Need advice/opinions for newbie

[TJ's Mom]

This is our first trip to Universal after years of WDW. It will be myself, husband and a 17 and 19 year old. We planned on only 2 nights at RPR but I got a buy 2 get 2 deal. Here are my questions:
1. For the 2-park 4 day ticket, would be it be better to upgrade them to AP or to make them three park? If so, how do I go about doing this?
2. Would you recommend adding another day at RPR or switching resorts to save money? I know RPR will get us 3 days of EP. Will it be necessary to have 4 days of EP?

Thanks!

 

[wookiebeck]

Thanks for the questions. They can be answered any number of ways. I hope this helps a little.

I have teenagers, too. They LOVE Universal. We have vacationed there multiple times and they can't get enough. We stayed at Cabana Bay for 10 days (with no EP). We have stayed club level at RPR (best vacation ever, but it cost more, haha).

That said, we have not visited since Volcano Bay opened. We do like a water park, yet it does not define our vacation. When we have downtime or extra days, we take full advantage of being allowed to pool hop the entire Uni property. The teens like playing volleyball in the pool at RPR. They like the slide and hot tubs at PBR. There is also ping pong and bocce at PBR that they spent hours being entertained. And CB has the lazy river pool with the QS diner near by.

If you have the means, I would vote for adding a day to RPR. If you want to save some dough, you can stay cheaper, for sure. I view moving rooms in the middle of vacation as a major chore, IMO. Having the EP, staying at RPR allows the teens total freedom to run to the park, fit in a few coaster rides and be back for dinner. It is a whole new feeling over the WDW planning regimen. Have fun!!

 

[RalphinSC]

If you decide to make it a three park ticket, tack on that extra day at Cabana Bay if you are planning to do Volcano Bay. The park gate is literally a five minute walk from your hotel door and you get early entry there. We did several days at Volcano Bay this past Summer while staying at Cabana Bay at the convenience of being that close was great! We could hear and see a storm coming and be back in the room before the first drop of rain hit.

 

[TJ's Mom]

Thanks for the info and ideas!

 

[macraven]

For the 3 hotels that gives their guests free ep, it is worth it

You are allowed to use the free ep on your check out day

Stay the first 3 nights at rpr and move to one of the value hotels for day/night 4
You will be able to use the ep lines in the studio and island parks

 

[Patience]

For the 3 hotels that gives their guests free ep, it is worth it

You are allowed to use the free ep on your check out day

Stay the first 3 nights at rpr and move to one of the value hotels for day/night 4
You will be able to use the ep lines in the studio and island parks

This is exactly what we did. It saved us some money and we were able to give a new resort a try. After we checked out of Royal Pacific, we hit the parks until lunch time and then, after grabbing some lunch, moved over to Cabana Bay for just our last night. We spent the rest of the day in the Cabana Bay pools and then went bowling that night. If you decide to bowl, call to see if you need to make a reservation. We had to make one but we were there at a busy time (a few days before Christmas). To be honest, I wasn't in love with the theme of Cabana Bay and much prefer Royal Pacific but we did save some cash right before Christmas by moving to CB and our room was in one of the brand new towers and in great shape. We had a great view of the volcano too. The food court at CB was... not great. We grabbed something there for dinner since we had eaten table service in Citywalk for lunch and didn't feel like taking a bus anywhere for dinner. For whatever reason, all of our food on this trip was average at best so by our last day, we weren't expecting much. Some trips just seem to go that way. Other than our food, we really enjoyed our Universal Orlando vacation.