Kids at Heart, Gluttons for Punishment, or just plain Idiots? We report. You decide.

[AlexandNessa]

Well kids, it may take me a while to pull off this trip report. We just got back from 8 days at Universal late last night. Let's just say this one started with a wild bang and ended with quite the muted whimper. Not a Wild Hogs ending. More like a Grumpy Old Men ending.

Hang on tight for the short, wild ride. It includes nearly peeing my pants at the RIP tour, sweet love notes, learning Farsi, drug busts, turtle humping, elephant butts, drinking for charity, learning gangsta, and fainting in front of NBA City, complete with a full commotion of Security, Health Services, and the entire staff of NBA City ... hence the whimpering end of our trip.

I am still recovering and have not done much yet besides trying to get back to normal. I have not uploaded pics yet either. Just wanted to let you know that we're back and hope to have more to report tomorrow.

Oh, and I can never figure out if I'm being boring by saying who we are again and again after so many trip reports or being presumptuous in not saying who we are because who really reads all the trip reports? Hence the title of my trip report.

So, I'll just give the plain facts for now, and hopefully have more tomorrow, God willing.

Who: Mike and Jodie. 30-something DINKs with a bad vacation habit.
What: Universal, Busch Gardens, EPCOT and MGM, and plenty of time inside the room at the HRH.
When: October 6 - 14, 2007
Where: HRH
Why: Why not?!


Stay Tuned!

[lindalinda]

Its totally unfair that you get to go back so often! :mad:

But i really hope you are ok now????? Sounds very dramatic~

:hippie:

[Notatourist]

I've beeen waiting for you to post, Jodie, so I can say this..."What a pleasure to meet you!"

And I want to hear the rest...

[bubba's mom]

..... who really reads all the trip reports?



me! :yay: me! :yay: me! :yay:

(besides, you read mine, I'll read yours ;) )

[Motherfletcher]

Eight days is sweet. You write a good report!:thumbsup2
One question:
Bob asked last night about HOS and I told him that ya'll might have done both this year? If so, how was it? I've got an idea where the turtle humping and elephant butts came in. Too many free beers?:drinking1

[TigerLilly's Mom]

Can't wait to read - get writing girl

[AlexandNessa]

Hi Everyone!

lindalinda, you're going to hate me even more when I tell you our next trip is only 42 days away ... but we have an excuse for that. :rolleyes:

Notatourist, pleasure meeting you too! Sunday night was by far our best night! :goodvibes

Barb, I know you do! And I also don't know how you keep up with all of them! :goodvibes

MF, you just reminded me to send back your name tag, and I'm such a jerk I went to the post office yesterday and forgot! I will put in the mail back to you today or tomorrow. Promise! I don't think it did us much good though ... but I'll tell you all about that later. But, we did not do HOS. We were there Wednesday, Oct. 10, which wasn't an HOS night. Do they have RIP tours for HOS?!

Hi Tonia! I hope you have a great trip! I saw that you posted on my other TR, and I'm excited for you! Some day we'll get to go at the same time. Looks like we'll just miss you again as we head back Nov. 28. Have your secretary call my secretary so we can coordinate our next trip. ;)

I finally uploaded all our pics, so now I can start writing. Hope to have something out late tonight or tomorrow. Sorry for the wait; I was hoping to be more on the ball.

xx

[Motherfletcher]

Don't worry about the name tag. Just try to recover. HOS does have RIP tours and will do an exclusive tour for just 2 people. The tour guides are usually just staff members that just do it in addition to their regular job. Not dedicated fulltime tour guides with the overwhelming product knowledge like USO but the neat thing is you basically tell them what you want to do after each house or ride and they hang with you until they close.
Rest up!

[Notatourist]

Thanks for the love MF...:)

[IMGONNABE40!]

Jodie--did NBA City still have 2fer beers during HH? And, if so, do you know if they have to pour them both at once, or can I do the 2fer while my DH has a scotch. Okay, final question--what is on tap and do all of the draft beers qualify for the 2fer?

Can you tell we are getting ready for an adult only trip? :drinking1

[AlexandNessa]

Day 1: Saturday, October 6, 2007

Well, today’s the day! Why is travel day so stressful, eh? Do we have everything? Can we carry everything we’ve brought with us on the plane or is it subject to TSA confiscation or possibly putting us on a terror watch list? Did we leave our sitter enough cat food and litter? Remember to tell the sitter that Vanessa needs to be fed in the dining room and Alex needs to be fed in the kitchen or else all ying and yang has been compromised? Do I have all our confirmations? Have I remembered our tickets? Notice how I say “I” have the confirmations and “I” have the tickets? That’s because Mike just packs his entire closet and bathroom, and I do the rest. Equal distribution of work, no? Speaking of packing his entire bathroom and closet, I had to remind the man that we were well over the luggage weight limit, and he’d have to bring a second bag. His solution to this, of course, was to say “So what? We’ll just pay the fine.” Right. No big deal. I reminded him that we’d have help every step of the way with our luggage, so what exactly was the big deal about checking a third bag between the two of us? When I say the man packs his entire bathroom, I am not kidding. We’re talking full size bottles of mouthwash. Bottles. Not bottle. Why does he not get this during our grocery stop? I digress …

We drive to work, and then have the car service pick us up at work. Work offers secure, covered parking, and cuts down significantly on the cost of the car service. Please indulge me as I vent on our flipping security staff at work for a moment: Last time we had car service pick us up at work, I called into security to let them know the name of the car service and when they would be there to pick us up and please grant the car service access into our campus. Well, didn’t I get the jerk who yelled at me for not filling out a form online on our intranet to let them know we had a “visitor” coming and that I shouldn’t be calling him. Fine. Got it. Next time I’ll fill out the stupid online form on our Intranet. You know where I’m going with this right? Like a dutiful employee, before this trip, I find the stupid form online, fill it out, and print the damn confirmation that I’ve done so. This should allow the car service access to our campus, right? Wrong. We see our car service sitting lonely in the outskirts of the visitors section of campus. The driver had not made it past the security gate. So, I call into get my voice mail messages at work, and isn’t security yelling at me for NOT calling to say I had a visitor coming! Jerks.

After having the drive of our lives … I mean, this driver was c-r-a-z-y. :drive: I never wear my seatbelt in the backseat, but hurriedly put it on after I thought for sure we were going to flip. Nonetheless, we made it to the airport safely, and had an uneventful flight.

Will you indulge me in one more tangent? The airlines and TSA have rules for a reason, and those rules apply to everyone. When they tell you to take your shoes and jackets off, that means everyone. Not everyone except you. When the gate agent says that all passengers with strollers need to pre-board, that means everyone with strollers. Not everyone but you. I could go on (and on), but what is it with people these days? :rolleyes1

We had ****** Transportation pick us up, and they were on time and waiting for us as usual. Now, we love ******, but we haven’t quite figured out why Roger thinks we love Stevie Ray Vaughn so much that he turns it up and strums along to it the entire way. Are we supposed to join in and play air guitar too? Did we miss our queue? We had our grocery stop for beers, waters, sodas, chips, cheese in a can (Mike, not me!), crackers, fruit (me, not Mike) and popcorn. Notice I did not say we picked up 2 economy size bottles of mouthwash or full cans of shaving cream, etc. Don’t worry. They were safely stored away in our checked luggage. (BTW, Barb, I asked Roger where you could get warm beer on your grocery stop for your cruise, and he said the grocery stores sell both cold and warm beer and didn’t think you’d have a problem.)

We arrived at the hotel with little incident, and the bell man was there to greet us and take our luggage. We headed straight to the front desk, with no line to have the very pleasant Kellen check us in. (Now, I did find out later that Kellen failed to give us a message from macraven, but he was still pleasant and thanked us for coming back.) Mike went out for a smoke and I told him I’d meet him up in the room. I gave him his room key, and the first thing we both noticed and gasped at? WHERE THE FRICK WAS OUR “1”?????? :snooty:

Some of you have heard me talk of this before. Those of you who haven’t, here is the skinny: On your room key, next to your name, is an “A” for “Adult” (or “C” for “Child”). If you have an “*” this means you have charging privileges. If you don’t, you’ll have an “N” for “no charging.” However, if you have a “1” between the A or C and the * or N, that means you’re a VIP. If you’re not, there is simply a space there. Which is what we had. That’s right. Instead of an “A1*” on our room keys, it was simply “A *”. Are you kidding me? Mike and I wondered what was up with that. We are Platinum. We paid a qualifying rate. This was our 2nd visit of 3 to the HRH this year. I can’t tell you the last time we weren’t VIPs. That was a big blow to us, and Mike made me promise I wouldn’t harp on it and mention it every 10 minutes, although he freely admitted that it totally bothered him too. I should’ve known when we weren’t offered the Express Yourself Check-in, exclusively for Platinum members. We were last time, but this time we were overlooked. And that showed in other areas as well.

We also learned that all King Suites are not created equally. You can see pictures of our last King Suite on our May trip report (Eat, drink, & be merry). I will tell you that the setup of that King Suite was infinitely better than this one we were shown to.

Here are the basic differences:

Last trip, the suite was close to the elevator.
This trip, the suite was all the way down the end of the first hallway.

Last trip, the suite had 2 closets, one of which was a walk-in.
This trip, the suite had 1 small closet.

Last trip, the suite had a regular bathroom with a tub. A large sink was outside the bathroom. The bathroom had another smaller sink, a toilet, and a tub.

This trip, the suite had one bathroom that connected the dining room and living area. No separate sink. No tub, only a shower which was directly across from the mirror, and not recommended for those with body image issues.

Last trip, the suite had a large living room with no dining room.
This trip, the suite had a large dining room, which we found went to waste.

Last trip, the suite was set up so that if someone wanted to watch TV in the living room, it wouldn’t disturb the person in the bedroom.

This trip, you could see both TVs easily from the bed, so no deal there.

Now, in all fairness, there was one positive of this suite:

Last trip, the suite had a view of the front entrance of the hotel.
This trip, the suite had a beautiful view of the pool and parks.

Here are the pictures that I took, so you get the idea of what this suite was set up like.

And, for the record, yes, Mike did yell at me for not doing this before unpacking. So, disregard the clothes and coolers and suitcases.

Looking at the door:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebda36972503400000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

From the front door, looking into the room:
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebda36931d14700000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

Closer into the room:
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebda3692e506800000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

The TV in the living room:
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebda362f1102a00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

From the bed looking into the dining room:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebda3620710dc00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

The TV in the dining room (and that is one door into the bathroom):

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebda366d8913100000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

This is opening the door from the dining room into the bathroom. If the bathroom seems a bit squished, it is. The toilet is behind the open door. The shower is directly across from the sink. And the other door opens into the living room:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebda37a98917f00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

Here is the toilet behind the open door (no, it’s not a separate room):

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebda37cde100a00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

Mike asked why I took this pic. It was to show that the shower was DIRECTLY across from the mirror. I kept my eyes shut while showering:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebda37f52d12f00000035118Abt2jRk4bt1



The high point was the view from the room:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebda3623691dd00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

Now, in all fairness, we requested a room on a high floor with a pool view, and they did honor our request, so they do read those requests! :goodvibes We did get exactly what we asked for, so, of course, we didn’t complain or ask to be moved or create a stink or anything. We just know what to ask for next time, but more on that later.

Also, no sooner did we get our luggage did we get a special treat from dsmom! Mike said, “We have online friends?” Um, yeah! Check out how cute it was! It was yummy too and we picked on it all week! The thing that looks like brains is a rice krispi treat (my favorite dessert!). :cloud9:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebda36da9d1dd00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

After we settled in, I called mac to let her know we arrived, but it was already 4:30 or so and I knew she’d be doing Stay & Scream. We decided it was too late to go to the parks, so we settled into the Beach Club for our now traditional welcome drink. We love Mikey at the Beach Club. He is usually very friendly with us and takes good care of us. We had a drink with Mikey and left to go to Margaritaville, but it was packed and we didn’t feel like dealing.

So, we left there to go to our old stand-by: NBA City. I love NBA City, especially for Happy Hour. Personally, ever since the parks only started offering $1 off Bud/Bud Lite pints, we stopped doing Happy Hour in the parks and would leave to go to NBA City where Happy Hour is 4-7 every blessed day, and they offer 2-for-1 drafts of Miller Lite, Coors Lite, and Yuengling. Bonus! We went upstairs to the Sky Lounge Bar, and I’m sad to say that 2 of the bartenders recognized us straight away. We had not been there since May, and yet, we got “Hey! We know you.” Should we be embarrassed by this at all? If you see Axe or Duane, take good care of them! Yes, I prefer to think they remember us because we’re solid tippers and not vacation alcoholics….

We left NBA City for dinner at the Hard Rock Café where we shared a Burger. But, we weren’t feeling the love there, and decided to call it an early night and were back by about 10 or 11.

We came back to the room to find we had not received turn-down service. Huh? And, where are our bathrobes? WHERE WAS THAT FLIPPING “1”???? :sad1:

Tomorrow was a MUCH better day! Stay tuned!

[AlexandNessa]

Jodie--did NBA City still have 2fer beers during HH? And, if so, do you know if they have to pour them both at once, or can I do the 2fer while my DH has a scotch. Okay, final question--what is on tap and do all of the draft beers qualify for the 2fer?

Can you tell we are getting ready for an adult only trip? :drinking1

I just realized I didn't answer your question fully in Day 1. Here's the deal: NBA City has happy hour every single night 4-7. They have 2fers on Miller Lite, Coors Lite, and Yuengling only. They have other drafts, but those are the only ones that apply. They are 2 for $4, and yes, you can get them one at a time. Technically, if you're nice to your bartender, I don't even think they would make you get 2, if you didn't want to. They also have well drink specials, but I don't know the deal on them. On some days, they also have 2fers on Margaritas. However, you must get them on the rocks (not up or frozen). I've never had them there. Here's another tip: don't get your drinks in a plastic cup to go. Their plastic cups are small. So, order at the bar, sit and enjoy your beer. Then, ask for a plastic cup to go if you want. Their beers at the bar are a good 16 oz (I'm guessing). Their plastic cups may only be 10 oz? You'll see what I mean when you get there.

Look for Axe ... he's the BEST!! Axe is tall and thin and looks like Steve Nash. He's been there a long time and knows us. You'll know Duane because he's got a funky mohawk look going because he's trying to hide losing his hair. Both of them are very good, and very sweet. Now, Deana is very sweet as well: you'll know her because she's got a thick NY accent. She is just not as attentive as Axe or Duane. Have fun on your adults only trip!

[Motherfletcher]

Last stay at PBH they gave me a hospitality suite but no "1". I asked about it at check in and the clerk looked at me like a deer in the headlights obviously no clue. I didn't pay a qualifying rate though. If anyone's a "1" it's you! :cheer2:

[dsmom]

Jodie, Your trip reports are the best!! I love the pictures- it makes me want to stay at HRH. I know what you mean about the dining room- it seems to me like so much wasted space- does anyone ever use them?

You need to try the portofino suite at PB next time! It has a huge parlor and bedroom with two huge full bathrooms and no dining room- you will love it!

I checked all my old room keys and they all have the A1* on them. I really wonder how you do get them. Our last trip was our first trip as platnium so I wonder how we got them before??

I'm glad you liked the treat!!

I am patiently waiting for more:yay: Maybe you can keep this report going until your next one comes along?:goodvibes

[IMGONNABE40!]

Thanks, Jodie, for the report and answering my questions. After reading this report and the one from your May trip, I had to go up and find my old key cards. Sometimes we have a 1 and sometimes we don't. :confused: You can bet I will be checking next week.

Oh, and by the way. My son's school is now closed for the Monday of our trip. So, if he comes along he will only miss Tuesday. So, we may not have our romantic get-away after all! Much to my surprise he wants to come along. Airfare is not too outrageous and we can have 3 in the suite at HRH. I checked for PBH since I said the next time we go back all 3 of us we would do PBH so we get the extra bathroom in the suite. However, there are no suites available for our dates. There are not even any garden rooms.

[TigerLilly's Mom]

Thanks for the pictures of the suites, I have never seen this type before, we usually have the room setup that you had on your May trip. The view looks cool, but I think I would rather have the rooms close to the elavators, I HATE a small, cramped bathroom space.

Can't wait to read the rest of your report!

[AlexandNessa]

Dup post ... is it just me or is the DIS a little whacky this morning?

[AlexandNessa]

I have lots of people looking for those "1"s now, don't I?! :cool1:

Yes, we were definitely disappointed in that suite's set up. We did get a post-stay survey, and I explained that the other set up was preferable, since we found this bathroom cramped and the dining room space wasted on us. We did thank them for granting our request though (high floor/pool view), and explained that now we just knew what to request for our next visit.

I received an email back from the HRH General Manager himself, who told us he personally insured that we would get our "old room" back for our November trip. :goodvibes I also mentioned in the survey that we just didn't feel platinum this trip, not that anything was terrible (except for room service which I'll get to later). It was just that we're not used to having to make several calls to request turn down service or to get bathrobes in the room and then there was the matter of a late check-out, but more on that later.


MF, I have no doubt that we'll have our "1s" back next trip. :)

IMGB40: have fun with or without your son! NBA City has video games right at the bar. I'm sure your son could entertain himself at the bar while you enjoy a HH beverage. :goodvibes

Tonia, when do you leave for your trip?

dsmom, yes, thanks again for the treat! I kept it covered and ate it everyday! :love:

[Motherfletcher]

MF, I have no doubt that we'll have our "1s" back next trip. :)



Then you lied to Mike and did complain?!:rolleyes1

[AlexandNessa]

Then you lied to Mike and did complain?!:rolleyes1

You say "complain;" I say "gave feedback on a survey." Tomato, tomahto, potato, potahto! :lmao:

[Akdar]

You say "complain;" I say "gave feedback on a survey." Tomato, tomahto, potato, potahto! :lmao:

Nice Response!!!!!:thumbsup2

[Motherfletcher]

And harping when you leave is not harping while you're there so I guess you kept your word. ;)
So I gotta know- did the name tag get you any towel animals or preferential treatment from housekeeping?

[bubba's mom]

I asked Roger where you could get warm beer on your grocery stop for your cruise, and he said the grocery stores sell both cold and warm beer and didn’t think you’d have a problem.




Thanks....appreciate the thought! Sounds like you're off to a great start....luv the pix :goodvibes Can't wait to read more!

[AlexandNessa]

And harping when you leave is not harping while you're there so I guess you kept your word. ;)
So I gotta know- did the name tag get you any towel animals or preferential treatment from housekeeping?

I hate to say it, but I'm pretty sure it didn't buy us anything. No towel animals or anything out of the ordinary. They did manage to make us a flower out of the tissues at the top of the box ... but the problem was they never replaced them! We had to try to find Housekeeping to get more tissues and that didn't work. Normally not a problem, but toilet paper can be a little rough on the nose after a while. Sounds like you have better luck (or maybe they just like you better!). :goodvibes I do thank you for letting me borrow it!

On a similar note: has anyone noticed that even if you leave your used towels hanging up on the rack, they still replace them with fresh ones? I figure we don't wash our towels every day at home, so every day we'd hang the towels up and every day they were replaced. So much for the "HRH loves the environment" CD that's in the bathroom! Maybe I should start a new thread on this because in all our stays (PBH, RPR, HRH), NONE of them have left the wet towels hanging. I'm not enough of an environmentalist to mention that on my survey though!

I am working on Day 2. Hate to admit that I procrastinated last night, and I have some errands to do today. Thanks for being patient! xx

[keishashadow]

must be sweet suite treatment, i had to throw the towels in the tub on 3rd day to get them replaced @ RPR.:rolleyes1

speaking of standard room, that suite looks mitey fine to me; the other must of have been really extraordinary!

you live large:woohoo: ...way :cool1:

must remember the NBA happy hour...have you eaten there, saw pic of strawberry dessert - looks good.

[tlinus]

Jodie,

Whoooooo.....yay your trippie!!

Can't wait to read more!

:cheer2:

[AlexandNessa]

must be sweet suite treatment, i had to throw the towels in the tub on 3rd day to get them replaced @ RPR.:rolleyes1

speaking of standard room, that suite looks mitey fine to me; the other must of have been really extraordinary!

you live large:woohoo: ...way :cool1:

must remember the NBA happy hour...have you eaten there, saw pic of strawberry dessert - looks good.


Hi Janet! I have to say that we only live large on vacation! The other 340 days of the year are a 'hole 'nother story, and QUITE boring!

I don't want to sound like a spoiled little brat as the suite was very nice. We get comped since we're platinum so it's nice to have any suite at all. It's just that we liked the set up of the other suite better. It definitely suited our needs better ... especially the bathroom!

We have eaten at NBA City, although not dessert. We've enjoyed everything we've tried, though we haven't eaten anything adventurous there. We like to get appetizers and burgers so can't comment to any full extent.

We'll be glad to meet you for Happy Hour there on Saturday, December 1, if you're up to it!

[AlexandNessa]

We slept in that morning. I think we were up around 10:30 or so. We are not morning people. We don’t make it to the parks at 11 when most people are going. We’re usually there between 12-2. Give or take an hour. It’s not that we’re lazy. Mike and I both work shifted tours which are catching up with us in our progressing age, so our bodies do not have a natural time clock. Some people get up the same time every day without any prompting. Those aren’t people who work 3pm to 11pm one week, 11pm to 7 am the following week, and 7am to 3pm after that and then repeat, but not necessarily in that order. Vacations are time for us to recoup (and many out there I’m sure are saying, “You can tell these people don’t have kids.” Don’t worry. You wouldn’t be alone. My mom says the same thing.)

Mike was first in the bathroom and since it was sort of hard to have 2 of us in there at once, I checked my phone to find a message from macraven. I called her back and we chatted and I went down to her room for a bit to meet up. Mac’s room was the same set up as ours. It was so easy to chat with mac that I began to worry about what Mike was up to. I’m sure at least some of you can relate to your mate calling himself “A Dis Widower.” Mike doesn’t get the whole “meet thing.” He doesn’t understand all the chatting and camaraderie on the boards that comes from being collective red-headed step children. And so, it shouldn’t surprise you to learn that I came back to the room to find this sweet love note:



http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdaccfd2301000000035118Abt2jRk4bt1

If you can’t read it, it says:

GOT TIRED OF WAITING. ***. DOWN BY POOL. M

Woops. Am I in trouble?

“Why would you think you were in trouble?”

“Oh, I dunno. Maybe ‘WTF’!”

“I wasn’t mad. I just didn’t know where you were.”

“I told you where I was. In mac’s room.”

“Well, you didn’t bring your cell.”

I wasn’t winning this argument, so I redirected the topic as to what to do next.

We opted to go to the Studios for a bit, come back to lunch at The Kitchen, nap, and then head on to the RIP tour. Sounds like a plan.

Now, I don’t have pics from this portion of our day, but you’ll have to take me at my word and trust that we went to the Studios to do Jimmy. I should say we rode Jimmy. That doesn’t sound any more PG, does it? We experienced the Jimmy Neutron ride? Is that better?

Motherfletcher gave us a MIB cheat sheet. We tried to remember it, but only faired in the 400K range, which is pretty par for the course for us. Nonetheless, we did much better than the kids in the front row, and our scores alone made us Galaxy Defenders. You’d think the kids would show us more appreciation for their unearned title. Hmph.

We also did the Mummy. Rode the Mummy? Experienced the Mummy ride? A favorite as usual. We meandered and took our time, and decided to go back to the hotel to eat some lunch at The Kitchen.

We were pretty sure what we wanted, but somehow got talked in to ordering Calamari for an appetizer. We like Calamari, but we’re not big Calamari people, and this was definitely not the best we’ve ever had … except for the sauce! We are very used to having Calamari with marinara sauce, but The Kitchen served it with a Thai Chili Sauce that was literally out of this world. It was spicy yet a bit sweet and thick, and I tell you we’d order the Calamari again just for the sauce alone. Mike had a chicken sandwich and saved the sauce to dip his chicken in. I had a meatball pizza. And a Bloody Mary. Honestly, not one of the better Bloody Marys I’ve ever had. I like my Bloody Mary to be thick, with a nice mix. I don’t like it to taste like I’m drinking tomato-flavored water so that the drink is thin and runny. Do you know what I mean?

Anyway, they wanted nothing of our AP discount, and I didn’t push it, but we figured we’d be properly full and we could go back to the room for a nap before our RIP tour.

I am pretty sure our room was under the club lounge or something. Not sure what exactly was above us, but we always heard what sounded like furniture moving, and it wasn’t much of a nap at all.

We headed over to the Studios for the RIP Tour.

Now, here’s what you need to know about me before you get all excited for my RIP review: I am not an HHN fanatic. I don’t scour the websites before hand. I don’t really read reviews. I can take it for what it is. I can just go and get scared and have fun. I freely admit that other than knowing he’s a scary clown, I don’t know who Jack is. I get some of the houses confused, and I’m more concerned where the next scare is coming from then noticing the details of the houses and all the hard work that has gone into creating them. I can “float in the experience” as opposed to deconstructing and scrutinizing and analyzing it. And, oh, I’m a screamer.

We last went to HHN in 2004, when it was in both parks and a bit overwhelming for first timers.

This year, I decided to join macraven for the RIP Tour. Mike didn’t have a choice. ;)

I figured we were only going to go to HHN for one night. We were going to do it right. No Frequent Fear pass. Quality over quantity.

The RIP tour was the single best decision we made all vacation.

Here are some pics at the entrance:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacc3a4306000000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacc6ec70b200000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacc73e30f800000026108Abt2jRk4bt1




We went through the metal detectors and passed with flying colors. We didn’t have to wait in the normal lines to enter the Studios. We got to go right to the VIP Tour guest entrance where we met our friendly tour guide who took our names, and we signed in. We got instructions on when and where to meet and were let into the park to have fun until the tour started.

We just sort of wandered and took in the atmosphere … and a beer. (Thanks for the glow necklaces, mac!)

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebda37c87916300000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebda370f6102400000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

We met up with our tour group, which I think was only 9 people. Went over some ground rules (no assaulting the scare actors, stay together, follow the red lantern, bathroom breaks), and we were off!

Now, here is where the RIP tour worked perfectly for us: no planning, no map, no making decisions as to what house to do first. If you can sit back and just let it happen and enjoy it, I highly recommend the RIP tour!

Here is where the RIP tour is also perfect for me: I think of it like a Band Aid that needs to be pulled off quickly so you don’t feel the pain. I genuinely do get scared in the houses, and waiting in any line at all (even the Express Line) gives me plenty of opportunity to ask “is this worth my time to wait?” With the RIP tour, we simply followed the red lantern to the very front of the line. No time to think or chicken out. Just do it!

I don’t remember in what order we did the houses or sometimes which house was which. I know we did whatever one was by Twister first (Home for the Holidays?). So, I do apologize for not going into excruciating detail.

And, of course my favorite houses were the ones typically espoused as the least favorites on the reviews. Camp Blood (Friday the 13th) was actually my favorite (I can just hear all the HHN Vets sighing).

Now, the call of action is for Mike to follow me through all the houses, holding on to my back belt loops. This way I know I know he’s close behind. I’m a screamer. I think many of my tour mates will attest to that.

Camp Blood was one of the last houses we did, and macraven had spent the first few houses pointing at me to let the scare actors know to get me. You’d think I’d have been used to it 6 houses later. I heard this very soft, innocuous “Boo” in my right ear. I laughed softly, and turned around, fully thinking that it was Mike. It sounded just like him and would be something he would do. Instead, I turned around to find Jason. Right. Smack. Dab. In my face. I let out a scream. A big one. And I think I nearly peed my pants. Mike, of course, found this to be very humorous, and there was little mac behind us saying, “Jodie, he was just going to tell you that everything is OK!” Yes, have the Boogie Man assuage my fears! All in all, very funny, yet :scared1: !

I also loved the Texas Chainsaw Massacre house. There were these burlap bags hanging from the ceiling that you needed to push out of the way to continue into the house. I went to move one out of the way, and thought for sure I felt a body in there, and that would be another fine moment of flipping out on my part.

I'm sure it's no surprise that I also really liked the Nightmare on Elm St house. They did an excellent job on the outside of the house. It was immediately recognizable.

Another highlight of the evening for us was Bill & Ted. There were some reviews on the board that the show wasn’t as good this year. Mike and I both loved every second of it. And I thought they did an excellent job of addressing “current events.” From the “Leave Britney alone!” video, to Britney’s shaved head, To Catch a Predator … plus, we love The Office. We really enjoyed the show. That was the first show we did that night, and it was nice to sit and relax and laugh for a bit instead of being scared to death.

Now, I will agree that the scare zones were a little tame this year (I had to ask if we’d actually just gone through one), but I didn’t care about that. I was scared half to death going through the cornfields in 2004, so personally, I didn’t miss it.

The only part of the evening that Mike and I said we would not do again was the Rocky Horror Picture Show Tribute. This is not to say that the performers weren’t good. They were. You’re either a RHPS person or you’re not. We’re not, and it just wasn’t our taste. We would do the RIP tour again in a heartbeat, and we would never stop anyone from seeing the show. But, if it were part of our RIP tour next time, we’d tell our guide that we were going to sit it out and just meet up with the group after the show. We’d have been a bit happier grabbing a beer and sitting on a park bench to people watch for a half hour. By no means whatsoever did it ruin our evening. We just know for next time, that’s all!

Now, our tour guide was perfect, because there was a group of 5 of us from the boards who did the tour, and we wanted the emphasis to be on the houses and HHN shows. We didn’t want to be stuck with other tour members who only wanted to do rides or drink all night. Our guide made sure we saw all the houses and two shows (there would not have been time to see all 4), and we only did 2 rides. I never pass up a chance to ride the Mummy and then the only ride I really wanted to do was Jaws. We always go to Universal during non-peak seasons, so we’ve never had the opportunity to ride at night. We made sure we didn’t sit in the back rows so we didn’t get wet, and we loved it! And I have to say that they either turned off the chum barrel for HHN or it wasn’t working, so no matter where we sat, it would not have been an issue.

I know this probably isn’t all the detail you wanted, and for that I’m sorry. Hopefully someone else who did the RIP can give a blow-by-blow description. Suffice it to say, for us, it was WELL worth the $$, and when the opportunity comes, we will surely do it again and ask for the same tour guide. :goodvibes

Our tour guide led us to the front of the park for the exit, and we said our goodbyes right at park closing. It was a really great, non-stressful night. And when I say non-stressful, I mean planning-wise, and let’s forget that there were at least 2 occasions I nearly peed myself. :lmao:

Mike, mac, and I headed to City Walk for a beer. We tried Margaritaville first, but we just couldn’t get served there. It was too busy and we might as well have been invisible. Mac went to find something to eat, and Mike and I lingered for a bit to see if someone would see us. No such luck, so we moved outside to the Lone Palm, thinking we’d be able to see mac if she came back. We did have a beer, but last call was at 1:20 am, and we headed back to the room. We never did see mac after she left in search of food, and I do feel bad about that.

We decided to order room service since we were a bit hungry. We opted to split a grilled cheese sandwich. How hard would that be to mess up? When I tell you that this was the single worst grilled cheese sandwich we’d ever had, I would be further adding insult to injury that this was almost a $20 sandwich. It was a hunk of cheese, melted in some places, not others. Really thick sour dough bread that instead tasted like French toast (cold French toast), a flimsy tomato, a bit of bacon, and cold fries. Horrible. Really.

We’ll never order that again. Ever. And we eat almost anything. :sad2:

It was off to bed. Next up: MGM and EPCOT.

[Notatourist]

I am so glad that you had a good time. It was a treat to see all of you and am beyond happy that you guys had a great time.

[Motherfletcher]

The RIP Tour is THE way to go. Too bad it was sold out when we went. Your guide is a wealth of knowledge and she even let me wear the lighted helmet on my birthday. Bob and I both find B&T most excellent and went twice this year. We skipped the RHPS.
OK, its like a Cardinal rule not to ride rides when you are at HHN but Bob and I rode MIB and had a blast. We did single riders and once ended up on the same car. Bob was in the front seat with a black couple and I was in the back with another couple. Bob could not stop laughing at this black guy but managed about 270k. I was tearing them up and had 931k. We got the suit and the black guy was yelling, "We Agents, baby!" He had to check what everybody's score was so when he asked me I said 31k because he didn't even have that. The guy next to me said "He had 931k!" but I nudged him and the guy up front didn't hear and thought Bob was the best of the best of the best with honors. The guy was telling the agents at the unloading platform how good we did and you could hear him all the way out of the building. The rest of the trip Bob would look at me and say "We Agents! Baby!":cool1:
So Mike follows you in the HHN house conga line?
We did Jaws too and the chum barrel was turned off.
Keep writing.

[Cara]

I am enjoying your report! :thumbsup2

[AlexandNessa]

Later in the week, Mike was complaining about some of my other plans and told me that ALL my ideas should be like the RIP Tour. Mike hates "plans," but he said if we do HHN, we're only doing the RIP tour. And if the RIP tour is sold out, we're not going! And, yes, our tour guide is a wealth of knowledge!

MF, sent you back the name tag on Saturday. Of course, in my haste I forgot to send you back the MIB cheat sheet as I kept that with our confirmations and I just realized I didn't send it when I was going through our receipts. Wow, did we have an expensive trip! Matching receipts to our bill folio. Exhausting! I'll send the cheat sheet separately. Sorry!

[TigerLilly's Mom]

Hey - We love that Thai chili sauce too! It is really, really good! If you don't want to get the calarmari again, you can get the Thai lettuce wraps and it comes with that too - or it used to, at least.

I am loving your report. We are leaving on the 8th of November for 4 nights so your report is helping me get excited. I am curious about your Epcot day especially. We are thinking of spending a day and night over there. We have never done Disney and Universal in one trip, but we are suckers for Illuminations and would love to go over for that and a few rides. Not sure how the car service would work out though. Keep writing!

[bubba's mom]

Glad to hear you had a great RIP tour :goodvibes You deserved that 'fun' nite ;) Oh, and loved the note.... "***"? :lmao:

Looking forward to the next installment/day.....

[AlexandNessa]

We slept in this morning and arranged for our car service to pick us up at noon to take us over to Disney. Bob from ****** was driving us today, and we were glad for the break from Stevie Ray Vaughn and Lynard Skynard.

We had Bob drop us off at the Boardwalk Inn. Last time we drove to the WDW parks, we noticed a $10 taxi drop off fee. We asked Bob about this, and he said sometimes they let him thru without charging and sometimes they didn’t. He said he could take us to the gate and turn around if they charged the fee, but we told him not to bother. We’ve stayed at the BWI before and know our way around fairly well.

Honestly, we're not parking so why do we have to pay at all to be dropped off? I find the "drop off fee" ridiculous after what park hoppers cost these days, and I simply refuse to give Disney one more dime than I have to.

The plan was to just take the walkway to MGM. We’ve done it before.

We haven’t done it before when it was 90+ degrees outside; however.

Today was one hot day. Our walk started out fine, but as we approached the park, I had one unhappy camper on my hands.

We decided to do the Rock – N- Roller Coaster first. It was only a 30 minute wait, and we decided just to wait.

Did I mention my unhappy camper?

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebda371efd19500000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

Nice smile, eh? Feeling the love? :lmao:

I had told him we could take the boats if he wanted, but as I said, the exercise seemed nice at first thought.

We were in line behind a dad whose 2 teenage boys had not joined him in line initially, and then the boys pushed their way up the line to their dad. Normally, not a big deal, but when you’re rude about it, annoying. I don’t know what it is where teenage boys always seem to want to fight in front of me, but the dad did nothing, and the two boys were bouncing off the walls, and speaking some foreign language the entire time. We had gotten a phone call while we were in line, but could not hear them at all over this family.

We were trying to figure out what language they were speaking. Mike said, you know, I think they’re speaking Spanish, but they look Farsi. I didn’t know someone could look Farsi. This was certainly a new one to me.

Anyway, we primarily ride RNR for the takeoff and find the rest of the coaster anti-climactic. When we left the RNR, we checked the cell phone message to learn that our friend Vinny had planned to meet us in front of MGM because his son works for Disney and had park hopper passes to give us. Too late! But, a very generous offer.

I wandered over to check out Tower of Terror wait times. It was another 30 minute standby, but Fast Passes were being distributed for just less than an hour later, so I grabbed 2 of them instead, because I didn’t want my camper to remain unhappy and irritable.

We decided to grab some water and sit for a bit.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebda371aa50e000000035138Abt2jRk4bt1

Then I told Mike that we should do the Great Movie Ride because it’s inside and there’s never a wait, and he could cool off. He didn’t remember the GMR in all of our trips, so he actually wanted to go, despite me warning him of its cheese factor.

We didn’t have much of a wait at all, and the CMs were asking for a party of 2, and of all the people in front of us, we were the only pair, so off we went.

Now, let me ask you this: Why, in a crowded bench seat, is there always some idiot man who insists upon sitting with his legs spread wide apart? You could fit 3 basketballs in between this guy’s legs, and there I am trying to scrunch in, because, of course, this was the row the CM wanted us in. The CM told him and his family to move down. They did about 2.5 inches, but the man refused to put his legs together and took up the room of about 3 average-sized people just with his legs alone. So, I did spend the remainder of this ride silently thinking about what a jerk he was and also wishing that I had not wasted calories on half that awful grilled cheese sandwich the night before. :guilty:

It was about time now for ToT, and so we meandered over there, for what in my opinion is one of the few good rides in all of Disney. I love how the drops are random and they only have seat belts now. :thumbsup2

After ToT, I decided I wanted a snack because dinner was not till 7:20 at Le Cellier, where, of course, the “reservation” was made 6 fricking months in advance.

Does Disney inspire neuroticism or do the neurotics inspire Disney? You tell me.

Who knows where she’s going to want to eat 6 months in advance???

I got a cheese stuffed pretzel and a diet coke. Yes, despite my guilt over my caloric and fat intake the night before, you can just never eat enough cheese on vacation. Was it good? No. Worth the calories? Hardly. But it was certainly enough to hold me over until dinner.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdac8a40703800000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

It was at this point that we realized that we were being held hostage by a parade. I can take or leave Disney parades. We don’t make a point to watch, but we didn’t have a choice here. We were trapped inside the park until the stupid parade was over. They had CMs towards the front of the park who were asking who wanted to leave, so this must be a common occurrence. They let us know when the parade was over and when it was safe to cross to get out. So make note that it was not a good idea to try to leave the park somewhere between 3-3:30 on Monday, October 8.

Us hostages were finally released, and learning our lesson from earlier in the day, we took the Friendship 3 back to the Yacht & Beach Club and walked to Epcot from there (I almost wrote EPCOT Center … :rolleyes: ).

We checked out Soaring first. Soaring is OK, but it is not something that I would ever wait 70 minutes for, and of course all the Fast Passes had been distributed. Mike and I are still trying to figure out what the big draw is for that. It’s new? Everyone can ride? It’s not a thrill ride? It’s relaxing? I dunno. I’ve done Soaring 2 or 3x, and I’ll ride it if we can get FPs or it’s a walk-on, but there was no way in God’s sweet green earth that I was waiting more than an hour to fly over CA and smell oranges for 30 seconds.

Oddly enough, we actually like Mission: Space, and that, thankfully, is usually a walk on. We like the Orange track. The Green track is for sissies. OK, it’s not. It’s just not as fun for us. Face it. Disney seriously lacks good thrills, and the launch is just like watching a movie on the Green side. Big woop.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebda375abd1d300000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

We also did Ellen’s Universe of Energy, which we hadn’t done in years. They must have a problem with people wanting to leave the attraction early, because they announced that it was a 45-minute attraction twice and if anyone wanted to leave before it started they had better do so right after the announcement.

We did Nemo (a walk on), Turtle Talk with Crush (always a favorite), Journey Into Imagination (which hasn’t been good since 1987), and Honey, I Shrunk the Audience (still cute, but could use a little updating, IMHO). We skip Test Track. We think it’s lame.

Aren’t we a fun couple to do Epcot with?! :rotfl:

By about this time, we just exited Future World to go into the World Showcase.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdac8c7b700000000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

We found that for whatever reason that day, we were having trouble reading the Epcot map, and Mike decided it was best to turn it upside down because that was the only way it made sense to us. We were trying to figure out to go right or left to get to Canada when our friend Vinny who we were meeting for dinner called to find out where we were at. He sent us right, and there was Vinny and his family waiting for us.

Our ADR (I hate that term: ADR. It especially gets on my nerves when a Disney person comes over to the red-headed step children section of the boards to ask if she can make ADRs at Universal. Surely, I’m not the only one who rolls her eyes, but undoubtedly one of the few that will publicly admit that it annoys me. No ADRs are needed at Universal, and certainly not ones that need to be made 6 months in advance. You can make reservations at either one of Emeril’s restaurants, but I’m pretty sure they would laugh at you if you asked Emeril for an ADR … I’m sorry. I think I got carried away there.)

Where was I?!

Oh, yes, our ADR was for 7:20, but I don’t think we were seated till somewhere after 8.

This was our first time at Le Cellier, and since we were seated so late, we had plenty of time to study the menu.

Vinny and Mike went to get us beers while we waited outside, and I decided on the pork chop which was served over diced potatoes and cabbage. Mike had the linguine with shrimp and bay scallops. Everyone else had some kind of steak. I also ordered a side of asparagus, and Cathy, Vinny’s wife, ordered the side of creamed spinach. Everything was very good. I really liked the creamed spinach, which was so fattening that I began to wonder if there was any nutritional value left in it at all. It was served gratinee style and between the cream and the cheese … well, it was really good. My pork chop was excellent as well, and I know Mike ate most of his dish too. No Molson at Le Cellier, so I forget what we drank. I’m pretty sure it was Moosehead and LaBatt’s.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdac8007707a00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

Since we were seated so late, we had to eat and run because Bob from ****** was picking us back up at the Boardwalk at 10. That was the easiest place to meet, and it was easy to spot him.

Incidentally, both Bob and Roger had griped a bit about Disney outsourcing their bell hops and that service had gone down considerably since they had done so. I don’t frequent the Disney Resorts Board often, so this may be old news to many of you. They mentioned that they often had to ask bell hops for help at certain resorts, since the bell hops would just stand by and watch Bob or Roger unload the car themselves without even bringing over a luggage cart. They had some other examples as well, but it made me appreciate the Loews hotels where the bell hops are always right there and are always helpful and friendly.

We were glad to be “home” and decided that the night was still pretty young so we went to Margaritaville.

We were sitting at the Volcano bar when we saw two Universal security guards talking to two Orlando cops. We were trying to figure out what was going on and who or what they were there about.

Not long after that, they went to the porch where a couple was at a table. We turned around to watch. They interviewed both the male and female and then started doing searches. I wanted Mike to take a picture, but he told me to grow up … they would surely see the flash, and we’d be the next to be interviewed by the cops. Spoil sport.

He did say he would go outside under the auspices of having a smoke to find out the skinny, however.

He was pretty sure it was a drug bust. At this point, the man was handcuffed and remained seated at the table, and the police were searching the woman’s purse. A friend of theirs came over to plead with the cops that the couple was on their honeymoon and should be cut a break. The cop said something, and their friend hurriedly went away. See, Mike isn’t a half bad spy.

The guy was arrested and allowed to kiss his new wife goodbye before being led off in handcuffs.

Now, I’m sure you can all appreciate that except for sending Mike outside to get the skinny, we were turned around in our chairs to be facing the porch instead of the volcano, drinking our beers, and watching the whole thing unfold like we were in a movie theater. The staff came by to watch with us on occasion and ask what was going on.

We got one bartender to ask security what happened. Apparently, the couple kept getting up to use the bathroom and coming out with white residue under their noses and sniffling. (I asked the bartender: they went to into the same bathroom?! No, they each used their respective bathrooms, but at the same time.) After this happened a few times, a party at a neighboring table called security who watched the situation develop a bit before calling in the police who found the cocaine. The end!

A very exciting night, for sure! We should’ve looked at the local paper the next morning. The moral of the story is: don’t do drugs in public. Do them in the privacy of your hotel room. Kidding. Honestly.

We’d had enough excitement for the day and meandered home with our plastic cups to go:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdac80caf18700000035118Abt2jRk4bt1

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdac8510b1c700000026108Abt2jRk4bt1


Next up: water ride day.

[bubba's mom]

The plan was to just take the walkway to MGM. We’ve done it before.

We haven’t done it before when it was 90+ degrees outside; however.

Today was one hot day. Our walk started out fine, but as we approached the park, I had one unhappy camper on my hands.

it's the "thought" that counts :confused3



We were trying to figure out what language they were speaking. Mike said, you know, I think they’re speaking Spanish, but they look Farsi. I didn’t know someone could look Farsi. This was certainly a new one to me.

We find ourselves doing the same thing...trying to figure out what language (well, when you're "stuck" that is :rolleyes: ...we consider it cheap entertainment :rolleyes1


After ToT, I decided I wanted a snack because dinner was not till 7:20 at Le Cellier, where, of course, the “reservation” was made 6 fricking months in advance.

Does Disney inspire neuroticism or do the neurotics inspire Disney? You tell me.

Who knows where she’s going to want to eat 6 months in advance???



Exactly!!! When we did Disney, DH was like "You mean I have to decide what I'm in the mood for for dinner now and our trip isn't for 6 months?" Uh...yeah.... :headache: Turns out, we "walked" up to LeCellier and were seated (without ADR) within 5 minutes....it is an excellent steakhouse and worth every cent. DH had LaBatts...no lager :guilty:



We checked out Soaring first. Soaring is OK, but it is not something that I would ever wait 70 minutes for...... I’ll ride it if we can get FPs or it’s a walk-on, but there was no way in God’s sweet green earth that I was waiting more than an hour to fly over CA and smell oranges for 30 seconds.

Couldn't agree more! :thumbsup2


Oddly enough, we actually like Mission: Space, and that, thankfully, is usually a walk on. We like the Orange track. The Green track is for sissies. OK, it’s not. It’s just not as fun for us. Face it. Disney seriously lacks good thrills, and the launch is just like watching a movie on the Green side. Big woop.

Ditto! :thumbsup2


We got one bartender to ask security what happened. Apparently, the couple kept getting up to use the bathroom and coming out with white residue under their noses and sniffling. (I asked the bartender: they went to into the same bathroom?! No, they each used their respective bathrooms, but at the same time.) After this happened a few times, a party at a neighboring table called security who watched the situation develop a bit before calling in the police who found the cocaine. The end!
:eek: How cool!!! Why can't that excitin' stuff happen when we're there :headache:
Lookin' forward to wet day!! :goodvibes

[keishashadow]

great details:)

OT - would luv to try & make happy hour @ NBA on 12/1...as long as I can drag the old man & DS (send him off to the video games;) ) away from the park:laughing: . We need to wake up @ 4 am:scared1: to catch flight down (who booked that flight lol); figure we should be on our 1st ride around noon if all goes well.:thumbsup2 wonder how long the parks will be open Saturday? hope until 9 pm

i digress...luving the gory details :yay: especially HHN; DH sez he wants to visit it next year instead of our usual Dec.:woohoo: thinking Columbus Day week or prior one.

As for BW taxi fee, bizarre??? I do have an issue with off-site guests parking in the main lot (the one closest to resort) when they should be using the overflow across the street (same as BC/YC) just so they can skip paying the parking fee @ MGM/Epcot...different if they are actually using the BW area though. We have to use valet when we stay @ BW (since the self-parking is always full). While we get valet free - the tipping adds up daily. Noticed mostly the same employees parking the car @ WL in June...they hustle there/run for the car & double their tip lol.

pretty soon they'll be outsourcing their CMs:rolleyes1

As for the ADRs, agree - even since the DP; they've been hard to snag. They are eliminating the appetizer & tip beginning in January; think it will have a positive effect.:thumbsup2

[AlexandNessa]

Yes, Barb, the drug bust was an exciting event! Sorry you weren't there with us!

Janet, I would take issue too with those who park somewhere they shouldn't to avoid a fee, and I totally agree with you on that. :thumbsup2 But, what's the deal with having to pay a "fee" to be dropped off? No one is parking anywhere. :confused3 I think they said only Mears cabs don't pay a drop-off fee? I hope we didn't pull a refillable mug from 2002 stunt!

I won't pressure you to meet up at Happy Hour! Suffice it to say that we're usually there just after 4 and leave around 5:30 or so, so if you come, great! :goodvibes

[highlander447]

Hi, Enjoying your reports, have to say on our visit to RPR felt the standards where way below usual as well

[TigerLilly's Mom]

Jodie, can I ask you how much the fee from HRH to BW would be? We have stayed at the BWV too, and I think that would be a perfect place for drop off. That is ridiculous about the fee though - Disney really has a knack for getting every cent out of your pocket. I am starting to wonder how much a day trip to Disney will be - towncar, Epcot tickets, food, ect.

Am loving your trip report - I always send Steve to casually walk by and spy on situations like the drug bust at Margaritaville. Then he comes back with vague observations, and I have to go "casually" walk by too. We really do have to team up sometime. Steve doesn't understand the DIS stuff either. When I met Damo last year, Steve was like "who the heck is Tigerlilly's Mom?". Ummm...that would be me! He doesn't get it either. Next day please!!

[AlexandNessa]

See, I always knew we were kindred spirits, Tonia. :goodvibes Remember the "31 Club?" Geez ... how long ago was that?! Anyway, ****** charged us $60 + tip r/t between the HRH and BWI. We used them from the airport r/t, and by mentioning "the mouse for less" that fare was only $82 + tip.

Last December, our friend Maureen asked me to get her a one-day park hopper because she was joining us down there, and her flight was running late. I bought it, and then went into shock: $119.xx for a one day ticket? :scared1: I didn't have the heart to tell her how much it cost.

[keishashadow]

Yes, Barb, the drug bust was an exciting event! Sorry you weren't there with us!

Janet, I would take issue too with those who park somewhere they shouldn't to avoid a fee, and I totally agree with you on that. :thumbsup2 But, what's the deal with having to pay a "fee" to be dropped off? No one is parking anywhere. :confused3 I think they said only Mears cabs don't pay a drop-off fee? I hope we didn't pull a refillable mug from 2002 stunt!

I won't pressure you to meet up at Happy Hour! Suffice it to say that we're usually there just after 4 and leave around 5:30 or so, so if you come, great! :goodvibes

no pressure, r u kidding? If i can't drag them out of the park, i may just sneak over for a quick cool one myself;) they can have a spiderman marathon.

someone else posted on the main board (senior moment, can't remember who) as to visiting that weekend...maybe a mini meet @ the bar is in order...hey, you guy's it's Saturday!:dance3:

it's true, only mears transportation avoids the fees for drop offs @ the parks...didn't know it applied to the resorts too? Know mac uses ******, will have to ask her if she had a problem.

[AlexandNessa]

Oh, no, it doesn't apply to the resorts ... we had them drop us off at the BWI to avoid paying the drop off fee at MGM. :)

A meet would be good, as long as ChrisJo's BF wears that birthday shirt! :goodvibes

[JawsCPA]

Jodi - enjoying your report. I'm not sure if I would like HHN or not - as I would be too scared. Maybe you and I can go together and see who pees their pants the most.:lmao:

[bubba's mom]

Maybe you and I can go together and see who pees their pants the most.:lmao:

Ok....um......ewwwwwww :scared:

[AlexandNessa]

Glad to hear you had a great RIP tour :goodvibes You deserved that 'fun' nite ;) Oh, and loved the note.... "***"? :lmao:

Looking forward to the next installment/day.....

Hmmmm, one has to wonder ... was my trippie the final trigger to pull internet lingo censorship? WTH. Does that still work?! We say "Frick" in our house. If you were thinking otherwise, git yer minds out of the gutter! :)

[bubba's mom]

Hmmmm, one has to wonder ... was my trippie the final trigger to pull internet lingo censorship? WTH. Does that still work?! We say "Frick" in our house. If you were thinking otherwise, git yer minds out of the gutter! :)

Someone musta ratted you out :confused3 A little 'over the top' i think...after all, it wasn't really a 'word' per say... :confused3

[keishashadow]

guess i was too slow to catch the "good stuff", now it's gone forever:lmao:

imo way better to be scared senseless when your feet are firmly planted on the ground as opposed to being strapped in a coaster!:thumbsup2

jodie - assume mears has a "sweetheart" deal w/Disney. Rumours as to outsourcing of more % of bus service, etc. We're stockholders & appreciate the profits; yet it's starting to remind me of Wal-Mart driving out the competition.

[TigerLilly's Mom]

See, I always knew we were kindred spirits, Tonia. :goodvibes Remember the "31 Club?" Geez ... how long ago was that?! Anyway, ****** charged us $60 + tip r/t between the HRH and BWI. We used them from the airport r/t, and by mentioning "the mouse for less" that fare was only $82 + tip.

Last December, our friend Maureen asked me to get her a one-day park hopper because she was joining us down there, and her flight was running late. I bought it, and then went into shock: $119.xx for a one day ticket? :scared1: I didn't have the heart to tell her how much it cost.

Yes, I do remember. i would say the "31 Club" was about 4 years ago, since I am now 35:scared1: .

I wonder if a one day Epcot ticket would be less than a hopper? I really should venture over to the Disney boards. I hate to though, because it induces so much anxiety in me, seriously. That is why I love Universal, you can actually relax, not plan, wake up whenever on your vacation - instead of having a binder, stopwatch, and a priority seating spreadsheet.

[AlexandNessa]

Oh, yes, a regular one-day ticket is cheaper than a one-day park hopper. Somewhere around $80? Still, I think a little scary. May be cheaper to buy a tkt with greater days, and then just get the non-expiry option if you think you'll go back?

I need to get started on water ride day!

[RVGal]

I'm here and I'm reading... :goodvibes

Looking forward to more... popcorn::

[Motherfletcher]

Mike was going to the pool. I thought it was Where's The Float?

[loribell]

Oh my gosh Jodie & Barb got censored! You guys are bad!:lmao:

I have to ride the green side of MS because Ally won't ride the Orange side. We were there trying to get her to go on it the day before that little boy died on it in 05. She was all set, we were seated and they had to open the doors back up for some reason (I think someone found a full barf bag). Anyway, once those doors opened it scared her and there was no getting her to ride it. I felt terrible because I gave her a real hard time about it. Normally I don't do that but since she had been excited about riding I felt like she needed to. Then found out that little boy died the next day and felt like a terrible mother. :sad1:

We really like Soarin but we will not ride it without FP's. Actually we are pretty much that way about all rides, unless the wait is 20 minutes or less.

Can't wait to hear about the water day!

[AlexandNessa]

The rest of the trip Bob would look at me and say "We Agents! Baby!":cool1:



I've been meaning to say that would make a great tag! :goodvibes

So would Where's the Float? :lmao:

[AlexandNessa]

We decided to take it easy today as we were going to have a long and busy day tomorrow. This made it a perfect day for “Water Ride Day.” I’m sure many of you do the same thing. Some of you probably call it “Wet Day.” Same thing, different title: pick a day, dress appropriately, do only water rides, get drenched, waddle home, hope for no chaffing.

This always includes the same rides, and in the same order, from least wet to most wet. First up: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Mike hates it when I make him ride this since we are often the only two adults without children who are riding. It’s part of Water Ride Day … he doesn’t have a choice. This trip, Mike took to calling this ride Kaballah Fish, Muslim Fish. :rotfl:

Next up was Jurassic Park River Adventure. We rode with a father and son from England. Lots of people from the UK this trip. I am one who hates the drop, and I squeeze my eyes tight as soon as I see Rex, but before I did, I saw that the little boy next to me actually had his head down and eyes closed. I was worried that he’d totally hit his head and wind up with a concussion, but he wasn't my kid. That's what his dad is there for, right? He survived just fine, and even told me he liked it after the ride was over.

We were off to Dudley Doo Right next. We always get steered to the front of the log. We like to make people think we’re being nice by offering them the front by switching with them. This seems to work every time. Anyway, we left this ride with one sentiment: THE LAP BAR SUCKS. They were uncomfortable, and we felt too confined. It took Mike forever to get in and adjust the bar. He’s no skinny Minnie, but he’s not exactly pooh sized either. He hated it. I did too. Suckity, suck, suck, suck, SUCK, SUCK!!

We rounded out Water Ride day with Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge Rat Barges, and had fun on that as usual. We always seem to be the victim of guests with too many quarters aiming their squirt guns at us. I always wonder if any of them have read our trip reports and just don’t like us. :idea:

That was enough for today, and we thought we would stop by the Beach Club on the way back to the hotel since no one seems to notice you’re wet and icky at the Beach Club. We had a beer at the bar, and then waddled up to the room to shower and head out for the evening.

Since we never carry a camera on Water Ride Day, perhaps I can entertain you with some pictures that were hanging in the room:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebda361e9d19b00000035118Abt2jRk4bt1


http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebda366fa911300000035118Abt2jRk4bt1

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebda365bfd1cf00000035118Abt2jRk4bt1

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebda37b27506800000035118Abt2jRk4bt1

It would seem that I forgot to bring our camera that night as well. I went through our pics, and I can’t seem to find any from Tuesday. A lost day, I guess. :confused3

I know we went to NBA City first to squeeze in the last 30 minutes of Happy Hour. Anyway, we were sitting at the bar, and these 2 guys seemed friendly enough at first, and they asked us if we knew the Happy Hour specials since the bartender (Axe) had stepped away for a second. We told them and they were asking what we thought they should order. Mike always tells them Coors Lite, and I like to tell everyone that Coors Lite is a sissy beer because it has no taste. I asked them where they were from, and they said “the UK.” I asked innocently, “which part?”

One of them rolled his eyes and said “Wales. Most of you Americans think the UK is just England.”

Jerk.

That was the end of our conversation with them. It would’ve been fine if he said it nicely, but he was a snot about it, so we were done with him. Plus, he didn’t leave any tip whatsoever for our guy Axe, so he was a double jerk. And I silently wished a pox on his house. (So I hope he's not related to anyone reading this!)

Another friendlier family from Wales came to the bar, and they started chatting with us. The mom and kids grabbed drinks to go, but the dad stayed at the bar with us. I managed to convince him to switch from Coors to Miller (not that Miller is that great, but they don’t have Yuengling Lite which is what I normally drink). Axe immediately knew what I was up to, and asked our new friend if I was that convincing. We got to talking about TV and which shows “crossed the pond,” and our new friend told Axe to buy us a round of drinks. When he got the tab, however, he realized he was $1.50 short. So, he said he’d be right back as he was just going outside to get the cash from his wife. We told him not to worry, we’d cover it. Then we realized that he also hadn’t left any tip at all, so our free round of drinks wasn’t a free round at all. ;)

We left a tip under his tab, and told Axe that was his tip from “the Brits.” He said he knew it wasn’t, but thanks. Seems they dread the UK invasion as many do not tip, and there was a big influx of them that week. Seemed the airfare was reasonable that week, at least according to a few families we spoke to. We learned the Columbians are also bad tippers or no tippers. Think some of them just feign ignorance. I don’t get that, though. If I were going to a foreign country, I’d be sure to learn the basics. Tipping is a basic of USA travel, and with the Internet these days, how could they not know? Or at least learn while they’re there? That’s just me, but I don’t get it.

Axe had said that he got his revenge though when we went backpacking through Europe. Seems the bartenders there love Americans because they typically leave extra money on top of the tab. When the bartenders over there would ask Axe if he wanted to leave anything extra on top of his tab, he’d smile and say, “Nope!” Good for him. :smokin:

I don’t mean to offend … I know there are visitors from the UK who do tip, but from what we were hearing and seeing, the tippers were in the minority.

We wanted it to be an early night since we had a long day the next day. We went to Margaritaville for some dinner and headed “home” around 9 or so.

Sorry this was not so exciting. Tomorrow is a much busier day with lots of pics!

[highlander447]

A good water day, Bluto was down when we where there, with regards UK tippers I really think its a more a case of those who don't tip are complained about and its made more noticeable, over the years I've seen many nationalities US incl not tipping either

[bubba's mom]

Axe had said that he got his revenge though when we went backpacking through Europe. Seems the bartenders there love Americans because they typically leave extra money on top of the tab. When the bartenders over there would ask Axe if he wanted to leave anything extra on top of his tab, he’d smile and say, “Nope!” Good for him. :smokin:



:lmao: :rotfl2: :lmao: :rotfl2: Good for him! I'm tellin' ya...."what goes around, comes around" :rolleyes1

So, what I'm getting out of today's report:
*You's got wet
*You don't like the lap bars on Dud? :confused3
*Thought you were gettin' free drinks, but uh-uh......

[keishashadow]

DH will be happy to hear they have Coors Light on tap, do they have Michelob by chance:wizard:

Can you run a tab on room key @ NBA? We couldn't use it @ NASCAR, even though I requested they give it a shot after they said "they never work":confused3 ; glad we had a CC with us or we'd be washing dishes.

[RVGal]

I'm not sure I got a true sense of your feelings toward the new lap bars on Dudley. ;) :laughing:

So, you asked what part of the UK the guy was from and he gave you a speech about Americans assuming Wales isn't part of the UK??? What's up with that? Ummm... you know that whole Prince of Wales thing is SO confusing. Just makes us lump Wales in with England since they made that distinction. Queen of England... Prince of Wales... we's to stoopid to see the difference. And of course, all Irish (Northern or Republic of) and Scottish are the same too... and not part of the UK at all.

:::sniff, sniff::: Smell that? That was sarcasm. :rolleyes1

[Akdar]

I have to agree about the lapbars, real confining. I def liked Dudley better without them!

[AlexandNessa]

Highlander, I hope I didn't offend you. Perhaps we were just there at a bad time. We tend to sit at the bar a lot, so it's easy to see and notice, and it was just something we noticed a lot this trip. They were some who did tip, but definitely in the minority.

Barb, nice summary! Perhaps you should write my next day's report? :laughing:

Janet, we've had some trouble at NASCAR too with the cards, but we used our room key cards at NBA City all week without a problem. I don't remember if they have Michelob on tap. I know they have Fosters and Sam Adams, but I don't remember what else they have. Sorry!

Tricia, see, you always get me! It bothers me that we have a rep for being "Ugly Americans" when we travel overseas and then that seems to follow us even when the overseas people visit here. :confused3

Akdar, thanks for backing me up. Yes, if you didn't get my feelings: the new lap bars SUCK! :goodvibes

[highlander447]

Highlander, I hope I didn't offend you. Perhaps we were just there at a bad time. We tend to sit at the bar a lot, so it's easy to see and notice, and it was just something we noticed a lot this trip. They were some who did tip, but definitely in the minority.

Barb, nice summary! Perhaps you should write my next day's report? :laughing:

Janet, we've had some trouble at NASCAR too with the cards, but we used our room key cards at NBA City all week without a problem. I don't remember if they have Michelob on tap. I know they have Fosters and Sam Adams, but I don't remember what else they have. Sorry!

Tricia, see, you always get me! It bothers me that we have a rep for being "Ugly Americans" when we travel overseas and then that seems to follow us even when the overseas people visit here. :confused3

Akdar, thanks for backing me up. Yes, if you didn't get my feelings: the new lap bars SUCK! :goodvibes

Hi no no offence given none taken, its what you saw and have seen myself more common at bars:goodvibes

[RVGal]

Tricia, see, you always get me! It bothers me that we have a rep for being "Ugly Americans" when we travel overseas and then that seems to follow us even when the overseas people visit here. :confused3


Of course. I also say, what you do comes back to bite you in the posterior.

When Brad & I were in French Polynesia, I think Tahiti, but could have been another island, we overheard a group of American tourists at the next table saying, "I'm not exchanging MY money. If they won't take an American dollar, then I'm not doing business with them."

I looked over at Brad, since we were near the end of our trip, and smiled. See, most of the stores/restaurants/etc have prices up in CFP Francs OR US dollars. The thing is, if you do the currency conversion in your head, they are charging you MORE for using US dollars. Hey, I don't blame them. If you are too lazy to convert your money to the local currency, you deserve to get screwed.

The "Ugly American" thing gets old. I have seen some, but I also know there are plenty of us that try to respect the local customs and don't expect the world to bend to our way of doing things.

[bubba's mom]

I looked over at Brad, since we were near the end of our trip, and smiled. See, most of the stores/restaurants/etc have prices up in CFP Francs OR US dollars. The thing is, if you do the currency conversion in your head, they are charging you MORE for using US dollars. Hey, I don't blame them. If you are too lazy to convert your money to the local currency, you deserve to get screwed.

http://bestsmileys.com/clapping/2.gif absolutely!!!!


The "Ugly American" thing gets old. I have seen some, but I also know there are plenty of us that try to respect the local customs and don't expect the world to bend to our way of doing things.

I agree...this is almost a daily "beef" with me :mad: The "office" job I work, well, we teach food & alcohol safety. Now, think about it....chinese restaurants, italian restaurants, LOTS of Hindi's own Dunkin Donuts and such...it really irritates me when someone calls our office asking: 1) Does anyone there speak Spanish (or any other language than English, Spanish & Chinese)? 2) Do you give the test/exam in Hindi (or any other language than the previously stated)? Um....NO!!! THIS IS AMERICA AND OUR LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH....LEARN IT! SPEAK IT! OR GET OUT!!!! (Sorry, but it's a hot topic at work and really gets under my skin!) Ya know, if I were to travel to another country, say France, Germany, China, etc....I would do my absolute best to communicate in THEIR language. I would never go to another country and expect them to speak English (like they do here ) :sad2:

[pauldents]

Great trip report:

Re Configuration of your king suite. We also had one exactly like that. Did you manage to flip your king bed into the wall? At first it took me a couple of hours to work out why there were spotlights under the bed!

Re: Soarin. We also went over to EPCOT from the HRH and did this ride. Even in the FP line it took 20 or so minutes to ride it and one of the servers from the Garden Grill said the park was dead!

Re: Brits and the tipping thing. Trust me, I am from the U.K. and my nightmare job would be a bar person on I-drive! I think the part of the problem stems from bar people in the U.K. don't rely heavily on tips as they get a higher basic wage, whereas in the U.S. they rely more on tips. Same with restaurant servers. It's not because Brits are tight with their money (several thousand $$ just to get there), it's just that more of the service part is included in the basic wage of the server. Also some Brits who understand the tipping process in restaurants, may not at bars. The U.K. is slowly coming around to the whole Americanized tipping culture over here and believe me I for one would rather see it like the American system as I'm sure the service would be far better.

This whole tipping procedure may be like second nature to you guys, but is a quite a learning process to us. It took me a while to grasp the whole concept and etiquette (i.e. when to tip, who to tip, where to leave the tip etc) of tipping in the U.S. and I have been to your country many times. We have always been great tippers. Most of the time at least 25%.

Please don't see this as an excuse for Brits not tipping, because it's not. I completely agree that someone who visits another country should adapt and respect that countries customs. "When in Rome.........", but like Highlander I saw two examples of Americans not tipping on our recent trip there.

As for the Welsh guys at the bar, it doesn't help when our stupid media keep bombarding us with "news" stories like this one today: http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1290248,00.html or this http://www.mirror.co.uk/archive/2002/11/21/is-iraq-even-in-the-world-don-t-know-don-t-care-there-ll-be-nothing-left-of-it-soon-anyway-kristal-snow-and-hagatha-christie-89520-12391630/

[AlexandNessa]

Great trip report:

Re Configuration of your king suite. We also had one exactly like that. Did you manage to flip your king bed into the wall? At first it took me a couple of hours to work out why there were spotlights under the bed!



No, we never did flip the bed up! Never realized we could, but being only the 2 of us, we never really "needed" to, I guess.

Don't get me wrong. I think Americans who don't tip are worse. Americans know the deal, and are just being plain cheap when they don't tip bartenders. No feigning ignorance there ... No wonder when bands play, there are always reminders to tip the bar staff.

I think much of the Media in the western world has a liberal slant. I clicked on the articles and read the headers, but I couldn't stomach reading them.

I don't mean to turn the trippie into a political debate by any means. Tomorrow is a full day at Busch Gardens. Stay tuned!

[pauldents]

No, we never did flip the bed up! Never realized we could, but being only the 2 of us, we never really "needed" to, I guess.


This is what it looked like in the "flipped up" position! We didn't need the extra room. I was just curious as to why there was spotlights under the bed and ended up putting it in the upright position! All I could think is they may use these rooms for hospitality stuff or small meetings as it created a lot of room in the suite.

Anyway. Apologies for hi-jacking your thread. Look forward to reading about BG.

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i273/chaffordimages/DSC05932.jpg

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i273/chaffordimages/DSC05921.jpg

[AlexandNessa]

Thanks for the pic with the bed flipped up! I am going to have to show Mike that one. It would make perfect sense that they use the room for a hospitality suite with the bed flipped up that way. :goodvibes

[bubba's mom]

Thanks SO much for posting those pix of the bed "flipped".... I had absolutely NO idea what you guys were talking about :confused3 :headache: :rotfl: Kinda cool....maybe 2009 trip we'll get a king at HRH an give 'er a try :thumbsup2

Regarding tipping...ironically, i wish the USA would pay their tenders and servers MORE so they have to rely on tips LESS. Too many "cheap" people and the server/tender could give great service and still come out on the short end :sad2: I think servers should earn at LEAST minimum wage...but, most don't. I won't go into it anymore, as this is Jodie's trip report...... so...carry on J! :thumbsup2 :surfweb:

[JawsCPA]

Jodi -
Enyoing your trippie.

I need to thank you for "water ride" day. I read an earlier trip report from you before our vacation, and used this policy. We also had a water ride day at IOA. We did all the rides twice. It was great - not caring how wet you got since when we were done, we were walking 10 minutes back to HRH and dry clothes.:cool1:

[keishashadow]

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i273/chaffordimages/DSC05932.jpg

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i273/chaffordimages/DSC05921.jpg
adorable tyke...just had to see the rolling stones pic again:love:

[macraven]

sorry jodie, forgot to tell you that about the bed.

[AlexandNessa]

Most people think that “a.m.” means “ante meridiem” and “p.m.” means “post meridiem.” If you live in our house, you know that “a.m.” really means “Angry Mike” and “p.m.” means “Pleasant Mike.”

Which is why my better half was cursing me this fine morning.

We would be taking the bus to Busch Gardens Tampa (or Africa, whatever you want to call it) this morning, which would be why the alarm woke us up at the ungodly hour of 6:30 a(ngry) m(ike).

You see, the bus from Universal to BGT is only $10pp r/t. Which pretty much beats the price of virtually every other mode of transportation. The drawback? It leaves at 8:30 am and doesn’t return until 6:00 pm.

The previous day, Mike had warned me that he wouldn’t start talking to me until about 11 am or so, and I would just have to deal with it. Later that previous day, the talking and pleasant hours were pushed back till noon, followed by 1, then maybe he’d talk to me around 2. I told him that technically, Pleasant Mike started at noon, and he shouldn’t push his luck.

I really, really should have taken pictures of City Walk that morning, but I was just waking up myself and was too lazy to pull out my camera. The bus picks you up in the Universal Parking Lot bus section. Having always stayed on-site, we never knew where the parking lot even was. Sad, eh? Since we had never, ever ventured to the parking lot before, we had done a trial run the day before to make sure we knew where we were going. Bottom line: following the moving walkways. When they end, take a right, and go downstairs to find the buses. Easy peasy.

When I tell you that at 8:15 in the Angry Mike hours that City Walk is DEAD, I do mean D-E-A-D dead. There wasn’t a person in sight. I don’t even think there were people at Starbucks yet. Mike, of course, took every opportunity to rub this in and to point out that we were the only two to be up at this uncommon hour voluntarily. At least everyone else who was up at that time was working.

I told Mike to buck it up; he could sleep on the bus as it was almost an hour’s drive.

The bus was nice enough but it was a bit cramped. Not much leg room, and as luck would have it, didn’t I pick the seat with the creaky window. The creaky window was, of course, all Mike could hear, and he didn’t nap as planned, further cementing my fate as world’s meanest wife.

Nonetheless, the ride to BGA/BGT was uneventful, and we arrived before the park even opened. Still, you know I can’t go too long without announcing a pet peeve, right? What’s the deal with people with bags going through the “guests with no bags” line? Can no one read anymore? Sheez. Mike and I do not bring bags for a reason, and didn’t we get stuck behind a whole slew of people with bags who’ve planted themselves in the “no bags” line and the BG people didn’t seem to care. What gives?

We headed straight for the Adventure Tour Center. We had wanted to sign up for the Guided Adventure Tour, but they weren’t offering it that morning. I was bummed at first, but then realized that we didn’t need it at all.

We did Gwazi first. I don’t know why we bothered. Think we did it because there was no line. We actually don’t enjoy wooden coasters much because we always feel we end the ride with a concussion and a headache.

After Gwazi, we were going to head over to SheiKra, but of course the rest of the park wasn’t even open yet, and we had to wait.

Here’s Mike making a plan of attack while we waited:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdac85b2b16500000035118Abt2jRk4bt1

Except that we got tired of waiting, and Mike decided to take the opportunity for a pit stop:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdac99f6b12f00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

When they opened the rest of the park at 10:30, we headed straight for SheiKra. Think I rode this with my eyes closed. It’s pretty intimidating. It drops you 90o, but not before coming to a buck stop, stall, and then drop. The rest of the coaster was cool, if not a bit anti-climactic after the initial drop. We both gave SheiKra two big thumbs up, despite it still being in the Angry Mike hours.

We wound up riding the train (Serengeti Railway) around the park.



http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdac9982b15b00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdac92aff1eb00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdac97da303400000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdac97c6302800000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacb00ef15b00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

I grabbed some lunch which was unmemorable. I think I had a hotdog and water.

We rode Kumba, which we dubbed Hulk 2 without the takeoff.

We also saw Pirates 4D. Pirates 4D was pretty lame, but it was a hot day and it was nice and cool in the theater. The effects certainly were not up to par with Shrek 4D or Honey I Shrunk the Audience. But it was mildly entertaining.

We moved onto Timbuktu, where we did The Scorpion, which lasted about 26.4 seconds, but there was no line, and we didn’t care. We also did Cheetah Chase, which was very reminiscent of the Primevil Whirl in Animal Kingdom’s Dinoland.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdac957cb1a300000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

I forget what they called this, but Mike refused since it went all the way upsidedown:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacab9a306a00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

Really, there were no lines ANYWHERE.

Honestly, it was only about 1:30, and we weren’t sure we could fill another 4.5 hours at the rate we were going. We decided to meander through the Edge of Africa, and got some pics there. We saw meerkats, hippos, hyenas, crocs, etc.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacc8b0f1d900000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacc95f309e00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacb749b18700000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacb1d3302e00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1



Good grief: it’s only 2 o’clock.

We did the skyride, and took pics there.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacb978b1b100000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacb90930f000000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacbf01b1cb00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacadbab17900000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdaca771b1b700000026108Abt2jRk4bt1



http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacbfe6301c00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1



We rode SheiKra again, a second time with no wait whatsoever.

We wandered to Egypt and rode Montu, which we dubbed Dueling Dragons 2 minus the Dueling.

We toyed with going on the Rhino Rally, but Mike decided it was too hot to pile in a truck and go on a safari. I don’t blame him. It was super hot that day, and the truck ride looked like it would be rather rough. Heading toward the Rhino Rally, we took some time to bond with the elephants. I swear to you, there was one elephant who looked like he was dancing to the music they were playing. We got such a kick watching him sway back and forth to the music.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacaba3b16300000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdaca97d308c00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

Of course, this is Mike’s favorite pic from our trip:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacef45b1a700000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

This is his other favorite:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacb1eb301600000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

Can you tell what the turtles are doing?

That’s right. Mike said, “Geez. They even do THAT slow.”

By this time, it was time for us to sit and veg for a bit, so we went to see KaTonga. Now, I am pretty sure I inadvertently fell asleep during this show. We were a bit early, and the show was 35 minutes long (we know because we asked before entering). Mike said he didn’t care what the show was about; this show was going to kill about 45 minutes for us so that’s all that mattered to him. It was a Broadway type show, but certainly not on the scale of any Disney productions. From what I saw, it was cute and entertaining and about these aspiring storytellers who tell whimsical tales from the Jungle. I don’t know. Something about monkeys. Something about a frog. There was an ocean scene. Maybe it was a river. What do I know?

We came out of the show, and it wasn’t even 4:00. We couldn’t get on the bus till about 5:30.

We decided to go to the Colony House, and I had a slice of pizza and we split a soda. Ah, eating healthy today. A hot dog and a slice of pizza. What am I? 12?

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacbc9970fa00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

We killed about 25 minutes in there.

I’m sure at least some of you are surprised that Mike and I didn’t take advantage of the free beer. We don’t tend to drink during the day, and we were already plenty tired without adding alcohol to our systems.

We had seen just about everything. Done just about everything … we even killed 5.2 minutes going through King Tut’s Tomb. We did the Myombe Reserve and the Bird Gardens too. Really, it was just too long of a day for too small of a park during the low season.


We got to the bus around 5:45, snagged seats that we were sure were free of a window creak, and snuggled in to get back home. I had wondered if the bus would make several stops to area hotels before running us back to Universal, but there was just the one stop, so we were glad for that.

We were exhausted. It was a very long day.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacb48cf1db00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

Now, if the park were busy, it would probably have been a perfect amount of time. But, our suggestion would be that they have a non-peak schedule and a peak schedule. We could’ve used a 3pm pick up.

It was only about 7:30, and we had a beer at the Beach Club because I had asked for turn down service at 7:30, and we wanted to give housekeeping a chance to get in the room. By 8 or so, we decided to shower and then go to NBA City to see our friend Axe and then go to Margaritaville.

Somehow at Margaritaville, we missed out on dinner as the kitchen was closed. Poor Mike was hungry by this time, and we went back to the hotel for a second chance at room service.

Mike was in the mood for pizza. I was bummed that I hadn’t brought the number for Flippers (and I don’t know how late they deliver anyway), so we opted for the delish pizza of the HRH. I am lying. I am totally lying.

If you learn one thing from my trip report, it must be this: the room service pizza at HRH is among the worst I have ever had in my entire life. EVER. Think tasteless, doughy crust spread with tomato paste and no additional seasoning, some cheese and whatever toppings you want. We had thought they just maybe had an “off” night with the grilled cheese sandwich, but how do you make a pizza THAT bad? We decided then that we would make a point of eating early as room service was now officially not an option anymore. Live and Learn.

[TigerLilly's Mom]

Love the turtle picture! I will keep that in mind about the HRH room service. We have ordered room service from RPR and it was great, but never HRH. Poor Mike, I hope that you let him sleep in tomorrow.

[bubba's mom]

Sounds like an "okay" day....hot, not much fun nor much to do....like you mentioned "too small a park when you're stuck there".... Never been to FL BG (VA waaaay long ago), maybe someday we'll check it out...but have our own transportation :thumbsup2

You gots a cranky husband early vacation mornings too ;) ....me too. Guess it was good to be "home" after that day.......

Lookin' forward to more...... (no cliffhanger :( )

[AlexandNessa]

Don't get me wrong ... I just reread the report, and we didn't have as bad a day as it probably sounds! It was fun. We're glad we did it. If we do it again, we'll be taking our own transportation; that's for sure! SheiKra was really great! Especially now that it's floorless. :thumbsup2

But, yes, it was a long day, and we were very glad to be back "home."

I did let Mike sleep in the next morning, and he thanked me for that. :flower3:

Mmmmmm, I couldn't think of a good cliffhanger. Suffice it to say that the following night has my favorite pics of the trip, but not all are suitable for posting! :rolleyes1

[highlander447]

A good day, u struck lucky get such a quiet day:goodvibes

[bubba's mom]

Mmmmmm, I couldn't think of a good cliffhanger. Suffice it to say that the following night has my favorite pics of the trip, but not all are suitable for posting! :rolleyes1


pleez :worship:

[RVGal]

Wait...

First you tell me that we are suppose to be posting "good" pictures of ourselves...

Now you tell me that we are suppose to be posting "suitable" pictures too?

Dang.

I've been going about this all wrong. ;)


It sounded like you had a good day, but a good day can turn into a so-so day if you find yourself dragging things out to fill up extra time you are stuck with.

[keishashadow]

Thanks for the BG review; we're not fans of Williamsburg version (may have had something to do with 100% humidity on busy August weekend lol); did want to check out the TPA version though...interesting that it wasn't crowded.

all that commando touring;) should make Mike very appreciative of the U vibe:) remind him how great u r for planning it - frequently:goodvibes

[AlexandNessa]

Ah, we were tired and we slept in. And when I say slept in, I am emphatically referring to that which is an inalienable right when staying onsite at a Universal onsite hotel. God Bless America. God bless unlimited express. And, thank the sweet Lord that I actually married the man who understands me and indulges my need for vacating approximately every 3 months, and that I didn’t marry the loser I dated forever previous to Mike who wound up sucking me dry and couldn’t afford the cable bill, much less maintaining the all-important Platinum status we’ve attained at the Loews hotels. But that’s a story for Danielle Steele or the Lifetime Network, and not the Disboards, or this trip report that I am writing at 3 in the a(ngry) m(ike) hours and will just kiss up to God and hope it makes sense in the end.

We realized that we had been at Universal since Saturday, here it is Thursday, and we had yet to ride Spiderman and the Hulk. How did that happen?

I can tell you how it happens: after you have been to Universal so many times and you have an extended stay, you tend to say, “We still have 4 days left” or “we’re coming back in 6 weeks.” This also leads to forgetting to bring your camera. I don’t mean to sound like we take our Universal vacations for granted. Well, maybe we do. Next trip, we’re going to live it up like it’s our last. Until we decide to go back 5 months later.

Now, I love the walking paths between the hotels and the parks, and this, honestly, is one thing I look forward to the most. Oh how I miss the days when those paths were Rickshaw free and not littered with the peddling peddlers. I wish they had their own path so we didn’t have to regularly dodge out of their way as we try to enjoy our walk. I’m sure they serve a purpose to those with injuries or cranky children. I hate them, however, and never miss an opportunity to say so in any survey I receive from the Loews Hotels or Universal. That’s just me.

And so we were off to a late start and arrived at Islands of Adventure at the ripe hour of about 1 o’clock or so. One of the reasons that we started out slow was that I was not feeling so well. I figured it was mind over matter and I would NOT get sick on vacation. No way, baby. Only losers get sick on vacation, and I was not one of them. No way, Jose. I figured that I would stay hydrated and feel better once I stepped outside and got some fresh air. For the most part, I was able to get forget about that pesky little problem, and we enjoyed Spiderman, The Hulk, and both sides of Dueling Dragons. Mike also decided that he was hot and he wanted to do Cat in the Hat with no line. He usually doesn’t like CITH. At least he never volunteers for it. There was no one in line on that ride, not a soul in sight, and I was embarrassed to be flashing our express passes at all. Mike’s philosophy is that we’ve got the passes; we might as well use them.

Since it was not Water Ride day, we skipped most of the other rides at IOA. And, as usual, we also skipped Dr. Doom’s … which after how many visits to the parks, we have never ridden. Mike and I play chicken on this ride, and we always say “next time.” Except that we’ve been saying “next time” for 4 years now. I’m sure Dr. Doom’s is nothing to write home about. We ride Tower of Tower with no qualms whatsoever. Mike attributes his hesitance to Dr. Doom’s being outside, without the safety of ToT’s enclosure. Hey, whatever lets him sleep at night.

We did a quick run over to the Studios. Well, more like a light jog. Who are we kidding? You’re not allowed to run between the 2 parks. We always seem to ride Jimmy first, and there is no rhyme or reason to that either, other than it’s the first ride you come upon as you enter the park, and Mike really doesn’t care for Shrek 4D that much. We made a casual circle around the park that included stops at The Mummy and MIB, and then, magically, it was 4 o’clock and time for Happy Hour at NBA City.

Our buddy Axe was working, and we had two beers with him and went back to the room for a bit before deciding what we were going to do for the evening. We told Axe maybe we’d see him again before happy hour was over.

We relaxed in the room for a bit. At 6:30, I had to light a fire under Mike’s bum if we wanted to enjoy one more beer at Happy Hour prices. He reciprocated in kind with this pic:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdaccda0b15300000035118Abt2jRk4bt1

Nice, huh?

Does someone look annoyed? Possibly?

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacc23bf15700000035118Abt2jRk4bt1

On our way there, we noticed they had changed out a poster for American Gangster. I first stood with my fist to my chest. Mike said that was wrong, and instead, instructed me to pose like this:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacc023707e00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

Mike told me that was a Gangsta Pose. I don’t see it.

For the record, the kid in this picture is not ours:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacc6e7f18900000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

We made it back to NBA City by 6:50, 10 minutes prior to Happy Hour ending. There was only one problem: not only were there no seats at the bar, but people were standing 3 rows deep trying to order and beat the end of the special pricing.

Mike and I stood back and entertained ourselves with pictures like this:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacc798305e00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1


Clearly, we are easily amused.

I happened to look up after we snapped the picture to see a beautiful sight: Axe had 2 beers and he nodded at me. I went to the bar, and he said “This one’s yours, and this one is the Coors Lite.”

That’s right, baby. We were about 20 people behind others that were trying to order, and we strolled right in, got served, and didn’t even have to run a tab. Woot!

Why am I feeling like a VIP at NBA City and not at the Hard Rock? Hmmmmm.

By 7:15, happy hour prices were over, and we were easily able to move to the bar. They have a video game right at the bar, and appropriately, Mike played the game where you have to get the drunk home. I wish I remember what the name of the game is called. Essentially, you have a drunken man who takes a huge swig of beer and tries to stumble home by way of an alley. You have to keep him straight or else he falls and the game is over. I believe Mike had high score. We’ll be curious to see if he’s maintained that when we go back at the end of this month. (Seriously … this month. Did I just say that?).

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacda7e702e00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

Our friend refilled our beers without asking, and we relaxed for a bit and decided what to do next.

We went to settle up, and our best friend said simply, “You guys are good.”

Really, no bill? Could this night get any better?

We left a tip, and decided we might check out Pat O’Brien’s as City Walk seemed to be pretty busy, and Pat O’s is only good when it’s crowded. We meandered to the second level of City Walk, only to find that much of that part of “town” had been bought out for the evening for private parties.


Figures. Mike went to talk to someone to find out what was up, and it would seem that that area would be closed until after 10 or 11 and was bought out by some businesses. Can you imagine the cost of that? Yeah, I want to close out the Latin Quarter, Pat O’Brien’s and City Jazz and the area between the clubs for about 4 hours, and don’t let anyone else in. Sure, for $237 thousand dollars you can. I don’t know what it cost, but I do know it was big bucks.

It was then we were stopped by a pleasant lady who noticed that we didn’t make the cut into Patty O’s, and she apologized for interrupting, but wanted to know if we’d be interested in a comp to the Red Coconut because they were having a charity event for CORE (Children of Restaurant Employees: http://www.corewish.org/). They were having a band (I believe it was Bob Mason?), and all profits were going to support CORE.

Sure, we had nothing better to do at the moment, and if you’re telling us that if we bought a beer, we’d be drinking for a good cause, who are we to say no?

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacda58700800000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

They had hats and everything:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacdb1430dc00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

We had fun people watching. Check out this lady’s hair. Mike and I tried to figure out if it was real or not. I was going to follow her into the bathroom just to see if she had to do a wig adjustment or something, but I was unfamiliar with the stalking laws in the state of Florida and rethought that one.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacd94d308400000035118Abt2jRk4bt1


Not that I wound up following Raggedy Ann into the bathroom, but I must say, the bathrooms at the Red Coconut are among the nicest bathrooms in all of City Walk. Even Mike was impressed. They were only missing a bathroom attendant. It’s that type of bathroom. Really. I’m not lying.

Unfortunately, the band started, and it really was not our type of music. We’d had enough of the band after about 2 or 3 songs, and it didn’t matter if we were drinking for charity or not.

The block of City Walk was still closed, so we made our way to the Hard Rock Café where the music tends to be more to our liking, and at least the beer was on draft:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacde0c705e00000035118Abt2jRk4bt1

Mike was digging me in my new hat. He went to snap a picture, but I told him to give me a second to get rid of my double chin. He didn’t give me a chance to adjust properly, and in case you were curious as to what someone in the middle of trying to hide her double chin looks like, I am proud to show you this completely unflattering pic:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacdf1db1e700000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

It was here that we met our new friends, Ann and Jessica. We chatted for a bit, and then decided we were going to over to Margaritaville.

Margaritaville was having a band that night, and they wanted a $7 cover from each of us. Now, I actually had the gall to flash our comped Red Coconut tickets (they looked like regular City Walk passes. How was I supposed to know that they were only good for charity and not bar hopping?). Needless to say, they didn’t work, and I don’t know what I was thinking, but I just stared at the kid, and he asked, “did you visit the parks to today?”

Indeed I did. With my annual pass. I handed him my pass, and said, “Try this.”

He gave me a look like I had about 7.5 heads, but humored me and slid my AP through his computer. To both of our surprise, my AP actually worked for free admission into Margaritaville that night. Now, did Mike remember his AP too, or were we going to have to fork over $7 for him?

Mike never brings his AP, but somehow he pulled it out of his pocket, and he was good to go.

Wow, is this new or a one time thing for HHN or did we lucky? I am not sure. We’ve never tried using our APs for club admission before, and I don’t know that I’d ever have the cojones to do that again. If anyone knows, please speak up!

So, we bellied up to the bar:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacdca6f1c500000035118Abt2jRk4bt1

We ran into our friends Ann and Jessica again. In fact, that reminds me that I have to send them the pic we took of them. Duh. I am bad about that kind of stuff.

Ann was celebrating her 39th birthday. We had lots of fun with them.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacd15cb1a100000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

Let’s just say that the night ended with even Mike dancing (that NEVER happens!). It also ended like this:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacd16130ac00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1


We had a good, fun night, which was fortunate … you’ll learn why when I get to the rest of the report.

[highlander447]

I agree its so easy to do so little in the parks as u do get comfortable with FOTL over the stays, sounds like you both had a great night, I do know the HHN tix got u into the clubs so perhaps thats y the AP worked, think it maybe a late rise in the morning:goodvibes

[bubba's mom]

YAY!! More trippie....I wuz wonderin when you wuz gonna give us more.....

Ya know we did the same thing this summer with the "eh, we got all week to ride *insert ride here* :rotfl: There were a few things I didn't ride this summer for that very reason....however, Doom WAS one of them! It really isn't bad, it's great in fact! You are in a closed room waiting to "launch". Once you shoot up, it's an awesome view....and pretty much done. Just "bounce" down and enjoy the view ;) (We did this last trip because we were trying to "do" everything on the map...mission accomplished :thumbsup2 ) I was looking at Raggedy Ann's hair trying to figure out if real or not, but I can't...pic isn't that good (sorry :guilty: )....but the night sounds like a blast!!!! Maybe too much fun :scratchin (why you got sick??) Interesting the AP worked access to club..... (altho, we never go to the clubs cuz we are usually surrounded with 4 kids!) Oh, and I REALLY hope your night didn't end like you said.....hope it ended better ;)

[RVGal]

It sounds like you had a GREAT day!

Gotta love the "try to get the drunk home" game sitting at a bar. :lmao:

And how kind of you guys to drink your beer for charity (for a little while). Hey, if you're going to buy the beer anyway, might as well do some good while you're at it. :thumbsup2

I would describe the "annoyed" picture of Mike as more of a "pout"... but I wasn't there. :rolleyes1

[AlexandNessa]

Yes, I should apologize .. our camera doesn't take such great night shots. Plus, I am a really bad photographer so that doesn't help matters much. Mike is much, much better than me, but hates to take pics. Next time, I am going to have Mike take all the pics. I have no sense of perspective!

Next time they try to get a club entry fee from us, I'll have Mike ask if his AP will work. Honestly, I am usually not that person at all. When I tell you I stared at the kid because I was not forking over $14 for the 2 of us to listen to a band that plays the same set every time they're there (Blue Stone Circle), I wasn't kidding. He was very nice about it. I wasn't mean, and I didn't say anything. I just sort of tilted my head with the "Huh, you're going to charge us for this?" look of befuddlement. I don't know why our AP worked. I can't even believe that Mike had his on him. What a stroke of luck!

[macraven]

we skipped most of the other rides at IOA. And, as usual, we also skipped Dr. Doom’s … which after how many visits to the parks, we have never ridden. Mike and I play chicken on this ride, and we always say “next time.” Except that we’ve been saying “next time” for 4 years now. I’m sure Dr. Doom’s is nothing to write home about.






:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
that's my favorite ride.
if i could put that baby in my back pocket and take it home with me i would.
dr doom rules........

[highlander447]

I have to say TOT makes Dr Doom look like baby doom:lmao:

[Akdar]

I have to say TOT makes Dr Doom look like baby doom:lmao:
Well, to an extent. I like TOT, but you can't beat that initial launch of Doom, or the view, I think I saw my house in Pennsylvania from the top of Doom :rotfl2:

[lookingforward]

LOVE your trip reports! Hilarious and well written. And I am hitting NBA for happy hour next trip. :thumbsup2

[AlexandNessa]

Ugh, you know how you take your trip, and there is something that either bugs you or you find interesting, and you totally intend to write about it, and then you write your trip report and then you just plain forget to include your profound thoughts and experiences?

Well, that happened twice to me here.

So, before I continue on with the next day, allow me this.

At Disney, can I just tell you how much I cannot stand those stupid Mickey and Minnie wedding ears? What was up with the sheer amount of them? To me, they scream "HEY, LOOK AT US! WE JUST GOT MARRIED, AND WE NEED ATTENTION!!" And seriously, you have to take them off at the shows. You do. It's the polite thing to do. But here are these giddy couples who decide they continue to need attention through the show and don't bother to take their stupid wedding ears off during the show. And the boys just look dorky in those stupid Mickey Ear Top Hats. And the stupid veil with a tank top and sneakers may have been OK for your wedding rehearsal, but did you really love the look so much that you had to continue it all day in front of a hundred thousand strangers in a theme park? I suppose the wedding ears were cute before every 4th couple we saw were wearing them. Mike and I decided that we hate those hats, and those who wear them make our Top 10 List of Annoying people at WDW. Thank you for allowing that vent.



Also, on Thursday, when we rode the Mummy, we were witness to an interesting (yet age-old) scenario: a young girl about the age of 9 or 10 was waiting in line to board the coaster with her mother and father. She was clearly upset, afraid, and did not want to ride. I cannot even begin to tell you how mean her mother was to her, telling her to stop her crying and whining. She was being a baby, and she was to shut up and like it. I felt horribly for this poor girl. She was visibly shaken, and her mother was having nothing of it, and in fact, the father looked afraid of the mother too.

When this family loaded the coaster, the TM saw how upset the little girl was and asked her if she really wanted to ride. The mother snapped at the TM, "She's fine. Just go."

The TM said, "Ma'am, we cannot let this train go if she's crying." To which the mother turned to her daughter and demanded again, "Stop crying."

The TM ignored the mother, and looked directly at the daughter and sympathetically asked, "Honey, you don't have to ride if you don't want to. Do you want to ride? If you don't want to ride, we can let you out now."

We were sitting right behind this family so we saw the whole blessed thing. The mother nudged the daughter, and the daughter reluctantly nodded that she would ride.

The TM asked the girl if she were sure. The poor child said yes, and as soon as the TM left, the mother scolded her kid, "Thanks, you almost got us kicked out of the ride."

Mike and I of course watched the whole thing intently, breaking only briefly to give each other the wide-eyed, WTH?-Are-you-believing-this type of look.

Cripes. Even I was afraid of this lady, and I didn't dare open my mouth to tell this lady to cut her poor kid a break.

Her dad rode most of the coaster with his arm around her. When she got off the ride, her mom was all smiles: "See? It was fun, right?" How in the world could it have been fun for her? She was still quietly crying, and just nodded at her mom. Poor kid.

Well, sorry for the interruption.

[RVGal]

The wedding Mickey ears don't bug me. Neither do the Dream ears, the I-got-my-name-stitched-on-the-back ears, the Sorcerer Mickey ears, the princess hats, tiaras, Goofy hats, Donald Duck hats, Figment hats, or any of the others.

Okay, maybe the Stitch hats bug me a little because it kinda looks like he's humping your head, but other than that I hardly notice them anymore.

They are no longer a novelty. You can't pass through a crowd at WDW without seeing someone with something cute or funny or stupid on their head. I've worn a few of them over the years. It's always a caught-up-in-the-moment purchase where I'm feeling wonderfully silly and child-like. Where else can you wear a lighted flashing tiara? Of course, when I get home, I always find myself with this gaudy head gear saying, "There is a reason we only wear these things at Disney World..." :laughing:

I do, however, absolutely agree that the funny hats should be removed for rides and shows. When I had my flashing tiara, I forgot about it and we rode Spaceship Earth. As the ride started, I realized that I still had it on and I grabbed it and tried to figure out how to turn it off. I didn't think the people behind us really wanted to see multi colored lights blinking on my head for the whole ride. I could not find the button, so I wound up sticking it on the floor and putting a bag on top of it to kill the annoying factor. :rolleyes1

As for the mother on ROTM, words fail me. Those are the moments that stick with you because you can't help but think, if this is what she is like with her daughter in public, heaven only knows what she is like behind closed doors. :sad2:

[AlexandNessa]

If you remember where we left off, Mike and I had just had a wild night, so I’m sure it’s no surprise to anyone that we slept in late. And I do mean late.

Both of us were moving pretty slow. Mike was feeling just a tad of pain from last night. I was feeling an entirely other type of pain. If you remember my small foreshadowing, I mentioned that I was getting sick, and only losers get sick on vacation. I had planned to stay hydrated and eat healthy. Apparently, my body meant for me to stay hydrated with water, not beer. I could no longer deny that a pesky illness was invading my body. I was one of those losers who get sick on vacation.

The trick was, of course, to hide it from Mike so as not to ruin the rest of our vacation together. It was rather easy to do since he was moving slowly. But, my coughing and increased use of tissues was not going unnoticed. I was also fluctuating between being hot and cold, but thankfully, Mike was not so observant that he noticed my constant state of undress/redress.

I figured if I just got outside, I would start to feel a bit better. It was the hotel room, of course, which was the sole source of my feeling ill. I know, you’re all reading into this that I must be nursing a nasty hangover and “feeling ill” is merely a euphemism. But, sadly, this would not be the case.

We decided to take it slow that day, and it turned out to be a good day for ET, where we always use the names “Alex” and “Vanessa.” Except that ET was having a bad day, and no one heard their names. We couldn’t understand a blessed word ET said, and the people we were riding with asked, “why did we have to give our names and get that card?” on their way out.

Since we were already down that way, we decided to do MIB, but this didn’t go over well. The spinning at the end was just a little too much for me to handle. I was feeling a bit warm too, and I had another urge to just go outside. Mike knew we couldn’t handle the Mummy at that point, and I had said that I wanted to do Shrek, but definitely not today. Mike agreed. Instead, we decided just to get some water and a bit of lunch and sit outside and wait for the next Horror Make up Show.

Mike decided on a corn dog and fries. I didn’t know what I wanted, so I just had a bit of his since I’d had my protein bar and fruit not long before.

When were done, we plopped ourselves down on a bench in the shade and people watched. Had either of us had the energy, we’d have offered to take pictures for everyone who was snapping pictures in front of Lucy and Desi’s car.

We slowly meandered into the HMuS, and we were looking around to see who the “volunteer” was going to be. Hmmmm. Seriously lacking older Asian women. None here. Whoever will they pick?! Just when we were going to have to seriously make an effort to see who would be picked for the volunteer, in came a small group of Asians. I called it: Pink Visor.

Sure enough (really, could the HMuS be that predictable?), didn’t they immediately head for the Asian lady wearing the pink visor? However, she was too scared, and she vehemently refused. No amount of coaxing could convince her, and they moved on to a lady from the UK who was pretty disgusted and also refused. Alex told Mark that he was going to try one more time, and then he was going to send Mark to pick a volunteer. Reluctantly, a middle aged woman “volunteered” and we had a winner.

I was glad that this time they did away with the “kid who threw a rock at the curtain” schtick. This was also the first time I saw the “Playtex” scene. That was actually very good for a laugh. It was nice they changed things up a bit. I know this show is popular with many, but I found it to be funnier the first 3 times I saw it and now can take it or leave it. I would love for this show to get a facelift.

And, so with that, we meandered for a bit, and Mike decided that he wanted a hair of the dog. I wasn’t in the mood, but also did not want to admit that all I really wanted to do was go back to the HRH and crawl into bed. So, like the dutiful wife I am, on we went to NBA City. I had a Coke. No seriously. I really did.

I sucked that baby down, and thought that I was good to go. Miller Lite now, please.

Except I didn’t want it. I found myself just staring at Mike while he was playing video games and thinking: do I want to eat? Maybe if I eat I’ll feel better? Maybe I’m not really hungry? If I do eat, what would be best? Ick. I can’t even read the word “hamburger.” Don’t they just have some chicken soup or something? Eck. Maybe I’m not hungry. Maybe I just need to go outside. How do I tell Mike he needs to finish my beer? And that we need to go?

Ultimately, I decided I wasn’t feeling hungry. But I did feel a bit tingly. You know that kind of tingly where your skin is just buzzing? Not the good tingly. The bad tingly. Definitely the bad tingly.

I asked Mike if he minded if we head back to the hotel to rest for a bit before going out again, and he was up to that. Welcomed it actually. I should have said something earlier.

I thought I’d feel better if I went outside in the fresh air. That’d worked before. Right?

I told Mike to settle up, and I’d be waiting for him outside.

Now, here’s what sucks. If you’ve been to NBA City, you know that the doors to leave are maybe 20 feet from the downstairs bar. I don’t remember opening the door. I vaguely remember looking at the big statue of the basketball player right outside the door, thinking, “that’s big.” I remember thinking that the steps were a long way away, and how was I going to make it to the steps to sit down? I remember looking at this blonde teenager who gave me a weird look. Then I remember thinking “I’m going to fall.”

And boy, did I manage to take a spill. I have no idea how long I was “out” for. I can’t imagine it being more than a few seconds. But as I came to, that blonde teen was still looking at me, and I thought “crap. This is going to wind up on You Tube.”

There was a family from the UK who rushed to my side, and a young, sweet girl unscrewed the cap of her water bottle and made me drink it. Her mom held up my hair and fanned my neck. By this time, I had a bit of a crowd around me, and Mike made his way outside, and saw the commotion but not who or what caused it. He saw a flash of my red shirt, and started saying, “I think that’s my wife! Can you let me through?”

Of course he was panicked. I was panicked, but mainly humiliated. I still had several people around me, and he said, “Did you pass out?!” I had some wits about me because I said, “No. I fainted.”

Well, you have to follow my logic here …. “passed out in front of NBA City” during Happy Hour has one connotation. “Fainting” in front of NBA City while Happy Hour is happening has slightly another.

The staff of NBA City also came outside, and asked Mike if I were all right, and to let him know that they’d called Health Services. They got me a chair so that I wasn’t sitting on the ground anymore.

Security arrived first to take an incident report. Then Health Services arrived to take my pulse and ask me questions.

I remember him saying “It doesn’t sound like you had a heart attack.”

Good. That totally makes me feel better.

Is that kid shooting this on his cell phone?

Then, Health Services leaned over to me and whispered “Um, is it that time of the month?”

I don’t know why I found that funny. Maybe because he whispered that so that my own husband wouldn’t hear?

The manager at NBA City also came out to check on me and give me a cold bottle of water.

Health Services asked Mike what he thought of my coloring, and Mike said that I was really pale. HS said he thought so too, but wasn’t sure what I looked like normally. Then Mike said, “I thought her lips were a little blue earlier.”

I later had to clarify that with Mike: wait. My lips were blue, and you let me go outside by myself? No, not while I was inside. Right after I fell. Got it.

Now that my color was coming back and my pulse was normal, Mike’s main concern was how to get me back to the HRH. But, Security and Health Services had already taken care of it. They had ordered a wheel chair and arranged for a car to meet us and drive us back the entrance of the HRH.

I was still shaken up, so the wheelchair was a good idea. Not sure if I was more embarrassed or still recovering or what.

I had created quite the commotion, and it was at least a little unnerving to be wheeled around a crowd who by now was waiting to get into the Studios for HHN on a busy Friday night.

Sure enough, with Security trailing, Mike wheeled me to a security car, and helped me transfer from the chair to the car.

Really, I have to give a huge kudos to the staff of NBA City, Universal Security and Health Services. They were all very responsive and professional. And, if you happen to be the family from the UK who first came to my rescue, thank you too.

Mike didn’t let go of me as we waited for the elevator up to our room, and this was the first time that Mike was cursing how far our room was from the elevator.

Mike told me I’d have to skip turn-down service tonight. That I’d have to be happy with him turning down the bed instead.

Now, he got me settled into bed. Obviously, I’d ruined everything, and we weren’t going out for the rest of the night. We had wanted to go to Pat O’Brien’s since it was Friday night, but that just wasn’t happening. I just wanted to lie down and watch some TV and just not think or be around people.

After a while, we decided that I was OK, and I sent Mike down to the Beach Club to watch the game. I didn’t want him cooped up too. Plus, you know when you’re sick sometimes and you just don’t want to talk, and you can’t answer, “Can I get you anything” one more time? I just wanted quiet for a bit.

Mike found my cell phone and put it next to me, and he took his with him down to the Beach Club.

Every 10 minutes, I got a text message to check up on me and let me know what was happening down at the bar.

Now, I work in the telecommunications industry. This does not mean that I can text message with any sense of ease. I fat finger everything, and I never know if I’ve gone too slow and I thought I had the right letter, but it was the wrong one, and now a new cursor is there and I have to go back. Or if I’ve gone too fast, and I thought I could put in a double letter, but it wasn’t ready for me yet, and now I have to press the 4 three more times to get a “G”. I hate it. Plus, I barely knew my own name at that point. Texting was just not going well.

Since room service sucked and we weren’t about to suffer through it a 3rd time, I called Mike to read me the Beach Club menu so that he could bring me up some dinner.

I opted for a chicken quesadilla. Mike had told the Beach Club staff what happened (I was quick to remind him: use the word “fainted.” Not “passed out.”), and asked if he could order my meal to go so he could bring it up to our room.

They were very nice, and looked after Mike’s stuff and let him keep his tab open while he made my room service delivery.

But then he had to text: “how was it? Will I want 1 for ltr?”

Good grief. He got a one word response: “yes.”

That was about all I could handle. Mike was having fun with Natasha who showed him pictures of her baby, Skylar, and kept him company. I figured he wouldn’t mind if I went to bed. I don’t even think I heard him come in that night.


And, so, that is why there were no pictures of this sad day of vacation. Let me know if you find any on You Tube or Break.com.

[loribell]

Wow Jodie. When you said you got sick you really meant it. Sounds like you gave Mike a good scare. Way to go to the Uni staff! Thanks for taking care of our homie!

[highlander447]

Thats rotten luck, but lucky you never hurt yourself seriously with that fall, :goodvibes

[loribell]

I hate the hats too, but it is because the kids always want them and then don't even wear them for a few hours after buying them. Then they just get stuffed in a bag to junk up the house when we get home.

And that mother...just don't know what to say. I have a very hard time keeping my big mouth shut when that is going on. Not only is the kid traumatized but everyone else in the area has to deal with it too. Of course with this mother if something had been said the child probably would have had to listen to it from her mother once you were gone.

[bubba's mom]

I'm glad you're okay and didn't hurt yerself when you kissed pavement :scared: Guessing not eating all day has that affect on you, huh?? Was your blood sugar low? I know you had a Coke, but that wouldn't have been enough time to get the sugar into your system, at least, I don't think? :confused3 Nice strangers to help you out, unlike the blonde....livin' up to her rep i guess :rolleyes: Glad to hear HS and the managements are on top of things....then again, I'm sure it's not everyday they have THAT kind of "excitement" :rolleyes:

Unfortunately, it wasn't a good day, but still....bad day on vacation beats good day at home :rolleyes1 (well, in my book anyway!)

[RVGal]

What to search first... keywords on YouTube... woman passes out ('cause you know that's how the teen saw it) at City Walk... face plant at NBA City... the possibilites are endless... :rolleyes1

I have been sick and stuck it out on vacation, but I have never required medical attention. You need the big trooper badge for that!

[bubba's mom]

I have been sick and stuck it out on vacation, but I have never required medical attention. You need the big trooper badge for that!

Reminds me of the saying.... "Put yer big girl panties on and deal with it!" :lmao:

[AlexandNessa]

Ah, yes, a bad day on vacation still beats a good day at work, so certainly not the end of the world! I had only fainted once before in my life (conveniently while giving a presentation on the House of Seven Gables in senior HS English, and we won't talk about how long ago that was.), so this was definitely unusual for me. I think I had just tried too hard to deny I was ill and it all caught up to me. Live and learn!

I had tried to search You Tube and Break.com, but hadn't really found anything. Not that I tried too hard. I mean, did I really WANT to find it?!

And, you know, I had thought about saying something to that awful mom. I still struggle with it. Why didn't the dad say anything? Who was there for that poor girl? Not the dad. Not me either, and I feel bad about that. But if it's one thing I learned from these boards it's that moms on vacation don't tend to take parenting advice from others who aren't moms, don't know their kids, and maybe that mom was just having a bad day, and haven't I ever had a bad day? Sadly, yes, later, I did think about how the scenario would play on our Community Board.

And only those stupid wedding ears bother me. No other hats or tiaras or head bands or head gear bug me. My hatred of those stupid wedding ears is irrational.

Stay tuned for our exciting next day of vacation (can you sense that I'm being facetious?).

[keishashadow]

wow, scary stuff; stinks to not feel well on vacation...DH always manages to crash & burn one night-think he can't take the commando pace? Make sure to pace yourself in a few weeks:banana: i cannot wait myself!

i've bought the bride & groom mouse ears for my kids;) & presented @ their shower along with certificate for "bonus" limo on honeymoon trip...the hat barely fit DSs noggin. You do tend to get special percs/attention from CMs when wearing said headwear, especially @ the restaurants in Disney (extra food/wine, etc.).:thumbsup2 Youngest DS bought the infamous "stitch is eating my head" hat when we went in Dec. one year & we wore our winter coats & gloves @ night...it cracks me up. Stitch & donald are my 2 fav charactars (perhaps cause they aren't so sanitized?)

never underestimate the percs of tipping well & often to barkeeps.:)

[loribell]

Hey Janet - Stitich is Ally's favorite too! She got a really cute Stitch Santa hat last year.

[AlexandNessa]

I awoke the following morning before Mike, which is not unusual, and I continued to lay in bed awake. I was really not feeling up to doing anything, but I was vacillating between being a woos and continuing to ruin what was left of this vacation or trying to buck it up so that our trip would not end on a whimper.

Mike woke up a bit later and made my decision for me: “I am not wheeling you back from the park again today. It’s going to be a pool day.”

Feel the love?

He wasn’t actually that callous. He just didn’t want to stray that far from the room knowing that I still was not up to par. That certainly worked for me as I was feeling that I had pushed myself too far and was looking forward to doing absolutely nothing except reading the trash entertainment magazines we bought while hanging out at the pool. It’s always better outside.

I was still moving slowly, so Mike decided to head down to the Beach Club first for his morning soda and to see his new girlfriend Natasha.


http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacd6d6708000000026108Abt2jRk4bt1


http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacd585304a00000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

Really, it was quite a wonderful day of doing nothing but enjoying the sun and the weather and just plain, old relaxing.

Health Services had put a Sponge Bob band-aid on my scraped up knee the day before, and when I took it off at the end of pool time, we were laughing that I actually had a tan line around the band-aid. This also humored the man sitting next to me at the pool bar. His name was Rob and he had just managed to sell 10,000 shares of Google at $650-something a share and was celebrating. (Can you imagine that? I mean math isn’t my strongest subject, but it doesn’t take a wily genius to tack on 5 zeros to 650 and figure out that is a boatload of mullah!).

Now, I wish I had a picture of this guy because I will not do justice in describing him. But, Rob was a middle-aged guy in good shape, a full head of hair, and tattoos covering the full length of his arms. He also had a voice that sounded like Wolfgang Jack and was a chain smoker. Looked like a total biker dude.

So when this man told Natasha that he wanted to buy me a “Tooty Fruity,” I nearly spit out my water.

I was trying to slyly shake my head “no” to Natasha since I didn’t feel like drinking, but Rob was hearing none of it and pretty soon I found myself being forced to drink whatever in the world was in a Tooty Fruity. I think it was Grey Goose, orange juice and a splash of cranberry? Maybe cranberry with a splash of orange? I dunno.

Rob had his wife and his body guard and another couple with him. I’ll stop for a moment to give you a chance to let it sink in that this man was traveling with a body guard.

Rob and his body guard told me that the HRH pool gets rather hedonistic with staff and hangers-on after the Velvet Bar closes. Apparently, he and his body guard had a wild night in the hot tub. I’ll not go into further details on that since this is a family board.

He invited us to dinner at the Kitchen, but we declined. They had reservations at the Chef’s Table, but we just wanted to do something quiet. We did decide to have dinner at the Kitchen by ourselves though.

I went upstairs to shower and change, and I ran into Scooby in the elevator:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdacd5bcb14300000026108Abt2jRk4bt1


Before we headed down to The Kitchen, I stopped at the front desk to let them know I wanted a late check out. I told them I only needed till one o’clock. I got a cold, “I can only give you till 12:30.”

At first I just said, “OK, I guess.” But then I got a little annoyed. We’d had trouble getting turn-down service, getting robes in the room, having crummy room service, and now this girl is giving me ‘tude about denying me a late check out.

She offered, ‘You can call down again in the morning and see if you can get it later, but I can’t give it to you right now.”

That was it. Now I was definitely going to say something.

“Really? Because I’m platinum, and I paid a qualifying rate, and I thought I was automatically entitled to a 2 pm checkout?”

“Ohhhhh. You’re platinum? Let me check (I have no doubt she was verifying my status). Oh, yes, I can give you till 1 o’clock.”

Hmmmm. I bet if I had that “1” on my key card, she’d have known and not given me grief. :goodvibes

I know it seems like a little thing, but we’ve grown accustomed to how well Loews Hotels generally treat us, and this stay was a bit under par as far as the inconveniences and inconsistencies we experienced. We may sound high maintenance, but honestly, we are “true” Platinum. Our Platinum status wasn’t accumulated over years. We stay at the Orlando Loews 15-18 nights per year. So, if I don’t expect grief trying to get something I’m entitled to. I shouldn’t have to remind anyone that we’re platinum. Personally, I think that when we check in or ask for something “PLATINUM!!” should show up in big, flashing letters on their monitor. Is that wrong?! I don’t want or need anything special. Just what we’re entitled to in the first place. :snooty:

I also stopped at the concierge desk to have them print our airline tickets, and Erick was much more pleasant than the shrew at the front desk.

And, here’s another thing: there was a couple also using the concierge to check in 24 hours before their Southwest flight. If the concierge does you a favor like that and prints your boarding passes and puts them in a nice envelope for you, throw the guy a tip, you cheap jerk. :idea: A buck or three for the convenience surely would not have broken you. (And, they were both American. No cultural barriers there.). Really, don’t I sound so nosy, but they were actually crowding my personal space and I couldn’t help but notice as his empty, open hand reached for the envelope and he went off with barely a thanks. I suppose, why go down to the business center for a small fee and do it yourself, when you can have the concierge do it for you for free?

At The Kitchen, we did see our new friends at the Chef’s Table. Rob again invited us over, but we again declined and just sent a drink over to his table.

Dinner was very good. We shared a chicken quesadilla for an appetizer. Mike had the crab cakes. I had the salmon. We didn’t have room for dessert. We were just looking forward to calling it an early night. This time, we had an excellent server (Robin), and she saw my AP hanging around my neck, and offered, “Hey, give that to me. It’s worth 10%!” Much better than our lunch server from earlier in the week who ignored it when I handed it to him with our bill.

As we were trying to leave The Kitchen, Rob plopped himself into our booth to thank us for the drink and invite us up to the suites he had on the 7th floor to smoke some pot. It made us laugh, but that’s just something we don’t do, and even if we did, it certainly wouldn’t be something that we’d admit to publicly. He also invited us to dinner again the following night as he had somehow managed to get the Kitchen staff to let him cook. But, alas, we were leaving the following afternoon and would not be able to join him.

I won’t bore you much with the rest of our trip as it primarily consisted of getting to bed early, sleeping in, packing up, and catching our pick up back to the airport.

Now, let me ask: does anyone else have trouble checking out on the TV when you have a late check out? :confused3

This would be the 3rd or 4th time we have not been able to do so.

So, we never wind up checking out. We just leave; they’ll figure out we’re gone. I used to go to the Front Desk to check out, but they always want to reprint my portfolio, or there’s a line and I don’t feel like waiting to check out. I never leave keys with charging privileges lying around anywhere. I’m sure they’ll know we’re gone eventually.

We checked our flight status on the way to the airport, and everything looked to be on time.

Security was pretty much a breeze. We checked the flight monitors again to find that our flight was now delayed about an hour an a half. Bummer.

We called our cat sitter to ask if she could attend to the kitties that evening since we were going to be delayed, and thankfully it was not a problem. We can’t have hungry kids on our hands!

I settled in with yet another entertainment rag.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce37b3127ccebdaceb41b1a100000026108Abt2jRk4bt1

Lately, the wind has been a little persnickety at Newark Airport and that’s what was holding us up. They did wind up moving the flight from 3:50 to 3:30 eventually when the wind subsided. That was fine, except that screwed up our car service that was picking us up in Newark.

He got caught in traffic too and so was late, and we were left with trying to collect luggage ourselves, bringing it outside, and trying to figure out which driver was ours. We had called the service and they suggested this course of action. We figured we’d be waiting around a lot longer if he had to park, but it was a bit stressful trying to find our driver in the busy pick up section of the airport.

We eventually made it home, safe and sound and didn’t think about laundry or cooking dinner. Our biggest decision was where we were ordering dinner, based on who delivers.

A day later, I got a post-stay survey from the HRH. I let them know the good and the not-so-good. After all, nothing was “bad.” Well, except for room service. I told them I was disappointed they didn’t send me a post-stay survey after our visit in May because everything was just about perfect then.

I actually received an email back from Carlton Hudson himself to apologize for the inconsistencies we experienced. They thrive on repeat visitors like us, and he would personally insure we have our old room back for our next trip in just a couple of weeks. I have no doubt our next trip will be top notch!

Well, thanks everyone for reading and staying with me! It was a busy couple of weeks, and it usually doesn’t take me a month to finish a trip report. Oh, and, please don’t hate me because I hate those silly wedding ears! :upsidedow

xx

[tlinus]

I wonder who this guy was (Rob)? Sounds like it was a nice relaxing day and now that you have finished....you need to gear up for the next one in a few weeks :cool1: :cool1:

I have no doubts that you will get a "1" on your keys this coming trip :thumbsup2

[macraven]

loved your report.
you are truly a writer at heart.



i found out who gets the 1's........

[highlander447]

really enjoyed your reports Jodie, thanks for sharing:thumbsup2 totally agree about late checkout this trip we only got till 12:30 as well, and we could never review our account via TV at all during the week
Steve

[RVGal]

I can feel the love! :laughing:

You ran into Scooby in the elevator. That should be a tag. :idea:

Rob sounds like quite the guy. Hey, if I had 6.5 mil to toss around, I'd be living it up too... just not in the hedonistic hot tub way... :rolleyes1

I agree that if you have earned Platinum status, and there are perks attached to Platinum status, by golly you should get the perks... EVERY TIME!

It sounds like you had a relaxing end to your vacation. Nothing wrong with that. I don't understand the people that have to go, go, go, no matter what. Why? Just so you can come home feeling worse than when you left? Oh, but you do get to list off all the things you "accomplished" on vacation. :rolleyes:

I don't hate you for hating the wedding ears. Hate away, my friend! They aren't going away any time soon, so they'll be there to bug you on your next visit... and your next... and your next... :laughing:

At least I have a shot at Stitch losing popularity and the humping hats disappearing. Not that I'm rubbing it in or anything.

[bubba's mom]

loved your report.
you are truly a writer at heart.



i found out who gets the 1's........


who raven?? :confused3 SPILL IT WOMAN!!! http://www.freesmileys.org/emo/angry031.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org)

I agree...a great trip...except being sick :headache: Now that you're done THAT trip report....I can't wait to read the next :rolleyes1

Oh...and we always checkout on the tv, but never late....heck! We usually checkout in the morning :rotfl:

[macraven]

jodie has a fun report.


wish that mr jodie had used the camera that day......
a real kodak moment




-oh, bubba's mom, my lips are sealed.......

[bubba's mom]

-oh, bubba's mom, my lips are sealed.......

Okay...you cannot do that to me!!! You MUST PM me...you must.... :hyper:

[Motherfletcher]

Do you want a helmet for this next trip?

[macraven]

:rolleyes1

[AlexandNessa]

Hey, a helmet may be good! I knew I hit my head somewhere. I had the worst headache after that spill, but I couldn't tell where I hit my head. The next morning, I had a nice bruise under my chin! Are you offering me a helmet with a chin strap?!

Mac, I will keep it between you and me that you called Mike "Mr. Jodie." :rotfl:

Tricia, that would be a great tag .. but seriously, does the Tag Fairy even exist on the Universal side of the house? I think one used to in the long, long ago (hence my Mummy tag), but I think he was sent into banishment and he still being flogged somewhere in a dungeon. :rolleyes1

Tracie, I dunno who exactly Rob was, but I also know he owned a lot of Birkenstock and Croc Stocks as well. Perhaps I should stop investing in just mutual funds?

Barb, do you think I've whined enough to get the "1" back? :laughing:

[bubba's mom]

:confused3 ...but now the TR is over :guilty: do we have to "answer" the question in the title? :rolleyes:

[AlexandNessa]

:confused3 ...but now the TR is over :guilty: do we have to "answer" the question in the title? :rolleyes:


Yes, but not out loud. You can whisper it quietly to yourself. :goodvibes

[loribell]

Loved the trippie Jodie, all except the falling and getting hurt part and being sick. I can't believe it is already time for you to go again.

[Akdar]

Jodie, your trip report was great, I wish I had the "trip reporting gene" that you and Barb have :)

[bubba's mom]

Jodie, your trip report was great, I wish I had the "trip reporting gene" that you and Barb have :)

Ahhhh.....but you DO! ;)

(I write a mini-trippie each night on the laptop before going to bed...keeps the day fresh in my mind...that along with the "order" the pictures are in!)

[tlinus]

Jodie, your trip report was great, I wish I had the "trip reporting gene" that you and Barb have :)

:rolleyes1 *ahem*









:lmao: :lmao: :rotfl2: :lmao: :lmao:

[bubba's mom]

Well....of course YOU do too!! (we just didn't want to talk about you behind your back!) ;)

[peel]

Great report! I can only hope in May to have 1/4 of the fun you did (but no pavement buffet, hopefully.) :thumbsup2

[RVGal]

:rolleyes1 *ahem*









:lmao: :lmao: :rotfl2: :lmao: :lmao:

Yeah... what she said... ;)

[RVGal]

Tricia, that would be a great tag .. but seriously, does the Tag Fairy even exist on the Universal side of the house? I think one used to in the long, long ago (hence my Mummy tag), but I think he was sent into banishment and he still being flogged somewhere in a dungeon. :rolleyes1


I do believe we have lost our fairy.

Which, also, would make a great tag.

I guess we really are the red headed step-children on the DIS. :rolleyes:

[keishashadow]

:rolleyes1 *ahem*









:lmao: :lmao: :rotfl2: :lmao: :lmao:

yeah, what she said:rotfl:

imo, it's a great way for those of us whose memories are starting to go downhill to remember all the gory details of a trip...and it helps to take the edge of withdrawal pangs.:sad1:

the only way i'm able to remember details is to look @ both my media card & my "book" i carry as daily plans/dining/shows,etc. (aronda parks prep pad - have i mentioned i'm a contributor to the series & quoted prominently?...my claim to fame:lmao: mostly covers WDW; another good source if you devour guidebooks as i do )

anyway, great report Jodie...we expect another one in 3 weeks!;)

[tlinus]

can't forget to bring this one up again :cool1:

[bubba's mom]

can't forget to bring this one up again :cool1:

:headache:


thanks :hug:

[tarheelmjfan]

Great report Jodie. Sorry you got sick. The family from the UK really went above & beyond. Things like that renew your faith in humanity.

Now, I'm going in search of the other trippie. You did write one, right?

[tlinus]

ahem.................

*bump*

[bubba's mom]

ahem.................

*bump*


:thumbsup2

[macraven]

http://bestsmileys.com/bumping/3.gif

[RAPstar]

Also, on Thursday, when we rode the Mummy, we were witness to an interesting (yet age-old) scenario: a young girl about the age of 9 or 10 was waiting in line to board the coaster with her mother and father. She was clearly upset, afraid, and did not want to ride. I cannot even begin to tell you how mean her mother was to her, telling her to stop her crying and whining. She was being a baby, and she was to shut up and like it. I felt horribly for this poor girl. She was visibly shaken, and her mother was having nothing of it, and in fact, the father looked afraid of the mother too.

When this family loaded the coaster, the TM saw how upset the little girl was and asked her if she really wanted to ride. The mother snapped at the TM, "She's fine. Just go."

The TM said, "Ma'am, we cannot let this train go if she's crying." To which the mother turned to her daughter and demanded again, "Stop crying."

The TM ignored the mother, and looked directly at the daughter and sympathetically asked, "Honey, you don't have to ride if you don't want to. Do you want to ride? If you don't want to ride, we can let you out now."

We were sitting right behind this family so we saw the whole blessed thing. The mother nudged the daughter, and the daughter reluctantly nodded that she would ride.

The TM asked the girl if she were sure. The poor child said yes, and as soon as the TM left, the mother scolded her kid, "Thanks, you almost got us kicked out of the ride."

Mike and I of course watched the whole thing intently, breaking only briefly to give each other the wide-eyed, WTH?-Are-you-believing-this type of look.

Cripes. Even I was afraid of this lady, and I didn't dare open my mouth to tell this lady to cut her poor kid a break.

Her dad rode most of the coaster with his arm around her. When she got off the ride, her mom was all smiles: "See? It was fun, right?" How in the world could it have been fun for her? She was still quietly crying, and just nodded at her mom. Poor kid.

Well, sorry for the interruption.

OMG, I hate parents like that. It just drives me bonkers. I used to work for a movie theater and I came very close on innumerable occasions not seeling tickets to parents bring their like 2/3 yr old kids to a scary movie. Or slapping someone (usually a dad, no offense and I mean it) who was taking their family out to see a movie, the kids wanting to see a cartoon of course, and the person replies "hell no, I don't want to see no cartoon!!". Urgh! Anywho.....great TR Jodie!!! I've literally laughed out loud many times!

[orlandonyc]

you know that story above my post about the little girl really grabs my goat. I mean sometime people really don't get it. I wish the TM would have suggested the child swap. there is no way in he** i will force my babies if i really knew
they were scared. being fun scared is one thing, crying...

Not cool.

[donaldduck352]

:( totally unkool!!!We seen things like this also.