To anyone that has stayed at Holiday Inn across from Universal.

[christianweecare]

Our family will be staying at the Holiday Inn across from Univ. this upcoming Jan. We see that they have complimentary shuttle service to Univ. Can anyone tell me how often the shuttle runs back and forth? Would we better off walking or taking our own car? Where does the shuttle drop you off? Thanks in advance for any info!

 

[oshun]

We have stayed there several times, but did not use the shuttle service. It is directly across the street from the parking garages for US and IOA and you can see this right from the hotel.
We prefer the on site hotels, but the price at Holiday Inn is good, rooms are okay, and convience to the park is great. When you have a party of 6 or more it is much easier on the wallet.

If you miss a shuttle you could just cross the street and walk. It isn't a very long walk. You probably walk almost as far from some of the parking in some of the parking in the garage with your own vehicle. Have a great time.

 

[christianweecare]

We will have a party of 10 so we have reserved three 2 bedroom suites. We will have 2 in the party that are in their late 60's but in pretty good shape. That is why I was wanting to know about the shuttle service and the walk over to the parks. If it was DH & I we would be staying on site, but since we have so many we opted for the Holiday Inn suites.

 

[robvia]

Shuttles at off site hotels are not very reliable. I once stayed at the Delta resort, waited half an hour, then gave up and we drove our car over.
I made a web site with pictures of what it looks like to walk over.
http://www.nogodforme.com/offsite.htm

 

[christianweecare]

Thanks for the pictures!

 

[crzykid]

We had reservations at the holiday inn and as soon as we walked into the lobby i got a bad whiff of mildew i just thought it was from the pool so i checked in and went to our room and realized that the same smell was in our room and hallway. Pulled out the phone book and was about to make a call and realized I left my cell phone in the car. While I was outside I saw the bus and it was PACKED!!!!!!!!!!!!! people were standing shoulder to shoulder. I asked the parking guy and he said it was like that almost all the time. Sometimes they dont stop at all the hotels to pick up because it is so packed. Yes the location is great but thats about it. Just remember if you walk to the park you have to cross busy kirkman road and you will have a long hike after that. Did not like the overall feel of the hotel ended up leaving and staying at the radisson barcelo on intern. drive.

 

[UniversalAddict]

We have stayed at the Holiday Inn and the Radison next door (by the way the radison is nicer) and we walked to the parks almost every time. We took the shuttle once but because it stops at every hotle in the area it is actually slightly quicker to walk. So, if the weather is nice I would walk it.

Also, we walked by way of Hard Rock Hotel and I timed it to be 15 minutes from the Holiday Inn/Radison to US front entrance. I defintiely recommend going by way of HRH because it a very pleasent walk with the trees and the water.

 

[IMGONNABE40!]

We stayed at the HI and used the shuttle in the AM. Since it stopped at a bunch of other hotels it took a long time to get the the parks. Something to consider if you want to be a gate buster. We waited a long while for a shuttle to get back to HI and ended up calling a cab. Only $3 or $4 for the cab ride. Now I notice they have sidewalks and pedestrian walk/don't walk lights and now I would not hesitate to walk over.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

You weren't asking for opinions about the hotel, so you are free to ignore me... , but we stayed here last April after checking out of HRH. We were less than impressed. The suite (6 of us in a 2 room suite) was large, which was good. However, the room was plain and dingy, we were not allowed to use the cart to bring our own luggage in (I know this can't be done at Universal, but at WDW with a deposit a person can borrow a luggage cart, at least at Pop Century), and we were just generally not impressed. My DH commented that it was ok for one night, but he wouldn't want to stay longer than that.

I don't know about the shuttel since we didn't use it.

T&B

 

[christianweecare]

DH & I were in Orlando this past May. While we were there we stopped in at the Holiday Inn and asked the front desk if we could check out the one and two bedroom suites for a future trip. They gave us keys to several rooms and we did an early inspection. While it is true that the Holiday Inn is not the Royal Pacific or even the Pop Century, we determined that it would work okay for us as we are traveling with a party of ten for a weekend. If it was just DH & I we would prefer to be staying on property, but since we have a big party the Holiday Inn will suffice for this weekend. It will sure help the wallet!

 

[Tigger&Belle]

That's good--you've seen ithe rooms, etc so know what you are getting. I agree that it's a good value--we had an entertainment card rate and it wasn't much $ for the amount of space.

It's hard to afford the Universal resorts for a large family. We have 4 kids and need to get two rooms (and needed to even when our youngest was a baby since they count every child in the room count, unlike WDW). This is why we stayed the last night at Holiday Inn instead of one more night at HRH.

Have fun!

T&B