February Trip Report -- Part 3: Here I am, gonna rock you like a Pat O’Brien’s Hurricane!

WebmasterBarry

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Aug 20, 1999
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14,160
February 3, 2001

The cast:
Me (the 28 year old)
Dave O’Brien (the 34 year old)
The Other Dave (Dave O’Brien’s friend, didn’t ask age)

I headed to the parking garage to move my car into the Hard Rock Hotel parking lot. I had trouble finding the Hard Rock Hotel. I had to drive all the way around Universal property to find it. I finally found it and pulled into the hotel. The hotel looked quite nice! The guard booth was there, but no guard was inside. I had to use my key to open the gate to self-parking, but the exit gate was swung open! This is very weird. I pulled my car into an open space. Until I leave, this is probably the last time I will need to drive my car. It is nice sometimes to not worry about Orlando traffic.

I grabbed my gear and headed up the hill to the hotel. The walk from the parking lot to the front doors was a few minutes. I entered and was quite amazed. Days Inn lobbies are not this nice! I felt a little intimidated because everyone dressed so nice! It seemed everyone shopped at Saks Fifth Avenue! Here I am with my Target-bought jeans and beat-up sneakers.

I dropped my gear off into the room. I enjoyed the view for a few minutes. We had a view of the front drop-off area, but we mostly saw the roof. I took a photo of the beds, but I could not get any more photos since my camera’s batteries were dying. I also enjoyed the nice bathroom for a few minutes.

I headed out and to Margritaville to meet the Daves. I wanted to walk, but the water taxi was there. He said to get on board. I had trouble opening the gates. To open the gates, I had to lift a vertical bar. It’s harder than it sounds. I finally got it open and sat in the front seat near the driver. I had a view of everyone and they were dressed so swanky! I should have shopped at Saks Fifth Avenue before I came.

It took me an hour to drop off my gear and meet Dave. Dave was there and drinking a beer. The Other Dave was off somewhere else. We finally met and headed to Pat O’Brien’s. I just wanted one Hurricane to see what the fuss was about. Pat O’Brien’s was pretty packed, being that it was a Saturday night. We worked our way to the back bar and ordered three Hurricanes. I did not realize they were so tall! We sat on the fountain wall for a few minutes. Dave wanted to see the XFL, so we moved to the big screen TV room.

As I was watching the XFL, I finished off my Hurricane. I was feeling a little tipsy and Dave was amazed that I finished it off so soon! He ended up buying me another one. After I finished the second one, I was getting a buzz. I was trying to watch the SFL, but I just sat on the stool, kind of disoriented. I don’t drink that much and I’ve never had a feeling like this. I hope I wouldn’t have to be taken home in a wheelchair!

The Daves finished their drinks and we headed to the water taxis. As we were going down the stairs, Dave tripped and fell. He just got up and continued walking (being the trooper that he is). I had to concentrate to keep from putting my foot in the wrong place. We headed back to the Hard Rock Hotel and to our rooms.

When we got there, Dave looked at the sofa bed and it was not made. He had called around 3 pm and said that they could have it done whenever we came back at night. Dave was pretty angry and kept on pacing back and forth, cursing housekeeping. The Other Dave called housekeeping and they said that they would come up to make the bed. While we waited, the Other Dave made our pizza order from Pizza Hut. 30 minutes had passed and no one showed up. Dave was pretty irritated at this point. I would have been happy with just a blanket and a pillow, but Dave said that this was uncalled for by a luxury hotel.

Dave went down to the front desk (he only wore his socks, no shoes) and complained to management. Housekeeping finally came up about five minutes later. We were happy, but the housekeeping people said that they thought we just needed to pull the bed out. We did that already! They had to come back with sheets. Our pizza had arrived and the Other Dave went to get it. Housekeeping came back with sheets a few minutes later and made our bed. Dave was pretty relived at this point and kept on thanking housekeeping. We ate our pizza and watched them make the bed.

Dave apologized for being angry again and again. Because he had all this energy or because he was still a little drunk, he acted like he was in the WWF and jumped from one bed to another. I had 911 on speed dial. The Daves also wrestled each other and tossed the leftover pizza at each other. They had pizza stains on their bed! Housekeeping would not be happy about that. At least my sofa bed was clean. Dave had slapped a pizza slice on the back of the Other Dave’s neck! He had to take a shower to get the pizza stains off. The wrestling and pizza fighting was done over the music of the Grateful Dead.

We finally went to bed around 11 pm. Dave fell asleep first and snored loudly! He was the one that was worried I would snore! On top of his head, I stacked up the two sofa pillows and two other pillows from his bed. I could still hear the snoring! It kept me up for the better part of the night. I think I got about 4 hours of sleep. The sofa bed was surprisingly comfortable, though. We all woke up around 3:30 am. Dave ate a cold piece of pizza and he found a pizza slice under the phone table! We had no idea how that got there. The Other Dave kept on drinking tap water, but the more he drank, the thirstier he got! He finally had to get the Evian water out of the refrigerator. I kept on drinking the tap water and got dehydrated. I had to grab the second bottle of Evian water. We thought it was an insidious plot for us to grab drinks from the fridge!

We were planning on making it to the 8 am early entry at USF and then going to IOA at 9 am to ride Dueling Dragons for about an hour to 1-½ hours.

Would we make it?

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Barry Hom
The moderator formerly known as Barry aka usagi
Moderator, Universal and Sea World Boards


"If you were me, you'd be good looking."
 


It wasen't as bad as it sounds. Hey, I was on vacation (excuses,excuses)

"Compose your final, loathesome dirge!"
 













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