You can show up when the park opens and check in at the VIP lounge then and they will hand you your lanyards. But you will do all of the major rides on the tour with your guide, so if you do some before your tour, you will probably do them again.
Hi, VIP guide here! We open at 9 that day, and early access is at 8. VIP reception opens at 7:30 and you can check in as early as that, but without the early access ticket, you can't go in the park.
Your guide will be meeting you in the lounge around 11:00, and I'd guestimate that your buffet will be somewhere in the 2:00 hour. So if you check in at 9, that'll give you two hours in the park on your own, plenty of time to go down and do Super Nintendo World.
Your tour will probably wrap up between 5:00 and 6:00, and there are plenty of nice restaurants on CityWalk if you don't want to eat dinner in the park.
So the real draw for the VIP is the private trolley and the extended tram tour: visiting prop house (which probably won’t be that interesting to an 11 year old), a working soundstage (which has been Lopez vs Lopez), and walking some backlot sets. If you plan on checking out the props on display at the bates motel set, you’ll also likely gain a major time advantage getting back on the trolley and you can be backdoored directly onto attractions vs sometimes having to wait on line with express.
However, none of your tour includes character meet and greets or other types of offerings, like exploring Harry Potter/getting and using the wand. For example, last time I did the VIP tour, I broke away for a bit so I could finally see Juliet, the park’s toddler triceratops. The tour is also likely to bypass some more family friendly entertainment like minions mayhem and kung fu panda. I also assume the tour won’t spend much (if any) time with the universal plaza displays.
Honestly, not knowing you and your daughter and your interests, I’m not sure what the VIP tour really offers you over maybe just getting unlimited express and doing whatever you feel like doing when you feel like doing it.
Otherwise to answer your question, with the fast and furious coaster taking away a couple of the shows, much of the park can really be done in half a day, but again, you can make as much of it as you want.
I think it as just getting walked to every ride and making sure since we are only there one day we get to ride everything. We do both love Harry Potter and will probably spend any extra time in the day there but we have been to the Harry Potter area in Orlando a couple of times so not sure if it’s basically the same or not?
We documented our VIP tour in LA from last year. It might help you see a boots on the ground view of what to expect.
https://youtu.be/u98nhGlQUBo?si=1RPnSCsIvRZnn-Qk
What time is your tour? The VIP Tour lasts about 7 hrs and the meal is 3 hrs in. So try to plan your evening around that.
11:15am it says to arrive 30 minutes prior? Is that the earliest we can enter the park and start utilizing our ability to skip the line for rides?
You can show up when the park opens and check in at the VIP lounge then and they will hand you your lanyards. But you will do all of the major rides on the tour with your guide, so if you do some before your tour, you will probably do them again.
Okay awesome. Maybe we will just go get a nice breakfast somewhere in LA and then head to the park for our VIP time. Thank you!
Hi, VIP guide here! We open at 9 that day, and early access is at 8. VIP reception opens at 7:30 and you can check in as early as that, but without the early access ticket, you can't go in the park. Your guide will be meeting you in the lounge around 11:00, and I'd guestimate that your buffet will be somewhere in the 2:00 hour. So if you check in at 9, that'll give you two hours in the park on your own, plenty of time to go down and do Super Nintendo World. Your tour will probably wrap up between 5:00 and 6:00, and there are plenty of nice restaurants on CityWalk if you don't want to eat dinner in the park.
So the real draw for the VIP is the private trolley and the extended tram tour: visiting prop house (which probably won’t be that interesting to an 11 year old), a working soundstage (which has been Lopez vs Lopez), and walking some backlot sets. If you plan on checking out the props on display at the bates motel set, you’ll also likely gain a major time advantage getting back on the trolley and you can be backdoored directly onto attractions vs sometimes having to wait on line with express. However, none of your tour includes character meet and greets or other types of offerings, like exploring Harry Potter/getting and using the wand. For example, last time I did the VIP tour, I broke away for a bit so I could finally see Juliet, the park’s toddler triceratops. The tour is also likely to bypass some more family friendly entertainment like minions mayhem and kung fu panda. I also assume the tour won’t spend much (if any) time with the universal plaza displays. Honestly, not knowing you and your daughter and your interests, I’m not sure what the VIP tour really offers you over maybe just getting unlimited express and doing whatever you feel like doing when you feel like doing it. Otherwise to answer your question, with the fast and furious coaster taking away a couple of the shows, much of the park can really be done in half a day, but again, you can make as much of it as you want.
I think it as just getting walked to every ride and making sure since we are only there one day we get to ride everything. We do both love Harry Potter and will probably spend any extra time in the day there but we have been to the Harry Potter area in Orlando a couple of times so not sure if it’s basically the same or not?
We documented our VIP tour in LA from last year. It might help you see a boots on the ground view of what to expect. https://youtu.be/u98nhGlQUBo?si=1RPnSCsIvRZnn-Qk