Christmas Vacation in Orlando, FL

Sheraton Studio City hotel is conveniently located on International Drive, where you can find most of the major attractions. I can tell you that the hotel is kind of old, but it is still well maintained. The hotel adopted a movie theme, with a nice design and decorations.

Hotel facilities:
This hotel provides free parking and has an outdoor swimming pool, a video game room, and a laundry room. The ice machine is only available in some floors. Limited transportation to major attraction, such as Universal Studios, is available. However, they don't provide transportation to the outlet mall, as mentioned in the other review that I found in this site (I'm not saying they never did; the hotel might have stopped the service to the outlet mall).

Facilities in your room:
In your room you will find a TV, radio/alarm clock, phone, hair dryer, and a safe deposit box. A high-speed Internet connection is also available.

My experience in the hotel:
The hotel room is not as big as many other hotels I have seen, but it is enough for a two queen-size beds and a good-size bathroom. The beds are comfortable, with plenty of pillows. However, the one thing that I don't like is the A/C unit in the room. I had to wake up in the middle of the night every day to adjust the temperature.

Since I reserved the room as part of the vacation package, I don't have the exact price for this room. I highly recommend this hotel to others for its strategic location, high-speed Internet, and free parking.

Boston Lobster Feast is one of the all-you-can-eat seafood restaurants. The menu includes lobster, snow crab legs, grill chicken, sushi, salmon, mahimahi, salad, and desserts. I don't remember seeing a big selection of desserts, but I hope you don't come to this place for the dessert, since this place is kind of pricey.

The regular price is about $32/person, but if you come before 6pm, you get $5 off per person. I believe they open at 4pm. The main course is the lobster, and they only have steamed lobster. To ensure that everybody in there gets their share of lobster, the restaurant limits one lobster per person per trip.

Our waitress was nice--she kept cleaning our tables of the lobster shells. The restaurant was clean too and had a good atmosphere.

Universal Studio's ticket cost about $60/person for the one day admission and charge $9 for parking. If you are planning to visit Universal Studio maybe you should do some research online to find a cheaper tickets, such as http://www.discountthemeparkvacations.com (I just found this today... after my vacation) or you can get a cheaper ticket by attenting a timeshare/resort seminar in Orlando for about 90 minutes. I got two 2-days tickets to Universal Studio for $55 after attenting the Sheraton Resort seminar in the morning.

Universal has many great shows and rides. My favorites are:
1. "Fear Factor Live," where you can see six people compete in three Fear Factor events/stunts. You might be selected to participate in the shows too.
2. "Back to the Future" is an older attraction, but it has a great visual effect and rides.

If you visit the Universal Studio around Christmastime, you can catch a parade in the evening and fireworks show.

If you want to enjoy more rides/shows, I would recommend you come earlier in the day, before the crowd show up. If you have your tickets in advance, you will save about 20 minutes from standing in line just to buy the tickets. Once you go into the park, you should check out attractions that are a little bit further from the entrance, since most people will rush to the first attraction they see.