Never Been to Universal - Need Help Please

[GinaBean]

We are going to Orlando in December. We were planning on going to WDW, but are concerned about the crowds and not being able to get into the parks. We have never been to the Universal parks and have been considering going there instead.

We have already rented a house for a week for our trip, but my dh is very interested in the FOTL featured. I called to get a quote for the trip arriving Dec 27 & checking out Jan 3. There will be five in our party - me, dh, 19 yr old dd, 12 yr old dd, and 7 yr old ds. The rep quoted me a Kids Suite at RPR for a total of $5,355.05 for the week. That seems really steep to me, but since I have never been there, I have nothing to personally compare it to!

I was wondering if this sounds like a "normal" price for the Christmas season? I would love to find a way to reduce the price. I might be persuaded to give up our four bedroom home with pool to avoid waiting in lines all day long.

Thanks

 

[macraven]

i tried your dates and came up with this:





Property Selection
Note: # of adults & children may not exceed 5; Additional rooms may be booked after first reservation is made
Area: Universal
Check-In: December 27, 2008 Saturday # of Rooms: 1
Check-Out: January 2, 2009 Friday Adults: 2 (per room)
# of Nights: 6 Children (ages 0-17): 3 (per room)
Special Rates:
Promotion Code (if any):
Loews First #:
Travel Agency ID:
Property Listing
Property Rate Range Promotion Code Status

LOEWS PORTOFINO BAY HOTEL
5601 UNIVERSAL BOULEVARD
ORLANDO Florida 32819
United States
US Dollars
404.00 539.00
Available
Property Details...

HARD ROCK HOTEL
5800 UNIVERSAL BOULEVARD
ORLANDO Florida 32819
United States
US Dollars
374.00 499.00
Available
Property Details...

LOEWS ROYAL PACIFIC RESORT
6300 HOLLYWOOD WAY
ORLANDO Florida 32819
United States
US Dollars
339.00 369.00
Available
Property Details...



i miss read your post. i thought your son was 17 and not 19.

any person 18 and over is considered an adult for rates.
you are allowed 2 adults and 3 children per room without any extra charges. if you have 5 adults in the room, only the surcharges for the addtional 3 adults would apply per night.

there is a $25 per night extra charge for each additional adult over the 2 allowed.

if you stayed at portofina bay hotel which would cost $404 a night plus the additional adult, times 5 would not total to over $5,000.

kids suite cost a lot more.
you can check out the layouts of all the rooms all 3 hotels have to offer on this link:

http://www.universalorlando.com/hotels.html

you can find the room size, layout, amenities to the rooms and style of the rooms.

please look at that and get a better understanding of the room set ups.

the pbh has the largest rooms.
i put the time frame in you posted and came up with this.

Promotion Code:
SEASONAL RATE
Room only rate, not combinable with otheroffers. Theme park tickets not included.
Room Type:
DELUXE ROOM 2 QUEEN BEDS 490 Sq Ft
Lavish room with separate tub and showerLarger room than Garden or Bay View
Rates Information
Avg Nightly Rate:
463.29 (per room)
Total Cost w/o Taxes:
3243.00 (per room)
Taxes:
Total Taxes:
405.38 (per room) Resort Tax : 6.50 percent per room per night
County Tax : 6.00 percent per room per night
Total Cost Including Taxes:
3648.38 (per room)
Currency:
US Dollars
Other Charges:
NA
* Rate Changes: Daily Rate commencing on the indicated dates

27-Dec-08 28-Dec-08 02-Jan-09

474.00 459.00 474.00



$3648 for 7 nights for 490 sq ft.

if you have the AAA, you can get up to a 35% discount off of rooms atthe universal hotels.

i pay $45 a year for AAA membership in the chgo land area.

i more than save that much on the room just for the membership fees.

also, universal honors the AAA with a discount of 10% at the park for food and merch.

it can be cheaper for a room at pbh with the AAA card.


i know this is a lot of info to digest all at once.

checkout the links, study them over for size and need and let us know if you have more questions.

 

[tlinus]

It would be much better for you to go to the universal website and go to the hotels button. Put in your dates and see what is available. I just did it for the dates you gave and here is what came up for the kids suite. -


STAY 4, PLAY MORE PACKAGE

Includes TWO (2) 2-PARK UNLIMITED ADMISSION TICKETS for both Universal Orlando theme prk


JURASSIC PARK THEMED KIDS SUITE 670 Sq Ft King bdrm plus kids room with 2 single beds Extra TV and Video Games


Daily Rate/Room Approximate Cost of Stay
614.00 * 4298.00 *


Also, exactly what mac said.....do you belong to AAA? You can call the hotels directly and get a discounted room rate.

Let us know what else we can do to help you.

 

[GinaBean]

Thank you both. I did the same thing myself last night, but it kept giving me a quote of over $5000 also. The rep that I spoke to was very nice, but she kept getting confused. I thought that it seemed really high.

I told my dh last night that I might join AAA just for the discount! I will look again & see what I come up with.

Thanks again!

 

[macraven]

i never do the packages that includes tickets.

the tickets are at full price and the discounts for the rooms are not that great.

i saw the rates at uo but it had the tickets for 2 people only in it.

if you added more people for the tickets,those would be at gate price.

no one pays gate price if you are looking for deals.


there are some families that do pay full price and the packages for the convenience of it all being done at once.

i have to budget my vacations so the packages are not best for me.

 

[GinaBean]

i never do the packages that includes tickets.

the tickets are at full price and the discounts for the rooms are not that great.

i saw the rates at uo but it had the tickets for 2 people only in it.

if you added more people for the tickets,those would be at gate price.

no one pays gate price if you are looking for deals.


there are some families that do pay full price and the packages for the convenience of it all being done at once.

i have to budget my vacations so the packages are not best for me.

We have to budget our vacation as well, which was why I wasn't very excited about the $5,000+ quote I got.

So, I guess I would be better off pricing a room only and buying the tickets now (the 2 park unliimited 7 day offer). Oh, and I should join AAA for the discount.

I'm going to get a room only quote right now.

 

[macraven]

i would buy the special promo tickets now as they will not be offered much longer.

and do check out the AAA cost for your area.


just get the basic plan for AAA, don't do the upgrade for it.
that is why mine is so cheap

 

[patster734]

You might also want to get a quote with the APH (Preferred Annual Passholder) rate. The difference between rates might be big enough to cover the cost of 1 preferred annual pass.