I wanted to post our trip report of our visit to Universal 12/14 to 12/20 as I so much enjoyed and appreciated all the info. I read on the boards prior to our trip. It was our first trip to Universal so everything was new to us. I hope you enjoy reading it.
Our Family:
DH-John (mid 30's-never gets excited about a trip till he gets there)
Myself-Tammy
(mid 30's-bores my husband due to my incessant talking
about the trip-probably the reason he doesn't get
excited
)
DS-Evan age 6-easy going, loves star wars and his nintendo.
DS-Carson age 2-loves doing things only his way
loves trains.
Day 1-Arrival
We flew out of Nashville via Soutwest on 12/14 on a 7:55pm flight. I had to get the late flight as I had planned for our oldest DS to go to school the day we left ...however, he got a nasty stomach virus and started vomiting the night before. Just our luck...Then the two year old started vomiting the morning we were to leave. So..we debated whether to cancel our trip...called the school nurse at DS school to see what the course of the virus was..found out the main illness lasted 8 to 12 hours and decided to go ahead and go. The kids didn't feel great but they were over their major stomach problems by the time of our flight. Our flight went smoothy and we were in Orlando at MCO by 11pm. Our driver Mr. Bradley from Sunray Transportation was waiting for us and helped us get our luggage and escorted us to his Chevy Suburban for our trip to RPR. Sunray was wonderful..would highly recommend them. The cost was $92.00 for the round trip. No hidden fees. Just the $92 and his tip. In addition he supplied car seats for our trip at no extra charge. We stopped at an Albertsons on the way to pick up some breakfast stuff etc. We had 30 minutes to shop and I was in and out in 20 minutes. My DH was impressed as I usually am never in and out of the grocery in 20 minutes. We arrived at RPR after midnight. When we pulled up to RPR our luggage was removed by a woman who told us to go on in and she would bring it in after she took care of the car that had pulled in behind us. Both kids were asleep so we carried them in, checked in and the lady at the desk told us to go on up to our room and they would bring our luggage up. Our room was in Tower 3-room 3231. We waited for our luggage as we wanted to get changed so we could go on to bed (almost 1am by now). About 30 minutes later the bellman knocks on our door with our luggage..but its not ours. He says this has to be it..it is the only luggage down there. But it wasn't so my husband goes back downstairs with the luggage guy to look for our luggage. He finds it, still outside on the curb with no one with it. DH wasn't very happy. We are not people to find fault or complain but DH thought they could have done better. It was not the fault of the guy who brought the wrong luggage to our room and he told us the woman who initially took our luggage out of the vehicle is contracted with RPR. He asked us to call and let his supervisor know what happened the next morning.
Our room was very nice-standard room with a view of some trees. It was what we had booked and thats all I expected. We booked through Hotel Kingdom and got a rate of $159.00 which I thought was pretty good. The room was immaculate and everything worked perfectly. The beds were comfortable when we finally got to go to sleep at 2am. We were very tired as I had been up with our DS all night the night before while he was sick. We had arrived and it was a great feeling just to know we could just have fun the next 6 days.
Thanks for reading-Day 2 on its way...
Our Family:
DH-John (mid 30's-never gets excited about a trip till he gets there)
Myself-Tammy
(mid 30's-bores my husband due to my incessant talking about the trip-probably the reason he doesn't get
excited
) DS-Evan age 6-easy going, loves star wars and his nintendo.
DS-Carson age 2-loves doing things only his way
loves trains.Day 1-Arrival
We flew out of Nashville via Soutwest on 12/14 on a 7:55pm flight. I had to get the late flight as I had planned for our oldest DS to go to school the day we left ...however, he got a nasty stomach virus and started vomiting the night before. Just our luck...Then the two year old started vomiting the morning we were to leave. So..we debated whether to cancel our trip...called the school nurse at DS school to see what the course of the virus was..found out the main illness lasted 8 to 12 hours and decided to go ahead and go. The kids didn't feel great but they were over their major stomach problems by the time of our flight. Our flight went smoothy and we were in Orlando at MCO by 11pm. Our driver Mr. Bradley from Sunray Transportation was waiting for us and helped us get our luggage and escorted us to his Chevy Suburban for our trip to RPR. Sunray was wonderful..would highly recommend them. The cost was $92.00 for the round trip. No hidden fees. Just the $92 and his tip. In addition he supplied car seats for our trip at no extra charge. We stopped at an Albertsons on the way to pick up some breakfast stuff etc. We had 30 minutes to shop and I was in and out in 20 minutes. My DH was impressed as I usually am never in and out of the grocery in 20 minutes.
We arrived at RPR after midnight. When we pulled up to RPR our luggage was removed by a woman who told us to go on in and she would bring it in after she took care of the car that had pulled in behind us. Both kids were asleep so we carried them in, checked in and the lady at the desk told us to go on up to our room and they would bring our luggage up. Our room was in Tower 3-room 3231. We waited for our luggage as we wanted to get changed so we could go on to bed (almost 1am by now). About 30 minutes later the bellman knocks on our door with our luggage..but its not ours. He says this has to be it..it is the only luggage down there. But it wasn't so my husband goes back downstairs with the luggage guy to look for our luggage. He finds it, still outside on the curb with no one with it. DH wasn't very happy. We are not people to find fault or complain but DH thought they could have done better. It was not the fault of the guy who brought the wrong luggage to our room and he told us the woman who initially took our luggage out of the vehicle is contracted with RPR. He asked us to call and let his supervisor know what happened the next morning. Our room was very nice-standard room with a view of some trees. It was what we had booked and thats all I expected. We booked through Hotel Kingdom and got a rate of $159.00 which I thought was pretty good. The room was immaculate and everything worked perfectly. The beds were comfortable when we finally got to go to sleep at 2am. We were very tired as I had been up with our DS all night the night before while he was sick. We had arrived and it was a great feeling just to know we could just have fun the next 6 days.
Thanks for reading-Day 2 on its way...
We got ready with all our gear-cameras, ponchos, diapers etc. etc. The high temp expected for the day was 74. It was nice to push the weather buttun on the in room phone and hear the weather for the day. Helped us to better plan as some days in was 75 and others 64 during the day. We headed to IOA and walked instead of using the water taxi. We never used the water taxi-it was a nice walk and we just wanted to get there so we never waited for the taxi. We used our tickets for the first time-we purchased the $99 tics on Universal web site that gave us each 5 days. Our youngest DS was free due to his age. 
We started with hulk. Only my DH and I could ride as DS's were both too little. We switched of and it was a great ride. It was my DH's favorite and over the course of our stay he rode it 6 or 7 times. I liked it to but the ride is pretty rough. I kept hitting my head on the seat-my own fault-I just couldn't keep my head still. DH liked the speed and the multiple inversions. Then we headed to Spider Man as Evan our oldest DS was big enough to ride it. I rode with Evan first as DH stayed with our little guy. Evan (who will ride any coaster, and loved Tower of Terror) didn't like it. It scared him and he rode with his head pressed against me most of the ride. I really liked it though. I had hoped Evan would like it as he loves Spider Man but alas it just wasn't for him..at least not yet anyways. DH rode it and liked it to. The 3D visuals are amazing. DH rode Dr. Doom Fearfall and liked it o.k. We decided to head to Seuss Land to let the kids check out an area more for them. The first thing our youngest DS Carson saw was the Carroleuss (sp?) so we let the kids ride it and DH and I rode too. Then we went to if I Ran the Zoo. These interactive playgrounds ended up being the favorite things for our kids. They enjoyed the slide and Evan played tic tac toe with the blue guy. Carson enjoyed just being able to run around. They played here for about an hour and it was time for our lunch at Mythos.
. He came over to greet us as soon as we were seated. He did an excellent job and was very patient with our 2y/o who was noticeably weary of Spiderman coming near him. By the end of the meal he was giving Spiderman high fives. 
We started with Shrek then went to Jimmy Neutron. Both were good and we were able to take our 2 year old on both attractions which made it nice for him. He sat in a non motion seat for Jimmy Neutron Nicktoon Blast with Dad. Then we headed to Terminator and my husband went to it. He liked it. We decided to wait on me riding it for now as we were all getting hungry. We went to Lombards. The fish tank is very cool and we were seated beside it. It kept the kids busy looking at the fish for awhile. John and I shared our meals with the kids to cut down on cost and they never seem to eat much due to their excitement. I had the clams, fish and shrimp with fries and slaw and John had Red Snapper Blakened. Both were very good. The fried fish was my favorite. I wanted to get one of those Sundaes they have there but we were too stuffed. 
But I had fun anyways...The FOTL access came in very handy for us today but I felt a little guilty walking past all those people. They checked each person for their room card on this and a few other attrations right before you would que up for your ride vehicle. Next we rode Earthquake which was neat and then we went to ride ET. We enjoyed it -especially Carson our youngest. It is a nice touch when ET says the names of everyone in your vehicle at the end. After ET we went to the playground area as the kids had spotted it and wanted to go run off some steam. Fievels playground was a cute area but the kids loved the ball area of Curious George. The frount facade of Curious George would be very cool when it is hot as tons of water spew down from the roof every so often and water play areas abound. However being December and a liitle cooler today..we didn't get wet. We did go on in and up to the second floor of the ball area and it was great fun. You can shoot balls down to the first floor. On the first floor there are vacumns which let you suck up balls to put in bags to carry back upstairs or suck up to containers up in the air which release the balls every 2 minutes. This was the jackpot for both our kids as the 2 y/o loves to vacumn and the 6 y.o loved shooting the balls with his Dad. The kids cried when we left an hour and 1/2 later but it was almost 6pm (closing) and we had to find somewhere for dinner. 
