Prices out of the roof for deluxes now. Even Portofino, which looks like heck with the major renovation going on, wants $400 during the May off season. .Part of what's happened is that Universal's capacity has sucked since the covid revenge crowds came, so there's more demand/need for Express passes . And since they come with the deluxe reservation, need I say more.
Eh, I think people just found out how far better of a value Universal hotels are now, and Universal is taking advantage of the opportunity. Portofino was being priced at Disney moderate levels (sometimes cheaper) in the early 2010s.
Probably good reasons for that early pricing. First time I stayed at Portofino was for 10 nights in late May 2011. The manager who greeted me, they used to do that before attendance jumped into the 9/10/11/ million per park range, thanked me for coming and exclaimed I was one of the few people who had ever booked the hotel for that many nights. The hotel was dead. The bellman who took us to our room said there was less than a hundred guests in the entire hotel. They upgraded me to a full sized bay view balcony, which there's less than ten of them in the hotel. The Mandarin Spa was 'free' to us. Things, and prices, change when demand surpasses supply. It's basic economics.....Word of those Express Passes are all over the internet now, and Portofino gets a lot of one and two day bookings from people that only use the hotel to get a hold of those passes for their family. Universal stand by ride lines are way longer than they were before covid......Portofino has always been as good, or better, than the Disney deluxe hotels. And it's prices were considerably lower, and more in line with deluxe hotels that aren't on theme park property. But, unfortunately for us guests, Universal's attendance success is detrimental to our wallets.
I wonder how many reservations the deluxe hotels would lose if they adopted a 3 or 4 night minimum stay to qualify for an Express pass. I have no access to any figures, but I would bet that would be a very significant percentage of guests. And I bet their pricing structure would be shocked. It will be interesting to see if Universal & Loews reach an agreement to extend Express passes to Helios, or exchange RP and Helios express status.
I’d be curious to see the math on this but I have to think the extra express capacity created by Epic more than offsets the number of express passes handed out. They could also mitigate this by selling fewer express passes, but I’m not counting on that.
Do we think that Epic will have Express lines it's first couple of years? That's a huge unknown. I'd guess no, since Universal generally doesn't offer express on new attractions for a year, two, three or more, depending on popularity. It took a real long time for FJ, and Hagrid's still doesn't have express.....I doubt they'd sell fewer express passes. They make a fortune on them. They're priced very high, especially during crowded days.
Good point. My gut says no, but they’re going to field a lot of complaints if the hotel located in Epic Universe doesn’t get you express in Epic Universe.
I agree with you on Helios Express, for at least the other two parks, especially since it will probably be an ultra expensive hotel, like the Disney deluxes. . That's why I conjectured they might swap it out with RP. Only a wild guess though. This could be a bit of a quandary for Universal/Loews, though the decision probably has already been made. If there's no Express for the other three deluxes at Epic, it would be less controversial perhaps.
According to their site, there's 30 express rides not counting VB. so ~10 per express hotel. EU has 11 rides or so depending on how you count starfall? Then is comes down to rooms per hotel to know for sure. And that assumes every ride is express. But I guess it really doesn't change the overall math other than the first year or so. Everyone will be going to EU, so those rides will be more likely to get overrun with express riders.
Folks, I have done math.
I agree with you. I doubt they could get those rates on the Deluxe hotels that they now charge, if they limited, or discontinued, Express Passes. The demand and prices are probably mostly driven by the existence of the EP's. Heck, myself, I prefer Sapphire to RP, if RP didn't have EP's. My above comments were basically just my thoughts of how important EP's were to those three Deluxe resorts. They're all really nice hotels, I've stayed there most of the time, but I have as much vacation enjoyment when I stay at CBBR, or Sapphire, for much less money. Basically, we go during the moderate to low crowd season, plus I know my way around the ride times that I don't really need EP's. Even when I stay in the Deluxe hotels, I often don't make a lot of EP use since I really enjoy some of the queues that aren't part of the EP lines. And, if it's really crowded for an attraction, single rider is one of the best kept secrets.
Like how they're doing it in Tokyo, I think - only Miracosta & Fantasy Springs will get early access to TDS once the new land opens, for an undetermined time. Makes a lot of sense to give Helios guests another perk in addition to the views & proximity.
