First Trip to Universal - Need Help

[Lisa3]

Finally, my two younger kids have agreed to try Universal this year and now having mastered our vacations at Disney I am left feeling as if I know nothing about planning a vacation. Here's the story:

We are a family of 5, 3 kids ages 12, 11, & 9. We will be visiting in mid August and are planning 3 nights at Universal and then moving over to Disney for 7 nights. We would like to stay on site but are on a limited budget. I know the kids would love HRH but a queen room is out of our price range (want to keep it to around $200-$225 per night but less would be nice). Can someone give me some guidance as to how I see so many good prices and also their experience with the two other hotels on site? Are there any great off site options (we will have a car)? Should I just book our Disney hotel for the entire trip and drive to Universal? Or maybe the Swan or Dolphin?

My other question is tickets. What is the best way to purchase them and how long should we plan to stay in the parks? Is one day in each enough with maybe the morning of check out going back to do our favorites? What is the best deal on tickets? Obviously, this "Kids play free" is not great for us since they do not consider two of my kids actually "kids"! Same with "Kids eat free".

I kept hearing how much less expensive Universal is over Disney but for some reason I am just not seeing it. Can you give me some help?

 

[macraven]

if you go the third week of august and be in value season, rates will drop at universal hotels then.

i would do disney first then finish your vacation with universal.

if you end up staying off site for the universal portion of your trip, the park is not as crowded late in august.

even if you only stay 3 nights for universal, buy the 2 park 2 day with 3 free bonus days for $99. much cheaper tickets that way. if you only used 3 days of tickets you still come out ahead.

you could buy the one adult one free child to help cut expenses.

 

[coastermom]

I too was confused but we are staying on site at the Hard Rock Hotel for 5 nights . The deal was too good we are also a family of 5 we have a 14,11,and 4 year old . We went to the USF hotel site and built our own vacation . We are doing 7 days in disney next year at the Port orleans and only 2 days there this year. From experiance we were EXHAUSTED after 3 days in USF/IOA and a week in disney last trip down. We are going to go Disney for the little guy. I must say everyone I spoke to who stayed on -site loved it . the universal express by it's self is worth the price of admission. . We paid just over 1,600 and that was 2 Adults 2 juniors and 1 child with park tickets and on-site hotel. It truley is not a bad price. We are going last wekk in july first week in aug. Have fun .

 

[MDMOM]

You maybe able to get a cheaper rate using the AAA discount. We are going to do 4 days at universal and 6 days at disney in June.

 

[coastermom]

MDMOM we got a really good deal and with AAA it was harder to get the free tickets etc deals just worth it to go through USF it's self . We think we got a pretty good deal and are looking forward to our trip.

 

[Lisa3]

CoasterMom - From what you are saying you are paying $1600.00 for 5 nights. That is a good deal. I put in 3 nights at HRH on the site and with tickets came out to over $1500.00. I thought that was a little expensive for 3 nights. I also put in a Deluxe Room. Maybe I will try a regular room but will still need a rollaway for the 3rd child and I know that is an extra charge.

Thanks to all for your responses. I will keep digging. Unfortunately, we cannot go any later. All 3 kids play travel soccer and have mandatory camp the last week of August. We really want to do Universal first. We have done Disney 4 times so that will be the more relaxing part of the trip for us (we don't have to do the parks comando style anymore).

I'm learning just that way I did 6 years ago when I first called Disney and they told me my package would cost over $7,000.00! I am glad I found these boards otherwise we would not have taken 4 trips in the last 6 years.

 

[powellrj]

going through the loews site, I put in the dates aug 14 -17 (you said mid aug so I just guessed at the dates!) Using the AAA rate at the RPH the rate was $183.20 for a regular room and $263.20 for club (with 3 kids your kids ages you might want to go this route). Rates may go down closer to your trip and you can rebook at the cheaper price if they do.

We always stay at RPH which is the cheapest of all the on-site hotels, but still a deluxe. Universal allows pool hopping so your kids could still go to the HRH to swim and look around if you want.

Universal is having a free kids ticket with each adult ticket, so you could get 4 five day tickets plus have one kids ticket free for your 9yr old. That would be a little over $400 for 5 day tickets for your family.

My kids are 9 and 14 and we find that club is worth the extra money because of the free breakfast and snacks. We would eat breakfast in the morning, a large later lunch at city walk or the parks, and then have snacks in the club room in the evening, so we felt that the extra we paid for a club room was worth it.

FOTL is wonderful and will spoil you!

 

[macraven]

join the loews first club and try for the free upgrade.

why pay for a waterview when you can book standard / garden and be upgraded for free.

each hotel , and each room has possibilities for upgrade for free or for a resonable fee

you can still use the aaa for the room discount, promo sale on line for the tickets and still use the loewsfirst card. you start at blue which is not always a guarentee for upgrades but would receive the daily paper and welcome gift.

 

[dtuleya]

We are going last wekk in july first week in aug. Have fun .

Hey coastermom, we'll be there about the same time! Our tentative plans are to stay at the HRH from July 25-27 and move to the Dolphin from July 28 -August 3?.

 

[coastermom]

Hey coastermom, we'll be there about the same time! Our tentative plans are to stay at the HRH from July 25-27 and move to the Dolphin from July 28 -August 3?.

Our dates are july 23-28th at the HRH and the 28th till the 30th at POR.
Next year is a big disney trip for us we are going to do the ten day hopper purchase now that doesn't expire and use it for our trip this year and next. We only want to do MK for the little guy we have . Can't wait to go .