Royal Pacific vs Cabana Bay which should we choose?

Good thought, thanks.

We decided to get Family suite at Cabana Bay and keep the fastpasses. I’ve been keeping track of the reviews for RPR and decided not to stay there. The other two hotels are just not in our budget.

We are planning our (first time) trip for May, and trying to decide between the same two hotels. In the end, to get the unlimited express passes and a family suite, the “value” hotel will actually cost us more. Financially, it makes more sense to to RPR. And the easy walk is a plus. But all the photos I’ve seen make RPR look really – uninteresting. I’m sure it’s gorgeous and plush. But we all looked at all the photos and thought “Meh.” Of course, this means saving some big bucks that we don’t have – so I’m wavering. Another thought on the pools… Did you see that the RPR pool is only 3 1/2 feet deep? I have tall fellas, so no matter how elegant and expansive, that’s a wading pool. I will look forward to “stalking” your post and seeing what everyone has to add. All the input is helpful!

Pool hopping is encouraged at uni. My ds13 wants to stay at HRH but we are doing RPR. We will go to HRH pool one afternoon and will have dinner at the Kitchen in HRH one night. There are dining shuttles between hotels in the evenings 6-10 ish? . We wanted exp passes and to stay onsite and this was cheaper than cbay and buying seperately. To use cbay pool if staying on site, guests take their swim wear to the parks and go straight to cbay in the afternoon on the bus. I would be happy to stay ay cbay but it was more $$$ by the time we added xp

Yes! It’s crazy that the “budget” hotel ends up being more money than the deluxe. I think I’m still going to set our sights on Cabana Bay and start saving up. We talked about having a garage sale in the spring – $ to go to vacation fund! Cabana Bay just looks really cheerful! I know we can pool hop and such – but I think we will be pooped from the parks and will be too lazy to get up and go anywhere other than where we are staying. But the money issue may end up deciding the issue in the end!

My thoughts were the same as yours. Yes, financially it does make more sense to stay at RPR, but I was not impressed looking at the photos of RPR either. Also we are not a big fans of staying at hotel that allows pets. I’ve read a lot of complaints about the staff, pool, the rooms, their maid service, lack of cleanliness, and construction noise. I was warned about the pool area at RPR. I have tall fellas too and they would not enjoy that style of pool. So between that and the terrible reviews RPR has been getting lately, the clear choice for us was to stay in family suite at CB. I think it looks more cheerful as well. But in order for our trip to be more affordable, we ditched the Fastpasses. Touring Plans is advising low crowd levels for the month of April, even at Disney. :smiley:

Our last visit to Universal was two years ago for winter break. The crowd levels at the time for the 3 days we attended were between 5-7. We had no fastpasses, no Touring Plan and our family did just fine. We were able to do both parks, go on all the rides we wanted, and eat at table restaurants without reservations. Have you looked at what the crowd levels for May would be? Maybe that will help you decide if you need fastpasses or not. I believe your family will be fine come your May vacation and wishing you a wonderful time.

Thanks, Minnie! We are going over Memorial Day weekend, though! Touring plans shows low crowds, but I went back in and looked at the actual crowds from past years and they were pretty high! We can still think about it though. Maybe skubersky could comment on that? Crowds are now projected to be really low at that time, but wondering if that will change as the time gets closer!

Oh…okay. Now I understand. Good luck. Hope it all works out for you.

I would suggest a split stay. Stay at RPR for 2 nights to get the Express Pass for your 3 day tix. Then get an Uber to transport 1 person and luggage at check out on the 3rd day to CBBR while others are in the parks. …or vice versa on hotels depending on crowd calendar.

Stay the rest of the non-park days at CBBR.

My family has done this on a 4-day trip before, but with PBH and CBBR. No regrets.

You will save money on Express by staying at RPR and then save on resort experience by staying at CBBR.

Club level decision is purely your preference, but I would just book standard.

This is an intriguing idea! I played around on Universal’s website with this. But for the two nights at RPR, it only gave one day’s worth of tickets with unlimited express. I plugged in the next two nights at CBBR and same thing. Is this a “trick” you sort of have to know how to work? I’m wondering if Universal figured out that people do that to save money, and have made it more difficult? Or maybe I’m inept with the website! (Much more likely.) Thanks!

I have noticed that before on their website. The key is don’t book it like a package. We actually book the room on Orbitz to save 15% and then buy tickets from Undercover Tourist. You can book the room on Universal website if you aren’t a fan of Orbitz, but don’t add tickets. Buy them separately.

I don’t have experience with booking packages. I would recommend just getting APs and then booking rooms with AP discount. Then once you check in at a deluxe resort, you should get express pass for the day of check-in through the day of checkout.

I am booking everything ala carte. There is NO savings at all - even when making the hotel room booking they will tell you that if you ask. Also check out undercovertourist.com for discounted tickets.

Does it make sense to get an annual pass even if you will never be going again? I will get on there and price it out, but for just two days in the park, I can’t imagine an AP would have that much room savings.

I have stayed at RPR twice and loved it both times. I found it clean friendly and convenient. Also can not emphasize too much the value of EE and the unlimited express pass

We did a Universal trip at the end of Sept 2015. We took our DS9 and DS4. We stayed the first 3 nights at RPR (DH and my second stay there) and the second 3 nights at Cabana in a family suite (first time there). Booked both with AAA discounts. We purchased 3-day 2-park tickets separately, and used them on the first 3 days with access to our included Express passes from RPR. The 4th day we toured Legoland, and the 5th day we enjoyed the awesome pools at Cabana. Important fact - Universal was happy to move our luggage for us to bell services at Cabana when we switched resorts!!

We LOVE RPR. We thought it was themed every bit as nicely as the Poly (our opinion, of course!). The service was excellent, we love the food at the pool bar. I think it’s mis-named, it feels like an outdoor restaurant to us. We love the fish tacos there, and we ate 2 full meals there. They have full size entrees.

The pool at RPR is beautiful and clean. Yes, there are always ducks, but I never saw their traces left in the pool. There’s a fun water fountain play area themed to a cruise ship deck, small but pretty. The boys loved it. We also loved the short walk to the parks or the boat ride.

We also really had a great time at Cabana Bay, the lazy river is so much fun. You can buy inflatable tubes for anywhere from $3-25, but you can bring your own too. There aren’t any in the river for you to use if it doesn’t belong to you, but you’re not required to use one, either.

Something else we loved - we had dinner and played at the bowling alley one night at Cabana. We did that on our last night, and it was a great way to end our trip. Pricey, but fun!

How does the split stay work? Are the EPs tied to a certain day? We are thinking about doing night 1 at RPR and Nights 2&3 at CBBR. We would go to the parks on days 2&3, leave Universal area on the morning of day 4. Could we use 2 days of EPs after leaving RPR?

It check in and check out days only so if staying a monday night you get exp pass for mon and tues. If staying Mon Tues nights you would get 3 days of Mon, Tues, and wed,

^^ Agree

If you can - just make you life a bit easier and stay at RPR - if you want to try to pool at CBBR - I believe you can hop.

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How far is it from RPR to CBBR? Is there a shuttle?