We are getting a room at the Hard Rock Hotel for one night, mostly so that our family of five can have two days of UEP and early entry. I’ve heard that the room key is what you use to identify yourself for both. I’m wondering how does this work with the kids? Will we all have a room key, including the kids? I guess this is just weird to me because usually when we stay at a hotel only the adults are given key cards. Should I get them lanyards or keep them all myself to show each time we go through a line? We have a 12, 10, and 7 year old, and I am not sure that I trust them to keep their own cards, but also keeping them all myself seems very stressful too.
What do people do that you find works? Thanks!
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Hubby did NOT get lanyards the first time.
They lost one express pass somewhere along the way.
They have lanyards for this go.
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You each get a key. Highly recommend lanyards with waterproof pouches. Worked great for us last summer (kids were 8, 10, 13).
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Thanks! I’m not sure why I thought we would be given one of those paper wristbands. I did a quick search and found that there are a lot of cute lanyards that my kids would love wearing. I am going to just have to stress to them the importance of not ever taking it off, ever. I can see my kids taking it off because they think it’s itchy or for no reason at all, and just leaving it somewhere random like the bathroom or a bench we sat at
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This will be us! We are staying at HRH as well and have 4 kids! I assume DD2 won’t need one but I’m worried about DD4!
I got these lanyards on Amazon - they cost about the same as one lanyard at UOR and they are built sturdily, including the waterproof pouch. There were other fancier ones - I even ordered a Harry Potter one, but it was much flimsier and cost as much as the other 5 put together. I recommend bringing an extra one or two in case one breaks or is lost.
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We have our sherpa aka DH wear everyone’s lanyards. At the lockers, they want one person from each group to go into the locker area. It is your ticket or pass that opens the lockers, and we always need at least two lockers. For entry, the person wearing the lanyard goes last scanning everyone else’s one at a time. I would go first. For EA, we just fanned out the lanyards to show that we had enough. EP rides would be the same as ticket gate.
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I feel really dumb, but I’ve never been to universal. Do they give you a paper ticket? Do we need to stop somewhere before entering the park to get a paper ticket? I thought it was a digital thing and we could use our phone.
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I got my 10yo a Harry Potter lanyard from Amazon that had a light up dangler. She didn’t lose it because she liked it and made sure it was tucked in her shirt before boarding rides. The light was a nice bonus at night.
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Well, we prefer to use something physical to save cell phone juice. Then I have our passes entered on my cell phone as a backup.
Your room key will work for early entry and express passes.
But, you will also want something physical for your ticket. I assume you have a ticket and not a pass. The reason is that on at least one of the rides you have to put EVERYTHING in the locker. You will need your ticket/pass to open the locker. They are most particular about cell phones. On the dueling dragons ride someone’s cell phone flew out and took someone eye. But a lanyard you can tuck under your shirt.
I’ve never tried to use a room key at the lockers. Maybe someone else can answer that. We have passes and use them.
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The lockers don’t work with room keys.
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We have often used our room keys for the lockers. Sometimes we use our APs. They both work. I also heard any kind of a card with a barcode will work, like a library card, but have never tried. We have been 3 times since the shutdown last spring.
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This is all very interesting to me. I am a new cell phone user, so I don’t think about things like that at all. We will have tickets, but haven’t committed to the purchase quite yet. I guess we will be able to print that out and stick it in our lanyards too?
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You can print the bar code on the e ticket and put in the lanyard.
One time i printed an e ticket on heavy paper. By the second day of the trip, it wasn’t scanning, so i went to guest services and had it exchanged for a new paper ticket to be put in the lanyard. They had no issues with it.
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To be sure to stress to them to tuck the lanyards into their shirts on some of the more intense rides. Myself and a couple other people on Lines have either lost or almost lost our lanyards on the Mummy!
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good call, thanks for the heads up!
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