Discounts on Universal hotels?
 

Planning for a trip in mid-October; ideally I'd like to find a deal on one of the Universal (Loews) properties to get the front-of-the-line passes with the hotel, versus $50/ticket to purchase the express passes separately. Any ideas / good sites to check?

Staying at any of the Lowes hotels beats buying the Express pass by a million miles. The hotel key card gets you unlimited front of line access. The fast pass gets you one time for each ride or attraction. Each person needs to buy an Express pass. The hotel gives front of the line access to each registered member in the room.

If you have an annual pass you get hotel discounts. If you are a Florida resident you get a discount. Or sometimes just looking on the Lowes website will show you what specials are going at the various hotels.

Definitely worth it for the unlimited front line access!

Also, note that you should be able to get 5 names per room when you stay at one of the onsite Loews hotels. This gets you 5 unlimited Express Passes. And you get to use them for the day you check-in and check-out.

So a one night stay gets you 2 days worth of Express Passes for up to 5 people per room.

One other "discount" given for the onsite rooms is for longer stays. And the discount gets better the more nights you stay. But the Season Pass discount is usually better than those. (Though I do believe they limit the number of rooms for that discount, so you will have to check your dates to see if the Annual Passholder Rate is still available for your nights.)

Thanks MoreMilesPlease and hhoope01! This is great info!

Although we are only planning on one full day of visiting, we were already considering the Florida resident seasonal annual pass. Knowing that if we visit the evening of our arrival and that the hotel key card gives unlimited passes may make the annual pass worth it.

Remember that there are actually two parks. You will need tickets (or annual pass) for both parks. Your room key will get you unlimited front line in both parks.

Actually I have stayed at the onsite hotels a lot. The annual pass holder discount is by far the best deal(My last stay was $260 down to $160/night). They don't always check if you have one, but I'm sure if you get caught its bad. The code is APH. Loews Hotels will have limited time sales but they almost always exclude the Universal onsite hotels. The only other discount is the more you stay the more you save, and by staying off peak or whatever they call it. I think once you stay like 4-7 days you save more but I've seen where that still did not knock it down as much as the annual pass.

Also for the person who said that you can have up to five people to a room. They charge something like $60/person/night for over 2 people in the rooms. Maybe they won't catch you if you don't put it in when booking, but its always killed my ideas of saving money by splitting the trip with friends. Of course, you would have to ask for an express pass for each person so they may catch you then and change your rate.

The preferred annual pass is easily worth it since the multi-day tickets cost $150 and the annual pass is less than twice that. You may want to get one premier pass which gives you preferred parking and valet parking for free, but the express after 4PM is kind of useless if everyone doesn't have it. Its not really worth buying everyone that when you can just stay at the hotels for the convenience and the express pass. As one other person said, you get the check-in through the checkout days for your express pass. So to maximize that, you can get to the hotel at 9AM on checkin day, get your express pass, and use it until the parks close on the day you check out. I would use this by booking one or two nights at the hotels so I get two to three days express and then staying at way cheaper hotel before or after usually visiting other parks like BG Tampa or Sea World. Disney is way overpriced because of all the Europeans and British that go there with the favorable currency conversion.

Interesting.

I usually stay a couple of times a year at the Royal Pacific hotel and have never, not once, had them add anything to the rate when I give them the names of everyone staying. But as you mention, it could be because I don't usually put down that 5 are staying in the room. I normally just make the reservation and then ask them to add the names at check-in. I didn't even realize they were supposed to add to the rate for more people. But as I mentioned, in 20+ stays there since the Royal Pacific opened, I've never been charged for adding names at check-in.

As far as I know, Universal doesn't have a seasonal pass. Their options for FL residents are the Power Pass ($175 w/ blackout dates), the Preferred Pass ($235), and the Premier Pass ($360, free parking & HHN ticket).

This page lists all of the entitlements for the 3 passes:
https://www.universalorlando.com/The...al-Passes.aspx

All Universal APs include park-to-park admission. Only one AP is required; no separate tickets are needed to visit both Universal parks.

Universal recently changed this. You will need to get a separate "Express Pass" card after you check-in. There will be a kiosk close to the check-in area where you put in your room key. It will take a picture of you and print out the Express Pass card.

Hi All. Planning a side trip to Universal while in FL visiting friends. Thanks for all this great info. I have a question - how can I find out what the APH discount is and check availability before I book so that I can decide if buying the AP works out for us? We will only be in FL for a few days this year so the pass will not have any value to us other than the 3 days we will be at the parks and the hotel discount (if any).

Planning a 2 night visit 4/7-4/9 at either Royal Pacific or Hard Rock. I tried putting APH in the code field but the price stayed the same. Does that mean there are no available discounted APH rooms for that time period?

TIA for your help!

It may be too early for discounts, PLUS, that is spring break/Easter time, and there probably won't be any discounts.

Just wanted to go ahead and debunk this guy who vehemently disagreed with me. I just stayed at the Royal Pacific and booked for 1. They added $75 since we actually had 4. That is still a lot cheaper than 2 express passes for 2 days, but this guy is blatantly wrong. They will charge extra for anything over 2 people per room.

Yes that is what it means. Based on the Power Pass blackout dates, spring break, July, and New Years are probably some of their peaks. The discount isn't available year round and sometimes it sucks depending on the date range you fall in. They also only allow a limited number of rooms for the APH discount so you have to book fairly early.
Here is the information from the passholder page which doesn't include the beginning of the year unfortunately:
Loews Royal Pacific Resort
September 2 – October 3, 2013: Rates from $149
October 4 – October 26, 2013: Rates from $174
October 27 – November 7, 2013: Rates from $154
November 8 – November 10, 2013: Rates from $209
November 11 – November 26, 2013: Rates from $154
November 27 – November 30, 2013: Rates from $219
December 1 – December 19, 2013: Rates from $144
December 20 – December 25, 2013: Rates from $174

Hard Rock Hotel
September 2 – October 3, 2013: Rates from $179
October 4 – October 26, 2013: Rates from $199
October 27 – November 7, 2013: Rates from $184
November 8 – November 10, 2013: Rates from $239
November 11 – November 26, 2013: Rates from $184
November 27 – November 30, 2013: Rates from $274
December 1 – December 19, 2013: Rates from $174
December 20 – December 25, 2013: Rates from $209

Loews Portofino Bay Hotel
September 2 – October 3, 2013: Rates from $184
October 4 – October 26, 2013: Rates from $199
October 27 – November 7, 2013: Rates from $184
November 8 – November 10, 2013: Rates from $239
November 11 – November 26, 2013: Rates from $184
November 27 – November 30, 2013: Rates from $249
December 1 – December 19, 2013: Rates from $174
December 20 – December 25, 2013: Rates from $209

All I can say is that I have never had them add anything to my rate when I check-in. And I can say I have never stayed there by myself. I last stayed there this past May with no extra charges.

The only time I can remember ever having any problems was just after Loews changed to their You First program. As a Plat benefit you get a $100 room credit per stay, but only for certain rates. The first time I stayed there after the new program rules, I asked if my rate qualified or not. I was told at check-in it did (and I asked if they could document that in my reservation which they said they could.) But when I checked out (after I had spent the $100) they changed their minds and wanted to charge me the $100. I finally had to talk with the manager on duty. But once he saw that I had asked and was told that I could, they covered the charges.

The way I check is to go to Universal Hotel Reservations. I have it search all 4 hotels. Then put in your dates and select "Promotion" for type of code. Then type in "APH" for your code.

If there are rooms available for your dates, it will show up on the rates list and show you what the "starting" rate is. Note that to make sure of what rate you are getting for every night, you will need to select a specific room/rate and then click "Book it". You will be taken to a details page where you can put in your name and payment info. That page will also include the rate broken down for each night. If it goes up (or it could go down) you can decide not to finish that reservation and just cancel out.