just got back. we spent 10 days in orlando--at the yacht club, royal pacific, and grand floridian.
this was my first time staying onsite at universal. had eaten at delifino riviera in the pbh before and went to ioa once before. hubby and i love rollercoasters and hubby loved ioa so we decided to add a few days at universal to get FOTL.
didn't need FOTL at all. parks were totally dead. in fact at ioa, the express lines weren't even open. rode the hulk 5 times in a row with no wait. LOVE the parks like that. i think ioa is a great AMUSEMENT park. really fun rides, but it is not a theme park and does not compare to disney. although hubby will proabably want to visit ioa on every orlando trip. don't blame him. the rides are fun. we also ate for the first time at MYTHOS. loved the food, place and waiter. really happy we tried it. i noticed a big difference in the up-keep of the attractions since our last visit (jan. 2000 right after it first opened). stuff showed wear and tear. still nothing major and nothing to make a big deal over. hubby didn't notice it as much.
as for USF, that was my first trip there. found it pretty boring. we did have horrible weather though so i am willing to chalk part of my dislike up to that. the park itself seemed to be in much better condition than IOA and is very pretty. still, kind of boring-even the shows. we did miss the animal planet show, which i was upset about and the nickolodean show. i could see young children and older adults enjoying it more.
we went to citywalk one night and the weather was so bad, it actually closed down--most of it anyway. ate at pastamore. was not impressed.
as for our hotel, we stayed at royal pacific. we used the entertainment rate $99. i can't complain about it for the price. it is an excellent value compared to a disney moderate, but i'd still rather be on disney property. i was asked to see my card upon check in. i also showed my loew's card and received not only my bottle of chardonnay but an extra bottle of merlot. thought that was a nice touch. the hotel itself is beautiful. i could not find anyting wrong with it. just felt cold though. i think part of it is the fact that you notice the highway, parking lot, roads and back of IOA from the grounds which infriges on the south pacific theme. another problem is the large number of conventioners. no one was ever at the pool. i missed not having a slide, but my husband thought the kids part would be a lot of fun for kids. the rooms are very small but well appointed. i didn't like not having a balcony. finally the maid service was difficult. our room was not made up until 3pm. and the maid would enter without knocking first. this is almost understandable except for the fact that we came back from the park, noticed the maid in front of our neighbor's room and said hello to her while she watched us enter our room. not five minutes later she walked right in while my husband was putting on his bathing suit and didn't even apologize. we also found the restaurant offerings to be meager.
we loved the water taxi though. we visited PBH and HRH and used their pools. if i were to return, i'd stay at one of those 2 next time. the pbh seems like it would be great to handle big crowds. the hrh seemed like a lot fun and very convenient.
in general, i found the staff to range (in the hotels and parks) from polite and professional to indifferent and some even rude--with a few enthusiastic and sweet employees thrown in.
please let me know if you have questions.
this was my first time staying onsite at universal. had eaten at delifino riviera in the pbh before and went to ioa once before. hubby and i love rollercoasters and hubby loved ioa so we decided to add a few days at universal to get FOTL.
didn't need FOTL at all. parks were totally dead. in fact at ioa, the express lines weren't even open. rode the hulk 5 times in a row with no wait. LOVE the parks like that. i think ioa is a great AMUSEMENT park. really fun rides, but it is not a theme park and does not compare to disney. although hubby will proabably want to visit ioa on every orlando trip. don't blame him. the rides are fun. we also ate for the first time at MYTHOS. loved the food, place and waiter. really happy we tried it. i noticed a big difference in the up-keep of the attractions since our last visit (jan. 2000 right after it first opened). stuff showed wear and tear. still nothing major and nothing to make a big deal over. hubby didn't notice it as much.
as for USF, that was my first trip there. found it pretty boring. we did have horrible weather though so i am willing to chalk part of my dislike up to that. the park itself seemed to be in much better condition than IOA and is very pretty. still, kind of boring-even the shows. we did miss the animal planet show, which i was upset about and the nickolodean show. i could see young children and older adults enjoying it more.
we went to citywalk one night and the weather was so bad, it actually closed down--most of it anyway. ate at pastamore. was not impressed.
as for our hotel, we stayed at royal pacific. we used the entertainment rate $99. i can't complain about it for the price. it is an excellent value compared to a disney moderate, but i'd still rather be on disney property. i was asked to see my card upon check in. i also showed my loew's card and received not only my bottle of chardonnay but an extra bottle of merlot. thought that was a nice touch. the hotel itself is beautiful. i could not find anyting wrong with it. just felt cold though. i think part of it is the fact that you notice the highway, parking lot, roads and back of IOA from the grounds which infriges on the south pacific theme. another problem is the large number of conventioners. no one was ever at the pool. i missed not having a slide, but my husband thought the kids part would be a lot of fun for kids. the rooms are very small but well appointed. i didn't like not having a balcony. finally the maid service was difficult. our room was not made up until 3pm. and the maid would enter without knocking first. this is almost understandable except for the fact that we came back from the park, noticed the maid in front of our neighbor's room and said hello to her while she watched us enter our room. not five minutes later she walked right in while my husband was putting on his bathing suit and didn't even apologize. we also found the restaurant offerings to be meager.
we loved the water taxi though. we visited PBH and HRH and used their pools. if i were to return, i'd stay at one of those 2 next time. the pbh seems like it would be great to handle big crowds. the hrh seemed like a lot fun and very convenient.
in general, i found the staff to range (in the hotels and parks) from polite and professional to indifferent and some even rude--with a few enthusiastic and sweet employees thrown in.
please let me know if you have questions.
