FOTL at Universal

[mikeroberts]

I have booked to go to WDW in Feb 07 staying at CBR for 10 days. We will be doing IOA and US a day for each . Having discovered the demise of the free express passes and finding out we will be there during presidents week (expecting large crowds ) I am considering booking 1 night at Universal HRH to take advantage of FOTL. Does anybody know what time we can check in to get our room keycards and then enter the park? Also anyone know the car parking facilities for HRH ? Thanks for any Help

 

[chris16]

Hi
we stayed 2 nights last week in RPH, slept in villa, just used the room keys
You can check in at any time - we did around 09.30 - they took a number to ring us (or you can ring them) to see when room ready and what the number will be. You then get your room keys on check-in to use in the parks. You should be able to get 2 full days in universal.
A 1 park express book when we were there last week cost $35 per person, so if there are 4 of you 1 hotel room can be good value .
Cost of parking was $12/night self-park

chris

 

[mikeroberts]

Thanks for your help. There are only 3 of us but I reckon the advantages far outweigh the cost difference. If we book it would probably stay the night to get an early start next day.

 

[DebIreland]

We stayed at HRH for one night last year. Great hotel. Great service. Valet parking is very expensive so beware! 12 dollars plus tip (each time) so do the work yourself! I thought it was around 5 dollars to self park but it could have increased.

You can check in as early as you want and as the previous poster said, you can call later to see if your room is ready.

Oh, we ate at The Kitchen restaurant in HRH, very nice!

I wish we were staying there again this year but we have too many hotels as it is. Too much packing!!

Have a great trip.

 

[mikeroberts]

Thanks Chris
Is the car parking in the Huge Multi Storey Car Park or is there somewhere closer?

 

[chris16]

Car parks are attached to each of the hotels, just normal tarmac car park -
1-2 mins walk from lobby

chris

 

[wicket2005]

It depends on what time you are getting into the parks, we had no problems when we went in February on three occasions with lines before Express Pass, and neither last year or this July. If you get to the parks before opening you can whizz round the rides with no lines or virtually no lines at all. We expected problems in July with it being peak season but could go on the rides several times. The crowds seemed to start coming in at 11 am which is when lines started to go to 20 minutes, in the afternoon water rides are particularly popular and lines then stretched to 45 to 60 minutes. We usually had all the rides done by 11 am in both parks, then we did shows.