Early Park Admission Priorities at Islands of Adventure
Our intrepid social media team saw this on Threads from an anonymized user:
Universal Orlando began allowing Express Pass usage during Early Park Admission (EPA) last year and we have collected the data. In this article we’ll look at the best strategies to tour Early Park Admission with and without Express Pass, touring without Express and EPA, and how many hours you wait in line for the various touring options.
What is Early Park Admission?
Early Park Admission (EPA) is up to an additional hour of touring time at select Universal Orlando themed parks. At the time of writing Islands of Adventure and
Which Attractions Are Open for EPA at Islands of Adventure?
Islands of Adventure features two of the hottest tickets during Early Park Admission:
- Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
- Flight of the Hippogriff
- Jurassic World VelociCoaster
- Ollivanders
- Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure™
Early Admission attractions are subject to change, but this list has remained consistent since VelociCoaster opened in summer 2021.
Early Park Admission Touring Plans
We will compare three touring plans: Guests with Express Pass and EPA, Guests with EPA but no Express Pass, and Guests without EPA and Express Pass. We chose to look at a 7 out of 10 day on June 27, 2026. The plan includes all open attractions available to adults, so it excludes Pteranodon Flyers.
Note: Jurassic Park River Adventure is closed for refurbishment on the day we chose to optimize. We do not expect this to impact morning touring strategies.
Guests with Express Pass
So you’re staying on-site at a hotel that includes Express Pass, or have purchased Express for the day you visit IOA. We ran the touring plan numbers and optimized our plan, and found the following suggestion for our EPA:
Three attractions! Hagrid and VelociCoaster are attractions with lots of demand so hitting them during EPA makes sense. Ollivanders is a low-capacity show without an Express Pass line; EPA is a perfect time to visit this attraction. Now, let’s look at our plan totals:
Universal claims Express Pass reduces your waits by at least half; we’ll compare the 93 minutes in line to the other plans shortly. We are on attractions for 195 minutes, with over five hours of free time in the middle of the day to return to the hotel for a nap and pool break, eat dinner, and shop.
Guests without Express Pass
Next up, we’ll look at guests with EPA but not Express Pass.
It’s not unexpected that Hagrid is taking up your full EPA time, especially with Express Pass now offered. Express Pass not only has a priority with boarding, but their queue is significantly shorter than stand-by queue so they pre-fill approximately 15 minutes of wait before the stand-by guests approach merge in Hagrid’s workshop.
Over four hours in line is a lot more than 90 minutes! But with Express Pass, you still have three and a half hours for a break in the middle of the day.
Express Pass is a 62% savings on wait times!
Guests without Early Park Admission
We don’t want to leave our friends out who don’t have an EPA or an Express Pass. Here’s what the TouringPlans 3000 says:
Avoid Potter and VelociCoaster and save those for later in the day as they’ve been filled with guests for over an hour. Go to the other hot attractions in the park in Marvel Super Hero Island and Reign of Kong.
The final plan has guests in line for over five hours, with only two hours of free time in the day for a break.
Express Pass with EPA is a 70% savings on wait times! And using EPA reduces your final total wait times in line by 20% compared to arriving at the official park opening.
TouringPlans Touring Tips
- Guests participating in EPA should arrive 30 to 45 minutes before EPA starts. Choose the shortest line, knowing that some temporary lines might open up closer to admission time. Follow all signage for Early Park Admission entry.
- Have your admission, EPA admission (hotel key card or UOAP), and Express Pass admission (hotel key card or Express ticket) at hand during admission to the park and entering the attraction lines.
- Skip attractions like Forbidden Journey and Flight of the Hippogriff till later in the day.
- If you cannot participate in EPA or arrive after EPA concludes, then go to Marvel Super Hero Island or Reign of Kong instead.
What is your experience with Early Park Admission at Islands of Adventure? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
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Did you consider running a similar test, but for those who want to ride Hagrid’s twice? E.g., what does the morning look like if you have EXP and EPA, arrive at rope drop, go through the standard line for Hagrid’s, then jump back in line with EXP?
Would love to know the answer to this!
Allan & Debbie ran the numbers, and here’s what the data says for riding Hagrid twice w/e EPA and Express.
Depending on what you want to accomplish, we actually recommend riding Hagrid later in the day back-to-back. I re-ran the touring plan I created for this article, and it’s what our data says.
https://touringplans.com/plans/5576014/print
You say “Over four and a half hours in line is a lot more than 90 minutes! But with Express Pass you still have three and a half hours for a break in the middle of the day.”
249 minutes is not over four and a half hours. It’s a little over four hours. And the quote comes from the section for those without Express Pass but with Early Park Admission. So, the “with Express Pass” part of the quote looks like a mistake.