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Old 5 Sep 19, 04:52 PM  
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Eccle
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Highs, not so highs and general trip thoughts

We got back on Monday from our 5th trip to Florida. All our previous trips have been in villas, this time we split it and spend 4 nights at Portofino Bay, 5 at Beach Club and 9 in a villa. This trip included our first visit to Universal. We have three boys who are 10, 8 and 3.5.

Highs
Portofino Bay club level - all of us loved this. The room and bathroom were huge, and the club lounge was great with fantastic staff and decent food. We spent very little whilst staying here.
Our villa - we have been in two other villas on Windsor Hills, but this was our favourite, lots of thought gone into it with an amazing selection of toys in the games room, dressing up clothes and pool toys
Galaxy’s Edge - my heart sank when I heard this was opening when we were there. I spent months saying we probably wouldn’t get into the land let alone do the ride, but we made it on opening day, and the older two even did the ride twice thanks to rider switch. I am not personally a massive Star Wars person, but the land looks amazing and Oga’s Cantina was great. The ride underwhelmed me and DH, but made it to the top of the boys’ list!
Flight of Passage - I rode this twice last year and didn’t really get why people raved about it. This year i loved it!
Amazing Animals - we visited after reading about it on here, it really was amazing to encounter animals so close and to learn so much about them, favourites for all of us were the sloths and the alligator
Volcano Bay - I am not so much of a water park person, but for DH and the older boys this was a favourite of the three water parks and they wished we could have fitted in a second visit
Food wise the highlights were Storybook Dining, the Polite Pig, Kekes and Rock n Brews

Not so highs
Food - Electric Umbrella was the meal I enjoyed least. Offsite I was underwhelmed with Longhorns - it was fine, but one of the most expensive meals we had offsite, and i expected more really
Disney outlet store - this was just crazy! The experience of queuing to get in then queuing to pay took longer than it took to go through the Smuggler’s Run queue and ride it. It never used to be that bad!
Forbidden Journey - Luckily we rider switched and DH went first. The 8 year old was in tears as he hated the motion of it, DH described it as rough and the 10 year old was nearly in tears because of the spiders! As I am not as good with big rides as any of them I didn’t go on after that!
It’s Tough to be a Bug - upset the 10 and 3 year olds, other children around were in tears too. I didn’t think it was scary but neither was it great! Not a good choice for us really.
The 3.5 year old - despite having taken all of them between 18 months and 2.5, this was harder. He was stroppy, reluctant to do much and generally difficult. Far worse than when we took his middle brother at just 6 months older. He did love the characters, and the Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan and Cat in the Hat rides. It didn’t spoil the trip, but with hindsight he might have done better if he was a year older.


Generally the weather was pretty good, the odd downpour and one very wet evening when luckily the rain started before we set out for Fantasmic! Hot and humid, but not unmanageable.

We flew into Tampa, our immigration queue was much longer than we experienced there previously, but despite this we would probably choose there again, it is a much nicer airport experience than Orlando

I haven’t said much on Universal, but we did really enjoy it there and would go again. My eldest loved Rip Ride Rockit, and is regretting I put him off the Hulk! DH said he was pleasantly surprised by it.

We will definitely be back to Florida, but I think 2021 would be most likely at the moment
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Old 5 Sep 19, 05:07 PM  
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Bootrip2
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Always love these threads, sounds like you had a good time!
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Old 5 Sep 19, 05:26 PM  
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Andybear
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What did you think of Beach Club?
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Old 5 Sep 19, 05:34 PM  
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Rding
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Just back ourselves and got to agree with the remarks about PFB. Loved the club lounge and the room. We had five in ours and there was plenty of space and the bathrooms are enormous. Loved the shower in the corner. We used the quiet pool all the time as it was always empty more or less a private pool and hot tub.
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Old 5 Sep 19, 06:18 PM  
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Eccle
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Originally Posted by Bootrip2 View Post
Always love these threads, sounds like you had a good time!
We did, thank you!

Originally Posted by Andybear View Post
What did you think of Beach Club?
We liked it, but didn’t love it. After Portofino it felt a bit of a comedown as the room was smaller and the bathroom much smaller. It was good being close to Epcot. I also really wanted a balcony which we didn’t get (I know a request doesn’t guarantee it, but I had my hopes up!) If we stayed onsite again we would consider it, but would be open to elsewhere as well

Originally Posted by Rding View Post
Just back ourselves and got to agree with the remarks about PFB. Loved the club lounge and the room. We had five in ours and there was plenty of space and the bathrooms are enormous. Loved the shower in the corner. We used the quiet pool all the time as it was always empty more or less a private pool and hot tub.
Yes same here, it never felt cramped with 5 of us in the room.
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Old 5 Sep 19, 06:32 PM  
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Glad you liked Portofino, we are hoping to stay there next year club level. Always stayed at Royal Pacific previously, so it will be nice to have a change. Looking forward to Polite Pig also!
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Old 5 Sep 19, 06:57 PM  
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minnie29
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Great little summary thanks for sharing - I love reading the highs and lows. I find it hard to read full trip reports - I do love them but don’t get much time to finish them
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Dopey challenge - All Stars stay January 2020. Cabana Bay Sept 2022
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Old 5 Sep 19, 07:21 PM  
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Rding
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Originally Posted by EllieP View Post
Glad you liked Portofino, we are hoping to stay there next year club level. Always stayed at Royal Pacific previously, so it will be nice to have a change. Looking forward to Polite Pig also!
Starve yourself for the polite pig. If there's a better use of a QS credit on the DDP I'm yet to find it.
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