Do resort guest park for free at parks?

yeheyprincex2

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Mar 26, 2013
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My husband asked me if Universal resort guest park for free at the parks. I do not know the answer but I know where to go to ask for help 🤗.
We thinking of going Thanksgiving week and I want to stay onsite. We will habe a rental car. TIA
 
Unless you're at Endless Summer, the question is probably moot. No reason to drive to the parks if you're already at the onsite hotels. They have good reliable transportation and/or are walkable to the parks.
 
You will be paying for hotel parking as it is.

No need to also pay for UO parking as you can take a shuttle, bus, etc to the parks from your hotel.
 
Not necessary to drive from most on site locales. it’s easily walkable( or take the water taxis). The busses do drop you off at the far end of CityWalk, but even that is a quick walk to the park entrances
 

It would probably take longer to drive and park and walk to the entrance than to take the bus\boat or even walk and as others said you are already paying (too much ) to park at the hotels
 
I agree with all of the above, there’s no benefit to moving your car from the hotel parking to park at the parks.
But to fully answer the question - I do believe there are separate parking charges. We’ve never even tried, though.
 
Something no one mentioned above as well is, it is much better/faster to go through security from your hotel then to try to go through “general” security at the park. For example if you are staying at Royal Pacific, you do security right before you get on the water taxi which is very quick and easy.
 
Slightly off topic and I apologize in advance. My wife and I are considering making a some side trips over to UO and can't remember what we paid for parking on our last trip. Does any one know what Park parking is per day or where i can look it up? Again thanks for any info you can provide
 
Slightly off topic and I apologize in advance. My wife and I are considering making a some side trips over to UO and can't remember what we paid for parking on our last trip. Does any one know what Park parking is per day or where i can look it up? Again thanks for any info you can provide

Standar parking costs $26. You can pay higher for premium parking. Info can be found here:

https://www.universalorlando.com/we...rs-information/directions-and-parking#parking
 
I only came on here to further comment since you're clearly a Disney fan @yeheyprincex2 that just in case you plan on going to Disney as well during Thanksgiving that I would recommend (at least if time is important, meaning you do not want to wait long, you have reservations that need to be met, ect) that I do recommend that unlike Universal to definitely park at the parks with your regular vehicle (even though you have to pay for parking).

I do not know your history and do not want to assume you don't know this already, but wanted to mention just in case, because while Universal transportation is quick and efficient, Disney in my opinion takes such a long time that you'd have to either take your vehicle with you and pay for parking, pay for a Minnie van to get directly where you go (which you might as well pay for parking at that point), or just make sure to leave extra, extra early if you wanna do the rope drop and/or reservations.

For example, I've stayed at Cabana Bay multiple times and never once had to wait for a bus. While I do not know other people's experiences, but that is mine. I've also done a walk to City Walk from Hard Rock which only takes about perhaps five minutes? And while you probably wait more for a boat more than anything on Universal property, waiting for a boat is still not nearly that long of a wait, especially compared to the lengths I've waited for a bus at Disney.

Also, unlike Disney security at their resorts from where you go to the resort to monorail, usually the security line at Universal hotel consists perhaps a few people in line (at most).
 
No, unlike Disney, the parking in the parking garages at City Walk, to get to the parks, is a separate charge. Universal is different in that the parks do not have dedicated parking lots in front of them. Even if you want to go to the water park, if you don’t take a bus from the Universal resorts, or walk from Cabana Bay, you park in the City Walk garages, and take a bus to the water park from there.

And like Disney, the price of the parking at the resorts is different, for the different levels of hotels. If you are not staying at any of the Universal resorts, I’d get dropped off and picked up at the Hard Rock hotel. You will have a short walk to the Studios, or short boat ride, with generally much lower lines through security both at the end of the walk or entering the boat.

Unlike Disney, once you clear security, you are in the City Walk bubble, and you do not have to go through security again, to enter the two parks, Islands and the Studios. You enter both of those parks after getting into City Walk. Stay onsite and use the boats or walk. And just think of the parking fee to keep your car in the resort’s parking area, as part of your stay, and may only want to use it to get food or shop not in the Universal resorts.

While my pass gets me free parking at the City Walk parking garages, I use a rental car, and leave it in the resort’s parking area, and use Universal’s hotel walk way, or boat, as I always stay in a hotel that has boat services. Some days, I don’t move the car. But I like having it, as I go places besides Universal, but use my Universal hotel as my base.
 
I only came on here to further comment since you're clearly a Disney fan @yeheyprincex2 that just in case you plan on going to Disney as well during Thanksgiving that I would recommend (at least if time is important, meaning you do not want to wait long, you have reservations that need to be met, ect) that I do recommend that unlike Universal to definitely park at the parks with your regular vehicle (even though you have to pay for parking).

I do not know your history and do not want to assume you don't know this already, but wanted to mention just in case, because while Universal transportation is quick and efficient, Disney in my opinion takes such a long time that you'd have to either take your vehicle with you and pay for parking, pay for a Minnie van to get directly where you go (which you might as well pay for parking at that point), or just make sure to leave extra, extra early if you wanna do the rope drop and/or reservations.

For example, I've stayed at Cabana Bay multiple times and never once had to wait for a bus. While I do not know other people's experiences, but that is mine. I've also done a walk to City Walk from Hard Rock which only takes about perhaps five minutes? And while you probably wait more for a boat more than anything on Universal property, waiting for a boat is still not nearly that long of a wait, especially compared to the lengths I've waited for a bus at Disney.

Also, unlike Disney security at their resorts from where you go to the resort to monorail, usually the security line at Universal hotel consists perhaps a few people in line (at most).
Thank you for your response. I was asking about park parking because I want to use public transportation as little as possible with covid-19 around. we will very likely use the walking path back and forth. We will have a rental car cause we will spend some days at the beach before driving in Orlando.
 
Thank you for your response. I was asking about park parking because I want to use public transportation as little as possible with covid-19 around. we will very likely use the walking path back and forth. We will have a rental car cause we will spend some days at the beach before driving in Orlando.

Depends on which resort you're going as to whether you'll have a walking path, or not. However, I am assuming you're staying at one of the main resorts which includes EP if you're talking about walking. When I go to the HRH in Nov I'll be walking as well. It's really unnecessary to do any transportation if you're staying at HRH anyway.

However, to ease your mind about transportation (and anyone else's), recently when I visited a friend at their resort and didn't want to walk due to the heat, or wanted to ride the boat again I took the bus as it sends you directly the place where security is (all I needed to do was get to my car). I was the only person on the bus. They have sanitizer you can use prior to boarding. I have a feeling more than likely there are other practices they use to keep people apart as well if there is multiple people who come on, as I noticed when I stepped onto the bus that all the seats had different sections with certain numbers (kind of like how each row at attractions have a certain number).
 












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