Universal Hotels-newbie

[ChickenLittle]

Hi All. Looking to take our 2 children who will be ages 9 and 6 and after some advice please.
We are wanting to stay at a Unversal Hotel but don't know where to start. Any pros & cons? Also, if you stay at a Universal hotel do you get your park tickets included for the duration of your stay or do you have to purchase these separately please?
Thanks guys xxx

[loldis]

Welcome

No park tickets are included with Orlando hotels unless you specifically book a hotel and tickets package. But for Universal, there's not really reason to do this as they don't have the same offers attached to packages as Disney hotels do.

What sort of price range are you looking at? That will determine which hotel more than anything else. But because your kids are younger, I don't think you'll need the Express Passes included with the higher tier hotels as they may not be able to go on many of the rides there due to height restrictions. So I'd suggest looking at Cabana Bay - it's a fun resort for kids, moderately priced and comes with all the other on-site benefits like free transport to the parks.

universalorlando/web...y-beach-resort

[Shifu]

We stay in the deluxe to get the Express passes. It depends when you are staying- a busy time during a hot summer might well be worth thinking about doing at least a night or two at a deluxe. With a one night stay you get two days worth of express pass( arrival and leaving day) to get the kids through the rides quickly and also if you are wanting to ride an adult ride or three you can blitz through if you have another adult travelling with you that can be with the kids whilst you’re on there.
We book a night or two at Hard Rock and it’s always been great. A short path links the resort to the parks as well as being able to get a boat.

[ChickenLittle]

Thanks all. We will be going mid to end of August. We don't really have a budget as don't have a clue what sort of prices we are looking at.
We ate looking to do disney and universal but not disney water parks.

[ChickenLittle]

How/who do you book with please?

[loldis]

I really would suggest setting a budget because prices add up quick. There's no point anyone recommending a hotel which is £600/night if you were hoping for less than £100. Unless you truly do have an unlimited budget, then we can have fun exploring all the options.

To give you a rough guide on prices, you're looking at around 3k for Disney and Universal tickets for a family of 4. It's a little early for accurate flight prices, but given how high people are being quoted for next August, I'd probably allow 4k for direct economy returns from Heathrow/Gatwick. Hotel wise, if you want a moderate level resort for say 4 nights Universal and 10 nights Disney, that's probably also around 3k. But this is the area that has the most flexibility, as there's a wide range of hotel prices in the Orlando area. If you want a car, you'll also need to budget for the hire plus parking fees. I don't drive so can't advise too well on those costs, other than parking will cost around $20 per day depending on the resort.

For Disney, I always book both hotel and tickets directly with the Walt Disney Travel Company... disneyholidays/walt-disney-world/

Universal hotels have a few different options. I've seen some good hotel rates with BA, and you could package that part of your stay with flights to make them deposit only. Otherwise you can book directly with Loews (the hotel chain which manages the Universal hotels) or with third party vendors like Travel Republic.

Universal tickets I would use a UK site such as Attraction Tickets, as the UK exclusive tickets usually work out cheaper than buying direct from Universal.

Flights directly with the airline you wish to use. I'm personally only flying BA at the moment as they've been the best with Covid related refunds out of the direct operators to Orlando.

[orlandoamber]

If you’re looking to do Disney and Universal then I’d recommend doing a split stay. If you’re doing two weeks then you could split something like 10 nights Disney (lots more parks and area to cover, also better for kids your ages) and 4 nights universal.

Cabana Bay is a very kid friendly universal hotel with transportation to the universal parks, immediate access to the volcano bay waterpark through a separate entrance, and a lazy river as part of the pool. If you did 4 nights I’d go for this option. However if you split it down further to 11 nights Disney 3 nights universal then you could maybe stay in one of the universal premier resorts for 3 nights where you’ll get express passes for free which would help in August (although going at the end of August really helps with crowds, so good choice!). You can book direct on universal website or through bigger providers like BA. Equally you can look at prices on standard hotel sites such as hotels .com and booking .com.

For Disney I would recommend looking on the Walt Disney travel company (Disney direct) website for ideas of prices of resorts before narrowing down the ones you like and can afford. There are three categories - value, moderate and deluxe. Values a very highly themed and usually loved by children although the rooms tend to be smaller. Moderates are a bit ‘nicer’ and larger, and then deluxes are very expensive but tend to be in fab locations. All Disney hotels have transport to all the Disney parks. There’s some resorts closest to each park too so if you know anything about which parks you think you’d enjoy most, you could choose a resort with good transport links/close location to that park. You can also book these hotels not direct through providers such as Attraction Tickets (who of course also sell Disney tickets) or as part of a package with eg BA.

Hope this helps a little! Feel free to ask more questions.

[ChickenLittle]

Thank you so much guys, this is great information to help me get started with planning. Really appreciate it. Thanks

[Nelly7]

If your looking at a split stay, try giving Ever After Holidays a call. The staff are very knowledgeable and will be able to give you a choice of different options/packages.
We’ve booked a split stay with them for next year, staying 2 nights at Cabana Bay at Universal, 3 nights at the Hard Rock Hotel Universal and 11 nights at Pop Century Disney.

[cornishfrogboy]

Originally Posted by ChickenLittle

Thank you so much guys, this is great information to help me get started with planning. Really appreciate it. Thanks

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I think that the overriding issue will always be the budget. I DIY, but that may not suit you on a first visit.

Flights.. you are talking August. Flights are all over the place right now, but good advice is generally to come back as late as possible in the summer hols and in to London. Flights are released at 355 days from your return flight on the BA site and 330 everywhere else including the search engines such as Google flights.
You could be researching BA right now up to around 21 August return date to get a feel for it.
You can also save money by indirect flights. A 3 hour stop on the way in at, say Atlanta means that you will have done your immigration and customs before you even get to Orlando.. where it can take 3 hours in any case. Coming home, the layover can be as short as an hour and you just go gate to gate without even seeing your luggage.

Are you having a car? This is a big decision that affects everything. With one, you can consider Miami, Tampa and yes, Orlando.. generally the most expensive.
If you are simply looking at Universal for a bit and on site Disney for a bit, then Uber or even taxi may work out much better value as it removes hire, gas and parking costs.. around £600 or more. Car hire prices are also currently all over the place.

Tickets for theme parks. The prices don’t vary much.
Disney? £475 or so for a 14 day. It will have the water parks on it, whether you visit them or not. I most certainly would. They to me are the best bit of Disney.
Universal? £275 or so for 14 days.
Discovery Cove Ultimate. £180 for a non swim that gives you also 14 days of Aquatica, Busch Gardens and Seaworld.

Accommodation. That has been well covered by previous posters. Your vacation could cost you 20k. Plus. It could also cost you 10k.

As I said, I have no idea of where you want to pitch your budget.