Wednesday, Oct. 22nd
Hi Everyone,
We are back from our dinner at The Kitchen. I'll give you more about our experience there in just a bit.
Our day started again in the Hard Rock Hotel club lounge. The lounge is called Club 7. I think because it's located on the 7th floor. The lounge is somewhat small and can get crowded; especially in the morning.
Here is a photo of the continental breakfast offerings this morning
We left the Hard Rock Hotel through the back by the pool. There is a walkway in the back that leads to City Walk and Universal Studios.
Here is a photo of us walking out the back of the hotel facing the wonderful pool area
We arrived at Universal Studios in about 5 minutes. The walk is very short. The Hard Rock Hotel is the closest of the 3 on-site hotels to the theme parks.
Here are a couple of photos from our arrival to the theme park this morning.
A shot of Kim and Anna next to the revolving Universal globe
Here's a photo of the entrance to Universal Studios theme park
The first note I want to make about the park today was the lack of streetmosphere. The only street acts we saw today were the Blues Brothers doing a skit next to their cop car. Other than that skit that was the only streetmosphere acts we saw today. It was rather disappointing; however, there could have been more, but we just didn't see it.
Attractions we experienced today were Shrek 4-D, Jimmy Neutron, Twister, Revenge of the Mummy, The Simpsons, Men in Black Alien Attack and Curious George's Play Area. We also saw some characters today; including sponge Bob, Scooby-Doo and Shaggy, and Curious George.
Here's a photo of the construction site of a new attraction called Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. A new cosaster scheduled to open in Spring of 2009 inside Universal Studios. Music and coasters seem to go well together.
One of the newer attractions; The Simpsons, was a lot better than I anticipated. What really makes this attraction special is the screen technology. The video screen is more like a circle vision affect. It really surrounds you and gives you the feeling of reality. It is really very well done. I should also mention there are a number of Disney references during the attraction. I won't spoil it, but you will notice them while you travel through the attraction.
Here's a photo of the front of the Simpson's attraction
Another highlight of the day was a dessert I ordered at the San Francisco Baking Co. in the Ammityville section of the park. It's called a rasberry napoleon. It was off the charts good and if you are ever in Universal Studios I suggest going to this bakery and giving it a try.
Here is a picture of the rasberry napoleon. Very big and enough to share.
As we were leaving the park today I snapped this photo of two 1940's cars parked along the street
We left Universal Studios around 4:30PM today. The park closed at 5:00PM to prepare for Halloween Horror Nights.
We returned to our room and freshened up for our dinner at The Kitchen. The Kitchen is one of two signature restaurants at the Hard Rock Hotel. According to Universal's website characters are supposed to be in attendance between 6:00PM and 9:00PM. So I went ahead and made the reservation for tonight for that reason.
Restaurant signage
We arrived at The Kitchen at 6:30PM and were seated immediately. The restaurant is much like the decor around the Hard Rock Hotel. There are several references to rock & Roll and memorabellia all around the restaurant.
Here is a photo of some of the memorabellia
One of the things that struck me after 15 minutes was there were no characters around. I asked our waiter about it and oddly enough he said "Oh yes, between 6:00PM and 9:00PM" and nothing more.
Onto our food. I wasn't feeling to adventurous tonight so I went with a salad wedge along with a cheeseburger and fries. Kim ordered a baked macaroni and cheese dish. We also both ordered margaritas; one frozen and the other on the rocks.
Here's a photo of my salad wedge
After we ordered our food the Manager of the restaurant paid us a visit and said "I apologize sir, but there are no characters for tonight". He said they stopped having characters on Wednesday's; however, Universal has not taken this information off of their website, nor have they stopped advertising it yet. Well, that's a bummer. Oh well, we will live; however, I was more disappointed that Universal and Loews/Hard Rock don't seem to communicate well.
Our meals did come and we enjoyed the food. There really wasn't much wrong with it and everything tasted good.
After we ate our main courses our waiter came over with dessert offerings. He described all the desserts to us; however, my stomach told me not to do it. We all declined dessert; however, the waiter said the Manager of the restaurant wanted us to have dessert on him for the character mishap. He offered for us to pick a dessert to go. So we all picked a dessert and they boxed them up for us and put them in a bag. A very nice gesture by the restaurant.
Here's a photo of the dessert offerings
The total amount of our bill including tip and a 10% annual pass discount was $65. Not bad considering we got free desserts and had two alcoholic beverages. If you are considering dining here I'd tell you to try something else. There are so many other choices at Universal and I'm not sure if I had only 2 or 3 meals during a vacation I'd choose this place. You may want to try Mama Dellas at the Portofino or Bubba Gumps at City Walk.
After dinner we came back to our room. Anna and Kim decided they wanted to head to City Walk and catch a movie. I believe they went to see Beverly Hills Chawawa. I plan on relaxing the rest of the evening. I may walk around the resort or head out to the hot tub.
Well, I'm in podcast chat right now. I might as well stay there. LOL!
Tomorrow we plan on heading to both parks and hitting some of our favorite attractions. We also have a character breakfast lined up for the morning with Spiderman, and Thing 1 and Thing 2 over at Islands of Adventure. I will provide a report on that experience tomorrow.
Lastly, I wanted to show you some photos of our room on the 7th floor.
Thanks for following along.
Up Next:
Catchings some of our favorite Universal Attractions
Character Breakfast at Islands of Adventure
I love the round little innocent faces.
did it get a new name? I think it's been there the whole time
without CMs resenting you for asking...
Oh my god! You're right! RUN!!! 
$5 to play, but maybe $50 to ship. I think it might find a home here in Orlando if it costs that much to ship. 
