Getting our express passes

AllieBoo

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 10, 2007
Hi all, I just booked Royal Pacific for a two night stay at the end of May. This will be our first time staying at an onsite Universal hotel. We will be staying offsite the night before we check in to our hotel, but would like to head to the parks as soon as they open.

Do the hotels have online check in? Are the express passes a physical ticket that we will need to actually go to the hotel to get? I just want to make sure we can get them early and get into the parks since we only have two days.

TIA!
 
The express passes are actually your room key. They put each guests name on their own card. So, yes, you'd have to go to the hotel to check in and get them. If you have a car or luggage you could go park there and/or store your luggage with bell services then take the boat or walk (about 7 min) to the park entrance. I believe you can go as early as 6am to "check in" and get your room keys then they will text you your room number once it is ready in the afternoon, but I am sure someone else can confirm that time is correct.
 
I've checked in to get my room keys around 7am for EE entry on check-in day before and had no problems (didn't get a room assignment at that point, but did get the keys). I've seen others state 6am as the earliest possible time, but never really had a desire to find out if I could check-in that early or even earlier. :crazy2:
 


You’ll be parking at the hotel anyway (it would make no sense to park at the citywalk/themepark lot), so stash bags with bell services and do the checkin process, then head on over to the parks.
 
Sometimes they will not tell you the room number when you check in early morning

But they will text you the room number when it is ready

You can go straight to your room and bypass the front desk

One time the room I was told I could have turned out to be changed
(I had checked in very early)

Party in the room was approved to extend their stay another night
It was easier for all to have that guest stay where they were and give me a different room
 
Thanks. I'm fine with not being able to actually get into the room that early, I just want to make sure we can use our express passes asap, since we only have two days.
 


This is exactly what we do on our Universal trips - we drive down to Orlando and arrive late at night, so we stay offsite (at the Fairfield Inn on Vineland) then transfer to our on-site hotel the next morning.

I don't really know what time we do things, but, we've been able to check in, hand over our bags for storage, get our tickets, and take the boat to the parks all before they open for early entry.

In the past, it was pretty hectic - you had to go to different desks to do everything: check in, get tickets, get EP, go get your picture taken, etc... so hectic that one time, we totally forgot about moving the car before we went to the park! We left it in the porte-cochere at Portofino and headed to the parks. A few hours later, we were in the park and got a call, we figured they were calling to say our room was ready. Nope, they were calling us to tell us we needed to move our car. They had to go back through security tapes to see when we parked, then matched it up to who checked in around that time.

Our last visit, things were less hectic - no pictures for EP, less running around the hotel lobby.

They also had a new policy where, as soon as you exited your vehicle to go check in, they took your keys and held them for you. I wonder why they changed that ;)
 
Do the hotel express passes have a photo that you take with it?? Checking in but my family won’t be with me.
 
Do the hotel express passes have a photo that you take with it?? Checking in but my family won’t be with me.

Not any more.

When you check in you are issued with room keys.

Everyone registered on your booking will get one with their name and length of your stay on there. They changed back to the room key a while back.

Some EP lines have a new system in place and you’ll have an image retained, like facial recognition. Only takes a few seconds........
 
Everyone registered on your booking will get one with their name and length of your stay on there.
We booked through the Universal site, and it didn't ask for everyone's name, just mine. Is that something you give at check-in? I was going to send DH over in the morning to pick up all of the passes (staying offsite when we fly in).
 
If your husband does the hotel check in, he can pick up all the hotel key cards for all
All he needs is to give their names so they will be on the hotel card

 
We booked through the Universal site, and it didn't ask for everyone's name, just mine. Is that something you give at check-in? I was going to send DH over in the morning to pick up all of the passes (staying offsite when we fly in).

Yep, he can just give each person's name at check-in. DH is never present with me when I check-in, he's usually milling about holding our luggage or parking the car.
 

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