Belated First Trip report

[FireandIce]

June 17-22

Hi All,

I have decided, after all of my trips, to now try my hand at reporting it. i hope you all bear with me as I try and remember most of the details.
DAY 1:
This is Gavin's(DS15) and my 10th trip to UO since 2002. We have stayed at the Hard Rock 6 times, the Portofino 2 times, and Royal Pacific once.This trip we were staying at the RPR. We had a King Suite(loews platinum) room 1400. It had a pool view and slight view of IOA. Great location. We got to the hotel at about 1:00 pm, and after a flawless check in, we all headed to our rooms. we traveled with our friends Bob&Torin, their kids Andrew(17) and Patrick(14), and Torin's parents, Pops & Granna.
Before unpacking, we headed to what has become a traditional first meal, Sal's Market Deli. I love Sal's. It is imho, the best pizza in Orlando. Just as good and tasty are their array of fresh salads. I ordered an Antipasto salad that was packed with fresh roasted peppers, marinated mushrooms, olives, arugula, and ripe cherry tomatoes. Gavin and I also split a prosciutto and roasted garlic pizza. The crust was very thin and crispy, just the way I like it. Bob,Torin and their kid's ordered 2 pizzas and a salad, and Pops and granna ordered a shrimp salad , which was very good. The bill came to a little over $100. Well worth it imho. The servers were nice as usual, and very efficient. After finishing our meal, we decided to take a stroll around the PBH grounds. I would have to say the PBH is my favorite onsite hotel, because of the privacy and calmness it has. After our stroll, we headed back to the RPR to unpack and hang out at the pool. No need to rush to the parks, we have 5 days to cover the parks. Thanks FOTL ! While walking back to the RPR, I noticed it was 98 degrees ! 98 degrees !! Are you kidding me ? It had not hit 75 yet back home. It felt like we were walking in a furnace. Oh ! Did I mention the "real feel" temperature was 111 degrees ? As we head to the pool, I could not help but notice how many teens were there, and how many of these teens had tattoos. The ratio for teen girls to boys was about 4-1, this fact was immediately brought to my attention by the three teen boys in our party. Well, I guess there will be minimal complaints about the hotel choice. Back to the tattoo thing. Now understand, I have no problem with adults getting tattoos. When I go to New Hampshire for Bike Week, I expect to see most guys and gals sporting tattoos. But, it is a little unsettling to see 13-14 year old girls with neck and lower back tattoos.Do they realize that they are forever? When they are 60 years old, I doubt those tribal tattoos will be looked upon as cool. OK, I'm done with my little rant.
We all hung out by the pool, and ordered an array of drinks for all. At about 8:30 pm, I started getting hungry, so i snuck up to the Orchid Court to see my friend Kathy, and order some shrimp tempura and steak terriyaki. As usual, it was awesome, and as usual, there were no leftovers. The kids were busy making friends and playing volleyball, so I went back to the room to chill. As mentioned in other reports, the AC shuts down when nobody is in the room, but it cooled down in minutes, and I hung out and watched tv. The boys came back to the room about 11:00 pm, and I pulled out the sofa bed for Patrick. Because the King Suite has a capacity of 3 people, Patrick stayed in our room so Bob & Torin could get their own Suite. Pops & Granna had a standard queen a couple of doors down from us, and Bob, Torin, and Andrew, were right across the hall from us. Gavin and Patrick said they felt like having some ice cream. The shoppe downstairs had closed at 11:00 pm, so I ordered 2 scoops of chocolate, and 2 scoops of mango sorbet. the bill was $21.95. That's right ! $21.95 !!! Although it was the nicest presentation of 2 scoops of Ice Cream I had ever seen, 4 scoops of Ice Cream for $21.95 is ridiculous. I figured the guy should feed and fan me for that price. However, both kid's loved the Ice Cream, and Gavin reminded me of how I always tell him that if it is quality food, then price does not matter. Dang, I thought he never listened to what I say, he is getting way too smart. Anyway, the kids finish their "quality" Ice Cream, and we all drift off to sleep. Tomorrow we hit the parks.

 

[Metro West]

Looks good so far...please continue and don't forget to add pictures!

 

[macraven]

i'm hungry for ice cream now...........

 

[angela3676]

More please!

 

[FireandIce]

Metro : I hope to put some pictures up eventually. I struggle with that stuff. I have no computer skills whatsoever, but i will see if gavin can do it for me. Pops is the picture taker in the group. I will have him e-mail me all the pictures.

Mac : The ice cream was awesome, just a little pricey. But, what the heck, your on vacation, Right ?



DAY 2 THURSDAY

When we planned this trip, we all wanted to do a day at Disney. We went back and forth on whether to get parkhoppers or single day tickets. We ended up getting single day tickets, because it's hard enough seeing and doing everything in one park a day, much less hopping around for one day. The next decision was, which park to go to. Of course there were varying differences of opinion, but we settled on Epcot. We figured Granna and Pops would love World Showcase, and the boys wanted to go on Soarin, Test Track, etc.....

I wake up about 6 am, and look to Emeril for a little pick me up.I put in one of those coffee pods with his likeness on it, and I was awake in minutes. Gavin and Pat are still sleeping, so I head down to the orchid court to get a muffin. We had planned on eating at the buffet, so I didn't want to eat much. As I was going back to the room, I headed outside to see what the weather was like. much to my surprise, it was.........HOT! 86 degrees at 7:00 am. It was going to be a hot one.

I get the boys up and in the shower, then I call everyone else to make sure we are meeting downstairs at Islands. We arrive at breakfast around 8 am, and we are seated right away. I think Islands has a great breakfast buffet. I ordered an omelet and had every breakfast side dish you could imagine. We ate up, put the bill on our cards(thank you loews) and drove to Epcot.

It was around 9:45 when we arrived, and it was packed. There was already a 70 min wait on Soarin and a 65 minute wait on Test Track. We head over to soarin and get a fast pass, then we try out some other rides with short wait times. We went on nemo, which everyone thought was ok. Honey I shrunk the audience, which was a great place to cool off. Did I mention it was Hot ? We also went on Living with the land, which I thought was very good. I seem to like those slow moving rides much more these days. Old age ? We finally made it on to soarin with our fast passes at about 1:00 pm. I thought soarin was cool, and we all enjoyed it. By this time we were all getting hungry, so we decided to head to the World Showcase and get something while we were there. As we made our way through, we went on maelstrom,(not bad)and one of my favorite little rides, the 3 caballeros at mexico. It's a slow boat ride with an entertaining storyline, and the restaurant inside the pavillion is very nice.

After walking around and through world showcase, we ended up getting burgers and chicken fingers from an outside kiosk. We ate light because we were planning on a good dinner, and it was.......... HOT.

By this time we were shopping for souvenirs, when all of a sudden, one of those severe thunder showers made it's presence felt. It absolutely poured for an hour, as we ducked for cover in one the shops. When it stopped raining we headed over to Spaceship Earth. Another slow ride. Another winner in my book. It was not only educational, but very relaxing. After the ride is done, there is an interactive area where you can pass time playing with games. Gavin had a cartoon made of himself, and sent it to his e-mail.

It was now about 4:00 pm, and everyone was done with epcot. I love disney, but if you are used to not waiting in line, and not planning everything down to the last detail, it becomes work. I guess we are all spoiled by Universal and FOTL.

We arrive back at the RPR around 5:00, and of course, the kids head to the pool, which was very crowded. I hung out for a while, and told the kids to be ready to go eat at 7:00.

We all head to the boat dock for city walk, but the line for the boat was lengthy, so we decide to walk. We arrive at citywalk and head to NBA city. I think NBA city is underrated. I have never had a bad meal there. I ordered a dry aged sirloin steak w/rice and side caesar. Gavin had a rack of ribs, Bob had a chicken caesar salad,Andrew got fettucine alfredo, Patrick had the bleu cheese pasta, Torin had alfredo, and granna and pops split a shrimp pasta dish and chicken wings. Everyone enjoyed their meal as usual, and we walked around citywalk to digest and take in the sights.

We thought about heading to the movies, but we decided to go tomorrow during the hottest time of the day. After returning to the hotel, the boys headed to the pool, and I went back to the room. Tomorrow is another day.

 

[macraven]

from what you posted, i gather it was rather hot on your trip......

 

[FireandIce]

from what you posted, i gather it was rather hot on your trip......

What gives you that idea ?

 

[macraven]

just a feeling i guess............

 

[EPRV We love Disney]

I'm enjoying your report! More please and if you can post some pix, they'd be great too!!

My only question for you would be "was it hot?".

 

[macraven]

ahem.............i'm still waiting for more....