MarkMichaels
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2001
- Messages
- 244
Today, Friday the 21st was a little bit more of a lazy day for us. After running pretty hard all week our plan was to lounge around Wet N Wild, relax and go to Universal Studios in the evening. For the most part, we stuck to this plan, except Im not sure we ever relaxed.
On our way to Wet N Wild, I wanted to hit the outlet mall since I had heard stories here of bargains at the Disney outlet. Wow, what timing, today they had tent sales, 70% all clothes and merchandise was marked way down. My wife picked up a $80 globe for $24, we picked up 4 100 years of magic beach towels for $6 each, and some nice stuffed characters, t-shirts, etc all cheaper than Ive ever seen them. Our bill at the register was $270 marked down to $74, I couldnt complain with that kind of math for what we bought. We didnt even look at the other tents, wonder if they had good deals, but time was wasting and we all wanted to go on the water slides.
The weather was crappy this morning, sprinkled on and off, but waited until we entered Wet N Wild to really come down. After we waited for the lightning to pass and for them to reopen the pools, we did most of the good rides, freezing our tails off when we were out of the water. We had a good time despite the weather and would happily go back again. Around 2, we made our way back to the Hard Rock (paradise) to get showered and ready to do something new. We headed to Universal by 3, no time to rest for these weary folks, and managed to do several things we hadnt done before. Terminator 2 3d was really cool and the Horror make up show was a hoot. We skipped those last time, dont make that mistake. We also got a couple rides in on Men in Black, Jaws, Earthquake, and Twister. Dinner was at Fitzpatricks, the food was really good and our server Joel was the best we had seen all week and we made sure to let him know that. We will also make sure to leave a comment with guest services tomorrow so hopefully his boss will know that he went above and beyond. The Mardi Gras parade was also a ton of fun. We thought it was going to come thru tomorrow, but when we heard it was also going on tonight we decided to sit and watch.
Club service left another great trinket tonight, this time a little flashlight thing with fiber optic type lights coming out the top. The kids are in heaven, we just plain love the service, and have decided that we will definitely reserve this room next time. Everyone loves grabbing a free pop, water, or beer (at least I do) and the donuts they had out this morning were fresh and delicious.
I read a few comments last night on the boards of other people thinking these parks are edgy or the staff tying to be cool instead of helpful and just havent run into that kind of thing. These parks are definitely different from Disney, and I would prefer the music be turned down a notch most of the time, but we are still impressed with how weve been treated here. If you can swing the club level, do it. You really do feel pampered and special, but if you cant swing it, stay here or Royal Pacific and use that FOTL access. The extra $100 per night is well worth not having to wait in line. Universal had short lines while we were there, but we rode MIB twice and passed the same people in line both times. Tomorrow is our last full day as we fly out early Sunday morning. We plan on going to both IOA and US to hit our favorites, and spending a couple hours in the pool tomorrow afternoon.
Let me know if anyone has any questions, be glad to answer if I can.
Mark
On our way to Wet N Wild, I wanted to hit the outlet mall since I had heard stories here of bargains at the Disney outlet. Wow, what timing, today they had tent sales, 70% all clothes and merchandise was marked way down. My wife picked up a $80 globe for $24, we picked up 4 100 years of magic beach towels for $6 each, and some nice stuffed characters, t-shirts, etc all cheaper than Ive ever seen them. Our bill at the register was $270 marked down to $74, I couldnt complain with that kind of math for what we bought. We didnt even look at the other tents, wonder if they had good deals, but time was wasting and we all wanted to go on the water slides.
The weather was crappy this morning, sprinkled on and off, but waited until we entered Wet N Wild to really come down. After we waited for the lightning to pass and for them to reopen the pools, we did most of the good rides, freezing our tails off when we were out of the water. We had a good time despite the weather and would happily go back again. Around 2, we made our way back to the Hard Rock (paradise) to get showered and ready to do something new. We headed to Universal by 3, no time to rest for these weary folks, and managed to do several things we hadnt done before. Terminator 2 3d was really cool and the Horror make up show was a hoot. We skipped those last time, dont make that mistake. We also got a couple rides in on Men in Black, Jaws, Earthquake, and Twister. Dinner was at Fitzpatricks, the food was really good and our server Joel was the best we had seen all week and we made sure to let him know that. We will also make sure to leave a comment with guest services tomorrow so hopefully his boss will know that he went above and beyond. The Mardi Gras parade was also a ton of fun. We thought it was going to come thru tomorrow, but when we heard it was also going on tonight we decided to sit and watch.
Club service left another great trinket tonight, this time a little flashlight thing with fiber optic type lights coming out the top. The kids are in heaven, we just plain love the service, and have decided that we will definitely reserve this room next time. Everyone loves grabbing a free pop, water, or beer (at least I do) and the donuts they had out this morning were fresh and delicious.
I read a few comments last night on the boards of other people thinking these parks are edgy or the staff tying to be cool instead of helpful and just havent run into that kind of thing. These parks are definitely different from Disney, and I would prefer the music be turned down a notch most of the time, but we are still impressed with how weve been treated here. If you can swing the club level, do it. You really do feel pampered and special, but if you cant swing it, stay here or Royal Pacific and use that FOTL access. The extra $100 per night is well worth not having to wait in line. Universal had short lines while we were there, but we rode MIB twice and passed the same people in line both times. Tomorrow is our last full day as we fly out early Sunday morning. We plan on going to both IOA and US to hit our favorites, and spending a couple hours in the pool tomorrow afternoon.
Let me know if anyone has any questions, be glad to answer if I can.
Mark
