I stayed at Lowe's Royal Pacific and loved it! Its a 5-10 min walk to the parks or there are water taxis as well. If you stay at a Universal "deluxe" you get the unlimited express pass which is front of the line "fast passes" for everything except Forbidden Journey and Gringotts. Express pass was totally worth it in September so it might be awesome in May.

I used MJ to book the Universal portion of the trip as well as WDW. Terrisue is a Rock star and was watching for deals all the time. I rented a car as we were going to Discovery Cove, Legoland and WDW, but a car service was available from the airport to Universal and Universal to WDW. ***Parking was $25 a day two years ago at Universal**** probably more now - something to consider. Terrisue offered to set up a car service for us if we needed it.

The pool at LRP was great. A bunch of ducks were swimming with us and would hop out and go into the bar, look for food and get back in the pool - sounds like a joke but it was true.

Restaurants we enjoyed - HardRock Cafe, Margaritaville, Mythos, Three Broomsticks. Didn't care for Cafe La Bamba but that's just us.

We had 3 days and nights in Universal and it was about right. We did each park 1 day and then hit our favorites in both parks the last day. The express pass lets you see a lot of stuff quickly. We also spent the evenings in Citywalk shopping. Lastly, we caught the BlueMan Group in Citywalk and had an absolute blast.

My kids are asking to spend more time in Universal now. IMO it's catching WDW really really fast.