DH is trying to pimp my trip!

Universal Orlando Resort Accommodations
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I have an opportunity to run by you. I’m not 100% sold on the idea. Help convince me or otherwise…

(TL, DR - should we splurge unnecessarily on a night at HRH at the end of a two week UOR trip?)

Our trip is booked for Cabana Bay for two weeks from June 28th. Myself, DH, DD12 and DSalmost11. Apart from a day at SeaWorld and a day at Clearwater, we have the whole trip to dedicate to a relaxing UOR trip. We’ll use EE lots for both the dry parks and VB. We’re looking forward to lots of pool time and resort stuff, like bowling. The plan is to hit up the mini golf at City Walk a couple of times and the new Minion movie releases while we’re there, so we’ll likely give the cinema a shot too.

Sounds amazing, right?? (Let’s assume you love UOR as much as me because I know that would actually be too long for some people)

And there’s absolutely no reason to lament over not having Express Pass because we’ll have so much time to hit everything we want to and then some. Super :+1:t2:

Well, DH is convinced (not unnecessarily) that it’s going to be so crowded while we’re there that we’re not going to be able to ride everything we want to and that we should book a night at a premier resort for a couple of days of Express Passes.
We’ve stayed at RPR twice before (and luuurrved it :star_struck:). DH thinks he wants to pay the extra to have a night at HRH which would be a brand new experience for us.

Pros

  • End the trip with a bang (we would do this for our last two full days before leaving the next day).
  • I wanted to pool hop to HRH one day anyway so this would be convenient.
  • The novelty of a crazy short walk to and from the parks for a night.
  • Proximity to The Palm which I’m still trying to decide if we should try or not (DH loves a good steak, but for $100 I’d want the whole cow :woman_shrugging:t4:).
  • We have reward vouchers that would cover about 2/3 of the cost.

Cons

  • It’s still extra expenditure (about £200 cash and all our reward vouchers would be used up - but what are reward vouchers for if not this?).
  • I actually don’t think the rooms look that exciting (RPR feels like a special place to stay, but HRH looks like just a normal hotel room).
  • Hassle of the logistics of getting there (can I take an overnight bag through security when walking from CB to HRH?).
  • Maybe I would feel like I SHOULD go to The Palm and spend stupid amounts of money on a 12oz piece of meat when otherwise we wouldn’t.

Thoughts?

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Two weeks sounds about right. You will be there during a super-busy time. So, I’d get the Premier room.
Can you pool hop between the premiers? If you can maybe stay at RP and pool hop to HRH.

ETA: Also what is the cancellation policy? If it is say 5 days you could make both and decide whether to keep the premier stay a week into your trip.

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You can pool hop within any UOR resort apart from Endless Summer.
If we opted for RPR over HRH or neither (which wouldn’t be DH or the kids preference to do), then I would pool hop to HRH while we’re at CB.

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The only timed I stayed onsite at UOR was at the Hard Rock. The only reason we stayed at HR is for 2 days Express Pass and it was the best price onsite for 3 beds in a room, which was a requirement for the teenagers. We walked to US and caught the boat to IoA. Both were very quick.

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There wouldn’t be a cancellation period. If I booked it and cancelled I would lose my rewards.

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For the dates were looking at RPR is the cheapest (it always has been for us, that’s why we’ve stayed there in the past).
DH would like to spend a bit more to get the new experience of HRH.
Portofino is the most expensive and I don’t think we’re inclined to pay more for staying there.

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I do love Universal but no matter how busy it is, there’s no way you wouldn’t get in everything if you had 4 days, never mind 14. Having said that, it would be a nice ending to the trip to be able to reride favourites over and over with very little wait or planning needed. We absolutely love HRH, it’s full of memorabilia. And the walk to the parks is so pretty.

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I always thought this would entice me in, but having watched a couple of resort reviews, I think my musical knowledge has gaps that would be filled by the memorabilia in HRH. I hardly knew who any of the artists were :woman_facepalming:t4::rofl::rofl:

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I forgot to add that the rooms were nothing special. Nice and spacious but we paid over $400 a night quite a few years ago. The only reason I would do it is for Express Pass for 2 or 3 days. If you can stay anywhere else and catch the boats to the parks and save $, that would be my pick. That being said, if you can save 2/3’s of the price, a one night stay would be nice. And by then, you would have a plan of what rides you wanting to use the express passes for.

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There will be plenty you have heard of!

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Don’t forget to go by the “vacation planning” desk at your resort. They’ll have coupons for 20% off mini-golf, free appetizers and more in CityWalk

You & I have chatted about this and even with crowds, I think TEN or more days even with large crowds means you’ll have all the time in the world.

A typical large crowd day means it’ll take 2 days to do each dry park and a full day at VB. That’s 5 days of really “go-go-go” action. You’ll have double that amount of time and even night time park hours. (The parks close between 6 - 7pm in the offseason when I’ve been going)

So do you "need" UXP? Probably not…

I’m not going to go over the “Pros” as they’re all positive and make sense… Let’s look at your “Cons” and see if they’re really an obstacle.

Reward vouchers - I’m in a similar situation with credit card points and sign-up offers. I’ve been holding off to save them for another “potential” trip. I think we both just need to pull the trigger and use them! Like you say, “It’s what they are there for!”

When I was there in Feb. the HRH was covered in scaffolding and construction walls inside and out. I don’t know when that will be done, but it was a mess!

This is the photo from TP showing HRH rooms… They do seem very basic… I’d only go for location. Personally, I want to do Portofino as it looks stunning

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This is a good question. I also wonder will luggage services, in the lobby, transfer your bags for you?

This is my motto when I’m on vacation. I don’t go crazy throwing money around, but I will do that “extra” thing I might not if I was at home. This is my time to do those “extra” things. If you can afford it, you’ll probably be glad you did, even if it doesn’t work out. (although The Palm does get good reviews!) I’d rather spend the money, if I can, then to spend years wondering / regretting that I didn’t do something.

Overall… If it were me. and the vouchers and such pay the majority AND it’s something your spouse wants (not just you as a theme park lover) then I’d go for it.

If this was an upgrade that you were trying to convince your spouse to do then I might suggest only eating at The Palm and not moving.

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I did not know about this. Thank you :+1:t2:

I’m not sure we could do that as this is an extra splurge over and above our CB package.
It might be worth asking in CB when I’m there though.
I’ll need to have a look through what’s allowed in the parks and consider if what we’ll have in the overnight bag would be problematic or not (I don’t plan on taking the bag into the park as we’d go straight to HRH, but it’ll be the park standard of security we’d have to meet).

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When I was debating a CB spilt stay recently I tried to find out if the Universal hotels will move your bags for you, like WDW does. I never did get a straight answer on any forum and forget to ask when there.

Not sure if they’d charge you or do it as a courtesy. (I’d give the concierge or whomever you ask $1/bag if they agree to do it as a gratutity)

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I’m cheap.
I would not.
I think you will have more than enough time and packing up near the end of the trip to move hotels would be frustrating to me. At that stage if I’m packing up I’d just want to heading home.

I think that money would be better spent on other splurges.

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We wouldn’t be moving hotels though, just having an additional overnight in HRH. We had mooted the idea of just the boys or just the girls go to HRH then we could each have a big double bed to ourselves for the night :rofl:
We’d still have all the names on the HRH reservation for the EPs :bulb:

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First, I think the plan sounds lovely. Since your DH would really like to do HRH and it wouldn’t add an outrageous amount of $$$, I’d go ahead just on that basis.

So, the plan is to checkout of CB and leave most of your luggage there and just take an overnight bag for your HRH night? Or will you physically sleep in CB and have a mostly unused HRH Room?

I am glad you’ll be able to pool-hop while at CB. We stayed at HRH but we didn’t want to waste EP park time to use the pool. Then when we were at CB, we treated VB as a really cool pool. But, you’ll be there two weeks, so exploring other pools sounds fun.

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You asked enablers…LOL
My answer is do it!

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I’m almost certain that they will move luggage from a deluxe to a cheaper hotel but not vice versa.

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I don’t qualify. I’m bowing out. 0% chance I’d do this. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I am usually an enabler, but even I don’t think this is a good use of money when there for 2 whole weeks. Maybe for the first 2 full days, but not at the end when you have already ridden everything 15 times over 2 weeks. But we get bored with UOR after 2-3 days, so 2 weeks there would be very hard for my crew.

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