tlinus
Forever a Proud Redhead
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2006
I have never kept a diary or a journal or anything like that. I have never documented in writing our family vacations before so bear with me. I want to be thorough and may get a bit wordy, or verbose, so just skip what you want and read the rest. Please be gentle!!
Plans for this trip popped up in late January. We had planned on going back to Universal in November right after Thanksgiving but DH needed to get away MUCH sooner than that - very stressed at work. So we figured we would go for bean #1's birthday in April. Bonus to find out it was a slow week as Spring Break and Mardi Gras were over so that meant we had a good chance of lower crowds!
Where to stay???? Hmmmm - we know that we will not stay offsite again and in October we LOVED our experience at the Hard Rock. Due to some issues with our last stay, the GM emailed me after we returned our survey and said to contact him the next time we were going to come down. So I did, got a GREAT rate and there we have it - we were staying at the Hard Rock on Club Level again! Ok, so do we drive or do we fly?? DING Southwest came up with $49.00 airfare so we were flying!! This trip was all settled and ready to go by mid February.
The Cast
DH - Jim(39) - Hard worker, overstressed most of the time, travels to and from New York alot for work and loves him some Hulk and Dueling Dragons(ice please)!
ME - Tracie(37) - SAHM, babysits 4 kids during the week in addition to my beans, loves coffee, trip planner and needed a vacation!
Bean #1 - Kaitlyn(12) - Smart girl, great student, softball Queen of the house (this is her 7th year!). Like her Daddy, she loves Hulk and Dueling Dragons (ice for her please!)
Bean #2 - Courtney(7 going on 22) - Very competitive for attention (middle child thing maybe?), very good student, addicted to the Flying Unicorn and Jurassic Park.
Bean #3 - Frank(5) - What to say about Frank. Hmmmm, he is the jokester. He makes us all laugh, especially when we NEED a laugh. Loves his Spiderman and Cat in the Hat.
Day 1 - Wednesday 4/25/07
We got to the airport at 10AM to check in for our flight. I had printed out our boarding passes 24hours before and needed to checkin at the desk for preboarding because of bean #2's peanut dust allergy. We were boarded first on the plane and I did the complete wipedown of the seats, armrests, tray, etc. then covered her seat with her Phillies blanket and we were all settled in for our flight. We were on a very special SWA flight. It was the Capt.'s last flight due to the 60yo rule. (He was being forced to retire). The front of the plane, the cockpit and the first few rows were decorated and the crew was OUTSTANDING! Joking, jovial and they were wearing their pj bottoms over their uniforms. All of the planes leaving at the same time let our capitain go through first as a sign of respect. The kids were excited and the flight was smooth all the way to MCO! We even arrived 15 minutes early!! The Orlando FD had some trucks there to hose down the plane (apparently that is the sign of the Capitan's retirement) very, very neat! Roger (Sunray Transportation) was at the bottom of the escalator waiting for us and whisked us off to the Hard Rock Hotel (with a complimentary grocery stop first)!!
blurry but bean#2 on the plane - I didn't use the flash, didn't want to bother anyone!
Unfortunately early did not carry through as the theme this day. We arrived at the Hard Rock at 3:50pm. They had us in a deluxe queen (yay!) #7019 but the room wasn't ready yet. We were told 30 minutes MAX. Well by 5:10 we had had enough and took it upon ourselves to go up and get housekeeping finished and out of the room. She quickly finished with her business and beat it out of there! Ahhhhh - we were "home"! The room was great (with a few minor exceptions that were overlooked like a huge pizza sauce or spaghetti stain on the curtains, a bit dusty, outside windows were dirty) But everyone was really nice about it and apologized quite a bit.
waiting
and waiting
and waiting
finally! Room 7019
View out the window!
Lounge Offerings Wednesday: Spinach and Artichoke hot dip with all colors of nachos, Wing Bar with 3 different Sauces (they were meaty wings too), Pigs in a blanket, Cheese and cracker tray and a huge veggie tray with ranch dip on the side (yum!).
Monday, Wednesday and Friday were dive in movie nights....this night it was School of Rock (I love that movie!!) So we watched that until the end and the kids swam then it was off to bed!
Our Welcome gift was Beer (Budweiser) and Nuts (minus the nuts because of bean #2) and the aluminum bottles were cool they had a Hard Rock logo on them! We were going to bring home at least one of the empty ones, but the housekeeper we had the last day threw them out
Plans for this trip popped up in late January. We had planned on going back to Universal in November right after Thanksgiving but DH needed to get away MUCH sooner than that - very stressed at work. So we figured we would go for bean #1's birthday in April. Bonus to find out it was a slow week as Spring Break and Mardi Gras were over so that meant we had a good chance of lower crowds!
Where to stay???? Hmmmm - we know that we will not stay offsite again and in October we LOVED our experience at the Hard Rock. Due to some issues with our last stay, the GM emailed me after we returned our survey and said to contact him the next time we were going to come down. So I did, got a GREAT rate and there we have it - we were staying at the Hard Rock on Club Level again! Ok, so do we drive or do we fly?? DING Southwest came up with $49.00 airfare so we were flying!! This trip was all settled and ready to go by mid February.The Cast
DH - Jim(39) - Hard worker, overstressed most of the time, travels to and from New York alot for work and loves him some Hulk and Dueling Dragons(ice please)!
ME - Tracie(37) - SAHM, babysits 4 kids during the week in addition to my beans, loves coffee, trip planner and needed a vacation!
Bean #1 - Kaitlyn(12) - Smart girl, great student, softball Queen of the house (this is her 7th year!). Like her Daddy, she loves Hulk and Dueling Dragons (ice for her please!)
Bean #2 - Courtney(7 going on 22) - Very competitive for attention (middle child thing maybe?), very good student, addicted to the Flying Unicorn and Jurassic Park.
Bean #3 - Frank(5) - What to say about Frank. Hmmmm, he is the jokester. He makes us all laugh, especially when we NEED a laugh. Loves his Spiderman and Cat in the Hat.
Day 1 - Wednesday 4/25/07
We got to the airport at 10AM to check in for our flight. I had printed out our boarding passes 24hours before and needed to checkin at the desk for preboarding because of bean #2's peanut dust allergy. We were boarded first on the plane and I did the complete wipedown of the seats, armrests, tray, etc. then covered her seat with her Phillies blanket and we were all settled in for our flight. We were on a very special SWA flight. It was the Capt.'s last flight due to the 60yo rule. (He was being forced to retire). The front of the plane, the cockpit and the first few rows were decorated and the crew was OUTSTANDING! Joking, jovial and they were wearing their pj bottoms over their uniforms. All of the planes leaving at the same time let our capitain go through first as a sign of respect. The kids were excited and the flight was smooth all the way to MCO! We even arrived 15 minutes early!! The Orlando FD had some trucks there to hose down the plane (apparently that is the sign of the Capitan's retirement) very, very neat! Roger (Sunray Transportation) was at the bottom of the escalator waiting for us and whisked us off to the Hard Rock Hotel (with a complimentary grocery stop first)!!
Unfortunately early did not carry through as the theme this day. We arrived at the Hard Rock at 3:50pm. They had us in a deluxe queen (yay!) #7019 but the room wasn't ready yet. We were told 30 minutes MAX. Well by 5:10 we had had enough and took it upon ourselves to go up and get housekeeping finished and out of the room. She quickly finished with her business and beat it out of there! Ahhhhh - we were "home"! The room was great (with a few minor exceptions that were overlooked like a huge pizza sauce or spaghetti stain on the curtains, a bit dusty, outside windows were dirty) But everyone was really nice about it and apologized quite a bit.
View out the window!
Lounge Offerings Wednesday: Spinach and Artichoke hot dip with all colors of nachos, Wing Bar with 3 different Sauces (they were meaty wings too), Pigs in a blanket, Cheese and cracker tray and a huge veggie tray with ranch dip on the side (yum!).
Monday, Wednesday and Friday were dive in movie nights....this night it was School of Rock (I love that movie!!) So we watched that until the end and the kids swam then it was off to bed!
Our Welcome gift was Beer (Budweiser) and Nuts (minus the nuts because of bean #2) and the aluminum bottles were cool they had a Hard Rock logo on them! We were going to bring home at least one of the empty ones, but the housekeeper we had the last day threw them out
Did you fry some fish in your room and cook cabbage in your crockpot? Were you able to sneak 5 cousins, two aunts, one uncle and two sets of grandparents in your room? Did you tell the front desk that you lost 12 hotel keys so your relatives could also get FOTL? Did you get any towel animals?
more please 
(DM is coming along next year, and i'm trying to figure out what to reserve for "space" w/o getting 2 rooms)....AND, i'll be "gold" LF next year too--so, have to consider upgrades..... And you got cont. breakfast?? Maybe this is the way to go vs. the Kids Suite? I dunno....we usually get a standard room for the 3 of us....so, i'm chartering into "unknown" waters here 
; lots bigger than the standard pool view we had...you'll be spoiled now & want it next time too.
)
- if not....well.....then......blame someone else 
