Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
everyone staying in the room. The best bit is that you will get Unlimited Express Passes
for the entire duration of your stay including both check in and checkout days. One great
way to make the most of this is to simply book a one-night stay at a Universal hotel. On
your check-in day despite the fact your room will only be available from 3:00pm onwards
you can actually check in at any time and leave your bags and receive your Express Passes
- this means you can theoretically get there at 7:00am or 8:00am and check in. On your
checkout day your Express Passes are valid until theme park closing, even after you check
out. Note: Express Passes are not included in rooms at the Cabana Bay Beach Resort, only
at the deluxe on-site hotels.
Stay off-site - If you do not want to pay the (quite frankly ludicrous) prices to stay at the
on-site deluxe hotels, then stay off-site. There are hotels that are only a two to three minute
drive away, or 10-minute walk to the parks that cost a fraction of that charged by Univer-
sal. Plus at the Universal hotels you will have to pay the $20 per night parking fee and the
deluxe hotels require you to pay for use of the fitness suite, which you do not have to at
many off-site locations.
Loyalty Cards - AAA members, American Express Card holders and UK-based AA mem-
bers can all receive different discounts throughout the resort. The AAA/AA discount is
usually of 10% at restaurants though be sure to ask for it any time you pay for anything.
Ride photos - Universal are pretty strict on you not being allowed to take photos of the
park monitors showing your on-ride photos. As such we recommend that if you are plan-
ning on buying ride photos, you should purchase the Star Card that is explained elsewhere
in this guide. It will pay for itself if you plan on buying just a few ride photos
Stay at a partner hotel - Stay at one of Universal's partner hotels and you will receive in-
room coupons whether you have booked the room directly or not, and depending on who
you booked it with you may get early park admission too.
Free lockers - Universal charges for lockers on water rides but not on any other rides.
Would they know for example if you put your belongings in another ride's lockers which
are free and then walked over to the water ride? Absolutely not. It is up to you to decide if
you use this trick or not as it does involve walking back and forth. If you will be doing this,
be prepared to do a lot of walking to save a few dollars. Also be prepared to look around
for the ride with the longest wait times to store your belongings in - Harry Potter and the
Forbidden Journey often has long wait times but also has a very crowded locker area -
Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts is similar but with a less crowded locker area.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search