Report: RPR/UNiversal/Discovery/Sea World!!

[tweak89]

Just returned from 5 days at the Royal Pacific Resort. We stayed from March 22 to March 26. Our party consisted of myself along with my wife, niece (16) and nephew (20). This was my niece and nephews first visit to Universal Orlando an our second. We had a split party with my niece flying in from Chicago and the rest of use from Houston. Luckily I was able to time the flights (via Southwest)to be within 15 minutes and we all actually arrived a little early.

We took a town car service (FL Tours) and headed out to the Royal Pacific resort where we had booked a Club Level Room. Took us a little longer than usual to get to the Resort as traffic was snarled by a HUGE comic-con at the main convention center. But, it didn't impact anything really.

Checked in (our room was not ready), dropped off our bags and headed up to the Club Level lounge for a quick break before hitting the parks. I'll give my impressions of the Club Level at the end of the report.

We hit Studios first and went straight to Rip Ride Rockit where it, like clockwork, experienced technical difficulties! The good thing about it is it got us what amounted to express passes that could be used on Forbidden Journey. Also, on of the ride attendants overheard our lament about this being our first ride attempt of our trip and pulled us aside and told us to mention her name when we came back and we would be put right on the ride!!

We rode Mummy, Transformers and Minion Mayhem before returning to Rip Ride and (just as promised) walking right on through the exit!

We got a text letting us know that our room was ready and we went back to unpack, change clothes, grab a snack and come back to the parks. We went over to IoA and used our pass to ride Forbidden Journey (nice to just walk on in the middle of the day!!).

We returned to Studios for the Mardis Gras Parade, another ride on Rip Ride and just kind of hung around. Then back to the Resort for some rest.

Niece and Nephew enjoying their first day at the parks:

Getting ready to use our "express pass" for Forbidden Journey!

Niece got picked for the Horror Makeup Show (she's a HUGE monster movie fan):

Mardis Gras Parade and and and after shot with our beads!

 

[tweak89]

Our second day was to be spent at Discovery Cove. We got a little bit of a late start when I didn't set my alarm correctly We grabbed a ride form the car service at the Resort and got there in good time. Like Universal, this was our second trip here and our niece and nephews first.

It was bit chilly in the morning, but it turned out to be a nice day. I love this place and could spend an entire vacation just lounging!

This was just a nice lazy day. We snorkled, swam and floated the day away.

Hello!

In the aviary:

Our next day was spent hopping between Studios and IoA.

My nephew got picked for Disaster (that's him on the far right):

On Jurrasic Park:

Nephew won this on his first swing of the hammer in Springfield:

 

[mcbailey]

Looking forward to your report!

My 19 year old daughter and myself are going in October and staying at RPR also!!

 

[tweak89]

Next up was a day at Sea World. Since the ticket was included in the price of our Discovery Cove stay, we took advantage of it. We also picked up the unlimited Quick Queue (which looked like a mistake early on, as the park was dead in the morning). I think overall attendance must be affected by the lack of a Shamu Show.

We rode all the rides with repeat rides of Manta (3), Kraken (3) and the new Antarctica (2). We caught the Blue Horizons show as well as the Clyde and Seymore show and went by the Shamu Up Close area. The park was packed later in the day so in the end, the quick queue was worth it. We had lunch at the Pizza and Pasta buffet which was decent for the price. I'm convinced my nephew has a tape worm since he downed 16 slices of pizza!

Antarctica is an interesting ride in. We saw a making of documentary on Discovery Channel and were excited about riding it. It did not disappoint. We hit it first thing and again just before we left. We would have been going for three, but they had some technical difficulties in the afternoon. The tech in this ride is pretty nifty. We only rode the "wild" side of the ride (think Mission Space) but could see the "mild" cars (very little motion in them). Oh, and it goes form chilly to COLD by the end of the ride!!

Everyone really enjoyed the day here and the change of pace.

Spinning around in Antarctica:

Shamu Up Close:

 

[tweak89]

Our final day was going to be a "best of" day. We wanted to try and hit everyone's favorites. We started off at IoA for Forbidden Journey followed by Spiderman and Hulk. Then, it was over to Studios for Minion Mayhem, Rip Ride, Transformers and Mummy. We also took in the Terminator show as we had not had a chance in the days prior.

We headed back to the hotel to finish up our packing, check out and check our bags. We returned to the parks on last time to pick up the odd souvenir and have on last look. After that it was back to the hotel where the car service picked us up and sped us away to the airport. Both flights ended up being delayed (due the snowy conditions in the northeast) but we all made it home safe, sound and tired.

Random thoughts:

This was our first stay on the Club level of RPR. We really enjoyed the perks. We took advantage of the snacks/lite food every chance we got so I feel we got good value out of it. If you spend the majority of your days away from the hotel and don't get a chance to utilize the Club Lounge, I would say it's certainly not worth the extra cost. The only day we skipped everything but the evening snacks was the day we spent at Discovery Cove (which includes all food/drink).

The hallways in Tower 3 (we had room 3704) were FREEZING!!!!!

Boat service to and from RPR seemed lacking compared to HRH and Portofino. We judged this from the wait times at City walk. We would see multiple pick and drop offs from the other two resorts during waits for the boats back to RPR. Not sure if it was just our timing or if this is common. We didn't really utilize the boat shuttle last time we stayed.

All in all it was a fun trip. Wish it had been more consistently sunny and warm (especially that last day whereit started out in the 40's!!).

Some random pics:

 

[labfan]

Great report. Sounds like a great time was had by all.
I love reading about trips to IOA/Uni and the RPR. Can't wait to go back in May 2015 and stay at the RPR again.

 

[AustralianJetsetter]

Sounds like a lovely time was had. I really enjoyed reading this as we will be there for our first time in 6 weeks

 

[Heluvsme]

Good report and great pictures! What a fun time!

16 pieces of pizza?? Oh my! You may be on to something with your tapeworm theory.

Thanks for the review.. I am eating up all the information I can gather right now for our upcoming June trip!

 

[ArwenMarie]

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing

 

[macraven]

your pictures are so beautiful !

colorful and extremely clear.

 

[Disney owl]

great reports