first time to universal

[hmacmahony]

Okay, my 5 year old is BEGGING to go to universal, so we are going to add a few days at universal in august. We are going to stay at universal, with 4 kids (6, 5, 4 and 1 at the time), can I even stay on property?? Which resort would be best, we really only need to get to the park with Dr seuss, I am thinking we are gong to spend 2-3 nights at the resort (so 3 days we could hit the parks)
I know NOTHING about universal, what do I NEED to know, what not to miss, what dinners do we eat, are there characters?? Do I need to make dinner reservations now, please fill me in on all your knowledge, please!
thanks
heidi

 

[dyin`tago]

universal has 2 parks,islands of adventure and the original universal studios park. a few rides are aimed at a bit older kids but there is a lot of stuff for a 5 yr old.

we stayed at the royal pacific resort which is the lowest cost of the 3 onsite resorts and it was just fabulous! a huge perk of staying at an on site hotel is you show your room key for front of the line access to all the attractions at the parks! you can walk a beautiful path along the river to the park or take a free water taxi boat ride!

 

[lrauers]

I agree with the posting above. The Royal Pacifc is a beautiful resort, you can call the hotel reservations directly and they can tell you how to best accomodate all of you. Read more on Disboards about how to get room discounts (AAA is always good, certain US passes get discounts, too, so ask the hotel representative. With a lot of small kids staying onsite is a no-brainer. You can either take a short stroll or (better still) take the complimentary boat directly from the hotel to the themeparks.No fighting the parking lots at the end of long day. And, of course, you get front-of-the-line privileges as an onsite hotel guest. You could certainly find a cheaper hotel room off site but I say staying on site is worth every penny. As for dining,
www.allears.net has most of the hotel/themepark/citywalk menus listed so you can get an idea of what they offer and how much it costs.

 

[msr709]

They also have the Super Saver rates, you can go to any of the 3 hotel websites and plug in your dates and see if a the SS rate applies, its the cheapest I have found in all the rates. I had booked a rate of $219 for Hard Rock with AAA and then the Super Saver rate came up and I was able to change it to that and now I have $207 for a deluxe room (with the upgrade from Loews membership, which you can also look into, its free, from the Loews Hotel website, there is a thread here dedicated to explaining all this). This is a great site to get all the information you need, browse the threads and you will find a full array of useful information. I'm also going in August and got the Super Saver rate. You will love the express pass for the parks you get with your room key. Pool hopping is ENCOURAGED if you can believe that. The pool at Royal Pacific doesn't have a slide but the kids love the size of it and both the Hard Rock and Portofino have slides and they are a boat ride away. There are plenty of places to eat and shop with CityWalk being so close also.