I use to take the kids on roller coaster vacations for two weeks at a time for years. All up and down the east side of the Mississippi to the coast. I became a pro at making the most of it (i.e. avoiding crowds).

1) First and foremost: Get there early, when they first open the gates!! The easiest way to avoid crowds is when they aren't there yet! Can't be any easier than that. Even with the onsite hotels getting in early, it's still pretty sparse compared to later in the day.

2) Go to the back of the park first. Most people enter a park and start to hop on rides right away, the back of the park will stay empty for a little while.

3) As the day progresses, work your way to the front of the park since the crowds will be working their way further back.

4) During the middle of the day when it's really busy, go hit the movie theater at City Walk and chill out.

5) Stay late, crowds will thin out.

6) There's some nice hotels easily within walking distance. I know you purchased a hotel on site, just tossing my comment out for others.

7) Tickets: I usually would get the park hopper (able to go between Islands of Adventure and Universal anytime). It's been a number of years since I went, but 3 days usually covers it. We usually did 2 full days, then maybe a 1/2 day for the final day. They run specials at times.

We never did the water park stuff, so can't comment on that. Never needed a fast pass or whatever it's called, we just learned to manage the crowds effectively.

This question wasn't directed to me, but I will toss out my 2 cents.

One of the tricks I would use is to look at airfare prices to Orlando for the rock bottom prices. We'd fly direct from Indiana on Allegiant Air to Orlando. Looking at the airfare, some are dirt cheap. That tells me that it is a time of the year that travel to Orlando isn't as desired as opposed to a busier time (i.e. spring break, Christmas, etc.) and the airline is trying to fill up the seats.

Usually between close Holidays works well. Especially right between Thanksgiving and Xmas. We've done that numerous times, crowds were extremely thin, wait times minimal to walk on at some times of the day. Some families must go for Thanksgiving and others go for Xmas - leaving a nice void in-between.

Your comments about 4 full days is a good point, plenty of time to everything. 4 days is probably even a stretch. If I only had one day at a park, then I'd definitely get the express pass.

Honesty, the lines have never been bad. I can't stand waiting in lines either. We time the trip during less busy times of the year and stand in line for the gates to open, then head to the back of the park first thing. Granted, some lines are longer than others (i.e. when HP just opened up), so we always wait until the crowd settles down. Don't mean to sound like there's no lines ever, but we definitely don't wait in long lines. Just guessing, maybe 30 minutes for us would be about the typical max. Surprisingly, one of the longest lines we waited in a number of years ago was for MIB, no clue why.

I think places like Disney are likely busy all the time, but we seem to make it work at Universal and the other amusement parks. There's been times I've commented to the better half while at Universal "We're the only ones walking down this path."

Now that my son is older and has kids, he's carrying on the tradition...kinda neat to see him make those memories with his kids.

Good comment about Sea World, not that far of a drive for the OP. Nice park too.

Some ticket 'trophies' below. I always save them.

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