mom3girls2007
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2008
- Messages
- 76
Background: My 3 kids dd's 15, 15 and 8 are huge Harry Potter fans as well as my dh. They older two and my husband have read all the books and seen all the movies multiple times, and dd 8 just finished first book and seen the movies. When we asked where they wanted to go on vacation this year -- all agreed that they'd love to see Harry Potter world at Islands of Adventure. I found a great rate at Portofino Bay in January and booked a trip for as soon as school got out. Here is brief summary of our trip:
First, we loved loved Portofino Bay resort! At first I was disappointed as the room we received on the ground floor seemed smaller than I expected (it did not have a seperate shower as shown in photos and with the rollaway for our dd 8, we could barely move around). It was true "garden view" also -- just tree foilage and dirt outside our window. However, we were placed in the west wing, which proved to be a great location, right across from the boat dock to the parks. Because of this we never had to wait for an elevator or take a long trek back to our room from the boat when we returned, so we loved the location. The condition of the room was excellent as well, the beds were extremely comfortable, and we loved having the Kuerig coffee maker. We asked the maid for extra hot chocolate and we all enjoyed hot chocolate a couple nights before bed.
The resort itself is amazing, we really did feel we were at a "resort" and not an amusement park. We ate one night at Joe's pizza which was delicious, and had gelato two nights at the parlor next door to Joe's. We also spent a long morning at the pool, my youngest daughter loved the water side. We have stayed in Disney hotels, including the beach club and we all agreed we liked Portofino Bay better than the Disney hotels we've stayed.
Parks: I would recommend taking advantage of early entry to see Harry Potter. We did and arrived at the park 20 minutes after early opening (missed the first boat!) and the castle ride already had a 45 minute wait. We went straight on the ride, and did enjoy the long queue however through the castle. My kids thought it was simply amazing. The ride was the best ride we went on (Spiderman would be #2) we thought, although my older girls did get a bit motion sick. After the ride, we spent the morning in Harry Potter world, going on Flight of the hippogriff, and browsing the stores. We even stopped at the pub and had a Butterbear -- I recommend the frozen-- it was delicious.
That first day at IOA we had lunch at Mythos (made a reservation at Open Table I would definitely recommend reservations!) at 1 p.m. It was one of the best meals of the trip. I had the filet and it was delicious!
Our other favorite rides at IOA were Spiderman, Cat and the Hat, Rip Saw Falls, Popeye's Barges and Dr. Doom. Having the "front of the line" passes as hotel guests was a great way to tour the parks! It would be hard to do it any other way now! No racing across the park to fulfill fast pass times -- what a concept.
We also enjoyed Universal Studios, we went in the afternoon after a long pool break and another early morning at WWHP, and found no lines almost everywhere. The Terminator Show was fantastic, as well as the Simspons ride, and Disaster Ride and Shrek 4D. The one ride we felt needs to be updated was ET. It just felt old and my 8 year old of course had no idea who ET was. We stayed to watch the fireworks show at US 9 p.m. and as movie buffs we really enjoyed that was well and felt it was worth staying for. However, leaving the parks after that show meant long lines at the boats back to the resort!
For meals we ate at Bubba Gump in Citywalk which we all enjoyed, as well as Margaritaville the last night in Orlando, also a really fun place to eat that my teenagers enjoyed. Our Universal day we enjoyed great fresh sandwhiches and salads at the Confissierie Bakery towards the entrance of the park.
Our only really bad meal was at the Italian Place in City walk (Pastamore?) avoid it. Really bland and overpriced we thought.
Overall it was a great trip, at one point my eight year old turned to me at her first glimpse of Hogsmead and said "Mommy, this is like a dream come true!"
Overall, we were impressed with the rides at both parks -- many of the best rides we've ever been on -- like Harry Potter and Spiderman -- wow! But we do feel that Universal just can't replicate that "magicalness" of the Disney parks. However, the Harry Potter world comes pretty close! I do think Universal really is best for older kids --8 and up. My teens loved it, and my 8 year old too. But I overheard in line at the Simpsons an adult saying "I guess I'll go on the "kiddy" ride" (I guess because of the animation of the Simpsons) ..but that ride is definitely not "kiddy" and the jokes in the preshow are typical "Simpsons" talking about "drunks" and "psycho killer on the loose" yep, not for the preschool set!
First, we loved loved Portofino Bay resort! At first I was disappointed as the room we received on the ground floor seemed smaller than I expected (it did not have a seperate shower as shown in photos and with the rollaway for our dd 8, we could barely move around). It was true "garden view" also -- just tree foilage and dirt outside our window. However, we were placed in the west wing, which proved to be a great location, right across from the boat dock to the parks. Because of this we never had to wait for an elevator or take a long trek back to our room from the boat when we returned, so we loved the location. The condition of the room was excellent as well, the beds were extremely comfortable, and we loved having the Kuerig coffee maker. We asked the maid for extra hot chocolate and we all enjoyed hot chocolate a couple nights before bed.
The resort itself is amazing, we really did feel we were at a "resort" and not an amusement park. We ate one night at Joe's pizza which was delicious, and had gelato two nights at the parlor next door to Joe's. We also spent a long morning at the pool, my youngest daughter loved the water side. We have stayed in Disney hotels, including the beach club and we all agreed we liked Portofino Bay better than the Disney hotels we've stayed.
Parks: I would recommend taking advantage of early entry to see Harry Potter. We did and arrived at the park 20 minutes after early opening (missed the first boat!) and the castle ride already had a 45 minute wait. We went straight on the ride, and did enjoy the long queue however through the castle. My kids thought it was simply amazing. The ride was the best ride we went on (Spiderman would be #2) we thought, although my older girls did get a bit motion sick. After the ride, we spent the morning in Harry Potter world, going on Flight of the hippogriff, and browsing the stores. We even stopped at the pub and had a Butterbear -- I recommend the frozen-- it was delicious.
That first day at IOA we had lunch at Mythos (made a reservation at Open Table I would definitely recommend reservations!) at 1 p.m. It was one of the best meals of the trip. I had the filet and it was delicious!
Our other favorite rides at IOA were Spiderman, Cat and the Hat, Rip Saw Falls, Popeye's Barges and Dr. Doom. Having the "front of the line" passes as hotel guests was a great way to tour the parks! It would be hard to do it any other way now! No racing across the park to fulfill fast pass times -- what a concept.
We also enjoyed Universal Studios, we went in the afternoon after a long pool break and another early morning at WWHP, and found no lines almost everywhere. The Terminator Show was fantastic, as well as the Simspons ride, and Disaster Ride and Shrek 4D. The one ride we felt needs to be updated was ET. It just felt old and my 8 year old of course had no idea who ET was. We stayed to watch the fireworks show at US 9 p.m. and as movie buffs we really enjoyed that was well and felt it was worth staying for. However, leaving the parks after that show meant long lines at the boats back to the resort!
For meals we ate at Bubba Gump in Citywalk which we all enjoyed, as well as Margaritaville the last night in Orlando, also a really fun place to eat that my teenagers enjoyed. Our Universal day we enjoyed great fresh sandwhiches and salads at the Confissierie Bakery towards the entrance of the park.
Our only really bad meal was at the Italian Place in City walk (Pastamore?) avoid it. Really bland and overpriced we thought.
Overall it was a great trip, at one point my eight year old turned to me at her first glimpse of Hogsmead and said "Mommy, this is like a dream come true!"
Overall, we were impressed with the rides at both parks -- many of the best rides we've ever been on -- like Harry Potter and Spiderman -- wow! But we do feel that Universal just can't replicate that "magicalness" of the Disney parks. However, the Harry Potter world comes pretty close! I do think Universal really is best for older kids --8 and up. My teens loved it, and my 8 year old too. But I overheard in line at the Simpsons an adult saying "I guess I'll go on the "kiddy" ride" (I guess because of the animation of the Simpsons) ..but that ride is definitely not "kiddy" and the jokes in the preshow are typical "Simpsons" talking about "drunks" and "psycho killer on the loose" yep, not for the preschool set!
