Premier or no?

[my2lovedisney]

Hi, kicking around an end of August trip to celebrate for my daughters 16th. We have never been to Universal, only Disney. I know if I book at a premier resort we get EP for free, but the price of the rooms are nuts! $350-500 a night! Do we need EP in August? My guess is yes. Dates would be 8/20-8/26. My crew is not patient and doesn't like standing in lines. Is 4/5 days at Universal too many?? Any advice would be great. Also, I have a 12 year old son. I would love to afford a suite but that won't happen at any of the premier resorts because they're over $700 a night. Maybe I could bring a blow up mattress for him?

 

[schumigirl]

Hi, kicking around an end of August trip to celebrate for my daughters 16th. We have never been to Universal, only Disney. I know if I book at a premier resort we get EP for free, but the price of the rooms are nuts! $350-500 a night! Do we need EP in August? My guess is yes. Dates would be 8/20-8/26. My crew is not patient and doesn't like standing in lines. Is 4/5 days at Universal too many?? Any advice would be great. Also, I have a 12 year old son. I would love to afford a suite but that won't happen at any of the premier resorts because they're over $700 a night. Maybe I could bring a blow up mattress for him?

You can definitely take along a blow up mattress for your son, housekeeping will bring you bedding for that without any charge as you would have with a rollaway.

Late August used to be quiet, it`s still not peak time, but last few years it`s been busier than ever. If your family had a long wait tolerance I`d suggest waiting to see how busy it is, but as you said you don`t like waiting in line, is it possible you could book one night with an EP hotel and somewhere else for the rest of the stay?? A one night stay ar either RPR/HRH/PBH will give you two full days of EP and early entry both days....apologies if you already know this.

4-5 days at Universal Orlando is not too much, with that time you could chill, relax and not try to cram everything into a short visit. And you could enjoy some resort time too. All the hotels have good pool facilities, choose whichever theme suits your family best.

I hope you get sorted and find something to suit your family best. I`m sure you`ll love UOR and all it has to offer.

 

[titojackson84]

I’m going the week after as a solo and am not doing EP. Over the years, for any amusement park, it’s best to get to the park before it opens and bewd to the busiest ride/area first, do the rides, then do shops. Last year we did 4.5 park days and it was more than enough. The last day was the day when we used the wands in the harry potter land and did the shopping. Didn’t do a lot of shopping the other days. Also did disney back at the end of August and almost everything was a walk on for me, but I was going at a good pace, not running, but just doing what i needed to.

 

[AJA]

I think 5 days with Express at a non peak time (especially with older kids) is too much time for just the two main parks. They will get bored.

 

[CynBeth]

I would do 3 days at a premier resort. We stayed at Portofino in November 2021 and loved it! We only had 2 nights there before Disney don’t go on roller coasters or anything with a drop and wish we had a little more time. For your tickets make sure to get the park to park so you can ride Hogwarts Express.

 

[piccolopat]

For us, 2 or 3 days with express pass is enough. We enjoyed Royal Pacific this time, much more than Portofino last year. If you don't want to wait in lines EP is the way to go. Price your tickets with and without EP and then see if the premium resorts are worth it for you.

 

[cschaaf]

For us, 2 or 3 days with express pass is enough. We enjoyed Royal Pacific this time, much more than Portofino last year. If you don't want to wait in lines EP is the way to go. Price your tickets with and without EP and then see if the premium resorts are worth it for you.

I agree with all of this. 3 days with EP is plenty for our crew. We aren't interested in shopping or hanging at the resorts or pools, so it's 3 full park days for us.

And RPR is our favorite of the Premier hotels - for me, it's primarily because it's usually the least expensive

 

[Dawn Peterson]

Look into an Seasonal Annual Pass. Your dates would not be blocked out and currently HRH is $360 a night And Royal Pacific is $312. Only 1 person needs to have the pass to get the deal. As other posters have said you probably only need a top tier hotel for a few nights. You can always look at a split stay. Cabana Bay is $180 for a family suite per night. We choose Hard Rock over Royal Pacific because my kids prefer their pool though their favorite pools are Portofino Bay and Sapphire Falls. They prefer water slides.

 

[Psymonds]

we are looking at the same kind of conundrum in late June. I think we want EP at least one day, and it's definitely cheaper to stay premier than EP for five of us if we want EP all 3 days.

discussed a split stay with wife to do 2 nights at RPR and first night somewhere else as we arrive in evening. does anyone have perspective on how early you can check in to the premier hotels in the morning for your room key? Is it easier to split stay from another universal hotel or should we just have our first night somewhere else?

 

[lisam70]

we are looking at the same kind of conundrum in late June. I think we want EP at least one day, and it's definitely cheaper to stay premier than EP for five of us if we want EP all 3 days.

discussed a split stay with wife to do 2 nights at RPR and first night somewhere else as we arrive in evening. does anyone have perspective on how early you can check in to the premier hotels in the morning for your room key? Is it easier to split stay from another universal hotel or should we just have our first night somewhere else?

I would definitely stay non-deluxe for first night especially if you're arriving later.
Aventura is close and Cabana Bay is across the street from it. You could walk depending how much stuff you have but an Uber is easy and pretty cheap.
You can check into premier hotels around 6-630am

 

[Psymonds]

I would definitely stay non-deluxe for first night especially if you're arriving later.
Aventura is close and Cabana Bay is across the street from it. You could walk depending how much stuff you have but an Uber is easy and pretty cheap.
You can check into premier hotels around 6-630am

we will have a car for a variety of reasons (I had free days, a good cooperate rate and DS14 wants to got to ride Iron Gwazi) will we have to move the car between hotels? Is there somewhere cheap to park for the 3 days we'll be there instead of paying the self park rate? we won't need the car for a few day's stretch.

 

[Psymonds]

I would definitely stay non-deluxe for first night especially if you're arriving later.
Aventura is close and Cabana Bay is across the street from it. You could walk depending how much stuff you have but an Uber is easy and pretty cheap.
You can check into premier hotels around 6-630am

I discussed with DW and she's game... ish. I told her it was a $600 difference. in the past we have packed 1 bag for the 1 night for all of us, and not touched the other suitcases.

 

[lisam70]

I discussed with DW and she's game... ish. I told her it was a $600 difference. in the past we have packed 1 bag for the 1 night for all of us, and not touched the other suitcases.Since you have a car

Since you have a car and distance isn’t really an issue then you could check out Dockside/Surfside and see what the price difference is or maybe even offsite.

 

[bumbershoot]

For me 4-5 days with unlimited EP (I've never done a Universal staywithout it) is just getting started. I'm a huge re-rider, a big stop and smell the roses (or listen to the ambient music) person, etc.

 

[disny_luvr]

we are looking at the same kind of conundrum in late June. I think we want EP at least one day, and it's definitely cheaper to stay premier than EP for five of us if we want EP all 3 days.

discussed a split stay with wife to do 2 nights at RPR and first night somewhere else as we arrive in evening. does anyone have perspective on how early you can check in to the premier hotels in the morning for your room key? Is it easier to split stay from another universal hotel or should we just have our first night somewhere else?

We are also going in late June. We are booked at Sapphire Falls for four nights, but have booked a throw away room at Royal Pacific for one night to be able to get Express Passes for two days. It is much, much cheaper this way than paying outright for Express Pass. I’m planning on getting up earlier than everyone else and will walk to RP and “check in” to get our Express Passes and then I’ll either walk to the parks and have my family meet me there or I’ll head back to Sapphire Falls and we’ll head to the parks together. I’m pretty sure you can check in at 6:00am.

 

[DizKids2]

we are looking at the same kind of conundrum in late June. I think we want EP at least one day, and it's definitely cheaper to stay premier than EP for five of us if we want EP all 3 days.

discussed a split stay with wife to do 2 nights at RPR and first night somewhere else as we arrive in evening. does anyone have perspective on how early you can check in to the premier hotels in the morning for your room key? Is it easier to split stay from another universal hotel or should we just have our first night somewhere else?

We did this in December and it was well worth the money we saved. We stayed at Aventura the first night (my husband and boys arrived late afternoon, but my daughter had a school event, so she and I didn't arrive until almost midnight). Then we moved to HRH. Just grabbed an uber in the morning. We arrived late enough we did not rush over too early to check in and get our express passes - ended up in the parks around 10 or so and it worked just fine for us.
I don't think staying at another universal hotel had any impact on the switch - another hotel close by that is cheaper would work too, unless maybe you were going from Aventura or CB to RPR - then you could walk it instead of uber.

 

[DizKids2]

Hi, kicking around an end of August trip to celebrate for my daughters 16th. We have never been to Universal, only Disney. I know if I book at a premier resort we get EP for free, but the price of the rooms are nuts! $350-500 a night! Do we need EP in August? My guess is yes. Dates would be 8/20-8/26. My crew is not patient and doesn't like standing in lines. Is 4/5 days at Universal too many?? Any advice would be great. Also, I have a 12 year old son. I would love to afford a suite but that won't happen at any of the premier resorts because they're over $700 a night. Maybe I could bring a blow up mattress for him?

I second looking into the Seasonal pass for lower rates. While you may not "need" express pass, it really is great to have. You could look into a split stay - especially if you don't arrive early in the day. That can save you some $. 3 park days is really plenty, but if you also enjoy some resort time and exploring all of the details in the parks, it is nice to have some time. We went for 5 nights last summer and it was really nice to sleep in, take time to enjoy some food, stop and take pictures and spend more time in the Harry Potter lands.

 

[cschaaf]

we are looking at the same kind of conundrum in late June. I think we want EP at least one day, and it's definitely cheaper to stay premier than EP for five of us if we want EP all 3 days.

discussed a split stay with wife to do 2 nights at RPR and first night somewhere else as we arrive in evening. does anyone have perspective on how early you can check in to the premier hotels in the morning for your room key? Is it easier to split stay from another universal hotel or should we just have our first night somewhere else?

We almost always split our stay. We're about a 5 hour drive away and usually leave after work, so we get in around 10PM. Seems silly to pay the premier prices for none of the benefits that first night (plus the more expensive parking) - especially when we travel with our adult daughters and have to pay for 2 or more rooms.

We used to stay at the Fairfield on Vineland but the last handful of trips, we've stayed on-property at whatever place has the lowest rate.

The only advantage I can think of to being on property that first night would be if you wanted to go to CityWalk for dinner. On-property, you'd have free transportation. Of-property, you'd have to pay to park or wait until the free parking kicks in (6PM?)

We love to hit Early Entry, particularly when it's at IOA, so the next morning we get up early and change hotels. Most times, we run to a fast food place to grab breakfast on the way.

We check in, drop our bags at the luggage desk and get to the parks ~30-45 minutes before EE gates open.

I'm a 'live out of the suitcase' person on vacation, so it's simple for me. We've also packed a small bag to use that first night - either works for us.

 

[We'reGoingToDisney]

Hi, kicking around an end of August trip to celebrate for my daughters 16th. We have never been to Universal, only Disney. I know if I book at a premier resort we get EP for free, but the price of the rooms are nuts! $350-500 a night! Do we need EP in August? My guess is yes. Dates would be 8/20-8/26. My crew is not patient and doesn't like standing in lines. Is 4/5 days at Universal too many?? Any advice would be great. Also, I have a 12 year old son. I would love to afford a suite but that won't happen at any of the premier resorts because they're over $700 a night. Maybe I could bring a blow up mattress for him?

We are going during the same time and definitely opting for a premier hotel for the Express Passes. Our only previous experience with Universal in Orlando was the last week of August in 2019, and we had the EPs for that week and absolutely loved it! But we are big fans of riding our favourite rides multiple times! We stayed at Portofino on that trip. For this trip we’re booked into RPR, and we got the Savvy Traveler rate of $350/night for 5 nights. That feels like a really good deal when you price out buying the EPs on their own - it is over $600/day for the 4 of us on our dates.

We are doing 4, maybe 4.5 days, but we are including Volcano Bay because we all love water parks and loved VB last time. If you’re not going to include VB, you would have plenty of time in 3 days with EPs to do the two main parks.

We’ll also be arriving on an evening, and while it is a little hard to stomach paying the premier rate for that first night when we’re not going into a park, a few things swayed me. First, we will have a more relaxed time on that check-in evening to get our EP tickets, and be all ready to go in the morning. Second, we will be on a 2-week long trip where we’ll be staying at 4 different hotels along the way, so staying in one place for all of our Universal days will be nice. And third, the discount on the Savvy Traveler rate goes up the more days you stay, so the per night rate is better at 5 night stay than 4 night stay. So that’s how I’m justifying it!

 

[Psymonds]

I discussed with DW and she's game... ish. I told her it was a $600 difference. in the past we have packed 1 bag for the 1 night for all of us, and not touched the other suitcases.

pulled the trigger and did the re-booking, offsite 1st night off the plane then RPR for 2 nights and 3 days.

The difference to RPR for 2 nights is still less than one day of Express pass for our party.