I'm new to Universal Orlando

[albertotahiti]

I will be going to Disney April 28th, but it looks like I'm going to have an extra day off from work, so I will be arriving in Orlando on Friday, April 26th and was thinking about visiting Universal. What hotels are near that park? Do they provide shuttle transportation there? Would they be able to provide transportation to Downtown Disney? Help!

 

[Badge]

Well, Universal has three onsite hotels that offer an amazing perk...never having to wait in line! You show your room key at nearly every ride in both parks at the entrance to the line and you get to enter the "express line" to skip right to the front. This is like the Fastpass system at Disney, except it is UNLIMITED and you do not have to wait for any sort of return times. If you find that you really enjoy a ride like the Mummy, the standard wait might be 45 minutes but you could ride it TWICE in less than 10 (normally).

It sounds like you will only have one day at Universal, so having this perk will really help you see a lot of stuff. It would cost $254 for a night (based on a quick search I just did on the website). If you plan on visiting the parks for two days, a one night hotel stay will allow you skip the lines both days (check in and check out day). The hotels also offer free transportion via a water taxi to the parks or you can walk (about a 10 minute slow walk).

As far as offsite hotels, I can't really help you there. We always just stay onsite because of never having to wait in line. An offsite hotel will cost you around $100 (I would assume) per night. You would have to decide if the extra money to stay on site is worth the perks of being able to see everything in a short amount of time. Our last trip was 7 nights and there was still stuff we wanted to do at the parks

 

[macraven]

op, if you stay at UO hotels or an offsite hotel near UO, you would need to depend on car service or a taxi on your nickel to get to the motherland.

Mears does offer a round trip shuttle from the motherland resorts to UO for $19 an adult. (Mostly used for day guests at universal.)

you can not take luggage on that shuttle.

if you stay offsite near UO, some offsite hotels do have shuttle service to the UO parks.