Just started planning - benefits to staying onsite for Universal?

sherilaine

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 22, 2013
While I am not sure when we will go - I am starting my research for visiting Orlando for Disney and Universal. We have been to Disneyland and Universal Hollywood but Orlando is way more overwhelming so far. We never stayed onsite in Disneyland as the footprint for that park is so much smaller.

However with Disney and Universal so much bigger in Orlando are there a lot of benefits to staying onsite?

We will likely go for close to 2 weeks and ideally would love to just rent a condo for the days we do not visit parks but if that is an enormous hassle or if the feel of staying onsite is magical and comes with a lot of perks, then we'd likely get a suite onsite.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated. This is all very new to us but I know these boards make or break trip planning!!
 
The biggest benefit, IMO, is that Portofino Bay, Hard Rock, and Royal Pacific include unlimited express pass in the cost of the room. All of the onsite hotels have park transportation and early entry.

When you go for 2 weeks, you have more time to wait in line, so the express pass may not be as valuable as it would be for a shorter trip, and when you go makes a difference on whether it is needed as well.
 
While I am not sure when we will go - I am starting my research for visiting Orlando for Disney and Universal. We have been to Disneyland and Universal Hollywood but Orlando is way more overwhelming so far. We never stayed onsite in Disneyland as the footprint for that park is so much smaller.

However with Disney and Universal so much bigger in Orlando are there a lot of benefits to staying onsite?

We will likely go for close to 2 weeks and ideally would love to just rent a condo for the days we do not visit parks but if that is an enormous hassle or if the feel of staying onsite is magical and comes with a lot of perks, then we'd likely get a suite onsite.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated. This is all very new to us but I know these boards make or break trip planning!!


I think it really depends on the size of your party, the ages of children you will be travelling with and, of course, your budget!

We almost always spend at least 10 days in Orlando when we go and, personally, I could not imagine being all together in a hotel room for that period of time. But, since we do like the benefits of staying onsite, we usually do a split stay - our favorite way to do it is to spend the first few days getting all we can out of Universal onsite and then switching to a town home or pool home to spread out and have a more relaxing vacation.

Happy to answer any questions!
Mel
 
We do a split stay as well,we do Disney first, as it’s not as relaxing as universal. We stayed at yacht club last time and loved the boardwalk area.
We moved over to portofino last. It is our favorite resort anywhere. The suites are huge. We’ve stayed in a portofino,villa and hospitality suite and love them all. We love that we can easily resort hop. We get tired of Italian food and love the food at royal pacific and sapphire falls not to mention city walk also.
 


I always stay on site, either Disney or Universal. I don’t want a rental car and have to deal with parking or driving to the parks. With what I’d pay for a car rental + parking fees evens out higher cost of onsite. Plus the perks.
With both WDW & Universal early entry. At Universal the 3 Premium resorts also have Unlimited Express Pass. Worth its weight in gold. We have a 10 day stay and still worth it. I don’t want to spend my days in long lines. Also many Universal resorts are walking distance to the park or short boat ride. Universal resorts don’t share transportation.
At Universal if you don’t want to share rooms Cabana Bay has very reasonable family suites. Way cheaper than WDW. And deluxe resorts have king suites. You can bring a blow up mattress so kids don’t have to share. You would give up Express Pass at Cabana Bay.
Personally I’d go with the king suite at Royal Pacific!
At WDW all the resorts are higher than their Universal equivalents. But there are a bunch of hotels in Disney Springs, not run by Disney but on property near Disney Springs. They operate their own bus shuttle to the parks that run continuously every 30min. The Doubletree is all suites. Mousesavers.com freq have discount codes for it.
 
IMO if you're planning to do the parks (hard) then you need to stay on site! As mentioned there are a number of perks to staying on site (for both disney and universal) and it eliminates a lot of the hassle you'd face of travelling to and from parks, car rentals, uber etc. Uni especially is nice since it's closer together, the bus can get you to Citywalk in under 10 minutes. That's a nice bonus if you want to do parks early, then chill at resort in afternoon, or vice versa!

However, there are many great off site options available as well, and some do include complimentary transportation. They just don't run as often and you lose some perks, but the cost is usually much lower as well. I stayed at a Uni partner hotel a few years ago during a quick trip, and it sufficed. We still got to park early, I think transportation ran every hour though and it stopped at 4-5 hotels before going to Uni. Glad we opted for Cabana Bay our last trip which stopped at Sapphire after us, so nice and quick.
 
I am guessing the universal express would be worth it for us as the cost of that x4 people is pricey compared to the difference in hotel rates per night. I think we'd end up doing a split stay from what I am reading. Thanks for the advise on the Disney Springs options.
 


2 words Express Pass.

Check out the Royal Pacific Resort for your dates at Universal. It will (very likely) be the least expensive of the big 3 hotels with EP included, and it’s gorgeous.

Have fum!
 
I'm in a similar boat: live on these boards when planning Disney, but this is 1st time to Universal. Family of 4 (kids 5&10) who aren't coaster/thrill riders (parents prone to motion sickness/vertigo) -- SDMT is about our max at Disney so far. But, we love theming and shows and are planning the trip almost exclusively to really dig in and experience Harry Potter (although 5 year old son loves minions and spidey, so I'll be looking into those rides). Is added cost of EP (or staying at hotel that includes EP) worth it for a family that doesn't do a lot of rides? Any help/input for this Universal newbie would be appreciated!!!

Oh, and we'll be there end of June.
 
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We think its worth it to stay onsite at both WDW and Universal Orlando. We are visiting DL in May, staying offsite.

I agree that express pass is a no brainer for Universal onsite. But in addition to that, the three resorts that offer it are very nice and well-themed, and have the best locations for easy walking distance (or water taxi) to the parks. That's the best part, for me. Hard Rock Hotel is our favorite.
 
I prefer to stay onsite for both Universal and Disney. I've done a split stay between the two a few times. Because Universal typically only takes us a few days to go through ( we've done it in 2 but I prefer to do 3 nights so I have some downtime too ) and then do Disney for the rest of the trip.

Both Universal and Disney have different 'levels' of hotels ( from the Value to the Luxury ) so there will be something to fit into your budget.

If you decide to look offsite and have 1 resort for the whole trip, I'd recommend looking at the Caribe Royal resort. The location offers easy access to both UO and Disney.
 
I'm in a similar boat: live on these boards when planning Disney, but this is 1st time to Universal. Family of 4 (kids 5&10) who aren't coaster/thrill riders (parents prone to motion sickness/vertigo) -- SDMT is about our max at Disney so far. But, we love theming and shows and are planning the trip almost exclusively to really dig in and experience Harry Potter (although 5 year old son loves minions and spidey, so I'll be looking into those rides). Is added cost of EP (or staying at hotel that includes EP) worth it for a family that doesn't do a lot of rides? Any help/input for this Universal newbie would be appreciated!!!

Oh, and we'll be there end of June.

Not to be a downer, but many (most?) rides at Universal and IOA are all motion/3D/4D based or straight up coasters. We took our kids there for the first time last month, and one of my take-aways was, "what would a person who has motion sickness, can't handle virtual reality or high speed coasters do at these parks? At Universal; Men in Black (like Buzz LightYear), ET (Peter Pan) and Shrek (Mickey's Philharmagic), Kang and Kong (Dumbo) are about the only rides that don't involve some form of 3D, virtual reality or an outright coaster. Over at IOA you'd be safe in Suess Land or Toon Town and Jurrassic Park, but Harry Potter, Kong and Spidey would likely pose problems.

My only real complaint about either of the Potter lands, they did an incredible job on theming, but in preserving that feel of Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley, they really constricted the flow of traffic. The flow of traffic to Forbidden Journey, the lockers and gift shop was horrible and in general you just have one route in and out of the area, makes it feel claustrophic. Not sure how much worse that will be once Hagrid's new ride opens. Diagon Alley is a bit better as there are a few alley ways and such to meander through, but still very tight.
 

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