When you head to Universal Orlando, you’ll likely need somewhere to lay your weary head after a day of wizards and dinosaurs.
While some may choose to commute from Disney or other properties, we have to recommend our favorite resort at Universal Orlando: Loews Royal Pacific Resort.
This hotel comes with great perks (like free Express Pass!!!!) and is within walking distance to the parks. Let’s take a little look around the hotel!
A Tour of Loew’s Royal Pacific Resort
Royal Pacific has a South Seas island theme that can be seen around the lobby, rooms, restaurants, and decor.
How cute is the elephant garden outside the lobby? A perfect spot to enjoy your morning coffee.
Restaurants
Off the lobby, you’ll find the Tuk Tuk Market, a grab and go spot that sells coffee, snacks, and pastries.
Their signature item is a Tuk Tuk Pastry, which is like a homemade pop tart in a variety of sweet and savory flavors. They also have gigantic pretzels in different flavors such as Hawaiian and Jalapeno Cheddar!
Also off the lobby is the Orchid Lounge Restaurant. They’re open in the evenings and are known for their signature cocktails and sushi.
Downstairs, you’ll find Jake’s American Bar. This sit-down spot is known for burgers and beer, and is themed to a long-lost pilot named Jake.
On the lengthy beer menu, they even have a signature beer brewed just for them — Jake’s Original Red Ale.
Their pretzel rods are, no joke, the best pretzels I have ever had.
Across from Jake’s is the Island Dining Room. You can grab breakfast and dinner at this table service restaurant.
We grabbed an early breakfast before the parks — the Big Kahuna Breakfast is a sampling of their most popular items.
Royal Pacific has a pool bar (Bula Bar) and in-room dining available.
Amenities and Perks:
There is a wide variety of amenities and perks at Royal Pacific!
The biggest perk is FREE Universal Express Pass for your entire family, for every day of your stay — including your check in and check out days. This allows you to skip the lines at most attractions in the Universal parks and normally costs $100 a person (on average — it can run upwards of $200!) per day.
For more info on Express Pass, and to see how much you can REALLY ride in a day, check out this video!
Another huge perk is Early Park Admission, meaning you have access to one or both Universal parks an hour early!
Another great perk they offer is a texting service! You can text the front desk with questions about the parks, towel requests, and more! They’ll respond quickly with an answer.
On Site, check out the huge heated pool. It even has a ship setting!
You can rent private cabanas to complete your pool day.
Near the pool, you can find the on-site gym.
The first of the two shops is located near the gym and pool, called Treasures of Bali. Here you’ll find swimsuits, towels, and other island apparel!
The second shop is off the lobby, called Toko Gifts. Here you’ll find Universal Orlando products as well as some toiletries.
Transportation:
There are three ways to get from Royal Pacific to the theme parks and City Walk. First up, BOATS.
The water taxi will pick you up near the pool and drop you off at City Walk in between the two theme parks!
The buses will take you to City Walk, the theme parks, and the water park, Volcano Bay.
My preferred method to get to the parks? WALKING! The parks are just a short walk away, on a very scenic path.
It took about 10 minutes to get from the resort to the park.
ROOM TOUR:
Let’s check out the room! This is a standard queen room.
The room came equipped with two cozy queen beds and plenty of space.
Next to the beds, there’s a nice cozy chair with reading lamp, and across it you’ll find a desk and chair…
…as well as a large chest of drawers and TV.
In the center of the dresser, you’ll find a mini fridge and coffee maker.
There is a large closet, complete with safe and iron with board.
The large bathroom features great lighting, several mirrors, and toiletries. We also found plenty of towels!
In its own section, you’ll find the toilet and roomy shower.
Royal Pacific is considered a Premier Resort because of the rooms and amenities, which is their highest category of hotel. Price-wise, we found this comparable to a lower level Deluxe Resort or Moderate Resort at Disney World.
Overall, I was really impressed with this resort! The room was nice and clean, the food was tasty, and the location is great. Plus the HUGE perk of Express Pass makes this a great place to stay.
If you want to learn more about Royal Pacific, check out this full tour below — it includes dining reviews and how to take advantage of Early Park Admission!
Click Below to Take the Tour!
Have you stayed at Royal Pacific? Let us know what you thought in the comments!
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Is there a Cabana Bay video? Would love to see it.
I stayed here in December 1999 when it was a fairly new resort, and the cheapest of the only three onsite hotels available at the time, and I absolutely loved it. I don’t know how much the perks have changed, if at all, but the two big ones – Express Pass and Early Entry – had limitations back then.
The Express Pass was good for a select number of rides and only during the first two hours of park opening. The Early Entry applied to just two attractions which would open for that one hour while the rest of the park remained closed. When I visited IOA, those rides were Spiderman and the Cat in the Hat, but Spiderman was suffering a technical glitch and couldn’t operate, so they opened the Hulk coaster to accommodate the disappointed Early Entry people who had queued up for Spiderman. They were nice enough perks, but in mid-December, the park was not nearly crowded enough for it to save you much time, and unless you rode those same two attractions repeatedly, you were left with nothing else to do except wait for the park to open. Unless I returned to my hotel, I couldn’t even find a place for a cup of coffee then, because all the food locations opened with the rest of the park, and even more tragically, the Green Eggs and Ham Cafe didn’t open for breakfast at all, so you’d have to wait til lunchtime if you wanted to try it.
I’d like to think that guest demand has resulted in changes for the better since that inaugural year.
Thanks so much for doing this! A big help as we are planning a 2022 trip! ❤️
We stayed her a few years ago, and absolutely loved it. Was great be within easy walking distance of the parks, and also enjoyed the different eating options available within the hotel. And of course the express passes!
It would be so awesome if they had a Harry Potter Hotel. Of course buses, beer, and food again!!!! Will we ever hear about the rides. It is always buses, beer , and food oh my!Buses, beer , and food oh my!Buses, beer and food oh my!
On my! That would be awesome!!