I know this has been done for Disney at Ft. Wilderness for Fast Passes but I'm wondering if anyone has done it for Universal. Some background is as follows:
We will be down in Orlando for a trade show at the convention center in January for about a week. Staying at a 3 bedroom condo during the entire stay. We wanted to take 2 days out of the week and head to the parks Universal. I was pricing out Florida Resident (which we are) 2 day Park-to-Park tickets for 3 adults and 2 children with the Express Unlimited add-on and it comes out to about $1920 for all of us. I was a bit shocked at the price for tickets but the Express Unlimited really pushes the total up. It nearly doubles the price from the base tickets.
Anyway, I decided to see what the price would be if I booked the cheapest room at the Royal Pacific. The Express Unlimited passes are included in your room rate at select resorts at Universal and the Royal Pacific is usually the cheapest. So I plugged in the 1st day we want to go to the parks as the check-in day and then the next day is the last day we want to go to the parks which would be the check-out day. So basically its a one night stay. It comes out to about $330 for one night after all the taxes.
After I did that I then checked into what the cost is for base 2-day Park-to-Park tickets. Those are about $1100 for all 5 of us.
You don't have to be a math wizard here to figure out the better deal. $1100 (base tickets) + $330 (room) = $1400. That's a ~$500 difference from buying the stand alone base tickets + Express Pass unlimited.
I then called the Royal Pacific to ask when we could use the passes. They told me you are allowed to register at 7am the day of check-in and that gets you your passes (and all other resort amenities). The passes are good until the parks close on your day of checkout. So I'm basically getting two full days of express passes for all people in the room.
So I went ahead and booked the room. Our strategy will be to drive over to the Royal Pacific at 7am the day of check-in (our condo is at the Vista Cay which is only about a mile or two away) to get the passes and leave the car there at the Royal Pacific. We will probably even eat breakfast in the hotel or head over for early park hours and eat at the parks. Since we have a room, we can take advantage of the ferry or buses to get to the parks.
I don't see a downside to this plan so long as I can register at 7am and get the passes. Anyone done this before?
We will be down in Orlando for a trade show at the convention center in January for about a week. Staying at a 3 bedroom condo during the entire stay. We wanted to take 2 days out of the week and head to the parks Universal. I was pricing out Florida Resident (which we are) 2 day Park-to-Park tickets for 3 adults and 2 children with the Express Unlimited add-on and it comes out to about $1920 for all of us. I was a bit shocked at the price for tickets but the Express Unlimited really pushes the total up. It nearly doubles the price from the base tickets.
Anyway, I decided to see what the price would be if I booked the cheapest room at the Royal Pacific. The Express Unlimited passes are included in your room rate at select resorts at Universal and the Royal Pacific is usually the cheapest. So I plugged in the 1st day we want to go to the parks as the check-in day and then the next day is the last day we want to go to the parks which would be the check-out day. So basically its a one night stay. It comes out to about $330 for one night after all the taxes.
After I did that I then checked into what the cost is for base 2-day Park-to-Park tickets. Those are about $1100 for all 5 of us.
You don't have to be a math wizard here to figure out the better deal. $1100 (base tickets) + $330 (room) = $1400. That's a ~$500 difference from buying the stand alone base tickets + Express Pass unlimited.
I then called the Royal Pacific to ask when we could use the passes. They told me you are allowed to register at 7am the day of check-in and that gets you your passes (and all other resort amenities). The passes are good until the parks close on your day of checkout. So I'm basically getting two full days of express passes for all people in the room.
So I went ahead and booked the room. Our strategy will be to drive over to the Royal Pacific at 7am the day of check-in (our condo is at the Vista Cay which is only about a mile or two away) to get the passes and leave the car there at the Royal Pacific. We will probably even eat breakfast in the hotel or head over for early park hours and eat at the parks. Since we have a room, we can take advantage of the ferry or buses to get to the parks.
I don't see a downside to this plan so long as I can register at 7am and get the passes. Anyone done this before?