Is the Universal Kids Resort Hotel worth a stay?
As the name implies, Universal Kids Resort isn’t just a theme park. A 300-room hotel serves as the gateway to the park, offering guests an hour of early entry to the theme park along with a dedicated theme park entrance, a pool and a convenient place to recharge after spending a day in the sun.
Universal paid for my travel and accommodations to Frisco, Texas for a media preview that included two nights stay in the Universal Kids Resort Hotel. Rooms start around $250 a night and range from a standard queen all the way up to a family suite. I stayed in a Deluxe Queen — Theme Park View room which goes for around $330.
How’s the room?
Every Universal Kids Resort Hotel room, with two exceptions, has a queen bed along with a set of bunk beds. The Family Suites have a king bed, a bunk bed and a sleeper sofa. The bunk beds serve two purposes: Economical use of space and, perhaps more importantly, kids think they’re fun.
The queen bed I slept on was a little on the firm side, but fine. I was less impressed with the sheets and bedding which were on the thin side and felt like the kind of bedding I bought from Target in college and less like the kind of bedding I’d expect from a Hampton Inn, let alone something a bit pricier.
The shower, on the other hand, was quite nice with strong water pressure. Granted, Frisco gets hot enough that you’d be happy with an elephant shower if that’s what it came to. The bathroom was stocked with Dove-branded soaps, which were fine though nothing to write home about.
If you’ve watched the room tour video, you’ve seen how bright and colorful the room is. Maybe you’ll love it, maybe you’ll hate it, but it is essentially how the entire hotel is decorated. There are no Universal characters or other intellectual property (IP) references in the room. It’s some generic furniture painted in loud colors.
There’s also not a coffee maker in the room. I know that’s not abnormal for theme park hotels in Orlando... and it’s dumb there, too. If I’m here with my toddler, I need coffee available sooner than I’m able to dress myself.
An ice bucket and mini fridge are provided, too. A television is mounted over the dresser and has basic cable channels; yes, I was able to watch World Cup games while looking out the window at a theme park. Life isn’t all bad.
How’s the rest of the hotel?
Cards on the table: I think the hotel is quite ugly. I can hear you now! Jake! It’s for kids!
And hey, if your kids think this ugly hotel is fun, more power to them. I found the space very over-stimulating, which isn’t exactly what I’m looking for when I’m staying at a theme park hotel. I was also surprised by the lack of character art throughout the hotel. Each floor is painted a different color to correspond to a character featured at the park (I stayed on the Shrek floor), but that’s about it.
Interior hallway at Universal Kids Resort Hotel
The design direction Universal went for with this hotel probably reflects the team’s budget. What is a cost-effective way to make a hotel for a kids theme park? Paint.
What about the pool?
Universal says its pool is 3,514 square feet. For your average 300-room hotel, that would be plenty big enough. Unfortunately, this is not an average hotel. Universal Kids Resort will close between 6 and 7 p.m. on most days. There are 22 days a year the park can stay open until 10 p.m. You see where I’m going with this?
Pool at Universal Kids Resort Hotel
During my stay, here’s what happened: Families came back from the park in the mid to late afternoon, ate dinner and went to the pool. This made the pool very crowded and, from the looks of it, unpleasant to be in. There’s also no hot tub; I understand why they didn’t include one (I assume safety concerns with kids running all over the place) but that would have been a nice addition for parents.
What kind of dining is there?
But don’t worry, there is a hotel bar with a series of cocktails along with bottles of wine and canned beer. These drinks can be taken to the pool area or back up to your room. The menu changed twice during my stay there, and I imagine it will change again before you visit the park. The bartenders, Jess and Rowan, were very friendly and accommodating.
That bar sits next to the lone quick service dining location in the hotel. It opens at 6:30 a.m. for breakfast and, at least during my stay, closes at 9 p.m. I had breakfast and dinner during my stay. For dinner, I tried the braised short rib, served with green beans and grits. This was quite good, in keeping with the majority of my eating experience at the resort.
Braised short rib dinner [$18.99]
Breakfast... not so much. I got the classic breakfast and was pretty disappointed. The quality of the eggs and toast would have been fine, or at least passable, if I was staying at a Hampton Inn that provided the breakfast for “free.” But I would be disappointed if I spent $11 on this breakfast.
You’re also only a 15-minute drive from all that Frisco has to offer, so you’re not as captive an audience as you might be at an Orlando theme park.
Yes, they charge for parking
It costs $20 a night to park your car at the Universal Kids Resort. The parking lot is quite vast and does not have any shade structures, so keep that in mind if you’re planning on heading out during the day.
Is it worth a stay?
Ultimately, this will come down to what you value and how much money you have to spend. There is a Hampton Inn a mere seven-minute drive from Universal Kids Resort that charges around $100 a night for a stay. Parking and breakfast are free. It is decidedly less fun than the Universal Kids Resort Hotel and is certainly not as convenient as being able to use your own two feet to get back to your hotel room for a nap.
You also get one hour of early entry to the theme park as a hotel guest along with a dedicated entrance exclusively for guests. Merchandise delivery is also available, sending your purchases back to your room so you don’t have to schlep them around all day.
But if I was doing a Universal Kids Resort staycation, or making this park part of a broader North Texas vacation... I’d stay at the Hampton. The Universal Kids Resort Hotel might be fine for some families, but it doesn’t offer enough to justify its price.
Previously
- Review of the theme park - Universal Kids Resort: What were they thinking?
Replies (17)
I wanted to defend the hotel, too, but it's a pity that it turned out the way it did. A few other amenities could have gone a long way.
I do think you're not giving enough credit to the view as a huge perk. Honestly that's worth a little extra money in my book.
But aside from that, I don't know what they're expecting here. They want this to be a huge resort, but only one pool, no hot tub, not even a mini golf course or something else to make the money worth it.
This looks like something that would be in China and called "Beijing Wongdu District Colorful Economy Family Hotel"
>> But don’t worry, there is a hotel bar with a series of cocktails along with bottles of wine and canned beer
That’s how you know it’s for kids… canned beer.
Right. Time for a show of hands. I asked Google to prepare a budget for a family of four to visit for a day, including all expenses I could think of. Price is $615. It does not include cost of the hotel which would bring it close to a thousand bucks. It could be done for less by eating fewer meals or bringing food. Skimping on treats would work too but who wants to be the bad guy (or gal)?
Who feels they would likely pony up this for a day?
4 x 1-Day General Admission Tickets ($54.99 each) $219.96
Self-Parking (per vehicle) $20.00
Quick-service breakfast or hotel breakfast for 4 $60.00
Lunch Theme park quick-service meals and drinks $75.00
Mid-Afternoon Treat Ice cream, churros, or themed snacks for 4 $30.00
DinnerSit-down or premium family dinner at the resort $110.00
Souvenirs 4 x Store merchandise items (estimated $25 each) $100.00
Total Estimated Budget All-inclusive single-day expenses $615.00
I live far from Texas but from further Googling it seems that Texas charges sales tax on most of these items to add another 8.25.
Something I need to do in order to do a more complete comparison is go back to Six Flags Over Texas. I remember their kids area being quite nice and the park, in general, being a nice place to spend time. If it's really as nice or nicer than this, the only barrier is some parents' desire to go to a park without many/any teenagers. Which strikes me as incredibly silly, but obviously those people exist in large quantities and they let you know about it online.
I think I finally understand what happens here... well, played Robert. It's the Galactic Starcruiser invite passed to someone else... again. Step aside and let someone else hake the hit.
Watching Russell walk the fine line of the Disney review tightrope was pretty epic. Something tells me that one was vetted before it was posted.
The childish sarcasm in this reporting style is sort of pathetic. For the record, I do agree, this park and hotel missed the mark completely for Universal standards.
Glad you split this into two rage baits. The five people that comment 20 times each (like myself) will surely produce some click throughs. You know, I am seeing ads for my own Ebay listings, correct?
Again, the standard here is set by the Legoland/Merlin hotels. I've stayed at the Legoland Hotel in Carlsbad and the Alton Towers Hotel, and they provide such value and a fun factor for kids. There are play areas, gardens, shows, a free breakfast, and nicely themed rooms. My son was excited when our room at Alton Towers also had a polar bear stuffed animal. The Alton Towers hotels even have a nearby mini golf course, which isn't part of the stay but still a fun option. (Side note: The Efteling hotels are also amazing and great for kids).
I think those resorts are a better bang for your buck than any Disney property I've stayed at. Universal had an opportunity to recreate that here, and it sounds like they failed.
ah, a 6:30 breakfast start. if only the Orlando hotels would do that so one could actually eat breakfast AND make early park admission.
NB, I don't see much commonality between The Universal Kids Resort and The Galactic Starcruiser. The latter was a turrible bidness decision. But the reviews I read on TPI and other outlets were, not including the exorbitant cost, almost universally positive. The Mouse poured a ton of money into that project, $300MM of which was subsequently written off for tax purposes. And though I never cosplayed within the confines of that land locked cruise, from all accounts it met or exceeded the standards expected for an Old Media destination theme park.
It's important to hold Kabletown to the standard they set with their recent developments and I commend Mr. Sundstrom for his efforts.
Zarex, the commonality between the Starcruiser and Universal Kids is how Robert assigned someone other than Robert to cover them. Both disasters he didn't have to personally write reviews for.
Yeah, I'd be down for an even earlier breakfast start (like 6 a.m.), but this was still nicer than the 7 a.m. start at the Disney hotel we stayed at in Hong Kong.
Jacob - Thank you for you review. It seems pretty fair based up what I've seen online, and this is coming from someone who has been accused of being pro-Universal and "anti"- Disney.
The vitriol, hate, name calling, trolling, political spinning, and just abject negativity from a handful of posters is really pulling down the overall discourse on this site. Jacob took a trip, how else do you think that companies get writers, reviewers, etc.. to experience their products? He wrote a "negative" review, which destroys the narrative that he was "bought" and his positive review was "paid for." He didn't write a glowing, positive review... he wrote what I would abjectly classify as a fair and somewhat negative review, in spite of the (gasp) "free" trip. The amount of garbage and name calling that he has put up with (jay-cub how original, insert eye roll) is insane. Me thinks there are some jealous posters who wish that their trolling was just witty enough that it could get them a free trip.
I will say that in a perfect world, there would be no reliance on this kind of pay-to-play access journalism. I'd be able to pay for all my travel accommodations, theme park ticket and then go and experience the park. That is not the world we live in. This kind of work is expensive to do and, obviously, it's tough to rustle up money to support it.
So barring that, the best you can do is acknowledge when you've gotten something comped and then do your best to be honest. Let the readers make up their own mind about the place with all the information they can.
"Zarex, the commonality between the Starcruiser and Universal Kids is how Robert assigned someone other than Robert to cover them. Both disasters he didn't have to personally write reviews for."
I'm not going to go through the myriad reasons for why this statement is way off the mark. I really don't understand why NB is questioning the journalistic integrity of this site, especially when you see other outlets outright tying themselves into knots trying to fit the predestined agenda of their site with their reviews of this (and other) project(s).
@NB Creative - love your comments! Spot on.
lol
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On-site theme park hotels are almost always more expensive than comparable off-site options, so it's always a balance to weigh the benefits of staying on-site versus an off-site chain. I've stayed at various on-site resorts as well as major chain hotels near theme parks, and the actual theming in the hotel and rooms has very little bearing on my evaluation of the options. In my experience, the only 2 hotels where the theming made a major impact on my experience are Animal Kingdom Lodge (when we stayed in a more expensive Savanah view room) and the Hotel Charles Lindbergh at Phantasialand. Even in those 2 situations, I'm not inclined to pay significantly more (2-3x that you sometimes see in on-site prices) that comparable off-site hotels cost. For me, the on-site resort benefits are what tip the scales, so when you are still forced to pay for parking, breakfast, and need to walk to the lobby for a cup of coffee, a single hour of early entry is not enough to sway me to pay twice as much as other options.
I do think with this hotel and Helios, Universal is trying to establish a vibe and exclusivity for guests staying on-site, but when there are other options that are either comparable or superior in terms of perks and/or price, these new hotels need to find ways to compete. I feel like with so little theming, this hotel needs to up the perks (or significantly lower the price) to succeed. In the US, Legoland resort hotels give you that theming, and at parks like Dollywood, those resorts include tickets and TimeSaver (the park's queue avoidance system) along with breakfast included in the room rate. I know it's becoming increasingly common for chain hotels to charge for parking (and more are upcharging for what used to be free breakfast - some are hiding it in alternate room rates that may or may not include breakfast) even in suburban areas where parking is traditionally free anywhere, but to charge hotel guests to park in a surface lot is crazy.
For a resort that is supposed to appeal primarily to locals, the design and execution of this hotel doesn't make much sense. This should be differentiating itself from the chain hotels, yet the only real advantage here is an hour of early access to a theme park most people will only spend a single day at. The size and amenities at the pool (there doesn't appear to be a splash pad, slide, or other features let alone the missing hot tub) appear to be less than what most people living in North Texas can get at home or their community pool.