Loews Royal Pacific Resort: Distance from the parks

Loews Royal Pacific Resort: Your South Seas escape is waiting

This page includes information, photo tours, and an HD video of the transportation between Royal Pacific Resort, Universal CityWalk, and the Universal Orlando theme parks (Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure). This page also includes information about the shuttle service from Royal Pacific to SeaWorld, Aquatica (SeaWorld’s water park), and Volcano Bay, Universal’s water theme park.

Distance from CityWalk, Universal Studios Florida, and Islands of Adventure

Royal Pacific Resort sits right next to CityWalk and Islands of Adventure. This makes it extremely convenient to move back and forth between the hotel, the restaurant and shops at CityWalk, and the two theme parks at Universal Orlando. At this point, I recommend that you open the OI custom-made Google map using this link (it will open in a new window):

OI map of Universal Orlando’s on-site hotels

(It may be helpful to switch it to Satellite View.)

As you can see from the map, Royal Pacific is, indeed, very close to CityWalk and the theme parks. You have three options for transportation, which will be explained below.

Royal Pacific Resort’s water taxi dock

There is one water taxi dock serving CityWalk, Universal Studios Florida, and Islands of Adventure

Transportation options to CityWalk and Universal’s theme parks

Here are your options to get from Royal Pacific Resort to CityWalk and Universal’s theme parks, Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure:

Water taxi: Universal’s complimentary water taxis begin operating 30 minutes before Early Park Admission and run continuously until 2:30 am every single day of the year. Most of the on-site hotels have their own dedicated water taxi, so you will be picked up from the hotel and brought directly to the CityWalk dock every time, and vice versa. (There is a single water taxi dock for CityWalk and the two Universal theme parks, as seen in the photo above.)
- The water taxis are fun, but, as you can tell from the map, they are not necessarily practical for guests staying at Royal Pacific. In fact, the distance from the CityWalk water taxi docks to the turnstiles at Islands of Adventure is only slightly shorter than the distance from the pool gate at Royal Pacific to the CityWalk entrance next to Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. More on this in a moment.
Theme park shuttle: Universal also operates a shuttle that runs continuously between the seven on-site hotels and the general guest drop-off area near the Universal parking garages, as seen on the OI Google map. (It used to be that on-site hotel guests using the bus were dropped off at Celebrity Circle, just steps away from the Universal Studios Florida turnstiles, but this changed in 2013.)
- Because the shuttle drop-off location puts on-site hotel guests at basically the same distance from the parks as day guests parking at Universal, it serves no function as a time saver. The only advantage may be for guests with disabilities who need to rent a wheelchair for the day, since wheelchair rental is available on the second floor of the transportation hub, where the shuttle now drops you off (an elevator is available here). Note that ECV rentals are still only available inside the parks.
Garden walkway: this roughly one-third-of-a-mile walkway brings you from the pool gate at Royal Pacific to the CityWalk entrance next to Margaritaville and back. The path is extremely easy to follow, beautifully landscaped, and safe because it never crosses any public roads. View the photo tours at the bottom of the page to see for yourself. As I previously mentioned, it does not really make a lot of practical sense to take the water taxi if you want to get to Islands of Adventure as fast as you can; the garden walkway is simple to navigate and, with a quick step, will get you to the park well before your friends on the water taxi.

Transportation to Volcano Bay

A shuttle will carry guests from Royal Pacific directly to the Volcano Bay water theme park, located all the way on the other side of Universal Orlando property (right next-door to Cabana Bay Beach Resort). The bus leaves approximately every 15 minutes.

Transportation to SeaWorld and Aquatica

Universal’s hotels provide complimentary scheduled shuttle transportation, called the Connector Shuttle, to SeaWorld and Aquatica (SeaWorld’s water park). We emphasize scheduled because it is very important to understand that the bus does not run continuously; rather, in general, it picks up and drops off once in the morning and once in the evening.

Garden walkway – photo highlights

Walk from Royal Pacific Resort to Universal CityWalk

Walk from Universal CityWalk to Royal Pacific Resort

The Islands of Adventure lighthouse – HD video

This is a short video of the lighthouse, positioned in front of Islands of Adventure, as viewed from the Garden Walkway between Royal Pacific and CityWalk at night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJIq013u0Nc