Looking for some advice about where to stay in Orlando. Currently have reservation at Caribe Royale hotel, room is a family suite and the hotel supposedly has a great pool. We have a 10 year old son who loves to swim. We plan to visit Sea World, Discovery Cove and Universal (we have already done Disney in the past). I also have a reservation at the Royal Pacific Resort at $300 total more. My question is, if we are planning to visit other attractions as well as Universal, should we spend $300 more to get the express pass on the rides at Universal? Is that benefit worth $300? Are the rooms at the Royal Pacific better than the Caribe? Does anyone have any first hand knowledge of either the Caribe Royale or the Royal Pacific Resort? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Depends on WHEN you are going. A friend went to Universal around 4th of July and express admission onto rides was great for her family. We went later in August, stayed in a time-share, and had very little wait for most attractions. I think Spider-Man ride was longest wait. PS Your family will LOVE Discovery Cove! One of the best attractions in Orlando.

Thanks Joy, I am in VA too. We are going mid July and I was expecting that the crowds would be large. But maybe not??? Do you have any info on hotels?? I have read that the Royal Pacific has rooms on the small side. Yes, after reading everything possible, we are really looking forward to the Discovery Cove visit.

Sherrie:
We were in Universal in February and Universal is now selling the Express pass book . For 15 dollars or maybe 10 I can't remember you get an express entry ticket to each major attraction. It is great and much cheaper then staying in a Universal Resort.

I live in Orlando and have had friends stay at the Caribe Royale and I think it's very nice. Have you ever stayed at an Embassy Suites? Same idea - two rooms with a bathroom between them. There is a standard and a deluxe, and the deluxe has a little more room. They also have an enormous pool and are very kid-friendly. You can get to Universal, Sea World, or Disney in about 10-15 minutes.

Royal Pacific Resort is a little newer but the rooms are smaller and the pool is absolutely nothing special. After seeing the Portofino and the Hard Rock, I was expecting incredible things from the Royal Pacific, but it's a distant cousin to them.

By the way, the Caribe Royale also has two bedroom villas that are just gorgeous - but I have no idea what they cost!

The Royal Pacific just opened less than a year age and was designed to be the more affordable of the 3 universal resorts with the Portofino being the Flagship Resort. I love staying on site and the front of the line access is so worth the extra money,espically in the heat. I don't know if you have ever been, but the experience is well worth the extra $$. Also I think that universal offers transportation to the other places you wish to visit. The taking the boats from theresort to the parks in universal is great, not a long haul like WDW. Also you cannot compare the parks from last year as travel/attendance was way down. We just returned from WDW and it was more crowded than it was than this time last year as people are starting to travel again. I always feel the perks outweigh the $ when staying on sight for convenience, which when on vacation is worth every penny.

Thanks for all the info. We are leaning towards saying on the property and giving up the extra space in the room. A friend who travels to FLA quite frequently said that she thought the Caribe Royale was looking "tired". So, I am a little skeptical. Thanks again for all the help.

Hi Sherrie,
We were at the Royal Pacific in March. The rooms are small, and I was not impressed with the on site resturants. That said, I would do it again in a minute for the express pass. It spoils you for any other way to experience a large theme park. The change in crowds was dramatic from day to day, so on those really bad days, we were still able to do as many rides as we wanted. Look into the Express Pass book, it may be worth buying more than one per person, and still be less than staying on property.

Thanks happytrails2u. How was the pool at the RPR?? We have stayed at the Allstar at Disney and that room was really small. Would you know if that is the size of the room at RPR. We have plans to dine at Tchoup Chop during our stay. Is that one of the on-site restaurants you didn't like?? Thanks for any info you can pass on.

Sherrie,
Have lived in FL for 14 yrs. and we decided to stay on site at Hard Rock last August. We are now hooked on staying on the Universal property. In the broiling heat of FL summer the time saved getting to the property and not waiting on line is worth its weight in gold. You can pop back to your hotel for a swim and down time and then zip right back to the park or City Walk at night. We stayed at RP this past March. The room is small, but both the teen boys we had with us liked it better than Hard Rock. I guess it was me that liked the music and the feel of Hard Rock. We will stay on the Universal property again this summer. I wanted to add an observation...there were times that we were using our hotel card to get in Express when I heard the attendant saying to those that had the purchased Express passes that they were not taking those for another half hour, hour, etc. Has anyone else experienced this?? We never had any problem using the pass issued by the hotel property.