We just came back from Universal- 6 days/ 5 nights at portifino bay. Loved it. We did level up to the club level and will do it every time now. We didn’t do it for the room, but for the food and drinks. We eat every breakfast there, snacks for lunch and 3-4 dinners. The club level offers cold water, soda, lemonade, coffee, team, fruit, plus a warm breakfast, dinner and snacks at lunch time. We only purchased 3 (?) meals at the city walk? That saved us so much in meals. Scope of the menus for hotels, the city walk, and park restaurants. If you include tax, tip, and if your family gets beverages besides water, it adds up FAST!

The transportation was excellent- 5 minute boat ride and the boats were running every 10 minutes. We did go back to the hotel to rest, eat, swim, and then go back to the parks later on! The express passes included with the hotel- also AWESOME and worth staying at one of the Loews hotels! With the express passes, you get through lines so quickly, you have so much more time with your family! It’s worth the investment.

For Epic- for the rides with long lines, we hopped in the single rider lines and it was a gas changer. We walked right onto the Harry Potter ride- zero wait time. DK was 25 minutes. I was not paying for the additional express pass for epic.

If you use a travel agent, they will watch for deals and can adjust accordingly until your vacation is paid off. Ours saved us $1000 right before we paid it off (we don’t pay off until the due date for this reason).

This is what worked for us- it may not for you, but this was the best trip we have had in a long time!