DVC/Universal Side Trip Question

[RedVines2001]

Hi all. Looking for opinions.

Coming to WDW for six night in August. Booked a 2 BR at Copper Creek. After I booked the wife wanted to add a couple of Universal days on the front end. Initially I was thinking of staying on site for two nights at Universal to take advantage of the express pass perks but the idea of a checking out and moving hotels sounds kind of daunting. Now I'm thinking about adding two nights on the front end for Copper Creek as well. For context I'm a family of four with a 7 and 9 YO and traveling with wife's brother's family of 4 with a 1 and 3 YO.

Love to hear what you think. Thanks in advance.

 

[vinmar4]

Hello,
What we did in the past, we were staying at BW, and we wanted to go to the Concerts at US. We booked our stay at BW, except foe one night in the middle of our stay. When we checked out, we left 90 % of our stuff with bell services as we were returning the following day at night. We only took a back pack with the stuff that we needed for that one night staying at US, and we enjoyed 2 days of express pass.

 

[CarolynFH]

Hi all. Looking for opinions.

Coming to WDW for six night in August. Booked a 2 BR at Copper Creek. After I booked the wife wanted to add a couple of Universal days on the front end. Initially I was thinking of staying on site for two nights at Universal to take advantage of the express pass perks but the idea of a checking out and moving hotels sounds kind of daunting. Now I'm thinking about adding two nights on the front end for Copper Creek as well. For context I'm a family of four with a 7 and 9 YO and traveling with wife's brother's family of 4 with a 1 and 3 YO.

Love to hear what you think. Thanks in advance.

Twice now we've booked rooms at UOR deluxe hotels just for the EP privileges, even though we were staying at other TS (not DVC but in Orlando) and didn't sleep at the UOR hotel (well, I think we may have taken a nap there one afternoon). For 4 or 5 adults, it was cheaper to pay for the deluxe hotel room than to buy the unlimited EPs at UOR. We simply drove there in the morning, parked the car at the hotel (which was also cheaper, since it's a per-night parking charge for the hotel rather than the per-day charge to park in the regular garage), enjoyed our time at Universal, and drove back to our TS after the Universal parks closed. My advice is to do the math to see if it works for you.

 

[DonnerB]

We did something similar in November. It was just two of us staying two extra nights; the other three in the party flew home after WDW. We booked Sapphire Falls mostly for early entry privileges; the price of a premier hotel for two nights did not make sense since we were only spending one day in the park and we just added the express pass separately. With young kids I'm not sure your party cares as much about Hagrid's or the Velocicoaster, but having early entry meant we were able to knock those both out first thing in the morning (after a brisk walk to the parks since the boats were backed up) and then spend the rest of our day more leisurely using up our express pass access. We were pleasantly surprised by Sapphire Falls; really enjoyed the dining options. As @CarolynFH pointed out, with a larger group the premier hotels start making more financial sense.

 

[kniquy]

Hi all. Looking for opinions.

Coming to WDW for six night in August. Booked a 2 BR at Copper Creek. After I booked the wife wanted to add a couple of Universal days on the front end. Initially I was thinking of staying on site for two nights at Universal to take advantage of the express pass perks but the idea of a checking out and moving hotels sounds kind of daunting. Now I'm thinking about adding two nights on the front end for Copper Creek as well. For context I'm a family of four with a 7 and 9 YO and traveling with wife's brother's family of 4 with a 1 and 3 YO.

Love to hear what you think. Thanks in advance.

I would absolutely do a couple nights at universal - the express pass is well worth it. You could actually do one night and have 2 days of express pass so that is an option too. We did this before and had done 7 nights at WDW between 2 resorts then moved over to UO for 3 nights. Moving and packing is a little tougher with youngsters but if you do it on the front end then you just pack a few outfits on top so that you aren't unpacking everything.

 

[DVCKev]

We're doing 4 nights at Universal Hard Rock Hotel club level, before doing 10 nights at SSR in Disney. Two weeks total!! The deal we have at Universal was great, and the express passes make up for any cost gouging on the room.

 

[RedVines2001]

Thanks for all the replies. Never thought about booking a room just for express pass for two days. I think the math does work out for me. Ended up adding two nights at Copper Creek. The packing and unpacking would just be too much with all the little ones.

 

[Matty B13]

Thanks for all the replies. Never thought about booking a room just for express pass for two days. I think the math does work out for me. Ended up adding two nights at Copper Creek. The packing and unpacking would just be too much with all the little ones.

Also, if you can get an AP rate on one of the Deluxe Resorts, sometimes is cheaper to buy an AP then book the AP rate. But you have to keep checking for the AP rate.