A friend had recommended that we stay offsite at a new Marriott property that just opened in April for part of the trip, then move to one of the Premium hotels for our final night. This turned out to be brilliant and saved us a ton of money. As many others have pointed out, staying at a hotel that gives you early access is nice, however if you’re staying at one of the three premium hotels that also includes Express Passes that limits the need to get there early, since you’ll be able to ride everything multiple times even if you don’t arrive until later in the day.

We flew in on a Tuesday night and stayed at our Marriott property for $150 a night on Tuesday. This particular hotel had a free shuttle, so we didn’t have to pay to get to the park. Wednesday we went to Volcano Bay which doesn’t participate in the Express Pass system, so you don’t get much benefit to staying in an on site hotel on the day you’re visting there. We stayed at the Marriott again Wednesday night for another $150. Thursday we went to Universal when they opened and did everything we could until about 2:00 when lines got crazy and everything was 45 minutes or longer. I think we did everything in the park except 3 rides. We then went back to the hotel and swam in the pool and went to dinner offsite. We stayed at the Marriott that night for another $150. Here’s where the tip comes in. For our final night, we made a reservation at the Loews Royal Pacific, one of the premium hotels that includes Express passes for up to 4 people. We woke up Friday morning, checked out of our hotel and ubered across the street to the Royal Pacific around 8:00. Even though we were unable to check-in that early, we were able to leave our luggage with the bell hop and more importantly get our express passes for the day. These passes were good for both the day you arrive as well as the day you leave, so simply by staying one night, we had two days worth of Express passes and were able to ride every ride in both parks as many times as we wanted. Our one night at the Royal Pacific was over $450 a night, but by paying only $150 a night for the first three nights, our total hotel expenses were only around $900, instead of $1,800 had we stayed at the Royal Pacific all four nights. Considering we still got to ride everything as much as we wanted, never had to buy Express passes from Universal AND saved $900, I was very appreciative of that tip.