I need some value hotel recommendations for a trip that we are planning to Universal, IOA, Sea World. We need one that offers good transportation to the parks. How exactly does that work when it states scheduled transportation? Does this transportation system work as well as Disney's or do they make a lot of pick-up stops at other hotels before reaching the park?
Are you wanting to stay onsite or off?
I can answer your questions for onsite, but have never stayed offsite, so somebody else will have to jump in here for that.
All the onsite hotels are rated 4* hotels, so they are all equivalent (or better) than Disney's deluxes. However, that said, the prices are definitely not as high as the deluxes. Royal Pacific is the least expensive of the three. Depending on the time of your stay and the room you want, it can be had for anywhere from $130 per night to over $300 per night.
Hard Rock and Portofino go back and forth over which one is the pricier of the two.
Discounts can be found through
AAA, APH (annual pass rate) and many rates on the Loewshotels.com site such as Supersaver. If you go over to the Universal Hotels board, there are a few threads that explain the discounts. There is also a rate and date thread that will give you an idea of what people have been quoted for different times of the year and for which hotels.
The transportation system is much better, in my opinion, then Disney's. But that is because everything is much more compact at Universal.
You can walk from all the resorts to the parks. Hard Rock is the closest to the Studios side with an approximately 4-5 minute walk. Add another 5 minutes to get to IOA. Royal Pacific is on the other side of the lagoon, so it is about a 7-10 minute walk to IOA. Add another 5 minutes to walk over to Unversal. Portofino is the farthest, being a bit down the lagoon from the Hard Rock. It is about a 12-15 minute walk to Studios.
There are boats the run very consistently from each hotel into City Walk, which is the hub between the two parks. Each hotel has its own dedicated boat/boats and dock at City Walk. From the boat dock, it is a 5 minute walk to either IOA or Universal, depending if you go right or left off the boats.
There is also a bus that runs a loop between the hotels and City Walk.
There is transportation to Sea World from all three hotels.
The perks of staying onsite - the proximity and the ease of your vacation due to it and FOTL - the best perk ever. It is like an unlimited fast pass. You show your hotel key at every ride, show or restaurant and at the rides and shows you enter the express line and at restaurants, you get the next available table (as long as your party isn't huge.)
For offsite value hotels, the transportation would be dependent on how they run their shuttle services. You would need to contact each and ask them how often their shuttles run and if they go to both Universal and Sea World.
Short walk to Universal.
