Need

Stayed here over the new year. Service at restaurant (Carnival) and breakfast was really slow. I think it was because the regular staff was off on the holidays. For example, on 1/1, there was no one at the breakfast entrance to seat people. People would just stand there and eventually one of the waiters will wave you in to a table. On the last day of our stay, a whole bunch of never seen before waiters and waitresses were there, so I guess the regular staff were back to work. Anyway the food are actually pretty good, although the regular price for the buffet was pretty expansive. Diamond member get 2 free coupons per day for the full buffet which is great.

Other than low on the staff during the New Year, everything was great. They didn't waive the parking fee though (like others said). Yeah the room is dated but not too bad. We got a Universal view which is great for the new year as we could see all the fireworks. The bed needs a better mattress. It was probably one of the worst mattress I have slept on for years.

The walk to Universal Citywalk is about 15 to 20 minutes depends on your speed. It is nice in January, but I wouldn't do it in the summer heat. They do have free shuttle going there about 4 or 5 times in the morning. The last one left around 11am though. On the way back, we took Taxi. It is under $5 and so much easier than getting out of the parking lot. I drove there once and took us about 20 min to get back to the hotel because of the parking lot traffic when everyone was trying to leave around 10pm when the park closes.

There is a Walgreen right next to the hotel so that's where we stocked up on bottles of water. You could pay $5 for 24 bottles of water at Walgreen or $3.99 per bottle at the hotel or Universal Studio.

simonspear

I'm thinking about booking this Doubletree for next Christmas for a family if 4. Apparently the hotel is currently undergoing another period of refurbishment including the bedrooms. Does anyone have any recent experience staying here?

TreehouseTravlR

Hi simonspear I was there last October. Parts of the ground floor were being refurbished at that time of my stay. As a diamond I was upgraded to a suite with Universal views. The suite certainly wasn't refurbished at the time of my stay. Staff were really friendly though and the hotel was dated but clean.

If you would like to know anything more specifically about this hotel let me know and I'll see if I can help.

TreehouseTravlr

simonspear

Thanks Treehouse!

I'm basically trying to weigh up whether this is a viable option versus the Universal hotels. There is a rate at the moment if $124 per night for my entire planned stay over Christmas and new year. That is a massive discount off of even the cheapest Universal hotel (Cabana Bay), hence the consideration.

I'm not sure if there are any actual benefits to staying at the Doubletree other than breakfast and even then I'm not entirely sure of the benefit for a gold with 2 adults and 2 children (both under 8). The minsuses as I see it is not being able to access the parks 1 hour earlier than general admission which can be very useful in busy periods for the Harry Potter rides in particular.

I imagine the renovations should be complete by the time we arrive, but it could be a factor in the current rate.

TreehouseTravlR

We went a bit mad when visiting Orlando and ended up staying at a number of hotels. They were Hampton Inn closest to Universal Orlando, DoubleTree by Hilton at the Entrance to Universal Orlando, Hard Rock Hotel Universal Orlando, Disney Port Orleans Riverside and the Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek.

The DoubleTree is a not a bad hotel. If you are walking to Universal you do have to factor in a 15min or so walk with the children each way or car parking charges. They also have a shuttle service which you can book onto which would make it not much difference than the Cabana Bay.

We loved the Hard Rock hotel. For us being on-site made a massive difference. If we got tired we could just walk, or catch the boat (Cabana bay does not have a river taxi service you would need to walk to Sapphire Falls and catch it from there), back to the hotel and rest for a few hours in the hotel or by the pool. Refreshed we then headed back to the park. It was also nice in the evenings to have a walk around the grounds or into Universal Citywalk. There is so much more to see and do. We felt a bit out of it at the DoubleTree. We didn't have a car though so that made a difference as well.

When we went Hard Rock wasn't much more expensive than Cabana Bay so we went with that for the Unlimited Ride Express Pass (which you don't get at Cabana Bay). This worked a treat and I think the longest we had to wait for a ride was around 10-15 min. You cannot use the Express Pass on the Harry Potter rides but the 1 hour early entrance to the park made a difference.

I'm sure the atmosphere would be better at Cabana Bay particularly for children but whether the additional cost adds enough value to justify it is another matter.

I'm sure whatever you do you'll have a great time. Is it your first visit to Universal?

Let us know if you have any other questions and I'll try and answer them.

hhoope01

I stayed at the Doubletree in October as well. The lobby area definitely was in the middle of being updated.

As for staying there versus on-site, my suggestion is to check the rates on the Cabana Bay On-site hotel that TreehouseTravlR mentions. You might be able to get a family room (extended with a little kitchenette area) for what you are paying at the Doubletree (or even less.) Staying at the Cabana Bay though is NOT the same as staying any of the 3 older hotels (Portofino, Hard Rock, Royal Pacific) for a couple of reasons. The biggest is you won't get an unlimited Express Pass like you would at those other 3 on-site hotels. Now you will get early park entry which is very helpful for visiting the Harry Potter areas before the big crowds arrive. Also, the Cabana Bay isn't on the Universal water canal. So no water taxi rides to/from the parks and the hotel. But they do have very regularly running buses between the hotel and the parks. So it will still be a lot easier to get between the hotel and the parks.

If you can afford it, staying at one of the 3 older hotels can be very well worth the cost to get those unlimited Express Passes (you can usually put up to 5 names on a room to get 5 unlimited Express Passes.) And if the parks get even remotely crowded those EPs are awesome.

I try to hit the Universal Parks a couple of times a year. To help lower the costs a little, given I tend to fly in late on my arrival day and leave early on my departure day, I will stay at the Doubletree for my first night (usually using points) then get up early the next day and Uber over to the Royal Pacific. I can't get a room at 8 or 9am, but I can check-in, leave my bags at the concierge, get all the EPs and then head over to the parks. Later in the day, they will text me when the room is ready. I don't even have to stop by the front desk to check-in, I just pick up my bags at the concierge and head to the room that afternoon. Check-out is similar except I will usually get a room at the airport to let us sleep a little longer on our departure day.

I'll either use Uber to get to/from the airport or if I can get a really cheap Avis rate, I'll rent a car at the airport and drop it off that evening at the Doubletree (which is an Avis city-station.) Doing that usually costs the same as an Uber/taxi ride from the airport and I get the use of the car for that evening. I think the on-site hotels (Loews) have Hertz car rentals on-site as well, but I've never been able to get the Hertz rates down enough to make it worthwhile over an Uber ride.

Oh, and before you buy your park tickets, check out the price on their seasonal annual pass. If the passes don't have blackout dates for the days you will be there, it might be cheaper to buy a annual pass.

TreehouseTravlR

Thats a great tip hhoope01. We did a similar thing as we were driving up from Miami and arrived to Orlando late in the evening. Stayed at an off-site hotel that night. Up first thing in the morning, dropped rental car off at the Hertz desk within the Hard Rock foyer, checked-in, picked up tickets and the Unlimited Express Pass and off we went.

bbriscoe34

Going to Universal and looking for a hotel for 5 on 3/12 thru 3/15. We would need two rooms if we stayed here but the Chase Portal has a $100 all in rate at DT per room.

I know I wouldn't be guaranteed my HHonors Gold benefits if I booked thru the portal, but I've heard some Golds/Diamonds get the free breakfast anyway. Has anyone tried it at this hotel and what were your results?

zachary

I had a one-night super-cheap MVP rate stay at this property last week. It's decent. About a 15 minute walk to the parks or their busses, which (as others have noted) run sporadically and get filled up in the morning.

If you are traveling with your family, please note: As a Diamond, our entire family (4 people in 1 room) was given free hot breakfast from the buffet. We were also upgraded to a "corner room," which from the map seems to be a little bigger than an ordinary 2 queen bed room.

chrisny2

Recent stay: the rooms are a bit old, but it was perfectly suitable and clean for a vacation to Universal Orlando Resort.

Because the main restaurant was closed, which normally had a full buffet, an alternate bar/restaurant in the lobby is serving breakfast. Diamond members receive continental breakfast (pictured below, minus included yogurt and coffee/softdrink) or 50 % off other menu items. The pastries were served fresh and warm, baked in-house, and were very tasty.

andy_dangg

Just stayed here for two nights this weekend and thought it was a pretty good place to stay.

If you’re visiting Universal the location can’t be beat. It’s so close that the Universal app thought I was in the park so I was able to get virtual queue reservations for rides in bed. The first day we walked over the pedestrian bridge to the park, maybe a 15 minute walk to get to CityWalk. Super easy, with the bridge you only have to cross one crosswalk. It’s a short drive to the parking garages as well.

The hotel is definitely on the older side, but the rooms seem to have been renovated in the last few years and are decently modern. We were able to snag a king bed Universal view (agent on the phone said there are only ~50 king rooms out of over 700). The view was great (loved seeing roller coasters from bed) and the bed was pretty comfortable. Wish there was a microwave in room, the only one is in a weird spot at game room off the pool.

The staff was super friendly and professional over the phone, but I went to the desk to grab a physical key and cookies and the FD agent maybe said five words. Nonetheless the hotel was clean and overall a good stay.

Also, I selected that I needed parking during OLCI but did not see any parking charges on my account at check out. Interestingly, my digital key worked for the parking gates but not the physical ones from the front desk—maybe she didn’t “activate” the parking so I wasn’t charged? I won’t believe it until the hold clears from my account.

ETA: I wouldn’t expect much in terms of upgrades, the hotel seemed basically full this weekend and there isn’t much to upgrade to other than views.

writerguyfl

We're starting Spring Break season here in Florida. It will continue, despite COVID, into April.

GamingBuck

Hilton's stupid daily food+beverage credit deval for Diamonds really stings at a hotel like this. We stayed here multiple times pre-pandemic, sometimes with 3 kids. The hotel would give free breakfast buffet to all guests for the room. Now, you get $30 per day food+beverage, and the breakfast buffet is $25 per person, so it barely covers one person, so even just an occupancy of two feels the pain here.

The breakfast buffet wasn't the most amazing I had ever had, but it was very solid (including an omelet station). It was a great benefit to eat there and be able to fill up before heading for a long day at the park. It's a real shame to lose that.