dark54555
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2006
Long time reader, first time trip reporter. So here we go. This is going to be text heavy.
Original plan was to do nothing in particular on arrival day, 2 days at Universal (checking out at Universal on the second day and checking in at Disney the same day), then 2 days at Disney with my wife and son (5). We arrived with no problems and were checked in just before 4 pm on Sunday, 4/26/15...so I called an audible. Head for Universal that day, add an extra day at Disney in the middle. A little on our traveling
Me - 5th WDW trip; 4 trips to Disneyland, 2 to Disney Tokyo, 1 to Disney Paris (once previous to Universal Orlando, twice to Universal CA)
Wife - 3rd trip to WDW; 2 trips to Disneyland (one trip to universal CA)
Son - 1 trip to Disneyland (age 4)
Last WDW trip for the wife and I was our honeymoon in 2007.
A word on Universal lodging: we were at the Royal Pacific, in a room that hadn't yet been updated. I'm just going to say, this place needs the update. The beds were awful. The pillows were awful. I've been in budget hotels with nicer furnishings. You can hear hallway noise like the door is open. Hopefully the refurbed rooms fix these problems, but yuck. Slept there 2 nights, didn't get one good night's sleep.
Anyway, headed to Universal Studios. With the Express Pass (and a relatively short line of 45 min at Gringotts), managed to do everything in the park once between 4 pm and close (excluding Beetlejuice and Animal Actors and Terminator, which no one in the party really wanted to do). The Simpsons area was nicely done, but certainly left me wishing they had added more. And the Simpsons Ride (which I rode 6 years ago in California) is starting to show its age. Daigon Alley is also really nicely done, but I constantly got the feeling that it was 75% of what Disney could do with the same concept. A lot of the staff was into it, but quite a few weren't. Some were on their cell phones while working (though not as many as in the other parts of the park). Even with a low crowd, there was a decent line for every magic wand spot. We had dinner at the Leaky Cauldron. The fish and chips were surprisingly good, as was the Dragon Scale. Butterbeer was a bit sweet for my tastes. We also had a late evening donut and drinks at Duff Gardens. The Duff was also quite good, as was the Flaming Moe. The Buzz Cola was OK, and the Mr. Teeny was nothing to write home about.
Other attraction thoughts:
-MIB scoring was really confusing. I still don't understand it. My son scored over 300k the first time, and no one knows how. No one even came close to that on subsequent rides.
-Minion mayhem was fun. But the whole Universal simulator ride formula hadn't sunk in yet. After Transformers, Spiderman, and the Harry Potters...it's painfully obvious there's a formula to all of their rides with only minor deviation.
-ET hasn't changed. At all. In decades.
-There's just not much to do at this park. Especially if you compare it to the Magic Kingdom. And the draw to ride things multiple times just isn't as strong as Disney anything.
Day 2...
Early admission to Islands. Managed to clear the entire park (do every non-water ride) by noon. None of us like getting soaked, so we grabbed the Hogwarts Express over for lunch in Simpsons land. The chicken and waffle sandwich was pretty good. Tried Duff Lite and Duff Dry; original Duff is the best of the bunch. Re-rode what the kiddo wanted, took the train back, and decided to head back for a rest at the hotel at 3. We had a reservation at Lombards at 6, but no one wanted to go ride anything again, so we went to Bubba Gump at Citywalk instead of going back to the park. Went back, packed, called Disney to add an extra day to our tickets, called it a night. This was a low point; the wife was giving me a hard time for even planning this trip.
Further attraction thoughts:
-The locker system is awful. And it's only made worse by the cretins who can't seem to figure it out. The only coaster we didn't ride was Hulk, and it was entirely because the lockers there were a nightmare. We would have had to child swap it anyway, the the fact that they no longer let the child swappers avoid the lockers is nonsensical. It would reduce the mess around the lockers. Or, if they are still doing it, the staff at neither Hulk nor Dragon Challenge would let us leave the backpack with the child swap non-rider.
-The Hogwarts Express was nice and well done. But my 5 year old could tell he was looking at a screen as soon as we sat down. He couldn't figure out any Disney imagineering tricks that quickly.
-Only after visiting Disney did I full appreciate how much better the Magic Band and Memory Maker systems are than any competitor's offerings.
Things take a turn for the better on Day 3.
Downstairs and in the car by 8:15 to head to Disney. Nice that the Royal Pacific had towncars/suburbans on hand, but not sure if the $50 one way was a decent deal or not. Likely not. Had done the pre-check in for the Beach Club, so we were greeted with an iPad at the drive through. That greeting came with a pleasant surprise: upgrade to the club level.
We were taken up to 5, and the check-in was quick and easy, as was the walkthrough of the club level offerings. Let me say now: the concierge there was one of the best I've dealt with worldwide, even putting the Ritz Carlton to shame. The Imperial in Tokyo is a close second to the service here. The room wouldn't be ready anytime soon, so we made a quick exit for Epcot, which had only just opened (and was practically empty due to morning rain). Started with Imagination, which made me sorely miss the old, original Imagination. I'm hoping a refurb with some sanity is in the works...like bringing back an update of the old ride. Managed to hit Soarin and the Land before lunch in the Land pavillion. The food court there is still great, and appreciate a health menu. Knowing we only had a day (and a 5 year old's attention span), we planned to try to only hit the highlights. Got through Nemo, Turtle Talk, and Mission Space before doing one of the Agent P missions in Mexico. The new smartphones are a welcome improvement. After a quick snack in Norway, we managed to circle back to Spaceship Earth (I miss the Walter Cronkite version) and Test Track (which I prefer the updated version of to the original) on Fastpasses before picking up another Test Track fastpass. One plus of traveling with just a boy: avoiding all of the Frozen stuff. Quick walk through the World Showcase (kiddo liked the store in Japan and the Mexico ride).
Anyway, ADR for dinner at Coral Reef. I've eaten there every trip to Disney World. In the 90s, it was exceptional. Now...sad face. Can Disney please try to do something to restore this to its former glory? The fish was massively overcooked, and the service was just bad. My son got a kids menu that was already colored on, and it took over 10 minutes for them to bring a replacement. They were out of some of the craft beers, and the waitress seemed to be on a script she couldn't deviate from without being confused. Oh, and out of the light up Buzz cup things...got a McQueen instead.
The kiddo couldn't quite make it to Illuminations, so we walked back to finally get into the room, with some desserts and drinks from the club. We had a great view of the Boardwalk and what I assume was the Illuminations fireworks coming over the top.
...realizing this is really long, to be continued in the next post.
Original plan was to do nothing in particular on arrival day, 2 days at Universal (checking out at Universal on the second day and checking in at Disney the same day), then 2 days at Disney with my wife and son (5). We arrived with no problems and were checked in just before 4 pm on Sunday, 4/26/15...so I called an audible. Head for Universal that day, add an extra day at Disney in the middle. A little on our traveling
Me - 5th WDW trip; 4 trips to Disneyland, 2 to Disney Tokyo, 1 to Disney Paris (once previous to Universal Orlando, twice to Universal CA)
Wife - 3rd trip to WDW; 2 trips to Disneyland (one trip to universal CA)
Son - 1 trip to Disneyland (age 4)
Last WDW trip for the wife and I was our honeymoon in 2007.
A word on Universal lodging: we were at the Royal Pacific, in a room that hadn't yet been updated. I'm just going to say, this place needs the update. The beds were awful. The pillows were awful. I've been in budget hotels with nicer furnishings. You can hear hallway noise like the door is open. Hopefully the refurbed rooms fix these problems, but yuck. Slept there 2 nights, didn't get one good night's sleep.
Anyway, headed to Universal Studios. With the Express Pass (and a relatively short line of 45 min at Gringotts), managed to do everything in the park once between 4 pm and close (excluding Beetlejuice and Animal Actors and Terminator, which no one in the party really wanted to do). The Simpsons area was nicely done, but certainly left me wishing they had added more. And the Simpsons Ride (which I rode 6 years ago in California) is starting to show its age. Daigon Alley is also really nicely done, but I constantly got the feeling that it was 75% of what Disney could do with the same concept. A lot of the staff was into it, but quite a few weren't. Some were on their cell phones while working (though not as many as in the other parts of the park). Even with a low crowd, there was a decent line for every magic wand spot. We had dinner at the Leaky Cauldron. The fish and chips were surprisingly good, as was the Dragon Scale. Butterbeer was a bit sweet for my tastes. We also had a late evening donut and drinks at Duff Gardens. The Duff was also quite good, as was the Flaming Moe. The Buzz Cola was OK, and the Mr. Teeny was nothing to write home about.
Other attraction thoughts:
-MIB scoring was really confusing. I still don't understand it. My son scored over 300k the first time, and no one knows how. No one even came close to that on subsequent rides.
-Minion mayhem was fun. But the whole Universal simulator ride formula hadn't sunk in yet. After Transformers, Spiderman, and the Harry Potters...it's painfully obvious there's a formula to all of their rides with only minor deviation.
-ET hasn't changed. At all. In decades.
-There's just not much to do at this park. Especially if you compare it to the Magic Kingdom. And the draw to ride things multiple times just isn't as strong as Disney anything.
Day 2...
Early admission to Islands. Managed to clear the entire park (do every non-water ride) by noon. None of us like getting soaked, so we grabbed the Hogwarts Express over for lunch in Simpsons land. The chicken and waffle sandwich was pretty good. Tried Duff Lite and Duff Dry; original Duff is the best of the bunch. Re-rode what the kiddo wanted, took the train back, and decided to head back for a rest at the hotel at 3. We had a reservation at Lombards at 6, but no one wanted to go ride anything again, so we went to Bubba Gump at Citywalk instead of going back to the park. Went back, packed, called Disney to add an extra day to our tickets, called it a night. This was a low point; the wife was giving me a hard time for even planning this trip.
Further attraction thoughts:
-The locker system is awful. And it's only made worse by the cretins who can't seem to figure it out. The only coaster we didn't ride was Hulk, and it was entirely because the lockers there were a nightmare. We would have had to child swap it anyway, the the fact that they no longer let the child swappers avoid the lockers is nonsensical. It would reduce the mess around the lockers. Or, if they are still doing it, the staff at neither Hulk nor Dragon Challenge would let us leave the backpack with the child swap non-rider.
-The Hogwarts Express was nice and well done. But my 5 year old could tell he was looking at a screen as soon as we sat down. He couldn't figure out any Disney imagineering tricks that quickly.
-Only after visiting Disney did I full appreciate how much better the Magic Band and Memory Maker systems are than any competitor's offerings.
Things take a turn for the better on Day 3.
Downstairs and in the car by 8:15 to head to Disney. Nice that the Royal Pacific had towncars/suburbans on hand, but not sure if the $50 one way was a decent deal or not. Likely not. Had done the pre-check in for the Beach Club, so we were greeted with an iPad at the drive through. That greeting came with a pleasant surprise: upgrade to the club level.
We were taken up to 5, and the check-in was quick and easy, as was the walkthrough of the club level offerings. Let me say now: the concierge there was one of the best I've dealt with worldwide, even putting the Ritz Carlton to shame. The Imperial in Tokyo is a close second to the service here. The room wouldn't be ready anytime soon, so we made a quick exit for Epcot, which had only just opened (and was practically empty due to morning rain). Started with Imagination, which made me sorely miss the old, original Imagination. I'm hoping a refurb with some sanity is in the works...like bringing back an update of the old ride. Managed to hit Soarin and the Land before lunch in the Land pavillion. The food court there is still great, and appreciate a health menu. Knowing we only had a day (and a 5 year old's attention span), we planned to try to only hit the highlights. Got through Nemo, Turtle Talk, and Mission Space before doing one of the Agent P missions in Mexico. The new smartphones are a welcome improvement. After a quick snack in Norway, we managed to circle back to Spaceship Earth (I miss the Walter Cronkite version) and Test Track (which I prefer the updated version of to the original) on Fastpasses before picking up another Test Track fastpass. One plus of traveling with just a boy: avoiding all of the Frozen stuff. Quick walk through the World Showcase (kiddo liked the store in Japan and the Mexico ride).
Anyway, ADR for dinner at Coral Reef. I've eaten there every trip to Disney World. In the 90s, it was exceptional. Now...sad face. Can Disney please try to do something to restore this to its former glory? The fish was massively overcooked, and the service was just bad. My son got a kids menu that was already colored on, and it took over 10 minutes for them to bring a replacement. They were out of some of the craft beers, and the waitress seemed to be on a script she couldn't deviate from without being confused. Oh, and out of the light up Buzz cup things...got a McQueen instead.
The kiddo couldn't quite make it to Illuminations, so we walked back to finally get into the room, with some desserts and drinks from the club. We had a great view of the Boardwalk and what I assume was the Illuminations fireworks coming over the top.
...realizing this is really long, to be continued in the next post.
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