June 29-July4th RPR/Cocoa/RPR Part 1

[murf]

OK here goes my first report on here:

Cast : Me (42), Wife,(not allowed to say but 1 week younger than me) , Son(13), his buddy(13)

The Plan: Drive Cincy to Orlando, stop in middle
Actual: Left at 6am , met light traffic resistance so we made it to orlando by 9pm
(kids voted at valdosta to keep going)
Since we arrived earlier than planned stayed at hampton on international.( Giant suite for 75 bucks new hampton very nice)

Day 1: 8am checked in at RPR, room was not ready but they assigned us a 7th floor hulk view room 1735 I think, after i said boys wanted to see park view from high up. and told us to call back to see if room is ready later.

got our room keys, had 5 day passes from mastercard at 89 each
ordered last month. ( buy 4 get 1 free also so we have leftover 1)

Hit IOA, then univ. FOTL was awesome longest wait 12 min for shrek. by 3 in the afternoon we had hit big rides , so we went to room, AWESOME view. had T lowes teen bags, and cookies from free loews membership and report card As gave boys free drinks (which they never used)

Boys enjoyed these rides the most
Men in Black, ( rode it 15x in 3 visits)
Dueling dragons
Hulk
Spiderman
Terminator show ( front row)
I liked Poseidons fury

We felt safe on letting boys go back to park without us after resting in room and pool. they used watertaxi and walked 6 minutes on trail. Watertaxis dont start till 8 30 so best to walk in Am.
During trip we ate at ( all had 10% AAA)
Ate at: Margueritaville good burgers! ask for table near volcano
Mythos: awesome inside. boys had burgers
NBA in Citywalk: Ok but not overly impressed
Enchanted Oak ( best burger as per wifes opinion, which I frequently disregard)

Things to know: universal had longer waits each day, and seemed more crowded, so best to hit it early for shrek, IOA was always easy to get on rides.

Day 2 we hit studios first, loved terminator but boys rode Men in black tons. we had info on how to get high scores so boys were able to hit 800,000 points before we left, ( see hints on the other board for MIB). They take good pics on this ride with your whole group shooting aliens)

Notes;
Pool was open till 11 so we hit it each eve since parks closed at 9

Rained from ~3-5pm each afternoon so we hit a movie at citywalk 1 time
Day 3, hit IOA and Universal favs, then drove to Cocoa Beach
( water taxi is best for universal since its longer walk0


see report #2 later tonight on or rest of trip while i let my fingers relax before writing it.

 

[wendypooh]

great report!! We are going Aug. 11-15, I have 3 boys....... did you have to ask for the teen thing, or did they just give it to you??? Also, if you remember, could you post the prices at the rest. where you ate. With 5 of us, I'd like to get an idea. My sons are psyched about fotl........ they are gonna run dad ragged!!!!!!

 

[murf]

prices at jimmy buffets ranged from 8 bucks for burgers to 14 for fish, so this was reasonable for any area.


we skipped hotel restaurants since they seemed too fancy for the boys,

mythos was more, we paid 10 bucks for sandwich meals
we splurged and got tasting of chocolate for 7 bucks at mythos.

Enchanted oak was less formal and u just went in line to order food. $8 burgers with pickles and fries there were best of all, but i enjoyed the walls and atmosphere as well.

in the parks , the boys would eat lunch whereever, and we would eat bfast in the room with cereal boxes, then have nicer lunch or dinner. Kids didnt have AAA card so good idea to copy 1 and use it or universal fan club card. drinks had peel off coupons for park food discounts so check your cups in the park.

drinks in the park add up, so get the 4.99 drink and refill it for 1.32 , we did this alot. u can also ask for water cups at any stand for no charge unless u want bottled.

I suggest giving boys spending money for special stuff like dippin dots ( 5 bucks) so they appreciate the costs and limit themselves.

dont forget with report cards tehy can get drinks at pool but not usable in the park. we had cooler in the room we brought up for drinks later

 

[murf]

we had to ask 1st time for teen thing, they were out, so we had to ask 2 days and they had them finally. the last day they had them ready. boys made fun of some contents but still bags were apprciated! they didnt want shampoo samples etc!) Boys wont appreciate them ( the bags) as much as girls since girls can wear them and not look uncool. the cookies we had to call * since they iddnt know when to deliver, the 2nd time we checked in (july 4th) the cookies were there waiting when we got into room at 3

 

[murf]

reminder that the 2 boys were teenagers so the prices i show are for big burgers not small kids meals

 

[wendypooh]

Hey, thanks for all the info. My sons are 17, 15 and 3. I know my oldest would give the "teen thing" to the baby. He would find it silly I'm sure, but he would look after the little one!!!!!!! so he wouldn't feel left out. They both eat like grown men, so I was just wondering about the best places to eat. It does seem like the hotel rest. are a little pricey and while the "dressy" thing isn't a prob. a week there adds up!! Thanks

 

[Minniespal]

Thanks for sharing ~ Wonderful reviews!!!!!!