Universal Fast Pass Question

[mfoz1]

We've just booked our Holiday for October... yippee.... staying at Saratoga Springs for a couple of weeks but starting with four days at the Hard Rock which is a first for us. Anyway... my question is regarding the Fast Pass access which I've heard we get for free as hotel guests. Is that correct and how does it work? Do we have to show our room keys or something like that whenever we want to go on a ride?



Any info would be greatly appreciated... we are so excited!!! Makes the rest of the year bearable for us.

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

You will have such a great time at the HRH. IMHO the Universal hotels are so much better value than Disneys.

To sum up: HRH is literally a 5-6 minute walk from USF and add a couple more mins on for IOA. Walk through their beautiful gardens, too, that makes it about a 10-15 min walk Or else you can get the lovely river boat ferry ride.

The pool at the HRH is superb, it's got it's own beach one side with "zero" entry, has a great slide (suitable for little ones - and not so little ones ).

Never eaten in any of their restaurants, but have got snacks from the snack bar on the ground floor - the iceacreams are to die for.

The rooms are not a bad size - and the beds are very comfortable. You have your own CD player in each room and a CD is supplied on checking in.

But for the best of the on-site perks by far is the Front of Line Access. This means that you by-pass all the regular queues by giving your room keycard to a CM who scans it into their Psion-type machine (to check it's up to date). If it's at a really busy time there can still be queues, but we were there last October and the October before and last October was a bit of a bummer because we had to queue for Spiderman for 30 mins, but that was the worst queue. The year before we had literally walked on everything.

My then 10yr old DD was adamant she was going on Hulk in IOA, but I'd chickened out. She had a three minute wait, walked straight back around taking me with her. Once the fear had subsided (or I was in such shock I was numb), the queue went FAR too quickly for me - all joking aside, it was a terrific ride and will definitely be returning.

One thing to remember. You can check-in really early (8am onwards) at HRH which means you get all the priviledges of staying onsite (FOTL, room charging etc) from when you check in (even if you're room isn't ready, they'll keep your bags for you and have safety deposit boxes for any valuables) right up until the evening of the day you check-out.

You only have to pay one car parking charge to if you have a car in their car park.

And check-in is really cool. Take time to have a good look around at all the memorabilia, not only in the lobby, but in the hallways, the shops and each room

 

[UKDEB]

Yeah, what she said . You beat me to it, Annie!

I'm not sure what you mean about the car parking, though.

Originally posted by Mrs Dazzle
You only have to pay one car parking charge to if you have a car in their car park

We've stayed onsite 3 times now and we've always paid a daily fee (I've just checked the bills). Or am I just being a bit dim, and that's not what you're saying at all?

 

[Hilary]

Just returned from our recent trip which included one night at HRH

The FOL access was a fantastic 'perk' - I would definitely stay in an on-site USF hotel next time we plan to go to USF / IOA (we tend not to go there every trip) to make use of it.

The hotel was great all round, I particularly liked the bathroom and vanity area in our room - very nice! The CM who checked us in explained all the FOL details without us having to ask about anything, and I think she said there was a daily parking charge.

I never thought I'd say this, but I have to confess that I found the 24/7 rock music everywhere a bit of a turn-off I thought that would be one of the things I'd really like about HRH (and why HRH was our first choice of USF hotels), but I would have liked some quiet areas (apart from our room) - and we were only there for one night! I must be getting old(er) ........ I wish we could have stayed longer to look at all the memorabilia, as there's just too much to take in on one visit.

We ate in 'The Kitchen' restaurant and in the poolside bar, and both had a good choice and excellent service.

So, a big thumbs up from us!

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

Originally posted by UKDEB
I'm not sure what you mean about the car parking, though.

We've stayed onsite 3 times now and we've always paid a daily fee (I've just checked the bills). Or am I just being a bit dim, and that's not what you're saying at all?

Deb - we've ever only paid for one car parking fee of $10, $15 bucks, whatever the daily rate was. When you check-in they ask if you have a car and where you've parked it (main car park, not valet parking), then when you finally leave the car park (ie having checked out) you just tell the little man's voice at the end of the console that you have been a guest at the hotel. I've just checked our bills and we've only ever been charged the one days' rate.

Maybe we've been doing it wrong all this time Blimey, I'll keep quiet if that's the case

Hope that explains my rambling

 

[AlisonB]

We've always been the charged $6 per day car parking too.

Hilary, I have some sympathy with you about the Hard Rock Music - it's even under water in the pool! LOL