You did say the week before Christmas. I assume that every theme park will be insane then. During normal crowds, you don’t need express passes. But, Christmas-ish time. Early entry is nice, but not express pass nice. Money will be better spent to stay premier onsite at Universal and cheap offsite at Disney. With the money saved from POP to offsite you can buy G+ and maybe a ILL$$$ or two.
Since you’ll have a car, you’ll pay for parking one way or another at Disney.
what is ILL$$$?
An individual paid lightning lane reservation is sometimes referred to as an ILL (or ILL$ to emphasize that you have to pay extra for it). A good example is Rise of the Resistance.
Is Holiday Inn Resort Orlando Lake Buena Vista better option?
Yes this, especially if you’re visiting during the week of the 19th. Very busy time.
By the way, here is a thread on Genie+ and Lightning Lane if any of this isn’t familiar to you.
I have stayed here multiple times. It is a pretty good hotel that gives you the benefits of a Good Neighbour Hotel - like Early Entry to the Disney Parks.
Your suggestions are very useful.
All the premier onsite hotels do not seem to have any availability
Do the premier Universal hotels provide express pass to everyone who stay? Does it mean that the price of the room is almost free?
I assume you’re going this year then? In that case I think you will have to settle with buying Express Pass separately (which is quite expensive and may not be in your budget). If you can get Cabana Bay, that is an excellent Universal Resort. It gets rave reviews as a good value.
For Disney I think it sounds like the Holiday Inn would be a good option for you. With a car and early entry, there’s not much more an on-site hotel could get you unless you really just like a particular hotel.
Yes that is correct. Express Pass is included in the price of the hotel. The price of express pass and of the hotel rooms can vary, and depending on how many people are in your room, it can pay for itself.
Is the Express pass provided on the checkin date or checkout date if I book for one night?
Both check in and check out days will get express if you book for 1 night. It’s a great deal!
Room key acts as the pass so we can enter the park only after 3 pm and will not have the key the next day. It seems to me it is useless on the day of checkin and check out
You can get your room key/express pass as early as 6am on check in day, and it is good until the parks close on check out day. You get 2 full days of use.
Just to clarify, you won’t get your room as early as 6am but you can check in and they will give you your room keys - one per person as you all need them for the express pass. And you don’t give them back.
Even if you can only get a premier hotel for one night and you have to rearrange the days within your trip, e.g. swap Disney and Universal, it would be worthwhile. Even if you stay at Cabana Bay for the rest of the Universal part of the vacation. Note, I do love Cabana Bay. Sometimes people get one night at a premier hotel and don’t even move in. I’m too cheap to do that, and I like the hotels. But, many do.
Should I go and collect the express pass in person in the morning?
Yes, that’s what @Wahoohokie was saying. Get there early, check in and get your room keys, leave your bags at bell services and get to the parks!