Ok, so here are my final thoughts on our trip:
Royal Pacific Resort: We liked our room, beds were very comfortable. It was quite comparable to our Port Orleans Riverside accommodations from our last two Disney stays. The tropical theme was consistent throughout. Staff was very friendly and helpful and the grounds were always kept clean. The food options are more inline with the luxury resorts at Disney. While we didn't utilize it, the pool looked quite fun and large enough to not feel crowded. Sandy "beach" front volleyball court was nice. It was also nice to see modern LCD tv's that actually had HD content displayed properly. Probably not a big deal to most, but for a videophile like myself it was refreshing not to have to watch fuzzy SD content stretch to fit a hi-def widescreen display.
Our only complaint would be the transportation options to outside parks. Their shuttle hours to the Sea World Parks are just strange. They aren't very appealing to those who like to get to a park BEFORE it opens. Pick up times are worse, 8:05pm for a park that closed at 7:00pm??? Their town car service, while pricey was consistent with comparable services offered at other parks with one exception. Our ride to Discovery Cove was $5 MORE than a ride to Sea World
We ended up taking one of the Sea World contracted town cars back for $5 less. Not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but $5 for what amounts to a minute or two of travel time???
We would definitely stay again.
City Walk: Great selection of eateries. Lively atmosphere just about anytime of the day. We dined at Margaritaville, Nascar Cafe, Pastamore and NBA City. All were very good. As compared to Downtown Disney? I think I like City Walk better. I may feel differently if I had kids but I don't, so City Walk gets the nod here.
Islands of Adventure: Our favorite park of the two. The standouts for both the wife and I were Spiderman and Potter's FJ. As I had stated earlier, Disney could learn a thing or two on how to do this style of attraction from Universal. Other favorites at this park were Hulk and Jurassic Park River Ride. Each area certainly had a different feel to it, which is how it should be. All you had to do was look around to instantly identify what "island" you were on. The size of the park makes it pretty easy to get through in less than a full day, at least with Express Pass in hand. We had a three day pass and looking back, really just needed two.
Universal Studios: Home of what is now my favorite theme park ride, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit!!! I really loved this ride. The track configuration, the cars, the music. It just works for me. Not the biggest, fastest or craziest, but what it does comes together just right.
My wife really like the Mummy ride. We both also really like The Simpsons and of course Despicable Me. I don't really see a real theme here other than that of a Hollywood backlot. If you look at it that way, it works. A backlot is just a mish mash of movie sets so it fits that idea. There are a few dead spots where there is not much going on, but that didn't detract much from the experience. Definitely doable in one day, fast pass or not.
I think Studios needs it's own "killer attraction" to get more people into that park. The front area with Rip Ride, Despicable Me and Shrek was where the biggest crowds gathered. The rest of the park seemed pretty empty. Good for us as patrons who want to get as much in as possible, maybe not so good for Universal. No hint anywhere in the park as to what will, if anything, be replacing Jaws.
Just an FYI for those that may not have read everything in this thread, but EARLY ENTRY into Studios may now be the norm. Supposedly it's for Despicable Me (Shrek will be the other attraction open early). We were able to get it early each day, but staff over at IoA seemed unaware of it. We asked one of the ticket scanner workers and they said it only opened early for people who do the character breakfast, the seemed surprised when we told them otherwise.
Sea World: We did one day here with the VIP tour. Worth it? Maybe. We are glad we did it as we enjoyed the VIP seating at the shows. We also enjoyed the animal feedings that were included (Sea Lions, Dolphins and stingrays). The rest consisted of free time for rides and lunch. With the unlimited quick queue and dining plan it would be great for people who, like us, may not return to this park, and wanted to get everything there was to do in with one day. We got there early so we took advantage of the dining plan and had breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as snacks and water throughout the day.
The Manta was great fun and we really enjoyed this parks version of Journey to Atlantis. The layout of the park could use some work. You pretty much dead end at Kraken and have to double back. Would be nice just to go in a big circle. With the empty ski show stadium area there is just a big dead area of nothing to look at.
We did enjoy our day here, but it's more of a one and done thing since we have a "local" Sea World a couple of hours from home.
Discovery Cove: Worth every penny (We did NOT do the dolphin swim)!! Just an incredible feeling of being away from it all. Very friendly staff and everything you could want is included. If you were just dropped right in, you could easily think you were somewhere tropical. We loved everything that we got to do. Highlight for me was swimming with those enormous rays!! What beautiful and graceful creatures.
We would do it again in a heartbeat!!!
<object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UzmWqJCBo7o?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UzmWqJCBo7o?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>
Conclusion: We will be coming back. It's such a different overall experience than that of the Disney Resorts/Parks. Value, IMO, is good and consistent with the area. Crowd levels were very manageable, especially at Studios. Resort guests would have no issues if they take advantage of early entry.
)
