Universal Hotel Stay + Express Pass

[amy2313]

My family and I have a vacation planned this summer for Disney and we were thinking about spending 1 day in Universal and hitting both parks. We thought about reserving a room at Universal just to gain access to Universal and Harry Potter for the early admission times. However here is our dilemma...
we would just be reserving the room to have that 1 hour early access to beat some of the crowds since we will already be staying on Disney property. There are 4 adults that will be buying admission tickets into the parks but 2 of the adults will definitely not be doing many of the rides (ages 75+).
How does the pre-admission into the parks work? Do we have to put 4 adults into the hotel room that we won't actually be staying in or can we do 2 adults?? maybe 2 adults and 2 kids?
The next question is should we be thinking about booking at Royal Pacific instead of just say Cabana Bay to not only get the first hour without the huge crowds but also the Express Pass added in with the hotel stay?? Again, how does this work if not all the adults will be going on the rides but will be going into the park as a family??

Any recommendations and advice would be great!

Thanks.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

If you are going in Summer, get the Express Pass.

As far as the room goes, no one actually has to go to the room itself, just the front desk to get your key cards. If you are actually going to pay for a room, I suggest you spend the evening before your park day at the Uni resort. It would be much easy to make early entry without having to deal with I-4 at 7:30am.

 

[tinkhag6]

I believe Cabana Bay you have to still purchase the express pass separately. You need to stay at Royal, hard rock, or portofino to have the express pass included.

 

[amy2313]

If you are going in Summer, get the Express Pass.

As far as the room goes, no one actually has to go to the room itself, just the front desk to get your key cards. If you are actually going to pay for a room, I suggest you spend the evening before your park day at the Uni resort. It would be much easy to make early entry without having to deal with I-4 at 7:30am.

I know this sounds cheap but I will fully admit that I am trying to save a few bucks here and the thought of reserving a Universal room while also spending money on our Disney room is stressful and it is only to get us that early morning hour in Harry Potter before the crowds since I know the express pass does not work on Harry Potter rides. Since we have 1 day to do this we want to make the most of the time and my budget! I guess then my next question is can I save a few dollars by only booking 2 adults in the room even if there are really 4 adults that will be going into the park early?? I'm just having a hard time justifying in my own head the cost of two hotel rooms for the night (will not be checking out of the Disney room) plus the added fees for 4 adults in the room especially when one of them will definitely not be riding the rides but staying together as a family. Hope that makes sense.
And the same thing would apply if we went the Royal Pacific route and in order to get the Express Pass with it like you suggested but how would it work if we only put 2 adults in the room but there are 4 of us??

 

[Disneyhead'71]

You will need 4 key cards (one per person) for early entry. But the 2 on the ressie could always return to the desk claiming lost card. A friend of mine lost his key card 4 times in a weeks stay.

 

[amy2313]

Only 2 would get the express pass. Have you thought about simply cancelling the last night or two of your disney trip/hotel and just staying at Universal anyway?
If I'm doing a split trip, I always take DME to Disney- but really prefer to take a driver back to the airport (you only have to leave 2 hrs before flight instead of 3.5 like DME). A mears towncar is roughly $45 each way (from disney to uni and from uni to airport)- so youre talking $90- plus saving whatever you were planning on spending to get to Uni and back. That, plus the savings of no "double" hotel, should save you a good amount of time and money. And there are worse places to be than a Loews Hotel- which is better than any Deluxe at Disney IMO. Particularly Royal pacific where you'll be lucky enough to eat dinner at Tchoup Chop

Your suggestion to cancel the last night of our disney reservation would make complete sense and would be the smartest option but we would be going to Universal right smack in the middle of our vacation due to one of the adults only being with us for the weekend and not the entire trip and of course she is the one who has her heart set on going to Universal for the day.

 

[PinnySmart]

Your suggestion to cancel the last night of our disney reservation would make complete sense and would be the smartest option but we would be going to Universal right smack in the middle of our vacation due to one of the adults only being with us for the weekend and not the entire trip and of course she is the one who has her heart set on going to Universal for the day.

Just go to the park and wait in line. It's not the end of the world. Towards the end of the day I've ridden Forbidden Journey 5 or 6 times in a row with wait times between 10 or 20 minutes. You are way over thinking this in my opinion.

 

[PinnySmart]

You will need 4 key cards (one per person) for early entry. But the 2 on the ressie could always return to the desk claiming lost card. A friend of mine lost his key card 4 times in a weeks stay.

Why go through the trouble of being dishonest? Is it really worth it?

 

[BrianV]

Early admission is not that valuable. Wouldn't go through any trouble to get that.

Express pass is awesome. That is worth the price of a room. But if all you care about is HP, skip it!