Hey - I just want to give Universal some credit for a change as much of our experience with them hasn't been the greatest. We bought an AP last February President's Week break and we stayed off-site, partly because they weren't giving out any on-site discount. The AP expires Monday February 19th, so we are heading down to Orlando on the 17th and intend to spend the first 3 days at Universal to use our APs again. Well, I was not real happy with the on-site resort prices. Everyone tells me what good deals they get for the Universal Rooms, yet every time I checked for President's Weekend, no AP discount, and RPR was the cheapest at $429 a night + tax and PBH was $519 + tax per nights, and I sorry these are not good deals for a hotel room, even with Express Pass.
Well, I went on-line again yesterday and saw that prices had actually spiked HIGHER at RPR and HRH, but PBH was at $459 a night, which was still more than I wanted to pay. I decided to call, and Universal FINALLY offered me an AP discounted rate of $379 a night for PBH! So we booked it for the night of the 18th. (We land in Orlando around 5 PM on the 17th, and I don't really have to money to pay $379 for a night when I might have only a few hours of park time, so we are staying just off-site for the first night.)
Anyways, good on ya' Universal for treating your AP holders with some value, giving us a discount during a holiday week! Looking forward to checking out this resort as DW and I just spent 12 days in Italy in September, so it will be a neat comparison.
One question for those with knowledge. I notice that there is a $22 parking fee, does that apply even if you have an Preferred AP? Doesn't seem right that I can park for free at the garage but have to pay for parking at the hotel. It won't change my mind on the stay, but just want to know what's what going in.
Also, how long does it typically take from leaving your room to entering the park. If we want to take advantage of Early Entry at 8 AM, what time do we need to be down at the boat dock? Thanks everyone - looking forward to a trying an on-site stay, even if it's a short one.
Edit: Wait third question - we are booked in a Deluxe Queen room. Any requests we should make to try and get as close to the boat launch as possible?