If I’m doing a deluxe stay, I try and stay at Portofino just for the villa pool alone. Super relaxing with soft Italian music playing in the background 
. Plus that resort is just so chill after a day at the parks. Walking around the corner and just seeing the hotel and the harbor with the boats (and ducks!) in front of you is a nice little reset
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So lucky! I have never seen these resorts for less than $600 on any of my dates.
This captures all the points I was thinking about:
- When is the trip? Universal prices vary by the calendar much more than Disney, so all hotels and EP are more expensive.
- When is the trip? At super busy times EP becomes much more essential
- How many people are there in the room? This, of course makes a huge difference for the math!
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I love sapphire
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I was alone in my car shouting “SIGNATURE COLLECTION” every time it was(n’t) said.
Sapphire Falls is my favorite, but I hate how they blur the lines between the hotel tiers by not offering the same benefits for each one. Sapphire Falls and Helios shouldn’t be Signature Collection if they don’t offer the Express Pass.
Also, they need to find a synonym for the word “value.” Having two different tiers called “Prime Value” and “Value Inn & Suites” is just confusing.
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My first two onsite trips were without express passes. Then I did a trip with DH and we stayed at RPR and I was hooked on passes. Since then, every trip where I stayed onsite I’ve stayed in an EP hotel. I usually wasn’t alone, and between the AP discount, and Express Pass People Math, it wasn’t too expensive and felt worth it.
I have a trip planned for early December. The plan was for me, DH and DC (10 months) would go together. I was going to do a throwaway at RPR as it was cheapest. I would then do a VIP tour at Epic and have the EP for the rest of that day. However, I’m doubting the wisdom of bringing a prevaccinated infant and a husband who doesn’t do rides to the parks. Instead I may go solo. I bought a 5 day, one time express pass from undercover tourist for all three parks, where if I’m going solo, it makes sense.
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It all just really depends on how many people are staying in a room, what your ride plans are etc. This last trip a last minute dragon kids suite in helios for one night (the price significantly dropped last minute and I mean by more than half from what it was months before) with two park days in Epic and 3 nights in Cabana Bay Volcano Suite for four adults buying the 3 day 3 park 1 ride per day express pass for each ride in all three parks (so still can get two rides on Hagrids, etc. over multiple days) plus a single day of express at Epic was cheaper than staying at the Deluxe resorts in two rooms because four adults don’t really like sharing one tiny room and one tiny bathroom. This way we always had two sleeping areas and at cabana bay 2 full baths with the split in one of 'em on top of that. But in past trips before Epic it often made sense even if we stayed somewhere else to buy one night at a Deluxe for the two days of Express pass for four people and not even sleep in the stinking room. So it just depends. I always price out different options and go with what’s best for us in the moment and when my kids were little sharing one hotel room was okay with me and back then the Deluxes didn’t cost $600/$700 a night so it was a no-brainer. But every time I go I will price out options. Having said that, Portofino is a gorgeous resort and has nighttime opera singing! and Hard Rock is such a short walk to the old parks so if I had to push a stroller or carry littles again those would also slide up a little higher than having an 18 and 21 year old and still being active 40 somethings for DH and me and able to walk to Cabana Bay which has some of the best pool areas of any of 'em and bowling and is really a great resort.
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