Just returned back from my 3rd visit.. these are the tips..
Get there early..

take the studio tour first before it gets crowded ..choose driver side seat in studio tour ...

then do the lower lot rides (mummy & jurassic park) ..

Catch the earliest or last water world show to avoid long lines..

fear factor live & animal planet are at huge auditoriums ,if you cant get in as one of the first 150 or so, all seats are pretty much same ..so doesnt make sense standing 1 hour in queue to get a good seat..

they keep running shrek , terminator continuously.. all seats ARE THE SAME..

leave lower lot backstages for later , leave Vanhesling Horror walk for last..

During Xmas - new year week , summer holidays & other long weekends , it is highly recommended to get Fast Pass..

hope it helps

My wife and I took our first trip without the kids in 7 years. I went on E*Bay to buy two tickets for Universal Studios and came across a guy selling two VIP passes. I didn't know what they were and had to research them. It's the only way to see Universal Studios. We paid $105 a piece. I saw guys handing out discount coupons in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood so you can save $20 per ticket. The best savings come from the fact that you get two additional passes that don't have your name on them to come back later in 2006. I'm selling those on E*Bay and should get $70 for them.

Anyway.... the VIP experience is magical. Our tour guide, Buck, knew every inch of the park and got us through a very congested afternoon seeing just about every show and ride with no wait. You get front of the line privlidges with your VIP passes, but a couple of times he took us in a different way and got us to the front of the line ahead of people how already had front of the line passes. Follow me? So there was no waiting ever for any ride or attraction when you were in your group. We got really lucky in that we started out with the standard 16 people in our group. Within 45 minutes, a family of 4 dropped out because their son was sick and a heavier couple didn't want to do any walking out in the Back Lot area. So we only had 10 in our group for the rest of the day. We also got to see the props department, which is four stories of stuff that is rented out for T.V. shows and movies. That was really cool. We saw the working set of Crossing Jordan along with a sound studio. Unlike the normal tram of 200 people, we got to stop on Back Lot streets and walk around. Touch the walls, etc.

The best part was at the end of the day around 5pm. We had just gotten out of Shrek and Buck told us to walk fast. We walked all the way to the front of the park where the Water World show was. The show had started 5 minutes earlier and the staff were turning people around who were trying to get in. Buck flashed his card at them and they opened the gates. He walked us up some steps on the backside of the bleacher seats and sat us down in the top row marked "VIP seating only" in an otherwise sold out show with no other open seating to be seen.

Pay the money. You won't regret it.

My sister and I purchased Front Of Line tickets for Universal Studios and they were worth every cent. We spent approximately 8 hours in the park, and saw/experienced all the attractions except for the Mummy ride, since neither of us are big rollercoaster fans.

The highlights for both of us were definitely the Jurassic Park ride (which we did twice), the Waterworld show (which we also watched twice), the Back To The Future ride and the Studio Tour.

I would highly recommend getting the Front Of Line tickets or the VIP tickets. The longest we had to wait for any ride the entire day was about four or five minutes. This definitely made the visit much more enjoyable, as you don't spend most of the day waiting in queues.

Loads of fun! Highly recommended.

What's the difference between the Universal Studios Tour and a timeshare pitch?

At the timeshare pitch, they pay YOU something to sit through it!

Do they have to CONSTANTLY be selling? I mean everyone that worked there, including the cashier I requested information about restroom locations from.

While waiting in line for a pretzel, I witnessed the cashier upselling a girl, about 8 years old, to also purchase a drink and chips. He asked how much money she had and helped her spend it. I later saw this same person at another stand, and he appeared to be a supervisor of some sort. This is absolutly shameful. Thankfully he didn't do that to my daughter, my outrage would most likely have embarrassed the rest of my family.

My family paid to visit, and we were constantly "upsold" when trying to do anything.

The management should go into the auto sales business too. They have a perfectly trained saleforce ready to close a deal at every opportunity. I suspect these folks are on some sort of commission or quota program.

My wife detested that the tram tour was mostly focused around the promotion of DVD's and upcoming movies. We would have liked to hear more about the making of movies and what was going on at the studios.

All said, we didn't feel at all like guests, but more like fodder to be milked for every $$ they could find.

That said, my family said the pizza was fantastic!