Dummy Room for the Express Pass Unlimited

[Biggen]

Two years ago I started a similar thread here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/h...-room-for-the-express-pass-unlimited.3774867/

Instead of necroing that older thread, I thought I'd ask in a new one if anything has changed. We are going to be in Orlando for a trade show in January so we figured we could parlay that into a small vacation and take advantage of the FL/GA resident 1 day + 1 free day promotion. I booked a dummy room for the Hard Rock for the two days we will be in the park for a total of $500 including taxes. Pricing out the Express Unlimited for our group of 5, the dummy room saves us $750 over buying the Express Unlimited Passes outright. The dummy room at Hard Rock was the only hotel I could find that had any availability, the other two cheaper options (Port and Royal Pacific) being sold out.

Has anything changed in the last two years I did this? I called the front desk and they told me I can come as early as 6am to pick up the passes even if the rooms weren't ready which is exactly how it was when I did this last.

 

[macraven]

It’s not changed

Enjoy your time at the Darkside

 

[starry_solo]

Two year ago I started a similar thread here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/h...-room-for-the-express-pass-unlimited.3774867/

Instead of necroing that older thread, I thought I'd ask in a new one if anything has changed. We are going to be in Orlando for a trade show in January so we figured we could parlay that into a small vacation and take advantage of the FL/GA resident 1 day + 1 free day promotion. I booked a dummy room for the Hard Rock for the two days we will be in the park for a total of $500 including taxes. Pricing out the Express Unlimited for our group of 5, the dummy room saves us $750 over buying the Express Unlimited Passes outright. The dummy room at Hard Rock was the only hotel I could find that had any availability, the other two cheaper options (Port and Royal Pacific) being sold out.

Has anything changed in the last two years I did this? I called the front desk and they told me I can come as early as 6am to pick up the passes even if the rooms weren't ready which is exactly how it was when I did this last.

nope, nothing has changed.

 

[Biggen]

Great! I'm actually kind of surprised that Universal allows this. I mean, I don't know how they would stop it, but tying up empty rooms where guests don't generate any additional income for the hotel (bar/food sales) sounds odd... But I guess Universal makes it up on the backend with those same guests going to the park and spending money there so it all comes out in the wash.

 

[macraven]

Many visit the hotels for dining and the bars they have

it’s all open to the public

 

[macraven]

They both make money

Universal makes their money from the parks
And Loews revenues comes from the hotels

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Nothings changed as far as I know.

 

[bumbershoot]

Great! I'm actually kind of surprised that Universal allows this. I mean, I don't know how they would stop it, but tying up empty rooms where guests don't generate any additional income for the hotel (bar/food sales) sounds odd... But I guess Universal makes it up on the backend with those same guests going to the park and spending money there so it all comes out in the wash.

Hotels and parks are separate. The hotel gets your money and has to put out almost nothing apart from Housekeeping. The parks give you something that costs them almost nothing, but you'll be at the parks, eating and drinking and buying stuff.

 

[ColoradoMom!!]

We did this last week, got the AP rate at Royal Pacific. Worked great for Express passes - but it's too bad you have a 5th person in a way. We booked one room for 4 people for one day. We were able to use it for both arrival and departure day in park, plus only one overnight charge for parking although we were there for 2 park days, all for $305 plus tax. It sure is a great savings for Express passes!

 

[Biggen]

We did this last week, got the AP rate at Royal Pacific. Worked great for Express passes - but it's too bad you have a 5th person in a way. We booked one room for 4 people for one day. We were able to use it for both arrival and departure day in park, plus only one overnight charge for parking although we were there for 2 park days, all for $305 plus tax. It sure is a great savings for Express passes!

You can get the pass up to 5 people. That is the max amount you can put in a room.

 

[ColoradoMom!!]

You can get the pass up to 5 people. That is the max amount you can put in a room.

Oh, my apologies, I thought for $500, you were booking 2 rooms. My mistake.

 

[AJA]

We did this last week, got the AP rate at Royal Pacific. Worked great for Express passes - but it's too bad you have a 5th person in a way. We booked one room for 4 people for one day. We were able to use it for both arrival and departure day in park, plus only one overnight charge for parking although we were there for 2 park days, all for $305 plus tax. It sure is a great savings for Express passes!

To add to the 4-5 person in a dummy/throw away night. Remember if you have a 5th person that is not a “rider” -think a grandparent or very young child that is not going to be riding much anyway - you don’t have to add them to the room (you aren’t actually staying there) you could be a party of 5-6 and just really want the express for 4 of the group, just put those 4 on the hotel reservation. One person will need to be over 21 though.

 

[mar2c1]

Does the express pass work for all the rides or is there a few that you can’t use it on?

 

[Tmarmac]

You can't use express pass on Hagrid's or the Velocicoaster. And maybe Pterandon Flyers but we don't have a small child in our family so we can't go on that anyways!

 

[mich1073]

You have to check in and get the room keys that are your eps. That said, I would stay the one night with just a small overnight bag.

The ability to walk to and from the parks, take some off time and change clothes etc. Enjoy the pool for a few hours if it's hot etc. The parks are not super huge and with unlimited ep, you can carve out down time if your doing two days.

You also get extra hours and better/faster security gate to use is good too.

Just the ability to run back and change clothes few weeks ago was a life saver. HRH is so close. It went from winter to summer and we did early open. So I wore leggings and a sweatshirt. By 10am we had to go check out, we walked back. All changed into shorts and then took our bags to the car and walked back into the parks.

 

[Pooh's World]

I will gladly hold your dummy room for you so it doesn't look suspicious.

 

[Pooh's World]

I'll leave the light on for you