Both Disney World and Universal Orlando offer a way for you to pay extra to skip the standby lines at most attractions and access a shorter, faster line. In Disney World, you can purchase Lightning Lane Multi Pass. In Universal Orlando, you can buy an Express Pass, which is similar but generally covers more attractions (and costs more money).

Universal Orlando

Disney World also has Lightning Lane Single Pass, which applies to select rides, where you pay an additional fee just to skip lines at those rides, like a pay-per-ride system. Universal has started to test out something similar: Express Pass Single Attraction Access. We’re going to break down that new option for you.

On October 16th, Universal had some NEW signs in front of two rides: Revenge of the Mummy in Universal Studios Florida and Skull Island: Reign of Kong in Universal Islands of Adventure. Those signs had a QR code that visitors could scan to get access via the Universal app to buy a single attraction express pass for each of those rides for $25 each. This is separate from the standard Universal Express Pass option, which includes those rides.

©Universal

We revisited Universal on October 17th, and the signs in front of the attractions were gone (granted, their standby lines were pretty short). We spoke with a Universal Team member who confirmed that this was something Universal was currently testing at these two rides. When we visited, though, the ride wait times were less than 10 minutes, so we can’t imagine anyone paying $25 to skip those short lines.

Skull Island: Reign of Kong

So, for now, you may see a sign for this new option in front of these rides when Universal decides to make it available again. Of course, if the standby line is relatively short, it’s not something you may actually need, but we could see how something like this might work in Epic Universe where we can imagine a lot of folks would pay for the option for a popular ride like Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry.

Queue for standby line at Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry

So, it seems like Universal is testing a pretty similar service to the Single Pass offered in Disney World. Is there some copying — er, borrowing — going on between parks here? HMMM! We’ll keep an eye out to see if the option pops up again and let you know, so stay tuned to DFB for more.

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What do you think? Is this an option you would like to see for more rides in Universal? Let us know in the comments!