Thanks to everyone who answered my questions and to everyone who posts on these boards--the information is so helpful!
A quick trip report. We stayed at Royal Pacific Sunday January 27 until Friday Feb 1. We had 4 day Universal Tickets (mon, tues, thurs, fri) and spent Wednesday at Sea World. It was a great time--1st trip for our family--mom, dad, and two preteen daughters. I do think we visited at a low crowd time but there were still a fair amount of people--at times the walkways were a bit crowded and some of the lines were 45-60 minutes.
We loved Royal Pacific. We didn't make any sort of room request and we had a great room on the 3rd floor. We had a view of the water which was lovely. I thought our room was very pretty and I loved the bathroom layout. Beds were super comfortable and housekeeping and the bellhops were amazing.
We are commando people pretty much anywhere we go--don't want to miss out. We went for early entry every day but I don't think it was necessary. We loved having the express pass--it was amazing. Was it necessary--maybe not but I don't think I would go back without it. The parks were great. We did buy one kids meal plan with the refillable mug. On Friday we used the mug and got about 15 slushies--such a fun thing and all the concession people were so friendly. Our one meal in the park was at 3 broomsticks. I enjoyed it--thought the food was good. We at dinner around 5 and there was no line at all.
Also in the park we saw the celebration of lights (or something like that) in the central park area. Good show. We showed up about 15 min before it started and had no issues. And had personal space the whole time. We also saw the lights on the castle--this was more crowded and very short. Not sure if it was worth watching and we are big Harry Potter fans. We saw the afternoon parade. Fun but a bit short. Again however plenty of space for viewing and everyone was so pleasant. We rode every ride at least once and most of them multiple times. I do have some motion sickness issues but really the only one that kind of bothered me was the Simpsons. So that was a nice surprise. Saw a variety of shows and took lots of pictures. The park is really themed and so much to look at.
We had no issues with the smaller lockers (never experienced the big ones). Oddly enough sometimes the locker area was the most crowded part of the day.
Other meals offsite included Cheddars (this was the number one meal of the trip according to my husband and daughters) World of Beer, and Celebration Town Tavern.
It was cold the week we were there--highs in the 60s. We did go to Volcano Bay one day--loved it. Such a beautiful park and such fun rides. We did every single slide at least once. The stairs to the high drop slides were a workout!
Sea World was also fun. We bought tickets on Black Friday so we paid $40 each and then bought the all day dining for $25 each. It was fun to have and again the dining employees were so nice--but not sure I would buy it again. We also rode the new water ride--super amazing. We did rent a locker here (had water shoes and stuff for the water ride) and it cost $10 for all day--we had to move our backpack from ride to ride. The slushies at the pretzel place were delicious!!!!
We took an uber XL from the hotel to the airport. All our luggage fit (we are not light packers) and the cost was $33 plus I tipped $10.
I am a big time planner but this trip was pretty easy and didn't require too much research. Super fun. We did take lanyards and they did make the trip much easier as everyone had their own ticket and express pass--you do need to get them out rather often. Hope this info helps someone. Or if anyone has an questions for a newbie let me know and I'll try and answer.
A quick trip report. We stayed at Royal Pacific Sunday January 27 until Friday Feb 1. We had 4 day Universal Tickets (mon, tues, thurs, fri) and spent Wednesday at Sea World. It was a great time--1st trip for our family--mom, dad, and two preteen daughters. I do think we visited at a low crowd time but there were still a fair amount of people--at times the walkways were a bit crowded and some of the lines were 45-60 minutes.
We loved Royal Pacific. We didn't make any sort of room request and we had a great room on the 3rd floor. We had a view of the water which was lovely. I thought our room was very pretty and I loved the bathroom layout. Beds were super comfortable and housekeeping and the bellhops were amazing.
We are commando people pretty much anywhere we go--don't want to miss out. We went for early entry every day but I don't think it was necessary. We loved having the express pass--it was amazing. Was it necessary--maybe not but I don't think I would go back without it. The parks were great. We did buy one kids meal plan with the refillable mug. On Friday we used the mug and got about 15 slushies--such a fun thing and all the concession people were so friendly. Our one meal in the park was at 3 broomsticks. I enjoyed it--thought the food was good. We at dinner around 5 and there was no line at all.
Also in the park we saw the celebration of lights (or something like that) in the central park area. Good show. We showed up about 15 min before it started and had no issues. And had personal space the whole time. We also saw the lights on the castle--this was more crowded and very short. Not sure if it was worth watching and we are big Harry Potter fans. We saw the afternoon parade. Fun but a bit short. Again however plenty of space for viewing and everyone was so pleasant. We rode every ride at least once and most of them multiple times. I do have some motion sickness issues but really the only one that kind of bothered me was the Simpsons. So that was a nice surprise. Saw a variety of shows and took lots of pictures. The park is really themed and so much to look at.
We had no issues with the smaller lockers (never experienced the big ones). Oddly enough sometimes the locker area was the most crowded part of the day.
Other meals offsite included Cheddars (this was the number one meal of the trip according to my husband and daughters) World of Beer, and Celebration Town Tavern.
It was cold the week we were there--highs in the 60s. We did go to Volcano Bay one day--loved it. Such a beautiful park and such fun rides. We did every single slide at least once. The stairs to the high drop slides were a workout!
Sea World was also fun. We bought tickets on Black Friday so we paid $40 each and then bought the all day dining for $25 each. It was fun to have and again the dining employees were so nice--but not sure I would buy it again. We also rode the new water ride--super amazing. We did rent a locker here (had water shoes and stuff for the water ride) and it cost $10 for all day--we had to move our backpack from ride to ride. The slushies at the pretzel place were delicious!!!!
We took an uber XL from the hotel to the airport. All our luggage fit (we are not light packers) and the cost was $33 plus I tipped $10.
I am a big time planner but this trip was pretty easy and didn't require too much research. Super fun. We did take lanyards and they did make the trip much easier as everyone had their own ticket and express pass--you do need to get them out rather often. Hope this info helps someone. Or if anyone has an questions for a newbie let me know and I'll try and answer.
