Universal Orlando Theme Parks

Universal Orlando, a AAA Show Your Card & Save® partner, is revolutionizing the theme park experience by offering all resort guests unprecedented, instant-access to its blockbuster rides and attractions at both theme parks – beginning immediately.

In a program designed to re-define what people expect from theme parks, guests who stay at Universal Orlando resorts will never have to wait in line again. The no line, no wait program gives them the special privilege of gliding onto such enormously popular rides as The Adventures of Spider-Man at Islands of Adventure and Men In Black Alien Attack at Universal Studios.

The program is as simple as this: guests staying at an on-site Universal Orlando resort hotel show their room key and theme park admission ticket and get instant access – all day, every day, 365 days a year.

The no line, no wait program is immediately available for guests staying at the Portofino Bay Hotel and will also be available for guests staying at the Hard Rock Hotel, which opened in January.

Other exclusive benefits for guests staying at any of the Universal Orlando resorts include early theme park admission, priority seating at Universal Orlando restaurants, a resort ID card for the purchase of food and merchandise anywhere on Universal property, complimentary resort transportation and more. Hotel guests also have unlimited access to the theme parks and select CityWalk venues through- out their visit with the purchase of a special Length of Stay pass.

Universal Studios Vacations has also created special packages, bookable through AAA offices, that include exclusive member benefits valued at over $50 per person. AAA East Penn’s Travel Stores also sell discount tickets to Universal Orlando at a substantial discount, for those members that want to create their own vacations and don’t want to stand in line for tickets when they arrive.

In addition, AAA members always receive a ten percent discount on selected dining and souvenirs at both Universal Orlando theme parks and CityWalk. There are three exceptions to the Instant Access program – the Pteranodon Flyers and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish children’s rides at Islands of Advent-ure and the Fievel’s playland water slide at Universal Studios.

The Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando, a Loews Hotel, features 750 elegantly appointed rooms. Portofino’s eight restaurants and lounges include the romantic Delfino Riviera, serving the finest in Italian Ligurian cuisine, and Mama Della’s, featuring the finest Italian home style dining in a warm, friendly setting. The 10,600 square-foot health spa provides the latest in total pampering and relaxation and Portofino’s three pools offer something for any mood, from a quiet get-away to white, sandy beaches. Other showcase amenities include deluxe suites, mini-kitchens and full butler service.

The Hard Rock Hotel showcases the "Hotel California" architectural style of a southwestern mission. The hotel, located on a 19-acre site just steps away from Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure offers 650 guests rooms and suites. It will also be home to the prestigious Palm Restaurant, famous for its celebrity caricatures and prime cuts of beef and lobster.

A third Loews hotel, the Royal Pacific Resort, will open in 2002 with 1,000 rooms. Two additional hotels will be completed within the following several years, making a total of 5,000 rooms available at Universal Orlando.

The Universal Orlando resort destination includes two dramatically distinct and adjacent theme parks, the Universal Studios motion picture and television theme park and Islands of Adventure, Orlando’s next generation of theme park. Universal Orlando also includes CityWalk, a 30-acre dining, shopping, club and live-entertainment venue as well as premier onsite Loews hotels and world-class film and television production facilities.

Members wishing to plan a vacation to Universal Orlando should contact one of AAA Vacations…the Travel Store for advice and assistance.

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Published in the March 2001 issue of the AAA Traveler.