All of the Universal hotels are owned and operated by Lowes. This means you can POOL HOP (for all guests except those staying at Surfside Inn). Forgive our enthusiasm but we often wish this was an option at Disney. We love checking out different pools, especially because each one offers something different, like a waterslide or lazy river. Another reason to stay on property is that guests also receive access to one park one hour before regular guests. Currently Volcano Bay and Universal Studios open early. But periodically Islands of Adventures is open early instead. If you can make it there for 8am you can be sure to walk right on a few rides before the crowds increase (although not the really popular rides like Hagrid’s). Another great feature at the Lowes resorts are the vacation planners at each hotel’s reception area who can print your park tickets when you check-in, make dining reservations for you or just answer your questions

​We really enjoy the 1950’s theming and décor of Cabana Bay Resort. Its proximity to Volcano Bay was fantastic, but it's also not very far away from the parks. Cabana Bay is considered a “Prime Value” hotel, which means it costs a bit more than Surfside but less than Sapphire Falls. It has a bowling alley, arcade, and a lazy river of its own. It has regular and suite style room options. When we visit Universal again we will likely choose Cabana Bay, however, it is a much bigger resort so it would require a big walk to your hotel, which is always hard after a long day at the parks.

​Aventura Hotel has everything you could need in a resort – clean rooms, a great pool with a splash fountain, a pool bar and poolside movies. You can walk right to Volcano Bay underneath the road, which felt super exclusive. There is a great market-style food court, lots of elevators so there is no long waits to get to your room, a shop to get your Harry Potter gear and even a fun lobby Robot to play with. The bar is on the 17th floor and has a fantastic view - we could see all the way to Epcot. The rooms were a bit bland in their modern décor but a reasonable size with a coffee maker and fridge. The staff was very helpful and friendly; it was no problem to leave a day early because of the hurricane, to store our bags for the day or to get extra towels to go over to Volcano Bay before the pool opened.
Aventura Bay and Cabana Bay share a bus. These hotels are in the Prime Value category but are very nice options and comparable to Disney’s Art of Animation.

​Sapphire Falls is a beautiful resort with a very relaxed feel. It’s a great resort for those looking for a Caribbean feel near the parks. It is right next to Aventura Bay and is a “Preferred” hotel. This means the price is comparable to a moderate resort at Disney. Unfortunately, it doesn't include the Express pass in your package and it is a higher price point but it is certainly a nicer resort, plus it is dog friendly. The breezy Caribbean feel, view of waterfalls right outside the window and boat to the parks also makes it a higher-end experience. We loved the “sand bar” in the middle of the pool and thought this would be great for little ones. Our bigger kids loved the water slide.

​Lowes Portofino Bay Resort, Royal Pacific Resort and Hard Rock Cafe Resort are the “Premier” level hotels or what Disney would call the deluxe options. Staying at one of these three resorts grants you the Express pass for each day of your trip including on your check in day and your check out day. This can be a value of $130 per day per person! Premier hotels are all walking distance to the parks and have their own sit down restaurants. Portofino is based on the city of Portofino in Italy and gives you a European flavor. Royal Pacific Resort has a Polynesian feel with dark wood and orchids and you can take a boat to the parks from it. Hard Rock gives you an edgy rock & roll feel, its architecture is themed off the hotel California.

During this trip we were able to spend lots of time in both Harry Potter lands and really enjoy all small touches that made it feel like we were in the movies. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal is actually made up of two different parks: Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. You can travel between the two on the Hogwarts Express but you need a park-to-park ticket to ride it. There are a number of really great rides in both parks including the brand new Hagrid's Magical Motorbike ride. On our first day, the wait for Hagrid's was 150 minutes at park opening time but this meant we walked on everything else including the Forbidden Journey ride inside Hogwarts Castle! We can't say enough about these attractions, they are so immersive that you really feel like you are in the movies. In fact, we wished we'd had a bit more time in line inside the castle to really enjoy the queue.
There are SO many great shops to explore in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. You name the Harry Potter item and it can be yours. Everything from a cauldron cupcake, a quill pen set, an Owl backpack, a Butterbeer slushie and even your own Gringots money. It was hard to tell what items were props and what was actually for sale. We grown-ups probably loved it more than the kids, it really was a magical experience. 
Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Ride is absolutely amazing! This is hands-down one of the best roller coasters we've ridden. The queue has some fun holograms and neat knick-knacks along the way but the way that you feel like you’re on a really fast motorcycle is spectacular. The wait time was listed at 100 minutes but we were done the ride in 65 minutes. We all thought the ride was well worth the wait and that is saying a lot for a family that avoids long lines. Both kids enjoyed it, although we had to work hard to get our six year old convinced to ride it. Luckily we made friends with some kids from New Jersey who told us how great the ride was and that helped calm the nerves.

A few honorable mentions: the Wi-Fi at Universal and in the Lowes resorts was spotless and connected automatically after the first set up. The Locker systems for rides is slick, just use your park ticket to select a locker and pop your stuff in while you ride. We can’t say enough about the fast and efficient bus service – the buses have one stop outside City Walk (the main entrance to the parks) and resort guests have designated buses that come frequently. We found all the staff to be friendly and helpful. Overall, and even though the hurricane cut our trip short, we would highly recommend this vacation.
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We love Volcano Bay there so many slides and the most family raft rides of any waterpark. In fact, we walked around the corner and were surprised to see more slides we didn’t realize were there.
The little kids’ water area has five slides and looks like a fun tree house. Little kids could certainly enjoy this park, especially because of the sand and fairly calm large wave pool. But if you are a daredevil this water park is for you! They are two lazy rivers, both are fast but the fearless river require the life jackets for everyone and even knocked off a hat! We went around this one 3 times.​

Whether you want to enjoy some kid-free time on your family vacation or you are travelling without kids you can be assured the Disney Cruise line offers many options for a great vacation. 

Considering that this cruise was our third vacation within a year - we spent 10 days in Southern California and Disneyland in August and then two weeks in Southern Florida and Disney World over Christmas – we were pretty surprised that a cruise topped the list. But, the sheer number of family friendly activities available and the opportunity we had to let the kids enjoy some freedom on the ship while we enjoyed a quiet drink was pretty fantastic.

​Our condo was 45 mins from Fort Myers Beach, which we all really enjoyed. This is a very busy area with lots of shops and restaurants. The pier and beach crowd reminded us of Huntington Beach in California for its hippie beach vibe. It has lots of water sport options like parasailing and great sand. You absolutely must arrive early because the line of traffic after lunch was unbelievable on a weekday!
Sanibel Island is south of Fort Myers. It has quieter beach areas with amazing bird watching, lots of bike paths (bike rentals available) and sea shells everywhere. The nature reserve here has manatees, alligators and rare crocodiles. Arrive early because parking is scarce and the traffic is heavy! We enjoyed Doc Ford’s restaurant for lunch - lots of fresh fish and shrimp options. This would certainly be a great place to stay with lots of shops and restaurants within biking distance. It had a very calm feel to it as well.

Visit this link for all character experiences: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/en_CA/entertainment/#/character-experiences/
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​There are three resorts to choose from if you wish to stay on Disney property in California. We stayed at the Disneyland hotel in August 2018. We choose this hotel because it is the original on-site hotel and therefore, has extra-large hotel rooms with their magical singing headboards. We were also attracted to the two waterslides that look like monorails. But when we went to visit the Grand Californian hotel, its ambiance and luxury made us wish we had stayed there. It had the same kind of luxury feel as Animal Kingdom Lodge or Wilderness Lodge. The restaurants at the Grand Floridian are nicer and the pool area looked just as fun, plus you can walk from here right into the middle of the Boardwalk, putting you closer to the parks. (When you leave the Disneyland hotel, you are at the far end of Downtown Disney and have to walk about 10 minutes to get to the entrance of the parks). The Paradise Pier hotel lobby did not impress us; we think spending more to stay at either of the other two hotels would be worth it.

Of course, everything is better when you see it through your kids’ eyes, but we can’t deny there were hiccups and in-fighting. A long line seemed to bring out the worst in our crew. That is what made the short walk back to the hotel so exceptional. Perhaps the best thing about the entire experience was the ease with which we could walk everywhere. We explored all three resorts, shopped along the Downtown Disney area and park hopped many times over the four days. We loved that we didn’t need to worry about a shuttle bus, parking or rental car at all!​

​Dining plan: One thing that might surprise those travelers familiar with the "World" in Orlando, is that Disneyland California does not offer a dining plan option. We would love to see Disney add this in future. We find the dining plan can help you budget and let pay for most of your meals before travelling. Because the dining plan wasn’t an option on this trip, we came away having spent significantly more on food than we expected. California’s “fast food” restaurants have delicious, fresh ingredients but the prices reflect that and it was hard to eat lunch anywhere for less than $40US.

One of the best things about staying on property is the many character interactions that happen in the resorts. We could almost always wander around the hotels and find a character or two to take a photo with. Our kids really enjoyed collecting signatures in their autograph book and almost filled it because there were so many characters to meet. Plus the character meals seemed to have more characters as well. This is so much better than standing in line to meet them, as you often have to do in the “World.” ​

​MaxPass is Disneyland’s version of the "Fastpass” system. We think this ride booking system is simply superior. If you want to take advantage of it, you pay $10 per person per day. It allows you to pre-book a ride pass one at a time, but as soon as your first pass opens, you can book a second pass for the next ride. We were able to ride everything we wanted multiple times. One downside is you will be on your phone a lot, trying to score the next ride and that will use up your battery power, but it felt like we made it on many more rides because of this system. The MaxPass also includes the PhotoPass (which costs $169 per week in Orlando). If you are only visiting for a few days but still want the photo pass, the "Land" allows you a much better option.