DISNEYBARB
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2002
- Messages
- 53
Well, we just returned from 7 nights at HRH! We left on October 5 and returned October 12. We flew Delta and the flight was uneventful. Much better than driving!
The Hard Rock Hotel was just the GREATEST hotel. We had two rooms, a deluxe and a club level. (There were five of us, two 13 year old girls and 10 year old son, my husband and myself.) We decided to splurge - the girls and I had a room and my husband and son had the club room. Due to the great entertainment rates, we got both rooms for about the rack room rate of the deluxe!
The deluxe room was HUGE! We stayed at the Polynesian at WDW last year and really liked it but this room just seemed so much larger! We were on the third floor which was a great location. Housekeeping services were great, check in was a breeze, absolutely no complaints!!! The room itself was just remodeled. No duvet cover, but a very nice light green comforter. The pillows were AWESOME!!! The bed was so comfortable.
The club room was much smaller, but just as nice. Perfect for my husband and son. The girls and I had a key for the 7th floor as well as for our room so we were able to go to the 7th floor and have breakfast each morning! The snacks from 5:00 to 7:00 were fairly good, cheese, crackers, wine, beer, etc. They offered different dips and vegetables each day. One day we had jerk chicken on skewers which was pretty good. Every evening from 8:30 to 9:30 they had cookies and milk. Most oreos and chocolate chip cookies, but still good. All in all, the food was decent, but I liked the Polys concierge food better. BUT, my son loved the turn down service with a special toy each night! The lights were always dimmed and the music softly playing. They would place the robe on the bed and have ice in the room. A great service! This room did have the duvet cover, the same great beds and pillows! Our bellman said that the white duvet comforters were showing a little wear and tear and he believed that they might possibly be redoing many of the rooms with the comforters that were in our third floor room. I believe I personally liked the green comforters better.
On to the parks!
The FOTL is the greatest! We would go to the parks late in the morning, probably around 10:00 or so, and use the passes to get on right away. Most waits were somewhere around 15 minutes or so, but Spiderman, Hulk, Back to the Future were sometimes as long as 45 minutes, so the FOTL access was certainly a perk!Spiderman was my favorite ride of all time! My daughter and her friend loved Hulk, Dueling Dragons and Dr. Doom the best! (I don't like coasters, but rode the Hulk anyway.) It was a smooth ride and I did enjoy it! The overall theming at both parks is much better than Disney in my opinion. I guess the compactness of the parks and the layout of the parks assured less rushing and you were able to see everything. As I said we spent 5 days at the parks and saw everything at a very leisurely pace.
Universal Studios was so much fun to explore! My husband is a real movie buff so he enjoyed this park the most. My son and my daughter's friend were selected for the slime time living taping on Monday. Several of their friends at home saw them on TV. I believe this was my son's favorite part of the entire trip!!! He walked into the hall and said this was his best dream ever come true!! They actually made it to the final four of their team! No prizes, but still a great experience for them. I believe I enjoyed watching them as much as they enjoyed participating!!! All of the rides were so much fun and MIB was the BEST!!!! I got the 100,000 bonus each time! Of course my entire score was only 137,000 tops so the bonus saved face!
Islands of Adventure was great too! We rode all of the rides, and the girls rode the coasters MANY times! Once was all I could handle for the coasters! We ate lunch at Mythos one afternoon and it was delicious. I highly recommend these
to everyone!
Most evenings we ate at Citywalk. We ate at Hard Rock Cafe twice, Margarittaville twice, NBA, and Motown. All the food was delicious. The Cinnaberries at NBA are worth a trip in themselves!
We did the Haunted Horror Nights on Thursday night. This was very interesting! I don't care for "scary, bloody, gorey" things, but everyone needs to do this at least once! The girls were constantly chased by Chainsaw men, and they would squeal and scream, but had a ball. We only did one house, ScreamHouse, I think it was, and we enjoyed it. The overall theming was pretty scary to me. The fog and strobe lights made it very difficult to see, which just added to the great effects! The park seemed VERY crowded and most house waits were over 45 minutes by the time we found them! Silly me, I didn't even know they had a map! Though I probably wouldn't do this again, I know my kids would in a heartbeat!
We usually left the parks by 3:00 in the afternoon and swam in the pool. The Hard Rock pool is so cool! The music playing is so much fun and yes, you can hear the music underwater! I didn't go down the slide, but the kids said it was a lot of fun!
On Friday night, we sat by the pool and watched the Dive-In Movie. Antz was showing and even though the kids had seen the movie before, just lying by the pool and watching a movie was a lot more fun!
We had a great trip! I can think of nothing more relaxing than a leisurely trip to US and IOA with a stay at the Hard Rock Hotel. We walked over to the Portofino and missed the action of the Hard Rock. Granted we live in small town USA so a little action on vacation is GREAT for us. The music was not too loud, a little louder in the afternoons, but quiter by the evening. The hotel was very quite in the evenings. I don't know the occupancy rate for our stay, but it seems there were always several people around.
Overall I give this trip a perfect 10!!!!!!!!!! I know Disney fans would hate me, but I truly had more fun on this trip than we did at Disney last October. Much more relaxing and enjoyable. All the employees were super nice, the food was excellent.
If you have any questions, please ask! Only 271 days until our next Hard Rock visit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Hard Rock Hotel was just the GREATEST hotel. We had two rooms, a deluxe and a club level. (There were five of us, two 13 year old girls and 10 year old son, my husband and myself.) We decided to splurge - the girls and I had a room and my husband and son had the club room. Due to the great entertainment rates, we got both rooms for about the rack room rate of the deluxe!
The deluxe room was HUGE! We stayed at the Polynesian at WDW last year and really liked it but this room just seemed so much larger! We were on the third floor which was a great location. Housekeeping services were great, check in was a breeze, absolutely no complaints!!! The room itself was just remodeled. No duvet cover, but a very nice light green comforter. The pillows were AWESOME!!! The bed was so comfortable.
The club room was much smaller, but just as nice. Perfect for my husband and son. The girls and I had a key for the 7th floor as well as for our room so we were able to go to the 7th floor and have breakfast each morning! The snacks from 5:00 to 7:00 were fairly good, cheese, crackers, wine, beer, etc. They offered different dips and vegetables each day. One day we had jerk chicken on skewers which was pretty good. Every evening from 8:30 to 9:30 they had cookies and milk. Most oreos and chocolate chip cookies, but still good. All in all, the food was decent, but I liked the Polys concierge food better. BUT, my son loved the turn down service with a special toy each night! The lights were always dimmed and the music softly playing. They would place the robe on the bed and have ice in the room. A great service! This room did have the duvet cover, the same great beds and pillows! Our bellman said that the white duvet comforters were showing a little wear and tear and he believed that they might possibly be redoing many of the rooms with the comforters that were in our third floor room. I believe I personally liked the green comforters better.
On to the parks!
The FOTL is the greatest! We would go to the parks late in the morning, probably around 10:00 or so, and use the passes to get on right away. Most waits were somewhere around 15 minutes or so, but Spiderman, Hulk, Back to the Future were sometimes as long as 45 minutes, so the FOTL access was certainly a perk!Spiderman was my favorite ride of all time! My daughter and her friend loved Hulk, Dueling Dragons and Dr. Doom the best! (I don't like coasters, but rode the Hulk anyway.) It was a smooth ride and I did enjoy it! The overall theming at both parks is much better than Disney in my opinion. I guess the compactness of the parks and the layout of the parks assured less rushing and you were able to see everything. As I said we spent 5 days at the parks and saw everything at a very leisurely pace.
Universal Studios was so much fun to explore! My husband is a real movie buff so he enjoyed this park the most. My son and my daughter's friend were selected for the slime time living taping on Monday. Several of their friends at home saw them on TV. I believe this was my son's favorite part of the entire trip!!! He walked into the hall and said this was his best dream ever come true!! They actually made it to the final four of their team! No prizes, but still a great experience for them. I believe I enjoyed watching them as much as they enjoyed participating!!! All of the rides were so much fun and MIB was the BEST!!!! I got the 100,000 bonus each time! Of course my entire score was only 137,000 tops so the bonus saved face!
Islands of Adventure was great too! We rode all of the rides, and the girls rode the coasters MANY times! Once was all I could handle for the coasters! We ate lunch at Mythos one afternoon and it was delicious. I highly recommend these
to everyone!
Most evenings we ate at Citywalk. We ate at Hard Rock Cafe twice, Margarittaville twice, NBA, and Motown. All the food was delicious. The Cinnaberries at NBA are worth a trip in themselves!
We did the Haunted Horror Nights on Thursday night. This was very interesting! I don't care for "scary, bloody, gorey" things, but everyone needs to do this at least once! The girls were constantly chased by Chainsaw men, and they would squeal and scream, but had a ball. We only did one house, ScreamHouse, I think it was, and we enjoyed it. The overall theming was pretty scary to me. The fog and strobe lights made it very difficult to see, which just added to the great effects! The park seemed VERY crowded and most house waits were over 45 minutes by the time we found them! Silly me, I didn't even know they had a map! Though I probably wouldn't do this again, I know my kids would in a heartbeat!
We usually left the parks by 3:00 in the afternoon and swam in the pool. The Hard Rock pool is so cool! The music playing is so much fun and yes, you can hear the music underwater! I didn't go down the slide, but the kids said it was a lot of fun!
On Friday night, we sat by the pool and watched the Dive-In Movie. Antz was showing and even though the kids had seen the movie before, just lying by the pool and watching a movie was a lot more fun!
We had a great trip! I can think of nothing more relaxing than a leisurely trip to US and IOA with a stay at the Hard Rock Hotel. We walked over to the Portofino and missed the action of the Hard Rock. Granted we live in small town USA so a little action on vacation is GREAT for us. The music was not too loud, a little louder in the afternoons, but quiter by the evening. The hotel was very quite in the evenings. I don't know the occupancy rate for our stay, but it seems there were always several people around.
Overall I give this trip a perfect 10!!!!!!!!!! I know Disney fans would hate me, but I truly had more fun on this trip than we did at Disney last October. Much more relaxing and enjoyable. All the employees were super nice, the food was excellent.
If you have any questions, please ask! Only 271 days until our next Hard Rock visit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
