Hotel Review: Royal Pacific Resort Orlando
After our eight day Disney vacation, my wallet still wasn’t empty enough so we stopped by Universal Orlando to sort things out. Universal has three "on-property" resorts – the Hard Rock, the Portifino Bay, and the Royal Pacific. The Royal Pacific is sort of their "cheap" hotel (in that it’s the least expensive) but it certainly isn’t cheap from a real mney perspective. Also, it blows away Disney’s "Value Resorts" hands down, in fact it’s more comparable to the Deluxe Disney resorts. In fact, the Royal Pacific reminds me *a lot* of the Polynesean.
The rooms are big and comfy. They have lots of amenities that Lowes is famouse for.
The resort has several famous restaurants, included an Emeril’s. However, the Best Restaurant In The World (TM) is here… this is a rare honor, and I only give it… well, only to this one. The on-site standard restaraunt includes a "family room". This is going to be hard to describe, so bear with me. Around the perimeter of the room are four booth-style tables that would seem to hold a family of eight if needed. Between two booths are a childrens buffet (cheap – but don’t remember the price) that is constantly stocked with chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, hot dogs, etc. And they bring out deserts. Between the remaining booths are toys. Yes, toys. They encourage your kids to play. But here’s the kicker – in the middle of the room is a big, square four-poster bed with canopy, and mounted on two sides of the canopy are big LCD screens tuned to Nick Toons! I could not believe my eyes. Marla and I ate a nice quiet meal together, the only time during our entire vacation. The kids spent the entire meal grabbing food from the buffet (helping themselves!) and laying on the bed watching TV.
I don’t know who designed this room, but I bow to him or her. I’ll abstain from blastpheming, but you get the idea. I’m agog. In awe.
That alone will bring us back to this hotel. The rest is gravy. Yadda yadda, they’ve got a boat that goes to Universal Orlando, big pool ("largest in Florida" says the bellboy), yadda yadda yadda amenities. Final point: they have a kids help-yourself buffet and a giant bed with LCD TV’s in the middle of the restaurant.
Enough said. 🙂