Just back from PBH 12/19-12/23 !! Any Questions ??

[pandora174]

Had a wonderful stay. The rooms were great, I could tell they were renovated. We stayed at the east wing room 1468, bay view. Originally had a garden view which was ok & I saw some trees but the Sheraton hotel or something was in the background & it ruined the mood for us. So we changed for $20 more a night & had a beautiful view of the bay & piazza. Staff was courteous & wonderful. Maid service ok. We had ordered a b-day cake for my son's b-day & it was delicious. Strawberries & vanilla. Very nice presentation. When we arrived it was all set up for us. Cake was $40 total was around $50. Tried Mama Della's & it was also great. Ate at the deli & stayed for the opera singing at night & it was so wonderful. The tree is truly spectacular. Boat service was fine with one excpetion but it was no biggie. The parks were ok but thanks to fotl we walked on everything ! The longest wait was for Shrek. We also ate at Mythos (wonderful), NBA City (pretty good) & Finnigans (no complaints). The Macy's parade was very nice. Everything was very well done & used my AP passes & got all of my discounts. This really as a wonderful vacation & while a little hectic since we have a 3 year old there was plenty for him to do & my only compliant was the inconsistencies in height measurements. He as able to do Spiderman but they didn't let him on Jimmy Neutron ? He measures 40 " at the pediatrician but no biggie just a little melt down because he wanted the moving car not the stationary seat. By next Nov he'll be plenty big enough for Universal standards. We took it in stride the employee was very nice about it. Recommend the refillable cups for soda (got the Shrek) & for the beer saved a ton ! Also on Mon. Wed & Fri Universal was giving it's AP holders 35 % off their Universal owned stores so that was a nice bonus. I was told it was a Christmas gift from Universal to it's passholders. Nice huh ? Any questions, fire away !

 

[fofinia]

So you did Mythos with a three year old? I know you said it was wonderful, but can you elaborate. Tell us what you ate. The few pictures I've seen have been gorgeous. And we will be there in a few weeks with a 5, 4, 1 and 4 month old (two families). How kid friendly was it? Booths? Big booths?

And how was your son on Spiderman? My 4 yr old is 40" but I thought Spidey would be too jerky for her.

Thanks.

 

[pandora174]

So you did Mythos with a three year old? I know you said it was wonderful, but can you elaborate. Tell us what you ate. The few pictures I've seen have been gorgeous. And we will be there in a few weeks with a 5, 4, 1 and 4 month old (two families). How kid friendly was it? Booths? Big booths?

And how was your son on Spiderman? My 4 yr old is 40" but I thought Spidey would be too jerky for her.

Thanks.

He behaved really well at the restaurants & rides just didn't like the shopping. Mythos fascinated him because it was so cool inside & there were lots of kids.I had the salmon & it was great, really awesome. My husband had the steak sandwich & really enjoyed it. We also had the sushi appetizer &it was spectacular. The desserts were odd, you got to choose from a shot glass carrot cake, mousse, key lime. Very tasty. We decide on the highchair & we ordered him a kid's meal & he got crayons & paper. He was emtertained. I also took his milk & juice. With Spidey he was a little shy but he posed for all the pictures. It wasn't a big deal he liked the Cat in the hat & Thing 1 & 2 better. He's been doing dark rides since he was 1 at Disney & also all the kiddie rides at Busch Gardens. Always fearless & loved everything. But this trip on Spidey he liked it & then hid his head on my arm. The jerkiness didn't bother him I think he's starting to recognize the bad guys. But he LOVED the kiddie roller coasters & the spinning ride at IOA.

 

[fofinia]

Thanks sounds great! Can't wait to go.

 

[S.S.Oceanlover]

HOw does the APH discount work? Does everyone in your party have to have one or just one person. How do you find out what the hotel discounts are for the AP holders? We aren't going until next August but I'm full of questions.

Bill

 

[pandora174]

HOw does the APH discount work? Does everyone in your party have to have one or just one person. How do you find out what the hotel discounts are for the AP holders? We aren't going until next August but I'm full of questions.

Bill

When it came to the hotel my travel agent took care of that but calling Universal yourself would suffice & asking for the AP rate. At the time of check in we hadn't activated our passes & we were asked for the AP passes. I just showed them my tickets & it was fine. At every restaurant & store I showed them 1 AP pass & automatically they applied the discount which varied from 10 to 20 %. We were fortunate because on odd days Universal was giving AP holders 35 % off at their stores so we saved a bunch. All you need is one AP pass to get the discounts for the stores, restaurants & hotels. It really saved us a lot of $ since we ate out quite a bit & I shopped tons. Hope that helps !

 

[jmsvss]

Did you need ADRs? We will be there Mon and Tues of Presidents week.

 

[pandora174]

Did you need ADRs? We will be there Mon and Tues of Presidents week.

We never needed ADR's for the sit down restaurants. We just showed our room key & never waited at all. We only used an ADR for the character breakfast which I called the night before & got the time we wanted. We tried this at Mama's, Mythos, Flannigans & NBA city with no problems.

 

[JoAnnPan]

Just a couple of ? if you don't mind - I am planning a trip this year for the week of Christmas and will be staying at Universal

How are the parks holiday decorations?
Did you get a "holiday" feeling?
What was the weather like?

Thanks!

 

[pandora174]

Just a couple of ? if you don't mind - I am planning a trip this year for the week of Christmas and will be staying at Universal

How are the parks holiday decorations?
Did you get a "holiday" feeling?
What was the weather like?

Thanks!

Yes, we really did feel like it was the holidays. The parks are decorated really great for the holidays so it's very obvious it's Christmas time. There's the Macy's parade for Universal Studios which was very nice & Islands has the Grinch stuff which is great. The hotel was beautiful with the huge tree by the piazza & inside the lobby with the huge gingerbread house. The weather the first few days was overcast but cool. At night it got colder. We just layered because in the morning it would be cold & then warm up toward lunch time & then get cooler later. Also the boat ride to the parks can get really cold & windy. But the weather just added to the festive atmosphere. It was a really great time to go.

 

[twin43]

I wanted to learn more about the refillable cups that Pandora 174 mentioned. We have 4 children. We're staying at RPR and will have a rental car so I plan on stocking up with food and beverages. 3 of the children are teens and will be at the park with our friends teens alot so it may be smart to get cups for them. Also, do you think it's worth 100.00 extra per night for club access? I figure with that 100.00 I can splurge on a lot of food and a cooler for the room. We're going Feb vacation week and the best rate I've seen is 279.00 including 2 adult and 2 kids tickets to park. Anyone seen a better deal? Thanks in advance.

 

[lindalinda]

twin43...I got a AAA club room rate at RPR for 263$ thru the AAA web site. You can also book it thru the hotel or loews, but sometimes if they show no rooms available if you then check AAA they still have rooms thru that site. I have not done the club level before , so i'm not positive it is worth the extra $, but with 3 teen boys I thought it would be for me. With 5 in a room, I dont anticipate spending a lot of time in the room, it will be too cramped I think. Sending the boys down to the lounge to get snacks and to the gym to shower I think will help make sure we dont fall all over each other all week.

 

[mickekmania]

We are going to be in the WDW and USF Dec. 17-27 , (staying on property at WDW so won't be having any of the perks that go along with staying at USF) Anyways, could you tell me how the crowds are during the Christmas season and are they any better the week before Christmas?

Thanks,
Julie

 

[pandora174]

The crowds were very very manageable. We walked around without any problems. I wouldn't say non existant but definetely on the lighter side. Since we had the fotl we never waited for ANYTHING, not any rides & not any restaurants either. It was extremely relaxing. THe only thing that had a 30 min wait was to see the Grinch & since we were so spoiled we thought it was too long ! But I think the crowds start picking up the week of Christmas. what I didn't see were any of the express pass machines up & running though. I don't know if that's changed but during our week we never saw any operating though.

 

[Minniespal]

Sounds wonderful ~ Thanx for posting.