Since I started this thread, I just thought I'd let you know how it was.... We stayed there 3 nites last week (8/3-8/6) standard room, and I thought it was great! not rundown at all! Plus, we lucked out and got a corner room on the 6th floor, garden view, but it was beautiful. I thought the room was very spacious, 2 queen beds, an extra sink outside of the bathroom, nice chair with ottoman, table, etc. Everything very clean, and looked almost like new to me. I really felt like I was living in luxury.
We arrived at the hotel around 9:00 am, checked in with no waiting in line. Naturally our room wasn't ready, which I did not expect it to be, but we wanted the keys for the FOTL access. We did the paperwork; the check-in girl did ask to see my Fan Club card, glanced at it, and that was it. She gave us a phone number to call from the parks during the day to find out if our room was ready.
We walked to IOA, and went right on whatever rides the kids wanted. When it started to rain (pretty hard) around 12:30, I called the hotel, they said the room was ready, gave us the room number, told us our key was now activated, and we went right in.
It was great!!!
I'll try to write more or answer any questions if anyone is interested, but we just got back late last night -- I had to go back to work today, so now I'm on about my 5th of about 12 loads of laundry.
I DO WANT TO THANK EVERYONE ON THESE BOARDS FOR ALL OF THE ADVICE YOU'VE GIVEN ME THE LAST FEW MONTHS! YOU GUYS ARE GREAT!!! This was our first trip to Universal, and we absolutely LOVED IT, LOVED IT, LOVED IT!!!