Bubba's Mom & her DH do their first HHN!

[donaldduck352]

I knew we were missing you by 1 day...but, our schedule was just full. Really no wiggle room. Like ya said...maybe another time. I'm ALWAYS up for a 'rita @ Jimmy's!!

Alittle more planning on our end and you can and DW(Joyce),mac and Janet will meet up oneday and party up.The men will do our own,in a good way!!

Give Joyce'y one drink and she is the life of a party,I promise(in a goodway,the more she drinks,the funner she is)!!!

 

[keishashadow]

Alittle more planning on our end and you can and DW(Joyce),mac and Janet will meet up oneday and party up.The men will do our own,in a good way!!

Give Joyce'y one drink and she is the life of a party,I promise(in a goodway,the more she drinks,the funner she is)!!!

 

[bubba's mom]

Sorry, I'm late to the party!

Excellent trip report as always.

We were there that same weekend. Sorry that we didn't get to meet up, or did we? On Sunday, our check-out day, we did MIB and the opposite car spanked us good. After reading your trip report, I suspect that the opposite car may have been you!

Would have loved to have met up on Saturday, but we had dinner reservations at Emeril's. Afterwards, we did some shopping before heading back to our room. We went to bed early Saturday night so that we could get up early Sunday to pack, checkout and take advantage of the extra morning hour for WWOHP.

and (sorry) You were in a car of 4...on the left track (right track if you're riding I guess?) If you had EP, what were you doing over there? They usually put the EP peeps on the right side (left track if you're riding).

I didn't know (either that or remember) you'd be there then...or else I woulda met you somewhere.

We were up and out late Saturday and spent the entire day Sunday in the Studios. We NEVER spend all day in only 1 park....but this weekend we did...Sat in IOA & Sun in Studios.

 

[bubba's mom]

Alittle more planning on our end and you can and DW(Joyce),mac and Janet will meet up oneday and party up.The men will do our own,in a good way!!

Give Joyce'y one drink and she is the life of a party,I promise(in a goodway,the more she drinks,the funner she is)!!!

ah maybe one day....might be far in the future as we don't plan on going there next summer and probably won't do another HHN for a very long time....

 

[bubba's mom]

Day 4 - Monday, October 11, 2010

I think we woke up about 8:30-9:00 the next morning...finally deciding to get up out of bed around 9:30. It was our first morning all weekend we were able to "sleep in". Once up, I got a good look out our window, and I could see the parks. Here are some of our views: View here and in this pic, you can see RPR. If you look closely enough, you can see: JP, HRH, the IOA lighthouse, Hulk, HRRR, Hogwarts, the entrance to the Studios, Dr. Doom & Mythos.

It was just after 10:30 and we were packed up and looking for some breakfast. We officially checked out downstairs at the front desk (with hardly any wait) and then headed across the courtyard to Pompanos Restaurant for breakfast.

DH opted for the (grand) breakfast buffet, while I had some eggs, toast & bacon. And, although my eggs were about $10 more than the local diner at home, they were very good and the portion size was excellent. I was stuffed by the time I finished! Sorry no pix...I was too tired to remember. The restaurant lost money on DH's buffet...he had an omlet, biscuits & sausage gravy and cream chipped beef on toast. And, being a buffet, he got more than his $17 worth

After breakfast we used the restrooms and then sat in the courtyard for awhile. After all, it was THE most beautiful day...mid 80s, sunny, no humidity...a perfect day! We sat outside and just soaked up the weather because by the end of the day, we knew we'd be back home and it was about 10 degrees cooler (during the day) there.

We had a car reserved with Happy Limo to pick us up at noon from the DoubleTree and about 11:45 we decided we'd better head out to the front of the hotel. When we went out front and had a seat on the bench, they asked if we needed a cab. I told them no, we had a car reserved. While waiting, another family came out looking for a ride...he called a cab that came right over. I noticed it wasn't a 'cab' looking type of car, so maybe it was a hotel shuttle? I'm not sure, but they didn't wait at ALL for a ride. While I was waiting, I took a picture of their parking fee sign.

Where we were sitting, we could see the cars turning down the street, which would turn into the DoubleTree. About 10 minutes before our scheduled pick-up time, DH saw a huge, stretch black SUV coming into the parking lot and joked with me that THAT was our ride. We laughed because I knew I reserved a car and that is so NOT our luck. As the stretch approached closer, I was able to read the 'Happy Limo' license plate on the front. I started to think it actually WAS there for us! He pulled past us and parked just beyond the front doors of the hotel. I went over to ask the driver how many people he was there to pick up and he said, "2." I said my last name and he confirmed that we were the party he was there for. You can imagine our shock and disbelief and how many times we said "no way" at that point. The driver took our luggage, put it in the front seat and we were off to MCO in a stretch Lincoln Navigator!

We arrived at the airport and while he was looking for our reservation (for DH to sign), we asked him why the big car? Turns out, he just dropped off a party and was heading to the airport to pick up another...so, it was convenient for them. He said the upgrade was on them. Ummm...okay!

DH signed whatever he had to sign and tipped the driver (generously) and we got ALL two of our bags and went in to check the monitor for our gate and print our boarding passes. We didn't go to the SW ticket counter, instead we headed for the escalators to head up to security. DH remembered before you do go up that escalator, there are SW kiosks to print your boarding pass. Smart move since I'm guessing a lot of people check-in while in Orlando, but don't have access to a printer. We printed our passes and headed upstairs.

We made a quick stop in Ron Jon Surf Shop looking to see if they had Reefs for DH. With no luck, he remembered Dad wanted him to call him when we got to the airport. He called Dad and chatted for a bit...more computer talk. After 10 or 15 minutes, their call ended and we headed to security.

We had less than an hour before boarding, so we found a seat on the floor near an outlet and plugged in my laptop so we could finish watching The Karate Kid...since we didn't have enough time to see the whole thing on the flight down, and we sure as heck didn't have time over the weekend to finish watching it! We finished watching the last 35-40 minutes JUST IN TIME for boarding.

After the first half of the A passes boarded, we got in line at B1 to wait for the B's to board. After all the A's boarded, they (of course) made the announcement for the people with little children to board next. They also had to make the announcement that only the child(ren) and parent(s) were able to board; extended family needed to wait for their boarding letter & number to be called. I saw a couple of unhappy peoples. Oh wells...thems the rules! Like my Grandmom used to say: "like it or lump it!"

We boarded and were only about 7 rows back again. We took the window & center seats next to a gentleman who was sitting alone, but traveling with his wife & two boys (sitting across from him). On the flight home, we watched The Backup Plan. I thought it was a TOTAL chick-flick, but it passed the time.

We actually landed in PHL about 15 minutes early and buzzed off the plane. Since we were supposed to land around 4:45 (rush hour..ugh), we had planned on having one last over-priced dinner at Chickie & Pete's in the terminal. My DH is very used to breakfast, lunch & dinner with snacks between. Since breakfast was quite awhile ago, and he hadn't eaten all day, I figured it was a good plan. Not. Turns out, DH wasn't hungry when we arrived.

Since all we had was our carry-on's, he decided to hurry and try to beat rush hour traffic. We were still walking through the terminal when I called the valet to bring our car to pick us up. We bought a bottle of water on the way outside to wait for our car.

We only waited about 10 minutes outside when our car arrived and we left for home (we paid extra to leave from the airport instead of having to take the valet back to the lot).

Traffic wasn't really all that bad, we were expecting MUCH worse. We were really shocked we made it back to my Mom's within 1:15-1:30! During rush hour. That's awesome time!

After gathering all Bubba's stuff, the dog's stuff, Bubba and the dog, we headed home. Back at our house, we settled in and did what we needed to and showed Bubba the pictures from our weekend. We also gave him the bag of cookies we brought back for him. He decided he needed to eat the 'peanutbutter with fudge on top' cookie that night for bedtime snack. Yummy...of course.

Well folks, that concludes my report for our first HHN. All in all it was a very quick, tiring, busy, FUN weekend that took my DH a week to recoup from! Would we do HHN again? Probably not. I don't 'get' all the hype about it. Are we glad we did it?

Absolutely!

 

[rpbert1]

Another great report Barb, all the info makes like you where there with you Guys [i wish].
Loved Bubbas cookie, looks delicious.

 

[patster734]

and (sorry) You were in a car of 4...on the left track (right track if you're riding I guess?) If you had EP, what were you doing over there? They usually put the EP peeps on the right side (left track if you're riding).

I didn't know (either that or remember) you'd be there then...or else I woulda met you somewhere.

We were up and out late Saturday and spent the entire day Sunday in the Studios. We NEVER spend all day in only 1 park....but this weekend we did...Sat in IOA & Sun in Studios.

Bummer! It must not have been you. We were on the express pass track side. It was odd: Lately, I've been scoring from high 200,000 to mid 300,000; but that ride, I didn't even break 100,000. I went from high score for the group a couple days earlier to the low score on Sunday. I'm going with 'the gun was broke' expanation. We did have 4 on the ride: me, dad, sister and bil. My wife and my mom skip this ride.

We usually spend all day in one park, except for check-out day, when we try to redo our favorite rides from both parks.

 

[jenseib]

Just read this one. Great and interesting. I now know that the HHN is probably not for my family of fraidy cats!

 

[schumigirl]

I really enjoyed reading the trippie.....and the pics are fantastic.

I know what you mean about the chain saw men.....they were just loud and annoying this year. And I loved the pumpkins too....took too many pics of them!!!

You`re right about more startle than horror.....I thought the houses were excellent.....except ZombieGeddon, but the scare zones lacked something this year compared to others we`d been too.

But sounds a s if you had a fantastic time......esp like the sound of the Margaritas with the other girls

 

[Csaks]

Ha! We stayed in the same room a couple of weeks later. I have the same pictures. The stay n scream was a great way to do HHN. Only problem we had was the blasted heat, wasn't bad at night but during the day watch out. We had a blast and the actors were amazing. Glad you had a fun time.

 

[IdesOmarch]

I really enjoy reading your TRs, I particularly like your secret insights, like the short cuts in the paths and stuff I've read in some of your others. Wish we could get there as often as you guys do! For now I have to live vicariously through others.