Universal Orlando seeks permission for growth plan

I hate hearing that Loews has dibs on running the hotels, because after having problems (again) at Royal Pacific, I just don't feel they've got the right management in place to do it right.

Still, not a bit surprised that this is the direction they want to move in. They've been idle for awhile now while revenue has been up the last couple of years. Time to raise that game.

Why is the employee housing Controversial?

What problems did you have at Royal Pacific? We were thinking about staying there on our next visit (Christmas?). We stayed at Portofino and had an unbelievable experience (good)...but are not interested in spending that kind of dough next time. Is Royal Pacific to be avoided?

*** This post was edited by Jeffrey R Smith 6/11/2007 1:53:32 PM ***

We just spent 2 nights at RPR in May and had a great time. There was nothing 'special' about the management of the hotel, but there was nothing wrong with it that we saw.
Come to think of it, after housekeeping came through the first time they must have noticed we had an infant, and when we came back to the room they had left a crib for us and didn't charge for it, so I guess that was special.

"Also among the opposition is resident Ken Bishop, who called for an impact study and told the board he thought the employee housing proposal will cause more crime, noise, traffic and pollution."

I don't get it... it will cause LESS traffic and pollution. Crime and noise I can't speak to, but when we were at Universal recently I didn't meet a single employee I wouldn't be happy to have as a neighbor.

2 thoughts... I wonder if they will expand the 'river' to connect the hotel to the rest of the compound (The boat transportation and ease of getting around the resort is one of the key reasons my wife loved Universal and looks forward to going back) and I wonder how in the world they intend to build a hotel with two 16 story towers and all the infrastructure to connect it to the resort in around 28 months.

We have stayed at the Royal Pacific and loved it both times. In fact, we debated staying at one of the other hotels on site, but decided against it because we love Royal Pacific so much.

Cool to hear about the exapnsion, maybe 3000+ more rooms will bring the prices down even furthur in the off season. Wishfull thinking. :)

I was thinking the same thing 8.3... maybe not in 2010, but in 2011...

I'll write a trip report at some point, maybe tonight, regarding my RPR issues. On a visit in April, my room was unclean (gross). In December, they gave us the wrong room type, keys that didn't work, and that was a pain in the ass.

I wounder with the employee housing if their just going to run it like Cedar Point or if they are going to run college internships like Walt Disney World does? I would take the internship if they offered one.

We stayed at the Hard rock twice and loved every min of it.Esp. when we met Aaron Lewis from Stained.

We Stayed at the Royal 2 times this year and they went over and above for everything.
they even gave us a free adjoining room and access to the Royal Club suite (free food).
We will be back.

Yes they will be extending the River past the Royal to the new 1800 room hotel.
there will be 2 hotels one 800 room and one 1800 room.
I here the 800 room will be upscale.I was told the 800 room MAY be a Egyptian theme (that what the Boat driver told me last month
See pics and more info at my post below
http://gadvupdates.com/forums/index.php/topic,1432.newPS

Coastermanina was fun Bill,Matt,Robb,Dan and I had a blastthankstom

*** This post was edited by PcMan 6/19/2007 12:07:44 PM ***
*** This post was edited by PcMan 6/19/2007 12:08:54 PM ***