Continuing with our epic Universal saga, I convinced my family to try a Universal, Orlando vacation. The kids didn’t think it would match up to Disney and Kathy isn’t a theme park fan. Needless to say, the pressure was on for Dad to produce. I also wanted to get the most from the experience so I could give good advice to my clients that wanted to vacation there.
One decision I made was to stay at a Premier Resort to take advantage of the Express Pass ticket (skip all the lines) that was included with the stay. We stayed at the Lowes Royal Pacific Resort. We arrived early afternoon. When we got out of the van to check-in, the kid’s looked at the hotel and said, “Wow, Dad. This is nice. You picked a great hotel.” Point scored for Dad! It had a Polynesian theme with beautiful vegetation and water features around the resort. It is comparable in every way with Disney’s Deluxe resorts, but the price fell more in line with their Moderate resorts.
Because of the ticket package I selected, I did not plan to go to the parks that evening. I wanted to take some time to explore other parts of the resort and eat dinner at City Walk. Just after we arrived, the typical Florida afternoon thunderstorm struck with a vengeance. We waited in the lobby until it stopped then went out to ride the complimentary boat service that stopped at our hotel. Well, because of the rain, they stopped the boat service, so we had to ride a bus. It took a while for a bus to arrive, but we did eventually make it over the Portofino Bay Resort to see what it was like. We visited the shops and walked around the resort, again avoiding some more rain.
When the boat service reopened, we took one over to City Walk and had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. The food was delicious, and we got to participate in a Forrest Gump trivia challenge. We actually did surprisingly well. We wandered City Walk that evening and checked out all the venues and dining choices. At the end of the evening, we stopped at Voodoo Donuts to pick up some breakfast for the next few days and headed back to the hotel. A successful day 1. Point Dad!