PBR 4/12 4/16 Trip Report
Participants:
C3 (DH): Age 33
Me: Age 34
C4 (DS): Age 7 Ht: 48
BT (DS): Age 2 Ht: 36
First a quick overview: My husband is in the Army and deploys very often. That doesnt leave very much time for planning vacations and getting great rates on tickets and rooms. He returned in mid March from a year in Iraq and was unsure about what his leave dates would be until right after he came back around the 14th of March. Thankfully he was able to get his leave dates to coincide with C4s spring break dates. I immediately got on the phone with Universal Vacations who had no rooms available on site from 4/12 through 4/16. I contacted Loews Reservations and it was the same story. They referred me to Expedia which had PBR standard, bay view and pool deluxe available for that week. We booked a pool view deluxe for an average rate of $350 a night. I then contacted Universal and purchased the 5 days for the price of 2 park passes.
My husband and I then scoured the internet for information and came across this website and these message boards. THANK YOU ALL for all the information you shared in your postings. It really helped us in our planning.
Day 1: We drove down from St Augustine where we had stopped and visited the day before. We arrived at Universal and the PBR at around 11am and were amazed at the beauty of the resort. It was quite crowded in the lobby area with guests checking in and out. We all went into the lobby to check in. We were waited on at the front desk by Anastasios (sp?) who was polite and welcoming and advised us that our room was already available. He also acknowledged us as Loews First guests. The room key passes we were given were plain without our information. We found out later from another Portofino guest who arrived the same day we did that the computer to print the information on our passes was down and if we wanted to we could take them back to the front desk and get new passes. We had no problems getting FOTL on ride although some ride employees had some questions about why our passes had nothing printed on them. DH took the passes down to the front desk on day 4 and got new ones with our information for souvenirs. Sanderson was our curbside bellhop who told us about the hotel as he unloaded our vehicle. He was very friendly and stayed with us until Eddie arrived who took our bags to our room. We stayed in room 2364. Eddie continued where Sanderson left off and showed us how to get to different hotel locations from our room. He even showed us the shortcut by the Delfino Rivera to get to the boat dock. Any employee we passed in the hallway was quick to greet us.
Eddie showed us around our room which we were shocked at the size of. After we were left in our room, I was shocked about the bottle of Evian which I think I had read about here before. $7.00?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I took the bottle and placed it on top of the armoire to prevent the boys from accidentally opening it.
The view from our room was of the Bocce Ball Court and we could see the beach pool through the stand of trees that separated it from the court. Not the best view, but not the worst.
We took the boat to CityWalk and went to Universal Studios. We had to wait a little while at the Guest Services Will Call line to pick up our park passes. Once we got into the park, we got a locker for our backpack (raingear, diapers, wipes, change of clothes for BT). We went to Shrek first. We took much pleasure in showing our room key passes and getting FOTL access. The regular wait time was 75 minutes. We waited around 15 minutes before we went in.
After the ride, we purchased some items in the Shrek shop and hoped to use the package delivery to PBR. We were told that the items wouldnt be delivered until around 9-10am the next morning and opted against the delivery option since C4 expected to be able to play with the items when we returned to the hotel that night.
As we got around to going on something else, I found out that I had accidentally dropped a two way radio in the Shrek ride. Both my DH and I spoke to Shrek employees and they were unable to find it. We checked with the Park Lost and Found to no avail also.
We then had to head back to the hotel since C3 spilled something on his shirt and needed to change. The crib we had requested at check in wasnt there yet and we had not received our welcome gift of cookies and milk yet. I contacted Star Service regarding both and we were told that they would take care of it.
Our trip back to Universal took no time at all.
We then went on ET, Woody Woodpecker rollercoaster, Back to the Future and MIB. All with FOTL access. MIB had the longest wait time of 90 minutes and C3 and C4 got on to the ride in less than 10 minutes. We had to head back to the locker to change BT. On our way back we passed the Mummy ride and C3 and C4 got in line. The wait time was 45 minutes and no express pass. They then did Twister and we all did Earthquake and Jimmy Neutron. All FOTL.
We didnt have much to eat in the park. C3 was not impressed with the quality of pretzels. I had read here that the food in Universal wasnt very good. For dinner we went to City Walk and ate at Margaritaville. We were unable to use our room passes for priority seating but only had to wait around 15 minutes for a table. The food was good there and even our DSs had a good time. We headed back to the hotel at around 9:30pm and found that turndown service had been completed. The quiet hotel and comfortable room was great to come back to. The crib was there and the cookies and milk had arrived. We didnt envy those who were walking back to their cars and staying off site.
Participants:
C3 (DH): Age 33
Me: Age 34
C4 (DS): Age 7 Ht: 48
BT (DS): Age 2 Ht: 36
First a quick overview: My husband is in the Army and deploys very often. That doesnt leave very much time for planning vacations and getting great rates on tickets and rooms. He returned in mid March from a year in Iraq and was unsure about what his leave dates would be until right after he came back around the 14th of March. Thankfully he was able to get his leave dates to coincide with C4s spring break dates. I immediately got on the phone with Universal Vacations who had no rooms available on site from 4/12 through 4/16. I contacted Loews Reservations and it was the same story. They referred me to Expedia which had PBR standard, bay view and pool deluxe available for that week. We booked a pool view deluxe for an average rate of $350 a night. I then contacted Universal and purchased the 5 days for the price of 2 park passes.
My husband and I then scoured the internet for information and came across this website and these message boards. THANK YOU ALL for all the information you shared in your postings. It really helped us in our planning.
Day 1: We drove down from St Augustine where we had stopped and visited the day before. We arrived at Universal and the PBR at around 11am and were amazed at the beauty of the resort. It was quite crowded in the lobby area with guests checking in and out. We all went into the lobby to check in. We were waited on at the front desk by Anastasios (sp?) who was polite and welcoming and advised us that our room was already available. He also acknowledged us as Loews First guests. The room key passes we were given were plain without our information. We found out later from another Portofino guest who arrived the same day we did that the computer to print the information on our passes was down and if we wanted to we could take them back to the front desk and get new passes. We had no problems getting FOTL on ride although some ride employees had some questions about why our passes had nothing printed on them. DH took the passes down to the front desk on day 4 and got new ones with our information for souvenirs. Sanderson was our curbside bellhop who told us about the hotel as he unloaded our vehicle. He was very friendly and stayed with us until Eddie arrived who took our bags to our room. We stayed in room 2364. Eddie continued where Sanderson left off and showed us how to get to different hotel locations from our room. He even showed us the shortcut by the Delfino Rivera to get to the boat dock. Any employee we passed in the hallway was quick to greet us.
Eddie showed us around our room which we were shocked at the size of. After we were left in our room, I was shocked about the bottle of Evian which I think I had read about here before. $7.00?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I took the bottle and placed it on top of the armoire to prevent the boys from accidentally opening it.
The view from our room was of the Bocce Ball Court and we could see the beach pool through the stand of trees that separated it from the court. Not the best view, but not the worst.
We took the boat to CityWalk and went to Universal Studios. We had to wait a little while at the Guest Services Will Call line to pick up our park passes. Once we got into the park, we got a locker for our backpack (raingear, diapers, wipes, change of clothes for BT). We went to Shrek first. We took much pleasure in showing our room key passes and getting FOTL access. The regular wait time was 75 minutes. We waited around 15 minutes before we went in.
After the ride, we purchased some items in the Shrek shop and hoped to use the package delivery to PBR. We were told that the items wouldnt be delivered until around 9-10am the next morning and opted against the delivery option since C4 expected to be able to play with the items when we returned to the hotel that night.
As we got around to going on something else, I found out that I had accidentally dropped a two way radio in the Shrek ride. Both my DH and I spoke to Shrek employees and they were unable to find it. We checked with the Park Lost and Found to no avail also.
We then had to head back to the hotel since C3 spilled something on his shirt and needed to change. The crib we had requested at check in wasnt there yet and we had not received our welcome gift of cookies and milk yet. I contacted Star Service regarding both and we were told that they would take care of it.
Our trip back to Universal took no time at all.
We then went on ET, Woody Woodpecker rollercoaster, Back to the Future and MIB. All with FOTL access. MIB had the longest wait time of 90 minutes and C3 and C4 got on to the ride in less than 10 minutes. We had to head back to the locker to change BT. On our way back we passed the Mummy ride and C3 and C4 got in line. The wait time was 45 minutes and no express pass. They then did Twister and we all did Earthquake and Jimmy Neutron. All FOTL.
We didnt have much to eat in the park. C3 was not impressed with the quality of pretzels. I had read here that the food in Universal wasnt very good. For dinner we went to City Walk and ate at Margaritaville. We were unable to use our room passes for priority seating but only had to wait around 15 minutes for a table. The food was good there and even our DSs had a good time. We headed back to the hotel at around 9:30pm and found that turndown service had been completed. The quiet hotel and comfortable room was great to come back to. The crib was there and the cookies and milk had arrived. We didnt envy those who were walking back to their cars and staying off site.
