journey, THEN Flight of the Hippogriff, and THEN Ollivanders if that is on your list.
If you’ve don’t all that, you’ve basically knocked out a third of the park in the first two hours! Want to see how we put this plan in action? Be sure to watch our full video with even more tips and tricks for EPA!
