Anyone stay at Loews Royal Pacific at Universal?

[almostmom]

We'll have one day for the Universal parks in February, so I think staying on site and getting the fast passes is the way to go. It's definitely pricier than I usually go for a hotel, and we'll be there 2 nights (arrive Sunday late afternoon, go to park on Monday, leave the area on Tuesday morning).

Any BTDT?

[SnuggleBuggles]

Not yet but it’s on my to do list. Lovely hotel, walked distance to parks (or take the boat) and your whole crew gets unlimited Express Passes from check in through check out day. You can show up bright and early day 1, drop off bags, get Express Passes/ room keys and hit early entry.

[cckwmh]

we stayed there last January. Quick weekend trip. We picked it because it was the cheapest of the on site hotels that included the all the upgrades (fast passes, extra hours, etc). We liked the location and pool, and it was a quick short walk to the parks.

[nfceagles]

We enjoyed it. Liked Hard Rock better on a later trip, but Royal Pacific is usually the cheapest and plenty nice too. Your can get 2 days of Express Pass for 1 night stay there so if you can rearrange your trip that might be more cost effective. I love Universal and would hate to have to pack it into 1 day.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[123LuckyMom]

The hotel is fine. You can walk or take a boat to the parks. We preferred walking. One of the restaurants (Islands?) is terrible! It's very overpriced, and the food is downright bad! The character meals are one or two characters, and we weren't there on a minions night. I'd give that restaurant a miss. The restaurant within the pool area is much better, though very slow. If I ever went to Universal again, I'd stay there again. The room was fine, the kids liked the pool, the gift shop was well stocked, and most of all, it was easy walking distance to the parks.


Sent from my iPhone using Baby Bargains

[almostmom]

I hear you on one day barely being enough. On our past trips to Orlando we are usually done around 3 or 4 and never make it back to the parks - we were all just done. But I'm counting on the kid being older and motivated this time, maybe with an afternoon pool break! We have been to one of the parks before (the first one to have Harry Potter stuff - I forget which one), so I don't think we'll need to do everything there again, but we'll see. I don't really want to buy tickets for everyone for 2 days, but maybe I should think about it. Maybe one park one day and the other the next, and not the multi-park ticket? If you don't get the park to park, can you take the Hogwarts Express? And is that worth taking? I obviously have some research to do... Our plane gets in at 10:30am, so we could get to a park by early afternoon. But I was kind of excited about the water park for that day at half the cost... Good stuff to think about. Thanks.

[almostmom]

Good to know - thanks. I'm now considering the Sapphire Falls, and just buying the express passes, as that is cheaper if we only need express for one day... not sure what we'll decide. Fun decisions to make though!

[123LuckyMom]

I hear you on one day barely being enough. On our past trips to Orlando we are usually done around 3 or 4 and never make it back to the parks - we were all just done. But I'm counting on the kid being older and motivated this time, maybe with an afternoon pool break! We have been to one of the parks before (the first one to have Harry Potter stuff - I forget which one), so I don't think we'll need to do everything there again, but we'll see. I don't really want to buy tickets for everyone for 2 days, but maybe I should think about it. Maybe one park one day and the other the next, and not the multi-park ticket? If you don't get the park to park, can you take the Hogwarts Express? And is that worth taking? I obviously have some research to do... Our plane gets in at 10:30am, so we could get to a park by early afternoon. But I was kind of excited about the water park for that day at half the cost... Good stuff to think about. Thanks.

I think you need the multi-park ticket in order to ride the Hogwart's express, and that was fun!


Sent from my iPhone using Baby Bargains

[SnuggleBuggles]

You totally need park to park tickets.
If you’re savvy- as in, take advantage of early entry and use the wait time app- you can wait and see on Express Passes. I’d much rather personally pay for park to parks than EPs. If you can do 2 days, it really would be better. Coming all that way for one day in the park?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SnuggleBuggles]

FYI- this is the best planning website I've found https://orlandoinformer.com/

Something else- if you really only want 1 day, note that the hours could be really short. One of our days, the parks closed at 7pm. Fine as we had 3 days but would have sucked if we only had 1!