Ways to Save at Epic Universe

Epic Universe is the brand new Universal park in Orlando. It. is. amazing. and it has things that delight more ages than a Universal park has before. BUT, how do you afford it? I gotta tell you that I was pretty worried about the price until I did a few things to bring it down nicely — while at the same time limiting how much time we spend in line.

I gotta tell you I learned most of these tips from Get Away Today. They are who I booked with. You’ll at least get the same prices you’ll see on the Universal site, but they also have a couple other options they can book through as well to save you even more. I also have a special tip below that has to do with them — so, keep reading for sure!

There really isn’t a reason to NOT book with them — it’s so nice for them to check across hotels easily rather than you having to do it. Use code CURLS10 to save an extra $10 on your next trip!

I should also say that with Epic being such a new park there are things that are changing rapidly, so all the info in this post is as of the date of publication, but I will try to update as I see changes as well. Get Away Today can certainly get you the most up to date info when you book with them!

As a quick reminder/Universal Orlando 101:

• There are 3 theme parks (plus a water park) in this resort.
• Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure are right next to each other (you can actually travel between them on the Hogwarts Express)
• The newest park — Epic Universe is about 15 minutes away and all Universal Hotels have shuttles to it (that are really smoothly ran).
• Volcano Bay is the water park and it, again has shuttles that run to it (but I think that a couple of the hotels are close enough to walk) — I have never been there. Sorry (but also not sorry)

Ok, onto the tips!

Hotel Hop

Now, this isn’t for everyone — and I do feel like I have to do some fancy packing when we do it — but switching hotels can both save you a lot, and give you the perks.

Before we get going, there are some important things to know about Epic Hotels:

• The Helios hotel has an entrance directly into Epic — I wish it has been in my budget to stay there a night! (spoiler: it was not)
• Stella Nova has a walking path to Epic so you are not stuck waiting for shuttles (however, to save steps we just happened to match-up with shuttles nicely — that’s an option too. Terra Luna is close, but not particularly walkable.
• ALL Universal-brand hotels will get you early entry to Epic Universe (not just the ones by Epic Universe)

Some important things to know about the other hotels:

• There are a few select hotels that will get you Unlimited Express Pass to the other Universal parks with your stay (but not Epic — you have to pay for an Epic express pass if you want it). Currently they are Hard Rock, Royal Pacific and Portifino Bay
• Those deluxe hotels above, plus Saphire falls has a shuttle boat system to get you to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure — and this can save you a good amount of time vs an Uber or the shuttle bus system.

Unlimited Express is Universal’s “skip the line” system — similar to Lightning Lane (but usually faster because less people use it — becuase it is more expensive). You can have it as “unlimited” (any ride, as much as you want) and also one-time only (one ride/day with express pass).

With all those facts I’ve mentioned:

It’s also important to know:

• When you stay at a hotel, you get their “perks” (aka early entry or an express pass depending on where you’re staying) on both your check-in day and on your check out day. So, you get express pass for TWO days, &/or early entry for two days.

Knowing all of this — we hotel hopped hotels to save us a lot in both time in line and time at the parks:

Our trip looked like this:

• Stayed at Stella Nova to get early entry into Epic Universe and be able to walk there if we wanted. We stayed there the day we landed, and then the night after our Day at Epic.
• Then, we moved to Royal Pacific for one night. This got us Unlimited Express Passes at Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure for two days. We were also able to easily walk to Islands or Studios from there (skipping their transportation center and crowded security area)
• Then we moved to the Surfside hotel for our final night because it was really inexpensive (another option to save even more is to look for an off-site hotel for the night before you flight out).

Yes, this was a lot of re-packing and moving hotels — but the luggage holding departments of each hotel is really good — they’re built for this, and even though that was annoying (and it did add a few Uber trips to our stay — at about $10 each) it was worth it for us.

Now, would that have been worth it if we had small kids? I don’t know — but I was traveling with other adults, so that was fine.

You just have to decide what’s right for you.

In fact, I have heard of people booking “Ghost” rooms at Royal Pacific just to get the perks and then they continue their stay somewhere else, but the night at the hotel was cheaper than buying Express Passes for their group.

Pro Tip: You get the Unlimited Express Passes for anyone who is named on the reservation at those select hotels. Most rooms will sleep up to 5 (I think). Remember that for every person you add to the reservation, the price does increase a bit — so, if you book with only 2 you only get two express passes. Using this perk is best for larger groups (but remember it’s for TWO days of Unlimited Express) which would usually run $500-$600+ for one person.

Keep Price Checking

This is where Get Away Today really shined.

When I told Get Away Today that I wanted to book with the lowest lines, and the cheapest prices they gave me a bunch of the tips in this article and they were were SO willing to book my crazy hotel plans as noted above (I even switched dates a couple of times) they also checked the prices for me every few weeks until we paid for our trip a couple of weeks in advance (at that point they are unable to price match once you pay for the whole trip, but usually the closer you are, the less likely you are to save).

The advice is to book when you’re ready. That way you have your room at your preferred location.

Then, keep having them check the pricing. We saved about $300 between our hotels by price checking a few times. And yes, we put that towards Express Passes at Epic — well worth it!

For me, I just snooze an email from them every couple of weeks and just say “hey — wanted to check in on pricing on our trip” and within the day they came back with how much I’d saved or that we had the best pricing for now.

It was super easy & great!

Looking for more info about the Universal & Other theme parks? — be sure to check out these posts:

• 7+ EASY TIPS for the Universal Orlando Resort + 3 JUST For Epic Universe!
• Questions About Universal Orlando & Disney World Answered
• Knotts Berry Farms vs Disneyland? Which one is right for you?

Be Flexible on Dates

If you have a few dates that you can go — you not only can you save on lines at the parks, but you can also save on hotel.

Just tell Get Away Today the dates you have, and they can give you some great options for each time frame (and possibly give you some pro tips about how busy the parks will be).

That means you’re not having to create an elaborate spreadsheet of the different hotel options, they do that for you!

That being said — a spreadsheet can be very handy. I have a trip calculator here (works for Disney OR Universal):

Want to know how busy the parks will be on your dates? No need to find a crowd calendar. Just find out how much express passes are for your dates of stay. Busier days, it will be more expensive (and more worth it). Less-busy dates it will be cheaper. Get Away Today can also give you this information.

Get an Annual Pass

This seems crazy, I get it. But the annual pass savings on hotel rooms can be significant. Like, shockingly so!

If you’re already purchasing a few days package, it actually isn’t that much more to upgrade (honestly, might be cheaper).

Some things to consider:

• Each pass has their own blackout dates — so you need to be sure that your pass will be valid on the dates you’re hoping for.
• You can purchase the pass online and it won’t be “active” until you scan into the parks, but you can show that you have the pass when you check in for your hotel (although I was never asked to see mine).
• You only need to get it for one person in your party to get the discount — they just have to be traveling with you.
• There are a few levels of park passes, some include discounts and free parking — so pick the one that works best for you.
• As of this writing, annual passes are not available for Epic Universe. As a pass holder you can purchase Epic tickets at a very small discount (but I think your pass has to be activated to do so).

Honestly, I was shocked by how much we saved by getting the annual pass discount on hotel rooms. Between checking pricing, and our annual pass savings, we just about paid for 2 Express Passes for Epic Universe ($500) — or you could pocket the difference. It was great!

Again, you can ask Get Away Today to check for Annual Pass holder pricing for the hotel rooms, and see if it makes sense for you. Yes, they are able to book rooms at annual pass rates!

I can’t stress it enough, but be SURE TO CHECK YOUR DATES — to make sure the annual pass you want is available for those. The cheapest pass has most of the holidays, plus summer mostly blocked out. FYI.

Off-Site

There are a lot of great off-site hotels that you can stay at. I stayed at a Fairfield that had a shuttle to Universal. It was pretty cheap, and pretty nice.

If the on-site hotel perks don’t matter to you, Get Away Today can suggest a few off-site hotels for you.

Buy Express Passes Early!

If you’re considering purchasing Express Passes buy them early.

I just added them to my hotel package. I had layaway, so I didn’t have to pay for the express passes until we got closer (I could have also removed them, if I decided the cost wasn’t worth it).

But, the price for Express Passes goes up the closer your dates get (with it be the most expensive to purchase at the parks). I believe ours were about $250 and were closer to $400 at the gates the day of our visit.

Extended Express Passes?

Here is a new one: Get a Multi-Day Express Pass.

Now, these aren’t unlimited, but you can use them at each of the parks (including Epic Universe).

I just went and checked — 3-day Express Passes were about $450-$575 depending on the days you’re staying.

If you wanted to get an Epic Express Pass — those tend to be around $300 — so it wouldn’t be all that much to add the 3-day and that could be cheaper than getting the Epic Express plus the increased price of those Deluxe Hotels.

Personally, here is how it played out for us:

Our Express passes were about $250 for each of us at Epic, plus $380 for a night at Royal Pacific (which is CRAZY cheap — don’t plan on that price — remember that was at a lower park day, and had an annual passholder benefit plus I price checked multiple times). But, you’d have to minus $100 from the hotel to compensate for staying somewhere else (that’s on the low end) for a grand total of about $780 for 2 people for the 3-days (and that includes unlimited express at Universal and Islands).

I am not sure exactly how much the 3-day express passes would have been, but I’d guess $500 for our dates of stay. So, that would be $1,000 for 2 people and would have only been one-time usage at Universal and Islands.

Clearly, our deal was better, but you’ll want to check:

• Pricing for 1-day Express passes at Epic
• Prices for 3-day (or however many days you need) Express Passes
• Prices for the deluxe hotels that offer Express Pass (remember not ALL deluxe hotels offer it, so be aware)

And yes, Get Away Today can check all of this, and they booked my express passes for me. It was SO nice, and easy!

So, those are my BEST ways to save at the Universal Orlando resort. Honestly, we had SUCH a good time. I hope you have a wonderful vacation as well!