Is 7 days too long and do I need to book a package?

[disneyfanforever]

We are planning on staying at Royal Pacific this summer, and I am worried that 7 days at Universal may too be long. My boys are 15 and 11, and we are planning on a very relaxing time. Our plan is to hit the parks in the morning and relax at the on-site pools during the afternoons. Will we get bored or does that sound good?

Also, I was planning on booking the room only and then buying the park tickets later. Do we still get all of the onsite benefits (FOTL/Express pass and Early Admission for Harry Potter) if I book the room only now and buy the length of stay tickets later?

Thanks in advance for the info! We are so excited!

 

[Bonnie40]

Haven't frequented these boards in some time - starting to plan another trip and saw your post.

I would never suggest someone stay at Universal exclusively for 7 days. Way too long...IMO....

If you plan on staying at an onsite hotel with FOTL privledges, you would find 3-4 days more than enough even with afternoon pool breaks.

 

[Southernmiss]

We are planning on staying at Royal Pacific this summer, and I am worried that 7 days at Universal may too be long. My boys are 15 and 11, and we are planning on a very relaxing time. Our plan is to hit the parks in the morning and relax at the on-site pools during the afternoons. Will we get bored or does that sound good?

Also, I was planning on booking the room only and then buying the park tickets later. Do we still get all of the onsite benefits (FOTL/Express pass and Early Admission for Harry Potter) if I book the room only now and buy the length of stay tickets later?

Thanks in advance for the info! We are so excited!

We just stayed at RPH in December with our kids and my brother's family (kids ages 10, 11, 12, 14, 17) You do get early admission for HP, but not FOTL for Forbidden Journey. With early entry and front of the line passes, even in a busy time, we were still able to see most everything we wanted in 2 days and see the Christmas offerings (Manheim Steamroller, Macy's Parade, Merry Grinchmas) and have some pool time.

We arrived late on Friday night, used early entry to IOA on Saturday did what we wanted to do there and then hopped to Universal Studios. Sunday, we slept in and went swimming at RPH, then on to Downtown Disney for lunch followed by a visit to the Grand Floridian to see the Gingerbread House and then on to Magic Kingdom for MVMCP on Sunday night. Monday we slept in and then went to Universal Studios in the morning and then hopped back to IOA for the evening and checked out Tuesday.

We booked a "Stay More, Play More" hotel rate with RPH in August and bought our Park to Park (US hopper passes) tickets through Undercover Tourist right before our trip (cheaper this way).

I think even taking it easy 3 or 4 days would be enough.

 

[macraven]

We are planning on staying at Royal Pacific this summer, and I am worried that 7 days at Universal may too be long. My boys are 15 and 11, and we are planning on a very relaxing time. Our plan is to hit the parks in the morning and relax at the on-site pools during the afternoons. Will we get bored or does that sound good?

Also, I was planning on booking the room only and then buying the park tickets later. Do we still get all of the onsite benefits (FOTL/Express pass and Early Admission for Harry Potter) if I book the room only now and buy the length of stay tickets later?

Thanks in advance for the info! We are so excited!

i have been going yearly since 1993.

i stay onsite and this fall i booked for 10 days.

i go solo and never run out of things to do.
i'm never bored there.

it is a relaxing vacation for me as i am coming from a week stay at the motherland resort.

when you stay onsite, you get early entry and unlimited useage of the express lines for rides and shows.

book the room.
buy the tickets separate.

it will come out cheaper.

 

[bas71873]

We did 7 days back in August 2009 and it was the best vacation EVER. We did the parks at a leisurely pace, relaxed by the pool, shopped, napped. It was so nice to come home relaxed rather than feeling like we never stopped. I am hoping to go back this summer for another 7, but am trying to persuade DH on that one (he has in his head he wants to go to Disney, but for me, that's no vacation and he forgets that he will have to get up to an alarm clock every morning to actually be able to have fun).

One thing I will tell you, Royal Pacific doesn't have a slide (at least as far as I can tell, because we would love to stay there), but my DD needs her pool to have a slide....that's her one request. The Hard Rock pool is really, really cool, as is the whole hotel and I already have my room booked just in case DH says go for it. I'm working on him

 

[pigletto]

I really can't say if 7 days is too long. We have only ever done 2 day visits while staying on Disney property. I think your plan sounds nice though with the idea to relax and do the parks here and there!

One thing I can say for sure is that after crunching numbers all day yesterday (literally gave myself a headache!) is booking tickets and room separately seems to work out better in most scenarios. Try looking for a AAA discount for your dates if you have AAA. Or the stay more/Play more rate. Tickets seemed to be cheapest at Undercover Tourist ( I only compared them with the Universal website and the AAA discount).
We're doing two trips so the power pass and an AP work out best for us.

 

[Mudd77]

If relaxation is what you want out of your trip, then this is a great way to do it. We did a 7-day stay at RPR in the summer of 2010 and are doing it again this year. It offers you plenty of time to do everything at your own pace and not try and cram everything in to 2-3 days. It's not like you can't leave and go to other parks if you want to. We enjoyed sleeping in, pools in the afternoon and parks in the evening. You get a different experience going to the parks at night. Awesome vacation and can't wait to go again!

 

[hanly2]

I just booked a 7 night stay for my family in August and I was worried it would be too long, but we are going to get the flex ticket and visit sea world and the 2 water parks during our trip so that makes it 5 parks and 8 days I think it will be nice and relaxing, not like our disney trip last year where we had to hit 5 parks in 6 days and they are a lot bigger parks. We hardly spent anytime relaxing at the pool maybe 1 hour the whole time.

 

[bumbershoot]

One thing I will tell you, Royal Pacific doesn't have a slide (at least as far as I can tell, because we would love to stay there), but my DD needs her pool to have a slide....that's her one request. The Hard Rock pool is really, really cool, as is the whole hotel and I already have my room booked just in case DH says go for it. I'm working on him

You don't have to stay at the hotel to use their pool! Universal *encourages* pool-hopping.



We're staying 6 nights at the Portofino next month, and I plan on relaxing. I might worry outwardly that it's too much time, but I actually don't think it will be.

After all, our very first Universal stay involved 4 days at the parks, and we were left wanting more!

 

[disneyfanforever]

Thank you guys for all of the replies and information. I think we are going to go for it! I am hoping to book the room very soon!

 

[macraven]

One thing I will tell you, Royal Pacific doesn't have a slide (at least as far as I can tell, because we would love to stay there), but my DD needs her pool to have a slide....that's her one request. The Hard Rock pool is really, really cool, as is the whole hotel and I already have my room booked just in case DH says go for it. I'm working on him

if you stay at RPH, take the water taxi to city walk.
switch to the water taxi for the HRH.

where you exit the water taxi, will be a very short walk to the HRH pool.

all you have to do is show your hotel room key to get towels for your day there.

you can also do the same for PBH.

there usually are swim towels at each hotel's pool side to use while you are there.

you can also do food and beverages at any of the pools and charge back to your hotel or pay cash/cc.

all the pools have activities for children, teens, adults.

i was just looking at the schedule for RPH pool side activities.
complmentary refreshments at noon were also listed on the schedule per day.

 

[bas71873]

You don't have to stay at the hotel to use their pool! Universal *encourages* pool-hopping.

if you stay at RPH, take the water taxi to city walk.
switch to the water taxi for the HRH.

where you exit the water taxi, will be a very short walk to the HRH pool.

all you have to do is show your hotel room key to get towels for your day there.

you can also do the same for PBH.

there usually are swim towels at each hotel's pool side to use while you are there.

you can also do food and beverages at any of the pools and charge back to your hotel or pay cash/cc.

all the pools have activities for children, teens, adults.

i was just looking at the schedule for RPH pool side activities.
complmentary refreshments at noon were also listed on the schedule per day.

I am WAY too lazy on vacation to pool hop and we certainly would not want to do it everyday. DD kept us at the pool a few nights 'til midnight and I certainly don't want to have to make my way back to a hotel after that . But, given some of this info, I might have to make an effort to hope over to PB to check it out.

 

[Brit_Jude]

We just booked for 14 nights at HRH in July. We have family coming from England and anything less than 14 days is hard with the jet lag. We plan on having a relaxing time and using the hotel amenities to the full, the parks this trip will be an added advantage, not the main focus. We stayed for a week Christmas' 2009 and feel like we did not spend enough time enjoying the hotel amenities or the restaurants and Citywalk. We went to the parks and also over to Disney on that trip. We loved Hard Rock and the pool area is great so our approach this time is that we are having a resort vacation.

We want to enjoy the poolside movie of the week, the Thursday night DJ, catch the live band on Saturday and the website lists a concert night on Sundays. We'll sleep in and go to the parks on our schedule as we'll have the FOTL benefit (except for FJ). Hubby plays golf so he is planning on taking advantage of the special golf benefits. I also plan to hit an outlet mall or two and cocktails at the Velvet Bar.

I am sure there will be plenty to do in 7 days as long as you don't just rely on the parks for everything and make use of the hotel amenities and relax with family.

 

[sunshineNJ]

It depends on what you are planning. I just booked 6 nights at HRH this August. We will do 2 or 3 days at US and IOA. We are also going to Sea World, Discovery Cove and maybe Aquatica if we have time. I do think 7 nights is too long if you are just doing Universal and IOA.

 

[disneyfanforever]

Well we just booked our hotel, but we decided to go with Hard Rock rather than Royal Pacific. My boys changed their minds at the last minute and decided HRH was the place to be. I am happy with the choice and think we will have a great time.

Right now we are planning on doing the 3 park unlimited tickets (but we haven't bought the tickets yet) so I think my kids might like WetnWild one day. If we get bored we can always go to Sea World or Aquatica like others have mentioned.

I am so excited! Do they ever run great deals on tickets now? Last time we went, there were great deals but that was before Harry Potter so I doubt there will ever be anything like that again.

Thanks for all of the help!

 

[Tiggr88]

You may want to consider going to Sea World for a day or two if you think it will be to long. We stayed for 8 nights and went to SW twice and took it easy touring through IOA/US the rest of the days. Once we just hung out at the HRH pool. You'll have a great time for 7 days.

 

[bas71873]

Well we just booked our hotel, but we decided to go with Hard Rock rather than Royal Pacific. My boys changed their minds at the last minute and decided HRH was the place to be. I am happy with the choice and think we will have a great time.

Right now we are planning on doing the 3 park unlimited tickets (but we haven't bought the tickets yet) so I think my kids might like WetnWild one day. If we get bored we can always go to Sea World or Aquatica like others have mentioned.

I am so excited! Do they ever run great deals on tickets now? Last time we went, there were great deals but that was before Harry Potter so I doubt there will ever be anything like that again.

Thanks for all of the help!

We did a day at SW on our first trip and this time we are doing a day at Discovery Cove and a day at Aquatica. We too are getting the 2 park/3 day park to park ticket and then we'll have 1 day to just lounge, shop, whatever. I think you'll have fun and HRH is a really cool hotel. The banner at the top of this page has a 3 park (US, IOA and Wet n Wild) unlimited ticket offer for $174.99 if you are interested in that.

 

[Mudd77]

The banner at the top of this page has a 3 park (US, IOA and Wet n Wild) unlimited ticket offer for $174.99 if you are interested in that.

Get it at Undercovertourist.com for $176.95 with taxes included in the price and free shipping.