Day 5: Friday, April 30: Universal Studios
Weather: Low to mid 80s. Rain in the late afternoon, and on and off through the evening.
Since a lot of the attractions at US are too intense for DD and certainly my nephew, my brother, SIL and I took my DS over in the morning. The rest of the crew will meet up with us later. They let us in around 8:50 and we grabbed breakfast at Beverly Hills Boulangerie. Another small test: My brother and I grab a quick bite to eat and something for DS. SIL decides she’s not hungry. We took our time eating because with out FOTL privilege, I am not concerned about huge lines. But, of course, I am anxious to hit some attractions. As soon as we finish eating, my SIL decides she wants something after all. We sit another 15 minutes. BTW, the selection in BHB could have been a little better, but everything we got was fresh and good ("B-").
We went straight to Twister ("A-"). There was very little wait. My DS had seen the movie a bunch of times, but was a little nervous through the show. Then on to Earthquake, which opened at 10:00. We waited about 10 minutes for it to open. During the wait, a guy (early 20s), was sitting on the metal beams that form the queue. He took a nasty fall, hitting his head pretty hard. I know that I have sat on the rails in the past on queues, especially when it wasn’t crowded. Never again. I am pretty sure his day over. Earthquake was great ("B+"). During the pre-show, it dawned on me that DS doesn’t even know what an earthquake is (we don’t get many in NJ). He’s still a little nervous from Twister, so I carefully explain that its when the Earth shakes causing tremendous death and destruction, swallowing up kids that don’t clean their rooms. :lol: OK, so I am a bad father. We all loved it and then it was on to Jaws, hitting a few boardwalk games on the way. DS loved Jaws ("A-"). Anything with a gun in it is cool in his book. The CM could have merely fired it in the air, and DS would have loved the ride. The fact that the guy blew up a killer shark right in front of him made it his favorite attraction of the day. Next we hit Back to the Future ("A-") and then met up with the rest of the crew at the front of the park.
It’s about 11:00 and the park is starting to get crowded. And it’s getting hot too. It’s so much more difficult to tour with a large group (we were 11). We stop at the corner of Nickelodeon Way and some people go in one store, some go in another. It’s at this point that I realize that I have been cured of my commando-condition. I find a shade tree, drag the strollers over and take a break.
What made this break so impressive was that we were waiting for my family to get out of the stores when I knew full well that they were not going to go on Shrek or Jimmy Neutron anyway. Sure enough, when everyone returns, no one wants to go on Shrek or Jimmy Neutron with us. We loved Shrek ("A") and Jimmy Neutron ("B+"). Jimmy Neutron was a good test for DD to see if she can handle Star Tours. She loved Jimmy Neutron. While leaving Shrek, we see a line for the big green guy right at the exit. We hop on and minutes later are informed he will be taking a break. Rant: Two things: First, I don’t care that the guy needs a break. Unlike DS and DD, I know there’s a human being sweating to death in that heavy and uncomfortable costume. But if he’s not coming back for a half an hour, don’t tell me “Shrek will be back in 5 minutes”. I even asked the CM accompanying him whether she thought we should wait in line and was informed he would be right back. Second, Universal needs more characters. At this point, we had been in Universal parks for a day and a half, and this was only the third character we had seen (we saw Storm and Wolverine at IOA). I guess I shouldn’t be too critical since it took WDW decades to figure out that kids want characters and lots of them.
We stopped for lunch at Classic Monsters Café. The food was good and you got a lot for the price ("B"). Then we went to Woody Woodpecker’s Kidzone for DS. The kids loved the Nuthouse Coaster ("B+") and E.T. was my DS’s favorite ("A"). We were spared the Barney attraction. My kids are pretty far removed from Barney type shows. But, right before we left, DD saw a picture of the attraction and said, “Oooh, a Barney ride”. My heart dropped. Luckily, she never brought it up again, and neither did we. We held our breath as we passed by. We were spared. At this point, my family departed for the resort and we headed to MIB. Time for some horrible parenting. My kids love the MIB movies. For some reason, I completely forgot that DD was too short for MIB. She got all the way to the front of the queue before they measured her. I still have the picture burned in my memory of her face as she stood in front of the measuring stick, falling just a couple of inches too short. She was crushed, but nothing a stuffed Shrek and an ice cream couldn’t cure. DS loved the ride, of course ("A"). It was starting to rain, so my DW took DD back to the RPR, and DS and I went to see Terminator 3D. He loved it ("A-"). We bought ponchos and trekked back to the resort.
It stopped raining after about an hour. A bunch of us hit the hot tubs, while the kids napped. Dinner that night was at Jake’s American Bar, which is in the RPR. From the description I read about Jake’s, I expected typical bar fare. So we were not sure whether we would actually eat there. But we agreed to check it out. We were glad we did. The atmosphere was very nice, not bar-like at all. And the food was some of the best we had on our vacation. The burgers were great. I had a chicken dish that was outstanding. Everyone enjoyed their food, except my Mom who had some kind of seafood dish. She got pretty sick later that night. I am going to ignore that (since she kind of deserved it for cursing me with five kids just like me) and give the restaurant an “A”. We hit City Walk a little that night and saw a movie (Godsend, "B").
OK, here’s my review of the RPR. I will give some comparisons to the Polynesian, but keep in mind that the RPR is half the price.
Location: The location is obviously great. You are a 10 minute walk from City Walk, IOA and US (though the walk is a little long on a hot day or in the rain). Its location is a little better than the Polynesian’s. Yes, the Polynesian is linked directly to the MK and Epcot. But Downtown Disney (City’s Walk’s counterpart) is a fairly long bus ride away. Grade: "A-"
Transportation: We never used the shuttle. We did use the water taxis and we found them to be pretty efficient and the ride was scenic. However, they went to City Walk only. From there, you had to walk to IOA or US (a very short walk) or catch another water taxi to the other resorts. By comparison, Disney’s monorail brings you directly to the MK and the other two resorts. Also, I wish the water taxis ran a little and more frequently (they were running only every 30 minutes at some parts of the day). Also, the water taxis were suspended when there is even a hint of rain. Grade: "B"
Lobby: As you approach the entrance of the lobby, it looks like the resort is definitely trying to be like the Polynesian. You are surrounded by tropical foliage and fountains on both sides. But when you enter the lobby, you realize the RPR has its own personality. It’s not as luscious or tropical as the Polynesian’s Grand Ceremonial House, but it’s not trying to be. The lobby looks like what I would expect you would get if you combined the Poly’s theme with the lobbies of the Swan and Dolphin. It is very impressive and, as a indicated earlier, the atrium and fountains really worked well. Grade: "B+"
Check in: Painless, but it was after 9:00 p.m., so there was no one else checking in. There was nothing special about it, but the clerk was friendly and informative. The resort gets a lot of points for getting all of my room preferences: good view of the pool and four connecting rooms. I can’t compare it to checking in at the Poly, since we were checked in privately by the concierge. Nothing beats a check in by the Poly’s concierge. Grade: "B+"
Grounds: The hallways and elevators were immaculate our entire stay. Ditto for the exterior grounds. The theming is really nice outside. The pool area is very large and full of rich landscaping. Despite its beauty, however, this is where the Polynesian has a big edge. The RPR is one big building. Because of this, the grounds are not very expansive. They do a good job making you feel like you are on an island when you are down in the pool area. But, because you are never very far away from the building or the edge of the resort’s grounds, it is not very believable. The Polynesian, by contrast, literally makes you feel as though you are staying on a Polynesian island. Because the resort consists of a about a dozen longhouses, the grounds are expansive. You can walk around at night and never be on the same path more than once. The Poly’s beach area is also much more expansive. The Polynesian is also much older so the landscaping has had 30 years to mature and grow around the resort. Don’t get me wrong though, the grounds are beautiful at the RPR and I was not disappointed at all. Grade: "B+"
Room: The room was spotless, and you could tell the resort is new. It seemed a little smaller than Disney’s deluxes, but not by much. The colors, fabrics and furniture fit well with the theme (old world Polynesia). The bathroom was small and, all though the vanity area was big enough, there was only one sink. The beds were incredibly comfortable, much better than those in either the Poly or the AKL. There was no balcony. Grade: "B+" (the beds bumped this up from a “B”)
Housekeeping/Staff: Housekeeping did a great job. What is very impressive about the RPR was that the staff is very, very friendly. Everyone we passed anywhere in the resort made a point of smiling and saying good morning and wishing us a good day. And I mean everyone, all housekeepers, front desk staff, even security. Friendliness was definitely on par with the Polynesian (and I thought better than the AKL). Grade: "A"
Room Service: The food was good, but expensive. The service was excellent. The food arrived when we were told and it was brought in on a separate table and promptly removed when we were ready. Grade: "B"
Concierge: This was a mix. We didn’t really use the concierge too much, but we did ask them lots of questions. Some of the staff was outstanding. One in particular did everything she could to get us last minute dinning reservations and she was not at all perturbed by the many phone calls I asked her to make (I feel bad I did not remember her name). Others, however, were just OK. One concierge attendant also gave me incomplete information regarding dining reservations. I asked his to make priority seating for the Hard Rock Café, to which he responded, “We cannot make priority seating”. What he meant was that he couldn’t make PS for the Hard Rock, but they could make it for just about every other restaurant on property. The concierge also lost some points with the cookies and milk incident. Grade: "B-"
Pool: My kids loved the pool. It was a little too shallow, but very expansive and well themed. There was no slide. The water play area for the kids was broken all four days we were there. But I will not factor that into the grade (everything breaks once in a while). Grade: "A-"
Fitness Center: It was a nice size and everything was well maintained. Not a big or nice as the one in the AKL, but much better than the one the Poly and GF share. Best of all, it was free for Lowe’s First members (which is free and takes two minutes to register for on line). Grade: "B+"
Dining quality/options: We didn’t try all of them. But the ones we did were outstanding. Islands Dinning Room and Jake’s are definitely on par with Disney’s better restaurants. As far as the available options, there are plenty when you consider all of the restaurants at City Walk, the Hard Rock and the Portifino. But the RPR was desperately lacking a food court. Grade: "A-" for quality/"B-" for options
Intangibles: The resort really has a nice feel. And the FOTL privilege make staying on-site a no-brainer. But I can’t say we had that special feeling you get while staying on the Mouse’s property. However, that may be more the product of how much we love WDW rather than a reflection of the RPR. Grade: "B"
Overall: We would definitely stay at the RPR again. Before we stayed there, we thought the Portifino would be the better fit for us since we always stay at Disney’s deluxes. But after our stay we were questioning whether we even wanted to try to Portifino next time. Grade: "A-"
Weather: Low to mid 80s. Rain in the late afternoon, and on and off through the evening.
Since a lot of the attractions at US are too intense for DD and certainly my nephew, my brother, SIL and I took my DS over in the morning. The rest of the crew will meet up with us later. They let us in around 8:50 and we grabbed breakfast at Beverly Hills Boulangerie. Another small test: My brother and I grab a quick bite to eat and something for DS. SIL decides she’s not hungry. We took our time eating because with out FOTL privilege, I am not concerned about huge lines. But, of course, I am anxious to hit some attractions. As soon as we finish eating, my SIL decides she wants something after all. We sit another 15 minutes. BTW, the selection in BHB could have been a little better, but everything we got was fresh and good ("B-").
We went straight to Twister ("A-"). There was very little wait. My DS had seen the movie a bunch of times, but was a little nervous through the show. Then on to Earthquake, which opened at 10:00. We waited about 10 minutes for it to open. During the wait, a guy (early 20s), was sitting on the metal beams that form the queue. He took a nasty fall, hitting his head pretty hard. I know that I have sat on the rails in the past on queues, especially when it wasn’t crowded. Never again. I am pretty sure his day over. Earthquake was great ("B+"). During the pre-show, it dawned on me that DS doesn’t even know what an earthquake is (we don’t get many in NJ). He’s still a little nervous from Twister, so I carefully explain that its when the Earth shakes causing tremendous death and destruction, swallowing up kids that don’t clean their rooms. :lol: OK, so I am a bad father. We all loved it and then it was on to Jaws, hitting a few boardwalk games on the way. DS loved Jaws ("A-"). Anything with a gun in it is cool in his book. The CM could have merely fired it in the air, and DS would have loved the ride. The fact that the guy blew up a killer shark right in front of him made it his favorite attraction of the day. Next we hit Back to the Future ("A-") and then met up with the rest of the crew at the front of the park.
It’s about 11:00 and the park is starting to get crowded. And it’s getting hot too. It’s so much more difficult to tour with a large group (we were 11). We stop at the corner of Nickelodeon Way and some people go in one store, some go in another. It’s at this point that I realize that I have been cured of my commando-condition. I find a shade tree, drag the strollers over and take a break.
What made this break so impressive was that we were waiting for my family to get out of the stores when I knew full well that they were not going to go on Shrek or Jimmy Neutron anyway. Sure enough, when everyone returns, no one wants to go on Shrek or Jimmy Neutron with us. We loved Shrek ("A") and Jimmy Neutron ("B+"). Jimmy Neutron was a good test for DD to see if she can handle Star Tours. She loved Jimmy Neutron. While leaving Shrek, we see a line for the big green guy right at the exit. We hop on and minutes later are informed he will be taking a break. Rant: Two things: First, I don’t care that the guy needs a break. Unlike DS and DD, I know there’s a human being sweating to death in that heavy and uncomfortable costume. But if he’s not coming back for a half an hour, don’t tell me “Shrek will be back in 5 minutes”. I even asked the CM accompanying him whether she thought we should wait in line and was informed he would be right back. Second, Universal needs more characters. At this point, we had been in Universal parks for a day and a half, and this was only the third character we had seen (we saw Storm and Wolverine at IOA). I guess I shouldn’t be too critical since it took WDW decades to figure out that kids want characters and lots of them. We stopped for lunch at Classic Monsters Café. The food was good and you got a lot for the price ("B"). Then we went to Woody Woodpecker’s Kidzone for DS. The kids loved the Nuthouse Coaster ("B+") and E.T. was my DS’s favorite ("A"). We were spared the Barney attraction. My kids are pretty far removed from Barney type shows. But, right before we left, DD saw a picture of the attraction and said, “Oooh, a Barney ride”. My heart dropped. Luckily, she never brought it up again, and neither did we. We held our breath as we passed by. We were spared. At this point, my family departed for the resort and we headed to MIB. Time for some horrible parenting. My kids love the MIB movies. For some reason, I completely forgot that DD was too short for MIB. She got all the way to the front of the queue before they measured her. I still have the picture burned in my memory of her face as she stood in front of the measuring stick, falling just a couple of inches too short. She was crushed, but nothing a stuffed Shrek and an ice cream couldn’t cure. DS loved the ride, of course ("A"). It was starting to rain, so my DW took DD back to the RPR, and DS and I went to see Terminator 3D. He loved it ("A-"). We bought ponchos and trekked back to the resort.
It stopped raining after about an hour. A bunch of us hit the hot tubs, while the kids napped. Dinner that night was at Jake’s American Bar, which is in the RPR. From the description I read about Jake’s, I expected typical bar fare. So we were not sure whether we would actually eat there. But we agreed to check it out. We were glad we did. The atmosphere was very nice, not bar-like at all. And the food was some of the best we had on our vacation. The burgers were great. I had a chicken dish that was outstanding. Everyone enjoyed their food, except my Mom who had some kind of seafood dish. She got pretty sick later that night. I am going to ignore that (since she kind of deserved it for cursing me with five kids just like me) and give the restaurant an “A”. We hit City Walk a little that night and saw a movie (Godsend, "B").
OK, here’s my review of the RPR. I will give some comparisons to the Polynesian, but keep in mind that the RPR is half the price.
Location: The location is obviously great. You are a 10 minute walk from City Walk, IOA and US (though the walk is a little long on a hot day or in the rain). Its location is a little better than the Polynesian’s. Yes, the Polynesian is linked directly to the MK and Epcot. But Downtown Disney (City’s Walk’s counterpart) is a fairly long bus ride away. Grade: "A-"
Transportation: We never used the shuttle. We did use the water taxis and we found them to be pretty efficient and the ride was scenic. However, they went to City Walk only. From there, you had to walk to IOA or US (a very short walk) or catch another water taxi to the other resorts. By comparison, Disney’s monorail brings you directly to the MK and the other two resorts. Also, I wish the water taxis ran a little and more frequently (they were running only every 30 minutes at some parts of the day). Also, the water taxis were suspended when there is even a hint of rain. Grade: "B"
Lobby: As you approach the entrance of the lobby, it looks like the resort is definitely trying to be like the Polynesian. You are surrounded by tropical foliage and fountains on both sides. But when you enter the lobby, you realize the RPR has its own personality. It’s not as luscious or tropical as the Polynesian’s Grand Ceremonial House, but it’s not trying to be. The lobby looks like what I would expect you would get if you combined the Poly’s theme with the lobbies of the Swan and Dolphin. It is very impressive and, as a indicated earlier, the atrium and fountains really worked well. Grade: "B+"
Check in: Painless, but it was after 9:00 p.m., so there was no one else checking in. There was nothing special about it, but the clerk was friendly and informative. The resort gets a lot of points for getting all of my room preferences: good view of the pool and four connecting rooms. I can’t compare it to checking in at the Poly, since we were checked in privately by the concierge. Nothing beats a check in by the Poly’s concierge. Grade: "B+"
Grounds: The hallways and elevators were immaculate our entire stay. Ditto for the exterior grounds. The theming is really nice outside. The pool area is very large and full of rich landscaping. Despite its beauty, however, this is where the Polynesian has a big edge. The RPR is one big building. Because of this, the grounds are not very expansive. They do a good job making you feel like you are on an island when you are down in the pool area. But, because you are never very far away from the building or the edge of the resort’s grounds, it is not very believable. The Polynesian, by contrast, literally makes you feel as though you are staying on a Polynesian island. Because the resort consists of a about a dozen longhouses, the grounds are expansive. You can walk around at night and never be on the same path more than once. The Poly’s beach area is also much more expansive. The Polynesian is also much older so the landscaping has had 30 years to mature and grow around the resort. Don’t get me wrong though, the grounds are beautiful at the RPR and I was not disappointed at all. Grade: "B+"
Room: The room was spotless, and you could tell the resort is new. It seemed a little smaller than Disney’s deluxes, but not by much. The colors, fabrics and furniture fit well with the theme (old world Polynesia). The bathroom was small and, all though the vanity area was big enough, there was only one sink. The beds were incredibly comfortable, much better than those in either the Poly or the AKL. There was no balcony. Grade: "B+" (the beds bumped this up from a “B”)
Housekeeping/Staff: Housekeeping did a great job. What is very impressive about the RPR was that the staff is very, very friendly. Everyone we passed anywhere in the resort made a point of smiling and saying good morning and wishing us a good day. And I mean everyone, all housekeepers, front desk staff, even security. Friendliness was definitely on par with the Polynesian (and I thought better than the AKL). Grade: "A"
Room Service: The food was good, but expensive. The service was excellent. The food arrived when we were told and it was brought in on a separate table and promptly removed when we were ready. Grade: "B"
Concierge: This was a mix. We didn’t really use the concierge too much, but we did ask them lots of questions. Some of the staff was outstanding. One in particular did everything she could to get us last minute dinning reservations and she was not at all perturbed by the many phone calls I asked her to make (I feel bad I did not remember her name). Others, however, were just OK. One concierge attendant also gave me incomplete information regarding dining reservations. I asked his to make priority seating for the Hard Rock Café, to which he responded, “We cannot make priority seating”. What he meant was that he couldn’t make PS for the Hard Rock, but they could make it for just about every other restaurant on property. The concierge also lost some points with the cookies and milk incident. Grade: "B-"
Pool: My kids loved the pool. It was a little too shallow, but very expansive and well themed. There was no slide. The water play area for the kids was broken all four days we were there. But I will not factor that into the grade (everything breaks once in a while). Grade: "A-"
Fitness Center: It was a nice size and everything was well maintained. Not a big or nice as the one in the AKL, but much better than the one the Poly and GF share. Best of all, it was free for Lowe’s First members (which is free and takes two minutes to register for on line). Grade: "B+"
Dining quality/options: We didn’t try all of them. But the ones we did were outstanding. Islands Dinning Room and Jake’s are definitely on par with Disney’s better restaurants. As far as the available options, there are plenty when you consider all of the restaurants at City Walk, the Hard Rock and the Portifino. But the RPR was desperately lacking a food court. Grade: "A-" for quality/"B-" for options
Intangibles: The resort really has a nice feel. And the FOTL privilege make staying on-site a no-brainer. But I can’t say we had that special feeling you get while staying on the Mouse’s property. However, that may be more the product of how much we love WDW rather than a reflection of the RPR. Grade: "B"
Overall: We would definitely stay at the RPR again. Before we stayed there, we thought the Portifino would be the better fit for us since we always stay at Disney’s deluxes. But after our stay we were questioning whether we even wanted to try to Portifino next time. Grade: "A-"
