Lucky'sMom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 7, 1999
- Messages
- 1,837
I just thought I'd share our MAGICAL Universal vacation highlights from our Jan of '06 trip. We are going back in June, and I am day-dreaming about our last trip. Magical Moments do not only happen at Disney!
We stayed for 3 nights at PBH. We got a deluxe room, since we had 3 kids at the time, and the room and resort were just amazing. The bathroom in the deluxe rooms is as large as my youngest's bedroom I think! Our room was right in the center of the Portofino bay...what a view! We heard and saw the opera singers one night from our room.
I absolutely LOVED the peacefulness of the resort and the boat ride to and from the parks.
On our second night, we ate dinner at the Trattoria. We noticed people occassionally coming up to the table behind us and talking with someone. Then we noticed someone ask the man for a photo. It was Tony Hawk! I had a 3rd grade son at the time, and this was big news! He was almost bumping shoulders with my husband and I, as his family was seated directly behind us. Now, we are not that into celebrities, but we just couldn't pass this up for our son's sake.
When he seemed to be done eating and had gotten up, my DH asked him politely for a photo with our son. He was very gracious and put his arm around my son for the photo. My son was SO excited, and you better believe that photo went to school on the first day back!
The next day, our kids went to beach pool to swim. It was Jan., so not the best swimming weather overall. No one was at the pool except for my family and Tony Hawk's family! Our kids played together the entire time. Tony was not there, it was his wife, and maybe brother, and Tony's 3 little boys. It was the weekend of the Tony Hawk event at US.
The next "magical moment" happened on the boat ride back to the PBH on our last day. It was the week in between the football playoffs and the Super Bowl and the Steelers were in the Super Bowl that year. My DH and DS had on Steelers hats and shirts. The boat driver noticed their "gear" and struck up a conversation with us about the Steelers. Then, out of nowhere, about half way through the boat ride, he changes the music from Italian music to the "Here we Go Steelers" song! It turns out he was a HUGE Steelers fan. He was blasting it the whole way back. Now, I don't know what the other guests thought about it, but we just could not believe it. It was awesome!
The last great thing that happened on this trip happened after we arrived home. To make a long story short, our kids were going to be a Universal video or commercial that we had been invited to participate in through a mass email. They ended up having more kids than they needed, so ours were not going to be in it. Everyone who participated was going to receive free 2-park passes for their entire family. They had promised us these anyway, but when I went to pick them up, there was confusion and they didin't have them. The Universal rep gave me her card and told me to contact her when I got home. I sent her an email, stating how it was disappointing to have waited in such a long line and crowd that day, not to receive our tickets, etc. She replied quickly and said that she was mailing them out. Well...she not only mailed us 5 3-day, 2-park passes, but a whole big box full of souveniers! Universal beach towel, t-shirts, cooler, the Mummy DVD's, a teddy bear, a pen set, a notebook set,... . It was incredible! Now, that is good customer service. I was upset about the mix-up, but she sure made up for it!
So, anyway, those are a few of my Universal Magical Moments. I can't wait for June to create more!
We stayed for 3 nights at PBH. We got a deluxe room, since we had 3 kids at the time, and the room and resort were just amazing. The bathroom in the deluxe rooms is as large as my youngest's bedroom I think! Our room was right in the center of the Portofino bay...what a view! We heard and saw the opera singers one night from our room.
I absolutely LOVED the peacefulness of the resort and the boat ride to and from the parks.
On our second night, we ate dinner at the Trattoria. We noticed people occassionally coming up to the table behind us and talking with someone. Then we noticed someone ask the man for a photo. It was Tony Hawk! I had a 3rd grade son at the time, and this was big news! He was almost bumping shoulders with my husband and I, as his family was seated directly behind us. Now, we are not that into celebrities, but we just couldn't pass this up for our son's sake.
When he seemed to be done eating and had gotten up, my DH asked him politely for a photo with our son. He was very gracious and put his arm around my son for the photo. My son was SO excited, and you better believe that photo went to school on the first day back!The next day, our kids went to beach pool to swim. It was Jan., so not the best swimming weather overall. No one was at the pool except for my family and Tony Hawk's family! Our kids played together the entire time. Tony was not there, it was his wife, and maybe brother, and Tony's 3 little boys. It was the weekend of the Tony Hawk event at US.
The next "magical moment" happened on the boat ride back to the PBH on our last day. It was the week in between the football playoffs and the Super Bowl and the Steelers were in the Super Bowl that year. My DH and DS had on Steelers hats and shirts. The boat driver noticed their "gear" and struck up a conversation with us about the Steelers. Then, out of nowhere, about half way through the boat ride, he changes the music from Italian music to the "Here we Go Steelers" song! It turns out he was a HUGE Steelers fan. He was blasting it the whole way back. Now, I don't know what the other guests thought about it, but we just could not believe it. It was awesome!
The last great thing that happened on this trip happened after we arrived home. To make a long story short, our kids were going to be a Universal video or commercial that we had been invited to participate in through a mass email. They ended up having more kids than they needed, so ours were not going to be in it. Everyone who participated was going to receive free 2-park passes for their entire family. They had promised us these anyway, but when I went to pick them up, there was confusion and they didin't have them. The Universal rep gave me her card and told me to contact her when I got home. I sent her an email, stating how it was disappointing to have waited in such a long line and crowd that day, not to receive our tickets, etc. She replied quickly and said that she was mailing them out. Well...she not only mailed us 5 3-day, 2-park passes, but a whole big box full of souveniers! Universal beach towel, t-shirts, cooler, the Mummy DVD's, a teddy bear, a pen set, a notebook set,... . It was incredible! Now, that is good customer service. I was upset about the mix-up, but she sure made up for it!
So, anyway, those are a few of my Universal Magical Moments. I can't wait for June to create more!
