$$ Go Prepared $$
Written: Jun 20 '06 (Updated Oct 17 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lots of activities.
Cons: The Room, large crowds everywhere.
The Bottom Line: I liked the Royal Pacific, very entertaining. Expensive, but I expected that. Lots and lots of people. A kazillion kids.
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| PPerky1954's Full Review: Royal Pacific Resort |
Ahhhh, on my yearly runaway from home, I ran away to my favorite destination . . . Universal Studios. One of the places I stayed was the Royal Pacific Re$ort at Universal Studios, Orlando. What a wonderfully fun getaway from the regular rat race of life.
Ju$t be $ure to go prepared.
Here...let me prepare you.
Parking
When you arrive you will be greeted by the Valet Parking attendants. They were very nice and pleasant. They explain that you can either let them park your car and fetch it back to you if needed for $17 a day. OR, you can park it yourself in their large parking lot across the street from the resort for $10 a day. Either way you pay to park.
This was my vacation so I chose the valet parking for $17 a day. Twice during my stay I had to get something from the vehicle that I had forgotten to take out. Both times the valet parking attendants readily went and got the items that I needed.
Two times I drove off of the resort area to run to a (cheaper) store and both times my vehicle was brought very quickly.
The attendants were very pleasant about each request and they also did not turn down the tips I offered them for their trouble.
So after tips and the regular bill I figured my parking came out to about $20 a day.
Check In
The check in was very quick since I already had reservations. There were only 2 people ahead of me waiting to check in and there were 3 clerks working the desk.
The clerk I got was sort of hum-drum but pleasant. My niece and I were each given a lei and welcomed to the resort. We were both given a room key with our names etched upon them and we were told that this room key was our access to the express lines at Universal Studios.
Another interesting feature of this room key was that we could use them as charge cards around the resort. If we discovered that we needed or wanted something sold there at the resort ... such as toothbrush or a drink from Jake's Lounge or breakfast, whatever is sold at the resort, can be charged using your room key. The bill for that item can be just added to your room bill. At check in, the desk clerk explains how this works and lets you choose a daily limit that can be used on your room keys.
We wanted to use one of the dollies to carry our luggage to our assigned room, but NO, guests are not allowed to use the dollies.
My niece learned this the hard way ... when we were asked, she piped in and said Yes, we need help with our luggage. I say No, we can get it ourselves. and bugged my eyes out at her which meant Close the trap! But Little Miss Know-it-All says No, I have LOTS of luggage, we need help. So I ask, Ok, you gonna pay the bell boy? While we were standing there debating it, the bellboy had already loaded our things up and was heading off to the room.
So I say, if you take LOTS of luggage, be prepared to pay a bellboy to take it to your room. You are not allowed to use the dollies. (And guess who had to pay the bellboy?)
The Room
The resort has smoking and non-smoking rooms.
Our room was a no smoking room on the same level as the lobby, level 3. The room was immaculate. They made extra efforts to make sure the room was spotless. I appreciated that.
The room was expensively decorated with granite counters, nice furniture, interesting posters, top of the line faucets, thick ribbed towels, just obvious that a lot of money went into the decor of the room.
The queen beds were comfortable and it even appeared that they wash the bedspreads as one of them was a bit faded from washing. I was glad to see that.
The television had several channels, 4 or 5 of which were solely about the Resort or Universal studios.
They provided plenty of shampoo and conditioner, a hair dryer, and . . . and . . . thick ribbed towels. Oh, I already said that. I'm struggling to find nice things to say about the room yall.
The toilet and tub were in a separate room from the sink. That room was the only private dressing area in the room because the wall dividing the sink from the sleeping area was holey. It was more like a lattice wall than a solid wall. So changing into swimsuits turned into assembly line for the toilet/tub area for my crew who met us there at the resort.
Now I see I have drifted into the negative about the room so let me just jump in with both feet.
Can you say small? I mean like they only want you to sleep there. It is a cubby hole for showering/sleeping. I kept reminding everyone that they do not expect folks to stay in their room, we were to be out going and doing fun things, not sitting in the room. So that is why . . . .
- There is no refrigerator.
- There is no balcony.
- There are no snacks.
- There is no (free) computer access.
- The TV has so few channels.
- The table is tiny, shoved in a corner with 2 uncomfortable chairs beside it.
Wait a minute, let me back up to computer access. There is computer access, for $30 a day. I could not find the escape key fast enough when I got that message.
And about those nighttime snacks . . . do not go looking for a vending machine. There is none. Not one vending machine at the resort. If you want a bag of chips and a drink, prepare to walk down to their little $tore (which closes at 11 p.m.). Midnight chips or sodas call for dialing room $$$ervice.
One of the things I wondered about the rooms, if they spent SO much money into making the rooms really classy, why did they not put a little extra money into making the walls between the rooms more soundproof. The walls were pathetic. I could hear a normal conversation going on in the rooms next to us. One night we were awakened by a baby crying at 2 in the morning and this went on for an hour. The next morning the family on the other side decided to get active at 5:45 a.m. and they kept slamming their outside door, open, close, open, close, open, close. Yak yak yak. The resort needs to hang some kind of ear plugs over each bed.
And another gripe, the ice machine on our hallway was empty the entire time we were there.
OK, the room is good for showering and intermittent sleeping. That is it. At least it was clean.
Amenities
This is where the Royal Pacific Resort excels. You can't get bored here. The pool is the biggest one in Orlando. It is a monster. The deepest it gets is 4 and one half feet so do not plan on practicing your diving techniques here. But it is big and the kids (all kazillion of them) loved it. There are 2 basketball goals on the side and several basketballs for the crumb crunchers to practice their swoosh/splash. At different hours there are pool games such as Marco Polo, pool volleyball, and other water games of which I have forgotten because I didn't participate. The pool stays busy until it closes at 11 p.m.
There is a water ship next to the pool that sprays out streams of water for the children (all kazillion of them) to play in.
There are two hot tubs. The water in them is perfectly hot. The hot tubs are separated from the pool by a circle of beautiful flowering bushes. So each hot tub was rather private. We actually were able to snag one of the hot tubs for quite a while without a huge hoard of kids hopping in. It was very relaxing and we met a very nice family there from Tampa.
There are TONS of lounge chairs around the pool and hot tubs. Even with the large crowd there were always chairs available.
There is a towel kiosk next to the pool. Get a fresh towel if needed.
There is a small sandy beach area with lounge chairs and wading area. Nice for tanning and the beach never seemed too crowded.
Pets are welcomed. They have a Pet Park where you can let your little pooches run. Little and big pooches that is, as I saw all sorts of dogs there.
There are ping pong tables, pool tables, shuffleboard, croquet, a video game room, an exercise room, temporary tattoo people, a laundry room ($2 a load), clothing and gift shops, and eating drinking places galore.
Speaking of which:
Eating and Drinking Places
Jake's Lounge on the first floor near the pool serves drinks and food. We didn't eat there but noticed that at night they have musicians playing and entertaining the over 21 crowd.
There is a Chinese Restaurant which $melled wonderful but we did not eat their either. It is located on the lower floor of tower 2.
There was a restaurant on the first floor underneath the lobby (Can't remember the name of it) that served breakfast, lunch and dinner. We ate breakfast there a couple of days. The breakfast was delicious, but be prepared. . . . $$$$$.
Breakfast is also served in the lobby each morning. It is a continental type breakfast and I (stupidly) thought it was free. After I picked up a muffin and a cup of coffee and started walking away I heard the Cha-Ching of the cash register and the lady looked at me and $miled so sweetly and said 4 dollars and 25 cents please.
To one side of the pool is an outdoor lounge. It is surrounded by umbrellaed tables and chairs. Very nicely done.
On Friday and Saturday nights there is a Luau. The luau is held in a special pavilion outside of tower 2. You must have made reservations to attend the luau and it costs close to $50 per adult. But the luau is fun and worth it. They have hula dancers and fire twirlers, the band plays lovely Hawaiian music, and they lay out a tremendous spread of food. . . . which disappears quickly so do not be late for the luau. They also serve Mai Tai's to your hearts content. They also yank folks out of the audience to learn the hula, which is quite funny. Everyone in my crew (cepting for moi) got yanked onto the stage to make total fools of themselves.
Transportation to Universal Studios
Fun, fun, fun. We wore the boats out. There are free (yes I said FREE) water taxis that go from the resort, next to the beach area, to City Walk at Universal Studios. The water taxis start running when Universal Studios opens, and run up to 2:15 a.m. every morning (City Walk closes at 2 a.m.). The guys who run the water taxis are chatty and fun and we enjoyed them.
There is also young men who peddle (not run) Rick Shaws from the hotel to City Walk and back. Their bicycles have little rick shaws on the back of them (Pedi-cabs) and they work for tips only. On our last night there we decided to take a Pedi-Cab back to the hotel instead of the boat. That poor fellow pedi-cabbed us all the way back, tweaking his little bicycle bell at folks to move out of the way for him to fly by. He was fast and it was fun.
Accessibility
Everything at the resort was handicapped accessible. Even the Water Taxis could accommodate a wheelchair. Nicely thought out.
The only thing I saw that could present a problem to a wheelchair bound person was the door to the laundry room. The door was heavy. One must first put their room key into the slot to release the lock then push the heavy door to enter the laundry room. Not impossible, but difficult for handicapped individuals with loads of laundry.
Checkout
On the morning that we were to check out, someone had slipped a checkout reminder in the door frame. The reminder had a list of all charges attached to the back of it so that I could review the charges before I headed down to the desk. I liked that. Convenient.
They do not want the keys back because they were special made with our names on them. The lady at the desk asked if all was ok and if the charges were correct. We said yes and that was that. Time to say $o Long.
So, maybe go there again?
If I was showered with extra money in some way, yep, I'd go again and probably stay longer. It was fun. We did not stay in our room much - so their concept about that is right. I will just know next time to take:
ear plugs,
a cooler of ice,
drinks
and a big bag of snacks . . .
$o's that I doe$n't have to $pend $o much money at their $tore!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
PPerky1954
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Member: Patricia
Location: sometimes FL, sometimes AL
Reviews written: 54
Trusted by: 236 members
About Me:
I rather adore the fellow who was holding the camera for this shot.
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