Considering offsite hotel during off season

[SnowWitch]

We have not stayed offsite since the opening of the PBH. We have since stayed at the HRH and RPR many times. But with the economy questionable I have to ask "Do I want to or need to spend over $250 per night at UO?" If going in offseason I think I can forego front of the line access. My DH and teens took a one day trip over to IOA in early Dec and walked onto everything so I am considering going in offseason and staying offsite. So can anyone suggest a nice, "CHEAP" resort option? Can you suggest the slowest times of the year to go?

 

[Cadillac_Dreamgirl]

Well I stayed at Comfort Inn Universal...

some ppl didnt like it.. but i thought it was Faboulous....

they have great shuttle schedule

 

[macraven]

many stay off site during low periods.

the onsite hotels have the value rates in place during that time period.

if you have the AAA card, you can get a room onsite for less than $200 many times then.

if you rent a car, you will have to pay the daily parking at the UO garage.
if you take a shuttle, some of them have a fee.

i stayed over on majors ave before offsite and paid the shuttle fee for our family.

it just depends on how you want to spend your money.
if you go on a weekday during value season, you will avoid most of the crowds.
weekends are another issue though.

 

[Jonny_Duck]

We have not stayed offsite since the opening of the PBH. We have since stayed at the HRH and RPR many times. But with the economy questionable I have to ask "Do I want to or need to spend over $250 per night at UO?" If going in offseason I think I can forego front of the line access. My DH and teens took a one day trip over to IOA in early Dec and walked onto everything so I am considering going in offseason and staying offsite. So can anyone suggest a nice, "CHEAP" resort option? Can you suggest the slowest times of the year to go?

My Nephew and I recently stayed at the Hampton Inn which was very close to Universal. I thought it was a very nice hotel and had extremely comfortable beds. Also had free breakfast which was a plus. I actually have never stayed onsite and I think we will this December but havent decided if its worth the 200$ a night or not. I got the Hampton for 30$ from a priceline bid. You could consider going the bid route for a nice hotel for a rly great price. Only problem is you dont know what you will get till you win. We are going to be doing the bidding for first part of our early Dec trip for Disney as I cant see myself paying Disney prices for their hotels since they just dont offer anything that great like the FOTL access. You can also check out hotwire for more cheap options for hotels. Compare what they give you with betterbidding.com and you can probably know the hotel ahead of time.

 

[goofy!]

We have not stayed offsite since the opening of the PBH. We have since stayed at the HRH and RPR many times. But with the economy questionable I have to ask "Do I want to or need to spend over $250 per night at UO?" If going in offseason I think I can forego front of the line access. My DH and teens took a one day trip over to IOA in early Dec and walked onto everything so I am considering going in offseason and staying offsite. So can anyone suggest a nice, "CHEAP" resort option? Can you suggest the slowest times of the year to go?

Can't help you with the offsite hotels because we have never stayed offsite.

However, if you do decide to stay onsite, watch the prices of the onsite resorts. If you are planning on going during the slowest times, rooms have usually been available for way less than $250.00.

For instance, in January of 2008, RPR was available for $139.00 per night and HRH was available for $159.00 per night. (per 2008 rate and date thread)

I recommend looking at the date and rate threads, both 2007 that is stickied and the 2008 thread on the front page, to see where the lowest rates were. These were typically the slowest times as anticipated by the onsite hotels.

 

[SnowWitch]

If we were traveling in the summer monthes I would absolutely stay onsite but we are entertaining the idea of a 3-4 night trip maybe in Jan. We haven't been to US/IOA in several years and my teens miss it. But by the end of the year we will have stayed at Disney in deluxes a total of 30+ nights, I am just starting to look for ways to reduce cost for our vacations. If I don't then we will be taking fewer vacations. The DH and the boys had mentioned they walked onto all major rides at IOA in early Dec on a day visit and that staying on property is not neccessary for them suring the low periods. So I'm thinking $50 a night vs. $159 (for a maybe discount rate). We are also a family of 6, 2 are under 3 but Universal's onsite resorts unlike Disneys count them towards the room total occup so thats 2 rooms per night for our group.