Is the weekend after Thanksgiving (Friday-Sunday) crazy busy at Universal? Also, I saw the mention of the front of the line pass, but was wondering if there was an extra charge to do this. THanks for your help!!!

Couldn't say on the Thanksgiving crowd. You didn't specify Hollywood or Orlando (though it doesn't matter) but the last time I went during Thanksgiving was just after Islands opened years ago.



The front of the line pass has a few flavors:

Orlando has:
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Onsite Hotel front of the line which means if you stay at one of their 3 onsite hotels you use your room key and can go on all rides front of the line as many times as you want.

Express passes can be purchase for either park or both ($50 for both and 30 for one I believe) and it gives you a booklet with a ticket in it for each Universal attraction. This allows you to skip the lines once per day. You have to buy one booklet for each person though.


Hollywood has:
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VIP Tour ($200 includes admission to the park) and this is all the studio tour backstage events and then, when the tour is over, you get front of the line access to all rides.
VIP Passes ($100 includes admission to park) doesn't include the tour but you get the front of line passes.


My take
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Obviously the hotels option in Orlando is best deal but I found on a few trips I rarely needed them the crowd was so small.

The benefits of the Express passes (at Orlando) is you can judge the crowd level before you buy them so if it isn't busy... no loss.

At Hollywood, I've been interested in the backstage tour but my kids are too little for me to feel it's worthwhile yet. And the other tickets are only worth it if I was going to pay full price for 1 day tickets anyway ($65) but I never do so it's not even close to worth it for me.

Sorry, Orlando