Transportation:
We had fantastic bus service at Endless Summer (never waiting more than 5 mins and one day we went back to the hotel to pick up something from the room so we used it enough to get a consistency of timing) and we did the walking path for Royal Pacific easily. We utilized Early Entry all 3 days although when we arrived during Early Entry did vary. IOA was the only one open for Early Entry and Royal Pacific was a perfect location for that one and being dropped off at the bus shuttle area at CityWalk a good enough location as well for IOA.
We were also there during a Grad Nite event which closed both parks at 6pm (May 6th). That day was one of our 2 EP days and it was our check in day for Royal Pacific. At the end of the park time we needed to take a bus over to Endless Summer to pick up the car. There was a decent amount of people for that specific location (as you probably would expect with it being a Value) but Universal didn't disappoint. They had a Mears Coach bus pulled right up for everyone. And the evening before they pulled out Volcano Bay busses (which are quite large I might add) to get everyone back as well. I was truly impressed with it. I couldn't guarantee it's always as quick but I do know from what other posters have said and what our DISer friends who live in Orlando and have also stayed onsite it's seems much more efficient overall than WDW although size of Universal's property likely helps. Still wanted to give my feedback, it was no stress on that.
Random:
We did have Royal Pacific hold our luggage on May 7th so we didn't have to take them to the car and have those items be in the sun (Endless Summer's garage is nice for that one). They would hold until 11pm and we did make it but it was getting a tad close just due to park closing time and getting out of IOA and walking but it was nice. My husband had already completed online check in for Hampton Inn and had selected our room already so when we moved over there even as late as it was we just used the phone for access and then the next morning he went down and got the key card. Hilton hotels you tell them when you want your room cleaned or need more stuff.
Rooms:
Endless Summer Surfside rooms are basic but totally fine for us, although with the renovated All-Star rooms at WDW that murphy bed over there better suits a couple only truly needing one bed as opposed to two. I liked the theming of Endless Summer. I also actually liked that the toilet/shower were separated from the vanity.
Royal Pacific is obviously a much nicer hotel overall and the room was a bit bigger and nicer. I liked the couch in there (became a spot for my luggage though lol) and the bathroom quite nice in finishings and the tropical theming with all the vegetation really beautiful. The smell of the hotel was really pleasant too. It's a great hotel and did feel mostly calming. We ended up calling to see if there was a reservation for Jake's American Bar because we didn't see any reservations. The woman on the phone had one for 15 mins from when we called, it was cutting it very close (we were changing out of park clothes) but we made it. They do have priority set up for onsite guests so I believe that's why. We sat outside under the bridge and that was mostly peaceful. I did like that at Royal Pacific's to go convenience store type thing they had yogurt parfaits (which I had for my morning breakfast). I don't know if they had any at Dockside but Surfside they did not.
Final Thoughts:
So would we do a split stay again like we did? We sure would! At first I was like "whoa 3 places in the span of a few days"
It is a bit of a pain due to the amount of days we were there in Orlando so we had a lot of..stuff lol but it was a great experience and def. doable. You sorta just need to make sure your stuff hasn't exploded all over the hotel room for efficiency in getting out of there. Each night I would get my clothes ready for the next day and sorta tidy up afterwards, this way for the most part it was my toiletries and all I needed to regroup together. But after this trip we became sold on staying onsite at Universal and doing split stay too being totally fine. It may not always work out to doing that but we would absolutely do it if it worked out
Also I wanted to say the order in which we did it with non-EP hotel first then EP hotel was the right choice for us. It allowed us to use Early Entry all 3 days and be the easiest in terms of maximizing EP even with an early 6pm closure on the one day. Our non-EP day was a Thursday and our two EP days were Friday and Saturday. Also my husband utilized a mixture of single rider and EP as sometimes it was quicker (he would usually as the TM) to use single rider than it would have been to use EP.
