Check in at The Universal Studios Grand Hotel, the world’s first Universal-themed Hotel at Universal Beijing Resort, located right at the entrance of Universal Studios Beijing!
The Universal Studios Grand Hotel Tour
Located at the entrance of Universal Studios Beijing, the Universal Studios Grand Hotel is the world’s first Universal-themed hotel. With a classic Spanish Revival aesthetic on the outside, the interiors are inspired by the golden age of Hollywood, combined with the presence of recent Hollywood blockbusters.
It’s hard to argue that this is the most convenient place to stay if you are planning a trip to Universal Studios Beijing. There’s a dedicated park entrance for hotel guests, along with early park entry privilege exclusive to hotel guests (for now). This provides an unusual benefit of returning to your room for a midday break.
With about 800 rooms, the guest room floors are quite enormous with rooms spread across two wings and a central spine, connected via long maze-like corridors. Each floor has one high-tech drink vending machine, but that’s about it. There aren’t a lot of facilities, but at the lobby level, there are two restaurants, a shop, a kids club, and a 24-hour gym.
Here’s the front desk at the lobby.
If you need Guest Services, the counters are at the classic Universal arch, now in 2D.
The Hotel entrance if you’re arriving via car.
Near the front desk, you can also find the Express Check-Out Kiosks, Luggage storage service, a Universal Studios Store, and the staircase leading to CityWalk and Universal Studios Beijing Park entrance.
The central spine connecting the two wings also offers views into the entrance plaza of the park and Hollywood Boulevard.
Guest Rooms at The Universal Studios Grand Hotel
The hotel offers a variety of rooms for different needs, with most rooms in the default Hollywood theme. Rooms are priced depending on the view offered and type of room. There are also special themed rooms carrying Despicable Me Minions or Kung Fu Panda theming. Suite options are also available. Check the room options and rates on Klook.
As for these “default” rooms, you can pay a bit more for the option to get the CityWalk View (facing Universal CityWalk Beijing, the Universal Globe, and the pathway leading to the park), or the Hollywood Boulevard View (facing the park’s Hollywood zone). Due to the park’s layout and design, the hotel staff advised that none of these rooms are optimal for viewing night shows.
Inside The Universal Studios Grand Hotel’s Standard Room
The “very standard” room in this hotel is decently sized (30m2) with twin Queen beds, or an option for a single King bed. If you did not select a room with a preferred view, you will likely end up facing a back of house area of the Resort, or the Hotel might offer an upgrade.
My room looked directly into Transformers Metrobase, offering a view of the Decepticoaster’s tracks, and most interestingly in the middle of the photo: This was meant for the controversial Fast & Furious: Supercharged, which was the first attraction to be announced for Universal Studios Beijing in 2018. The same ride opened in Florida and Hollywood parks to overwhelmingly negative reception, leading to the cancellation of this attraction in Beijing. The lower part of the photo shows a storage area for seemingly thousands of queue barricades left to freeze in the snow.
You can watch films from Universal’s library on the TV, to “revise” or catch up on the stories experienced in the park. Room service is also offered, which is great because there are no convenience stores offering quick bites in this hotel.
Among the other standard things you can expect: plush bath and face towels, and basic toiletries. Despite warnings at some booking websites that disposable toiletries will not be ‘actively’ provided due to a city-wide regulations, you will be relieved that the rooms already come supplied with new and sealed slippers, toothbrushes, combs, bath and shampoo gels et al, and they all get replenished daily without having to request.
Housekeeping will also restock the bottled drinking water (ChunYue by Coca-Cola) in the room, ensuring that there are at least 4-6 bottles, including 2 in the bathroom. You can bring the purple bottle into Universal Studios Beijing and reuse it all day, using water dispensers that can be found outside most restrooms around the park. If you forget, it’s RMB10 per bottle in the park.
Hotel guests’ entrance to Universal Studios Beijing and Universal CityWalk
Similar to other hotels built within theme parks, there is a dedicated park entrance at the East wing of The Universal Studios Grand Hotel. This park entrance is reserved for guests with a valid stay (i.e. checked-in) at either The Universal Studios Grand Hotel, NUO Resort Hotel, or guests going for the VIP Experience at Universal Studios Beijing.
All eligible guests will need to undergo security screening to leave the hotel for CityWalk or Universal Studios Beijing theme park. Take note that beyond the typical items prohibited in theme parks, selfie sticks and tripods are also not allowed beyond this point. For more information, please refer to this page.
If you have booked the VIP Experience at Universal Studios Beijing, you can walk on the red carpet here to the VIP Reception.
Early Park Entry for hotel guests
Apart from the convenience of staying right at the doorstep of Universal Studios Beijing, hotel guests of The Universal Studios Grand Hotel can enjoy early park entry of up to an hour before the park’s official opening time.
To make use of this perk, head to the Hotel’s Park Entrance via the spiral staircase in the East Wing. Bring your passport along.
You will be guided to a line (which may lead to a covered area outside the hotel) to verify that you are a registered guest.
After that, you can proceed to security screening and then join the line for the turnstiles, and wait.
During the Early Park Entry period, only selected zones, attractions and facilities will be available. Typically, you will be able to explore half of Hollywood, Minion Land, and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The other areas of the park will open after the Early Park Entry period.
Essentially, this is the best time to race towards Hogsmeade and Hogwarts Castle for the rare opportunity of photos without crowds.
Character Breakfast at The Lotus Garden
There are two dining venues at The Universal Studios Grand Hotel: The Lotus Garden and Red Dragon Lounge (more for drinks). Despicable Me Character Breakfast is offered at The Lotus Garden, daily from 6:30AM. This is the easy and lazy way to get fueled up for a day at Universal Studios Beijing. Most restaurants in the park only operate from 11AM, which might be a bit late if you’re entering the park at opening hour, or even worse, with Early Park Entry. You can also head out to CityWalk but it will take up valuable time with the walking needed.
Priced at RMB288 (~S$54) per adult, and RMB200 (~S$38) per child, ages 3 to 11, there’s a wide but standard breakfast buffet spread – a mix of Chinese and Western cuisine.
These small Minion snacks are the only themed offerings at the buffet.
Expect special offerings during festive seasons, such as Christmas as pictured. Otherwise, it’s fairly basic – but with exclusive Despicable Me Meet and Greet sessions all morning with Gru’s Girls and the Minions might make up for it.
What you need to know about staying here
How to book a room at The Universal Studios Grand Hotel
The recommended way to book hotel rooms directly needs an activated account in the Universal Beijing Resort App, which requires mobile phone verification – that has not been working for many overseas travellers.
A good alternative is to use a reliable travel agent or booking website such as Klook, which allows you to pay for your stay in advance. However, do note the next point on Hotel Deposit.
Hotel Deposit
Most travel agents and booking websites fail to mention that staying at this hotel in Universal Beijing Resort requires a security deposit upon check-in, at the rate of about RMB1,500 per night.
Please have a credit card ready for this authorisation hold, which will be cancelled upon successful checkout. If you use cash, then the deposit will be returned upon checkout.
Park Tickets
There is no ticketing counter at the Hotel, although the guest services counter can assist with park tickets if you are unable to purchase them directly via the Universal BJ App, the mini-Apps, or via an authorised travel agent like Klook.
Luggage Storage
This service is located at the lobby, near the spiral staircase and express check-out counters. You can store your luggage here for free as a hotel guest.
Check In time at The Universal Studios Grand Hotel
You can check in at this hotel after 4PM. This would require some planning if you intend to go to the park in the morning, such as storing your luggage first, and returning in the evening.
Check-out time and Late Check-out
The official check-out time at The Universal Studios Grand Hotel is before 11AM. Late check-out can be requested at the front desk: at a fee of 50% of the rate for that particular night for check-outs before 5PM, or 100% room rate for check-outs after 5PM.
Universal Studios Store at The Universal Studios Grand Hotel
If you don’t want to take a walk to the larger store at Universal CityWalk, you can grab last-minute gifts at the hotel.
The selection is of course not as extensive, but you can find some of the most popular items here.
Fitness Centre at The Universal Studios Grand Hotel
There is a 24-hour gym located in the West Wing, and it is surprisingly well-equipped for a theme park hotel. For strength training: there’s a dumbbell rack that maxes out at 14kg, and just a few pairs of plates for the smith machine. Along with cardio machines you can find the ever-useful adjustable pulley with an assortment of attachments, lateral pulldowns and even chest press machine.
Towels, bottled water and a water dispenser are all provided. The fitness centre may not be staffed all day. Please read all the rules and train with care.
Deliveries to The Universal Studios Grand Hotel
If you plan to order takeaway food or have items delivered to the hotel, do note that the front desk won’t accept these items and the courier will have to deposit them into the lockers outside. These lockers require the local courier app to open, and they are located just outside the lobby, at the porch.
The Universal Beijing Resort Grand Tour on DEJIKI.COM
Stay tuned for more articles and coverage on Universal Studios Beijing.
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