Which Universal hotel?

[TracyW]

We have three spare nights at the end of our stay this year, trying to decide between days at the beach or Universal as we haven't been for years!
We have stayed at Hard Rock in the past to make use of the Express passes, but now the new hotels have opened, was wondering if it would work out just the same to stay in one of them and buy the Express pass? Just the two of us this September, and pricing up Royal Pacific for three nights is nearly £700, Cabana bay is £360?

[babbymint]

Express passes are around $90 a day per person, so if you plan to go to the park for all 4 days, it would be cheaper to stay at the Royal Pacific.

[galaxyflorida]

It'll be more than likely that the Express pass included hotels (Hard Rock, Royal Pacific, Portofino Bay) would be cheaper than staying in one of the other hotels and buying express separately.

I just had a look for you - Express passes are around $90 per person per day in the middle of September. Remember 3 nights is 4 days worth of express pass, so if you bought it separately the express passes would be around $720/£545 for the two of you.

so staying at Hard Rock would be cheaper for you in this case.

[galaxyflorida]

This website tells you how much the Express passes would be for your particular dates:

universalorlando/web...?parks=2&flr=0

[TracyW]

I thought we might only need the express passes for one day, just to do the rides we haven't done before, so many decisions!

[Unexpectedpenny]

How about 1 night at Royal Pacific for and 2 nights at Cabana Bay? You’d have express passes for 2 days, get to experience both hotels and save a little money.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by TracyW

I thought we might only need the express passes for one day, just to do the rides we haven't done before, so many decisions!

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I would do RPR for three nights, I think that is a pretty good price for it. I wouldn’t want to spend the best part of two days standing in queues, I go low season but the queues still look long to me.

[Lell]

We stayed at Aventura in September 2018 so had early entry. The parks were really quite, our longest queue was 15 mins. Not sure if that’s normal for September as only ever been in October before.

[sha9]

It would depend on budget for me. The deluxe hotels not only give you the express passes but are in a fantastic location for walking to the parks and Citywalk. If 3 nights is pushing you over budget then I’d stay at one of the cheaper ones and either one night at a deluxe or buy express passes for a day, whichever is cheapest.