Universal Studios Hollywood is a great complement to your Disneyland vacation, offering popular lands and attractions like the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Super Nintendo World, and more.
As you are planning your Universal Studios Hollywood trip, you’ll get the most out of your experience if you avoid some of the peak crowded times of the year. There are many factors that influence crowds at Universal Studios Hollywood like holidays, school breaks, events, annual pass holders, and more.
We discuss the Universal Studios Hollywood crowd patterns and the best times to visit in more depth in our new Universal Studios Hollywood crowd calendar with projected crowd levels for each month into 2025. Below, we will discuss some of the most crowded times to visit Universal Studios Hollywood you’ll want to avoid!
1) As you are choosing which day of the week you will plan your visit for, avoid Saturdays and Sundays. This is when many locals who are annual pass holders will come into the parks, especially later on in the day. Saturdays are typically the most crowded day and Sundays are the second most crowded day, so plan your visit around the weekends if you can. Also, keep in mind that locals will often visit the park in the evenings on weekdays resulting in higher crowds later in the day, so make sure to arrive early. See our guide to the Universal Studios Hollywood hours here.
2) Holiday weekends also always tend to be crowded at Universal Studios Hollywood, as families will take this opportunity to go on a short vacation, and locals will spend their day off visiting the park. You’ll want to watch out for the following holiday weekends during the year:
- Martin Luther King Jr. Day
- Presidents’ Day
- Memorial Day
- Labor Day
- Indigenous/Columbus Day
- Veterans Day
3) School breaks throughout the year like summer break, winter break, and spring break will also influence crowd levels at Universal Studios Hollywood. While you can expect summer crowds to be more evenly spread out through June, July, and August, crowd levels will typically peak in July.
With kids out of school on Spring Break, crowds will peak in March and start to decrease in April, so you’ll want to avoid visiting towards the middle of March when spring break starts for many schools to dodge the worst of the crowds.
You’ll also see bigger crowds during winter break for schools, especially around the time of Christmas through New Year’s. Winter break, combined with the crowds during the holiday season, makes this one of the most crowded times to visit, which we will discuss more in our next point…
4) The Holidays at Universal Studios Hollywood are one of the most popular times of the year. The crowds will start to increase towards the middle of the month in December and continually grow until the end of the season. Locals also have an impact on the crowd levels during the holidays on weekends and evenings.
Universal Studios Hollywood’s annual pass blockout dates and Express Pass prices indicate the kind of crowds they are expecting during the peak time surrounding Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The Gold Annual Pass, Universal Studios Hollywood’s second-highest tier pass, is blocked out during the majority of this time, and Express Pass remains at its highest couple of pricing tiers around the holidays into the first week of the new year.
5) Avoid attending Halloween Horror Nights in October if you can. Halloween Horror Nights are an extremely popular event at Universal Studios Hollywood for locals and tourists, with the largest crowds on weekends. That being said, the daytime crowds will often be lower on nights when these events are taking place.
To avoid peak crowds during these events, we recommend planning to attend Halloween Horror Nights on a weekday in September. To combat the crowds and make the most of your time, we also recommend purchasing Universal Studios Hollywood Express Pass for this event.
At Mickey Visit, we share the most important tips for planning your trips to Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Universal, and beyond. Each week, we’ll share some of our top tips here on Laughing Place.
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