Cast of Characters Me, DH, DS1 - 15 and DS2 12
We actually flew to FL on 8/24, but spent a few days with relatives in Deltona and Flagler Beach. Most of this report concerns our hotel experience.
On 8/27, we arrived at the Hard Rock at about 1:00 p.m. I had reserved a deluxe room at the entertainment rate of $155 per night. Nobody in line at check-in great, this should go fast and well be able to spend some time in the parks. Our registration clerk was Naomi. The reservation was on file I asked about the Grade A program and was told no problem, shed add it onto our kids room keys. Also asked about getting bathrobes in our room, but was told they were only available in suites, even after I mentioned I had seen it advertised on Expedia and Loews site that they were available upon request. Oh well, not the end of the world. Check in took about 15 minutes Naomi kept on running my credit card through, and telling me the computer wouldnt take it. After a while, I was starting to get nervous! Finally, she called a supervisor, who told her all she had to do was hit the enter button she tried it, and it worked. She handed over the key cards no Grade A on the kids cards. So, she had to re-issue those. Note: As we found out very shortly, if one key card needs to be reissued, they ALL need to be reissued, or the older ones wont work. Anyway, I signed the registration for our deluxe room, and left. By this time, there was quite a line behind us.
In the meantime, my DH had unloaded the luggage, which was on a cart in the bell-hop area. We were told we should wait with the luggage, so the boys went ahead to the room while DH and I waited. At this point, I remembered that I had forgotten to mention the Loews First card (although the number was on our reservation), so I went back to reception to mention it. Got a different reception person, who took our room number and promised cookies & milk would be delivered that evening. One of the MIB noticed wed been standing with our luggage, and came over and said hed have it delivered to our room ASAP. One of the bell-hops (PJ) also came to the front area at that time, so he gathered our luggage and off we went. All in all, this process took about a half-hour, NOT what I was expecting!
We went to our room, #4066 I think it was, and neither my key card or my husbands worked. The boys were already in the room, so they opened the door for us, and PJ told us to go back to the lobby later and get new cards for me and DH. We walked in and .. wait a second, I thought deluxe rooms were large, with a pull-out sofa??!! I mentioned this to PJ, who called Star Service. Sure enough, we had been assigned to a standard room, not a deluxe. They had a deluxe available, so off we went to 6099. Much better! The room was very large, with 2 queens, a pullout sofa bed, table, 4 chairs, and lots of space. We briefly settled in, then went back down to reception to get another set of key cards for this room. This is when we were told that any change to one card would require a change to all cards. I remembered this time to mention the Loews First card.
After this, we went off to the parks. We walked to Universal I cannot believe how close it is! We found there were actually two routes you could take one short, and one scenic. We used both during our stay, depending on our mood. Being able to use the Express line at the rides was wonderful this is a great benefit, and really makes it worthwhile to spend a little more to stay at an on-site hotel! In the afternoons when the parks were busy they scanned our cards, but in the mornings they never bothered. We also werent limited to one ride per hours, although during busy times I can understand why they might want to. At almost every ride, we were told that each person needed a card to use the line I think the only exception was Dr. Doom.
After dinner (Motown Café great chicken salad!), we went to the hotel gym. The workout room was great we got free access with the Loews First card. An adult is required to accompany children under 18, so I went down with the boys. They signed a waiver form, and in we went. Equipment included 2 stationary bikes, about 5 treadmills, a few step machines, and a large variety of weight equipment (my 15 yo was in heaven!).
Over the next few days, we visited both IOA and US, the Hard Rock Café, and ate a few times on I-Drive. The parks were not busy at all in the mornings, we rode MIB over and over using the regular lane, Express, and single riders (when it got busy, this was faster than Express). By far the boys favorite ride. I managed a high score of 499,000, but my older son beat me with a score of 527,500. My younger son probably could have done great, but he had the most fun posing for the camera, and lost time shooting! We used the hints posted by MIB999999. One comment he states that usually there are 2 bonuses per car, but we almost always got 3, and once when my husband rode with us all of us got the bonus.
A few additional notes about the hotel:
The pool was great never too busy, pool water was just right (for me!), and the underwater sound system had my younger son doing handstands just to listen to it.
Noise levels in the room overall, it was fairly quiet. No hotel can protect against kids yelling in the hall (which only happened a few times). I noticed that the bathroom is the weak point when I was in our bathroom, I could hear EVERYTHING going on in our neighbors bathroom. We kept this door closed at night.
Wastebaskets ok, this is really picky, but there were only 2 in the room one very small one in the bathroom, and one next to the sofa. I really would have liked another one next to the desk, where the coffee maker was. Also, they never unlocked the snack pantry, so I cant say what was in there.
One other little nit at night, a lot of light shone into the room under the doorway. After the first night, we took the rug from in front of the sink and put it in front of the door to block the light.
We had one bad experience on Thursday, our neighbors
around the corner (we were at the end of a wing) decided to have a party loud music, lots of bass. We could see the water vibrating in the jug we had on the dresser, and had a hard time listening to the TV. After some investigation to determine which room it was coming from, my husband called Star Services (this was about 9:30 p.m.). About 25 minutes went by with no decrease in noise level, and we were thinking about calling again, when we heard a lot of yelling and screaming in the hall. Apparently, one (or more) of the other guests decided to complain directly to the room occupants, and a loud disagreement ensued. Keep in mind, we were in another corridor, but could hear it clearly, and it wasnt pretty! We were ready to call Security when doors slammed and the yelling stopped. Thankfully, the music level also went down! We could still feel the bass, but it wasnt so extreme. We also noticed that the music turned off at exactly 11:00 p.m. I have to give the hotel a big, fat zero for the way they handled this, because I dont think they did anything at all about it.
Overall, we liked the hotel, but were not happy with either registration or the way the hotel handled the noise problem. For the price of $155, it was worth it, and we would stay there again, but I think next time well try PBH.
I almost forgot I had purchased the 5-day bonus tickets to the parks on the Internet, and I managed to misplace mine. I had written down all of the numbers from the back of the tickets, so off to Guest Services we went. The gentleman there looked at my DH and DSs tickets, figured our which one was lost, and reissued mine to me, within a few minutes. Great customer service! With these tickets, every time we entered a park we were required to sign a sheet a paper, and theyd compare signatures, which was a little time-consuming but understandable.
Id be happy to answer any questions anyone may have, about either the hotel or parks.
We actually flew to FL on 8/24, but spent a few days with relatives in Deltona and Flagler Beach. Most of this report concerns our hotel experience.
On 8/27, we arrived at the Hard Rock at about 1:00 p.m. I had reserved a deluxe room at the entertainment rate of $155 per night. Nobody in line at check-in great, this should go fast and well be able to spend some time in the parks. Our registration clerk was Naomi. The reservation was on file I asked about the Grade A program and was told no problem, shed add it onto our kids room keys. Also asked about getting bathrobes in our room, but was told they were only available in suites, even after I mentioned I had seen it advertised on Expedia and Loews site that they were available upon request. Oh well, not the end of the world. Check in took about 15 minutes Naomi kept on running my credit card through, and telling me the computer wouldnt take it. After a while, I was starting to get nervous! Finally, she called a supervisor, who told her all she had to do was hit the enter button she tried it, and it worked. She handed over the key cards no Grade A on the kids cards. So, she had to re-issue those. Note: As we found out very shortly, if one key card needs to be reissued, they ALL need to be reissued, or the older ones wont work. Anyway, I signed the registration for our deluxe room, and left. By this time, there was quite a line behind us.
In the meantime, my DH had unloaded the luggage, which was on a cart in the bell-hop area. We were told we should wait with the luggage, so the boys went ahead to the room while DH and I waited. At this point, I remembered that I had forgotten to mention the Loews First card (although the number was on our reservation), so I went back to reception to mention it. Got a different reception person, who took our room number and promised cookies & milk would be delivered that evening. One of the MIB noticed wed been standing with our luggage, and came over and said hed have it delivered to our room ASAP. One of the bell-hops (PJ) also came to the front area at that time, so he gathered our luggage and off we went. All in all, this process took about a half-hour, NOT what I was expecting!
We went to our room, #4066 I think it was, and neither my key card or my husbands worked. The boys were already in the room, so they opened the door for us, and PJ told us to go back to the lobby later and get new cards for me and DH. We walked in and .. wait a second, I thought deluxe rooms were large, with a pull-out sofa??!! I mentioned this to PJ, who called Star Service. Sure enough, we had been assigned to a standard room, not a deluxe. They had a deluxe available, so off we went to 6099. Much better! The room was very large, with 2 queens, a pullout sofa bed, table, 4 chairs, and lots of space. We briefly settled in, then went back down to reception to get another set of key cards for this room. This is when we were told that any change to one card would require a change to all cards. I remembered this time to mention the Loews First card.
After this, we went off to the parks. We walked to Universal I cannot believe how close it is! We found there were actually two routes you could take one short, and one scenic. We used both during our stay, depending on our mood. Being able to use the Express line at the rides was wonderful this is a great benefit, and really makes it worthwhile to spend a little more to stay at an on-site hotel! In the afternoons when the parks were busy they scanned our cards, but in the mornings they never bothered. We also werent limited to one ride per hours, although during busy times I can understand why they might want to. At almost every ride, we were told that each person needed a card to use the line I think the only exception was Dr. Doom.
After dinner (Motown Café great chicken salad!), we went to the hotel gym. The workout room was great we got free access with the Loews First card. An adult is required to accompany children under 18, so I went down with the boys. They signed a waiver form, and in we went. Equipment included 2 stationary bikes, about 5 treadmills, a few step machines, and a large variety of weight equipment (my 15 yo was in heaven!).
Over the next few days, we visited both IOA and US, the Hard Rock Café, and ate a few times on I-Drive. The parks were not busy at all in the mornings, we rode MIB over and over using the regular lane, Express, and single riders (when it got busy, this was faster than Express). By far the boys favorite ride. I managed a high score of 499,000, but my older son beat me with a score of 527,500. My younger son probably could have done great, but he had the most fun posing for the camera, and lost time shooting! We used the hints posted by MIB999999. One comment he states that usually there are 2 bonuses per car, but we almost always got 3, and once when my husband rode with us all of us got the bonus.
A few additional notes about the hotel:
The pool was great never too busy, pool water was just right (for me!), and the underwater sound system had my younger son doing handstands just to listen to it.
Noise levels in the room overall, it was fairly quiet. No hotel can protect against kids yelling in the hall (which only happened a few times). I noticed that the bathroom is the weak point when I was in our bathroom, I could hear EVERYTHING going on in our neighbors bathroom. We kept this door closed at night.
Wastebaskets ok, this is really picky, but there were only 2 in the room one very small one in the bathroom, and one next to the sofa. I really would have liked another one next to the desk, where the coffee maker was. Also, they never unlocked the snack pantry, so I cant say what was in there.
One other little nit at night, a lot of light shone into the room under the doorway. After the first night, we took the rug from in front of the sink and put it in front of the door to block the light.
We had one bad experience on Thursday, our neighbors
around the corner (we were at the end of a wing) decided to have a party loud music, lots of bass. We could see the water vibrating in the jug we had on the dresser, and had a hard time listening to the TV. After some investigation to determine which room it was coming from, my husband called Star Services (this was about 9:30 p.m.). About 25 minutes went by with no decrease in noise level, and we were thinking about calling again, when we heard a lot of yelling and screaming in the hall. Apparently, one (or more) of the other guests decided to complain directly to the room occupants, and a loud disagreement ensued. Keep in mind, we were in another corridor, but could hear it clearly, and it wasnt pretty! We were ready to call Security when doors slammed and the yelling stopped. Thankfully, the music level also went down! We could still feel the bass, but it wasnt so extreme. We also noticed that the music turned off at exactly 11:00 p.m. I have to give the hotel a big, fat zero for the way they handled this, because I dont think they did anything at all about it.
Overall, we liked the hotel, but were not happy with either registration or the way the hotel handled the noise problem. For the price of $155, it was worth it, and we would stay there again, but I think next time well try PBH.
I almost forgot I had purchased the 5-day bonus tickets to the parks on the Internet, and I managed to misplace mine. I had written down all of the numbers from the back of the tickets, so off to Guest Services we went. The gentleman there looked at my DH and DSs tickets, figured our which one was lost, and reissued mine to me, within a few minutes. Great customer service! With these tickets, every time we entered a park we were required to sign a sheet a paper, and theyd compare signatures, which was a little time-consuming but understandable.
Id be happy to answer any questions anyone may have, about either the hotel or parks.
They even sent over that HUGE dessert tray at Mama Della's I don't know it was just very, very nice. I'm like you I WANT my third trash can!
I work hard and I am very demanding when I go somewhere that if I"m paying top dollar well I want to be treated kindly. PBH I think can be best described as upscale without making you feel outta place at all. I swear you'd think hey i'm the only one here. That's until you go to get on the boat and you think now where did all these people come from. I bet all weekend I past one guest in the hallway and rode in the elevator alone every time but once! Now if your looking at the pool you can see it's really busy but it's so large there's lots of areas to go to where you have your own space. I'm rambling here sorry, I enjoyed your report and thank you for sharing it with us.
