lookingforward
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2001
- Messages
- 3,065
We returned to the Hard Rock for a three day visit last week and had an AWESOME time. As I reported in an earlier post, the HR was still the most fun, coolest place to take our two pre-teen boys.We booked a pool view room one night through the hotel but had to go with Hoteldiscounts.com for the second night because it was sold out. The HR upgraded us to a pool view room for both nights and were really great about combining the two reservations. The room was on the forth floor right near the stairs that led to the pool and pathway to the parks. It had windows on two sides since it was a corner room. We got milk and cookies both nights and they sent my son a birthday greeting and tin of chocolate with a CD. Everyone at the hotel were awesome, and one of the nice front desk ladies even gave me a number to call to get a good room up in Maine during parent's week when my boy's go to camp! We ate lunch at the Sunset Grill and it was great. My husband had the duck salad which he LOVED. It had a ton of garlic in it. I had the chicken club sandwich which was very good.
The parks were really crowded!!!! We used our express access and LOVED it. One thing that has changed since last April, you only need to show one hotel card for the entire family. Last April they wanted to see all three cards when I went with my boys. We rode all the rides to our hearts content and the HULK is our favorite. Jurrassic Park broke while we were on it and the big scary dinasour at the end was not working. We totally skipped the water rides this time. My son insisted on eating at Green Eggs and Ham for his birthday breakfast (he turned down room service!) and to my surprise it was really good food. Only problem was the aggressive birds that lurked everywhere waiting for someone to drop their food.
Universal Studios was great and crowded. We saw the Mardi Gras parade and the special parade participants were firefighters from Chinatown in NYC. They were one of the first to respond to the World Trade Towers and lost people there. It was very VERY moving to see them and their families being honored and the parade was a blast. My boys caught tens of beads and coins. My husband beat us all on MIB and my son was chosen to be in a MIB street act which we caught on video tape. We say Animal Planet's show which was fun but everyone was so pushy getting in and getting out of the show. One poor women was literally thrown down the stairs as people pushed to leave after the show was over. We used express pass and got great seats, though. We had pizza at the Italian place which was okay. And we won the usual stuffed animals on the water shooting game by Jaws. (HINT: The NUMBER NINE gun is the lucky one)
I had problems last year with the HR making double and triple charges to my credit card. This year they have a new policy. You can choose to have them hold $350 a day for liberal charging privlidges or $250 or $100. I left a $100 cash deposit for each day and was allowed to charge room service, etc. up to my limit. (we only charged a total of $28) I was given the balance when I checked out.
We rented a cabana the last day we were there for $60. It was cabana 10 which was lovely but LOUD. It was the perfect thing to do on our last day and extended our checkout time. I really enjoyed our lunch which was served to us in the cabana and my boys made a bunch of friends at the pool.
My son chose the Nascar Cafe for his birthday. It was okay, but we waited much to long for a table and were seated in smoking when we finally got a seat. The food was good and they announced my son's birthday which he loved.
All in all it was a great short visit. We are going back in April and staying a few nights during our two week visit. I already reserved cabana eight (right in front of the kiddie pool) for our visit. Any questions please let me know.
The parks were really crowded!!!! We used our express access and LOVED it. One thing that has changed since last April, you only need to show one hotel card for the entire family. Last April they wanted to see all three cards when I went with my boys. We rode all the rides to our hearts content and the HULK is our favorite. Jurrassic Park broke while we were on it and the big scary dinasour at the end was not working. We totally skipped the water rides this time. My son insisted on eating at Green Eggs and Ham for his birthday breakfast (he turned down room service!) and to my surprise it was really good food. Only problem was the aggressive birds that lurked everywhere waiting for someone to drop their food.
Universal Studios was great and crowded. We saw the Mardi Gras parade and the special parade participants were firefighters from Chinatown in NYC. They were one of the first to respond to the World Trade Towers and lost people there. It was very VERY moving to see them and their families being honored and the parade was a blast. My boys caught tens of beads and coins. My husband beat us all on MIB and my son was chosen to be in a MIB street act which we caught on video tape. We say Animal Planet's show which was fun but everyone was so pushy getting in and getting out of the show. One poor women was literally thrown down the stairs as people pushed to leave after the show was over. We used express pass and got great seats, though. We had pizza at the Italian place which was okay. And we won the usual stuffed animals on the water shooting game by Jaws. (HINT: The NUMBER NINE gun is the lucky one)
I had problems last year with the HR making double and triple charges to my credit card. This year they have a new policy. You can choose to have them hold $350 a day for liberal charging privlidges or $250 or $100. I left a $100 cash deposit for each day and was allowed to charge room service, etc. up to my limit. (we only charged a total of $28) I was given the balance when I checked out.
We rented a cabana the last day we were there for $60. It was cabana 10 which was lovely but LOUD. It was the perfect thing to do on our last day and extended our checkout time. I really enjoyed our lunch which was served to us in the cabana and my boys made a bunch of friends at the pool.
My son chose the Nascar Cafe for his birthday. It was okay, but we waited much to long for a table and were seated in smoking when we finally got a seat. The food was good and they announced my son's birthday which he loved.
All in all it was a great short visit. We are going back in April and staying a few nights during our two week visit. I already reserved cabana eight (right in front of the kiddie pool) for our visit. Any questions please let me know.
