nancycg56
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2004
- Messages
- 682
Who ~ Me, 47
DH, 47
DD, 20
Background ~ We left Virginia for Ft. Lauderdale Florida (driving) on July 21. We spent a night in Port Ste. Lucie with DHs brother and continued on to Ft. Lauderdale on the 22nd and checked into the Lago Mar Resort for DHs 30th high school reunion weekend. We drove up to Universal and checked into RPR on the 25th. DS (22) stayed home because of work and he doggie-sat our dogs for us. I spent most of the trip feeling guilty. We havent been to Universal since 1997 although we go to WDW every couple of years.
RPR ~ Check-in was easy although the clerk could stand to learn some customer service skills. Our room was not ready which was not a problem. We ended up in room 3228. The room was clean and very nice. But (you knew there was a but coming, LOL), there was a huge group of mostly unsupervised teenagers staying at the hotel. They were obnoxious and rude and LOUD! The first night they thought that knocking on all the doors at 1 am would be fun. The second night it was the WWF in the hallway and the third night it was just chaos. After delivering my hellfire and damnation speech to the front desk more times than I care to think about, half of the group checked out and it was blissfully quiet on our last night. DH and others on the floor took matters into their own hands since the hotel was doing nothing and chased everybody out when they were really causing a ruckus. The front desk told me they were getting many, many complaints about the group but as far as we could tell, no one ever did anything. It was an exhausting few days with disrupted sleep. The hotel was very nice but Im not sure this would be my first choice the next time we go. We lived in Hawaii for several years and for some reason this hotel was not what I expected. Dont get me wrong, it is beautiful and very convenient. I think the nasty kids colored my view of it.
Water Taxis ~ We are one of those families that just hits everything wrong ~ we always show up as the boat is leaving, LOL! The boats were fine except on the days they are doing training and dont start running as early as on other days. I was always amazed at how many people they fit on there. DH used to drive big ships for a living and he critiqued every trip we took on it. DD and I now know more about the water taxis than we need too!
FOTL ~ What a wonderful thing! It is worth every cent to stay onsite to have this no matter what form it is in. I dont think we would have gotten on many rides if we didnt have this. We were able to stroll around the parks and do the rides at our convenience instead of charging from ride to ride. In the heat it was nice to take our time. Our longest wait was for Mummy but it broke down just as we got in line and we ended up waiting about 1 hour. We never waited more than 10 or 15 minutes for anything. DH and DD did Hulk several times in a row in the morning and were never questioned so the attendants are not really enforcing the once before 3pm. DH and I both said we will never go to Universal without FOTL again.
The Parks ~ Last time we were here, they had just started on Islands of Adventure. What a fun place! We found that first thing in the morning most people went to Super Hero Island so we went the opposite way and found we had the place to ourselves all the way around until we hit Toon Lagoon. All the rides up to this point were walk-ons ~ we didnt even use our FOTL. We have lots of pictures where there is no one in the picture at all! Super Hero Island was jammed. It was just crazy there so we didnt spend as much time there as at the others. We really enjoyed ourselves at IOA ~ lots of fun! DH and DD forced me to go on Mummy ~ it wasnt as bad as I thought it would be (I get motion sickness really easily) and I didnt get sick so I give it 2 thumbs up. MIB was loads of fun and DD beat me badly every time but I did have to keep myself from getting sick at the spins so Ill blame it on that. I still dont like ET and BTTF. I miss King Kong and Earthquake is still fun but I like it better in at the California park. The Animal Planet show was lacking ~ the animal show at Busch Gardens Williamsburg (we live very close) is much, much better. I also used to like the Wild West show and am sorry to see its no longer there. Jaws is lots of fun at night!!!
Dining ~ Here is my dining report ~ http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=615645
Summary ~ We had a great time! We saw lots of tour groups but all were well behaved as far as we could tell. I still cant stand people in my personal bubble and there are still people who insist on standing in it. Why on earth do some parents insist their kids ride certain rides even though they are scared stiff? Believe it or not, we did not see or hear anybody berating their kids and we always see and hear this. It was very heartening! Of course people may have heard DH and DD haranguing me to go on Mummy and thought it was awful, LOL! I love the frozen lemonades and how come my popcorn doesnt taste that good?
I hope this helps someone in the planning stages
DH, 47
DD, 20
Background ~ We left Virginia for Ft. Lauderdale Florida (driving) on July 21. We spent a night in Port Ste. Lucie with DHs brother and continued on to Ft. Lauderdale on the 22nd and checked into the Lago Mar Resort for DHs 30th high school reunion weekend. We drove up to Universal and checked into RPR on the 25th. DS (22) stayed home because of work and he doggie-sat our dogs for us. I spent most of the trip feeling guilty. We havent been to Universal since 1997 although we go to WDW every couple of years.
RPR ~ Check-in was easy although the clerk could stand to learn some customer service skills. Our room was not ready which was not a problem. We ended up in room 3228. The room was clean and very nice. But (you knew there was a but coming, LOL), there was a huge group of mostly unsupervised teenagers staying at the hotel. They were obnoxious and rude and LOUD! The first night they thought that knocking on all the doors at 1 am would be fun. The second night it was the WWF in the hallway and the third night it was just chaos. After delivering my hellfire and damnation speech to the front desk more times than I care to think about, half of the group checked out and it was blissfully quiet on our last night. DH and others on the floor took matters into their own hands since the hotel was doing nothing and chased everybody out when they were really causing a ruckus. The front desk told me they were getting many, many complaints about the group but as far as we could tell, no one ever did anything. It was an exhausting few days with disrupted sleep. The hotel was very nice but Im not sure this would be my first choice the next time we go. We lived in Hawaii for several years and for some reason this hotel was not what I expected. Dont get me wrong, it is beautiful and very convenient. I think the nasty kids colored my view of it.
Water Taxis ~ We are one of those families that just hits everything wrong ~ we always show up as the boat is leaving, LOL! The boats were fine except on the days they are doing training and dont start running as early as on other days. I was always amazed at how many people they fit on there. DH used to drive big ships for a living and he critiqued every trip we took on it. DD and I now know more about the water taxis than we need too!
FOTL ~ What a wonderful thing! It is worth every cent to stay onsite to have this no matter what form it is in. I dont think we would have gotten on many rides if we didnt have this. We were able to stroll around the parks and do the rides at our convenience instead of charging from ride to ride. In the heat it was nice to take our time. Our longest wait was for Mummy but it broke down just as we got in line and we ended up waiting about 1 hour. We never waited more than 10 or 15 minutes for anything. DH and DD did Hulk several times in a row in the morning and were never questioned so the attendants are not really enforcing the once before 3pm. DH and I both said we will never go to Universal without FOTL again.
The Parks ~ Last time we were here, they had just started on Islands of Adventure. What a fun place! We found that first thing in the morning most people went to Super Hero Island so we went the opposite way and found we had the place to ourselves all the way around until we hit Toon Lagoon. All the rides up to this point were walk-ons ~ we didnt even use our FOTL. We have lots of pictures where there is no one in the picture at all! Super Hero Island was jammed. It was just crazy there so we didnt spend as much time there as at the others. We really enjoyed ourselves at IOA ~ lots of fun! DH and DD forced me to go on Mummy ~ it wasnt as bad as I thought it would be (I get motion sickness really easily) and I didnt get sick so I give it 2 thumbs up. MIB was loads of fun and DD beat me badly every time but I did have to keep myself from getting sick at the spins so Ill blame it on that. I still dont like ET and BTTF. I miss King Kong and Earthquake is still fun but I like it better in at the California park. The Animal Planet show was lacking ~ the animal show at Busch Gardens Williamsburg (we live very close) is much, much better. I also used to like the Wild West show and am sorry to see its no longer there. Jaws is lots of fun at night!!!
Dining ~ Here is my dining report ~ http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=615645
Summary ~ We had a great time! We saw lots of tour groups but all were well behaved as far as we could tell. I still cant stand people in my personal bubble and there are still people who insist on standing in it. Why on earth do some parents insist their kids ride certain rides even though they are scared stiff? Believe it or not, we did not see or hear anybody berating their kids and we always see and hear this. It was very heartening! Of course people may have heard DH and DD haranguing me to go on Mummy and thought it was awful, LOL! I love the frozen lemonades and how come my popcorn doesnt taste that good?
I hope this helps someone in the planning stages
there is no reason for someone standing behind you in line to be so close that you can almost feel their breath on your neck- ewwwww!
