Surfside upgrade to HR club level?

[liamthompson]

Currently booked for 5 nights in early Feb at Disney all stars music family suite. I'm getting overwhelmed and thinking about switching to universal. I priced 2-bedroom at dockside and then my husband said "go big!" Hard rock king suite club level + 4 day hopper tickets is the same price as our current Disney trip (no dining plan and 3 day base tickets).

Looking for some perspective - which universal hotel would you choose? Husband and I visited universal this past February but this will be our 3yo's first trip. 3yo rode his first mini coaster recently and now he's hooked! He also loves to dig in the sand but it looks like all the hotels have sandy beach areas.

Here are our considerations:
- our 3yo still naps in the middle of the day (he refuses to nap in the stroller). The short bus ride from city walk to dockside should be easy to navigate but how difficult is it to re-enter city walk (security) at 4-5pm? On another forum someone warned me it might take up to a hour because of folks going to dinner and locals headed into the parks after work. Is this really the case?

- when we went earlier this year, we felt the lines were very manageable without express pass. I do recognize with our kid in tow, we cannot easily park hop when we see the wait time is low for a ride. With 4 days in the park, does express pass make sense for us? I don't want to hit every ride, just the favorites (velocicoaster and mummy). Husband doesn't want to ride anything without our kid which I think is somewhat silly - kid and I can go get a snack or see a show without him. I think having express pass will actually encourage him to do velocicoaster and mummy which he also both really enjoyed.

- If we stay club level, we'll probably eat every meal offered. The 2 drawbacks I see here are not eating at some of the fun restaurants in the park and the possibility of food poisoning from having food served buffet-style. My last Disney trip ended in food poisoning, most likely from eating at a buffet, so maybe I'm overly sensitive about it.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

The short bus ride from city walk to dockside should be easy to navigate but how difficult is it to re-enter city walk (security) at 4-5pm? On another forum someone warned me it might take up to a hour because of folks going to dinner and locals headed into the parks after work. Is this really the case?

IME no actual wait for security except fairly early in the morning. Horror nights might be an exception, not an issue in Feb though.

You'll pretty much be able to walk back to Hard Rock from studios more quickly than walking to the bus stop, if that impacts your plans.

Are you by chance pricing using AP rates? If they are available for your dates, upgrading a ticket to an AP will save you money.
Or, have you looked at the deal Universal has for the food gift card with the hotel stay?

 

[liamthompson]

Are you by chance pricing using AP rates? If they are available for your dates, upgrading a ticket to an AP will save you money.

I'm going to try this! I'm kicking myself because I realized this morning if I had bought APs for our trip earlier this year, we would definitely be saving money for the one next year.

 

[buckeev]

LOVE H-ROCK!!! Heads up though…Unless something has changed recently, Velo isn’t E-Pass eligible. BUT, the convenience of walking out the “back door” of H-Rock is definitely a time saver for us. Staying there the second weekend of January before our Mouse trip for FARTs!

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Velocicoaster does accept EP now, only Hagrids & Pterodon Fliers don't accept EP.

 

[buckeev]

AWESOME! I definitely missed that one! Thanks!!!

 

[liamthompson]

Staying there the second weekend of January before our Mouse trip for FARTs!

I'm dying that the acronym is FARTs!!! hahaha

 

[buckeev]

I'm dying that the acronym is FARTs!!! hahaha

For years, I've been "threatening" my kids with the possibility that I'd make a shirt for one of our Epcot days... with "I'M HERE FOR THE DISNEY FARTS!" on it.

 

[The Gatekeeper]

I would do HR just for the convenience of walking and the water taxi. You don't have to collapse your stroller to ride the water taxi and children can remain in the stroller (which is HUGE when the kid is napping). Being not terribly far removed from the stroller years, I HATED breaking down the stroller for buses at WDW. It is such a PIA, I would do HR solely for that.

Also, I have never done the club level at HR, but did recently at RP. I think you will be greatly disappointed with eating lunch at the club everyday. It's good in a pinch or just to grab a snack but it's not lunch. At RP it was Uncrustables and bags of chips, granola, and maybe some fruit. I would eat an early lunch in the parks and then go back for afternoon nap, perhaps grabbing a snack or two for later in the afternoon.

And don't forget about rider-swap. V-coaster and Mummy have great rider-swap rooms so you can wait in line together and both get to ride.

 

[liamthompson]

I would do HR just for the convenience of walking and the water taxi. You don't have to collapse your stroller to ride the water taxi and children can remain in the stroller (which is HUGE when the kid is napping). Being not terribly far removed from the stroller years, I HATED breaking down the stroller for buses at WDW. It is such a PIA, I would do HR solely for that.

Just had a pros and cons discussion with my husband and he nixed dockside completely because of your exact reason. Said water taxi was his number one priority over space and express pass and club level food offering hahaha

 

[liamthompson]

Are you by chance pricing using AP rates? If they are available for your dates, upgrading a ticket to an AP will save you money.

I've been playing around with the AP discounts and have priced Aventura kids suite + APs to be cheaper than just buying regular hotel+ticket packages.

Now I'm grappling with the insane idea of my 3yo being an out of state passholder

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Aventura is great for nice short hallways to your room! And a nice short walk over to Sapphire Falls for their pool / water taxi.

You can always get one AP and then decide after bringing the fam if you want to upgrade the other two. As long as you upgrade while the tickets are valid, their values will go towards the APs. You can upgrade right at the hotel ticket desk.

Fair warning, an out of state AP might be a bad influence, and those AP hotel rates don't help. Hence why I'm doing a Jan trip before ours expire. It's so cheap and inviting!

 

[wdwrule]

Just had a pros and cons discussion with my husband and he nixed dockside completely because of your exact reason. Said water taxi was his number one priority over space and express pass and club level food offering hahaha

If club level food offerings are a priority I’d recommend Portofino Bay. The offerings are a bit more upscale and have more of a variety than the other two deluxes from what I’ve read from numerous experiences. We’ve stayed club level at Portifino but not at the other two. The guest rooms are a bit larger there too. They are still doing some renovations at Portofino but hopefully they should be done by February… hopefully. It’s a longer walk to the parks but if you’re taking their water taxi it doesn’t matter although they do stop boat service during lightning. We don’t find the walk bad at all but our kids are also early 20s. I’m also a bit biased though as it’s my favorite resort. It’s gorgeous and you feel like you’re removed from the parks and in another part of the world.

 

[barb969]

Food at PB club is much better than HR. HR club is crowded at meal times and is hard to get a table(only has less than 20). PB club is much larger. I’ve counted 60 tables in 4 large rooms. The rooms are bigger. The 1 bedroom Portofino suite is a little more expensive. However it has 2 separate rooms with doors and 2 bathrooms. We’ve stayed at HR a few times but have switched to PB for the food.

 

[liamthompson]

You can always get one AP and then decide after bringing the fam if you want to upgrade the other two. As long as you upgrade while the tickets are valid, their values will go towards the APs. You can upgrade right at the hotel ticket desk.

This is a great idea!

Fair warning, an out of state AP might be a bad influence, and those AP hotel rates don't help. Hence why I'm doing a Jan trip before ours expire. It's so cheap and inviting!

I already told my mom that if I purchase AP, then me and her should do a pre-christmas trip to see decorations

 

[liamthompson]

If club level food offerings are a priority I’d recommend Portofino Bay. The offerings are a bit more upscale and have more of a variety than the other two deluxes from what I’ve read from numerous experiences. We’ve stayed club level at Portifino but not at the other two. The guest rooms are a bit larger there too. They are still doing some renovations at Portofino but hopefully they should be done by February… hopefully. It’s a longer walk to the parks but if you’re taking their water taxi it doesn’t matter although they do stop boat service during lightning. We don’t find the walk bad at all but our kids are also early 20s. I’m also a bit biased though as it’s my favorite resort. It’s gorgeous and you feel like you’re removed from the parks and in another part of the world.

I admit after I saw your comment, I went to look at videos comparing both clubs and I see what you mean about the food...and oh my the dessert spread!

I think for this trip I'll prioritize space (kids suite) over club but portofino club looks to have that fancy all-inclusive feel that I've been looking for. I actually considered doing a kid-friendly all inclusive in Mexico but decided against it due to travel time. It's nice to know that a similar option exists in Orlando!

 

[Miffy]

As someone who just went to Universal for the first time--we stayed at RPR--I'd like to caution you to carefully think about changing your WDW vacation to a Universal vacation.

Would your 3-year-old really like Universal better? I feel that there are so so so many more things for a child to do and enjoy at WDW than there are at Universal.

Disclaimer: This post is from someone who just went to Universal for the first time and was relieved beyond belief to flee and be at WDW instead.

 

[liamthompson]

Food at PB club is much better than HR. HR club is crowded at meal times and is hard to get a table(only has less than 20). PB club is much larger. I’ve counted 60 tables in 4 large rooms.

I'm impressed that you have counted the total number of tables! This is one of the reasons I love the "insider knowledge" of this forum

 

[liamthompson]

As someone who just went to Universal for the first time--we stayed at RPR--I'd like to caution you to carefully think about changing your WDW vacation to a Universal vacation.

Would your 3-year-old really like Universal better? I feel that there are so so so many more things for a child to do and enjoy at WDW than there are at Universal.

Disclaimer: This post is from someone who just went to Universal for the first time and was relieved beyond belief to flee and be at WDW instead.

I appreciate hearing this perspective and I wonder if some of my hangups with Disney are simply a lack of experience. I thought about writing a SOS post on the regular Disney forum for help salvaging my current trip.

My biggest pain point is transportation. From all stars music, we're looking at ~40min bus commute into magic kingdom. Add in the midday break for nap, and that's more than 3h a day on the bus. What am I missing here? My kid refuses to stroller nap.

 

[Miffy]

I appreciate hearing this perspective and I wonder if some of my hangups with Disney are simply a lack of experience. I thought about writing a SOS post on the regular Disney forum for help salvaging my current trip.

My biggest pain point is transportation. From all stars music, we're looking at ~40min bus commute into magic kingdom. Add in the midday break for nap, and that's more than 3h a day on the bus. What am I missing here? My kid refuses to stroller nap.

I guess if you count walking to the bus stop from a room at the farthest area from the bus stop, waiting for the MK bus, and then walking into MK, maybe it's 40 minutes. But the actual time in transit is more like 20 minutes.

Many kids consider the bus ride a "ride," especially if it's a novelty for them.

I'm not sure the transit time from a resort to the Universal parks is much better. You still have to wait for transportation and then walk from City Walk to either park.

If transportation is your major concern, please consider posting on the Transportation forum. You'll get plenty of help there.

I'm just having a hard time picturing a 3-year-old preferring Universal to WDW. But I could be wrong! Also, I'm a Disney lover, so I'm biased.