1 or 2 nights in Universal Hotel?

[Emmaabb]

We are staying offsite in a villa and this is our first visit to Orlando in over 25 years - so obviously it's all changed!

Naturally we will want to visit the 2 main Universal Parks (not so worried about Volcano Bay)

Had originally thought to book one night in the RPR so we could take full advantage of the Express passes, get there early on the first day and fully utilise the second day.

But now I am wondering if 2 nights would be better? Price difference is doubled of course and was hoping to cover a good proportion of the cost with Tesco Vouchers.

Will we miss out on the luxurious breakfast and maybe some downtime round the pool if we only do one night and do a full 2 days in the park?
However is it really worth doing a second night - its not cheap and to be honest we are doing early on in our two week holiday so could easily go back to the parks later in the holiday (and queue normally obviously - without the luxury of Express passes)

I am going round in circle here! I guess my main question is this; Is 2 full days with express passes enough to really explore the 2 parks?

Can someone make the decision for me!

[Apricota]

if you do decide to do two nights, these could be spilt to give you in effect 4 days of express passes!

[Sweets]

2 days is enough with express passes and early entry etc.

You could always go back another day and visit without express.

We’ve stayed 1 night on 2 trips and it was perfect. We’re doing the same in May.

[llynnnn]

We did 1 night at RPR over Easter weekend in 2017 and spent 2 full days in the parks. It was incredibly busy in the parks, but we did manage to do all the rides, including some of our favourites more than once.

We didn't however have any time to enjoy the hotel or pool, see any universal shows or really take in the atmosphere and surroundings of the parks. This was also before the new Hagrid ride opened too and this would take up a chunk of time at the moment as it isn't included with the express pass.

But in my experience one night is enough to experience all the rides and spend a short time in the Harry Potter areas, but not enough for anymore... I wished we'd made time to go back to the parks later in our holiday to take in the rest of what Universal has to offer i.e. characters/parade & shows etc, so if you could do this even maybe for a half day it would be worth it even without the express passes

[Emmaabb]

Thanks all - it is another £285 which could go towards other things. I think the idea about doing the rides in the parks full on for two days and then going back later in the holiday to do any parades/shows is a great one, and if while there we manage to do some favourite rides again all well and good.
thanks again for the head wobble

[Guest]

As huge Harry Potter fans making our first trip to .universal, two days would definitely not have been enough for us. Since then we have spent with a lot of time there and decided two days will be sufficient when we go back this year.

I did book two nights, but on the third day we will head back to Disney where we are staying for our final two nights. The Universal hotel is cheaper than the Disney one so this is fine for us, however as you already have a villa I would consider the extra cost. I definitely would not pay for an extra Universal night in order to have pool time and I don’t know what luxurious breakfast you refer to, we usually go to Starbucks.

I wouldn’t make a special trip back to Universal for parades and shows, there are not that many ... unless I was oblivious as we are more for rides and HP theming.

[DanLees]

We did 2 nights this last trip but split them so we got 4 days of Express Passes.

Worked well for us!

[BaconAndAvocado]

Originally Posted by DanLees

We did 2 nights this last trip but split them so we got 4 days of Express Passes.

Worked well for us!

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That's a great idea

[Softy]

What’s the “luxurious breakfast” you’re worried about missing?

[yogadeb]

We stay 5 nights at universal hotels ...love them as much as Disney plus the malls we go to are nearer that end so we have our shopping days too and lots of pool time .