Universal Hotels Florida

[Justwingingit2005]

Thinking of endless summer hotel as a family of 5..... kids are teens. The hotel suite has two bedrooms.

Has anyone been and can let me know what they are like.

We’ve stayed at Surfside Inn and Suites.
There were loads of check-in desks, a Starbucks and another cafe with plenty of quick service options and decent breakfast (which opens early so you can get into the parks early). For such a big hotel, the pool area felt very calm and quiet, with plenty of sun loungers and a poolside bar. Our room was bright and airy and we had a mini-fridge and microwave so we could store bits and pieces for our packed lunch as well as cook the odd evening ready meal.
It’s not within walking distance of the parks. However, we found the shuttle buses to be incredibly efficient. We never had to wait for a bus to arrive (although they did sit for ~5 minutes waiting for guests and for the next bus behind the idling one to show up). The downside was that the trek from the drop-off point through CityWalk to the Park turnstiles usually took another 10 minutes, sometimes longer if there was a backup at security.

Following as looking to go next year with three teens.

We stayed in Sapphire Falls, free boat ride to/from entrance of the parks, it has a fab pool too BUT express pass not included, you need to stay in Hard Rock for that (express pass is essential if you don't want to spend ages queueing)

If you can stretch to one of the hotels that have free express passes then do.

We stay at the Hard Rock! Great hotel, great location and free unlimited express passes ... it's awesome! Heard great things about royal pacific and surf side though!

They’re all really good quality and well themed. We went on school holidays and didn’t have a ride pass but the queues weren’t anywhere near as massive as at Disney so not a problem for us. Am I right in thinking that Endless Summer is a bit further out than the other hotels? Might be worth considering Cabana Bay if it so, it’s walking distance to volcano bay and about 5 mins by bus to parks.

We stayed in Aventura recently.
It was a really nice hotel, pool was quiet & Volcano bay is literally a couple of minute walk away via the back gates.
We used the shuttles but also popped across the road to Saphira falls and used the water taxi too which was a nice change to the buses.

Use tend to stay at royal pacific as the express passes are a life saver.

I'm not a fan of value resorts at universal or Disney, you're better off stating off site for the money imo

We stayed at Endless Summer for a few days, Portafino Bay and Hard Rock. As others have said you don’t get the Express pass with Endless Summer, however the children preferred it as we had more space. If you can afford a mix and don’t mind switching then I’d recommend it as you still get early entry at Endless Summer.

We stay at Royal Pacific Resort.
Beautiful hotel and the Front of Line passes are fantastic in August.

These are not actual front of line passes. This type of express pass gives access to the line marked express at the ride in question. Park admission tickets are also required to enter the park.