Sunshine, butter beer & friends
For Spring Break, we let our high school senior pick a trip, and she chose Universal Studios in Orlando and then a couple of days at the beach. We brought her friend and future roommate Kilee with us and met up with her boyfriend, her guy friend, and his dad. Being with these teenagers was so fun, and I’m thankful they were game for a trip like this with our family.
Just for reference’s sake, my kids are currently 17, 15, and 9. Admittedly, that age gap felt big at some moments during our trip, but I’m thankful we all went together and made memories before Cate graduates high school in four weeks.
Spoiler: We had really great weather, which was so nice considering in the days leading up to our Spring Break trip, our western Kentucky town had 12+ inches of rain in five days!
Monday, April 7
We flew into Orlando and used Universal’s Superstar Shuttle to our resort, Loews Royal Pacific Resort. We got all checked in, received a gift from our travel planner friend, and then headed to the City Walk to meet up with our friends. We ate dinner at Vivo Italian Kitchen, which was delicious and easily accommodated our party of nine.
We stayed three nights at the Royal Pacific Resort and had two-day, two-park passes for Tuesday and Wednesday. Express Passes were included with our resort package, and I don’t think I’d do Universal without them. The water taxis to and from the parks & City Walk were easy, fun, and quick — and much better than a shuttle bus! Shout out to Misty with Kingdom Seekers Travel for helping me make these arrangements.
Tuesday, April 8
We met up with our friends staying at Dockside Inn & Suites for early entry for resort folks and did Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey first. We rode lots of rides, thanks to early entry and then Express Passes. We lunched at Three Broomsticks and teenagers rode Velocicoaster five times that day.
Dinner was at The Cowfish, a sushi and burger bar – and it was delicious!
Wednesday, April 9
Early admission again and straight to Hagrid’s. Only one person in our group rode it before so we all were so excited — and Rachel was nervous. But then immediately after we stopped, she said, “Let’s do it again!” Unfortunately, we didn’t get to do it again because we didn’t want to wait in a longer line and Express Passes aren’t valid for only that ride. We lunched at Richter’s Burgers. We ordered both lunches on the Universal app from the table, which was so convenient and easy.
We had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., which inspired lots of talk about “Forrest Gump,” which most of the kids hadn’t seen.
Rachel swam all three evenings we were at Royal Pacific. The pool must have been slightly heated because it was in the 60s. The pool area was nice & big, had a hot tub and spray park, was open until 10 pm, and had movies playing each night. The teenagers joined her the second two nights. I found a lounge chair and read books.
I know you want to know how Universal compares to the other large amusement in Orlando. Honestly, I’m not a big Disney person. We’ve been twice, and that’s more than sufficient. I prefer a couple of days at Universal and I loved staying on the property. This is the first time we’ve stayed at Universal because when we came in 2019, we shuttled over from Disney’s property. I loved staying here and loved our resort.
Thursday, April 10
After sleeping in and having a slow morning, we rented a vehicle and headed to Indian Rocks Beach. I didn’t realize we could pick up a rented vehicle right at Royal Pacific until the morning we scheduled it for pickup at Portofino Bay Hotel. Greg took the water taxi to City Walk and then to that resort to pick up our vehicle. I do wish I’d simplified the process, but I’ll know for next time!
Along the way from Orlando to the beach, we stopped at Ford’s Garage for lunch. I picked it because of its location just off the interstate and my son’s love of old cars. But all six of us really loved it. So much I wrote a whole social media review of it.
We arrived at Indian Rocks Beach for the second part of our vacation. This is a new-to-us spot, and we hope to be back at some point.
We stayed in a three-condo with a pool and on the beach side of Gulf Boulevard. The condo was well stocked with beach toys and chairs as well as kitchen accessories and utensils, not that I did much cooking.
Our first evening at the beach included grocery shopping for some breakfast and lunch food, carry-out dinner from the original Crabby Bill’s because waits were 45-60 minutes for our party of six, and ice cream from IRB Creamery. Confession: I had a scoop of Key Lime Pie ice cream in a waffle cone twice in less than 24 hours.
Friday, April 11
We slept in and then I spent hours on the beach with my feet in the water where the waves break on shore and read most of a book.
Our friends who had gone to Disney yesterday after our Universal portion of the trip came to visit all afternoon. Personally, I loved to see the teenagers play in the water with no worries in the world. We introduced them to our ice cream spot, hence the second cone. Greg and Ben played golf at Largo Golf Course while the rest of us soaked in the sun at the beach and pool.
We did some souvenir shopping, ate dinner at Guppy’s on the Beach, and started to get things ready to head home tomorrow.
Saturday, April 12
We did the necessary check-out things at the condo and then hit the road back toward Orlando. We would definitely stay in this condo again!
We ate a good lunch at Gator’s Dockside near the Orlando airport and then went to the airport, where we waited more than necessary to drop of our checked bags in a special line for Southwest’s northeast flights. That delayed our friend Kilee from getting through the regular security line. We had gone through TSA Pre-Check (highly recommend!) and were waiting for her when our boarding time approached. Kilee ended up having to ask about 40 people if she could go in front of them just so she’d make her flight. They let her and she made it!
Overall, the Universal and beach combo made for the kind of vacation we needed and we were happy to celebrate Cate’s last high school Spring Break with friends.
*****
I’m sure it doesn’t surprse you that I have many more photos, so feel free to browse those.
Want more travel info? Here are some helpful posts: How to Take the Trip and How & Why to Travel with Kids. Plus, here are some of our favorite trips, if you’re looking for inspiration: