Thanksgiving: onsite hotel or no?

[amyngary]

We plan to go to Universal 11/25-11/27, so Black Friday+1 more night.

Can't decide if we should stay offsite at a $100/night hotel and fight the crowds at Universal vs. paying $260/nt at an onsite hotel. Advice?

 

[macraven]

When I go to the darkside, I stay at the deluxe hotels as they have the unlimited ep


I enjoy the hotels and all of UO

I am not one to wait in lengthy lines in the park

It is not even a consideration to stay at the values or offsite for any
time period I am on vacation there

I would pay the $260 and not think twice about it

Sometimes it breaks my budget but I find it worth it
No lines
No wasted time

It the room rate is $240 a day, figure $100 of that is for the unlimited ep and the room break down cost was $140 to justify staying onsite

 

[amyngary]

When I go to the darkside, I stay at the deluxe hotels as they have the unlimited ep


I enjoy the hotels and all of UO

I am not one to wait in lengthy lines in the park

It is not even a consideration to stay at the values or offsite for any
time period I am on vacation there

I would pay the $260 and not think twice about it

Sometimes it breaks my budget but I find it worth it
No lines
No wasted time

It the room rate is $240 a day, figure $100 of that is for the unlimited ep and the room break down cost was $140 to justify staying onsite

I didn't know the EP was included in some of the Universal hotels. Do you know which ones have that included? I was just picking the cheapest onsite option (Cabana Bay). Should I consider a more expensive one?

 

[SCSabresfan]

Royal Pacific, Hard Rock and Portofino give you Unlimited Express Passes for the length of your stay, including the day you check in and the day you check out. We dont stay anywhere else.

 

[macraven]

The free unlimited ep photo ID card is at
Hrh
Rpr
Pbr

Cbay has cheaper rates than SF for rooms


Depending on dates, pbh and rpr can have affordable rates

I had the smsm rate at rpr and stayed more than 7 nights
Returned home last night

My nightly rate was $181.35 + tax
So I paid $204 per night weekdays
( Friday and Saturday was an additional $10 per night)

Consider if the 2 park ep one time use was $100 a day, could say my onsite rpr hotel room $104 daily

So break down cost of your room and what the ep would cost to justify staying at one of the hotels that has the free ep perk

If you have a family of 3 staying on site would appear to be worth it

The ep anyone can buy allows a one time use for each ride or show

If I read your first statement right, you have a two night stay

If you stay one night at a deluxe hotel, your ep photo ID card is valid from the day you check into the hotel and the day you check out

And you get the EE both days

The cost of the free unlimited ep is worth it

 

[WVMomof3]

I would get one person in your party a seasonal AP. The room rates with the APH code for those dates are way cheaper. The tower family suite at Cabana Bay goes from $254 to $119 (courtyard family suite), but no Express Pass with this option. A room at PBH goes from $439 (garden view) to $299 (Bay view) or Hardrock from $444 to $289 (garden view cheapest). Not all rooms were available with the aph rate, so that is why the rooms didn't match up. But well worth it to pay a little extra for 1 person to get a seasonal AP. I think during Thansksgiving, the Express Pass makes it worth it to get the more expensive rooms. Unless you are only doing Harry Potter, as it won't make a difference for those.

 

[amyngary]

Unless you are only doing Harry Potter, as it won't make a difference for those.

Hmmm... I think we will be only focused on HP attractions, so now I'm leaning towards just staying at Disney and taking Uber to Universal those two days.

Thanks so much to all for your input. I love all of the ideas. And especially the idea to get the seasonal AP for 1 person in the party; but since one of my kids is 5, I think we'll save these ideas for a future trip; most of the non-HP parts of Universal are not appropriate for a 5-year old (or they are only fun for the 5-year old and not the older kids).

 

[Seeker615]

Don't think that the non-HP areas of Universal are not kid friendly. I took my then 4 year old to Disney and Universal and she loved Universal. This was before IOA was built.

Some examples are

Studio Side - ET, Men in Black, Animal Actors Show, Minion and Shrek Ride, Superstar Parade to name a few

IOA - Seuss Area is awesome for everyone, Jurassic Park areas, Comic Book area is great for photo ops, The Marvel Section has big rides but the Superheros come out on ATV's and do photos.

This is just sampling. I am sure i missed a few things.

 

[macraven]

My boys had many things to do at UO when they were young

Never ran out of something to do

Some rides they did not meet the height requirements but the kid zone near ET kept them busy for hours

I see kids younger than 5 and older than 12 enjoy many things in the park

Seeker names many of them that young kids can do

P flyers would be great for the 5 year old
Jurassic park discovery is great place to explore for children of all ages

They are located at ioa

 

[klo1335]

We are staying offsite the same week you are there. We are from Philly and used to 45 min lines at Six Flags and Dorney park. So waiting in line is no big deal for us. We were at UO in the summer of 2015 on a high attendance day and the longest line was Gringotts posted for 45 min. We rented a 3 bedroom, 2 bath condo for the week at $750. My youngest was 5 last time we went and her favorite was the Dr. Seuss area. She LOVED it. She will be 6 this time around and is looking forward to some of the other rides we showed her on YouTube. She is very excited for the Curious George play area this time around. Good luck and have fun.