Because I had to do more price checking for a flight, I looked at the Universal hotels again. I managed to lower the rate from $122 / night to $107 / night!
That’s $60 saved on the room to help with the flight cost!
I spoke with a TM on the phone to do the new reservation. They said AP rates past December / Christmas won’t be out until the end of that month / New Year. (If that helps anyone else!)
9 days! I’m looking forward to another of your trip reports!!
Bumping this up to let people know I’ve seen APH rates through February 14th.
Hmmm… I could extend my January WDW trip with couple of Universal days. Dockside for $78, Aventura or Cabana Bay for $114.
If you have Dockside available at $78… jump on it!
And send me the link!!! 
I feel like I’m enabling something…
That’s okay, it’s what we do here.
I used the link to modify my Feb. dates. It’s going to save another $31 after they adjust! Thanks!!
Or…get you three additional butter beers! 
That’s exactly what I said to the TM on the phone when she made the adjustment!!! 
I’ve been looking at Passholder Rates for May 2023 and they appear to only go to the week before my trip. At this point do you think they will add one day / week at a time, or will they add the next three months later?
I don’t think they’ve historically done it week by week, so probably another batch a couple months from now, but definitely keep an eye on it because they’re going quickly.
After checking multiple times a week, I finally got AP rates at a Premier hotel for all 3 nights of my stay last week of May. It is at Portofino Bay, which is not as close to the parks as I like, but it was a good price and saves me several hundred dollars over my HRH reservation that I booked as a placeholder.
I know a lot of people love Portofino Bay. Anyone want to hype it up for me? Isn’t there construction right now? Does it bother you? Is the pool open? Is there a fun slide? What are the transportation options to the parks and how reliable are they?
TIA!
We had an absolutely fabulous stay there last month! The rooms are HUGE compared to other Universal and Disney hotels. We had an amazing room with a balcony (unheard of at Universal!).
We took the boat and the only time it was problematic was the end of the night - we usually had to wait for one or two boats. But it wasn’t horrible. The quick service was pretty good (pizza and chicken parm sandwich were good). They had live music at night and some delicious beverages at the bar. HRH was always our favorite because of the proximity to the park, but all things being equal, I preferred Portofino.
Thanks! Did you use the pool? How was it?
I did the last time I stayed but not this time. It was great - but we didn’t use the slide, so I can’t comment on that!
I stayed there a month ago and loved it. The rooms are really nice and the hotel is just so relaxing. The opera at night is really cool. We could see people sitting down at the tables to watch it at night.
We took the water taxi most days to city walk, but the walk itself isn’t bad. We had to walk back our first night, but it wasn’t that much farther than HRH. We took the bus to volcano bay. That was pretty quick as well.
The staff were very friendly and super helpful.
This intrigues me. Is this located in a place we could get to if we aren’t guests? (We are staying at Dockside.) During our May trip, I wanted to find fun things to do that weren’t in the parks, since we are there so many days. I checked the website, and it wasn’t clear. Also what time do they do this?
You definitely can. It’s in the courtyard, right where the boats let you off. I think I caught it around 8pm ish but I can’t swear to it.
Thanks!
