universal with hotel express passes

[njsnip]

1st post apart from saying hello on the new members area
we are going to disney 2023/24 already starting our family savings pot
nice big family get together 8 in total
we are definitely doing a villa hopefully from someone on here 🤞🤞
just wanted peoples thoughts on doing a nights stay in one of the nice universal hotels that give you the express passes
I've looked at the cost and we would need 2 double rooms and a family room think it was looking around £850 to £900 which is obviously a lot of money
weve been to Disney/universal quite a few times and usually just do everything from the villa and just go with the flow regards the queues etc
but if we can afford it as a treat I would like to try it
so my question is how did others find it ?
did you think it was worth the money or would it be better spent else where on the holiday ?
and am I right in thinking you get to go on whatever ride you like without joining the main queues ?
I totally understand it's all about opinions so just wanted to listen to a few different ones and gauge it from there
apologies for the long post
cheers
nigel

[returnplanning]

hi Nigel

The express passes can be $50-80+ per person per night, so if you have 4 people in a room for one night, they get 2 days of express passes (the day of check in and the day of check out - and you can check in at 08:00 even if your room isn't ready and leave luggage with Bell services at the hotel), so it can easily see how financially this is very much worth it -spending £250-300 for a room for 4 people and getting $400-640+ worth of passes, plus the early entry. obviously if you have smaller kids in the party then less queuing is an advantage, or if you are getting someone else to look after them, less time needed while you whizz off to ride a roller coaster. If you want to ride the headline rides repeatedly then this might be a good idea for you


However, I think it also depends on how much you want to do and your pace. Last time we did 1 night onsite at Universal and thrashed the hell out of the express passes for the 2 days, which was enough for us, but if you want to take things more easy, soak up the atmosphere, or aren't worried about the big headline rides as much, or even don't mind queuing then you don't NEED express passes. The only exceptions might be if you stayed during a very high volume time.

[Tink Tina]

Hi for us when we’ve previously been in July for four of us in 1 room it was a no brainier!
Got there early the first day and enjoyed two full days of express passes.

[Claudette]

We have not done as you are suggesting, i.e. a one night stay in the middle of another booking, but we have stayed onsite at Universal for longer spells. We would only book a hotel that comes with express passes as we have no patience for queuing at all and we are happy to pay the higher hotel prices for that.

If there are eight of you, you could book two rooms even if some of the party actually spend the night at the villa. So long as you allocate everybody’s name to a room they will get the express pass.

[Rescuer]

Hey.

We are great fans of the express pass hotels at universal.

You don’t say when you are going. Every time we’ve done July we’ve always stayed at one of the 3 express pass hotels from just 1 night to 7 nights. We did February 2020 and still stayed onsite but only 1 night at one of the express pass hotels. Orlando informer have a crowd calendar that rates the need for express.

For us having sometime with express pass makes the time at universal way more chilled.

[tracey1302]

Welcome to the Dibb!

We have never done this (but we have stayed on site at Universal and would highly recommend - the hotels are amazing!)

Next time, we're looking at one night at Universal for two day's Express but whether it's fully worth it would depend on when you're going. If it's at Easter, or July/August, or December, it will be worth its weight in gold.

[njsnip]

evening all
thanks for all the replies and great advice/info from everyone
we are planning on going early july hopefully the 2 weeks before the madness of school holidays
I'm really keen but yet to convince my wife about the costs involved
we've been about 8 times to disney/universal last time 2016 and are used to queueing sometimes for a couple of hours but we will be in our early 50s when we go on this trip so I'm keen on less queueing and more time to enjoy the rides or less time holding the bags whilst everyone else does the rides 🤣🤣
cheers
nigel

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by njsnip

evening all
thanks for all the replies and great advice/info from everyone
we are planning on going early july hopefully the 2 weeks before the madness of school holidays
I'm really keen but yet to convince my wife about the costs involved
we've been about 8 times to disney/universal last time 2016 and are used to queueing sometimes for a couple of hours but we will be in our early 50s when we go on this trip so I'm keen on less queueing and more time to enjoy the rides or less time holding the bags whilst everyone else does the rides 🤣🤣
cheers
nigel

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Early July will be very busy so absolutely yes to express pass. We go early July as that’s Scottish school holidays and either side of the 4th July will be busy.

[Shooby doo]

Do I think it's worth it? Depends if you are responsible for the whole £900?! We've paid £272 for 2 of us for 1 night & it was really good but it only really saved us time as I'm fairly sure that we would have gotten everything done anyway. Are you only planning on doing 1 day at each? If so then maybe but if doing say a couple at each then I'd say save the £900, go mid week & split between what you can get done each day IYKWIM. I'd also point out that whilst it's still good it's not what it once was, no longer FOTL & the fact that offsite guests can buy unlimited EP's now as well, has gradually increased the size of the queues.
SD

[Slore]

Originally Posted by returnplanning

in a room for one night, they get 2 days of express passes (the day of check in and the day of check out - and you can check in at 08:00 even if your room isn't ready and leave luggage with Bell services at the hotel)

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Stupid question on the check in day as I’m looking at this option too. You can check in at any time to get the express pass after 8am? So for example if we got there at 10 we could still get the passes for the first day we just miss a few hours usage time? Then the room is available from 4?