Back Already!!!

[Claire Chatts]

Hi all, can't believe it's all over!!

Returned yesterday from first trip to Orlando and two fantastic, packed weeks!!

Stayed at the Royal Pacific for full two weeks, lovely hotel, very Carribean in style.

Any questions please ask away, I won't be doing a report, no idea where to start but will list hi-lights below.

Quick tip, buy one water per park and fill it up at fountains, find the coldest in the air conditioned toilets.

Claire

Highlights:

Halloween horror night at Islands of Adventure, absolutely fantastic!! I bottled out of Skull Kingdom, the guy on the front desk freaked me out!!!

All of Universal studios!!

Dr Dooms Fearfall and Disneys Tower of Terror, brilliant rides!!

Splash Kingdom, still love it!!

Boggy creek Airboat ride, we saw a gator!!

Tony Romas ribs, good as ever and if you buy a full rack of baby backs (as my hubby did) you get as many more as you can eat, he did two racks!!

Seeing Melinda Messenger at Animal Kingdom, hubby's highlight not mine!!!

Meal at the Palm, yum yum but way too much food!!

I know there's more but this is getting too long!!!

 

[Wellard Stallard]

Welcome back Claire - so glad you had a good time - we are off on Saturday for 3 wks, can't wait! How did you get on with the water - I've heard it upsets some people so thought we would just buy bottled water. Also what was the weather like?

thanks

 

[Ber]

Hi Claire,

First of all welcome back, and it's great to hear you had a brilliant time! The reason I am replying to your thread is, I am wondering could you give me as much info as possible as to what it was like being there for Halloween....a bit more detail about the horror nites etc. really anything you think would be useful! I am going back there next year for Halloween (my second trip) so im dying to know all about the horror nites etc!
So why did the guy at Skull Kingdom freak you out? I am planning to do that next year as well but after reading what you posted im am dying to know why that guy put you off!!
Anyway talk soon,

Ber.

 

[Olaf]

Quick tip, buy one water per park and fill it up at fountains, find the coldest in the air conditioned toilets.

Claire, do you realize just how goofy that sounds?

 

[KayleeUK]

Welcome Back. Would love to hear about HHN - we will be there on the 31st!!

Kaylee

 

[richard3330]

Glad you had a nice time, I bet it went really fast!!

I would love to hear some more information about The Royal Pacific, we are staying at POB when we visit at christmas, but we will have a look round RPR and maybe stay there next time round.


Welcome Back to cold England!

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

Welcome home - sounds like you had a fantastic time.

If you think of anything else - post away, please

Get some good sleep now for the next few nights

 

[WDWfan uk]

Welcome home Claire ! So pleased you had such a great time!

I'd love to hear more about the Royal Pacific too

 

[UKDEB]

Welcome home, Claire. Another request here for more on RPH.

Seeing Melinda Messenger at Animal Kingdom

Aaaaaaaaaargh!

Now, I know I've said I'm just going to chill out and not let anything get to me on my holiday, but I think I might have to make an exception if I bumped into Melinda Messenger!

 

[neilybealy]

morning all

we too are just back

can't quite believe it's all over

we went to the first halloween horror night last friday and it was amazing, i can't recommend this enough

the only downer was we have lost the sony memory stick with 190 pics from our holiday - we know we had to change it over because it was full up when we first went thru the gate at the horrow night so it had 13 days of photos on it

 

[squitty]

Welcome home Claire & Neil

 

[henrydog]

Hi
We are thinking of going the same time of year next year, could you tell me what exactly is the Halloween Horror nights at Universal ?
If you have the 5 park flex ticket is it included, if not how much is it ? and do you need to book or can you pay on the gate ?
Thanks

 

[neilybealy]

have a look at http://themeparks.universalstudios.com/orlando/hhn/index.html

the park closes at 5pm and then re-opens at 7pm which you need an extra ticket for as it won't be included in the flex ticket

we had a 2 day 2 park ticket (with an extra day free) and we only had to upgrade our ticket to cover the HHN which cost $21 each adult

 

[Claire Chatts]

Hi everyone, sorry I've been ages replying, busy at work and post hols blues keeping me away from site!!

On the water question, we had no worries at all. It obviously isn't as cold from the hotel tap as at home but we just added ice from the machine in the corridor and it was fine. Some of the parks water seemed to taste clearer than others, just try to find the coldest and Olaf - I honestly don't drink from toilets, just use the fountains near them!!

The Haloween Horror night was great but I wouldn't recomment it for under 13's (although I am a scaredy cat!!) Most of the rised were open to do in the dark if you want but as we only had from 8-12 we didn't bother as we had done them before. The Barges were shut (but you don't want to get that wet at night anyway!!)

There were people dressed up as you walk in to jump out etc and also as you walk around from zone to zone. I was a wreck at first put got pretty used to them after a while.

There were about 4 Haunted houses set up. We made it into 3 of them, Scarey Tales 2, a dinosoar type one and the main one called The Scream house. This last one was the longest and I reccommend if you're going to hit it first as the queue was over an hour by 11:30. All houses rely on the dark and your imagination a lot, lots of fun!!

The Bill and Ted show was fantastic!! A hilarious show starring all your faves, to say any more would be to give it away but it's not at all scarey!

There were various other bits to see like the foam creatures (funny again!) and lots to buy like special alcoholic blood - don't forget your ID's!!

To sum up I dodn'y expect to be there till 12 and wished we had longer - a fantastic night!!

Skull Kingdom - Man on door was evil looking and I know he was only a bloke but he scared me and there was only us two and another couple so no safety in numbers. I'ma checken I know but hubby wasn't too bothered, we went on to Tony Roma's and he had the refillable full rack of Baby back's and got through two racks!!!

As for the hotel, what do you want to know? I'd say it's the closest to IOA and Citiwalk in general. The pool is huge and plenty of sunbeds, shade if req'd etc. Pool also open till 10pm and we saw a lot of families taking advantage of this while their kids got rid of any unused energy. Every Friday night they had a movie at the pool too, pretty cool!!

Room very clean and nicely furnished but not huge. We had a kingsize bed and was fine for us two but you wouldn't have wanted two doubles and a family in it really. Used the mini-bar to store our own drinks without problem.

Didn't eat in hotel at all as so close to Citiwalk and I-Drive but not cheap (Did eat in the Palm at HRH though, fantastic if a little expensive!!) Drinks around the pool and in Jakes bar also pricey but good measures and what you'd expect from that kind of hotel really.

We walked to Citiwalk most of the time as this was the quickest and we like a walk but water tax's very good and frequent too. Go to the Concierge desk and ask about Citiewalk i.e. do we need another ticket for the bars / restaurants? ( You don't if you have a ticket for the parks) and they should give you vouchers for Citiwalk like $5 off the HR Cafe plus a free gift (shot glasses) free gift in Margaritaville. The best were two for one drinks in CitiJazz, Bob Marleys or Pat O'briens. This meant we could get two well brands (rum and coke and vodka and cranberry in our case!) for $4, makes a big difference, we went to the concierge twice for these and no-one minds how many you have!!

Noticed a big change in numbers for the weekends which was good for increased atmosphere in Citiwalk but not good if you want a quiet pool for a couple of days so I'd say if you're only there for a couple of days, particularly with children, then avioid the weekends!!

Didn't find parking a problem and with Virgin it was free but they may be losing this perk and at $6 a day it can get a bit prciey!!

The gym in the hotel was good, $8 a day, $12 for two but $20 for three, work that one out!!!! HAd good cardio equipment and good free weight as well as resistance machines. Not used a lot as you can imagine!!! Lovely spa area and changing facilities with seperate male and female steam and sauna rooms.

Think I'm waffling on now, any questions please ask!!!!

Claire

 

[Olaf]

Olaf - I honestly don't drink from toilets, just use the fountains near them!!

I'm so glad Claire. I mean it can't be all that bad for you--my dog does it all the time.

You Brits really seem to like Halloween. I think you should celebrate it properly over there. Costumes, trick-or-treating, pub crawling, the whole nine yards.

 

[Eastender]

Anyone who can do 2 racks gets my respect!