MarkMichaels
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2001
- Messages
- 244
We just got back from another stay the HRH. Actually, we stayed the first two nights at the Cypress Point Villas in a 3 bedroom townhouse, the last 4 nights were at the HRH. For anyone in a large group wanting great space Cypress was excellent! We got it for $135 a night and it was worth twice that easy.
Thursday, the first full day of our trip, we did Sea World. Its been a couple years since we've been there, the new Believe show is really good. We didn't stay at the park too long, rode some rides, saw the show and left in the early afternoon to get lunch and hit the pool. This was a warm Florida vacation at this point.
At the HRH Friday morning, things got kinda ugly early. Not HRH's fault, but expedia screwed up our reservation. We had booked a pool view under the stay 4 play free deal, then upgraded to club right before we left and expedia dropped our free tickets. We had to spend 2 1/2 hours at the front desk Friday morning to finally get a new reservation. When we got to the desk at 8:30 am, we asked if we could get a pool view club room, those go first come first serve, and they assured me we would have one. At 4 pm, when we did get our room finally, the only pool in view was a puddle of water on the roof overlooking the parking lot. Well, after several beers, that just wasn't going to do. We did end up in a smoking optional room with a great view, 7120, the guest services manager took us up to smell out the room before we would accept since we don't smoke. He had it re-cleaned with new bed linens and it wasn't too bad. I could tell, but my more picky wife and son with asthma both thought it was fine so we kept it. Again, great view. We finally got into our bags and settled in just after 5. Glad we wore our suits under our clothes that day!
Other than check in, everything else was great as always. I'll just type a few comments about particular items here and as always, be available for questions.---
Cabanas- There has been some question on cabanas lately, pricing, movie nights etc. We had cabanas 1,2, and 10 during our stay. Club pricing was $62-$66 for a regular cabana (not sure what the difference was but it changed both days). They do post that club discounts are only available on non-themed cabanas. The health club manager, Anthony or Andrew (can't remember for sure) was very helpful. Said he used to be the front desk manager and just recently moved down to get that up and going. The themed cabana was $125. Since we had a group of 11, it was great to have a cabana so we could all meet up as we came and left the parks and pool.
Cabana service - The themed cabana seemed to get much better service. We always seemed to be looking for a waiter with cabanas 1&2. Being that close to the bar, I would just get myself a drink most of the time since it was quicker.
Dive in Movies- These are Friday at the HRH. They also had one scheduled for Wednesday and Sunday. Sundays was a video concert instead of a movie. Do not plan on watching these from the cabanas though as most have a terrible view. Cabanas 1 & 2 are looking at the side of the screen, you can see it, but its blocked by trees and just doesn't work. Cabanas 3-6 are also all blocked by trees. Maybe from the lounge chairs out front just right you will get a view. Cabanas 7-9 have some view, a little blocked by cabana 10, which has a decent unobstructed view. The volume seemed to low for us to hear much of the movie though, Narnia was playing Friday night.
Anthony or Andrew, the cabana area manager told us that they were getting ready to redo the club level in August with new berber carpet. Not sure what, if any, other changes are going to happen. This is a much needed update to the hotel as some of the halls are getting a little stained up. He was great, it amazes me how he could remember our names always made sure that everything was perfect with us. I really did appreciate the effort he put in, and hope he reads this board.
Club level in general- Some of the club 7 staff are very helpful, others, not so much. It is very hard to make reservations for any restaurant in Citiwalk with our without their help. We had a party of 11, with one senior that did not do well in the heat, and just wanted to be able to set a time. Most of the staff kept saying, just show your room card, you'll get right in. Saturday night at 6:30, Margaritaville was a 90 minute wait with your room card. We had a 5 minute wait because I got a call into them after having to argue with the club 7 staff. I can't figure out why they staff wants to argue sometimes, I'm just asking that they make a phone call and see if we can get a large party in, it wasn't that big of a deal, but they spent 5 minutes telling me to just go over there and get in line.
Club food offerings- breakfast was great, everything was very fresh. We didn't get to hit the evening appetizers much, mini corn dogs and big pretzels one night, not bad. They did put in a fridge so the pop and water is now coolish when you get it which was nice.
Annual Pass - I bought 1 for myself this trip as the play 4 free deal left us one adult short. This was probably the best investment I've made. Just the 10-15% off dinners almost paid for it. One card in the group always got the discount for all of us, no questions asked. I wasn't sure if they would do that or not. I tried to add up the discounts we got during the week and I think it saved us right at $150, maybe more. Can't wait to go back and use it some more.
Pool games for the kids - These have always been great, this time though, my kids thought they were too few and far apart, no variety same stuff every day. In the past, they have tie-died shirts (at an additional cost) and done things other than a daily cannonball contest. There were alot of kids participating though, just not ours so much.
Parks - Crowds? What crowds? After reading some of the negative comments on removing the express machines and people getting upset, I expected to see really long lines in the regular lines, but didn't. We usually only go to the parks for a couple of hours in the morning, then maybe the last couple of hours in the evening. In the mornings, if you got there early, you could go thru the normal line at IOA on most every ride before 10:30 with no wait at all. Hulk and Spidey do start to back up to 25-30 minute waits, but if you hit them when the park opens and then go over to Fire & Ice, you will have no wait times. Both parks were this way, IOA was opened 15 - 20 minutes early Saturday and Sunday, maybe earlier, as it was open when we got there at 8:40-45. At 11 when we would be leaving, I couldn't believe the crowds just coming in from the parking lots, so I can see where it would suck in the afternoons, but thats poor park planning. We never thought the parks where at all crowded while we were in them though.
Prime1 outlets on International Drive- The Universal store is closing at the end of the month while they remodel. We were told that the store would go back in about a year. Everything was 50% off the lowest ticketed price! If you like to stop there, now is the time before they go away. We got some great deals, sizes were somewhat limited but everyone found a couple of shirts, some for as little at $3, the most expensive item was a silk shirt originally $96 at PBH, marked down to $64, then remarked down to $29, then remarked down to $19 then 50% off, not bad for $10.
Final thoughts- We still love HRH and will continue to go back. Doubt we'll go thru expedia next time, the guest service manager gave me his card and asked me to go thru him next time so we might give that a try.
Please let me know if you have any questions, sorry this got so lenghty-
Mark
Thursday, the first full day of our trip, we did Sea World. Its been a couple years since we've been there, the new Believe show is really good. We didn't stay at the park too long, rode some rides, saw the show and left in the early afternoon to get lunch and hit the pool. This was a warm Florida vacation at this point.
At the HRH Friday morning, things got kinda ugly early. Not HRH's fault, but expedia screwed up our reservation. We had booked a pool view under the stay 4 play free deal, then upgraded to club right before we left and expedia dropped our free tickets. We had to spend 2 1/2 hours at the front desk Friday morning to finally get a new reservation. When we got to the desk at 8:30 am, we asked if we could get a pool view club room, those go first come first serve, and they assured me we would have one. At 4 pm, when we did get our room finally, the only pool in view was a puddle of water on the roof overlooking the parking lot. Well, after several beers, that just wasn't going to do. We did end up in a smoking optional room with a great view, 7120, the guest services manager took us up to smell out the room before we would accept since we don't smoke. He had it re-cleaned with new bed linens and it wasn't too bad. I could tell, but my more picky wife and son with asthma both thought it was fine so we kept it. Again, great view. We finally got into our bags and settled in just after 5. Glad we wore our suits under our clothes that day!
Other than check in, everything else was great as always. I'll just type a few comments about particular items here and as always, be available for questions.---
Cabanas- There has been some question on cabanas lately, pricing, movie nights etc. We had cabanas 1,2, and 10 during our stay. Club pricing was $62-$66 for a regular cabana (not sure what the difference was but it changed both days). They do post that club discounts are only available on non-themed cabanas. The health club manager, Anthony or Andrew (can't remember for sure) was very helpful. Said he used to be the front desk manager and just recently moved down to get that up and going. The themed cabana was $125. Since we had a group of 11, it was great to have a cabana so we could all meet up as we came and left the parks and pool.
Cabana service - The themed cabana seemed to get much better service. We always seemed to be looking for a waiter with cabanas 1&2. Being that close to the bar, I would just get myself a drink most of the time since it was quicker.
Dive in Movies- These are Friday at the HRH. They also had one scheduled for Wednesday and Sunday. Sundays was a video concert instead of a movie. Do not plan on watching these from the cabanas though as most have a terrible view. Cabanas 1 & 2 are looking at the side of the screen, you can see it, but its blocked by trees and just doesn't work. Cabanas 3-6 are also all blocked by trees. Maybe from the lounge chairs out front just right you will get a view. Cabanas 7-9 have some view, a little blocked by cabana 10, which has a decent unobstructed view. The volume seemed to low for us to hear much of the movie though, Narnia was playing Friday night.
Anthony or Andrew, the cabana area manager told us that they were getting ready to redo the club level in August with new berber carpet. Not sure what, if any, other changes are going to happen. This is a much needed update to the hotel as some of the halls are getting a little stained up. He was great, it amazes me how he could remember our names always made sure that everything was perfect with us. I really did appreciate the effort he put in, and hope he reads this board.
Club level in general- Some of the club 7 staff are very helpful, others, not so much. It is very hard to make reservations for any restaurant in Citiwalk with our without their help. We had a party of 11, with one senior that did not do well in the heat, and just wanted to be able to set a time. Most of the staff kept saying, just show your room card, you'll get right in. Saturday night at 6:30, Margaritaville was a 90 minute wait with your room card. We had a 5 minute wait because I got a call into them after having to argue with the club 7 staff. I can't figure out why they staff wants to argue sometimes, I'm just asking that they make a phone call and see if we can get a large party in, it wasn't that big of a deal, but they spent 5 minutes telling me to just go over there and get in line.
Club food offerings- breakfast was great, everything was very fresh. We didn't get to hit the evening appetizers much, mini corn dogs and big pretzels one night, not bad. They did put in a fridge so the pop and water is now coolish when you get it which was nice.
Annual Pass - I bought 1 for myself this trip as the play 4 free deal left us one adult short. This was probably the best investment I've made. Just the 10-15% off dinners almost paid for it. One card in the group always got the discount for all of us, no questions asked. I wasn't sure if they would do that or not. I tried to add up the discounts we got during the week and I think it saved us right at $150, maybe more. Can't wait to go back and use it some more.
Pool games for the kids - These have always been great, this time though, my kids thought they were too few and far apart, no variety same stuff every day. In the past, they have tie-died shirts (at an additional cost) and done things other than a daily cannonball contest. There were alot of kids participating though, just not ours so much.
Parks - Crowds? What crowds? After reading some of the negative comments on removing the express machines and people getting upset, I expected to see really long lines in the regular lines, but didn't. We usually only go to the parks for a couple of hours in the morning, then maybe the last couple of hours in the evening. In the mornings, if you got there early, you could go thru the normal line at IOA on most every ride before 10:30 with no wait at all. Hulk and Spidey do start to back up to 25-30 minute waits, but if you hit them when the park opens and then go over to Fire & Ice, you will have no wait times. Both parks were this way, IOA was opened 15 - 20 minutes early Saturday and Sunday, maybe earlier, as it was open when we got there at 8:40-45. At 11 when we would be leaving, I couldn't believe the crowds just coming in from the parking lots, so I can see where it would suck in the afternoons, but thats poor park planning. We never thought the parks where at all crowded while we were in them though.
Prime1 outlets on International Drive- The Universal store is closing at the end of the month while they remodel. We were told that the store would go back in about a year. Everything was 50% off the lowest ticketed price! If you like to stop there, now is the time before they go away. We got some great deals, sizes were somewhat limited but everyone found a couple of shirts, some for as little at $3, the most expensive item was a silk shirt originally $96 at PBH, marked down to $64, then remarked down to $29, then remarked down to $19 then 50% off, not bad for $10.
Final thoughts- We still love HRH and will continue to go back. Doubt we'll go thru expedia next time, the guest service manager gave me his card and asked me to go thru him next time so we might give that a try.
Please let me know if you have any questions, sorry this got so lenghty-
Mark
Also AP, we will also be one "Play 4 free" pass short as DS is 12 - you had mentioned a 15% discount? We will not be going back in the next year (from Calgary, Alberta) what would be our benefits. Again, thanks for all your help!
