Booking next trip - first time at OKW

[laurar]

Woo-hoo! Time to plan the next trip! I reserved a 2-BR at OKW in August. I forgot to give them my requests. I will call back and request Non-smoking but may add a general location request. Anybody have recommendations? I've never even driven around OKW.

Also, we are staying 6 or 7 nights at OKW and then 2 nights at Universal. Do you think it is harder going from a 2 BR to 1 room or harder going from front-of-the-line touring to regular touring? I'm leaning towards doing Universal second but thought I'd see if anybody had opinions about which is better :wink:

Also, any guidebook recommendations for US/IOA?

Laura

[Tagrel]

Can't help with the OKW requests (haven't stayed there yet!), but from everything I read you will LOVE all the extra space! And its such a lovely resort!

We have stayed in a 1 bedroom, and then moved to Portofino Bay at Universal, and we did fine. While the room was smaller, it wasn't bad for just a couple days. (actually it was QUITE nice!) We just left the majority of our clothes in the car, and just took in one suitcase.

And that front of the line perk is the BEST!

Sidebar Rant! Last year we went to Universal just one day while staying at BCV. Spent the day fighting crowds, and missing both Hulk and Spiderman because all the Express Passes for the entire DAY were gone by 10:00 am!!!!!! :hopmad: Between the resort guests, and the fact that they SELL booklets of fastpasses (HATE that!) there are very few left for the rest of the paying guests. But you can always stand in a 2 hour line! :roll:

After complaining at guest services (who said that they get SO many of these complaints) we also said we wouldn't be back until we can again stay on property or they stopped selling all the express passes. And we won't! This year its two days at SeaWorld - and we are really looking forward to it!

OK, rant over! :D

You can post Universal Questions in Outside the World for a better response to Universal park questions. There is also a very active Universal/Seaworld board over on the DIS: Universal Studios/Sea World (http://disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=8) I'm not aware of a guidebook dedicated to Universal, but having one would be GREAT! :)

[Joe]

Congratulations on booking into OKW Laura, and Welcome Home to our favorite resort! Since this is going to be your first stay at the OKW, may I suggest requesting a building close to the Hospitality House. This will put you within walking distance of all of the amenities available at the OKW, and I think it would be a good way to be introduced to the resort. And if you can get a golf course view, that would be all the better.

As for your preference for going from a 2BR to a regular resort room, I might suggest doing the Universal part first. The 2 BR suites at OKW are huge, and I would have a bit of a shock moving down while still on vacation.
JMHO, your mileage may vary.
HTH and have a great trip!

[sandar]

hi Laura,

We just got a book all about Universal, which I found on the PassPorter site. I think it is thorough and it seems to be as up-to-date as possible for a printed guide. It's called Universal Orlando 2004: The Ultimate Guide to the Ultimate Theme Park Adventure - by Kelly Monaghan. You can order it through PassPorter or amazon.com.

On our next trip, we're going to stay at Universal for a couple of days at the start of our trip. We're figuring IOA, SeaWorld, and Universal (one park per day). We've not been to Uni in 8 years and haven't ever been to the other two, so those days are likely to be as close to CommandoVille as we can stand.

Then we'll switch to Disney and collapse for a day before jumping into the parks that are familiar to us. Somehow it seems more likely we'll tour in the mornings and be slugs after lunch there. So I guess this is similar to the reasoning behind "parks first, then cruise" advice that people usually have, you know? Your mileage most definitely may vary. :)

Hope you find the Universal book as informative as I have.

Sandi

[laurar]

Thanks for the info!

Joe and Sandi, DH and I were discussing last night and we actually came to the same conclusion - that since we had never been to US/IOA we would probably do more "commando" style touring and it would be nice to collapse at our HUGE 2 br place afterwards. So I guess I'll call and change my ressie.

I guess one of my thoughts about doing the Disney part first was that we have our APs this year so even if we didn't get there until 3 or 4 pm we could still enjoy a park. But it looks like, at least so far, that the 5-day pass for Universal makes more sense than a 2-day so we could still go that first day. And if we felt we needed more, we could even drive back from OKW and stand in line :wink: Or, if a better ticket deal comes up that suits us, we could just enjoy the pool/resort the first day. I am bummed that there is no longer a Universal ticket award from american express rewards. :(

Laura