If you have the means, I strongly recommend staying at Universal Studios either before or after your house rental. I’m kind of leaning towards doing it first. Portofino Bay is our favorite if you want a hotel with the Xpress passes. If you stayed for two nights you would get three days of Xpress passes and you can definitely do everything you want. If you need a third bed, you can request a rollaway bed at the higher end resorts. Or you can throw down an air mattress in the corner. That’s what we do for my daughter and she loves it.
If you want a cheaper hotel and you just want to buy one day of express passes, we really like Cabana Bay. A family suite comes with two queen beds, a pullout sofa, a microwave, and a mini fridge. The sofa is pretty rough so I would bring an air mattress to lay on top of it. Cabana Bay has a good food court, plenty of buses that will get you to the parks fast, and you can walk to Volcano Bay if you’re going when it’s hot out. The buses at the Universal resorts are quick and easy, there are no long bus rides like you have with the Disney parks.
I have gone to Universal Studios while renting a house and I’ve also stayed on property. We definitely prefer staying on property. Getting in and out of Universal Studios is much more difficult than getting in and out of a Disney park. Their parking garage is massive and the freeway gets really backed up around Universal Studios. It took us an hour to return to our rental house from Universal Studios one evening. We rope dropped that day and shut the park down. I was exhausted and really didn’t want to do anything the next day.
I’m happy to answer any questions that you have. We started doing Disney parks and Universal with VRBO stays. Since then We’ve been fortunate enough to join DVC and try some on property at Universal.
