I really don't feel like doing a trip report!

[AlexandNessa]

Do you?

I mean, we just had the best trip of our lives to the RPR. We were treated like royalty. The whole time I thought, "Wow, it's good to be the Queen!" But, honestly, does anyone read TRs anymore? Is it worth the effort?!

I am not asking for encouragement. But, does anyone else feel the same way?

 

[agnes!]

I like reading Trip Reports in any form...long, short, summary, disasters with extended family, whatever, especially when I am trying to plan a trip to a resort I haven't been to before. For instance, we are thinking of staying at one of the Universal hotels for two nights in early November, specifically the Royal Pacific.
So, yes indeed , I am *very* interested in a possible RPR TR .

agnes!

 

[Motherfletcher]

I know what you mean. I didn't do a TR for Labor Day Weekend. Glad to hear that you and Mike had a good vacation. It had to be pretty uncrowded? Relaxing? It was great meeting ya'll and now I can put faces to your cat's names!
Next trip you have to get Bev to show you the secret of all 9's. Did ya'll ride BTTF? How about that new Suess ride in IOA?
The only bad thing that happened to us was a $181 speeding ticket on I-4 from Polk County's finest!

Just tell us anything unusual about the trip. Your room number and view?

 

[aztecgoods]

Yes some of us have no lives and enjoy reading long trip reports. Like me.

 

[DaddyDon]

Wow love your trip reports,I am a terrible writer so i do not write any.Motherfletcher drove thru polk county back in july and all i saw was police and cars pulled over.

 

[Foladar]

I love reading trip reports, theres never enough universal ones

 

[AlexandNessa]

Oh, no, Motherfletcher, a speeding ticket is certainly no way to end a great trip! I can vouch that MF's suite was AWESOME! Very lush and big. Sweet! It sure was great meeting you and your kids. Sometimes meets can be awkward, but it sure wasn't with you guys. Plus, I am very glad that I watched the HMS with you -- Mike wanted to go again, and there were two completely different actors who were not as good as the show I saw with you. Oh, and Mike apologizes -- he thought I was going to get him up for 11 to meet you for MIB. I said, no, we were meeting *at* 11. You didn't get to get *up* at 11!.


I am sad to say that we ate and drank our way through vacation, and I need to get to the gym before it closes. If I have some time at work tonight, and because I HATE MY BOSS WHO WITH HER NEW SCHEDULE IS MANAGING SINGLE-HANDEDLY TO SABOTAGE MY MARRIAGE (I do not have a Friday night off with my husband in 6 weeks and my days off are either Tuesday and Saturday or Thursday and Saturday in the next 7 weeks -- nice, huh?), I may jot some notes down and try to post in the morning.

P.S. I HATE MY BOSS. (thanks for listening)

 

[Motherfletcher]

Hey, we're in no hurry here! Take your time to get back into the groove and don't let the Dis be another stress maker. Sometimes hating the boss can take years. I love my boss but together we hate his boss!
Tonight we are checking out another one of the top 5 hotels in Naples for the weekend. I won an auction for 2 nights at La Playa on Vanderbilt Bch. It was supposed to be for 2 for my wife's birthday but now both kids want to tag along. It is supposed to be THE place to relax and forget about bosses, work, the kids, the dogs, the Sears bill and just chill on the beach like Sam Brown did there on the Travel Channel.
DaddyD, there were about 7 or 8 cop ::cop: cars in their Wolf Pack. They were shooting laser from an overpass. I didn't think 86 MPH was worth that much!
Now its online traffic school

 

[DaddyDon]

AlexandNessa
Bosses sometimes i wonder do they have a family life!Here's a sprinkle of Ga. sunshine coming your way! I dont mind working my share of weekends and nites but can we share the love?
Motherfletcher yea i saw the so called broke down suv on the overpass he was shooting from the back of it when i drove by,I was headed to my daughters to pick up my youngest and was headed back to orlando the same day,It was not till i was on my way back did i see johnny law on the overpass,I kept wondering how are all there people getting nailed!Boy that fine stings! Have a great weekend trip!And tell your wife happy birthday from me!

 

[highlander447]

Glad u had a great trip, I like reading the trippies as well, but they do take a lot of effort

 

[AlexandNessa]

I had time to jot down some notes during a lag in my overnight tour. All I really needed to do was get started, and then it all came from there. As usual, I am not short winded. So, relax, sit back, get your favorite cup of coffee and stand by for Jodie's Fireside Chat ....


Are you ready?

Do you have that coffee yet?

Maybe it's better you don't.

You'll definitely need a bathroom break if you do!


Who: Mike and Jodie
What: The 30-somethings DINKs' 2nd of 3 trips to Universal this year.
Where: Universal Orlando, duh! Ok, seriously, RPR Club
Why: Cuz we're DINKS, we hate our boss, and we felt like it!
When: September 3 - 10, 2006 (last trip: May 4 - 9, 2006)


Check-in was **much** improved over last visit. Last visit: tip grubbing by the bellhop, who took our money, dumped our luggage at the end of the front desk and left it there. When we learned that our room wasn’t ready, we easily found our bags lying around and dug through them without anyone questioning us. Left us with some security concerns. This time: no tip grubbing. The bellhop warmly welcomed us back to the resort and walked us with our luggage right to the front desk. There was no big pile-up of luggage like there was last time, and the one rack that was left there had a bellhop standing in front of it.

The front desk staff was friendlier as well. They seemed to be working in tandem, unless we arrived on “training day.” We were offered punch (which we declined), and we didn’t have to initial and circle our departure date and rate like we used to. That part always made it feel so clinical to me and not like we were starting a nice vacation. Our room wasn’t ready yet (we arrived just before 3), and they asked if we’d like to leave our cell phone number for a call when it was. Mike and I rolled our eyes at this one as we have **always** given our cell phone number but we’ve **never** gotten called. Hence, we term this “The Great Tease.” Nonetheless, we gave our number anyway and hoped for the best.

We decided not to go to the parks that day. We usually do upon check-in, but we figured it wouldn’t be long until our room was ready … plus, we’d never had a drink at the Bula Bar and decided to do so then. Mike had a Miller Lite. I wanted something a little more girlie, and Janelle made me a Tsunami. This was refreshing, but threw me for a loop. I could only drink half before I needed about 2 glasses of water. If green drinks are your thing, I would highly recommend it – as long as you have a full stomach!

Just as I was on my second glass of water, we realized we had a message. It was Raymond in the Club Lounge calling us to let us know that they were working very hard on cleaning our room, since we had requested a specific room. Now, for the life of me, I do not remember specifically requesting #3724, but we were thrilled to know we’d be getting it again! Then I got a thought …. I had Mike pull out our key cards. See, a phone call letting us know our room status was very unusual for us. I always check the cards. After your name is an “A” for adult (“C” for child), and there is always a “*” if you have charging privileges. Sometimes though, your card will read “A 1 *.” I’ve decided that “1” means “VIP.” No, I have absolutely no proof on which to base this wild assumption, but it seems to me that we’ve gotten a little extra service each time we’ve had the “1.” It wasn’t long till Raymond called us back to let us know our room was ready. This visit was an "A 1 *" visit, and I was pumped!

So, keeping up? 3724 = very good King Club room. Advantages: close to the club lounge, beautiful view of IOA and all of the pool. One of the main reasons we like this room is that we can spot one another at the pool easily. Great when you don’t feel like getting dressed to go look for your significant other. We do try to keep from scaring people by not walking the halls in our underwear as much as possible.

All this time, I was trading phone calls with Motherfletcher since I wanted to meet him and I was anxious to see what being Platinum scored him at the PBH. We finally ended the phone tag, and I said I’d be over right after we unpacked.

Just as we were unpacking, we had a knock on the door, and being wheeled in was a table with a HUGE gift basket from the Club Staff! They all wrote a lovely note to us and signed the card. I told Mike, “It’s good to be the Queen!” Mike shook his head and asked who in the heck I belly ached to over our last visit that would score us something this big, and did he have reason to be embarrassed over anything I may have said during said belly ache? Not to worry. I was simply honest in my assessment of their asinine thinking in expanding the Club Level to include the 6th floor, but managed to maintain all kudos to the Club Staff who got stuck managing said asinine decision when I answered their survey. (We were stuck on the 6th floor last visit. That sucked. And I'm being polite in saying that.)

Anyway, in the gift basket was pretty much the entire mini-bar (so glad I opted for the $10 mini-bar credit for my Loews First perk ). It had glass jars of roasted nuts, cashews, and gummy bears; it had 2 big bottles of Fuji water; it had dried fruit mix and a Royal Pacific disposable camera and RPR shell; it had the big beaded black necklace that many of the staff wear. My favorite was a towel of the Royal Pacific Resort. I’ll try to find the picture we took of it and post it. It also had a bottle of apple juice. Neither Mike nor I drink apple juice, but luckily I was going over to meet Motherfletcher. (“Hi, nice to meet you. I come bearing apple juice.” That made a great first impression with MF’s teenaged son! I’m waaayyy coool. No wonder he was so excited to sit next to me on MIB. ). I think it had other stuff too; I just don’t remember!

Anyway, it was a quick trip to the club lounge to thank Yoko for the gift basket, and I was off to meet MF. Except that it was pouring, and I had never used the shuttle service before. So, I had to figure out where that was and then wait for the bus, which dropped me off somewhere in between USF and HRH and then I had to switch buses to go to the PBH.

So then I had the pleasure of meeting MF and his kids. His suite was way sweet! I think a family of 10 could’ve stayed in there. MF also had club access and I’ve never stayed club at PBH before so I was happy to see it and glad he and his family smuggled me in there. The PBH club lounge is bigger than the RPR lounge. The food was about the same, but of course it was Italian-themed while RPR is usually island-themed. Another difference was at the PBH the beers were left out for the taking, and you have to ask for them at the RPR. I do have to say that at the RPR though, you ask once, mainly for them to find out what you’re drinking that night, and then you pretty much don’t have to ask again. At least Mike and I don’t.

Then it was my turn to show the RPR Club lounge to MF and his kids. It was still raining pretty well, and we had to take the shuttle again. The lounge was fairly busy that night. It was not so busy on subsequent nights. That night featured egg rolls, an asparagus salad (which I loved) and the usual veggies and dip, cheese and crackers, and chips and salsa (no PB&J. Mike missed that. )

MF and I made plans to meet at MIB the next morning.

I don’t remember where we went that night after Beer O’Clock in the Club Lounge. I am pretty sure we wound up at the HRC, where for the first time, we discovered their French Dip. I wish I never had. I am pretty sure I inhaled the entire thing. Mike decided that it looked good too, and since my fat butt wasn’t sharing, he’d get one to go so he could have it in the room later. This would be a disturbing trend throughout our vacation and would probably explain why none of my pants are fitting as well as they used to right about now.

So, Mike, after a full meal, too many beers, and a rough night of sleep tried to sleep in, but he had a bit of a problem with housekeeping starting up at about 7:30 and slamming doors as they went in and out. This was only a problem on our first day. I think everyone checked out on Monday, and we didn’t have this problem again the rest of the week (I believe after Monday, the hotel only had 245/1000 rooms occupied – yet, I still paid $239.20 + tax for a club room. Go figure. P.S. Mike doesn’t know that part yet. He still thinks UO is a “cheap vacation.” So, shhhhhhhhh!)

Really, this meant that I wasn’t going to get Mike up for MIB with the Motherfletcher family. He really wanted to go get some tips too. Too bad so sad for him. He missed out and I then proceeded to lie to him about what the hot targets were so I’d beat him every time. I didn’t all the time, but I did a lot better than I usually do. This was, of course, after I embarrassed the Motherfletcher family by scoring a paltry 62K on our first run, bringing down the average score of our car low enough that the opposing car beat us. Hmpphh. They did have fair warning that I suck at MIB, but I still felt bad! I did a bit better on our subsequent 3 runs. The parks were pretty dead that day!

After we saw the HMS show (this would be the first time I saw a female “Alex”), we said our goodbyes and I went back to the RPR to see Shannan in the Club Lounge. We have been staying RPR Club exclusively since 10/2004, and Shannan has been working the club lounge every visit we’ve made so we are “old friends.” I knew she was responsible for the big gift basket and I wanted to thank her and catch up. She actually thanked me for taking the time to complete the survey. She made me feel that I single-handedly put a stop to the 6th floor club expansion! I love that about her. No one liked being on the 6th floor, and it overwhelmed the lounge. The staff tried to tell management it wasn’t a good decision, but no one listened to them until they got enough complaints and the club score matrix on the survey went down. Hallelujah! Not Hallelujah as in their scores went down, but hallelujah in that they had the courage to reverse a stupid, money-grubbing decision to expand the club floors.

So, without continuing in a day-by-day mode, primarily because we were there all week, and the days tend to run together, I will give highlights.

The Parks


-- Were not very crowded, except for Saturday at IOA (9/9). There were many, many groups there due to the Rock the Universe concert. (Big clue: matching T-shirts that said “Jesus Rocks.”) They weren’t bad by any means; there were just a lot of them. For the first time, the express line for Dueling Dragons was a good 25-feet in length outside. We opted to wait to ride DD again until Sunday morning since we were guaranteed a late check out.


-- Jaws is not worth it to us without Express, but if the Express line is open, we go on it and love it! If you’re lucky enough, Andy will be tour guide. We find him very amusing!


-- There was a little mishap on Jimmy Neutron where a small child got upset he was stuck in the stationary seats and wanted to move back to the regular seats right before the ride started. This shut down the ride for several minutes, but the TMs handled it very well. They began trivia for everyone waiting on the ride, and a TM went to the parent to talk with him to make sure the child wouldn’t do that again. It was a painless 10-minute wait.


-- Johnny was a very funny TM on MIB. A young girl “shot” him with her gun, and he “stopped” the ride until she apologized to him. Of course, he called attention to this so that everyone in queue could hear, and it was very amusing.


-- We saw the new Beatlejuice show. Sorry to those who are fans of the show, but this is not Mike’s and my cup of tea. We had more fun watching the signer for the hearing impaired during the show. I have never seen “It’s Raining Men” in sign language, and everyone should at least once in her lifetime.


--For the first time, I stayed awake during all of T2. Personally, we think it’s so bad it’s funny. Others will disagree, but Mike and I enjoy it for its “B movie” factor more than for its special effects.


--Poseiden’s Fury was better for us this time. We realized the key to this was figuring out when the next show is going to start and walking on then, rather than waiting inside. The whole show you stand, so make sure you don’t get stuck standing for 20+ minutes before getting to the actual show.


-- On Sunday morning (9/10), only Fire was running, and DD is certainly not as good when only one side is running. We like Ice better.


--From a bartender at NBA City, we learned that on Hulk, if you’re sitting in the middle two seats and you don’t make the harness snug (e.g., leave an inch or two and not make it so tight that you can barely breathe), you will sort of float as you come out of the tunnel (0 G-force). I tried it, and it worked. It was pretty cool; the harness tightened during the course of the ride. It doesn’t work on the outer 2 seats.


-- We got stuck in a torrential down pour on Thursday, and of course we were stuck at the studios (I only say “stuck” because it’s the farther park from RPR, and of course the boat transportation was shut down because of thunder and lightening.). Mike and I thought we’d wait out the rain at Delancy Street, where you can preview new TV shows that the network is considering airing. It took about an hour. Mike and I would not have done it if all the rides were open and it weren’t pouring, but this was a great way to get out of the rain! We both hated the TV show we had to preview (it was a game show called 1 vs. 100, hosted by Bob Saget – IT WAS AWFUL!), but we liked the process, and we each got paid $15 to boot, or as we called it, “3 rounds of drinks.” I would encourage anyone who is stuck in the rain, or anyone who doesn’t like rides but goes to the park with a bunch of thrill junkies to try it. Some shows are half hour shows, some are hour-long shows, and you can type your comments in after you finish the preview. They give you a green button for your right hand, and you press the green button for as long as you like the show or any part of it. Conversely, they give you a red button for your left hand for when you don’t like the show. Mike and I joked that we had carpal tunnel from holding down the red button for so long. I pretty much held it down for any time Bob Saget opened his mouth.


-- Sadly, we did not ride BTTF for one last time. Mike wasn’t up for it. RIP!

Where we ate:

-- HRC three times, and we made pigs of ourselves here. We usually do. These are our favorite nachos. My body now hates HRC and I have red indents on my belly from the jeans I am currently wearing.


-- Margaritaville – I had the cheeseburger in paradise.


--Bubba Gump’s Shrimp – we loved it! It wasn’t very busy when we went, and so we got a lot of attention from the servers. They played trivia with us, and we had a good time with that. The food was good, and the Club Lounge had a card that gave us free dip with the purchase of an entrée. The dip was phenomenal! And the chips were light – they were our favorite. Mike also loved the fish and chips. I had the shrimp scampi, but after the dip, I didn’t have a lot of room for that.


-- Nascar Café – despite neither of us being NASCAR fans, we enjoy this restaurant, and we shared some kind of appetizer sampler platter and their fish and chips.

Where we hardly spent any time this trip:

-- Pat O’Brien’s. First of all, they did away with draft beers in the piano bar section. Second, when it rains, they (of course) close the courtyard section. As a result, they have full dinner service in the piano bar section and they don’t kick out the kids until about 10:30. Mike and I don’t enjoy drinking in front of the kids and the show is never as good while children are present, and so that was a one drink and done stop for us.


--Margaritaville. Although this is usually a favored hang out of ours, we got so sick of the music after a while. They could change it up a bit, dontcha think? Even the house band, Blue Stone Circle, plays the same sets.


--NBA City. We only went to happy hour once here.



Random thoughts on the RPR:


-- As usual, the club staff is very efficient and friendly and attentive. We adore them, and gave them some gifts at the end of our stay. They really made us feel that we were at home! Mike wanted to know if he could take Yoko and Amy home with him as they usually work evening service, and Mike never had to get up for his beer.


-- The club lounge is really for the exclusive use of those guests who have reserved a club room. It is not for the 25 friends of the blonde lady’s two teenaged daughters to help themselves to the shrimp appetizers and make such earth-shattering proclamations such as “Tortilla chips?! I JUST **ADORE** TORTILLA CHIPS!!!” The club staff handled them well, and quietly ushered them out, and closed the door behind them. And, by the way, the blonde lady and her husband felt they did not need to bus their table when they were done, even though they were in the vicinity of about 8 garbage cans. They let the club staff do it for them. P.S. Hey, blonde lady, it was not the club staff’s fault that you were unable to reserve a cabana. They were sold out; it’s not their fault they were sold out, so lay off of them next time.


-- Another change from last time: Beverages were only out in the lounge during service times. They were available by request at every other time the lounge was open... you just had to ask for them. The reason: too many families were bringing coolers full of RPR Club beverages with them into the parks, and Universal complained.


--I wish that turn down service were a bit later. They always seemed to come just after 5 pm, much too early. Mike and I like to shower or relax in the room for a bit before we head into the lounge for Beer o’clock. We are already the Norm and Cliff of the club lounge. No need to look any more desperate by showing up there exactly at 5. It’s good to be fashionably late. We missed turn-down service 3x because of this. But, no worries. A quick call to Star Services to request the service before we left for the night corrected the problem. (It’s stupid, but I love the trinkets they leave, and I get disappointed when I miss them, unless it’s the shell key chain. I have many of those I’ve never used.)


--Also, the new theme of “Thank you for choosing Loews Hotels” is very prevalent. It’s everywhere, and anyone you have a bit of conversation with will thank you too for choosing Loews.


--The pool staff is very friendly. Every time we walked through the pool towards the walking path, they would always say hello and ask how we were.


--Others will beg to differ, but Mike and I are NOT fans of the Rickshaw folks. If you’ve read any of this, you know Mike and I eat and drink more than our fair share on vacation. The only way we justify this is by walking everywhere. We only take the boats once, after water ride day to prevent chafing. We don’t like 1. feeling like we’re in the Bahamas with a barrage of taxi drivers asking if we want a ride. 2. We actually enjoy the walk. It’s beautiful and romantic. 3. It takes away from the romance when 3-4 times a walk, you hear the friggin bell behind you, and you have to drop hands, and move single file so they can pass (9 out of 10 times empty as in not carrying passengers). I wish they had their own sidewalk or something.



So, have I said enough? Any questions? Comments? Suggestions? How many bathroom breaks did you have to take? I know I said that I didn’t feel like doing a trip report, but it was a slow night at work, and have I mentioned that I HATE MY BOSS? We took all of 2 or 3 pictures this trip. We were too lazy to carry around the camera. That happens, I suppose, when you visit the same resort 7x in 23 months. Next trip: 12/14 - 12/17!

 

[DaddyDon]

LOVED IT!!!!!!! Thanks for a great trip report!
p.s. only two bathroom breaks 1 bag of popcorn and a couple of beers,Well it's 12 o'clock somewhere!
Don

 

[themepark]

I am so glad you decided to post your trip report. I always enjoy reading about your adventures. You guys have so much fun and I love how you tell your story! Can I go with you next time??? It seems I have to experience Universal through your reports now since we haven't been in over a year. Depressing huh? I will be looking forward to reading about your December trip!!!

 

[southjerseymom]

newbie alert.....can you tell me which restaurant is HRC? We are heading for our 1sr trip (staying at RPH woohoo!) next week. Thanks for the report....sounds like me and DH before the kiddles....boy I miss those days. (love the kids..miss the bars!!)

 

[MassMom94]

Thank you for writing even though you didn't feel like it! Great report ... now I have to add seeing "It's Raining Men" with a sign-language interpreter to my life list of don't misses!

 

[AlexandNessa]

Daddy Don, only 2 bathroom breaks?! You're good. Thankfully, I'm a quick typist, which I suppose feeds my knack for being long winded.

themepark, of course you are welcome to travel with us any time! As long as you don't expect us to be up before noon too often!

southjerseymom, sorry about that. HRC is the Hard Rock Cafe. You'll love the RPR. Enjoy your visit!

MassMom, I do promise that the sign language interpreters during the shows are not to be missed. I think that will be my next job when I get fired for hating my boss so much.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

I'm glad you decided to write a TR. I feel the same way though. I started writing a report after our July trip. Most of the people who did reply did so to disagree with what I wrote. It was like they felt I was insulting them personally with our opinions of our experiences. I ended up abandoning the idea all together.

 

[Motherfletcher]

So then I had the pleasure of meeting MF and his kids. His suite was way sweet! I think a family of 10 could’ve stayed in there.

It was great meeting you and Mike too. My son was telling me that he has met a lot of people that decribed themselves as an "old" friend of your Dad's and he always thought that was because I didn't have any "young" friends. It's good to see DINKS that enjoy the parks. I have been accused of having children simply to be able to go to Orlando.
I think that all those stays at the Universal Resorts has taught me a lot about hotels, upgrades, amenities, etc. We stayed at La Playa, Naples this weekend and were upgraded to the Tower with a breathtaking view of the Gulf. The sunsets were incredible. The water was about 200 feet from the room. The 10th floor room was outstanding and my family ran around the room each saying, "Look at this!" We got complimentary chocolate covered strawberries for my wife's birthday and the girl at the check in desk gave me a 20% ticket for their spa which I gave to my wife. She was impressed with the treatment. I'd have to rate this hometown hotel in the top 5 in Naples which is pretty high in a city that has 2 Ritz Carltons.

I had to go to the bathroom once during the TR but its pretty early in the morning.
Did you beat Mike on MIB?

 

[highlander447]

Thanks for sharing sounds like a great vacation, and 1 bathroom trip in case your interested

 

[cc1954]

Thanks for the great TR! I will also have to add watching "it's raining in men" to my planning for the weekend of the 29th.