mill4023
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2005
- Messages
- 3,844
Just got back from our first trip. Despite all of us getting varying degrees of colds and other illnesses at some point during the trip, we still had a great time and none of us wanted to come home. In fact, this is the first vacation we've ever taken where we weren't ready to come home at the end.
It was me, DW, DS10, DD7, DD4, and DD1.
We took an overnight flight leaving the west coast at 11pm, changing planes in Atlanta, and arriving at MCO at 9:30 am. The night flight was good because the baby slept the whole time, but bad because DW and I didn't get much sleep and were exhausted the next day. We stayed at Royal Pacific Resort for one night, Fairfield Inn at Marriott Village for 4 nights, then POR for 4 nights. I wasn't impressed by RPR, but FOTL access was worth the cost. The Fairfield was very nice for the price (about $50/night through AAA special deal) and had a very good free continental breakfast. POR was great. Checking in to POR and just walking from the car to our room made me feel so nice and relaxed. It is just a beautiful resort and I really enjoyed our stay there and I definitely prefered being on-site. After visiting AKL though, my wife says we have to stay there on our next trip. Guess I better start saving up now.
Baby swap was great. It made it possible for all of us to enjoy the rides and let DD7 and DD10 go twice on each thrill ride.
Thurs, April 28th -
Arrived at MCO, picked up our rental van, headed towards the Universal area, stopped and did some shopping at one of the outlet malls, had some lunch, then checked in at Royal Pacific Resort around 1 or 2 pm. Napped for a few hours, then checked out the pool and had some dinner at the poolside restaurant. Pretty good food, but expensive. We went swimming, but after a few minutes, the pool was closed due to an "accident". Because it was already about 7 pm and they had to do a three hour treatment, it was closed for the evening. Everyone was disappointed, but we figured we'd have other chances to swim later in the trip.
Friday, April 29th -
Packed up our stuff, put all the luggage in the car, then took the water taxi to the park. Arrived at CityWalk around 10am, got some coffee and pastries, then headed into USF. There were lots of people, but with Universal Express, we never waited longer than 5 minutes to get on anything. For most of the day, the wait times seemed to range from 30-45 minutes for most of the attractions, so FOTL was definitely worth the cost of staying at RPR.
We had lunch at Louie's and it was pretty good pizza at a pretty good price.
Shrek 4D - great, but a little too much for our DD4. She was fine, but took the glasses off for the whole show.
Jimmy Neutron - Very fun. Less intimidating than Shrek and perfect for DD4. Earthquake - Rather boring and disappointing but a little too frightening for DD4.
Twister - Cool but not nearly intense enough
Revenge of the Mummy - Definitely the best attraction at Universal. DD7 went once with me and once with DW. DS10 skipped it after DD7 said it was scary.
Jaws - DW, DS10, and DD7 all said it was lame.
MIB - DW, DS10, and DD7 all enjoyed it.
Barney - great for the little ones. It was the highlight of the trip for DD4 and DD1 was smiling and pointing the whole time.
Animal Planet Live - Good show.
Terminator - Very good. Probably the best 3D/4D type show I've seen.
Fievel's Playland - Great for keeping DD4 and DD1 busy.
Back to the Future - Lame. Very rough ride without being thrilling in any way.
Overall, USF was fun, but next time, I'll probably skip Universal altogether or possibly give IOA a try. In the evening at Universal, we noticed a very weird looking growth in DD1's mouth and became concerned. So we left around 6 pm and went to an after-hours pediatric clinic that the staff at USF recommended. Took awhile, but she was eventually seen by the doctor. They didn't really know what it was but thought it might just be a blister or swelling that could have happened if she bit her cheek. We were worried about her but after a couple days, it had disappeared. We eventually made it to the Fairfield Inn at Marriott Village and checked in about 9 pm that night.
Saturday, April 30th -
We woke up fairly early, had free continental breakfast, and made it to Disney-MGM Studios before the rope drop. Crowds weren't bad at all. The longest afternoon lines for ToT and RnR were about 30-40 minutes, while Star Tours was a walk-on at noon. Before lunch, we did RnR, ToT, Disney's Playhouse Live, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, and Star Tours. All great shows and rides. DD7 rode ToT twice, DS10 rode it once and that was enough. DD7 rode RnR 4 times and loved it. DS10 rode it 3 times. RnR was the best coaster I've been on. I had never felt anything like that initial 0-60 in 2.8 seconds launch. DD4 insisted on trying Star Tours and survived, but definitely didn't like it.
We had lunch at Backlot Express, which had pretty good food and pretty big portions.
After lunch, we saw Indiana Jones and Beauty and the Beast. Both were very good shows. We also made another trip to RnR. We had dinner at Hollywood and Vine with the Fantasmic package. We all really enjoyed this meal. There was a large variety of food and almost everything we tried was very good. The kids especially loved the dessert bar. After dinner, we headed over to sit down for Fantasmic. I thought the reserved seats for the show were very good. They are a little off to the side, but still a great view. We arrived about 40 minutes before show time and were able to sit down about 5 rows back from the front. Most of the regular seating section was already packed. So I would definitely recommend the dinner package just so you don't have to arrive an hour early to get a decent seat.
Overall, the Studios was one of my favorite parks and I don't feel like one day was enough time to see everything I wanted to see. Even arriving before rope drop and waiting no longer than 10 minutes for everything, we still didn't have enough time. If we had more time on our trip, I would have liked to return here on another day to see Muppetvision, Millionaire, the Backlot tour, etc. I don't know if Lights, Motors, Action was showing because we never had time to check.
I have to end this now, so I'll do part 2, 3, etc. when I get a chance.
It was me, DW, DS10, DD7, DD4, and DD1.
We took an overnight flight leaving the west coast at 11pm, changing planes in Atlanta, and arriving at MCO at 9:30 am. The night flight was good because the baby slept the whole time, but bad because DW and I didn't get much sleep and were exhausted the next day. We stayed at Royal Pacific Resort for one night, Fairfield Inn at Marriott Village for 4 nights, then POR for 4 nights. I wasn't impressed by RPR, but FOTL access was worth the cost. The Fairfield was very nice for the price (about $50/night through AAA special deal) and had a very good free continental breakfast. POR was great. Checking in to POR and just walking from the car to our room made me feel so nice and relaxed. It is just a beautiful resort and I really enjoyed our stay there and I definitely prefered being on-site. After visiting AKL though, my wife says we have to stay there on our next trip. Guess I better start saving up now.
Baby swap was great. It made it possible for all of us to enjoy the rides and let DD7 and DD10 go twice on each thrill ride.
Thurs, April 28th -
Arrived at MCO, picked up our rental van, headed towards the Universal area, stopped and did some shopping at one of the outlet malls, had some lunch, then checked in at Royal Pacific Resort around 1 or 2 pm. Napped for a few hours, then checked out the pool and had some dinner at the poolside restaurant. Pretty good food, but expensive. We went swimming, but after a few minutes, the pool was closed due to an "accident". Because it was already about 7 pm and they had to do a three hour treatment, it was closed for the evening. Everyone was disappointed, but we figured we'd have other chances to swim later in the trip.
Friday, April 29th -
Packed up our stuff, put all the luggage in the car, then took the water taxi to the park. Arrived at CityWalk around 10am, got some coffee and pastries, then headed into USF. There were lots of people, but with Universal Express, we never waited longer than 5 minutes to get on anything. For most of the day, the wait times seemed to range from 30-45 minutes for most of the attractions, so FOTL was definitely worth the cost of staying at RPR.
We had lunch at Louie's and it was pretty good pizza at a pretty good price.
Shrek 4D - great, but a little too much for our DD4. She was fine, but took the glasses off for the whole show.
Jimmy Neutron - Very fun. Less intimidating than Shrek and perfect for DD4. Earthquake - Rather boring and disappointing but a little too frightening for DD4.
Twister - Cool but not nearly intense enough
Revenge of the Mummy - Definitely the best attraction at Universal. DD7 went once with me and once with DW. DS10 skipped it after DD7 said it was scary.
Jaws - DW, DS10, and DD7 all said it was lame.
MIB - DW, DS10, and DD7 all enjoyed it.
Barney - great for the little ones. It was the highlight of the trip for DD4 and DD1 was smiling and pointing the whole time.
Animal Planet Live - Good show.
Terminator - Very good. Probably the best 3D/4D type show I've seen.
Fievel's Playland - Great for keeping DD4 and DD1 busy.
Back to the Future - Lame. Very rough ride without being thrilling in any way.
Overall, USF was fun, but next time, I'll probably skip Universal altogether or possibly give IOA a try. In the evening at Universal, we noticed a very weird looking growth in DD1's mouth and became concerned. So we left around 6 pm and went to an after-hours pediatric clinic that the staff at USF recommended. Took awhile, but she was eventually seen by the doctor. They didn't really know what it was but thought it might just be a blister or swelling that could have happened if she bit her cheek. We were worried about her but after a couple days, it had disappeared. We eventually made it to the Fairfield Inn at Marriott Village and checked in about 9 pm that night.
Saturday, April 30th -
We woke up fairly early, had free continental breakfast, and made it to Disney-MGM Studios before the rope drop. Crowds weren't bad at all. The longest afternoon lines for ToT and RnR were about 30-40 minutes, while Star Tours was a walk-on at noon. Before lunch, we did RnR, ToT, Disney's Playhouse Live, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, and Star Tours. All great shows and rides. DD7 rode ToT twice, DS10 rode it once and that was enough. DD7 rode RnR 4 times and loved it. DS10 rode it 3 times. RnR was the best coaster I've been on. I had never felt anything like that initial 0-60 in 2.8 seconds launch. DD4 insisted on trying Star Tours and survived, but definitely didn't like it.
We had lunch at Backlot Express, which had pretty good food and pretty big portions.
After lunch, we saw Indiana Jones and Beauty and the Beast. Both were very good shows. We also made another trip to RnR. We had dinner at Hollywood and Vine with the Fantasmic package. We all really enjoyed this meal. There was a large variety of food and almost everything we tried was very good. The kids especially loved the dessert bar. After dinner, we headed over to sit down for Fantasmic. I thought the reserved seats for the show were very good. They are a little off to the side, but still a great view. We arrived about 40 minutes before show time and were able to sit down about 5 rows back from the front. Most of the regular seating section was already packed. So I would definitely recommend the dinner package just so you don't have to arrive an hour early to get a decent seat.
Overall, the Studios was one of my favorite parks and I don't feel like one day was enough time to see everything I wanted to see. Even arriving before rope drop and waiting no longer than 10 minutes for everything, we still didn't have enough time. If we had more time on our trip, I would have liked to return here on another day to see Muppetvision, Millionaire, the Backlot tour, etc. I don't know if Lights, Motors, Action was showing because we never had time to check.
I have to end this now, so I'll do part 2, 3, etc. when I get a chance.
