HRH July 3-7

[jillybeene71]

The Day Before (Saturday)
I do the usual car check, me and dd (Kaitlyn, 15) have a pedicure, shop for vacation "stuff" at walmart. It's Saturday...I have all day to pack & do last minute stuff, but what do I do? Get online, and look at everything we are about to go do...cut to 10:30 pm and we are still not packed, (btw, we are leaving at 3am. Ok I still have time, who needs sleep, right? 12:00 am, we're packed...kids are sleeping (Kaitlyn 15, Dustin 13 & Ryan 5) and here I am in bed with eyes wide open...a 35 year old acting as if I were 10...too excited to sleep. oh well, I must have gotten about an hour sleep when the alarm went off...(my humps, my hump, my hump my hump, check it out...I dont know if this happens to anyone else but when the alarm goes off, the song playing stays in my head all day) ok i can deal with that...time to wake the kids, this will be fun (which is my motto for the rest of the trip, until about thursday)
2:50 the car is packed and ready to go with 3 wide awake kids who have no idea how long a 13 hour car drive can be. Its 3:30 were on our way to Baton Rouge when the 5 year old asks "are we almost there"? ha I answer " in about 3 more naps, kid". "RELAX, this will be fun"
If anyone has driven on I-10 from Louisiana to Florida knows how boring the drive is... nothing but trees, trees, more trees and state troopers ::cop: . I try to follow the crazy people going 85 or so...but I dont need a ticket my first day...
around 1 something we reach I-75 and start seeing signs for tourist info and about a thousand signs for a place that "bares all" and "couples welcome" I mean really...from "free disney tickets" to "we bare all" YOU GO, Florida...from one extreme to the other.
After getting lost, we arrive at the Quality Inn and Suites..im not sure what road its on but its close to Universal...basically a nice place for the money...we were going to chill here for the night before checking into the HRH on Monday. We go around the corner to Burger King and in the process get lost again (I am a smart person, but if your in the wrong lane...to bad for you, stay there and hope for the best) after 3 exits later we were back at the hotel. 1 hour and 45 minutes for a supper we could have walked to. lol.
Its like 9 now and we have a big day tomorrow. I lay down, my head is spinning...my humps, my humps my humps my humps, check it out...oh God, I really hate that song.
I'll post the rest in a little while.

 

[jillybeene71]

Day 2
Monday morning I woke everyone up to go eat the free breakfast ( i mean this whole trip this was the ONLY thing i didnt pay for) I can see why its free...no one in their right mind would pay for that. anyhoo, it doesnt matter, we're going to universal today...yippee yay..(my kids think im nuts)
by 8:30 we're at Hard Rock and with room keys in hand, were off to the water taxi. We stop to take a picture by the globe thing (who hasnt?) and head on over to US. The first thing Ryan sees at the entrance is Scooby Doo. I could swear I heard him sing "hallelulah". It is literally his favorite, he likes the movie but loves the old cartoons. We get in and first thing we do is Shrek...we flash our room key and BAM to the very front...The nasty looks we got were priceless ...If I had a dime for everyone we got, I'd could have probably paid for my trip.
The whole day here we rode everything once and then went back to the hotel to swim for a while...we went back to eat supper and stay for the 360 show...the kids had the meal deal and so did like almost everyone else there, which made the lines sooooooooo long. That is my only compaint there. We missed a few minutes of the 360 show but we were at the international film and food place so the globes were right there...we watched the rest as we walked along by amity to san francisco...we made it to around where the walgreens sign was and had a great view of the "finale" part with the fireworks. We leave, along with everyone else in the park, and head for the water taxis. With about a million people waiting, we decide to walk back (which would be our routine for the next 4 nights...morning-water taxi, night-walk back) The walk is not bad at all, but when you have a whiny 5 year old, a few minutes feels like 4 hours. And it doesnt help with the 13 year old would hide in the bushes and scare everyone else on the way...he would do it to us every night, Kaitlyn and I caught on, but the 5 year old fell for it everytime. We were some tired human beings, so no wake up call tomorrow...

 

[ChrisFL]

Fun reading so far, especially about "my humps", I feel sorry for you!

 

[jillybeene71]

day 3
Tuesday July 4th
Even though we didnt do the wake up call...i still get up at 730. I look over...no movement. darn, this is vacation, kids are supposed to be up before the parent...whats wrong with these kids? I grab the remote. I wont wake them up, lol, but the tv will. I convienently turn it to cartoons. I raise the volume slowly till i see leg moving under the covers...YES!!! A little louder...dd sticks her head out of the covers and asks "have you lost your mind"?...yep, first REAL vacation in years...I think i have lost my mind.
8:30 everyone is up and ready to go...head out for IOA. Right outside the gate are these weird looking dudes on stilt things...gotta get a picture! I bought Kelly Monaghans book Guide to Universal (best book ever, studied this more than I ever did in school) I read that when in port of entry, listen for the "conversations" going on around you. I go from one end to the other and listen, but could only hear one person "talking" and it was not in engish. It was towards the right by a stairway (i think going down) to a doorway...it looked like someones house with a little mailbox...guys if i stress one thing...really look around here. My kids wanted to go, this was not of interest to them. This place is so detailed and amazing. next time I go, i will make sure to explore every corner.
Once in, we turn left. The kids see the Hulk, Ryan is too short so we stay behind. We see Spiderman run through the streets so while theyre on hulk we'll go visiting. After a few pictures the other 2 are back, we go on Spiderman. Its hard to say if I liked it at this point because from when the water squirted on you, my eyes were closed. Its not scary, but I found out I have motion sickness. Im taking this very hard. This is new to me. I have not been on a real ride since 2000 and had no problems there.
Ok, Im thinking maybe that it was just this one...I go on ripsaw falls and experience that same thing...worse this time. same for Jurassic park and If anyone has ever rode the baby coater "flying unicorn", you know its not bad at all...me, sick as a dog.
we pass through lost continent and see the sinbad show...this is the cutest show...we all liked it alot. Coming out of the sinbad show we catch that fountain that talks to you...for a 1/2 hour the kids played, answered her questons, got soaked. This is the funniest thing. They had no idea how this fountain saw or heard them...too funny. I saw the Ellen show in April and knew exactly how it worked.
We made it to Seuss Landing...I loved the colors. All the characters were out, we have pics with I think all of them. The Cat in the hat ride was my favorite and so was 1 fish 2 fish red fish blue fish. Dustin figured out the song and went on like 15 times just to prove he can go on it without getting wet.
The trolley was nice you can see everything..although I dont know if we got stuck or what, but we stayed motionless for like 5 minutes. We ate at the Circus McGurcus, it was pretty good, but tasted the same as all the other places...The places we ate here were (during the week here) Comic strip cafe, Burger Digs, Circus McGurcus. These all had the same things and tasted all the same.
By 8 Ryan was ready to go and had no problem letting everyone close to us know it...we wanted to stay for the fireworks, some rides were closing early, so we just parked ourselves in the front inbetween Marvel Island and Seuss Landing. What i didnt say in other posts was that a friend of mine, her husband and 2 kids also went the same week as us. They stayed at the Quality Suites the whole week. Ryan was really getting loud and obnoxious and whiny, so I left the kids with my friend and went walk around...its almost time for the fireworks, but see that the Caraseussal was still running...great! that would quiet him. The fireworks started while we were riding. I missed the first part, but we caught most of it, but couldnt see well. Still a good show.
Again leaving IOA, along with everyone else, was crazy. They postponed the 360 show in US till 10:00 or 10:15 so we saw some of those fireworks while we were walking back to the room.
When we got back to the HR, we went to the ice cream place (cant remember the name) overpriced but pretty good. They had fun names for their icecream. A small bottle of Figi water was 3.75. and I thought the water was overpriced in the parks...geesh...I ended up saving the bottle of water we got each day and filled it in the fountains to bring back.

 

[jillybeene71]

Day 4, 5, & 6
by Wednesday we had done all of the rides in both parks so I was thinking about doing the shows...I had stayed up late last night trying to plan them around the times. As we were walking in US, Ricky Ricardos band was setting up, I wasnt quite sure what was up, but we still had time until Beetlejuice so we sat for a minute just to see. Cute show...Ricky and Lucy both looked and sounded like the real deal. Ok, I got the times mixed up with Beetlejuice and the horror makeup show, so we haul butt across the park to make the makeup show. we made it, oh and just our luck...some guy from California made a special trip out here just to do the show. HA HA what an idiot i was...we saw the show again Thursday and they said the same thing and it was a completly different guy. ok, ok they fooled me. Anyway the weird guy with blondish long hair was the best...he was crazy. I loved it.
we saw all the shows and did more rides and stayed again for the 360 show...I still cant find the perfect spot. 2 days left...i will see the full show.
Thursday morning
We are at IOA, its around 10 and the lights are flashing in Marvel superhero island...all of a sudden, 4 wheelers with spiderman, wolverine, captn america rogue storm and cyclops come out...They were literally like a foot away from my 5 year old. Its like hes in awe in all the pics i have of them. We head on back to US to see Beetlejuice AGAIN...
Kaitlyn absolutly loved Beetlejuice the day before...she is a dancer and cheerleader, so this was right up her alley. She has always said she will be a performer in a theme park or dance on a cruise ship...ok, i guess, to each his/her own. Im just happy its not a life of "Welcome to MCDonalds can I take your order"? or her picture on the "we bare all" signs on the highway. lol If i hadn't mentioned before, it rained everyday we were there. Not alot but it did none the less
The clouds were rollin in so I figured great we'll go see beetlejuice, covered area..good..rain will cool us off...even better. OMG It was like a hurricane...rain was whipping across the stage, we were sitting on the left side facing the stage at the bottom. we were getting soaked. Needless to say they cancelled the show but all the monsters came out to take pictures with who ever wanted. Ryan was scared to death. Dustin was not interested, but Kaitlyn ran in line. This rain was turning out to be a good thing. Finally it calmed down enough to leave, its still raining some so we decide to eat. More of the same for the rest of the day.
Friday
Beetlejuice again...(oh God no) since she didnt see the show Thursday..."come on mama, it will be fun". (eating my words from the beginning of the trip) ok sure...its not like I have a 13 hour drive in the morning. After that we were going to do MIB one more time...fear factor was just beginning...what the heck, let go see what thats about. I have seen the TV show...I only like the 2nd challenge, when they eat or swim with something gross...its the best part. This couple along with 2 teens had to drink a concoction of sour milk, worms i dont even remember what else. the woman blended it all together and poured it into small cups. The teens were gagging so bad...it was so funny. More funny, the older man and lady drank all of their stuff...and all they got was a cup that said "I ate a bug" You would think a shirt or something bigger, but no, only a cup.
It was around 2 now and I had wanted to get going so I can drive a ways before stopping to sleep. I should have asked for directions...but thought I had it. I ended up not taking the turnpike exit thing and stayed on I-4 until like I was almost in Tampa. I ended up in LAKELAND. The girl at the Comfort Inn had no clue as to what my next move was (i needed to get to I-75) Thank God the guy at Wendy's knew where to go. I was only 45 minutes out my way. Ok we'll sleep here and then head on out early for the nice (ugh) ride home. btw...gas at this exit was 2.99 reg. I was not about to pay that unless I was desperate. The next exit over was 2.75 Go Figure.
Anyway the ride home was uneventful and boring same as the ride there...but I would do it again in a second if I had the chance.

 

[jillybeene71]

This is the last post, i promise.
I guess this is a review of the things I experienced
Quality Inn and Suites
Good hotel but dont get it just for the free breakfast
Hard Rock Hotel
There are no words to describe how wonderful this place is.
US
The best park, I believe, out of the 2 (only my opinion guys)
IOA
best place for character pics
we didnt eat anywhere other than in the parks with the meal deal...Ryan only ate pizza for the 5 days we were there, so all the places we went to sold that and burgers, chinese and chicken tenders
Burger Digs GOOD
Comic Strip Cafe GOOD but they serve fries with 1/2 a pizza he didnt like the fries so I had to stand in line again for a second half of a pizza. KIDS!!
Circus MCGurcus GOOD
International Food and Film GOOD
Monsters Cafe GOOD
Louies Italian...VERY GOOD for some reason the pizza tasted different than the individual ones everywhere else.
all the food is the same, just find the shortest lines.
we did eat at the Kitchen in the HR...very good breakfast buffet.
The best show for me was Sinbad...sort of kooky and funny and the horror makeup show.
Curious George was really cute also.
my favorite ride was MIB although the chicken dance in Jimmy Neutron was pretty funny. After the umpteenth time kaitlyn and I watched all the people on the sides of us..."is that what we look like"? ha ha YEP

 

[jordansmomma]

I hate it when i cant get the song out of my head!! I enjoyed your report, i will be at both US & IOA next month, my 6 yo son will the love the character interaction, esp if scooby doo is there and i am trying for the breakfast, he will just go crazy!! So was the meal deal worth it? My 9 yo could eat a horse i swear. But he is 5'3'' and 115 so go figure, he will be 10 a week after we get home. I am glad you enjoyed your trip.

 

[jillybeene71]

The meal deal is so worth it... I paid 10.99 for a child ticket. One pizza costs 6.59 or something like that so its paid for the second time he eats, I also have a 13 year old son and 15 year old daughter. My daughter can eat like a horse, so it was worth it for her. I paid I think 19.99 or so for the adult which is still an ok deal. It worked for us the first few days, eating the same things for days at a time, will at some point, get to you. I dont think I can look at another pizza the same again.

 

[katybugsmom]

Thanks for the great trip report!! I enjoyed reading it! Can't wait to post my own at the end of December!!!!!

 

[jokan]

Great Report. For the record the Cafe' Risque' has great food and service and their motto "We Bare All" means they have no garnishments on their plates.

I only went for the articles I swear.

 

[jillybeene71]

Im so glad you cleared things up for me...hey, any place where a trucker can shower for free, cant be all that bad.