First timers trip report - Royal Pacific 8/23-8/30

[Jess_S]

Hi everyone,

This is a placeholder for a more detailed trip report to be written after our trip. In the meantime, let me know if there are any questions I can try to answer "live" from Universal. We will be hitting the parks for the first time tomorrow; today was a travel, pool and City Walk day.

Here are some pictures of our room. I also couldn't resist sharing a photo our pet sitter took of our kitty watching the rain back in Mass.



More to come.

 

[PrincessJasmine88]

Hi how crowded is the pool?

 

[Jess_S]

The pool was pretty empty when we arrived around noon. It got more crowded mid afternoon (3 ish). I assume that's when people finished up their park time. But there were still plenty of chairs and enough room to swim.

 

[PrincessJasmine88]

Thanks! I’m staying at RP in a few weeks and am thankful for your report

 

[nouvellefleur]

Excited to read along with you! Have a great time!

And your cat has just, like, the best face.

 

[Jess_S]

Thanks! I’m staying at RP in a few weeks and am thankful for your report

Hopefully you will get as lucky as we did with crowds. With express pass, the rides were basically walk ons. As my dad said, we had a theme park day that was practically perfect yesterday.

It seems like they are still in the process of getting back to normal at the hotels though. Hopefully things will continue to improve before your stay. They are currently painting and replacing some of the room furniture and it seems like they are working out the kinks on things like housekeeping. (Our room had some garbage on the floor when we checked in and we didn't get our refresh yesterday until almost 6, all of which seems to be a staffing issue). I feel bad for the staff because they are all working their butts off, but there just aren't enough of them.

ETA: There were no long lines for food either and my husband and I got a table at Bigfire last night as walk-ins. We were seated immediately and food came out promptly. (I had cancelled our reservation at Cow Fish because the rest of our group wanted to stay at the resort).

 

[macraven]

Did you enjoy Big Fire menu?

 

[Jess_S]

Did you enjoy Big Fire menu?

I did. It was kind of an odd choice on my husband's part because I am vegetarian and he does not eat red meat, but our food was good. I got the cauliflower steak and a side of au gratin potatoes. He got grilled shrimp. Everything tasted good and service was excellent. Our waitress was attentive and the pacing on the food service was just right. After two days of eating almost no veggies, it was nice to have a healthier meal.

 

[PrincessJasmine88]

Hi how are you enjoying your trip?

 

[Jess_S]

We had a nice time. We are sad to leave tomorrow (although a week was a good amount of time to see and do most of what there is at a relaxed pace). I will hopefully start my trip report in September. I have to wrap up a report for a May trip (non theme park) first before that trip gets too rusty.

For those wondering, the weekend has been noticably more crowded and noticably more skewed towards unmasked guests. So if crowds are a concern, weekdays in late August are fantastic.

 

[jods]

We had a nice time. We are sad to leave tomorrow (although a week was a good amount of time to see and do most of what there is at a relaxed pace). I will hopefully start my trip report in September. I have to wrap up a report for a May trip (non theme park) first before that trip gets too rusty.

For those wondering, the weekend has been noticably more crowded and noticably more skewed towards unmasked guests. So if crowds are a concern, weekdays in late August are fantastic.

I just came home today, stayed at PBR. Friday was empty! Saturday was way busier. I couldn't believe the difference. Yesterday was a mix between the 2. The restaurants at PBH were all empty last night. It was kind of eerie. We ate at CityWalk Friday and Saturday so I can't comment on that.

I'm looking forward to reading your trip report since some days overlapped.

 

[Jess_S]

I couldn't agree more on the crowd assessment. We walked into a restaurant at 6 pm on Friday. 1pm Saturday, 2 hour wait at all the RP restaurants. It was a night and day difference. (I did see that a convention arrived on Saturday, which I am sure was a factor).

 

[tinkerdorabelle]

Didn't know you could bring cats, is that one of their resorts? Years ago we used to bring our little Yorkie. She was good and behaved but our new little Morkie worried she may not be as behaved.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

Interesting point about weekend vs weekday guests in terms of masked/unmasked. I could see more locals being cavalier about mask usage vs out of state guests who might be accustomed and comfortable with mask restrictions. While I'm more hopeful than ever that our kids will be able to get both jabs before our planned trip, I do know a few folks who are currently dealing with very uncomfortable, although thankfully not life-threatening, breakthrough infections. Would be nice to avoid catching whatever variant is dominant in December.