Van Transportation from MCO and I-Trolley

[mom2monkiesx3]

Hello I used this board planning our first trip to disneyworld way back in 2004 and could not have done it (and the preceding trips in '05,'06.'07,'08.'09...) without the help I found here

So here I am with questions for our first EVER visit to Universal Studios!

First off I will start by saying we are a family of 5 that brings along grandma for help. We are young parents (started early thank GOSH! I couldn't keep up otherwise!) Our kids are 12, 9 and 6 and are seasoned amusement park travelers since we've been to Disney for 10-12 days every year since 04.

We will be staying at Hyatt place Universal. It rates fairly inbetween as far as hotels go. But we are getting 3 of our 5 nights FREE with our Hyatt rewards program points so you cannot beat that. We are AVID on site Disney stayers so we are praying we don't kill this vacation by not staying onsite...but you can never go backwards and we have plenty of travel years left. Our grandma will be staying in room with us (we are a close kinda family ) and Hyatt suites that accomadate six without making you get 2 rooms just made it ideal for us this time. We kinda threw this trip together last minute so we are trying to cut some corners budget wise...

We got park hopper passes with the Express added..

Ok now for my first set of questions, they involve Transportation... First being we've always used Magical Express from MCO so we've never had to "think" about transportation issues. We want to avoid driving/renting a car if possible. Does anyone know what a VAN taxi from MCO to universal runs? The reason I ask is I want to see if it is alot cheaper than reserving a shuttle/private car service. We have used Taxi's plenty of times in travel but never with a group to large for a standard taxi...

My 2nd question being again...staying at Hyatt place we were told that we could take the I-Trolley (free for kids 12 and under and cheap day passes for adults) from our hotel (stop is right outside) CLOSE but not all the way to Universal (corner of Kirkland and Major) it runs more frenquently than our hotels shuttle service. Is this possible? I understand you have to cross a 6 lane street? Is it extremely difficult? My 6yr old LOVES trolley's/trains...

My next question is does anyone have a list of restaurants/fast food/ stores close to the Hyatt Place hotel? Does anyone remember what is there besides the reported by the hotel TGIF/Cracker Barrel/ Denny's? and are those really close enough (safe enough) to walk to? Is there any grocery/convience/walgreens even type store to stock up on junk and drinks or do we need to make a taxi stop on the way to the hotel?

Thanks for any info! We are pysched~ (June 19-25th)

 

[damo]

A van taxi from the airport will cost around $50. They are the same cost as a normal taxi.

There is a Walgreens but it is not really close to your hotel but over across Vineland.

 

[Pink Flamingo]

We're paying $90 for round trip car service, so it looks like that is just as cheap as a taxi service & you get a grocery stop at no additional cost if you want one.