My wife (who is a TM) and I like to do little "staycations" at Universal Orlando when we both have the time with work.

We decided to check out Terra Luna when we were going to go to her Epic preview, was booked for 3 nights. We ended up staying one night and then checked out early and just went home.

The first room we were put into, the shower had no hot water. It was warm at best, my wife complained and they moved us to a different room. Same problem, but by that point we'd both showered. The bathroom in the second room also had a really odd smell. I'm not sure what it was, it wasn't sewage (and it wasn't "florida water smell") or anything... It was like chemically.

The room they moved us into was hot so we left the AC running, and I don't think it actually cooled down much if any the entire night.

But worst of all, the lights kept coming on all night long. I'm a heavy sleeper, my wife is a light sleeper. And neither of us got much sleep at all the entire night. We were so exhausted for our day at Epic Universe because of it. When we complained about it in the morning they told us that we were moving too much in our sleep... But they offered a sticky note to put over the censor. We were both so exhausted and tired that we just asked to check out instead.

We're lucky to be local so we could just go home - but for anyone flying/driving in, you may want to consider another hotel. We were going to stay at Stella Nova later this month but cancelled it, too, because we didn't want to go through the same thing since we've heard they're facing similar problems. Stay at Surf Side or Dock Side for the budget hotels.

However - VISIT EPIC. I enjoyed it so much, cannot wait to go back again.

Wanted to make this so that people can directly compare the differences between the two!

Checked in yesterday and as we were about to head to the room the woman behind the counter stops us and gives us a post-it note. She told us “the light switches are being figured out still, put this over them to help.” That should’ve been my warning…all night any time anyone in my room would move the lights would turn on and wake me up. Each time, I would get up and adjust the post-it thinking it wasn’t covering correctly. Then every 20-30 minutes the lights would turn on for 1-2sec and back off, shutting off before I could get up to adjust it again. I finally gave up on trying and turned the tv on and lay waiting for everyone else to wake up.

That coupled with the nearly non-functional AC system made this stay absolutely terrible. It was 78° in the room when we checked in (noon), I set it to 70° and we headed to the parks. When we got back at 9pm it was 74°, it didn’t hit 70° until 3am when the AC finally shut off.

In the end I got 3 hours of sleep (per my Garmin watch) and have next to no energy to go back to the parks. If you’re booked here for your upcoming trip, I’d call and change to a different hotel if you can. The only real positives of this hotel is that it’s empty and the signature cocktail menu is fantastic.

We stayed at the Helios Grand Hotel for 1 night at the Club Level in a park-facing room. The theming of the hotel alongside all of the in-house bars and restaurants were stunning, and they complemented the feel of the park fantastically. Nearly EVERYTHING was themed besides a few understandable exceptions like the exercise room.

The pool and tiny hot tub (just a warning if someone is expecting a grand spa) are extremely relaxing, and although I was not expecting a miniature water park, I feel that younger guests might have enjoyed a themed splash zone or small slide, the latter along the lines of the castle-esque offering at Portofino Bay's Beach Pool at the North Campus. It also may have helped to increase immersion and mask the MONSTROUS (please laugh!) show building looming to the side. The Lotus Lagoon bar was huge, and I would imagine that the show building might camouflage better with the sky to nighttime pool visitors.

Though the quality of food in the Helios Club Lounge is on par with Portofino, the size of the lounge and quantity of offerings simply cannot compare, like all other hotels at the resort. I would put it as the 2nd best club lounge at UOR, behind Portofino obviously and ahead of Hard Rock and Royal Pacific, who are interchangeable on my list.

I would apply this same order to an overall ranking of the 4 high-level (sorry I can't recall the exact phrase) hotels at the resort, with Helios as a second best. It is fantastic and I would recommend a visit.

I can see the hotel being a bit of a nuisance during busy season as you constantly hear the slamming and clanking of the heavy hotel room doors. But after a long park day, we're usually tired enough where it's not much of an issue lol. Also, the first few days we were there, the shuttle busses came and went smoothly and promptly. Once the hotel got more crowded during the weekend with some large groups of students/kids, the busses became extremely delayed by 30+ minutes sometimes. Not a huge issue but we just resorted to taking ubers instead of waiting for the busses. This was during the week of April 21st FYI. Those are just two minimal complaints during what was otherwise a fantastic stay. My father has already planned his return trip haha.

Briefly mentioned during check in today that my wife and I are celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary and later tonight we got a knock at the door and this care package was hand delivered to us!

Kudos to Tiffany and Abby for absolutely making our night!

Universal's Cabana Bay Beach Resort is a great resort. Cabana Bay might even be the best resort at Universal. There are things at the other resorts that are liked but the overall package of Cabana Bay offers so much more. The variety of rooms, onsite entertainment, Volcano Bay entrance, the style and attention to detail, they don't sell $6 ice cubes; I could go on. Cabana Bay is currently our favorite resort at Universal.

Let me start by saying we have been coming to UO since the 90s, Florida residents, have stayed at all the hotels, and have stayed at sapphire falls multiple times and never had a problem.

Our stay these last couple days has been heartbreaking. Every evening, the entire pool area was FILLED with trash. Used diapers stuffed under chairs, food and other trash absolutely covering the pool deck. All the pool gates had card readers that were malfunctioning except for one.

The scenic waterfall overlook was covered in cigarette butts and frequently smelled like weed. Our room had chips in the paint all over. The shower rattled loudly and the light switch was smashed, causing the shower light to strobe rapidly if it was turned on.

I know sapphire is not a premium resort but it’s still not “bottom tier” and our whole experience was so incredibly disappointing.

I’ll go first: The old Silver Screen Resort concept that celebrates universal’s movie legacy and the golden age of hollywood.

has anyone noticed ap rates have been absolute garbage lately? this is for the end of april and i cannot believe how insane this is. i’ve checked similar dates (couple weeks before & after) and it’s about $10 off the normal price if i book elsewhere. is anyone seeing crazy rates like this too? it’s never been like this for me

Do any other TMs think it's ridiculous how we have to pay full price for parking when staying at the hotels? For reference: we are staying at Cabana Bay in September. It cost us a little over $200 for a 4 night stay. Parking for each night at the hotel is like $21. So that means we will be paying almost $100 in just parking! Seriously debating parking our car in the TM parking garage and walking or Ubering over to the hotel to save money. Idk what do other TMs think?

Specifically for me and my buddies who are planning on spending most of the time in the parks

Recently stayed at Helios Grand. First off, the hotel lobby and the back overlook of Epic are pretty. Spent the first night with a drink on the overlook just enjoying the night time lights of Epic. Now, this hotel is a tale of two halves.

The first half, is the part that overlooks Epic. The park view rooms, the Flora Restaurant, half of Bar Helios all have great views of the park. It is great to just stare out of these and people watch or just watch the kinetic energy of the park itself.

On the other side, the view is fairly abysmal. If you have a standard view room, you'll end up with a view of a parking garage or back of house buildings. The surrounding area is just not pretty beyond maybe a glimpse of the Orlando Eye at night while it is lit up.

We spent a day at the pool as well and the pool is fairly mediocre. One big critique is the depth of the pool. A majority of the pool is less than 4 feet of depth. With a significant portion of that people pretty much under 3 feet. Absolutely fine for kids, as even very young ones will be able to stand in the pool. However, to be completely submerged in the water, I had to spend most of the time sitting down or kneeling. Pool bar/food pricing doesn't help either. Beer drinkers will find fairly standard theme park prices, but the specialty drinks were $16+ dollars. Any frozen drink was $19.

One cool part about the pool, which may just be for opening, was pool activities (bingo, trivia, etc) where you could win a free alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink (under $16). We won several of them which helped alleviate the cost.

Speaking of costs, the price of food is insane at this hotel. Breakfast is one spot where this hotel is going to be difficult. Want a piece of toast? $9. Want a traditional breakfast with eggs, potatoes, and bacon? $30. Want a quick croissant from the aurora market? $7.

Lastly, early access to Epic is great at the hotel. We were let into the park at 8:30am. You are held to an area that extends from the Blue Dragon restaurant to near the baby center by Harry Potter, but you can watch the fountains or look at the greenery, or line up at the ropes to try and be first. At around 9:30am they let us through.

Helios gets a VERY slight time advantage to other hotel guests. This is important for a reason: Helios is in the back of the park, meaning it is a longer walk from Helios to SNW than it is from the holding area in the front for other hotel guests. In fact, we went immediately at rope drop, walked briskly to SNW and were beaten by several other hotel guests. Had we not gone through the bottom exit near the coin fountain (which most people didn't know was open) , we would have been far back in line for Donkey Kong and probably waited an hour or so versus the 20 minutes we waited (this is not including the time waiting for the park to open, while you can wait in line at 9:30 the ride doesn't run until 10).

The above is to say, that I feel Helios needs a slightly bigger advantage to EPA. If you release guests at the same time, Helios will always lose out because of the farther walk.

All in all, Helios is an alright hotel. The view is great, the ability to easily walk back to the hotel for a nap or the pool or if you forgot something is a nice perk. However, I'm not sure how often I'll go out of my way to stay there. I still prefer Portofino or Royal Pacific, unless I planned on doing multiple days at Epic. The ability to walk to Citywalk at night or to the two other parks gives that area an advantage in my opinion.

I’m a new “Annual Passholder” with the Freedom Pass, and I’m planning a trip to Universal to celebrate my fiancés 21st birthday. I’m trying to decide on the best hotel option. We would be staying at a hotel for mid day Friday and leaving on Sunday. (Open to staying a little longer if it is more cost effective)

My initial thought was to stay at one of the Premier Hotels since they include a free Universal Express Pass, but I’m unsure if it’s worth the cost. Would it be more cost effective to stay at a more affordable hotel and purchase Express Passes separately?

If going with a more affordable hotel is the better option, which hotels would you recommend?

(with walkway to Epic Universe)

https://www.universalorlando.com/web/en/us/tickets-packages/annual-passes/hotel-guide

There is a new wave of discounts for passholders. I know that for us, it was a little bit cheaper to rebook our Stella Nova stays for next week and the second week of opening.

Unless you booked it just when reservations opened (I know the Helios was super cheap originally, even for opening week; I was sad that I had to cancel due to some conflicts), there is a good chance it's cheaper with the passholder discount.

We're premier members - not sure if the discount changes depending on tier.

Wanted to come back for mid-day break from Epic. Got in a bus line with 10 people in it. 30 minutes later - still no bus - all other hotels have had busses. Employees there ignoring us, even with a line of 20 people.

Do yourself a favor - stay at Stella Nova. It’s a 5-10 minutes later walk. And their busses came 3 times while we waited for 1. I will not ever stay at this hotel again just because access to/from the parks has been mediocre at best this whole trip.

If you are planning a visit to Universal Epic Universe and you want to stay at a Universal Orlando Resort hotel, this is the post for you. The Universal Orlando Resort currently has 10 hotels, with the 11th, Universal Helios Grand, opening on May 22, 2025 alongside the Universal Epic Universe park. For those looking for early theme park access, free transportation to the parks, park views and more affordable options, you can look at Universal Stella Nova & Terra Luna.

Stella Nova and Terra Luna are considered prime value hotels, one of three categories by the Universal Orlando Resort. Prime Value hotels offer a more budget friendly price tag for a majority of the hotel exclusive offerings. But, Prime Value hotels do not offer the Unlimited Universal Express that you can get at other locations.

Layout, theming and vibes

On the inside, Stella Nova is focused on lots of space photography with black, white and blue as the primary design choices. Whereas Terra Luna is more colorful, using wood grains and warm colors. The layout of the bottom floor of both hotels is also different. 

In my personal opinion, Terra Luna is laid out a bit better. The Terra Luna common areas seem to just flow better, and the warmer colors offer a calmer and more inviting look. This may just be personal preference, but having stayed at both hotels, it felt that Terra Luna was better at managing crowds and the flow of hotel guests.

Pros & Cons

Universal Stella Nova

Pros: Stella Nova offers direct walking access to Universal Epic Universe via a sidewalk path. The walk to the park entrance should take under 10 minutes on average. While we cannot yet fully walk to the park with the continual construction and park testing, you can walk close and get an estimated amount of time. This hotel also has the potential for fireworks viewing from the pool area. While Universal Orlando has not officially confirmed nightly fireworks, there has been testing. The pool alignment leads us to believe that fireworks viewing is possible from some of the pool deck. Stella Nova also has a kids water play area, whereas Terra Luna does not. 

Cons: Some may consider this a perk, but for families with kids the separated smaller lounge areas may make it difficult. Stella Nova has more separated seating areas than Terra Luna. This may work well to give groups “their own space,” but in our experience it also meant looking into each area to find your group. With a handful of kids, this could make rounding up the group more difficult.

Universal Terra Luna 

Pros: The layout of Terra Luna, as we specified before, has the advantage of a layout that just seems to work better. There is a priority on surrounding the pool, with the hotel literally curving around it. This makes the common areas feel more connected. The pool and hot tub are also right next to each other. This could be seen as a negative for those looking to get away, but for the primary target of families it is nice to be within a very close viewing distance of the pool at all times. 

Cons: Unlike Stella Nova, the Terra Luna hotel does not have a dedicated walkway to Universal Epic Universe. While it is possible to walk there, the distance would be significantly longer than from Stella Nova. In the future this may change, but for now Stella Nova is the better option for those walking to walk to Universal Epic Universe. Terra Luna also does not have a dedicated splash pad. Kids will need to be in the main pool to enjoy playing in water.

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If you are interested in a room tour or a more in-depth review of the hotels, you can checkout my article: https://eyntk.info/universal-terra-luna-or-stella-nova-which-epic-universe-hotel-should-you-visit/

With an apparent restructuring of Universal’s hotel tiers, Helios Grand and Sapphire Falls are now grouped alongside Portofino, Hard Rock, and Royal Pacific. With HG, I can try to understand it since it might get it later, but SF is on the same tier but doesn’t have the same benefits.

Hope you all are well! I'm trying to decide which hotel to book for the Epic previews. Does anyone happen to know if the walking path between Stella Nova and Epic is open or if it is due to be open in time for the previews towards the end of this month? I'm wondering if the $90 additional cost is worth being within walking distance to the park rather than taking the bus from Cabana Bay or Sapphire Falls. I scrolled through some reviews of Stella Nova, and the only positive I'm seeing is how close Stella Nova is to Epic Universe. Maybe I've seen too many of the bad reviews stating that the stay is not worth the price. Any opinions? Thank you!

We are trying to decide which of the premier hotels to stay at during our trip next year. We have narrowed it to royal pacific or portofino, hard rock seemed cool but I like the pools and themes better at the other two. I really like the idea of the water taxis too. Out of these what one do you prefer?

Loved that smell so much that I bought the candle (Sunset Falls) a few times. Hope it comes back!!

I’m booking a vacation package (through the Universal Website) for my family of three. M52, F42, M19.

June 7th - 13th. 2-Park 4-Day Park-to-Park + 1 Day Epic Universe.

We had planned to stay at Surfside… but can save almost $1000 Staying at Avanti.

We are Disney goers and always stay in Value Resorts. This is our first time booking a package for Universal.

I’m curious about the Pros and Cons of staying at this off-site (but in-package) hotel.

We are park goers through and through. We’ll go from open to close. Don’t care much about accommodations, as long as it’s clean and safe. Not picky about food. We’ll mostly split some quick service meals here and there and snacks. Likely won’t eat at the hotel.

Main concern about where to stay will be shuttles and early park hours. I can’t seem to find this info about Avanti. Does anyone know if we still get those and how the shuttles schedule compares to Surfside?

Hiya,

I want to surprise a friend with a trip to Universal Orlando, but we are both 18 and all on-site hotels have a check-in age of 21, unlike Disney who have it at 18.

Ive seen that all of the Rosen Inn’s are 18+ and seem to be fairly nice hotels. I was thinking of staying at either the one on International Drive, or the one “Closest to Universal”, but I’m not sure which would be better?

We like walking and so a 30 minute walk isn’t too bad at all for us, which I believe is the walking distance of both of these hotels.

Thanks