Just back from 3 nights at Universal Orlando!

nkereina

Last chance to lose your keys.
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Feb 11, 2009
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Just back from 3 nights at Royal Pacific Resort. We arrived around 5pm on Thursday 3/30 and left Sunday morning, before heading out on a cruise. We did Universal all day Friday and IOA all day Saturday. It was busier than we were used to, so EPs came in handy! We unfortunately had to miss the Jimmy Fallon ride – it was closed the whole day we were at UO and rumors we heard was that it was because Jimmy Fallon was filming scenes for the Tonight Show while we were there. This was our first time on the King Kong ride and we loved it! Other than that, we had great weather and the only ride mishap we had was on Ripsaw Falls – we got stalled on the ride twice, totaling about 10 minutes. They did hand out one time use EPs as we got off the ride.

Royal Pacific was great as always. This was our first time staying in Tower 1. Our last stays have always been in Tower 3. I don’t have a big preference as far as tower choice because the resort is laid out in such a way that walking is easy, but I guess Tower 3 is a slightly better location for us. This was our first time in a refurbished room and we thought was very well appointed and clean. Housekeeping came early every day, but my only gripe is that they never re-stocked the coffee supplies in either of the rooms we had (our group had 2 rooms). Water taxis came pretty quickly. I will mention that more than once I saw a pretty long line for the water taxi to Sapphire Falls at City Walk. Not sure if that's typical.

In the parks, we had lunch at Mel’s on one day and Three Broomsticks on the second day. Three Broomsticks was a mad house with the line out the door, but it moved fairly quick. For breakfast, we ate at Orchid Court at RPR each day which was fine but it’s a little chaotic in the morning.

For dinner, we ate at Toothsome on our first night for the first time. Only had a 20 minute wait to be seated around 7pm. Place was cool and our food was good, but it took nearly 40 minutes for our desserts to come out. Our server didn’t inform us of the kitchen’s backlog until we were waiting about 15 minutes in. Had we known in advance, we may have just gotten them to go so we could walk around. The desserts were enjoyable, but nothing extraordinary. Dinner on our second night was at Vivo which was our first time there. Food was pretty good but it was a bit loud. Glad we tried it though. On our last night, we had dinner at NBC Sports Grill & Brew while watching March Madness, and that was very enjoyable.

We had drinks at Margaritaville and Pat O’Brien’s. First time at Pat O’Brien’s watching the dueling pianos and we loved it! So fun, we will definitely go back on our next trip. We also had a drink at Bula Bar, the pool bar at RPR. It was fine, but when we walked up the bar area was empty and there were 4 bartenders standing around yet the bar area was trashed – dirty with food and drink rings, empty cups, straw wrappers and garnishments on the bar. There wasn’t a clean place for us all to sit, so we had to ask a bartender to clean a space for us. Just wasn’t a good first impression.

We will be heading back in August, next time staying at Hard Rock Hotel for the first time! We love trying new resorts and restaurants, so looking forward to it. Would appreciate any tips you have for Hard Rock!
 
Glad to hear about your stay! Strange about the coffee restocking though...we usually left a note with what we needed (e.g. no decaf, double the regular coffee please) and our request was always met. Sorry that's not how it worked out for you though! We enjoyed RPR the last time we stayed, but are checking out HR this time around.

It is also nice to hear that Toothsome is not always a madhouse during dinner. We're not big dessert eaters in general, so hopefully we'll avoid any major delays by skipping desserts and maybe picking up something somewhere else. NBC is also on our list for this time around, as is Mel's (as a back up to Monster's). Have continually heard good things about NBC!

The bar at Bula would have ticked me off a bit too. That sucks.

After our June trip, I'll be doing a mini report on the happenings on the trip report page. Keep an eye out for it, I'll try to glean some extra tippy tips for HR for you in August!
 
@jagafen awesome, thanks! NBC and Mel's were both excellent, and easy to get into! We used the priority seating for onsite guests at NBC, but I don't think there was much of a wait anyway. Enjoy your trip!
 
Thanks for returning here to share that info

Bet you had a great time at the darkside!
 

Thanks @macraven - also, we used Tony Hinds per your recommendation for the first time and he was great! His guys took us from the airport to RPR, from RPR to Port Canaveral, and Tony picked us up from Port Canaveral and drove us to the airport on Sunday. Couldn't have been happier with him and his service and will definitely use him going forward. Thanks for the recommendation!
 
Tony is a gem!

Glad you were satisfied with his company
He has never let me down


Sounds like you had a fun time at the darkside

I have seen Bula Bar disheveled too once before
Thought it only happened to me
 
Tony is a gem!

Glad you were satisfied with his company
He has never let me down


Sounds like you had a fun time at the darkside

I have seen Bula Bar disheveled too once before
Thought it only happened to me
Hi there,

We've used Tony in past and it was a great experience. We'd like to use him for our upcoming trip, but for the life of me I can't find his email address / website / phone number --- could you please share it with me (either on the board or PM)? We're doing a UNi / DW / Dis Cruise this summer and need some help getting to and from MCO.

Thank you.
 
Nice review and so glad you had a fun time.

What a shame the Bula Bar was a mess! That's never good and never any excuse for that.

We really enjoyed NBC too and plan to go back for dinner this year.........and nice to see such a lovely review of the hotel and parks!
 
Hi there,

We've used Tony in past and it was a great experience. We'd like to use him for our upcoming trip, but for the life of me I can't find his email address / website / phone number --- could you please share it with me (either on the board or PM)? We're doing a UNi / DW / Dis Cruise this summer and need some help getting to and from MCO.

Thank you.
Tony Hinds
407 406 9093
aobh607@gmail.com
 
Glad to hear that you had an enjoyable time! Too bad about the Bula Bar - I'll report back next month if we find the same situation. The more I read about the NBC Sports Grill the more I want to add that to our dining list. Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences with us - it really is so helpful! :)
 
We are doing the same kind of trip as you. 3 nights at Universal and a 4 night cruise. Glad it went so well.
We are also using Tony to drive us to all our stops. I feel relieved knowing all went well for you!
 
We are doing the same kind of trip as you. 3 nights at Universal and a 4 night cruise. Glad it went so well.
We are also using Tony to drive us to all our stops. I feel relieved knowing all went well for you!

Could not have gone better with Tony! He sent one of his drivers to pick us up from the airport. He texted me the minute I landed to let me know he was there, and to have me tell him which baggage carousel we were at so he could meet us. On our debarkation day from the cruise, Tony was there well before we got off the ship. When we got off, he was fully aware of road closures and traffic delays getting from Port Canaveral to Orlando due to accidents and also the recent brush fires. He warned us we'd be going a roundabout way through Titusville to get to the airport, which would put us about 20 minutes behind schedule. I was so happy to have him driving us because we never would have known all of this and would have hit dead stop traffic otherwise!
 
Thanks for the review. We will be at Universal on a Fri, Sat, Sun in early May and I was wondering about the crowds on weekends. We are also at RPR sounds like express pass will be useful.

Kid and DH want to eat at Hard Rock, but NBC is sounding tempting....
 
Hi I am so glad that you had a great trip. I love Tony and I use him every time we come!! I am so excited I am all booked for a week at CBBR in July/August. We stayed at CBBR for a few days last time, enjoyed it and chose a week now. HRH is my go to hotel. I love it there. If you have a resort day or time planned make sure you find out about the pool side activities, we enjoyed them very much. My DH won the hula hoop contest one year and won a free drink!! The ice cream parlor is amazing. The adult hot tub is hidden in the pool area is nice, so look for it. We did not eat in any of the restaurants there. I love the proximity to the park. I would suggest going on the HRH thread there are a lot of good tips. Enjoy!!:)
 












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