Epic and hotel strategy- split stay or not?

[rnorwo1]

Hi All,
It has been at least 10 years since we've been to Universal, so I'm a bit out of touch. The few times we went back then, we stayed at RPR with reasonable rates and were spoiled with the express pass and walking to the parks. The rates are insane right now, though. We are going for 4 nights over Mardi Gras (Friday-Tuesday, 2/13-17), which is a busy time as all us Louisianians descend then with school out, and Epic is our priority. If I get an AP, we can get 2 Stella Nova rooms (we have 3 teens) quite a bit cheaper than all 5 of us can fit into one RPR room.

My question is, should I just keep all 4 nights at Stella, or split between there and RPR for the extra passes? We don't mind moving rooms, but we will be more comfortable in 2 separate rooms (and no way am I paying RPR rates for two rooms). We can survive that if it'll give us a better experience in the parks, though. If we do split, should we do 1 or 2 nights in RPR, and should we do them the first night(s) or last? I guess that question depends on when Epic will be the busiest of those days? Meaning, should we avoid Epic on Saturday and Sunday, or perhaps it won't matter either way? Crowd calendars have all those days rated very high.

Thanks for any guidance- I'm overwhelmed by how different it all is!

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Right now weekends have been slower at Epic, but that is likely to change once APs including Epic become available. When will those be offered? Who knows.

By next year, it's expected that tickets will include multi-day Epic access, which will also throw a wrench in current crowd patterns. European multi-day Epic 2026 tickets are already on sale.

You could do 1 RP room and one Stella for the one night, and just add everyone to the RP room for EP purposes. You can be listed on more than 1 room at once.

The best deal is one night at the EP resort for 2 full days of EP.

 

[DL1WDW2]

Universal celebrates big time for the Mardi Gras dates .
If that is your plan you should definitely book something soon.
If you are not familiar with Mardi Gras at Universal ..
They have a fantastic Mardi Gras Parade every year with designer Mardi Gras Floats , etc . It is very very popular event weekends for Mardi Gras .


Are you familiar with the other resorts at Universal?

Also I just remembered Universal Hard Rock has the deluxe rooms that will fit a rollaway . I think there other resorts might have rollaways also.
That is my best advice
Book a room and pay a little extra for the deluxe ( slightly bigger floor plan ) and request the rollaway . I know they have an added fee but it is still very reasonable .
I tend to forget about rollaways because I don’t think Disney has them anymore. Hope that helps.

 

[DL1WDW2]

I am certain you must book this room in advance because they are limited availability .
I have slept in the rollaway and it was very comfortable and deluxe sheets were provided which is no surprise from Loews…They are trulydeluxe resorts

 

[georgina]

Hi All,
It has been at least 10 years since we've been to Universal, so I'm a bit out of touch. The few times we went back then, we stayed at RPR with reasonable rates and were spoiled with the express pass and walking to the parks. The rates are insane right now, though. We are going for 4 nights over Mardi Gras (Friday-Tuesday, 2/13-17), which is a busy time as all us Louisianians descend then with school out, and Epic is our priority. If I get an AP, we can get 2 Stella Nova rooms (we have 3 teens) quite a bit cheaper than all 5 of us can fit into one RPR room.

My question is, should I just keep all 4 nights at Stella, or split between there and RPR for the extra passes? We don't mind moving rooms, but we will be more comfortable in 2 separate rooms (and no way am I paying RPR rates for two rooms). We can survive that if it'll give us a better experience in the parks, though. If we do split, should we do 1 or 2 nights in RPR, and should we do them the first night(s) or last? I guess that question depends on when Epic will be the busiest of those days? Meaning, should we avoid Epic on Saturday and Sunday, or perhaps it won't matter either way? Crowd calendars have all those days rated very high.

Thanks for any guidance- I'm overwhelmed by how different it all is!

That is also President's Day weekend, I would expect very large crowds. If you can do it comfortably, 1 night at RPR or Hard Rock will get you 2 days of express at the Studios and Islands of Adventure parks, which will be worth it on a very busy weekend. Haven't been to Epic, no advice on timing.

Many years ago (2006 maybe?), we took 3 kids and stayed at RPR, one on a blow up mattress.

 

[rnorwo1]

The issue is that our kids are now teens and one young adult with grown-men bodies. It's a lot to share one bath and not having individual space after a busy, exhausting day in crowded parks. We always stay in Airbnbs on other sorts of vacations for this reason. We are planning to hit the parks hard and will want to be a bit more relaxed in the evenings to recover.

But you've given me good ideas here. I think we may book one Stella room for all 4 nights that the boys can stay in. My husband and I will stay Friday night in RPR with all of our names on the reservations (would have never thought of that-thanks!) to get most of Friday (our flight arrives at 8:30am) and all day Saturday in Universal and IOA with EP, then we will move to Stella for the remaining 3 nights. I spent a ridiculous amount of time last night getting the prices for all of the different possible combinations, and this seems to be the most economical without having us all crammed in one room. I will get an AP for the discounts.

With the handling of Epic tickets and express passes being somewhat up in the air, how long would you wait to buy an express pass for Epic? I don't want to wait until we are there to assess line waits as they use dynamic pricing and may sell out, but there are so many unknowns right now.

Thanks again for all the advice, it was very helpful!!

 

[CAPSLOCK]

If you definitely want a day of Epic EP, I would buy it sooner rather than later. I've only ever seen EP pricing go up (it went up from I believe $140 to $180 on our Dec day already - "thankfully" we never planned to get EP anyways, but that would have been aggravating). Pick a day and stick with it. Or, don't look at EP prices at all now, so if you buy it later you don't know what you missed out on