Hi everyone! I have read so many great trip reports in preparing for our trip that I thought it would be fun to try to write one myself. (And maybe relive the best vacation!)
So to start with intros we are a family of 4, myself, DH, DS-11, and DD-8. We just moved in January so we weren't really planning on a vacation this year. We were bummed bc the kids dance studio was doing Dance the Universe in June and we originally wanted to go but after buying the house we didn't think it was in the cards. We did decide (in May) after saving a bit that we would be able to afford a trip but at that time it was too late to do the Dance the Universe as payments had already been made.
We asked the kids where they wanted to go and DS said Disney. I looked into it a bit, we have been to Disney many, many times over the years but after our last trip two years ago it just didn't seem as appealing to DH and myself. I started looking into Universal a bit more and DD and I spent a lot of time online looking at the rides. We still weren't 100% on exactly what we wanted to do, we thought about maybe an offsite hotel and doing a day at Disney, a beach day, a Universal day, or Seaworld. While we were deciding where exactly to go DH found a deal on a flight so we booked it!! We knew we were going to Orlando just not exactly sure where we were going to stay!
After lots of research and reviews I decided on a package through Costco which included an offsite hotel and 5 day Universal tickets. The hotel looked beautiful and got great reviews, it included a shuttle to and from Universal. We were very excited but I kept on doing research and started thinking that the shuttle might not work for us with the times being more limited than what we were used to with Disney trips. I also started thinking a lot about Express Pass being that we were going in July. The more I thought about it the more I started to think that it may be a better idea to stay onsite. It was hard choosing a hotel, I was between the three that offer Express. I showed the kids the pictures of the resorts and while I think that my DS and I would have loved Hard Rock, DD really loved the look of the spray area of the pool at Royal Pacific and with the price being the lowest of the three I ended up canceling my other reservation and booking Royal Pacific about 10 days before our trip!!
So, if anyone out there is interested in hearing more about our trip I'll keep adding to the report. I'm not sure how to add pictures or anything yet so I hope its not too boring without them!
So to start with intros we are a family of 4, myself, DH, DS-11, and DD-8. We just moved in January so we weren't really planning on a vacation this year. We were bummed bc the kids dance studio was doing Dance the Universe in June and we originally wanted to go but after buying the house we didn't think it was in the cards. We did decide (in May) after saving a bit that we would be able to afford a trip but at that time it was too late to do the Dance the Universe as payments had already been made.
We asked the kids where they wanted to go and DS said Disney. I looked into it a bit, we have been to Disney many, many times over the years but after our last trip two years ago it just didn't seem as appealing to DH and myself. I started looking into Universal a bit more and DD and I spent a lot of time online looking at the rides. We still weren't 100% on exactly what we wanted to do, we thought about maybe an offsite hotel and doing a day at Disney, a beach day, a Universal day, or Seaworld. While we were deciding where exactly to go DH found a deal on a flight so we booked it!! We knew we were going to Orlando just not exactly sure where we were going to stay!
After lots of research and reviews I decided on a package through Costco which included an offsite hotel and 5 day Universal tickets. The hotel looked beautiful and got great reviews, it included a shuttle to and from Universal. We were very excited but I kept on doing research and started thinking that the shuttle might not work for us with the times being more limited than what we were used to with Disney trips. I also started thinking a lot about Express Pass being that we were going in July. The more I thought about it the more I started to think that it may be a better idea to stay onsite. It was hard choosing a hotel, I was between the three that offer Express. I showed the kids the pictures of the resorts and while I think that my DS and I would have loved Hard Rock, DD really loved the look of the spray area of the pool at Royal Pacific and with the price being the lowest of the three I ended up canceling my other reservation and booking Royal Pacific about 10 days before our trip!!
So, if anyone out there is interested in hearing more about our trip I'll keep adding to the report. I'm not sure how to add pictures or anything yet so I hope its not too boring without them!