My first Trip Report June 2009. - Day 4 - Hard Rock Hotel

[Just-Pete]

A few reminders:

Pre Trip Report: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2200291

The Cast:

Me- Pete (27) Last WDW Trip Nov 07, with plenty of DLRP in between.
Jo (29) The second veteran from our Nov 07 trip, has also been to DLRP ten times in the last eight years
Kathryn (21) WDW Virgin, mad on Princesses, Alice in wonderland & Mary Poppins
Paul (21) Known as Kip, just along for the ride and cocktails if you ask me
Amy (23) Younger sister of Chris is over there working ,massive Princess and Tink fan. But she does hate all things HSM, so we may clash, eek!

Supporting Cast
Chris (25) On his year working in the Rose & Crown in Epcot
Kayleigh (23) see above
These two have proved very useful in the holiday planning / dining reservation department!!!
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Day 4

So the first non Disney day of our holiday had arrived, it was Saturday, and this meant that with Matt now off for the weekend. He could join us and we could celebrate Chris’s birthday properly… At the Hard Rock Hotel. We were up early and packing an overnight bag before we headed down to reception to get our cab to the hotel. One $40 dollar ride later and we were winding up the impressive drive way to the even more impressive hotel sitting at the end of it. After spending ten minutes panicing as the cab drove off and I realised my Wallet was in none of my pockets. Kip waved it at me, revealing it had slid out of my pocket while we were in the cab. I snatched it off him and offered him nothing more than evils for the next half hour. Chris Matt & Kayles arrived and Matt proceeded to check us in. The rooms weren’t yet ready but we were ensured we were welcome to make use of the hotels facilities straight away. Having known that this would be the case we made our way to the pools, all the boys were already in their swimmers, and the girls had their bikinis on underneath. While the majority of the others made their way straight to the pool Amy & I decided to stay on the loungers and work on my tan. I was still in the embarrassing position of taking off my top and still looking like I was wearing a white T-Shirt. Plus the redness of the skin that wasn’t pale white, was so severe I was scaring the children round the pool. I slapped sunblock on my burnt bits and lay back. Praying that my colour might even out before Chris’s other friends who we had yet to meet arrived later.

After some time lounging in the pool four of us headed over to the pool bar for a light lunch (some yummy chicken sandwiches) and the first of many Margaritas. As we were drinking and eating a few of Chris’s friends from work started to arrive, so we enjoyed some introductions, and then to my delight I found out you were allowed to take your drinks into the pool here. Fast forward to us spending the better part of the afternoon lounging in the shallow end of the pool, Margaritas in hand. Fabulous!

After a few hours though we realised our rooms would be ready and given that my whole body was now glowing red, I was quite happy to make our way in and up to our rooms on the 2nd floor. The rooms were lovely and a welcome break from the more “functional” style of room were inhabiting at ASM. Like ASM we had adjoining rooms, again, and stuck to the Boy - Girl divide, the only problem was that this meant I’d be sharing a bed with Kip, but as it was only one night I would allow it! The rooms really were lovely, and to our delight they had a really fabulous sound system, complete with an iPod dock which my iPhone was almost instantly connected to and filling the room with tunes (mostly Disney). Once we were showered, Chris and Matt revealed the bags of booze they’d picked up at Walmart on the way over. The rooms did have mini-bars, but we knew they’d be pricey.

Hours passed, drink was consumed and eventually Chris’s friends came down from their rooms, complete with Birthday cake!!! By now there was a real party atmosphere, and everyone was quite drunk. Foolishly we chose now to head off to City Walk where had planned to enjoy a night out. After a drunken stumble through the hotel and out to the boat stop to catch the water-shuttle across to City Walk. We waited fifteen minutes before deciding instead to walk it, which took five minutes. Now I don’t remember much, as it was about half nine in the evening, and I’d been drinking since about 1pm. So really I was quite drunk. But what had been intended to be a night out ultimately involved us going into a bar called “The Rising Star” as one of Matt’s friends worked there. All of Chris’s friends who had joined us going back to the hotel, as Johnny one of them, was only 19, and didn’t look a day over 12, so clearly didn’t get in. We stayed in “The Rising Star” for a maximum of thirty minutes (or however long it takes to drink a Vodka & Red Bull) before all piling back out as we realised the night had slumped, lots of us were tired, and things probably weren’t getting any better now.

So back we went… Of course the red-bull had added a little energy to my already drunk self, so I may have chosen this part of the night to run wildly through a kiddes play pool whilst wearing my nice going outfit, and to insist on speaking to every single person we encountered on the way back in my best Julie Andrews-esque British accent. I can only assume the hordes of people exiting the LL Cool J concert didn’t appreciate this??

Anyway once we were back we went on to pose for at least 50 pictures with various props and poses as we made our way through the hotel.







The boys were straight to bed and out like a light. Whilst the girls decided to stay up all night recreating scenes from the film of “Matilda”.

All in all it was quite a fabulous day, it was nice to break away from WDW for a bit, and the luxury of the Hard Rock Hotel was really appreciated by all, and definitely encouraged us just to spend some time relaxing and enjoying it all.

[natalielongstaff]

What a fab day ! love the pics

[Loubbylou]

Another great day, looking forward to day five

[mandymouse]

What a great day, it sounds like you all had lots of fun

[cap'njack.]

What a great day...just what every 'lads' trip should have

[SusanEllen]

So Chris managed to stretch his celebration from a single day to something a bit more. Sounds like fun, except for your burned skin. Hope that didn't make you ill for the rest of the vacation.

[Sarah84]

Sounds like a great, fun day

[Pinky166]

Lol what a fab day. I loved the HRH too.

[suzycute]

Great day - HRH sounds fab!

[jockey]

Lovely day

[wicket2005]

My fav hotel the HRH. Hope you enjoyed the FOTL passes at the parks.

[arieljasmine]

The HRH is my favourite hotel in the world - we love having Budweisers in the hot tub!

Laur's xx