Stayed here over the new year. Service at restaurant (Carnival) and breakfast was really slow. I think it was because the regular staff was off on the holidays. For example, on 1/1, there was no one at the breakfast entrance to seat people. People would just stand there and eventually one of the waiters will wave you in to a table. On the last day of our stay, a whole bunch of never seen before waiters and waitresses were there, so I guess the regular staff were back to work. Anyway the food are actually pretty good, although the regular price for the buffet was pretty expansive. Diamond member get 2 free coupons per day for the full buffet which is great.

Other than low on the staff during the New Year, everything was great. They didn't waive the parking fee though (like others said). Yeah the room is dated but not too bad. We got a Universal view which is great for the new year as we could see all the fireworks. The bed needs a better mattress. It was probably one of the worst mattress I have slept on for years.

The walk to Universal Citywalk is about 15 to 20 minutes depends on your speed. It is nice in January, but I wouldn't do it in the summer heat. They do have free shuttle going there about 4 or 5 times in the morning. The last one left around 11am though. On the way back, we took Taxi. It is under $5 and so much easier than getting out of the parking lot. I drove there once and took us about 20 min to get back to the hotel because of the parking lot traffic when everyone was trying to leave around 10pm when the park closes.

There is a Walgreen right next to the hotel so that's where we stocked up on bottles of water. You could pay $5 for 24 bottles of water at Walgreen or $3.99 per bottle at the hotel or Universal Studio.