Recently had my first stay at Universal. Stayed at the royal pacific for 1 night, and I must say WOW Uni will definitely be cutting into my disney time/dollars from here on out.
We paid around $250. And I cannot express how much of a better value it is for your money over a similarly priced hotel at disney. The express pass alone made it all worth it.
We loved how close both the parks and citywalk were. The boat rides were always quick and pleasant. Evverything was working at the parks. I did not see one burnt out light bulb, or one missing fog effect. Every cm was more disney like than disney cm's (except for one who yelled at some folks for taking off their shoes on ripsaw) but everyone else was more than helpful and polite. They all waved when your ride vehicle left the platform. Everyone was all smiles. I really couldnt believe how some people say uni employees were worst than disney's. On the contrary I actually found them to be more pleasant than some of the disney cm's.
We chose the universal meal plan and to be able to eat all we wanted for 2 days for just $24? I thought that was an extremely good deal. We ate even when we werent hungry, just because we could!
If you are ever going to uni and staying for 1 night but doing 2 days at the parks. I highly recommend staying at one of their hotels. If for no other reason than being able to use express pass for both of the days. The longest we had to wait for any ride was for dudley do right's and that was only 5 min! Its a weird but liberating sensation to see a ride wait time posted at 90 min, and literally just walk on to a ride vehicle with the express pass.
I also noticed alot more mists and fans than at disney. It seemed like uni knows its unbearably hot, and they add fans and misters wherever they can to help cool down the guests. Wouldve loved to see more of this when I did disney 2 weeks prior to this trip. With the exception of ak which is the only disney park Ive seen with fans and misters. I actually had to grind my teeth and pay $18 for one of the little fan bottles/misters just to make it through the other 3 parks.
My only gripes about the trip?
- Uni needs to stay open later. IOA closing at 9pm on a saturday and the studios closing at 8pm on a sunday? really? I guess its comparable to epcot and dhs but still, I find there to be way more to do at the uni parks than epcot and dhs so they should atleast stay open til 10/11 pm.
-Uni charges $15 for self parking. The hotel was originally about $230 but with taxes and parking it came out to $250. Still a better value than comparable disney resorts, but charging for self parking is really unnecessary when your paying more than $200 for a hotel. I am very forgiving about this due to the express pass. but still...
- When you get the meal plan, the places you can eat at all have the same 3 desserts, and they all suck. The only food we didnt like was louie's fettucini alfredo. Everything else though (especially the asian food at the international food and film festival) was surprisingly good.
Random Thought: Does anyone know what they use for the smell in the e.t. queue? It was the only ride we were willing to wait in a regular line for just so we can smell the queue longer. Seriously.. its what I picture heaven to smell like lol
Despite the early park closure, the parking and the desserts. We did have an amazing time. I have been spoiled by uni. And from now on whenever I head up to orlando I will most definitly be cutting into my disney days with a trip over to universal.
(for the bashers I am no troll, just someone who was seriously impressed by their first overnight stay at a universal resort)
We paid around $250. And I cannot express how much of a better value it is for your money over a similarly priced hotel at disney. The express pass alone made it all worth it.
We loved how close both the parks and citywalk were. The boat rides were always quick and pleasant. Evverything was working at the parks. I did not see one burnt out light bulb, or one missing fog effect. Every cm was more disney like than disney cm's (except for one who yelled at some folks for taking off their shoes on ripsaw) but everyone else was more than helpful and polite. They all waved when your ride vehicle left the platform. Everyone was all smiles. I really couldnt believe how some people say uni employees were worst than disney's. On the contrary I actually found them to be more pleasant than some of the disney cm's.
We chose the universal meal plan and to be able to eat all we wanted for 2 days for just $24? I thought that was an extremely good deal. We ate even when we werent hungry, just because we could!
If you are ever going to uni and staying for 1 night but doing 2 days at the parks. I highly recommend staying at one of their hotels. If for no other reason than being able to use express pass for both of the days. The longest we had to wait for any ride was for dudley do right's and that was only 5 min! Its a weird but liberating sensation to see a ride wait time posted at 90 min, and literally just walk on to a ride vehicle with the express pass.
I also noticed alot more mists and fans than at disney. It seemed like uni knows its unbearably hot, and they add fans and misters wherever they can to help cool down the guests. Wouldve loved to see more of this when I did disney 2 weeks prior to this trip. With the exception of ak which is the only disney park Ive seen with fans and misters. I actually had to grind my teeth and pay $18 for one of the little fan bottles/misters just to make it through the other 3 parks.
My only gripes about the trip?
- Uni needs to stay open later. IOA closing at 9pm on a saturday and the studios closing at 8pm on a sunday? really? I guess its comparable to epcot and dhs but still, I find there to be way more to do at the uni parks than epcot and dhs so they should atleast stay open til 10/11 pm.
-Uni charges $15 for self parking. The hotel was originally about $230 but with taxes and parking it came out to $250. Still a better value than comparable disney resorts, but charging for self parking is really unnecessary when your paying more than $200 for a hotel. I am very forgiving about this due to the express pass. but still...
- When you get the meal plan, the places you can eat at all have the same 3 desserts, and they all suck. The only food we didnt like was louie's fettucini alfredo. Everything else though (especially the asian food at the international food and film festival) was surprisingly good.
Random Thought: Does anyone know what they use for the smell in the e.t. queue? It was the only ride we were willing to wait in a regular line for just so we can smell the queue longer. Seriously.. its what I picture heaven to smell like lol
Despite the early park closure, the parking and the desserts. We did have an amazing time. I have been spoiled by uni. And from now on whenever I head up to orlando I will most definitly be cutting into my disney days with a trip over to universal.
(for the bashers I am no troll, just someone who was seriously impressed by their first overnight stay at a universal resort)
