staying onsite or off site??

[MickeynMinnie]

I;m looking to book a trip either to disney or universal in Oct....
i have stayed onsite at disney lots of times, but only for a night at universal. I was wondering of its really worth it to stay at one of the universal hotels?? are they like the disney ones??? what kind of perks do they have??? they look to be alot more expensive than the disney value hotels... can anyone help me out! Thanks in advance!

 

[damo]

The major perk is the free unlimited express pass that you get with your room key. Think what it would be like to have fastpasses with no specified return time for every ride to use as often as you like. That is what you get when you stay onsite at Universal.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

As Damo noted, the best perk is unlimited FOTL. You feel like Universal royalty. All UO's resorts are Deluxe by WDW standards. One of the things we like best about staying onsite is the ability to walk from the resort to both parks & CityWalk. There's also boats & buses, if you'd rather ride. This isn't a WDW bus ride though. Think of it as riding a boat or bus from The Boardwalk Inn to MGM. That's about as far as it get. We also love the laidback vacation UO provides. When staying onsite, there's no need for commando style touring. We also like that we can be in the parks one minute, then 15 minutes later, we can be back to the room, redressed & in the pool. Also, you never have to walk around the parks wet. We ride the water rides all in a row, then walk back & change into dry clothes. We usually stay at HRH, which is a little closer to US & CW than the other 2, but not by a lot.

 

[rpbert1]

like tarheelmjfan says ,it is a much more relaxing stay , not having to be at the park at opening till closing , stroll over do the rides and see what you want then back and in the pool in about 15mins.
Doubt i would stay at a Disney resort again, would much prefer to travel to Disney from Universal then return to a much better hotel than i would have at Disney, and the difference between a moderate at Disney and a Luxury at Universal is not that much

 

[tarheelmjfan]

like tarheelmjfan says ,it is a much more relaxing stay , not having to be at the park at opening till closing , stroll over do the rides and see what you want then back and in the pool in about 15mins.
Doubt i would stay at a Disney resort again, would much prefer to travel to Disney from Universal then return to a much better hotel than i would have at Disney, and the difference between a moderate at Disney and a Luxury at Universal is not that much

I think rpbert is referring to price not quality, when he says there's not much difference in a WDW Mod & the UO resorts. Please, correct me, if I'm wrong.

 

[dandave]

I am a diehard Disney fan. That said...
You really do feel "special" with that Universal room key! It absolutely is a relaxing vacation without ever verging on boring. I love it onsite at Universal.
I've only stayed at the Royal Pacific. We visited the Hard Rock last trip, but found the RPR to be more us. We're staying there again next week. It has a very updated Poynesian feel, and I would compare the room size and layout to those at the Beach club - without the balcony.

 

[calgarygary]

I;m looking to book a trip either to disney or universal in Oct....
i have stayed onsite at disney lots of times, but only for a night at universal. I was wondering of its really worth it to stay at one of the universal hotels?? are they like the disney ones??? what kind of perks do they have??? they look to be alot more expensive than the disney value hotels... can anyone help me out! Thanks in advance!

I don't mean to flame you MickeynMinnie, but this is a comment that seems to crop up with regularity, that Universal hotels are a lot more expensive with Disney's value resorts. Well of course they are, all 3 of the Universal hotels are deluxe hotels. The rooms at the RPR are slightly smaller than those at the AKL and WL while the rooms at the PBH and HRH are comparable or better than WDW's best deluxe hotels. So yes, the hotels at Universal are more expensive than WDW's value resorts but so are WDW's moderates and deluxes.