NGKUR: Hotel recs near Universal Studios

[LadyNymeria]

Hey GKU!

MH and I are headed to Orlando at the end of January. Somewhat of a last minute trip so we haven't booked a hotel yet, but are planning to in the next day or two.

Is anyone familiar with any hotels near Universal Studios? We're only going to Universal (no Disney) so I'd prefer to be as close to the park as we can be. As much as I'd love to stay right at the Hard Rock, I'd prefer not to spend that much on this trip.

Any recommendations for hotels near Universal? Any we should stay away from?

Thanks for the help!!! Wizarding World here we come!!!

[Deleted]

Tagging onesweetworld - She is an expert on this stuff.

[kayladawn91]

H and I are going in March! We booked a Best Western near Universal. They have a shuttle that takes you to the parks and is supposedly also within walking distance. Parking at Universal is like $25 a day so we were looking for a hotel that would help us avoid that fee. I also didn't want to spend much so I liked that it was an affordable one but still looked decent. Since I haven't been yet I don't actually know if it's a good recommendation but I thought I would share.

My parents stayed at a Hilton Doubletree nearby when they went a couple of years ago. They said it needed some updating but was nice and they got it for $100/night and they could see Hogwarts from their room which I think is pretty cool.

Also, please give me all the recommendations when you return from your trip. I'm so excited for Harry Potter and want to know what is and is not worth spending money on in the parks!

Eta: I also have heard that the Cabana Bay Resort is amazing from friends. I've seen them run some good deals too. I wanted to stay there but the week we're going doesn't have any availability for what kind of room we need.

[Evelyn3]

I'm trying to remember the name of where I stayed.... I'm going to have to look it up, but it was quite nice, and close by. I think there was a shuttle. It was a work conference so we didn't go to Universal on that trip.
From what I googled, I think it was the Crowne Plaza Orlando Universal

Harry Potter is amazing! I could spend days just wandering around, I love it! The Hogwarts express is so cool! The details, the atmosphere, can you tell I love it?!

[Carrot]

No recommendation, just needed to come say that I am totallllly jealous! We keep meaning to get to Universal to geek out at Wizarding World, but it still hasn't happened. Enjoy!

[housecarder]

I think we stayed at the Hilton Doubletree too. I loved it. It was comfortable and had great food at the dining place when we didn't want to deal with going out and had the free shuttle to the park. Not super fancy, but we stayed at the park most of the day so I wasn't that worried about it. We went two years ago in December.

[jags8]

Oh two years ago we stayed at a hotel close enough that we just walked to Universal Studios (it was only like a mile). I wish I could remember what it was. I remember it was just across the street from a Walgreens. Was by no means fancy, but we booked it last-minute through Expedia for like $50.

[icaughtfire]

Cabana Bay! It's on Universal property but much less expensive than Royal Pacific/Portofino/Hard Rock (which are all amazing but will run you $300+ a night usually. If you catch a deal on any of them jump on it!) We stayed at Cabana Bay in October in a family suite & it was around $180/night so I'd assume just a regular room is less. They have shuttle service to the park, you get early admission to the park when you stay at a Universal resort AND THEY HAVE A LAZY RIVER. <---- important.

[icaughtfire]

Dec 29, 2015 0:36:31 GMT -5 kayladawn91 said:

H and I are going in March! We booked a Best Western near Universal. They have a shuttle that takes you to the parks and is supposedly also within walking distance. Parking at Universal is like $25 a day so we were looking for a hotel that would help us avoid that fee. I also didn't want to spend much so I liked that it was an affordable one but still looked decent. Since I haven't been yet I don't actually know if it's a good recommendation but I thought I would share.

My parents stayed at a Hilton Doubletree nearby when they went a couple of years ago. They said it needed some updating but was nice and they got it for $100/night and they could see Hogwarts from their room which I think is pretty cool.

Also, please give me all the recommendations when you return from your trip. I'm so excited for Harry Potter and want to know what is and is not worth spending money on in the parks!

Eta: I also have heard that the Cabana Bay Resort is amazing from friends. I've seen them run some good deals too. I wanted to stay there but the week we're going doesn't have any availability for what kind of room we need.

LOL, nothing.

[joy]

I don't know if this has been improved, but we sat in an hour's worth of traffic to get on to Universal properry two years ago. We were at a hotel about two miles away and left about a half hour before the park opened. It was a nightmare.

If you can walk to the park - walk.

EDIT: there was no accident or anything - it was literally just all the traffic for people going to Universal.

[daisy818]

I like icaughtfire's suggestion - staying on the Universal property and getting in to HP an hour early is totally worth it! When I went (way back in 2010) we stayed at the Hard Rock bc I went with my parents and my dad had a conference. Beating the crowds in the morning was AMAZING.

Just throwing it out there that I am SO JEALOUS. I want to go back so bad! As a side note, we went in November, and there was a freak cold snap, so the highs were like 40 and it was windy. We had not packed appropriate clothing, because Florida, right? So we bought HP scarves and wore them around all day every day. I was Ravenclaw, mama was Gryffindor, and papa was Slytherin. Kids kept giving my dad dirty looks.

[LadyNymeria]

Thanks everyone!!

Thanks for the heads up about the traffic joy. That sounds horrible. I'll definitely check out what's in walking distance.

[twinkie0612]

We stayed at the Royal Pacific several years ago and it was awesome. We walked to the park and it gave us whatever they call their "fast pass" so that we could skip some of the long lines. We also did the Harry Potter breakfast (not sure if they still do this)which was good and we had a set time to ride the ride.

[icaughtfire]

Dec 29, 2015 10:58:29 GMT -5 twinkie0612 said:

We stayed at the Royal Pacific several years ago and it was awesome. We walked to the park and it gave us whatever they call their "fast pass" so that we could skip some of the long lines. We also did the Harry Potter breakfast (not sure if they still do this)which was good and we had a set time to ride the ride.

This is a good point -- Royal Pacific, Portofino & Hard Rock give fast passes to guests (Cabana Bay doesn't, BOOO!) so that almost justifies paying extra for a room there..those fast passes are like $80 each on top of ticket price.

[swivelchair5]

Lurking to recommend the Hyatt Place

Twice, DH and I have gotten a deal through Universal to stay at Hyatt Place, which is easy walking distance to the Universal parks (maybe 20 minutes to the front gate). Our deal came with the early entrance to Hogsmeade, plus a couple breakfasts at the park and a plush owl. I don't know the exact prices we paid, but I think we saved a couple hundred staying here rather than one of the CityWalk hotels for 3-4 nights.

I love the Wizarding World. Have fun!

[onesweetworld]

Loews Royal Pacific is the cheapest option on universal that offers the express pass. If that's out of the price range, cabana bay isn't bad. If you want off property, go with the doubletree across the street.

[cookswithwine9]

I was opening this thread to recommend the Hard Rock... Lol.
I would definitely upgrade to the fast passes though! It's expensive but so worth it! You get to see/do so much more without standing in line for 1-2 hours at a time.
I went when the Wizarding World first opened... I haven't been since the expansion opened. Get the frozen butter beer! Have fun!

[daisy818]

Dec 29, 2015 15:24:11 GMT -5 cookswithwine9 said:

I was opening this thread to recommend the Hard Rock... Lol.
I would definitely upgrade to the fast passes though! It's expensive but so worth it! You get to see/do so much more without standing in line for 1-2 hours at a time.
I went when the Wizarding World first opened... I haven't been since the expansion opened. Get the frozen butter beer! Have fun!

+1 to frozen butter beer!  I wasn't a fan of the non-frozen variety, but frozen is delish!  Pumpkin juice is good too (it's mostly apply juice).

[carolinagirl83]

Lurking from 3T... we stayed at Holiday Inn & Suites across from Universal. It was just a standard hotel, but had a TGI Friday's attached to it. They had a decent breakfast (not included) buffet. It was at the stoplight for the entrance to Universal/City Walk. Just a few minutes walk to City Walk... so close that we were able to go back to the hotel pool midday when the lines were super long. If I remember correctly, there's a cracker barrel behind the hotel that you can walk to, also.

[renbee]

**lurking** siggy warning...

DH did a trip to universal Orlando back in April. I looked at a bunch of hotel options, but we ended up biting the bullet and paying to stay at the Royal Pacific resort on universal's property. Because we were going at an extremely busy time (spring break) it ended up being worth it to get the included fast passes and get into HP world an hour or two early (since you can't use fast passes on the big rides in HP world). It got so crowded in HP world during the day that it wasn't comfortable to walk around or go into any of the shops, but when we went early in the morning we basically had it to ourselves and it was so amazing!

Also, it was really awesome to be able to quickly get to and from the park whenever we wanted (and for free!) with the water taxi. We would go to the parks early, spend several hours there, and then go back to the resort during the hottest part of the afternoon and take a nap or sit by the pool. Then we would go back over to the park in the evening and ride more rides. It was much more relaxing this way!

A couple of tips:

1. If you do decide to stay at one of the resorts, know that you can still use fast passes on both the days you check in and out. So, we flew into Orlando kind of late the first evening and stayed in a cheaper hotel. The next morning we checked out early, went over to Royal Pacific, checked our bags with them, and got the fast passes. We hung out at the parks and the hotel texted us when the room was ready. Then on our last day we checked out and checked our bags again, and went back over to the parks for a while since we didn't fly out until later that evening. So, in the end we only paid for two nights at resort, but ended up getting THREE days in the park with the fast pass.

2. If you don't want to pay extra to get a fast pass either through a resort or by buying one, I would recommend using the single riders line. Since it was just my husband and I, we didn't care all that much about getting to ride together, especially if it was our second or third time on a ride. Using the single rider line we walked on the HP rides with basically no wait when the main line was at least an hour long.

Hope that helps! Have a great trip!

[LadyNymeria]

Thanks for the tips renbee!!

[LadyNymeria]

Thanks again for all the recommendations! We ended up booking the Loews Royal Pacific - it was only $200 more than the Cabana Bay but is a bit closer to City Walk & the Parks and includes the Express Pass (as some of you pointed out!).

For those of you who want to know how the trip goes - I'll come update this thread once we go on the trip.

Thanks again for the help!!