UNIVERSAL GRAND HELIOS info & FAQ

[Kerr84]

Regarding the private entrance to the park, there is a huge sign saying that it's only for Helios guests and you must show the room keys to enter. There were two groups infront of us that were turned away during the early entry.

Good! If people are paying high prices for this perk. I am glad they are enforcing it during early entry.

 

[SkyGuy]

We had a breakfast reservation next week at Flora Taverna for 10am. We were going to go to the Epic preview after it. Even though I’ve seen some people say they were successful entering the park after showing their breakfast dining receipt, and we would not be doing early entry (nor even regular park entry as it’s at 10am next week), we decided not to risk it and I cancelled. We’ll just Uber to the park and get breakfast before we get in the rideshare.

 

[tony67]

Good! If people are paying high prices for this perk. I am glad they are enforcing it during early entry.

Yes agreed - in the morning it really has to be enforced - its not like there is some restaurant that people are coming over for breakfast.

that said...

Once you have entered the park through the main entrance your face has been recognised, this was explained to us the other night.

So you can go into Helios for a drink or a meal and then go back through the guest entrance back into the park, you just can’t go through that way first if you’re not a hotel guest.

We’re doing that today at some point from the park, but we will be entering first through the main park entrance.

Hope that makes sense

So I had a very different experience - turned out the employee was wrong.
So at 3:45 I went over to Helios to check out the rooftop bar - and they told me if I entered Helios I could not come back into epic and had to go to Citiwalk and back to Epic. I told the employee what I know from your comments and she started going off about how they are Loews and not Universal that that is how it is - even if I had a reservation for the bar (I did not that night). I spoke to the concierge desk at Epic and she made a few phone calls and said as long as I had a reservation I was OK. The next night no issues at all - no one stopping people from coming in etc - spoke to the bar manager and she was not happy and went and sorted it out.

One thing she did say was there was a problem with folks coming to the bar and not leaving in time to get back into Epic - but they parked at Epic - so now they cant get back to their car.

I do think they need to figure out something to keep Epic day guests from just using the Helios lobby for a break - some folks have already talked about doing that on their live streams.




First - So I did not stay at Helios so take this with a grain of salt - I also think the park entry wont be enough of the perk overall after taking to quite a few folks who stayed there - I did 5 days of epic so talked to quite a few people at the various bars to waiting in lines etc.. - they really like the hotel and the location cant be better - but for the most part they wont stay again. Basically without express they will stay at one of the other two Epic hotels for Epic. They also did not feel the early entry was all that helpful since all hotels guests get early entry - they would like even an hour or 30 minutes before the main entrance because by the time they get to Nintendo its already packed.

The other thing is - its a PITA to get to Citiwalk so you are sort of trapped at the hotel - and its very pricy.

 

[schumigirl]

Yes agreed - in the morning it really has to be enforced - its not like there is some restaurant that people are coming over for breakfast.

that said...

So I had a very different experience - turned out the employee was wrong.
So at 3:45 I went over to Helios to check out the rooftop bar - and they told me if I entered Helios I could not come back into epic and had to go to Citiwalk and back to Epic. I told the employee what I know from your comments and she started going off about how they are Loews and not Universal that that is how it is - even if I had a reservation for the bar (I did not that night). I spoke to the concierge desk at Epic and she made a few phone calls and said as long as I had a reservation I was OK. The next night no issues at all - no one stopping people from coming in etc - spoke to the bar manager and she was not happy and went and sorted it out.

One thing she did say was there was a problem with folks coming to the bar and not leaving in time to get back into Epic - but they parked at Epic - so now they cant get back to their car.

I do think they need to figure out something to keep Epic day guests from just using the Helios lobby for a break - some folks have already talked about doing that on their live streams.




First - So I did not stay at Helios so take this with a grain of salt - I also think the park entry wont be enough of the perk overall after taking to quite a few folks who stayed there - I did 5 days of epic so talked to quite a few people at the various bars to waiting in lines etc.. - they really like the hotel and the location cant be better - but for the most part they wont stay again. Basically without express they will stay at one of the other two Epic hotels for Epic. They also did not feel the early entry was all that helpful since all hotels guests get early entry - they would like even an hour or 30 minutes before the main entrance because by the time they get to Nintendo its already packed.

The other thing is - its a PITA to get to Citiwalk so you are sort of trapped at the hotel - and its very pricy.

Shame you had trouble doing that and yes the TM was wrong to tell you that you couldn’t do that. We entered both times without a reservation even though we did eat there.

I just checked again and two friends have gone today to Epic through the main entrance in the morning, they’ve just left Helios after having drinks and lunch in Flora Taverna and easily got back into the park through the hotel guest point. I also emailed and asked and they said you absolutely can enter the hotel without a reservation, they are absolutely happy for folks to do that.

I do agree they may have issues if folks linger too long in the hotel and the park has closed, that’s trouble waiting to happen.

 

[tony67]

Shame you had trouble doing that and yes the TM was wrong to tell you that you couldn’t do that. We entered both times without a reservation even though we did eat there.

I just checked again and two friends have gone today to Epic through the main entrance in the morning, they’ve just left Helios after having drinks and lunch in Flora Taverna and easily got back into the park through the hotel guest point. I also emailed and asked and they said you absolutely can enter the hotel without a reservation, they are absolutely happy for folks to do that.

I do agree they may have issues if folks linger too long in the hotel and the park has closed, that’s trouble waiting to happen.

Yeah - it was an odd one off day - but in talking to a few folks there may be more to it - like Universal and Loews bumping heads on a few things. Not sure what the contract situation is - I think there are negotiations going on - but who knows.

Also - not sure what your experience was - but they would not give AP discount on food - they had not worked it out yet is what I was told.

 

[schumigirl]

Yeah - it was an odd one off day - but in talking to a few folks there may be more to it - like Universal and Loews bumping heads on a few things. Not sure what the contract situation is - I think there are negotiations going on - but who knows.

Also - not sure what your experience was - but they would not give AP discount on food - they had not worked it out yet is what I was told.

You’re correct they are still working things out. Loews Helios is the same as the other Loews hotels, they need to have agreement with Universal on everything. I think Universal are still smarting Loews have anything to do with Helios as they were originally going to be a Universal only hotel, but Loews were smart and jumped in.

From what you’ve said, Universal want you in the parks, but Loews are happy to have you in the hotel spending money. No ideas on the AP discount.