Back From A Great Trip! And Hillary Duff sighting :)

[TigerLilly's Mom]

Hi Everybody,

We got back last night from a fantastic Universal trip. I will do a very short trip report later and share my photos - they came out great.

The Hard Rock was great as usual. I had let Lou Carrier know we would be visiting again and he sent a fantastic welcome gift.

It was HOT. We were at the parks early, left around noon, spent the afternoons by the pool and returned to the parks at night.

The crowds were big, but we never waited for rides. They were mostly all walk-ons. The longest we waited was for Spiderman Friday afternoon - 15 minutes.

I am shocked at the people who stroll into the parks at 11:00am in the middle of summer. By getting there at 9:00 we do at least 6 rides and play in the play areas without anyone else around. I understand getting there later during the slow season, but in the summer, you really have to be there before 10:00.

The Mummy was so fun!! We went on twice with child swap, which meant Chandler rode 4 times - he loved it!

We saw Hilary Duff yesterday at IOA. She was walking around with a group of people. I think her sister Haley was with her and also a huge bodyguard. My 9 year old was very impressed as he has a bit of a crush on her. They were walking in front of us in the express line for Dueling Dragons and stopped, so we had to walk past them. I'm pretty sure they went on Ice and we were on Fire at the same time.

Look for my report and photos later today!

 

[bratray]

welcome back

looking forward to hearing all about your trip-

if i may ask- what special welcome gift did you get?

how was the service at the HRH?

i don't know how anyone can stroll into the parks so late either!!
even in off season at WDW we were there bright and early and out of there by 2pm

the teens and hubby don't want to get up early anymore - which use to bother me but now i don't care-just as long as me and DS5 get there early & ride to our hearts content

 

[TigerLilly's Mom]

The service at HRH was great. The only problem we encountered was that I had to call 3 times to get a new remote brought up to us.

When had problems last year, Lou Carrier was great in making things right for us. I let him know that would we be returning because he really made us feel like he cared and wanted us to have good feelings about the HRH. Although we did not get an upgrade (I was really hoping for one since I am Loews Gold), we came into the room and saw a table full of goodies. Steve and I were also celebrating our 10th anniversary. There was a bottle of champagne, strawberries and cream (OMG these were fantastic!!), a fruit platter, cheese and crackers, water bottles, and a movie basket for the kids with a ticket for a free in room movie, milk duds, skittles, twizlers, popcorn, ect. I'm sure I'm leaving something out - but I took a picture so you all can see - look in the trip report section later today.

We really love the Hard Rock and all the music and action - it is just our kind of hotel, though it may not be for everyone. Also we LOVE The Kitchen - we had the character meal and a breakfast there and it was really top notch.

 

[Selina]

Glad you had such a nice trip. I said to my dd who's Hilary Duff? She said ......you know it's Lizzie Maguire from Disney Channel!! She sings as well. "Cool"....she said!!!

 

[highlander447]

my son would love to see her as well hes 11 and has a huge crush on her, can't wait for your report

 

[Prince Eric1]

My girls would have gone nuts to see Hilary. Sounds like you had lots of fun.

 

[TigerLilly's Mom]

Hi Guys!

She wasn't making eye contact at all - not that I would ever approach her. She looked like an ordinary teenager, very young looking and she looked like she just rolled out of bed - you know how teenagers look now-a-days - messy hair, baggy clothes. We never would have known it was her if we didn't hear some Dad exclaiming to his daughters that he just saw Hillary Duff!