Thoughts on maximising Universal Hotel stay

[Simon & Suzann]

Hi Guys

As you can see we haven't got long to go so are finalising the last few bits

We are staying at Universal RPR & HRH for 1 night each on seperate weeks.
Our plan is to get there early to get early entry to whichever park has it that day and use the express passes. On the 2nd morning we are thinking of going to VB early for a few hours then go to the other park for the afternoon.

Whats your thoughts on this please? Best use of staying at Universal or is it best to blast the parks and do VB another seperate day

[MinniMouse]

You really have 4 full days to fill.

We've done this before and the way we would do would be to arrive at the hotel half an hour before the early hour so you can get to the gate in plenty time. They will let you through and into the park and then have a "rope drop". This will hopefully give you a head start. Saying that I've not read anything about how the new Hagrid ride will effect things. I'm assuming there won't be a fast pass for this?

Anyway, we'd hit one of the parks this way, blitz the rides we wanted to do, get on the HP train and head to the other park and blitz what we wanted to do there. Head back to the hotel and enjoy the pool for the afternoon and have a wee nap. Have some dinner and head back to the park. Next day VB and then park at night?

We didn't bother with VB last year as it was just myself and DH so we just did the parks and chilled by the pool in the afternoon.

[Simon & Suzann]

Originally Posted by MinniMouse

You really have 4 full days to fill.

We've done this before and the way we would do would be to arrive at the hotel half an hour before the early hour so you can get to the gate in plenty time. They will let you through and into the park and then have a "rope drop". This will hopefully give you a head start. Saying that I've not read anything about how the new Hagrid ride will effect things. I'm assuming there won't be a fast pass for this?

Anyway, we'd hit one of the parks this way, blitz the rides we wanted to do, get on the HP train and head to the other park and blitz what we wanted to do there. Head back to the hotel and enjoy the pool for the afternoon and have a wee nap. Have some dinner and head back to the park. Next day VB and then park at night?

We didn't bother with VB last year as it was just myself and DH so we just did the parks and chilled by the pool in the afternoon.

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Forgot to say we are Club Level too so will be trying to squeeze that in as well! We can sleep when we get back to the UK
Never been to VB but we do have another normal day planned there also as well as the other parks to get most value.

Can't see Hagrid ride being on the express pass either

[DFussy]

If you want to go to vb, i would definitely use the early access for it. Park early access is limited to mainly hp areas and often one park, so probably not needed all four of your onsite days. We also really enjoyed going back into the parks for riding in the dark.

[JanetteP]

We did this during our May trip from RPR. We were Club and arrived early for breakfast, then went to IoA for the day. We then did early access to VB the next morning, and then went to US in the afternoon - we had called back at RPR and our cards still gave us access to the lounge at lunchtime. It was definitely worth doing VB early as we did everything with no wait, whereas when we were leaving at lunchtime, the rides were getting busy.

[rafjen]

I would definitely take advantage of early entry for VB, other than Hagrid's you don't need to stress about rope drop/earlyentry.

[Simon & Suzann]

Thx for the input guys.
VB is an hour early opening for on site guests?

[JanetteP]

Originally Posted by Simon & Suzann

Thx for the input guys.
VB is an hour early opening for on site guests?

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Yes - it's an hour early and there's a bus from RPR near the pool area to VB.

[Simon & Suzann]

Originally Posted by JanetteParker

Yes - it's an hour early and there's a bus from RPR near the pool area to VB.

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That's something i didn't know which is great to know (or had thought about tbh ha ha )

Is there one from HRH do you know?

[Potterer]

There should be one from HRH, the RPR one is come out of the door facing the pool and head left all the way to the end.

The early entry got us onto Krakatau twice and 2 other slides before the doors opened to other guests and that was last 2 weeks of August last year.

But you have to be organised, so swim stuff on under clothing, sun tan cream already applied. My children wore swim shorts and rash vest, their clothing was in a bag. I just changed into a rash vest same with Dh when we were there but we were both in swim shorts. Got a locker, chucked everything inside and we were off!

We loved VB, our second favourite park would be Typhoon Lagoon, then Aquatica and then BB. The fearless river is incredible.

Club access is from 3pm on the day you check in, that is what we were told, we snuck in 30 minutes early and ate some snacks, access is until 3pm on check out, even if you have checked out at 11am.