nkereina
Last chance to lose your keys.
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2009
- Messages
- 21,037
Just back from 3 days/2 nights at RPR, following 4 days/3 nights at Disney. This was our second time staying at RPR, and our first time attending HHN.
We arrived at RPR around 11am on Wednesday 10/28. Checked in and our room was not yet ready, which was expected. I reiterated the room request I had previously noted which was for a refurbished room. It was my understanding that all the rooms in Towers 1 and 2 were refurbished at this point. The employee checking us in said they would try to get us in one, and that we would receive a text when our room was ready.
It was raining hard, so we headed down to Jake's for some drinks to kill some time. Our only plans that day were to attend HHN that night, so we were in no hurry. Tried to open a tab with my room key but the front desk employee failed to mention room charging wouldn't be effective until our room was ready. Around 3pm, I still hadn't gotten a room text so I went to check the status and the room was ready. Not sure how long it had been or why we didn't get a text. We made our way to the room - 5th floor tower 3. Not a refurbished room. Didn't bother asking to change rooms because we needed to get ready for HHN at that point. The room itself was sufficient and pretty close to the elevator, which was nice. Its worth mentioning that it was stifling warm in the room and took forever to cool down. Are the theromstats on motion sensors here? Seemed like the room was always warm when we came back to it, no matter what I had the temp set to.
We were also informed at check-in that the express pass kiosks were down, but if we showed our hotel key at the attractions, they'd let us through. While picking up our park tickets at the tickets desk, we overheard an employee there telling people that they need to go to guest services at the park to get their express pass. We questioned him on it, since it contradicted what the front desk employee said, and he told us we got wrong info and we indeed had to go to guest services. When we go to Universal, we stopped at guest services outside of the park and asked for express pass. She told us the kiosks are down but we just had to show our hotel key. She said even guest services couldn't print them because all the kiosks were down. When we were done talking to her, we stepped to the side to put our lanyards on and overheard a different guest services employee tell people that they needed to go to guest services INSIDE the park to print their express passes for hotel guests. Huh? This was the 4th different answer we had now heard. We stopped by guest services just on the other side of the gate, and that employee confirmed you had to show your hotel key card. She also told us we would need to stop by the express pass kiosks in our resort every morning to see if they were functioning, because the hotel key cards wouldn't work once the kiosks were up and running. What a hassle! The kiosks never did come back up before we left, so we used our hotel cards the whole time. Twice being told by employees that if we stop by guest service, they'll print express passes for us. We had to tell THEM the kiosks were down. What a mess!
Made our way to the Springfield HHN holding area around 5pm. Not sure if this was just a busy holding area or if they were understaffed, but there was one bartender working at Moe's. After several minutes, we decided to go to the other side where Duff's was. They had three bartenders but it still wasn't enough. Didn't manage to get a beer until 5:30. After we finished, they were already letting people out to head over to the Purge and Walking Dead houses so we made our way over there. We had express passes and thought they were well worth the price, and I also thought it was worth it to take advantage of the holding areas because we were able to do Walking Dead and the Purge before needing to use express pass. The lines for the houses were long but express pass moved quick. Enjoyed all of them, but our favorite was probably Insidious. I will say that they weren't as scary as we anticipated them being, but we attributed that to the continuous line of people always moving through the houses. At your local haunted houses, they send you in with just your group at a time. I realize that would not be efficient for HHN though.
Had dinner one night at the new NBC Sports Grill & Brew. It was good. Nothing special, but good enough with lots of seating and we didn't have a wait. We came back later to try and watch Thursday night football but both the upstairs and downstairs bars were full. One thing that was odd was that the restrooms were located upstairs. If you're drinking at the larger downstairs bar, you have to truck upstairs every time you need to go. And if you're like me - it's frequent!
Played mini golf at City Walk one night too. It was fun but with several large groups ahead of us, it took a while to get through all the holes. It was pricey at $15 per adult for your average mini golf course, but still a fun way to kill the night.
The last frustration we experienced was when we made purchases in the park the day before check-out and had them sent back to RPR. The employees in the store informed me that since we were checking out the next day, the packages would be held with the concierge rather than being delivered to the room (since we wouldn't have a room). The next day, we stopped by the concierge desk and she looked at me like I had two heads. She said they don't hold packages there. She called around to see if she could locate them, and when she did, she told us to have a seat and they would bring them up. We were trying to make rope drop and I wasn't expecting to wait on them. After about 10 minutes of waiting, I asked if she could just hold them or leave them with the bellmen because we couldn't wait anymore. She said she could leave it with the front desk. Why this option wasn't presented or thought of in the first place, I don't know. All worked out, but the misinformation passed around this trip was making me a little crazy.
Overall, it was a fun time and we are glad we got to experience HHN. Not sure we'll come back next year for it, but we'll be back for sure! Probably will try HRH next time too. Happy to answer any questions! thanks for reading!
We arrived at RPR around 11am on Wednesday 10/28. Checked in and our room was not yet ready, which was expected. I reiterated the room request I had previously noted which was for a refurbished room. It was my understanding that all the rooms in Towers 1 and 2 were refurbished at this point. The employee checking us in said they would try to get us in one, and that we would receive a text when our room was ready.
It was raining hard, so we headed down to Jake's for some drinks to kill some time. Our only plans that day were to attend HHN that night, so we were in no hurry. Tried to open a tab with my room key but the front desk employee failed to mention room charging wouldn't be effective until our room was ready. Around 3pm, I still hadn't gotten a room text so I went to check the status and the room was ready. Not sure how long it had been or why we didn't get a text. We made our way to the room - 5th floor tower 3. Not a refurbished room. Didn't bother asking to change rooms because we needed to get ready for HHN at that point. The room itself was sufficient and pretty close to the elevator, which was nice. Its worth mentioning that it was stifling warm in the room and took forever to cool down. Are the theromstats on motion sensors here? Seemed like the room was always warm when we came back to it, no matter what I had the temp set to.
We were also informed at check-in that the express pass kiosks were down, but if we showed our hotel key at the attractions, they'd let us through. While picking up our park tickets at the tickets desk, we overheard an employee there telling people that they need to go to guest services at the park to get their express pass. We questioned him on it, since it contradicted what the front desk employee said, and he told us we got wrong info and we indeed had to go to guest services. When we go to Universal, we stopped at guest services outside of the park and asked for express pass. She told us the kiosks are down but we just had to show our hotel key. She said even guest services couldn't print them because all the kiosks were down. When we were done talking to her, we stepped to the side to put our lanyards on and overheard a different guest services employee tell people that they needed to go to guest services INSIDE the park to print their express passes for hotel guests. Huh? This was the 4th different answer we had now heard. We stopped by guest services just on the other side of the gate, and that employee confirmed you had to show your hotel key card. She also told us we would need to stop by the express pass kiosks in our resort every morning to see if they were functioning, because the hotel key cards wouldn't work once the kiosks were up and running. What a hassle! The kiosks never did come back up before we left, so we used our hotel cards the whole time. Twice being told by employees that if we stop by guest service, they'll print express passes for us. We had to tell THEM the kiosks were down. What a mess!
Made our way to the Springfield HHN holding area around 5pm. Not sure if this was just a busy holding area or if they were understaffed, but there was one bartender working at Moe's. After several minutes, we decided to go to the other side where Duff's was. They had three bartenders but it still wasn't enough. Didn't manage to get a beer until 5:30. After we finished, they were already letting people out to head over to the Purge and Walking Dead houses so we made our way over there. We had express passes and thought they were well worth the price, and I also thought it was worth it to take advantage of the holding areas because we were able to do Walking Dead and the Purge before needing to use express pass. The lines for the houses were long but express pass moved quick. Enjoyed all of them, but our favorite was probably Insidious. I will say that they weren't as scary as we anticipated them being, but we attributed that to the continuous line of people always moving through the houses. At your local haunted houses, they send you in with just your group at a time. I realize that would not be efficient for HHN though.
Had dinner one night at the new NBC Sports Grill & Brew. It was good. Nothing special, but good enough with lots of seating and we didn't have a wait. We came back later to try and watch Thursday night football but both the upstairs and downstairs bars were full. One thing that was odd was that the restrooms were located upstairs. If you're drinking at the larger downstairs bar, you have to truck upstairs every time you need to go. And if you're like me - it's frequent!
Played mini golf at City Walk one night too. It was fun but with several large groups ahead of us, it took a while to get through all the holes. It was pricey at $15 per adult for your average mini golf course, but still a fun way to kill the night.
The last frustration we experienced was when we made purchases in the park the day before check-out and had them sent back to RPR. The employees in the store informed me that since we were checking out the next day, the packages would be held with the concierge rather than being delivered to the room (since we wouldn't have a room). The next day, we stopped by the concierge desk and she looked at me like I had two heads. She said they don't hold packages there. She called around to see if she could locate them, and when she did, she told us to have a seat and they would bring them up. We were trying to make rope drop and I wasn't expecting to wait on them. After about 10 minutes of waiting, I asked if she could just hold them or leave them with the bellmen because we couldn't wait anymore. She said she could leave it with the front desk. Why this option wasn't presented or thought of in the first place, I don't know. All worked out, but the misinformation passed around this trip was making me a little crazy.
Overall, it was a fun time and we are glad we got to experience HHN. Not sure we'll come back next year for it, but we'll be back for sure! Probably will try HRH next time too. Happy to answer any questions! thanks for reading!
