Hi everybody our first trip to Universal is coming up at the end of June. I'm needing some help on deciding if we should upgrade to Royal Pacific to get the included express pass. Or should we save approximately 350 stay at Cabana Bay and use the early entry and a good touring plan? Just to give you a little insight my family and I our Disney veterans. We have the ability to go from park opening to close and follow a good touring plan. Just nervous considering we are only at the parks for two days June 27th and 28th and Kong is opening during that time. Will it be possible to do it all park to close with a plan?
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1st trip. Help please!
- Thread starter mickeyfan1
- Start date
BubbaQuest
Well-Known Member
I have read several trip reports that indicate people have been able to do both parks in 2 days without Express Passes and they felt like that had time to do everything they wanted.
If money is a priority and you are already a rope-drop to park-close family, you'll probably be fine. For my first trip, I didn't want to have to research everything in advance. Too many spoilers!
So I went with Express Passes.
Cabana Bay is a great hotel. So is RPR.
For me, if I was considering this a trial run to see if Uni is a possibility for more trips, I'd probably stick with your original plans and consider this a sampler. Not sure if the whole family are thrill ride fans. If this is a "must do everything because we are only here once" trip, I think upgrading to Express Passes would be a good idea.
If money is a priority and you are already a rope-drop to park-close family, you'll probably be fine. For my first trip, I didn't want to have to research everything in advance. Too many spoilers!
So I went with Express Passes.Cabana Bay is a great hotel. So is RPR.
For me, if I was considering this a trial run to see if Uni is a possibility for more trips, I'd probably stick with your original plans and consider this a sampler. Not sure if the whole family are thrill ride fans. If this is a "must do everything because we are only here once" trip, I think upgrading to Express Passes would be a good idea.
danpam1024
Well-Known Member
I would stay at RP- 2 days in June is not enough. It's more enjoyable not to have to go full commando.
matt9112
Well-Known Member
I have read several trip reports that indicate people have been able to do both parks in 2 days without Express Passes and they felt like that had time to do everything they wanted.
If money is a priority and you are already a rope-drop to park-close family, you'll probably be fine. For my first trip, I didn't want to have to research everything in advance. Too many spoilers!
Cabana Bay is a great hotel. So is RPR.
For me, if I was considering this a trial run to see if Uni is a possibility for more trips, I'd probably stick with your original plans and consider this a sampler. Not sure if the whole family are thrill ride fans. If this is a "must do everything because we are only here once" trip, I think upgrading to Express Passes would be a good idea.
This....a good plan of attack allows you to do 90% of it without much waiting. Granted i never go in busy season.
Disneyhead'71
Well-Known Member
I think it's a really bad idea for a Disney Veteran/UniNewbie to stay at one of the Uni Deluxes with the free express passes. It could quite possibly lead to panic attacks and confusion.
"OGM!!!! We don't have any ADR times, no FP+ times, nothing's planned!!!! We don't even have a spread sheet! This is going to be a train wreck!!!!"
"Relax, we don't need any of that"
"I just can't"
"OGM!!!! We don't have any ADR times, no FP+ times, nothing's planned!!!! We don't even have a spread sheet! This is going to be a train wreck!!!!"
"Relax, we don't need any of that"
"I just can't"
StingraySam
Active Member
I myself would go for the Express Passes and I am a big Cabana Bay fan.
Late June crowds can be finicky. The luxury of the Express Passes is such a relief. A few things to consider though. How many are in your party? More than 4 and you will have to pay $25 extra per night at the other 3 hotels for the 5th person. More than 5 and you will have to stay at Cabana Bay unless you are getting a suite at RP which just puts you way out of the $ benifit of the Express Passes. How many nights are you staying? If you are staying 2 nights you could stay at one of the three hotels that offer Express Passes the first night then transfer to Cabana Bay the second night (your Express Passes are good for your arrival day and departure day if you didn't already know that). As mentioned by andysol, look for discounts. You don't need to be an AP holder either, if you are a Florida resident you can usually get the same hotel discount. Also keep checking the hotel rates. You can change your reservation upto 5 days before your arrival. My last trip I switch hotels 4 times in the coming weeks before I arrived.
Late June crowds can be finicky. The luxury of the Express Passes is such a relief. A few things to consider though. How many are in your party? More than 4 and you will have to pay $25 extra per night at the other 3 hotels for the 5th person. More than 5 and you will have to stay at Cabana Bay unless you are getting a suite at RP which just puts you way out of the $ benifit of the Express Passes. How many nights are you staying? If you are staying 2 nights you could stay at one of the three hotels that offer Express Passes the first night then transfer to Cabana Bay the second night (your Express Passes are good for your arrival day and departure day if you didn't already know that). As mentioned by andysol, look for discounts. You don't need to be an AP holder either, if you are a Florida resident you can usually get the same hotel discount. Also keep checking the hotel rates. You can change your reservation upto 5 days before your arrival. My last trip I switch hotels 4 times in the coming weeks before I arrived.
Jimmy Thick
Well-Known Member
Cabana Bay for the price is an outstanding resort and compares to any WDW deluxe resort.
But nothing beats an express pass.
Stay at Royal Pacific and use your Disney Experience to handle both Potter areas and the express pass everywhere else.
I hope you have a great time!!!
But nothing beats an express pass.
Stay at Royal Pacific and use your Disney Experience to handle both Potter areas and the express pass everywhere else.
I hope you have a great time!!!
@mickeyfan1 ,
It ultimately depends on what your goals are. If you want to do every single thing in the parks once over the course of 2 days, you can get away with it. It's been done. To be honest, there will be things in the park that will not interest you or your family which reduces that stress load.
However, the room-key express pass allows you to go back on rides in the express line which really can spoil you. For example, you can go on the Spiderman ride, which can easily have a 45 minute wait, twice if you felt like spoiling yourself. Another fun ride to go on twice in the heat of June is any of the water rides. You can skip the wait and cool off as many times as you like.
Overall, you can do everything in 2 days that your group WANTS to do. The tip is to get priority attractions done earlier in the day that will likely have longer lines to keep them short. If you want to want to spoil yourselves, get the Royal Pacific Room. The other nice thing about the fastpasses is you can do the parks and still have the time to actually enjoy what that hotel has to offer.
It ultimately depends on what your goals are. If you want to do every single thing in the parks once over the course of 2 days, you can get away with it. It's been done. To be honest, there will be things in the park that will not interest you or your family which reduces that stress load.
However, the room-key express pass allows you to go back on rides in the express line which really can spoil you. For example, you can go on the Spiderman ride, which can easily have a 45 minute wait, twice if you felt like spoiling yourself. Another fun ride to go on twice in the heat of June is any of the water rides. You can skip the wait and cool off as many times as you like.
Overall, you can do everything in 2 days that your group WANTS to do. The tip is to get priority attractions done earlier in the day that will likely have longer lines to keep them short. If you want to want to spoil yourselves, get the Royal Pacific Room. The other nice thing about the fastpasses is you can do the parks and still have the time to actually enjoy what that hotel has to offer.
nighttowll
New Member
So true!!! I know you're joking, but no one in my family reacted well to not having a down to the minute plan. It's the one thing I didn't plan for, how the kids would react to not having a plan to follow! Complete disaster!
As far as the OP...
I'd definitely stay at Royal Pacific and use the express passes. We went in the spring a couple of years ago and stayed there, and now I'm spoiled. I've stayed there a couple of times and always had really great experiences. I especially love the path you take to walk over to the parks. It always seems so beautiful and peaceful.
We went for 3 days our first trip, and it felt like the perfect amount of time. One day each park; one day for repeat rides and things we missed the first time around. We ended up really needing all 3 days even with the passes, but due to a few unforeseen issues we didn't tour open to close as usual, so we probably could have gotten away with 2 very long days. I'd say the crowds were moderate when we went. It wasn't off season, but not super crowded either. Definitely, not anywhere as bad as summer peak levels. We really only needed the pass for about half the rides, but I felt it was still worth it. Especially, when the kids wanted to ride the coasters over and over again and the wait was over an hour long. It is almost surreal though to realize you can just wander around and ride anything you come across with minimal to no waiting whenever you want with the EP.
The only time I'd really see not needing the EP, would be if you were planning on spending most or all of your time either at shows and on less popular attractions or in the HP sections. The last few times I've gone to Universal the 2 coasters, the 2 main HP rides (these don't accept EP), Dispicable Me, Spider-Man, Transformers, High in the Sky Trolley, and the water rides (in warm weather) have had the longest waits anywhere from 30min on up to over an hour depending on the time of day, with much longer waits for the HP rides. As these were all low to mid crowd calendar days, I'd expect worse waits in the summer.
Honestly, I've toured both ways, with and without EP, and though it can be done without a pass, for a first time visitor, I'd recommend the pass. Take your time, relax, and try to experience as much as possible. Then you'll have a better idea if you want to try it in the future without the pass based on which attractions you end up really liking.
For instance:
I can go with my mother or sister, plan a little and survive without the pass. We usually ride a couple of favorites, see a show or two, eat lunch, and focus on low or no wait activities such as window shopping or watching street performers. We also have a bad habit of disappearing into the HP section and never coming back out again. So, no real need for a pass. Maybe once or twice a day, I'll wish we had it, so we could fit a little more in or because I'm being lazy and just don't want to wait, but not having the EP is more of an annoyance than a necessity.
On the other hand, if I go with my friend. All she wants to do is to ride rides, especially thrill rides, coasters, and water rides, and she wants to do them over over and again. When I go with her, we need an EP, or at least she does. Not having one in this situation means the number of attractions we can fit into one day is greatly impacted as we are focusing more on headliners with the longest waits.
Somethings to keep in mind:
1. One night is equal to two days of EP passes. You get passes for both your check in and check out days, so not sure how many days you were planning on staying, but you might look into a split stay with only one day at Royal Pacific and one somewhere else.
2. I'd also second the AP suggestion. You only need it for one person in the group to get the room discount. I've found that if I only go twice in one year it pays for itself, especially when I factor in savings. * Just make sure they are actually offering AP discounts for your dates first.
3. No more than 4 in a standard room. Only people registered to the room can get the EP pass.
4. The type of attractions your family is interested in and how many they want to fit into a day will effect your need for an EP. I'd make a list of must do attractions, look up the wait times for those, and then go from there.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
We have gone and done everything in the parks along with some things multiple times in two days, but we buy an express pass for one of the days and use it for the rides that it matters on. You might be able to do it in two days with no express pass but having one will make it much easier.
And we usually stay at the Cabana Bay because it is so much cheaper and when we stay multiple nights the savings is more than enough to buy the express passes for one day and still have money left over.
Don't know how Kong will impact things but you will be going in a peak part of the year so the crowds will be substantial, I would look into the express pass for at least one day just to be safe.
Though most recently the ride with the longest express line wait time has been Minions...If you go early in the day the Mummy is maybe a 20 minute wait in standby.... Now if you wait until after 11:00am most all the lines get long.
danpam1024
Well-Known Member
Yes! One summer Hubby and I waited 90 minutes in the Express line for RipSaw- but you know RipSaw goes down a lot. But still.
BiffyClyro
Well-Known Member
I would advise not buying an express to be honest... You can easily get around IOA in a day and Universal in half a day. Harry Potter usually has the longest wait time, but if you get there early and head there first you're good for the rest of the day. 40 minute wait for spidey maybe but even that goes up and down throughout the day.