Question about trip planning/hotel switch

[Gurkensalat]

Hi, we plan 6 nights at Universal in September. One day Epic, one day Volcano bay, 4 days for IOA and Studios. The first 5 nights at Endless Summer Surfside are decided, but I am unsure about the last night. Should we switch to Royal Pacific for one night in order to get the free express passes for about 1.5 days (we fly back in the evening) in the parks, or stay in Endless Summer to avoid the moving hassle? In the latter case we could use part of the saved money to buy express passes for one full day (September 11 to be precise), if we think it is necessary. I have no idea if express passes in mid September are even a good investment since it seems to be not that crowded normally. In other words: Are the free express passes worth the hassle to move to another hotel including putting the luggage somewhere until the room is ready? I am hoping that Universal experts could give an educated opinion. Thanks in advance!

 

[CAPSLOCK]

I wouldn't think it was particularly necessary for a Thurs in Sept. That whole week is barely above the lowest EP prices of the year, which gives you an idea of busyness.

You'd need to Uber over with the luggage, they won't move it for you from Endless Summer.

Since you're talking a day and a half both weekdays in Sept, I wouldn't bother. And that's coming from someone who has done 1 night for EP a few times, though usually in the middle of the trip to maximize the benefit. Doing Sun night for EP on Sun/Mon at the weeknight rate is nice. If you're not hitting a school holiday or weekend, it's probably not worth it. I guess unless you have a full room of people, but then it's more hassle too.

Plus if you hit a rainy/stormy day, the EP is pretty non-helpful, and you likely won't know that until it is too late to cancel.

 

[Gurkensalat]

Thank you, that sounds reasonable. Especially the unsure weather is something I had not thought about. We are 2 adults by the way.

 

[Skippyboo]

There’s likely to be a mid afternoon thunderstorm also the Studios side will close early 5 out of 7 days of the week for HHN. The majority of the kids should be back in school and with HHN going on doubt there will be a lot of early morning park goers from the people who were up late for HHN

 

[CAPSLOCK]

The mid-afternoon thunderstorm is one thing, but we had our Portofino check in day with terrible weather, tornado warning, wind, heavy rain all day - so pretty much everything was a walk on but at least the EP let us use physically shorter queues. Though the next day was an Orlando school vacation day & we put the EP to excellent use (which was the plan).

Are you doing Halloween Horror Nights?

 

[Skippyboo]

September is also hurricane season so that’s always a worry weather wise.

 

[Gurkensalat]

Thank you for your replies. We will not do HHN. So the consensus seems to be that EP might not be that useful and we should rather stay in Endless Summer than move to Royal Pacific. Of course, RP is the better hotel, but with 1 night there and use of EP we would not have much time to experience it.

 

[Gurkensalat]

Funny thing happened. I should have mentioned that I had already reserved 5 nights Endless summer and 1 night Royal pacific last April via attractiontickets.com, and I now wanted to amend it to 6 nights Endless summer only. Well, I mailed them and they would have to cancel the first Endless Summer reservation and book a new one with one night more. That way the cost would be now more than double! So it is cheaper for us to just do the move to Royal Pacific and use the Express passes as efficiently as possible. Fascinating how much the prices have skyrocketed in the meantime, probably due to Epic opening.

 

[wendlle]

we just get the hotel to hold our luggage and then uber with it later on.
Never found it much of a big deal.

 

[Gurkensalat]

Since we want to use the express passes for the whole day, we will Uber in the morning to Royal Pacific and give them the luggage to keep until we return in the evening. I hope it works without much hassle.