friends onsite, we are not........FOTL?????

mdmomof3

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jan 7, 2001
We will be in Disney 4/15-19, and have decided to spend the 20th at Universal with our friends, who are staying at the Portofino. I am assuming that they will get FOTL, but my kids won't take very kindly to watching their friends walk up to the rides while we wait in line! How does that work?

Question #2--We need accomodations for the night of the 20th. I could just stay an extra night at HIFS, but thought about either moving closer to Universal & the airport, or to a cheaper place, since we will just really need a place to sleep after our day at Universal and before our early flight out the next morning. I did call PB & HRH, but neither are available for the night I need. Any suggestions??
 
Keep checking PB and HRH everyday. Cancellations due happen more frequently than you think. You never know when luck may strike. If all else fails, there are several low budget hotels around Universal.
 
We only showed our room cards for the adults. The children just went in with us. I'm sure your children could go along with their friends if you can't get a room. Also, some attendants really scrutinized the room cards while a few didn't even look at them.
 


Hi mdmomof3!
Like prev. post says, keep checking for a cancellation.
If that doesn't pan out, keep in mind if you buy 2 day tickets or more(multi-day tics), you can obtain 3 Express passes (per person) at one time. The Express line entry is the same as the on-site FOTL entry on many, if not most, of the rides.
The unused days of those Park tickets never expire!
Main drawback is , might be hard to keep re-riding same ride immediately like on-site guests can.
Good Luck & Have Fun!
J
 
Thanks for everyone's help. Because of your advice, I called again today and was able to get a room at HRH. They did not have any more entertainment discounts, but I was able to get a AAA discount of $183. More than I wanted to spend, but hopefully worth it.

Now...what time can we check in? If we plan on checking out of HIFS early in the AM and heading over to get spend the entire day at IOA, I will need the room key for FOTL, right? WHat should we do??
 
Thanks to your advice, I called again today and was able to get HRH for $183 (AAA discount, no entertainment discount available). More than I wanted to spend, but hopefully worth it.

We planned on checking out of the HIFS early in the AM, and then heading over to spend the whole day at IOA. When can we check in? We will need the room key for FOTL, right? What do you suggest?
 


Simple. Tell your friends to get 4 or 5 room cards. However many are in their party. On the day you meet them, have them give the adults in your party their kid's room key(s). Just tell the attendants that the kids dont carry cards because they might lose them if they hassle you. I assume they won't. They never really look at our cards when we go. And usually we only have to show one key for our entire party.
 
After you stay at HRH you will wish you had spent a week there...even at 183.00. We arrived at 9 am fully expecting that our room would not be ready, and would have to leave our luggage somewhere, but they just gave us an available room, and we went right on to our room. I would deffinatly keep calling back for the entertainment rate. They were sold out for me too, but 7 days before we arrived, the rate became available. keep trying.Also deluxe at 149.00 is well worth the extra 20.00 per night.(We had a family of 5)
 
Technically, every member of your party needs a room key to use FOTL, even kids. Those that do not have keys have the possibility to be turned away.

guy.gif


Barry Hom
The moderator formerly known as Barry aka usagi
Moderator, Universal and Sea World Boards


"If you were me, you'd be good looking."
 
While it is true that you can be turned away for not having a card, it should not happen. They really don't look at them much and if the adults have them, they will let the kids on. Just say that the kids don't have their cards with them for fear of losing them. They will not turn you away they would rather just let you go through rather than cause a fuss. I would not be concerned at all.
 
I too have made reservations at HRH in order to gain FOTL access. For every family/group/person out there who condones "sharing of keys", getting "extra keys", etc. you really need to think this through. My DH & I will be a party of two. Should we tell them 4 just so we can get two extra room keys and give them away? Why not go to the front desk every day and tell them we lost our keys and ask for 4 more? Let just further assume that DH & I bring two kids with us. We give those two keys away to two other adults with 2 kids. We then go back every day and get 4 more keys from the desk, (tell them we lost them) give them to two sets of adults with 2 kids each. By the end of the week we have just given FOTL access to um, let's see:
us (our kids getting in on our keys)
our kids set (2 adults & 2 kids getting in on the adult keys)
day two 4 adults and 4 kids kids getting in on the adult keys)
day three day four 4 adults and 4 kids kids getting in on the adult keys)
day four same
day five same
day six same
check out on day seven and give our keys to someone 2 adults & 2 kids

I have just given FOTL to 48 EXTRA people who have not PAID for that "perk". While you don't mind sharing with your own friends--how about sharing with the friends of thousands of other people? What if you were the one paying close to $200 a night for a hotel? Would you want all those "extra" "friends" horning in on your time? Perks for ONSITE guests are just that--perks for ONSITE guests. Is it fair? Depends--are you the one staying onsite or off?
 
Never say never to having things checked. We were at a convention at the Dolphin at WDW and one of the rooms had an extra person that wasn't registered (the extra adult charge--they didn't want to pay it). One night they went to get on the bus to go somewhere and the driver happened to be checking ID's...now how often does that happen...well, she was denied access and off went her friends.

I am one of those people that say, hey I am spending alot more money to stay on site so those perks should stay with the onsiters! Sorry!
 
Wow, everybody hates me . . .

As far as Tinkerbells response, I am sure people check IDs, but I am saying that at Universal they usually do not.

And Steve, there is a big difference between what you are talking about and what I am talking about. This person is trying to get into HRH or PBH, but they are sold out. They do not want to be split up from their party for the ONE day they are with them, and this is understandable. I am not saying you should get tons of keys and give them out to everybody you meet (I too get mad when people dip in line), but for one family to go in with the rest of their group is not that big a deal. I would not care if two or three people went in with the rest of their group. I have stayed onsite 5 times, and I would not mind letting one or two people slip in if they did not want to be seperated from their party. I am not that much of an elitist that I would split up a small family on their vacation. Are you?

Plus, what you said was not true. You can only get as many room keys as the number of people in your room. 2 people cannot get 4 keys. And the staff at the hotel would not keep giving you new keys everyday, they are not that stupid.
 
I think we are talking about an isolated incident, where friends happen to be traveling at the same time and are vacationing together. How often would a situation like that occur? I don't think anyone was implying that people should give their cards away! For the extra 2 children that may go along with their friends, I'm sure there are plenty of people who paid for FOTL and didn't even use it. My mother only went on 2 rides at Universal. I certainly don't condone giving away the cards, the thought didn't even cross my mind. It just seemed to be a solution to momof3's dilemma, which is moot anyway since she was able to get a room!
 
First of all, I never insuated that I wanted to do anything that we weren't entitled to. And second, letting my kids ride with their friends for one day is a far cry from giving away 50 passes. This board is supposed to be for advice, and since we have never been to Universal, I was asking how FOTL worked. I don't think I deserved what I got!

Fortunately, thanks to the the posters who responded with genuine advice, our dilemma is solved. I am spending much more money than I should, since we are not going to be able to enjoy any of the perks of what looks like a fabulous hotel. But, at least I know that my kids will be able to go on rides with their friends, so it is worth it.

Also, I called to check on the entertainment discount again today, and the guy said that they were blacked out from April 10-27. SO, I guess that I should just be grateful that I got a room, and that at least I got my AAA rate of $183.
 
Mom of 3, did you ask if they had a fan club rate? I just made resv for some friends for 160 in April and 180 on the weekend. You're gonna love the Hard Rock. Have fun.
 
mdmomof3, you did the right thing. We just got back from a long weekend at HRH, and although many of the attendants did not scutinize the cards or care, many did, and made sure each person had one. It would have definitely interfered in your fun, just thinking that each time you or your kids got on a ride that they could be turned away. Anyway, the HRH at any price, is absolutely wonderful!! After my first night, I bought an annual pass, and planned two more trips down there!! You will not regret it!
 
What is a fan club rate, and how do you get it? And we will be there on a Friday--is that considered a weekend? If so, then I will just be content w/ my rate of $183. I have a poolview room, but will continue to call to check on the availability of a garden room which I think they said is about $160. We'll probably only be in the hotel when it is dark out anyway, so the view won't matter! Not that $20 is that much, but we will have just spent 5 days at WDW, and this extra day was not in our original budget!

Thanks again--you have been very helpful!
 

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