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Park Queue TimesPQT

Universal Studios Hollywood cheat sheet

worked out from 60 days of our own wait data30 rides

Arrive for 11:00 and ride Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift, Sinners and Killer Klowns from Outer Space first. Leave Stranger Things 5 until after 6pm, when its queue drops to about 24 minutes. The park's queues peak around 20:00 at 33 minutes and are lowest around 13:00.

Before you go

When to go

The days and months this park's rides run quietest

Quietest weekday
Tuesday
Busiest weekday
Saturday
Quietest month
October
Busiest month
November

Each ride's own quietest and busiest day, tallied and weighted by how long its queue runs. For a dated answer use the crowd calendar, which scores every day of the year.

The shape of the day

Average queue across the park, hour by hour

  1. 11:0025m
  2. 12:0024m
  3. 13:0022mquietest
  4. 14:0023m
  5. 15:0028m
  6. 16:0028m
  7. 17:0027m
  8. 18:0022m
  9. 19:0023m
  10. 20:0033mpeak

Arrive for 11:00. Queues climb to their peak around 20:00 and fall back through the afternoon; the last hour or two is the quietest the headliners get all day.

Ride these first

The headliners: longest queues, worst by late morning

  1. 1Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift ~84 min typical · up to 107 at peak · worst around 4pm84m
  2. 2Sinners ~62 min typical · up to 90 at peak · worst around 8pm62m
  3. 3Killer Klowns from Outer Space ~46 min typical · up to 71 at peak · worst around 9pm46m

Straight to these from the gate, in this order. Every minute before the park fills is worth three later.

Leave these until later

Rides whose queues collapse late in the day

  1. 1Stranger Things 5~45 min typical · about 24 min after 6pm24m
  2. 2Hellraiser~37 min typical · about 18 min after 6pm18m
  3. 3Flight of the Hippogriff™~21 min typical · about 5 min after 6pm5m
  4. 4Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey™~24 min typical · about 9 min after 6pm9m
  5. 5Evil Dead Burn~20 min typical · about 7 min after 6pm7m

Save them for the last two hours, when the coach parties have gone and the queue is a fraction of the afternoon's.

Fill the gaps with

Walk-ons at any hour, and the single-rider lines

Usually under 10 minutesKill-Ceanera - Express5mHellraiser - Express5mEvil Dead Burn - Express5mDead, Deader, Deadest - Express5mSuper Nintendo World5mBowser Jr. Challenge5mKiller Klowns - Express6mSilly Swirly9m

Watch-outs

Rides that spend the most of the day not running

  1. 1Terror Tram featuring Art the Clown – Last Tramrunning 0% of the park's open hours0%
  2. 2Terror Tram starring Art the Clownrunning 8% of the park's open hours8%
  3. 3Killceañera: Music by SLASHrunning 10% of the park's open hours10%
  4. 4Dead Deader Deadestrunning 10% of the park's open hours10%
  5. 5Sinnersrunning 13% of the park's open hours13%

If one of these is the reason you came, ride it the first time you see it running rather than saving it. The full picture is on the reliability page.

On the day

Your day-of sheet

The same park, for one date: the forecast, the hours, and your ride order

With a free account you get this sheet for a date: the crowd forecast for the day, its published hours, a ride order worked out against that day's wait curve, and a printable version to take in.

Get the day-of sheet

An account gives you a ride order for your date, with the forecast and the hours, ready to print. Free, and no card needed.

Create a free accountor sign in

  • Your rides, in order

    Sequenced against the wait curve, so the headliners land in their quiet windows.

  • quiet till 111pm · 66m

    Your date, hour by hour

    How the wait climbs on the day you picked, and the window it stays low.

Everything above is each ride's own recorded queue over recent weeks, sampled every few minutes through the park's opening hours - not an opinion. A ride with too little history is left out.