Major Universal Help Needed - Please!

[FloridaFanatic]

Hi, I'm brand new to these boards, and you all seem so helpful so I can't wait to start playing along!

A little background...We have a group of 16 (4 families) going to Florida in November (we're thinking of 10th-18th). The kids range in age from 7-11. We all went to Disney together two years ago and had a blast, but this time we would like to add Universal into our trip.

We all know Disney very well and can plan that without a problem, but most of us haven't been to Universal in years, and none of us have taken the kids there yet.

Now if you're still with me here are my questions.

1. Would you go to Disney or Universal first? We are leaning towards U.S. for the end of the week because one family can't come down until Saturday and wants to get the whole U.S. visit in.

2. We are leaning towards either 2 nights/3 days or 3 nights/3 days for U.S. since one day will be a travel day. What are your opinions?

3. Which hotel at U.S.? We are stay are Port Orleans FQ at Disney, but it looks like the hotels are nicer at U.S. (more like deluxe).

4. Which package or ticket option would be best? Two of the families have kids over 10, are they adults or is there a junior option?

I still have a bunch more questions, but I'll start with these.

Thanks for all your help!

 

[pixiepower1971]

I can help with 2 things off the top of my head. You will want 2 days for the parks and city walk. I would stay at the Hard Rock Hotel. The kids will love it, it is close to the parks and the rooms are wonderful. Hope someone else can help you with the other things!

 

[disneyfreakk]

1) go to disney first! USO is more relaxing, and you will be spoiled with FOTL (front of the line) Also, the whole family might actually like USO BETTER!

2) I would choose 3 days/3 nights if you can do that. Travel days are such a pain, we dont really count arrival or departure days towards vacation. And USO is very relaxing.

3) We always stay at the HRH. I think all of the loews hotels are great! Much better than the Deluxes at Disney IMO. RPH is the least expensive but they have the smallest rooms. HRH and PBH is a toss up as far as price goes, but PBH has much bigger rooms. On the other hand, HRH is WAY cool!! ( we always stay at the HRH ) I tend to pick out hotels by the decor. Look on the universal website for pictures and room size.

4) Universal doesnt offer junior tickets. Universal adult tickets are 10 and up. they are running some great deals online right now where you can buy one 5 day adult ticket for $99 (plus tax) and get a free childs 5 day ticket. You might want to consider either AAA or APH for room discounts. You will get really good discounts in November.

 

[disneyfreakk]

Also- Never ever buy a package through universal vacations. You will have to do some different senarios to find out what the best deal for you and your family will be. But Its ALWAYS less expensive to book everything yourself.

 

[macraven]

Hi, I'm brand new to these boards, and you all seem so helpful so I can't wait to start playing along!

A little background...We have a group of 16 (4 families) going to Florida in November (we're thinking of 10th-18th). The kids range in age from 7-11. We all went to Disney together two years ago and had a blast, but this time we would like to add Universal into our trip.

We all know Disney very well and can plan that without a problem, but most of us haven't been to Universal in years, and none of us have taken the kids there yet.

Now if you're still with me here are my questions.

1. Would you go to Disney or Universal first? We are leaning towards U.S. for the end of the week because one family can't come down until Saturday and wants to get the whole U.S. visit in.

do disney first, then universal. you will get spoiled by FOTL. by ending with UO, it will seem like a brand new vacation.

2. We are leaning towards either 2 nights/3 days or 3 nights/3 days for U.S. since one day will be a travel day. What are your opinions?

since there will be a large group, 4 families, i would do 3 nights/3 days. you won't all agree to the same rides and attractions. you might be doing a lot of waiting for others to complete rides if you choose to sit some of them out.
by staying 3 nights, you can enjoy city walk at a leisurely pace and explore the hotel and pool in a more relaxing fashion.

3. Which hotel at U.S.? We are stay are Port Orleans FQ at Disney, but it looks like the hotels are nicer at U.S. (more like deluxe).

depending on the number of kidlettes per family, you will have the most room at pbh. if there are only 4 per group, i lean towards hrh. the walk from hrh to the park is the shortest of all the hotels

4. Which package or ticket option would be best? Two of the families have kids over 10, are they adults or is there a junior option?

suggest you check the ticket website and go with the buy one adult 5 days/get child free passes. even if you only stay 3 days, you will get your moneys worth. there are 2 park hoppers. $99 an adult.
you can have 2 adults per room before an additional surchage is added. you can have 3 kids in the room. junior is 10-17 for ages. no charge for junior in the room if you have AAA , florida residency, AP then you can get discounts on the rooms and tickets.

I still have a bunch more questions, but I'll start with these.

Thanks for all your help!

post more questions whenever you wish. many here will try to help you

 

[bjakmom]

Welcome to the DIS !
Another vote here for ending your vacation at USF - we always spend our final 3 days of our WDW trips at USF and love going home more relaxed - with FOTL you can see/do so much more than you can at WDW - gives you lots more pool time - and no buses! If you decide on HRH, I suggest having all the families chip in together to rent a cabana for at least one day. That's what we did over my b'day weekend - there were 16 of us on one of the days and we loved having the cabana to hang out in and meet up with each other while everyone went in/out of the parks throughout the day and night. My teens/twenties LOVE HRH - my DNeph(8) prefers RPR (usually less $$) - I loved the quiet elegance of PBH the best - you can't go wrong, IMHO! Have a blast !

 

[mjgruber]

Also- Never ever buy a package through universal vacations. You will have to do some different senarios to find out what the best deal for you and your family will be. But Its ALWAYS less expensive to book everything yourself.

Note ! Maybe Universal does not have good packages ...But ...check out other packages before you put it together yourself...We are going Mid April....a package ( Hotel, air, and Car ) was less than the airfare booked separately !

 

[Fan2CSkr]

Thats off season so you should geth the best rates, just arent all out yet. With the group you have kids starting at 7-11, I would consider Royal Pacific. I just love the pool and the grounds. Its an easy walk to the parks and best of all it will be the least expensive of the three providing there arent any groupd there at that time.

Your group sounds fun, happy planning and ask any questions you think of!

 

[Motherfletcher]

Another vote for Disney first.
Another vote for RPR. It's the largest with 1000 rooms, the largest pool in the City of Orlando, the closest in comparison to the WDW resort but more deluxe and the least expensive (Out of 4 families someone has to be concerned with $!).

 

[Dislifer]

Welcome to the DIS !
Another vote here for ending your vacation at USF - we always spend our final 3 days of our WDW trips at USF and love going home more relaxed - with FOTL you can see/do so much more than you can at WDW - gives you lots more pool time - and no buses! If you decide on HRH, I suggest having all the families chip in together to rent a cabana for at least one day. That's what we did over my b'day weekend - there were 16 of us on one of the days and we loved having the cabana to hang out in and meet up with each other while everyone went in/out of the parks throughout the day and night. My teens/twenties LOVE HRH - my DNeph(8) prefers RPR (usually less $$) - I loved the quiet elegance of PBH the best - you can't go wrong, IMHO! Have a blast !

Can someone explain te cabanas to me? I can't picture what it is like. Are they right near the pool? How big are they? Cany anyone else go in it? How much does it cost to rent for a day? Shat if you rent it for a certain day and it rains??? etc. etc. etc.

Thanks!!!

 

[macraven]

cabanas are by the pool. each hotel has them . quite a few at hrh, less at rph.

they belong to the renter for the day. there were some pics on another thread last week to show off the yellow submarine cabana at hrh.

inside is a tv, table, chairs, phone,etc. you can order food, drink from the bar area a server will bring it to you and you can run a tab on it for the day.
it is $100 a day but club level patrons get a discount on the cabana.

my stays have been at hrh. only used the cabana one time as a guest of a friend that rented one. someone that has secured one the entire day might be more knowledgable than i am on the subject. just wanted to add a few bits of general info that i have on cabanas

 

[bjakmom]

Here's a link to some pool/cabana pics that are in my member album: http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=14625

As you can see, the cabanas at RPR are really !! small and located right next to the hot tubs - NO privacy, IMHO. In the HRH pool shots you can see the cabanas around the pool and I have 1 or 2 close ups. At PBH there are only cabanas at the villa pool (none near the main 'family' pool) - they are about the same size at the ones at HRH - I'm not sure what they have (tv?) inside of them.
If you do a search of this forum for 'cabana' (s) you will find a ton of info on them!

 

[Motherfletcher]

What if you rent it for a certain day and it rains???

Last year we were supposed to meet fellow Disser MarkMicheals at HRH's Stevie Wonder cabana and it was raining. We didn't go but he still rented it. If fact he is renting it again today if anyone wants to stop and say "Hi". Lucky Dog!

 

[Dislifer]

Thanks for the info and the pictures!