I'm all booked up for everything, this trip kind of got away from me. My daughter and me have been watching all the Harry Potter movies over the last couple month so ended up adding 2 days on the front for both parks at Universal. Staying at Loews Royal Pacific, which comes with an express pass, so that's cool. After reading a bunch of of this thread I knew one of the main things we wanted to do was Bippity Boppity Boutique, I was not alone in that. Even waking up at 6am to do reservations first second we could it was sold out for the whole week. Signed up for Mouse Watcher, pretty cool service and scored a reservation last night, no shot I was going to get one without that service. That was my 5th try at getting one, the openings were gone in seconds. Here's the itinerary for anyone that cares. Staying at Polynesian first half of Disney leg, then a couple night at Animal Kingdom with safari view room. 10/14 - Universal Studios 10/15 - Islands of Adventure 10/16 - Magic Kingdom 10/17 - Pool day, Not so scary halloween party that afternoon/night 10/18 - Hollywood Studio 10/19 - Epcot 10/20 - Animal Kingdom 10/21 - Heading home
just know Universal Studios closes at like 5 or 6pm that day bc oh hhn and if you dont have a park hopper you cant go on the hogwarts express
We liked it due to the sky liner, the pool and the short walk to eat at the Riviera casual restaurant. My wife also liked something at one of the Caribbean restaurants(can’t remember what it was). We spend minimal time in the room and my kids liked the beach area. My biggest concern with AKL is having to do buses for everything. I am spoiled from previous trips always having either the monorail or skyliner. Also my wife is one of those people that can’t relax on vacation and wants to be up and moving and have everything planned out. So I feel like we will miss out on some of the better aspects of AKL. Like there is no way I will get to sit and have coffee while watching the animals in the morning.
You’re going to be dead when it’s all over. That pool day in the middle is going to be key. It’s still going to be awesome and your kid is going to have the time of her life.
If you are paying disney resport prices and not taking time to enjoy the resort, you are doing it wrong. Try and get your wife to plan some time out for a walk through the animal feeding areas or the pool. There's more than just have a coffee and look at animals imo. I do hear you on the skyliner though. It's pretty clutch. What about one of the epcot resorts like Boardwalk or Beach Club?
Currently we have: Monday/MK - Dinner Cinderellas Royal Table Tuesday - Breakfast Chef Mickey, Lunch Kona Cafe, Dinner at Be Our Guest (probably drop this one but I grabbed it just in case) Wednesday/Hollywood Studio - Breakfast Kona, lunch Sci-fi dine in, drinks at Oga's, dinner Ohana Thursday/Epcot - Lunch at Space 220, dinner at Topolino's Friday/AK - Lunch Yak & Yeti, dinner at Sanaa Open to any and all suggestions. I basically just took the places mentioned the most in here and did reservations for those. I did not know that first part, I'll look into it. Knew about the second part, big reason why I decided to just go ahead and do two days if we are going to do both parks anyway. She's going to geek about the train. Going to need a vacation from my vacation. It's almost certainly too much but we probably don't do this trip again for a few years when my other daughter is same age so might as well get as much in as we can.
it closes at 5 or 6 on both of your days, but if you have park hopper then you can just take hogwarts express over to IOA once it closes
Good to go here imo. dump lunch at kona and just get food by the pool or quick service. I'd cancel Be Our Guest as well. You are paying for the haloween party which has special food on its own. Don't blow 2 hours of your already expensive night on dinner at Be our Guest. Dump breakfast at Kona unless you guys are really big breakfast people. Sci-Fi is beyond MEH. if you HAVE to get a lunch at a sitdown restaurant, Roundup BBQ is apparently really solid. 50s prime time is solid but unspectacular. Every other restaurant at Hollywood Studios is a complete waste of time imo. IMO you are better off doing quick service somewhere for lunch. Space 220 is highly overrated imo. It's very expensive for what you get and the prix fixe menu means you are eating a massive meal at lunch time. Food is good, but I won't be going back for lunch and won't go out of my way for a reservation. Do food and wine snacking around the world instead. perfect. These are just my opinions, do what makes you and your family happy. Regardless, you are going to have a great time.
I enjoyed space 220. Maybe expensive but also very upscale food presentation within the parks. It’s also an attraction in a sense.
If you like burgers, onion rings, and milkshakes, it’s pretty good. The setting/ambiance is so unique that it makes it worth the price imo.
I love all these things. But if I’m going to go out of my way for those things, I’m doing beaches and cream at beach club. See I was underwhelmed by the attraction part. Outside of the elevator up and down, the restaurant theming itself was underwhelming imo
Fair but I guess I expected just “attraction-esk” so it met that. Kids will love the theming although I agree the dining room itself (tables) could probably have a little more to them. But the room is cool.
I guess I just expected more from the screen with the view of earth from space. Unless you were sitting directly in front of it, all you saw was a black screen the entire time.
Beaches and cream >>>>>>> scifi I did Sci fi once to get the experience but I don’t really understand all the fuss. Conversely, I’d do beaches and cream every trip if I could.
Everyone goes straight to Diagon Alley/Hogsmeade when the Universal parks open. I suggest doing that your first day and knocking it all out and then spend your 2nd day doing everything else. Get there at least 30 minutes before they "open." They supposedly let people staying at Universal properties in an hour early, but I've never seen them differentiate between hotel guests and non-guests when I've gone. Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure will be the best ride you go on that week (imo).
I love the food as much as anyone, but goodness at doing more than one sit down a day. I walk away feeling disgusted after one of those meals
Actually haven’t been to beaches and cream despite constantly saying I’m going there to park at the hotel. SciFi was a good one time thing when my sister and nephews were here. Probably wouldn’t go back.
It’s also food and wine at Epcot. Not necessarily great for kids (although my son went to town in Dan Dan noodles last week) but it’s awesome for parents if you want to just feed your kid something quick while you eat that stuff along the way.
they normally ask to see our hotel key card but Russellin4885 you need to get there early atleast one of the days because Hagrids is not an express pass ride and all the resort guest run to that ride as soon as the early park access opens because of that (also bec its a great ride). Thankfully VC is an Express Pass ride now so you only have to really worry about waiting in line for Hagrid. When we go we normally stay at HR because its such a easy walk to the parks from the hotel and we just sleep in most days because of the ExpressPass. We prefer Universal to Disney now because having EP makes it's less stressful no waking up at the break of dawn to book LL, dealing with Genie or trying to run from ride to ride to get the most bang for your buck.
Anyone on the Lorcana train? Sold out everywhere. I haven’t been hunting THAT hard but interested to pick it up
Coronado Springs I guess is technically moderate level because of the outer buildings but it’s definitely “moderluxe”. Place is great.l for anyone looking at moderate level
The pool is on the level of the deluxe resorts as well. The only thing moderate about Coronado is that it doesn’t have indoor hallways.
Honestly. Meh. I know it’s a sister ship of the wish so not much was going to change but I expected a bit more than swapping out the frozen restaurant for coco and changing the theming of a couple bars. Never mind that nothing was actually filmed on the ship.
Looking at maybe doing a DVC rental with 3 other friends for next Fall. Has the document in the OP been updated to include guidance on who to use and general costs? EDIT: Like an idiot, I didn't search the document before posting. The document doesn't answer the questions and only says to reach out to rulethirty . I will search the thread for DVC and see what is said.
Do you all think it's worth it? I ask bc we are looking into a 2 bedroom villa and it was going to be abt $1k per person for 4 nights. We could stay in separate rooms at Swan for abt half of that with a great location.
This question along with what are you planning to try and get out of the trip are key. If the room is going to be a place to lay your head only, go with swan. If you plan to spend time in the room/resort a 2 bedroom sounds like a fun as shit option.
I can understand a local who is getting the pic in front of the castle and leaving, but anything else…