!st Time US/IOA--Short trip tips?

[Zipitydooda]

Ok!
We are pretty experienced WDW troopers and are ready to branch out to US/IOA! There is my wife, two sons (4+2) and myself. We are planning 2 days in the last week of March. The 2 days can be flexible. We are planning on staying 1 night on sight at a Universal Hotel to take advantage of the express pass system. We are Florida residents, and are a military family.
My questions are:
1. What hotel has the best rate deals going at that time?
2. What would be the best deal on tickets be? If I bought Florida Resident seasonal passes would they work with the room key/express pass?
3. If we stayed on sight for the 1 night, would we get the express pass privilidges for both days? Or should we stay 2 nights?
4. Does staying at the hotel solve the parking issue?

Any other tips would be appreciated!!
Thanks,
Zip

 

[highlander447]

Hi and welcome I will try and anaswer some of your ?'s
1)Sorry I can't help with rates
2)Your FOTL access works no matter what tickets u use
3)1 night gets u the day u check in and check out FOTL access from park opening until park closing so get there early
4)I believe staying at the hotel adds to the parking problem as u its a daily rate of about $6 I think
Hope that helps and if I'm wrong I'm sure someone else will correct me

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Go to the UniversalOrlando website and go to the hotel section. Play around with your dates (doesn't sound like something I should be telling a married man... ). Plug in different hotel discount codes (FAN, AAA, ENT (I've never had an entertainment rate come on on the website, though, so you might need to do that one on the phone), APH). If you get a good rate you can then get the ent card, buy an annual pass, get the fan club card, etc. I think that the annual pass with block-out dates does not work to get a room discount, but I could be wrong.

Usually Royal Pacific has the cheapest rates, the Hard Rock, and Portifino Bay the most expensive. We've stayed at RPR and HRH and will be going back to HRH this April since it is so close to the parks. With two little children you should really think about HRH since it's a very easy walk to the parks (5 to Universal, 10 to IoA).


Like Highlander said, you can get two days of FOTL with one night in the hotel.

Yes, you pay for parking if you are a hotel guest, even if you have an AP that includes free theme park parking in the main lot.

Look around on these boards and you will find lots of answers to any questions you may have. You'll also get to read posts from a lot of deranged individuals.

T&B