4th of July weekend

[ChisJo]

Just a quick report for the 4th of July weekend.

We arrived at the RPR for our trip from July 2-7. Arrived at 6pm, and was greeted wonderfully at the front desk. They apologized for not being able to give us an upgrade (Loews membership and our honeymoon), but they said that on the 5th, they will upgrade us to a suite (and they did - it was awesome - they moved all of our lugguage while we were away that day).

We dropped off our bags in our room and headed for the parks. I was worried about the parks being ridiculously busy due to the weekend, but truly it wasn't that bad. The FOTL was really helpful, but there were some instances where it was actually faster to use the regular queue than the FOTL. We got to enjoy the front of all the rides at least once. We got drenched on the rides that are supposed to get you wet and it felt wonderful (especially on the days that were 100 degrees!). I did my best ever on MIB (scored 275,000 - I have never been over 150,000 before!). We got to the parks by 9am every day and enjoyed many of the rides over and over before the crowds even picked up.

Places we ate:
Hard Rock - Wasn't impressed...the only one who liked their food was my step son - he had the nachos.
Latin Quarter - we all LOVED it here. We got the dinner and a movie pass from Guest Services and ate here - we all had the fajitas, and then went and watched Public enemies
Bubba Gump - Incredibly impressed!!!

Off site we went to Bahama Breeze - who wouldn't love this place!
and we also went to Beaches and cream at the Beach Club in Disney (on a side not - the waiter at the restaurant told us that occupancy that Sunday was only 38% - yikes, for July 5)

We rented a car on the 5th and went shopping offsite for abit. This was awesome. We got to enjoy the pool, explore the hotel, get a tan, and just completely relax. All in all, the trip was awesome! I have never come home feeling as relaxed as I did after this trip. We didn't make it to the fireworks, however, I heard they were wonderful (we ALL fell asleep after a night at the pool). We met the O-Jays in the elevator one night. My step-son looked right at one of them and said - "hey, you're the guy in the posters all over the place!". Considering we didn't even recognize them, it was impressive that he did. Then, for the rest of the night, I had "money money money - mo-ney!" in my mind....

I cannot wait until we get to do this again. We talked about going back in 2012 for the Universal 100th birthday (don't know if Universal is planning anything yet) - we were hoping to get the club level at the Portofino (only place I have never stayed at).

The best part - the 13 year old step son had the best time of his life...worth every penny!

 

[Jonny_Duck]

Great report! We were there around same time 3-4th and was gonna see Public Enemies but ran out of time, Did you enjoy it? I have always wanted to try Bahama Breeze... We have one around here but just have never gone. If you say its good I will have to try it sometime.

Grats on your MIB score... I had my personal best of umm 692k I believe it was. I was on a hot streak of going up up up about 4 times in a row and mom wanted to take a break so I never hit my 700k the rest of trip. I was so very disapointed. When we went back later a kid fell or jumped down and they had to reset the whole ride right when I was in line to get on. So after that things were all askew aliens were missing, targets not workin, etc. But it was kinda interesting to see what they have to go through if something like that happens.

I agree with the crowds too, I was shocked at how semi empty it was. The fireworks were crowded and we didn't get a great spot so we headed for the exit and saw the last of em right at the exit. Was happy we stayed onsite because citywalk was a madhouse... Woulda taken forever getting to car.

Glad you and step son had a great time!

 

[macraven]

did you have a sleeper sofa in the suite?

glad you enjoyed yourselves.

 

[ChisJo]

did you have a sleeper sofa in the suite?

glad you enjoyed yourselves.

Yep - we had the sleeper sofa for the son. He liked having his "privacy" for a couple of days, despite the fact that he tells us everything anyways!

One of the things that we regret doing was not upgrading to the annual pass - we weren't sure if we were going to be coming back in the next year, so we didn't spend the money on them. Next time maybe.

As for the movie Public Enemies....Had it not been for the fact that my husband is a huge history buff and follows all sorts of history, and had it not been for the fact that 2 weeks before we watched a documentary on John Dillinger, maybe I would have been much more interested They just seemed to omit things from that movie that should have been included. However, my husband and step son loved it! I gave it a 6/10 - they gave it a 9/10. I did love watching Johnny Depp - I have had a crush on that boy since I was 6 years old....and he still looks as good now as he did then!

 

[Metro West]

Thanks for sharing...I went to IOA on 7/3 to meet friends and ended up leaving after two hours because of the heat.

Glad you had a great time!