All right, I put off posting since I've been back to give it more thought before saying bad things but I have to say it- I did not like RPR. I'm sorry if that offends anybody.
We flew in late on a Thursday night beginning of November and drove to Holiday Inn across the street from Universal. The hotel was fine, nothing special but it's a Holiday Inn so I wasn't expecting it to be lol. That Friday we walked over and did Harry Potter stuff all day, glad we did it that day cause that was definitely the least busy of the 3 days we were there. On Saturday morning we drove over to RPR and checked in.
First off, moving hotels was a bigger pain in the $%@ than I had figured it would be. I think had it just been us adults it wouldn't have been a big deal, but with a 13 year old and a 7 year old who had "stuff" everywhere it was a big pain, plus we had groceries that we had picked up from Walgreen's that were a pain to move. Overall, too much hassle and not worth the money we saved, wouldn't do it again. If I went back I'd just stay at the holiday inn and pay for one day of express passes.
RPR is a pretty hotel overall, but I didn't like the rooms, the bathroom was awkward with the glass door and I guess I'm just not a fan of the modern décor. The boats were okay and security was nice. After doing the boats the first day we walked the second day cause it was faster. I found the pathway to be nice.
Early entry is not a perk. Getting up early to find the line for Gringotts all the way out of Diagon Alley? Not a perk in my opinion. We didn't want to wait that long for Gringotts, thankfully we had ridden it the previous day with little wait, so we decided to go out and hop on the train and see if we could be over at journey early enough to not have a long line. got to the outside of the train station at 8:45 to see people all around it in an arc with team members holding them away from the entrance. Knowing we were going to have to all converge into a single line to enter, I thought this isn't going to be good. Well we all stood there and waited and waited and 9 am came and went and still we were waiting. Finally they announced at 9:05 that the train was having difficulties and they didn't know when it would be opening. Okay, stuff happens and rides go down, I get that. But it was a really, really big disappointment that we got up early on our last day at US to do more Harry potter stuff before leaving only to not get to do anything at all. Maybe if the parks had more stuff open for early entry then gringott's wouldn't be mobbed. Opening an hour early but only having the one ride open just doesn't spread crowds and they have too many hotels for it to not be crowded, at least when they are booked up like they were that Saturday.
EP was good, though I felt bad about cutting in front of everyone. EP did allow us to do every ride in both parks and now that I've done the rest of Universal I can honestly say I would not go back if it weren't for the wizarding world and me being a big HP fan. It's probably just because I don't really like any of the movies that they have depicted in their rides, so it's probably just a me thing. I'm sure if I were more of a superhero fan or comic book fan then I would like the rides more. I have to say that their characters really don't have the timelessness of Disney's characters though, their barney and feivel area are a bit laughable and I had to laugh at the whole Jimmy Fallon ride thing they are building cause I had to ask my sister who that was.
But my biggest complaint was the bula bar at the hotel. It was 8 at night and I took the kids down to let them swim a bit and I went to the bar to get a drink. First of all I could barely breath cause the bar was packed with all the people smoking. But then I ordered the big bula and I watched the bartender making it. She filled a glass with ice to the top, as much ice as it would hold. Then she poured a tiny bit of rum in it. Then she filled it the rest of the way with mix. Then she handed me a bill for $17!! She was kind enough to inform me that gratuity was already added to the bill, which is good for her since I would not have tipped that pour at all had it been my choice. Then she informs that the price includes the souvenir glass. I informed her that I could not take said glass with me in my luggage and didn't want it. She said oh well, same price for the first drink whether you want the glass or not, but refills are 10 bucks. I asked her if the refill could have less ice in it and she said yes but she'd have to put more mix in it, not more rum. Obviously I didn't get another one. I sipped on the straw for 2 seconds, which is how long it took me to finish the drink, and I left the glass of ice on the bar.
I have a trip booked at Fort Wilderness campground for next October and I did upgrade mine and dd's tickets to annual passes because it was pretty cheap to do it and we have 2 extra days in our trip next year so it will be worth it to go back to see the harry potter stuff one more time. Overall our trip was great, but I definitely enjoyed our stay at Pop Century more than RPR. Pop's food court and being able to feed the kids quickly and easily and their much friendlier bartenders with much better, cheaper drinks were more to my liking. I hope I'm not giving the impression that I'm a big drinker cause I'm really not, but paying for one tiny drink more than I would have to pay for an entire bottle of rum just really did not sit well with me. But even that might not have bothered me so much if the bartender had been friendlier/nicer. Or if I hadn't been standing in a cloud of smoke.
Sorry to be a Debbie downer. I went into the trip really excited to stay at RPR and it just didn't meet my expectations at all. Maybe my expectations were too high.