short 2 day trip

[bkline]

Just returned late Friday night from a trip to Universal with a stop for MNSSHP. This was our 2nd time to Universal. Last time, we stayed at Portofino. This year, we stayed at Royal Pacific. Overall, we liked Royal a little better. Portofino is a great hotel, but breakfast buffet was much better at Royal. Room was a little smaller. Pool area was nice, but my DS was mad the water cannons were not working at night.
We ate a Tchop chop our first night. The food was very good and the place looks incredible, but it was verrrrry expensive. Service was top notch.
IOA: We went to Islands the first day because DS loves Marvel Island. We started there and made our way around to Dueling Dragons. The park was not very crowded Thursday. Some rides we could have done without FOTL. We ate lunch at Mythos again. I like the food. Our server was not the greatest though. After lunch, we did the water rides: Jurassic Park, Dudley then Bluto. Bluto was closed last year in Ocotober, so this was our one new ride this year at IOA. It was a lot of fun, better than Kali River Rapids at AK. We rode it 3 times straight. With FOTL, we had alomst not wait. Rode Spiderman and Hulk and left IOA to go to MNSSHP.
Universal: Friday we hit Universal. We started with Jimmy Neutron, then headed for Mummy. DS likes this even more than Hulk. Jaws was running. We missed Earthquake last year, so that was new to us and enjoyable. There was a short 30 minute, rather heavy rainstorm around 11. Many people were buying the rain ponchos for 6.00. The crowds were light in the morning. Able to do Mummy twice with almost no wait, but the crowds increased in the afternoon when the weather improved.
Overall, another great trip. The hotel was nice enough to let us check out at 2pm with Loews First card.

 

[Motherfletcher]

Sounds like fun. What room/view did you get at RPR? Did you like it? Did you have to make ressies early for Tchoup Chop? More than $50 per person?

 

[bkline]

We had just a standard room in tower 3. Our view was not good one. Not much to look at from the 3000 section.
Yes. dinner ended up being more than 50 per person. That included a 39 bottle of wine. (On the cheap side for Tchop chop).
Unless you do the tasting, 4 course dinner, everything is an additional charge. To give you a good idea, after our waiter seated us and introduced himself the next sentence was: We offer comlimentary water or bottled water for an additional charge. That should have been my first clue. Again, the food was great. I' m not convinced it was that great.

 

[gschmerl]

Originally posted by Motherfletcher
Did you have to make ressies early for Tchoup Chop? More than $50 per person?

We had dinner at Tchoup Chop in July. Made reservations about a month in advance on line. Two appetizers, two entrees, two desserts, one coffee, one tea was $124 including tax and tip. The food and service were well worth it. We really didn't think it was that expensive for the quality we received.

 

[bkline]

We made reservations about 2 weeks in advance. I used the website to make the reservations. I was impressed with the advance checking. The week of our visit, I received a phone call and an e-mail from the restaurant.

 

[Minniespal]

Great report ~ Thanx for sharing.