Stay Onsite at Universal?

[RoseGold]

I'm booking a DVC trip in April for family that wants to go to Universal. I've never been and know nothing about it.

Family member is in a wheelchair and values accessibility. They have kids who will want to ride some rides and are HP fans.

Are they even doing the FastPass things now anyway? What's the best hotel for accessibility?

Anything that needs to be booked in advance?

 

[Ross Kratter]

Yes, Express Pass is running right now.
I highly, highly recommend the Park-to-Park option if the kids are Harry Potter fans; that's the only way they can ride the Hogwarts Express.
All of the hotels are fully accessible.
If they stay at Royal Pacific, Hard Rock, or Portofino Bay, Express Unlimited is included in their resort stay.

 

[AJA]

If you know you want to stay onsite at Universal (you don’t have to in order to get fast pass, you can purchase it at the park, depending on the size of your group the hotel with free fast pass/express pass is usually cheaper) I would book sooner rather than later. Onsite Hotels in all categories are sold out right now for some nights in March. With Easter next month don’t take too long making your decision.

The free fast passes come with the deluxe hotels.

 

[Makmak]

As pp said Express Pass comes with the three top tier hotels. Hotel guests at any level get early park entry. You can check the universal website to see which parks open early and when. I highly recommend the top tier hotels, (Royal Pacific is our favorite) because your entire party on the reservation can use the room key for express pass the day of check in AND day of check out—all day. The Express pass let’s you get in the shorter que, you don’t need to schedule anything like fast passes. Also, Hagrids is on virtual line, you need the app to get in the virtual line and that starts at park open. I have been able to get a virtual line time on the bus and while in line so you don’t need to be scanned in the park to do it, just close to the park. If you are already there at early entry it’s no big deal to hop on and get a time BUT on very busy days the times fill up fast. Sometimes on very busy days other rides may go on virtual line, so the app is important. Express pass can’t be used on virtual line rides (hagrids). Express pass CAN be used on hog warts express train that runs between parks (originally you couldn’t but they changed it). No spoilers but the train is very cool and not just a way to get from one park to the other. As pp said if HP fans you will want park to park tickets in order to ride it. Lastly, I’m not sure how often the people will go but for some it makes sense to get at least one annual pass to get the discounted hotel, discounts on food and park merch. Check the prices on park to park tickets then compare to passes (which are considerably cheaper than Disney passes), and see if it works for your party.
Edited: Because I wanted to add that sometimes hagrids will be on virtual line in the morning but then “go off” of virtual line if they decide it’s not too crowded (it’s annoying). We showed up once at our return time and were told there was an hour wait and I said but we have a virtual line time and they said they stopped the virtual line sign ups because crowds not that bad, I showed our phone with our return time (I screenshotted) and they said “ok then go” and let us go into a separate short line. So JUST in case that happens, I’d still suggest going at the return time given. There aren’t anything like magic bands to scan and you can wait in the regular line as many times as you want if they are not doing virtual line. Also you have to scan your room keys and tickets for express pass so we get lanyards.

 

[Daisy7425]

As pp said Express Pass comes with the three top tier hotels.

This was all very helpful info, MakMak! Thank you! Can the hotel room keys be used as photo passes if I buy the photo package? Also is there any way to link my credit card to my room key so I can just scan that to pay for things?

 

[Ross Kratter]

This was all very helpful info, MakMak! Thank you! Can the hotel room keys be used as photo passes if I buy the photo package? Also is there any way to link my credit card to my room key so I can just scan that to pay for things?

They will give you a separate card to use as your photo pass; this is because photos at Universal are run by an outside company.
Your room key can be used to pay for things; you will have to link a credit card to your room upon check-in.

 

[Mrsjvb]

We prefer Portofino or royal pacific, although Hard Rock is along the same walking path if you don’t want to take the water taxi.. which is easy peasy in a wheelchair.

also, and my personal fav.. all rides are zero entry. No trying to step up or down! It’s awesome.
I will say Hogwarts express is kinda narrow access to get into the car, but I transfer so it’s doable for me.

 

[Ross Kratter]

We prefer Portofino or royal pacific, although Hard Rock is along the same walking path if you don’t want to take the water taxi.. which is easy peasy in a wheelchair.

also, and my personal fav.. all rides are zero entry. No trying to step up or down! It’s awesome.
I will say Hogwarts express is kinda narrow access to get into the car, but I transfer so it’s doable for me.

Hagrid's is not zero entry; you have to step over the sidecar to get to the motorcycle, and down to get into the sidecar.

 

[shawthorne44]

You can also have more than one photopass card. Someone should have the photopass app installed on their phone. Then even while in the parks you can link any random photo card to your photopass account. That just has to be done before midnight. But, I don't have our first Hagrid's photos because I was so pooped in the evening and I forgot.

 

[Makmak]

This was all very helpful info, MakMak! Thank you! Can the hotel room keys be used as photo passes if I buy the photo package? Also is there any way to link my credit card to my room key so I can just scan that to pay for things?

Ross beat me to it I just wanted to add that if you are charging with your room key there will be “holds” on your credit card. I just wanted to add that because different credit cards handle holds differently and they can take some time to “drop off”so wanted you to be aware since it sounds like they will travel on afterwards. Once I had 200$/day holds but the credit card processed on top of that. On a six day trip THATS a lot of “unusable” spending money and we had a cruise afterwards with all those holds on top of it. Just a heads up, may want to check with the hotel about daily hold amounts.