Looking for Universal prices...

[PudseyChancer]

Appreciate this is a Universal question, and I've looked on the Universal boards but feel I might get a better answer on here. I'm looking at prices for Universal for five nights next year, checking in on the 3rd September, for 2 adults and one child.

I've had a price that I've taken provisionally from Thomas Cook, £734 for Royal Pacific Resort,water view room, though I have no idea whether this is a good price or not as I've never stayed at Universal before.

I definitely want to stay onsite at Universal, but am open to swapping to one of the other hotels - can anyone confirm whether this is a good price, or provide any steer as to where I can find anything better?

Cheers!

 

[flortlebap]

I've paid £158/night for two people for a standard room at HRH for September this year, if that helps?

 

[Kath2003]

Seems a little high - coming in around £110/night for those dates THIS year - so that would be £550 (and there's cash back on that too, which could take it down to £525). Even if you assume a 10% price hike for 2015, that's still significantly cheaper. Why don't you wait a few weeks until the hotel is on sale from a wide range of booking agencies?

RPR is the cheapest of the three Universal "deluxe" resorts (that give the Express Passes), usually followed the HRH. Portofino is usually the most expensive. I've only stayed at HRH and would only ever do so for the Express Passes - offsite hotels of a similar standard are around half the price.

 

[Lady Jane]

When I looked around I actually found the best price for the Universal hotels was booking room only with Virgin and included your parking too. That was for Dec this year, not sure what the rates would be like for Sept. We booked a package direct with Universal last time we went, which we since learnt is one of the more expensive ways to do it

 

[PudseyChancer]

Thanks for the replies, I realised we may be jumping the gun in booking for Universal, however we had got great flight prices so intoxicated by that, jumped straight in!

I'll obviously cancel if there is a £200 saving to be made!

The perks of staying onsite are worth the extra £'s as opposed to staying offsite, and I'm looking forward to having Margaritaville on my doorstep!

 

[scoobydooby]

I have booked via Hotels 4 U for next year at HRH, club level. Got a decent price but had to pay it all up front. That was fine for me to secure a club room as I understand they book up quickly in summer.

 

[saintrob]

I usually book on Universal's USA site and use my AA card for a discount. Everytime I've stayed (be it HRH or RP) the price has been the cheapest I could find.

 

[Tony Bush]

I called Universal direct and checked their web site and reserved a room with AA discount but then found it cheaper overall on Expedia, so I booked through them and cancelled my direct reservation

 

[joolz1910]

I booked with Hotels4u through Quidco and got £24 cashback.

 

[DLPDreams]

Another who has booked through Hotels4U - I have had a fair few prices and the others didn't come close! My friend is a TA and couldn't get near my price for me.

For RPR we paid £558 for 4 nights in August, so I would have thought your September dates should be a bit cheaper if anything, as our dates are still in US school summer holidays.... It isn't a water view room though, I honestly wasn't bothered by it.

As a pp says, downside to H4U is you have to pay in full at booking.

Just realised, you want 5 nights, but as the hotel becomes very cheap the longer you stay, I think you will get your room cheaper than you've been quoted. Our 4th night was £4! Still not sure if we are going to stay the 4th night, or head over to WDW as we have there booked too, but at £4, I thought I'd give ourselves the option!

 

[Laurafoster]

To be honest if it were me I would be waiting a few more months before booking.

I generally shop around for rates for a while before I book and use w w.t riva go.c om a lot (or t riva go.c o.uk for prices in £s). It will show you where the best deals are at the time. I generally keep an eye on it, checking frequently until a decent price comes up. Well a price I'm happy with anyway.

In the past I've booked universal hotels thru several different websites and direct with universal but I think generally the better prices won't be available just yet. We had a pool view room at HRH in May and paid around £129 per night. So it's worth checking the other hotels