On-site or off-site hotel

[czycropper]

OK - I need help from all you experts - we're arriving on the Monday before Thanksgiving and staying through Wed., so should I reserve on-site to get the extra hour opening & the FOTL pass OR would it be ok to forgo that and pay less than half-price for the hotel stay..... HELP!!!!

I already have the entrance tickets since I bought them back when there was the sale before the price hike

 

[Planogirl]

I'm not an expert but I'll throw out my thoughts.

Onsite or offsite is a hard decision and depends on what you can afford. Onsite is amazing. The hotels are so close to everything, you can pool hop, front of the line is great and so on. However we stay offsite nowadays and easily do all that we want to at Universal.

Onsite is more convenient in many ways and the hotels are nice. Offsite saves you money and there are of course nice offsite hotels too. The answer is that there really is no answer.

 

[Magpie]

Thanksgiving might be busy... It'd be a shame to have to lay out extra money for front of the line passes, and end up spending as much as you would have spent if you'd stayed on site.

We're travelling in mid-December. Front of the line passes are probably not necessary for us, but knowing my husband we'd end up getting them anyway. He's a bit crowd-phobic.

For us the calculation went like this:

Stay off site - cheaper rooms, but more money spent on renting a car, paying for parking and buying fotl passes, also less convenient to get around.

Stay on site - more expensive rooms, but we don't need to rent a car or pay for parking and the complimentary fotl passes are unlimited (as many times as we like on a ride). AND we can leave our 13 & 14yos at the park and stroll back to our room to "nap" (because, you know, old folks like us need our "naps" in the afternoon).

For us, it was a pretty easy choice, even in the off season.

 

[braddillman]

I always stay off-site to get more for my money, I like the space in a timeshare condo. For only a couple of days, the difference/day won't be as significant. I've never found it terribly busy at USF/IoA, and I've never bought FOTL passes, never thought I needed them. It's pretty quick by cab or car from I-drive, but you'll pay $15/day parking. But then, don't you pay about that for parking if you stay on-site? Paying for parking when you stay on-site makes no sense to me, seems like a money grab by Loews or Universal.

 

[schumigirl]

Another non expert here...........but always onsite

Hotels are gorgeous, all 3 of them...... and the FOTL pass even if it`s not as busy is still good to have.

I`m a bit biased as I love the RPR, but it`s so convenient we just love our 2 weeks there, and now don`t want to stay anywhere else.

But only you can decide when you weigh up the costs of doing it both ways what`s best for you

 

[ElizabethB]

On-site for us. Love the unlimited FOTL access.

 

[torinsmom]

If you are only staying 2 nights, I would do onsite. You will need FOTL to do everything you want and favorites a few times. Of course, to save a little money, if you're getting there in the afternoon Monday, you could get an offsite room(even Priceline) for that night and then move to onsite Tues. morning and you would have FOTL for Tuesday and Wednesday.

We did one night at a Priceline hotel, one night at RPR and then a week at an Emerald Island townhome in June. I wasn't that impressed with RPR as a hotel, especially for the price, but the FOTL was a nice perk.

Marsha

 

[Metro West]

OK - I need help from all you experts - we're arriving on the Monday before Thanksgiving and staying through Wed., so should I reserve on-site to get the extra hour opening & the FOTL pass OR would it be ok to forgo that and pay less than half-price for the hotel stay..... HELP!!!!

I already have the entrance tickets since I bought them back when there was the sale before the price hike

While I would agree with the other posters on staying onsite, the parks are not usually very crowded before Thanksgiving. You should be able to get by w/o Express access. EPs are at the cheapest price level through 11/24 so large crowds are not expected. I would say...if you can swing it to stay onsite...do it. Otherwise I think you should be OK if you decide to save some money and stay offsite.

 

[2busy4life]

Being the newbie to the UOA/IOA thing we are planning our first trip in 21 years this December. We have decided to rent a house off site because we wanted to be able to cook if we wanted too (save $$), swim/spa when we wanted to and generally have more privacy then what you get in a hotel situation. Cost wise it was cheaper for us to rent the house for two weeks then to stay at a hotel. We decided to stay half way between Orlando and Tampa Bay so that we can go where ever we want within a one hour drive. We are driving from Mississauga, Ontario Canada so we will already have our car with us. We have thought about taking the Autotrain but think we might do this another trip south. Parking costs are just part of the trip and being at the FOTL is not a big deal to us.

 

[M likes the mouse]

Hello, you could go for the Harry Potter package available online at one of the partner hotel. That way, you could still get in Islands of adventure one hour early and save money. The only thing is you would not have the express pass access.

 

[Clemson Bama Fan]

We stay onsite at the Hard Rock Hotel every year. It is so well themed and convenient to the parks and City Walk. Yes you have to pay to park your car when staying at the onsite hotels, but don't think for a minute that Disney hasn't rolled the parking fee into the price of their rooms. Compare the Universal onsite hotels to Disney's Deluxe resorts and you will see how much Disney "charges" for parking, even if you don't have a car. Nothng is "free". In our opinion, if it is affordable, onsite is worth it even if you don't need FOTL. It is still nice and will ensure minimum waits and maximum enjoyment.

 

[Minniespec]

I would recommend you stay in an onsite hotel. The FOTL is amazing, and definately worth the extra money it costs to stay onsite.

 

[mjohnson96]

I also agree with onsite because if you have kids it makes a huge difference. We stayed for the first time at RPR a few years ago and now we won't stay anywhere else when visiting Universal. Even my mom now will ask why don't we stay there the entire trip instead of a different hotel the first or last night to save money.

We have a 7 year old and an almost 1 year old and lines are not our favorite thing. So the FOTL is great, plus easier to do go and ride again when DD asked if she can ride it just one more time after she gets off her favorites.

We also like the short walk to the parks and resturants and last time we did not rent a car so we did not worry about parking fees. DD loves the pools at all 3 resorts and we always take a full or half day to pool hop.