How Many Days Do You Need at Universal Studios Hollywood? (2026)
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One day is enough for Universal Studios Hollywood. The park has 12 rides split across two levels and one hour-long tram tour, and even with Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift now open you can do all of it between opening and close.
Book one day, arrive an hour before opening, and ride Hollywood Drift or Mario Kart first depending on who you are with.
| What you want to do | Days | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Every ride plus the Studio Tour | 1 | Everything fits between opening and close |
| Halloween Horror Nights | Add an evening | Separate ticket, the park closes early to day tickets |
| The VIP Experience | Add a day | Takes the whole day on its own |
| CityWalk only | 0 | No park ticket needed for the restaurants, cinema and shops |
Get Breakfast Before You Arrive
The first hour after opening is the quietest of the day. It is your best chance of a 10-minute wait on rides that will post 45 minutes by lunchtime, so do not spend it sitting down to breakfast inside the park.
Eat before you leave the hotel. If you are staying at the Sheraton Universal next door, the walk to the gate is about eight minutes uphill, or there is a free shuttle, so you can eat in the hotel and still be at the gate before opening.
Arrive an Hour Before Opening
Aim to be at the gates an hour before the published opening time. That leaves time to park or get dropped off, clear security and have your tickets scanned. In most cases the turnstiles open around 30 minutes early and you are held on Main Universal Way, between the Hello Kitty store and Starbucks, until the official time.
On Halloween Horror Nights event days the park closes early to day tickets and reopens for the event, so check the hours for your specific date rather than assuming a full day.
Pick Your First Ride: Hollywood Drift or Mario Kart
This used to be simple. Go straight to Super Nintendo World, because Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge drew the longest queue in the park. Since Hollywood Drift opened there are two candidates, and which one you head for depends on your group.
If you are there for thrills, go to Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift first. It is on the Upper Lot, it is the park’s first outdoor coaster and its most intense ride, and for its first few months it will hold the longest queue in the park.
I rode it in preview two weeks before it opened and it is the one I would run for.
If you have young children, or Drift is not for you, go straight down to the Lower Lot and into Super Nintendo World. From the entrance:
- Walk past The Wizarding World of Harry Potter on your right
- Follow the path round into Springfield and towards The Simpsons Ride
- Turn left and take the StarWay escalators down to the Lower Lot
- Turn right off the escalators and walk towards Transformers: The Ride 3-D
- Turn left at the ride for the Super Nintendo World entrance
If you have a wheelchair or a pushchair, you cannot use the escalators. Team members at the top of the Lower Lot entrance will point you to the shuttle bus.
Inside Super Nintendo World there is the Mario Kart ride, two character meets, the five Power-Up Band key challenges, the 1-UP Factory store and Toadstool Cafe. Join the Toadstool virtual queue on the app the moment you enter the land, then ride Mario Kart while you wait.
Mario Kart’s queue has calmed down since the land opened. On the quiet Tuesday I visited it posted 10 minutes at 5:14pm, and Universal Express now covers it, which it did not at first. On a weekend or a school holiday, being first into the land is still the way to ride it without a long wait.
Then Work the Lower Lot Before the Upper Lot
Once you are done in Super Nintendo World, stay on the Lower Lot and ride Jurassic World, Revenge of the Mummy and Transformers while everyone else is still working through the Upper Lot in front of them.
Most people enter the park, walk the Upper Lot because it is what they see first, and end up on the Lower Lot in the afternoon. Doing it in reverse puts you on each level at its quietest.
On 1 September 2026 every Lower Lot ride was posting five minutes at 5:14pm while Minion Mayhem on the Upper Lot was posting 35.
Save the Studio Tour for late morning, and do not leave it too late. The last tram goes well before park close. On 1 September 2026 the board already showed it closed at 5:14pm with the park open until 6pm, which is why my hour-by-hour plan for one day at Universal Studios Hollywood puts the tram before lunch.
Use the Single Rider Lines
The single rider lines are the fastest way onto a ride without paying for Universal Express. The trade is that your group splits up and rides separately, which is fine for adults and no good with small children.
The rides at Universal Studios Hollywood that have run a single rider line on my visits are:
- Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
- Flight of the Hippogriff
- Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride
- Transformers: The Ride 3-D
- Jurassic World: The Ride
- Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge
Whether Hollywood Drift gets one had not been confirmed when I rode it in preview, so check the entrance signage. On a five-minute day the single rider line saves nothing, so it only pays off when the standby queue is long.
When to Add a Second Day
A second day at Universal Studios Hollywood does not show you more of the park. Everything fits in one, so a second day is a slower repeat of the first, and there are only three cases where I would pay for it:
- A weekend or a school holiday, when the first hour still runs quiet but the afternoon posts the long waits, and you would rather come back than queue
- Halloween Horror Nights, which is an evening on its own ticket rather than a second park day, and the park closes early to day tickets on event dates
- The VIP Experience, which takes the whole day, so it is a second day rather than your first, because you will not want to spend a first visit on a tour
If none of those apply, one day is enough, and the second day is better spent somewhere else in Los Angeles.
How to Spend the Last Two Hours
By late afternoon you have done the Lower Lot, the Studio Tour and Super Nintendo World, and the crowd has thinned on the Upper Lot. The last hour before close is the second quietest of the day, so use it on whatever posted the longest wait at lunchtime, which on my visits has been Minion Mayhem.
Then leave through the gates and eat at CityWalk rather than inside the park. CityWalk needs no park ticket and stays open later than the park, so you are not racing the clock. I ate at NBC Sports Grill and VIVO on my September 2026 trip, both a few minutes from the gate.
Frequently Asked Questions
The questions I get asked most about how long to spend at Universal Studios Hollywood,
Is one day enough for Universal Studios Hollywood?
Yes. The park has 12 rides and one hour-long tram tour split across two levels, and you can do all of it between opening and close if you arrive early. I have done it as a passholder many times, most recently in September 2026.
When do you need two days at Universal Studios Hollywood?
Only for Halloween Horror Nights, which is a separate evening ticket on select nights from September to early November, or for the VIP Experience, which fills a whole day on its own.
Which ride should you do first at Universal Studios Hollywood?
Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift if you want thrills, because it opened on 16 September 2026 and will hold the longest queue for months. With young children, head straight to the Lower Lot for Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge instead.
How early should you arrive at Universal Studios Hollywood?
About an hour before the published opening time. The turnstiles usually open around 30 minutes early and you are held on Main Universal Way until the official time, so you start the day at the front of the crowd.
Does Universal Express cover Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge?
Yes, as of September 2026. It did not when Super Nintendo World opened, which is why the old advice was to run there first. On busy days that advice still holds if you are not buying Express.
