Universal virgins take on IOA and RPR 6/22 - Watch your knees!

[curlyjbs]

This was our first trip to UO/IOA. We had a wonderful time thanks to all the tips i learned on THE DIS. Thanks everyone.

On the advise of fellow dissers I booked one night at the RPR (for FOTL) at the fan club rate (thanks Barb) of $164/night. Offered the card at check in but she didn't need to see it. We didn't get a welcome gift but they did offer the girls shovels and pails. They declined. i asked if they could have the "teen gifts" but they didn't have any. oh well.

Once we got our keys we raced off to the water taxi. The grounds are beautiful. The girls loved chasing the little lizards you see everywhere. Our boat captain was steve. Nice guy. Great Jokes! Knew we were from jersey right away. The kids thought he was psychic.

We spent the day at IOA. FOTL is priceless! Rode everything atleast 5-6 times with at the most a 10 min wait. DH couldn't believe it! The Hulk was awesome! I underestimated the acceleration in the beginning! What a ride!!! Dueling Dragons was great too. We did fire first then ice. When we rode Ice both coasters started up the hill and just before the top we stopped (so did my heart). About 2 minutes later we started moving again but left fire behind. Too bad cause it just wasn't the same without both coasters running together. hmmmm Never found out what happened to fire.

The mummy was cool but i think I expected too much from all I read on these boards. Don't get me wrong it was a great ride just not as "great" as I thought it would be! It was really too short! When we got there it wasn't running. The attendant told us it goes down a few times per day. we went to Shrek (FOTL worked no problem) and then back to the Mummy, now running, where the line was HUGE. We had to wait in the line, maybe 5 minutes until we got to the express entrance from there it was only about 10 minutes till we rode. Probably our longest wait of the day. except for Pteronadon flyers. I can't believe I waited 40 minutes for an 80 second ride! Oh well - dd8 wanted to ride it and since she spent most of the day in the different child swap areas how could I say no? (she's our chicken - but she did try (ok we made her try) the flying unicorn, woody's coaster & spiderman and loved she them)

BTW: The child swap system is great in these parks. Far better than WDW! DD8 waited for us in each little "swap"room. We (and she) felt very comfortable leaving her there while the rest of us were able to ride together.

I have to say that Ripsaw Falls was by far the BEST flume ride I have ever been on! I think that was my favorite. You dont want to know how many times in a row we rode it......suffice it to say there were a lot of unhappy, NON-FOTL campers on line that day!!!! The river raft and popeye rides were also great. Got Soaked again and again but we didn't care - It was so hot. In the words of Matthew Broderick: "It was Africa Hot!". LOL (you had to see the movie......)

Anyway....we did EVERYTHING in IOA. Even had the name on rice necklaces made up for dd's and my niece. I don't know how they write soooo small. The guy actually wrote the "abc's" TWICE on 1 grain of rice. very impressive.

We ate upstairs in the dinosaur bldg.? in Jurrasic park. Burgers, Fries & drinks: $49

Walked back to RPR around 4pm. Boy was it HOT!

We were given a standard room in Tower 1 (room 1113) small for our family of 5. 2 queen beds but an easy walk to the pool. (You have to understand that we just came from the HIFS where we had lots of space and 3 tvs!!!) Didn't ask for an upgrade.......the girl at the desk didn't offer one either. Didn't matter we were only staying overnight.........or so we thought.

We changed into our suits, walked down the hall and out to the pool. The kids took off toward the water canons and we hit the bar. One margharita one strawberry daq. and $20 later we found 2 lounge chairs in the shade. The pool wasn't too crowded and DH decided he needed a running start to achieve maximum height for the cannon ball he was going to attempt. Well folks.......dont try this at home! Never and I mean never do a cannon ball into a pool that is only 3' deep! (The visual is great isn't it??? )

3' deep! Why on earth would such a great (and expensive) hotel only have a pool 3' deep - and with life guards no less. I wasn't half as worried about drowning as I was about skinning my knees on the bottom of the pool. To top that off..........it was in the 90's and the pool was in the high 80's. I'm not kidding. I actually went up to the room to take a cold shower and cool off so i could continue sitting out there without melting. DH wasn't in the best mood either after his little "accident". What made it worse was that I declined the offer to put charging privledges on our cards. With drinks $10 a pop we ran out of cash fast. Too bad I forgot i had DH's cc in my pouch........shhhh don't tell him. The kids got bored quick so we jumped on the water taxi (Will was our captain. Nice guy but he didn't talk much) and headed over to HRH to try their pool. We checked first before DH decided to do his imitation of a lead balloon. Can you believe it was only 3' also. (well of course you can.....most of you probably knew this but i've never seen it posted so......SURPRISE) Well the slide kept the kids busy for about 1/2 an hour. DH and I shared a Margharita (we only had $10 bucks left ) and I took some pictures around the hotel/pool. The music wasn't as annoying as some have said. We liked it! We took a final kneel in the pool and decided to head back to RPR. I took a shower first and could hear the kids arguing about TV while I blowdried my hair. DH and I took one look at each other, smiled and said: Pack it up guys we are going back to HIFS! The kids started cheering & jumping up and down on the bed. RPR just wasn't the hotel for us. It was beautiful and if it was just DH and me it would be terrific but for the 5 of us we needed more space and more pool. our plan was to return to IOA that evening...........but......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Part 2- "The studios" comming soon to a theater near you.......with Part 3 "I was a universal felon" in production.


curly

 

[Sami]

Oh No! Going to RPR 7/5 for one night before POFQ for 8 nights. I can't believe the pool is only 3 feet deep. Oh well, don't plan on doing much swimming since we'll only be there one night.

Glad to hear you liked US/IOA. Looking forward to the next installment.

 

[curlyjbs]

In all fairness to RPR the pool did have a deep side.......................
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
4 feet.

curly

 

[SpideyHulk24]

Great report! Thanks for sharing! Can't wait to read more!

 

[sn00zn]

curly,
Thanks for your report which I read with great interest since my family of 5 will be going to Universal (first time for the kids) and staying at RPR. I have been a little worried about the size of the rooms, but hopefully we won't all go insane. I wanted to find out more about the child swap rooms you mentioned. I know I read earlier that the Universal employees won't "babysit" your kids while you ride, but if there's a room I'm wondering if my 11 y.o. could watch the little ones (6 and 4) while DH and I go on the Hulk and Dueling Dragons. Do you think this would work with the set-up they have?
Thanks again for posting and I look forward to reading more!
snoozn

 

[curlyjbs]

Thanks for reading everyone! Glad you enjoyed it!

Sn00zn: The child swap rooms/areas are great! most had A/C & benches, some even have TV, magazines, toys & things to keep the kids busy - also diaper changing stations which thank god we dont need anymore! We weren't the only parents to leave our child alone......Obviously you know your own kids and what they are capable of. My 8yo is very responsible and like I said above she was very comfortable staying by herself for a few minutes. if we decided to re-ride it was easy for one of us to walk over and let her know. All the ride attendants were really good about the swap. DD went through the line with us and then we would tell the attendant we were swapping and they would direct her to the room/area. The other good thing was that dd was able to hold our stuff so we never needed a locker...even on the mummy.

Your 11 yo will absolutely be able to hang with your younger ones while you guys ride. The hulk swap area is on the other side of the ride. You can all go through the line together and than the kids can walk through the ride car to the other side where there is a room with a/c benches & tv. Deuling Dragons had an actual room with a door, right inside beside the express entrance. When you exit the ride you walk right by it and grab the kids.

The kid swap system is AWESOME!

Re: RPR

Our room seemed a little smaller than the average hotel room. The five of us could never survive more than 2-3 days in one room. We would be on top of each other all night! I dont know about your kids but mine would kill each other (if dh or I didn't do it first lol). Especially since the parks closed at 9pm.........and the pool, in our opinion was not refreshing or all that much fun <Don't flame me rpr lovers JMHO.> Actually your younger kids will probably love the pool.

Please dont let my comments cause you any worries about your stay! Every family's wants and needs are different!!

Have a wonderful trip.......it'll be here before you know it!!

curly

 

[Motherfletcher]

We were at IOA on the 22nd as well. It was our "water day".
We were there when the park opened and went directly to Pteranadon Flyers. It is the only ride that doesn't have FOTL. My 2 kids got on one of the 2 seater "birds" and they put me on one by myself. My kids rode 3 times without getting off and I did it twice. I have felt the queue waiting pain of this ride in the past so I make the kids do it first.
We did the River Adventure on a boat by ourselves. The attendant actually helped us pull that off by stopping the next party. My daughter had front seat, I did the 2nd and my son did the 3rd. We rehearsed for the photo and pulled it off like precision cheerleaders. We was a totem pole with arms at 12 , 1 and 2. I had to take a picture of our photo.
We did Dudley over and over and over... FOTL is great! It was kind of funny because the first time there was a group of 5 or 6 people coming back going the wrong way in line. The guy said "There aint no ride in there." I guess they couldn't figure out the queue merge area.
Then we did Popeye over and ... over. It was fun watching people fill there shoes after warning them.
My kids were ready to go back to PBH before 11.
I know what you mean about RPR being small. The 3 of us get cramped at times. That is why I usually take one of the kids to the fitness center to get ready. We sit in the sauna, then meet in the indoor co-ed whirlpool, then take showers. They have everything you need there including razors. PBH even has toothbrushes. Another thing we do is get an off-site room (usually twice the size and 1/3 the cost) and keep the lion's share of our luggage there while we are staying on site. Our off-site hotel was the Wyndham for $32/night. The kids loved their pools (11 ft. deep) which were open 24 hours. I saw a family swimming at 4:30 am. and my kids were swimming after midnight.
What kind of view did you have from the first floor?
Did you ask for the welcome gift? They usually give it to you at RPR regardless of your rate.
We did US on Weds. also. I can't wait to see how we could have rubbed shoulders there!

 

[curlyjbs]

Good Morning Motherfletcher!

Wow, thats really cool we were there at the same time~ Dh insisted we do the park counter-clockwise so we didn't get to the flyers until almost noon. I really didn't mind the wait (liar) afterall I had to keep dd8 happy!!! She's a great sport when it comes to waiting for us on the rides.....well I guess the alternative is actually going ON the ride and she wont have none of that!!!! LOL

Dudley's que really opens a can of worms! People just dont understand how you're coming in the "backdoor" and "cutting" into their group. We heard lots of grumbling! Some groups actually tried to get around us..........elbows and all!

I did ask about the welcome gift at check-in and they told me, and I quote: " You are not entitled to the gift....You needed to pay a rate of $209 or more" - Where they got the $209 I don't know but whaterer! My $164 was well spent with Unlimited FOTL(they were making announcements in the park that the express booklets were $35/person. That would be $70/person to do both parks for one day = $350 for my family!!!)

11' pool!!! DH & the kids would love that! They hate not being able to dive..............and do cannonballs!

Our view was.............well it wasn't gardens - no flowers....more like grass, brush and palm trees. It was ok.....better than a parking lot LOL. Views don't impress me much.

I took pictures of our ride photos too!!! Didn't come out very well. Very grainy & dark. But I took plently live photos too. Gotta love the digital with memory for +250 pictures!

We also did the studios on Wed. in the am and then again in the evening - but thats another trip report................


curly

 

[Motherfletcher]

They must have gotten real tight on the welcome gifts recently because we stayed at RPR two separate nights the end of May and we got them both times and had a rate of $119.
My son loved the volleyball games at RPR. We pool hopped and the kids said they liked HRH the best but I could see that they had more fun at RPR. It stays warm once it gets warm because of the size (largest in Orlando). Yeah, Wyndham had 3 cannonball ready pools! Plus an outdoor pool table and foosball table. It is a good thing that your family didn't dive and leave their spine on the bottom.
When you exit Pteranadon Flyers there are water cannons in the play area that my kids love. They were battling some guy in his twenties for almost an hour. Once you are soaked whats the point?
Popeye has the regular and express merge where the regular line gets mad too. They usually post an attendant there to keep the blood letting to a minimum.
We have stayed in RPR and had a lousy view from Tower 3. Once you have a Hulk view where you can almost touch it you get spoiled.
You and your DD8 should have stayed at RPR and sent the other 3 to HI for the one night. We stayed at HI International on the 14th floor as our off-site hotel and had an excellent view of IOA, RPR, US, etc. and the kids had a good time singing about "Chillin' at the Holiday Inn".
We went to US Sunday and we went on Jaws. They were doing their speil about getting wet and possibily soaked. I turned to my son and said "How many times have we done this? 50? I've never got wet other than a little mist." Well, you guessed it, the boat rolled starboard and I took a lap full and got soaked to the bone.
Waitin' on the US day and night!

 

[curlyjbs]

LOL

While dd8 and I waited for the flyers DH and the girls explored the caves and used the water pistols. I think DH had more fun than the girls did. That is a really neat play area.


curly

 

[themepark]

I enjoyed reading your report. Thanks for posting! I'm sorry you didn't care for the RPR pool. Definitely not for cannonballs. I feel your DH's pain! Our kids love swimming there, but I do wish they kept it open later. Looking forward to reading your next report!

 

[Minniespal]

Great report ~ Thanx for sharing.