Work took me to Orlando for a conference held at the Royal Pacific; since it was just going to be me and my mom-boss, and the conference was going to feed us every meal for 3 days (so a condo-kitchen wouldn't get much use), we may as well stay on-site.
Five days before we left, other circumstances meant that my dad would be coming with us. Two days before we left, other circumstances meant that my 5yo would be coming with us. So, so glad we decided to stay on-property. So, so unhappy that we had no time to properly prep said 5yo (who is slow to warm up to new things) or to determine which rides she'd like better or worse.
5yo is a Disney girl, having gone at least 6 times since she was 2. Her favorite ride? Tower of Terror. Second favorite? BTMRR. In the halfway-there hotel (we drive 20 hours each way), she was perusing the brochure we'd picked up for her. "I'm probably not old enough for that ride," says she, pointing to the people screaming in terror at the Mummy. "No, I don't think you are," said I, knowing she's only 43 inches. "When will I be old enough for that ride?! I want to ride it!"
IOA:
5yo picked first ride: Spiderman. 5yo rode Spiderman lying down in the seat, curled into a ball, eyes squeezed shut and hands over ears. "I want to go to Disney! Why can't we go there! I don't like it here!" My assessment of Spiderman: my least favorite Disney "ride": It's Tough to be a Bug, with jerky unpleasant motion.
Cat in the Hat: everyone liked it but my mom, who got motion-sick and refused to ever go on it again
One Fish, Two Fish: Not as much fun as Alladin / Triceratop Spin because the cars hold fewer people, and you have to pay attention to avoid getting drenched, and odds are you're going to get wet anyway. This is fine if you like getting wet. 5yo hates getting wet, including the sprinkle of water you get on a lot of the 4-D rides.
Trolley Train: like the TTA, but shorter and without the air-conditioned bits, and with a wait to get on
Flying Unicorn: like Barnstormer, but shorter and with a longer line.
Pteranadon Flyers: this was the ride everyone liked best. We rode 3-4 times in a row each morning before the lines got long.
Jurassic Park River Adventure: my parents went on this, and described it as "one room of really good dinosaurs, better than at Disney, then you go up a boring hill and down a boring hill."
Bilge Rat Barges: Wetter than Kali, and with no perceptible drop. I kept waiting for the good bits. We got the wheelchair-accessible boat, which meant we had nowhere to put our feet to keep them dryer, whereas on Kali I've always come away with dryish feet, even if the rest of me was drenched.
Universal Studios:
Shrek (first ride we did there, per 5yo's choice). Another one we didn't enjoy at all, being like ITTBAB and HISTA with unpleasant jerky motion. 5yo had a long conversation with Donkey afterwards, though, which she enjoyed very much.
Simpsons: favorite ride for the adults, who rode it 5-6 times in 1.5 days
ET: favorite ride for 5yo, who rode it 10+ times in 3 days
Woody's Nuthouse Coaster: eh. at least there was no wait to get on
MIB: 5yo loved it, and didn't think it was scary at all
Jaws: 5yo hated it, no one else liked it
Jimmy Neutron: 5yo liked it
Food: Pizza is good. Everything else varied between indifferent and awful. Mac-n-cheese is 5yo's staple vacation food - on Disney trips, she's had mac-n-cheese 3 times a day for 10 days in a row by choice. Universal's mac-n-cheese (both in the parks and at Jake's in the RPR) was so bad that she refused to eat more after taking one bite. Her other staple vacation food is low-fat chocolate milk. Universal sells full-fat chocolate milk, which she also refused after the first taste. Fortunately, she really really liked the pizza, and ate pizza for all of her in-park meals. (Pizza at the RPR was unacceptable to her, though, and she liked the mac-n-cheese off the kids' buffet in the Islands Dining Room.)
We had one lunch at Mythos, and the food was just bad. Disney brings out the chef for dietary issues (mom is gluten-free), but at Mythos the waitress just told us what she thought would be safe - and when she said she wasn't sure, she then just took a guess rather than asking the chef. 5yo had One Fish Two Fish ravioli, and I agreed with her that it was cute but didn't taste good. I had the risotto of the day, because I really like risotto, modified to be gluten-free (so with a mushroom base rather than demiglace). It came out as rice pilaf sitting in a pool of something gritty-textured. Mom had the Chicken Oscar, also modified to be gluten-free, and it had absolutely no flavor whatsoever. Unseasoned white chicken on unseasoned white potatos with a little dab of flavorless white sauce. Dad had a Caesar salad, which he said was OK. We shared the flourless chocolate cake for dessert, and it was actually good.
IMHO, Universal is not the place to go if you need to be gluten-free. At Disney, there was something gluten-free at every CS restaurant, and the gluten-free TS stuff was as good as the normal food. At Universal, even assuming you can find something with a gluten-free item on the menu, it's likely to be cross-contaminated. One spoon picks up mashed potatoes, then goes into the gravy, then back into the potatoes. One tongs picks up with fried chicken, then picks up the corn on the cob, then picks up the chicken again. Caesar salad is all premade with the croutons already in the giant bowl.
Islands Dining Room at the RPR had amazingly good food. The salmon on mashed purple sweet potatoes was awesome. And the kids' buffet was 5yo's favorite part of the trip.
Hotel: RPR is great. 5yo loved the pool. Rooms are huge compared to Disney - 3 adults, one kid, a stroller that stayed unfolded, and all our junk didn't feel cramped after 5 nights. Walking to the parks was great. FOTL was the only way I'd ever consider going back, because IMHO none of the rides we rode was worth waiting in a line. (We normally do Disney on the off-season, and between that and Fastpass, have virtually no line.)
People:
- Universal employees on average seemed to be surlier and less helpful than Disney employees. Fewer smiles.
- Universal attracts more ethnic diversity than Disney. As the white mom of multi-racial kid, I see this as a huge plus.
- Universal seems to have a rowdier crowd, but there weren't any more altercations. There was a *lot* more smoking outside the smoking areas (and smoking areas seemed to be positioned next to stroller parking surprisingly often). Alcohol was much more visible, but there didn't seem to be any problem with that.
Five days before we left, other circumstances meant that my dad would be coming with us. Two days before we left, other circumstances meant that my 5yo would be coming with us. So, so glad we decided to stay on-property. So, so unhappy that we had no time to properly prep said 5yo (who is slow to warm up to new things) or to determine which rides she'd like better or worse.
5yo is a Disney girl, having gone at least 6 times since she was 2. Her favorite ride? Tower of Terror. Second favorite? BTMRR. In the halfway-there hotel (we drive 20 hours each way), she was perusing the brochure we'd picked up for her. "I'm probably not old enough for that ride," says she, pointing to the people screaming in terror at the Mummy. "No, I don't think you are," said I, knowing she's only 43 inches. "When will I be old enough for that ride?! I want to ride it!"
IOA:
5yo picked first ride: Spiderman. 5yo rode Spiderman lying down in the seat, curled into a ball, eyes squeezed shut and hands over ears. "I want to go to Disney! Why can't we go there! I don't like it here!" My assessment of Spiderman: my least favorite Disney "ride": It's Tough to be a Bug, with jerky unpleasant motion.
Cat in the Hat: everyone liked it but my mom, who got motion-sick and refused to ever go on it again
One Fish, Two Fish: Not as much fun as Alladin / Triceratop Spin because the cars hold fewer people, and you have to pay attention to avoid getting drenched, and odds are you're going to get wet anyway. This is fine if you like getting wet. 5yo hates getting wet, including the sprinkle of water you get on a lot of the 4-D rides.
Trolley Train: like the TTA, but shorter and without the air-conditioned bits, and with a wait to get on
Flying Unicorn: like Barnstormer, but shorter and with a longer line.
Pteranadon Flyers: this was the ride everyone liked best. We rode 3-4 times in a row each morning before the lines got long.
Jurassic Park River Adventure: my parents went on this, and described it as "one room of really good dinosaurs, better than at Disney, then you go up a boring hill and down a boring hill."
Bilge Rat Barges: Wetter than Kali, and with no perceptible drop. I kept waiting for the good bits. We got the wheelchair-accessible boat, which meant we had nowhere to put our feet to keep them dryer, whereas on Kali I've always come away with dryish feet, even if the rest of me was drenched.
Universal Studios:
Shrek (first ride we did there, per 5yo's choice). Another one we didn't enjoy at all, being like ITTBAB and HISTA with unpleasant jerky motion. 5yo had a long conversation with Donkey afterwards, though, which she enjoyed very much.
Simpsons: favorite ride for the adults, who rode it 5-6 times in 1.5 days
ET: favorite ride for 5yo, who rode it 10+ times in 3 days
Woody's Nuthouse Coaster: eh. at least there was no wait to get on
MIB: 5yo loved it, and didn't think it was scary at all
Jaws: 5yo hated it, no one else liked it
Jimmy Neutron: 5yo liked it
Food: Pizza is good. Everything else varied between indifferent and awful. Mac-n-cheese is 5yo's staple vacation food - on Disney trips, she's had mac-n-cheese 3 times a day for 10 days in a row by choice. Universal's mac-n-cheese (both in the parks and at Jake's in the RPR) was so bad that she refused to eat more after taking one bite. Her other staple vacation food is low-fat chocolate milk. Universal sells full-fat chocolate milk, which she also refused after the first taste. Fortunately, she really really liked the pizza, and ate pizza for all of her in-park meals. (Pizza at the RPR was unacceptable to her, though, and she liked the mac-n-cheese off the kids' buffet in the Islands Dining Room.)
We had one lunch at Mythos, and the food was just bad. Disney brings out the chef for dietary issues (mom is gluten-free), but at Mythos the waitress just told us what she thought would be safe - and when she said she wasn't sure, she then just took a guess rather than asking the chef. 5yo had One Fish Two Fish ravioli, and I agreed with her that it was cute but didn't taste good. I had the risotto of the day, because I really like risotto, modified to be gluten-free (so with a mushroom base rather than demiglace). It came out as rice pilaf sitting in a pool of something gritty-textured. Mom had the Chicken Oscar, also modified to be gluten-free, and it had absolutely no flavor whatsoever. Unseasoned white chicken on unseasoned white potatos with a little dab of flavorless white sauce. Dad had a Caesar salad, which he said was OK. We shared the flourless chocolate cake for dessert, and it was actually good.
IMHO, Universal is not the place to go if you need to be gluten-free. At Disney, there was something gluten-free at every CS restaurant, and the gluten-free TS stuff was as good as the normal food. At Universal, even assuming you can find something with a gluten-free item on the menu, it's likely to be cross-contaminated. One spoon picks up mashed potatoes, then goes into the gravy, then back into the potatoes. One tongs picks up with fried chicken, then picks up the corn on the cob, then picks up the chicken again. Caesar salad is all premade with the croutons already in the giant bowl.
Islands Dining Room at the RPR had amazingly good food. The salmon on mashed purple sweet potatoes was awesome. And the kids' buffet was 5yo's favorite part of the trip.
Hotel: RPR is great. 5yo loved the pool. Rooms are huge compared to Disney - 3 adults, one kid, a stroller that stayed unfolded, and all our junk didn't feel cramped after 5 nights. Walking to the parks was great. FOTL was the only way I'd ever consider going back, because IMHO none of the rides we rode was worth waiting in a line. (We normally do Disney on the off-season, and between that and Fastpass, have virtually no line.)
People:
- Universal employees on average seemed to be surlier and less helpful than Disney employees. Fewer smiles.
- Universal attracts more ethnic diversity than Disney. As the white mom of multi-racial kid, I see this as a huge plus.
- Universal seems to have a rowdier crowd, but there weren't any more altercations. There was a *lot* more smoking outside the smoking areas (and smoking areas seemed to be positioned next to stroller parking surprisingly often). Alcohol was much more visible, but there didn't seem to be any problem with that.
This would blow up the website....but it's a good point. So the original poster should try to keep an open mind when doing something, anything different.
