EAT, DRINK, & BE MERRY! Celebrating the suite life at the HRH.

[cornish pixie]

Hi Jodie and Mike
Loving the trip report am still laughing about your detour to have a peak at the slide .
You want to take more water with it!!!
Can't wait to read on and look forward to more of your tales and pics.
Take Care
Tracey

 

[Motherfletcher]

I wish I could open the photos! You should have asked Al to pose or give an autograph or something? Usually you have to go to WDW to find an Al and Jen. Bob asked a bathroom attendant for an autograph.
When we rode Jaws a guy in the next to the last row got soaked from the barrel tipping over inside the boat house. Never seen that before.
Sometimes I just do something like sleep and forget to evaluate the bed. I know that before the night was over I got busy with the green pillow because I woke up with a leg lock and sleeper hold on it. I didn't hear any hall noise but we were a ways from the elevator.
There was a school group in yellow t-shirts that had to be 300 strong.
Keep coming.

 

[AlexandNessa]

When we rode Jaws a guy in the next to the last row got soaked from the barrel tipping over inside the boat house. Never seen that before.

We have ... that would be on Day 4. I can't tell wait to tell Mike that's happened before!

 

[bubba's mom]

I'll get one started tomorrow! I've got several.

why does that NOT surprise me??

 

[bubba's mom]

Thanks for the next day Jodie..... i'm wondering why you were "standing in line" taking pix of Mike?? Since when do you "stand in line"?

 

[keishashadow]

we did meet our new friend, Jason, a bartender there. We gave him one of the Orlando coupons that we printed (http://www.orlandocoupons.com/direct...385a13fc126ff), and it was clear he had never seen them, but he shrugged his shoulders and said, "didn't you print a bunch of these, and I just lost them?" We had a bit of fun with him that night

note to self, visit Jason @ NASCAR (got us a handful of those puppies printed off too lol). As an ex-bartender can tell you to tip early & often for killer drinks . I think the bars should ALL outlaw kids, can always sit @ a nearby table.

excellent report! Great pics (although i'm worried that the foot fetish group might segue on over ). Your cats are very cute.

I'm glad my DH is like yours when it comes to vacations; i like a free reign and purple rain too (KEW tells me that's a very popular drink @ HRH)

I'm confused, which restaurant had the French Dip (i'm all about the dip - yum!)

 

[AlexandNessa]

Thanks for the next day Jodie..... i'm wondering why you were "standing in line" taking pix of Mike?? Since when do you "stand in line"?

Haha! Lots of those pesky school group kids bought express passes, and go figure, we weren't the only ones in the express line.

keisha, those killer French Dips are at the Hard Rock Cafe. And I do mean they are killer!

 

[tlinus]

awesome second day!!!

can't wait for more!!!

 

[AlexandNessa]

Saturday was beautiful, and we had decided that it would be Water Ride Day.

This means we dress accordingly and pretty much only do water rides for that day.

We did stop over at USF first for a quick run on Jimmy, MIB, and the Mummy though. And, since it was Cinco de Mayo, we knew that Margaritaville was closed that night starting at 4 for a private party.

First of all, can you imagine the major bucks it would cost for someone to buy-out Margaritaville for one night?! Our vacation fund would surely not cover that for even 20 minutes, much less the 8 hours it was due to be closed.

I do promise you though, if Mike and I ever win the lotto big, I am buying out Margaritaville one night for all our DIS friends. Code word: Mummy Dust.

And, so we wanted to sneak in to Margaritaville for lunch. We shared a California Chicken Sandwich. I had a beer.

Ok, fine. I had two.

Mike was excited to get free refills on his diet coke with our lunch order. They gave us an extra plate and there was no sharing charge. Bonus.

Now, May is APH appreciation month, and we were supposed to get 20% off our food order. I don't think Margaritaville got the memo though, and they only gave us the usual 10% discount. I didn't argue.

And so, on we headed to IOA for some soaking.

Now, you may have heard me mention a time or two that if your hotel room ccard has a "1" next to the "A" (for Adult) or "C" (for Child), we learned that means that you are one of the hotel's VIPs. We have yet to learn what that gets you or what that really means, but it does mean VIP.

So, we have great fun standing in the express line, trying to subtly look at other's hotel keys to see if they have a "1" too. Maybe sometimes we weren't so discreet but we never got caught.

We didn't find any "1"s in the One Fish Two Fish express line.

And, for the record, the song was off too on Fat Fish, Thin Fish. Even though we followed instructions, we got wetter this time than in many times past.


Next we did JPRA.

If you've never been on this ride before, the lap bar only goes down as far as the fattest person in the row. Mike and I hate being the
fat people in the row, but this time we weren't. We were in the same row with a person who was a lot bigger than us. A lot bigger. I know that I won't fall out, but when that lap bar doesn't come far enough down on me, I
get really, really nervous, and I just can't enjoy the ride. I spent the entire ride citing my mantra: "Please don't let me fall out. Please don't let me fall out." So, really, not one of my favorite rides this trip!

We went off to do Dudley Doo Right's Ripsaw Falls next.

Here we were stuck in line behind the "Get A Room" couple. They were young. They were in love. And they had to let everyone know it. By groping. By kissing. By cuddling. Just not something I needed to see, and the queue through DDR's is not something you can walk backwards through or feel your way through.

I was hoping we weren't going to get the same log as them. I think we might have, but I looked at the ride attendant, discreetly pointed towards the icky couple and shook my head no. I'm guessing she got my message, because we were put in a different flume, and the people behind us got stuck with the groping couple.

I love Dudley's. I'd probably love it more if I didn't wear contacts. I should probably go the "function over style" route next time and wear goggles on the ride. I don't know what it is, but man that water just burns my eyes and does a number on my lenses.

Next up was Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges. It was about an hour wait for the regular line. We were on in about 5 minutes. Excellent. We were directed to a barge, and who are we stuck with now? Dang, they were in the barge before us, and I hadn't noticed them, and it was just too late to move now.

I had known our luck wouldn't last.

We were joined by a bunch of middle school girls who were having fun. But that didn't stop the couple from groping and making out. But honestly, it was like a train wreck. We couldn't stop watching this couple. We just couldn't. We'd look at them, and then Mike and I would look at each other with quiet surprise as to just how much some people will do in public. Some people have no shame.

Including us who were staring at them.

After that, we decided to waddle back to the HRH.

We looked at the Beach Club.

We looked at the door that would lead us back to our room.

Guess which fork in the road we picked?

We pulled up 2 chairs, and this time I wasn't messing around with anything fruity. We went straight for 2 cold drafts.

Since so many people pay with their room cards here, it was a perfect place to spy on people's cards to see if they had the coveted "1" on their cards also. We made a game of it, actually. At first the code was a thumbs down for no. Then it made its way into a slight head shake. We had yet to encounter anyone else with a "1" as part of their room keys.

And here's a note to anyone wanting to start a tab while sitting around at the pool: the number of people who came to the bar complaining that they couldn't find their server was amazing. Guests had started a tab and wanted to leave, but they couldn't find their server to settle up. A lot of people were getting annoyed, and this happened on more than one day we were there.

The one question the bartenders always asked was the name of the person who was waiting on them. No one ever knew so it became a game of the guest describing the server, and then the bartender trying to guess which server it was.

So, here's a tip for ordering food and drinks at the pool and keeping a tab running if you're not sitting at the bar: KNOW YOUR SERVER'S NAME! They might disappear with your room key and bill, and not come back in a timely fashion.

I'm sure others have not had a problem, but sitting at the bar we were witness to lots of folks complaining they couldn't find their server, wanting to close out their tab, but the bartenders couldn't help because the server had their room key. So make note of your server's name, just in case.

We finished our beers at The Beach Club and headed back to our room for showers.

Tonight was Cinco de Mayo, and we decided to just meander around City Walk and see what was happening.

As luck would have it, Nascar had $3 Coronas. I had one, and we took this opportunity to take some pics inside of the new restaurant. First, all the games and merchandise have been moved upstairs (which we didn't visit). The entire downstairs is now dedicated to food service:

Alas, our favorite server Jason wasn't there, and it just wasn't as much fun without him.

We decided to try our luck again at Pat O' Brien's since it was still the weekend. We walked into the piano bar, heard Brown Eyed Girl, and walked right back out.

C'mon folks! I am going to start a new thread for song requests at Patty O's that don't include Billy Joel, the over done Brown Eyed Girl, or Elton John. People request the same songs over and over and over. We need to be more creative in our requests!

As usual, we finished up our night at the HRC. This is usually because it''s easy to find room at the bar, and when we can't, I flash my all access pass, and we're shown the next available table. I thought I was going to have to flash my pass tonight because it was busy, but we had excellent timing, and slid right up to the bar just as two people were leaving.

Mike ordered a French Dip to go. I hadn't eaten yet, so he decided to order two, because French Dips are not a dish that we share well. I wish he wouldn't have done that because I did not wind up eating mine at all, and we threw out an untouched French Dip the next morning. I was "too tired" to eat. It killed me to waste food like that!

Here is a pic we took on the way back to the room:

Tonight's turn down trinkets were two rubber balls with smilie faces on them.

 

[robvia]

Ahh, that's funny. I knew the school kids would eventually figure out they can buy express passes. In the past, the tour buses would arrive at 11am and the kids would just walk around the park going on one ride. Now they can spend the extra money to skip the lines.

The hotels don't care how much beer you bring at check in. Next time walk in with a case. That's funny, the limo service has a listing of all the Publix isles.

Yes, it's a bummer more companies are blocking people with Websense. Here at my job we proxy out to our home computers and can surf anything. I can give directions on how to do it if anyone wants, but you'll have to be a computer guru to do it.

Going the wrong direction for the slide is no big deal. I thought you were going to pass out or start dancing on the tables.

Other people will always make noise, no way to avoid that. I ignore it when other people are loud, otherwise the trip is ruined.

Next time bring gallon sized zip lock bags and put leftovers in the cooler.

 

[bubba's mom]

another great day!!! I'm glad you didn't fall outta Dudley . So, did you ever find anyone else w/ a "1" on their keycard?? Oh, and funny you mention the "get a room" couple....with the hot topic on the Disney side bashing UO....

Thanks for the review and pix

 

[AlexandNessa]

You know what? We never did find anyone else with a "1" on their key card, and by the end of the trip, we were checking quite shamelessly!

We are still trying to figure out what that "1" actually gets you. Maybe it means that if you ask for a toothbrush, you automatically get the small tube of Aquafresh Extreme Whitening, even though you don't ask for it!

 

[bubba's mom]

ask damo if she had a "1" when she went the first time this year. according to her TR, when she got upgraded at PBH, they called someone and said "yes, ms. damo is here"....and got the royal treatment...wonder if she'd know?

 

[Motherfletcher]

... if you ask for a toothbrush, you automatically get the small tube of Aquafresh Extreme Whitening, even though you don't ask for it!

Did it come in a little gift bag with the hotel logo and rope handles? That was South Beach and we least got Crest!

 

[Goofy Gaz]

Thanks for the Orlando Coupons link.
Just a quick question. We are going to print coupon and when it comes out all we get is the written offer No Pictures or coupon looking thing
Is that right or should there be something else??
Please help
Goofy Gaz

 

[AlexandNessa]

Did it come in a little gift bag with the hotel logo and rope handles? That was South Beach and we least got Crest!

No, but the toothbrush was wrapped in plastic, and the toothpaste was in its original carton, and they were arrranged nicely on the table.

Goofy Gaz, we just printed the entire page, and then cut the area around the verbage so we didn't have to carry around 8x11 pieces of paper. No one had seemed to have heard of them, but we didn't have any problems. And, don't forget that NBA City usually has 2-for-1 drafts for happy hour regularly ... that's on the agenda for tomorrow's report!

 

[tarheelmjfan]

You know what? We never did find anyone else with a "1" on their key card, and by the end of the trip, we were checking quite shamelessly!

We are still trying to figure out what that "1" actually gets you. Maybe it means that if you ask for a toothbrush, you automatically get the small tube of Aquafresh Extreme Whitening, even though you don't ask for it!

I knew you guys were UO royalty. The room views prove it. I'm jealous.

If we ever have a "1", I hope someone points it out to me. Yes, I'm totally oblivious to the world around me, & most likely wouldn't notice. You can check our room cards anytime.

 

[AlexandNessa]

You know, I think our room view this trip would negate your theory. You'll see when I post it on the following day's report. The good part of our room view this trip though was that we could see when our car service arrived.

 

[tlinus]

Jodie,

great trip reporting!! we are itching for a trip....we are dropping hints like mad for an October revisit without kids - or a cruise

I love my hubby!!

Waiting for more

 

[macraven]

you made me laugh for the first time today.
loving everything you put into your report.