luvaladdin
Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2001
- Messages
- 160
I just returned last night from 5 days at the Hard Rock Hotel and Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. I didn't take notes for a trip report but have a few observations to share.
1. The advantage of front of the line access cannot be overstated. Spiderman had waits of 60-75 minutes during peak times in the park. It took us longer to walk thru the queue than it did to wait to get on the ride - about a minute in all. This seemed to be the quickest FOTL ride. On MIB, the first day we had a very short line, but on another day they changed the FOTL queue and we still had to wait about 15 minutes while the normal wait time was 30 minutes. It worked very well on the barges, about a 5 minute wait compared to 30.
2. The Hard Rock was great - their service cannot be beat. I got a $129 Fan Club rate but 2 nights were $149, either because of the weekend or the holiday weekend. Whatever we requested was brought up to the room immediately. One of us forgot a toothbrush and their "star service" brought it free of charge. They have this service (forget the name), but basically it's a stockup of things that people need but forget at home. We requested a room near the elevators and were upgraded to a room with a pool view (after I showed by Lowe's card). We ended up being the first room in from the elevators but next to the laundry room. We didn't hear any noise from the laundry room or the guest room on the other side of us. The room was very clean and the grounds were impressive. It really is a beautiful resort, especially the pool area.
3. Lowe's card - I had to remind the hotel on the 2nd day about the fruit and newspaper I had requested. The staff was very apologetic and since it was Saturday, asked me if I wanted Friday's USA Today or the Orlando Sentinel. The newspaper arrived promptly and later in the day we came back to the room and found the fruit - one each of orange, apple and banana, and a bunch of grapes.
4. The parks were very crowded on Sat and Sun, but not on Fri or Monday, the holiday. Tuesday, our checkout day, the hotel was very quiet but the parks still seemed busy. With FOTL, the lines didn't matter anyway, it just became harder to navigate thru the crowds.
5. Weather was great. When our plane landed on Thursday night, it was raining and we were unhappy. The forecast called for rain the next day, but it never did. Temp's in the 80's and cloudy skies. The rest of the time we had sunny skies and temps in the low 90's. I thought I'd be hot but I found it comfortable, maybe because of the water rides and plenty of opportunities thruout the parks to get wet - those jumping water spouts, a major water spout in Toon Lagoon, fans with misting water. We frequently asked for ice water at many of the food places and were never given a hard time about it. One day the hotel closed down the pool because of a thunderstorm that was supposed to come thru, they even cleared the entire pool deck, but it passed over and about an hour later the pool reopened.
6. Pool at the hotel - the water was just right, not too cold or too warm. The slide was fun - reminded me of a slide at the water parks. The jets felt nice at one end of the pool. The sandy beach area was cool - I love sand and since we never make it to the ocean when in Florida, it was great. The pool was also large enough that even when crowded, there was still enough room to move around. Warning - get a pool chair early, on the crowded days it was very hard to get 3 chairs together. People would get up early, lay towels on chairs, and then come back later. My only complaint - the pool wasn't deep enough, it was about 4 1/2 feet at its deepest so I found it hard to swim much in it because my feet were practically dragging on the bottom.
7. Food - okay, overpriced. I don't know if this is true, but it seemed that food prices were higher than at Disney. I was with two teens, so I wasn't looking for upscale food because they wouldn't have enjoyed it. We ate at Hard Rock Cafe two times, got priority seating because we were staying at the hotel. The dinner was much more fun than at lunch because of the atmosphere. At night we were seated upstairs at a table overlooking the first floor and the waitresses would dance on the tables - some of the diners too. We had a very nice, friendly waitress who sat at our table several times to chat. The teens loved it. Ate at Confisco's - wasn't overly impressed, again I was in sticker shock. We had the fries in a cone, they were not hot, waiter apologized and brought us a batch about 5 minutes later that had just been cooked - very hot and very good. We ate at the bakery place in Universal Studios near the entrance - they had delicious egg and bacon croissant sandwiches and Krispy Kreme donuts. Mel's Diner - high priced and on a par with McDonald's. The cafeteria in Toon Lagoon - I thought the food was good and plentiful for the price. I got some combo basket of chicken, fish and shrimp with fries and it was very filling. Had a Sultan's Sundae at a takeout place near Dueling Dragons - it was pineapple and vanilla ice cream with chunks of pineapple on top and whipped cream. It reminded me of a Dole Whip. Very delicious - was about $5 w/tax.
8. People - We found everyone - in restaurants, the parks, at hotel, stores - all very friendly. This always impresses me, maybe because I'm from New England (a native, so don't diss me), but my area of the country is not friendly at all. It's great to see someone smiling and acting as if they are happy you are there. Even the ticket takers and ride attendants were great. I don't remember any bad encounter with anyone.
9. Compared with Disney - I am a Disney World fanatic, so perhaps you will forgive me for saying that I prefer DW over Universal. There just wasn't enough to do over 4 full days - we kept going on the same rides over and over because the number of rides was limited. I easily rode Spiderman over 10 times, by the way the best ride ever made. The first time on it I was screaming and laughing at the same time - amazing. I will put in a disclaimer here that I don't do rollercoasters so that left out rides like Hulk, Dueling Dragons and Dr Doom. And the kiddie rides, except for Cat in the Hat (fun), we skipped because we didn't have young ones. I think the entertainment at Disney is better and there's more of it. The two shows I saw were okay - Wild West Stunt Show and the one with Beetlejuice - my teens thought this second one was funny because of the adult-type humor. I know Disney would never allow Beetlejuice's sexual jokes and I guess I was surprised that Universal would be okay with them. I'm sure the jokes went over the heads of the little ones anyway. I heard anti-Disney jokes at least 3 times by Universal staff. On the raft ride in Toon Lagoon, the attendants keep repeating that people should put on their seatbelts first and then put their stuff in the middle under the plastic. So one says, "Please put on your seatbelts. We don't want any accidents like they have at Disney." Another time there was a car - perhaps the ghostbusters one? - coming down the street and the driver was telling everyone to move. He said, "This isn't Disney. We'll run you over." I thought that was pretty funny, but I guess the anti-Disney jokes just showed that they feel a little inferior to Disney.
10. Doing the parks with two teens - My DH and two boys DS8 and DS5 stayed home in order to make the trip cheaper and because I thought there wouldn't be enough for them to do at Universal. My DD14 wanted to take her best friend because that's what teens like to do and because I don't do rollercoasters. My DD and I clashed a few times over her attitude and mouthiness but the BF was fine. Because I got mad with DD, I went to the parks alone one morning while they stayed at the pool. However, I didn't find it fun to do the rides alone. One night they went to the teen night at the Groove, so that was another time when I was alone. I missed having another adult to hang and talk with. It was nice and relaxing though without little ones. I missed my boys and this was the first time do a park without them, I felt kind of guilty because once there, I saw many things that they would have loved - like the Suess area and the pool. To sum up, I guess you could say I'm ambivalent about the split family type of trip. While I know that I couldn't have relaxed so much with the boys, I missed sharing the experience with them. My DH couldn't understand this at all, maybe it's a Mom thing.
11. The rides - I've already mentioned many of them above so I'll try not to repeat things. I'm deathly afraid of heights, that's why I don't do rollercoasters, but I did work up the courage to do the flume rides Dudley Do Right and Jurassic Park. For anyone else with this fear, you will definitely be able to handle these drops. The two teens were very disappointed with JP because from the outside the drop looks very big but it's not. I was happy. Dudley was awesome for all of us, the way you drop and then somehow go under and shoot back out at a high rate of speed - that was fun.
The barges were a blast. We noticed that later in the day they seemed to go much faster thru the rapids and someone commented on the ride that the attendants can make it faster. Don't know if this is true but seemed so. It's a fun experience to share with strangers because everyone ends up soaked most of the time, but everyone gets wet at different times. Someone might get wet at the very beginning, then near the end someone who's been dry finally gets it. My DD wanted to stay dry so everyone was laughing when she got wet, but the guy next to her didn't think she was wet enough, so he was flicking water on her - very funny.
MIB did remind me of Buzz, as others have said, but much more fun I thought with the spinning and the fog. We went on this at least 6 times, I finally beat my DD one time. Back to the Future - I don't get motion sickness, but if anyone is prone to it, I'd say this is the one that will get you. I didn't feel sick afterward, just a little woozy but the feeling went away a little later. Same with Jimmy Neutron, a fun ride but a very rocky ride.
Hulk - my DD loved it, easily went on 6 times or more. Liked Dueling Dragons but went on it less, probably because of its location far back in the park.
Cat in the Hat - reminded me of Pooh at Disney, very cute and fun.
Terminator - the preshow was pretty lengthy, the first woman who played the PR person was very funny, good acting job. I enjoyed it but didn't think the 3D effects were as good as other rides in the park. Very loud. This is the kind of ride that I'm not sure my kids would like because of the noise and those scary looking droids? (I forget what they're called) that shoot their guns at the beginning.
Twister - disappointed.
Earthquake - saw it twice, enjoyed it, again another lengthy preshow. The first time we saw it, they picked an audience member who was hysterical - he really was a ham and everyone was laughing - they practically had to pull him off the stage because he was having such a good time.
Spiderman - already said, but have to say it again - amazing, awesome, the best ride ever.
I'm sure I'm forgetting many other rides, but these are the ones I remembered off the top of my head.
Sorry if this is too long and rambling, I didn't know I'd have this much to say. Let me tell you, it's a bummer coming home to Boston - raining and cool and back to work.
To summarize - a great trip that I hope my DD will remember for a long time, great weather, relaxing yet hectic at the same time, no lines with FOTL access, superb hotel, clean parks with friendly personnel - a winner.
Thanks for reading to those who have endured,
Cheryl
1. The advantage of front of the line access cannot be overstated. Spiderman had waits of 60-75 minutes during peak times in the park. It took us longer to walk thru the queue than it did to wait to get on the ride - about a minute in all. This seemed to be the quickest FOTL ride. On MIB, the first day we had a very short line, but on another day they changed the FOTL queue and we still had to wait about 15 minutes while the normal wait time was 30 minutes. It worked very well on the barges, about a 5 minute wait compared to 30.
2. The Hard Rock was great - their service cannot be beat. I got a $129 Fan Club rate but 2 nights were $149, either because of the weekend or the holiday weekend. Whatever we requested was brought up to the room immediately. One of us forgot a toothbrush and their "star service" brought it free of charge. They have this service (forget the name), but basically it's a stockup of things that people need but forget at home. We requested a room near the elevators and were upgraded to a room with a pool view (after I showed by Lowe's card). We ended up being the first room in from the elevators but next to the laundry room. We didn't hear any noise from the laundry room or the guest room on the other side of us. The room was very clean and the grounds were impressive. It really is a beautiful resort, especially the pool area.
3. Lowe's card - I had to remind the hotel on the 2nd day about the fruit and newspaper I had requested. The staff was very apologetic and since it was Saturday, asked me if I wanted Friday's USA Today or the Orlando Sentinel. The newspaper arrived promptly and later in the day we came back to the room and found the fruit - one each of orange, apple and banana, and a bunch of grapes.
4. The parks were very crowded on Sat and Sun, but not on Fri or Monday, the holiday. Tuesday, our checkout day, the hotel was very quiet but the parks still seemed busy. With FOTL, the lines didn't matter anyway, it just became harder to navigate thru the crowds.
5. Weather was great. When our plane landed on Thursday night, it was raining and we were unhappy. The forecast called for rain the next day, but it never did. Temp's in the 80's and cloudy skies. The rest of the time we had sunny skies and temps in the low 90's. I thought I'd be hot but I found it comfortable, maybe because of the water rides and plenty of opportunities thruout the parks to get wet - those jumping water spouts, a major water spout in Toon Lagoon, fans with misting water. We frequently asked for ice water at many of the food places and were never given a hard time about it. One day the hotel closed down the pool because of a thunderstorm that was supposed to come thru, they even cleared the entire pool deck, but it passed over and about an hour later the pool reopened.
6. Pool at the hotel - the water was just right, not too cold or too warm. The slide was fun - reminded me of a slide at the water parks. The jets felt nice at one end of the pool. The sandy beach area was cool - I love sand and since we never make it to the ocean when in Florida, it was great. The pool was also large enough that even when crowded, there was still enough room to move around. Warning - get a pool chair early, on the crowded days it was very hard to get 3 chairs together. People would get up early, lay towels on chairs, and then come back later. My only complaint - the pool wasn't deep enough, it was about 4 1/2 feet at its deepest so I found it hard to swim much in it because my feet were practically dragging on the bottom.
7. Food - okay, overpriced. I don't know if this is true, but it seemed that food prices were higher than at Disney. I was with two teens, so I wasn't looking for upscale food because they wouldn't have enjoyed it. We ate at Hard Rock Cafe two times, got priority seating because we were staying at the hotel. The dinner was much more fun than at lunch because of the atmosphere. At night we were seated upstairs at a table overlooking the first floor and the waitresses would dance on the tables - some of the diners too. We had a very nice, friendly waitress who sat at our table several times to chat. The teens loved it. Ate at Confisco's - wasn't overly impressed, again I was in sticker shock. We had the fries in a cone, they were not hot, waiter apologized and brought us a batch about 5 minutes later that had just been cooked - very hot and very good. We ate at the bakery place in Universal Studios near the entrance - they had delicious egg and bacon croissant sandwiches and Krispy Kreme donuts. Mel's Diner - high priced and on a par with McDonald's. The cafeteria in Toon Lagoon - I thought the food was good and plentiful for the price. I got some combo basket of chicken, fish and shrimp with fries and it was very filling. Had a Sultan's Sundae at a takeout place near Dueling Dragons - it was pineapple and vanilla ice cream with chunks of pineapple on top and whipped cream. It reminded me of a Dole Whip. Very delicious - was about $5 w/tax.
8. People - We found everyone - in restaurants, the parks, at hotel, stores - all very friendly. This always impresses me, maybe because I'm from New England (a native, so don't diss me), but my area of the country is not friendly at all. It's great to see someone smiling and acting as if they are happy you are there. Even the ticket takers and ride attendants were great. I don't remember any bad encounter with anyone.
9. Compared with Disney - I am a Disney World fanatic, so perhaps you will forgive me for saying that I prefer DW over Universal. There just wasn't enough to do over 4 full days - we kept going on the same rides over and over because the number of rides was limited. I easily rode Spiderman over 10 times, by the way the best ride ever made. The first time on it I was screaming and laughing at the same time - amazing. I will put in a disclaimer here that I don't do rollercoasters so that left out rides like Hulk, Dueling Dragons and Dr Doom. And the kiddie rides, except for Cat in the Hat (fun), we skipped because we didn't have young ones. I think the entertainment at Disney is better and there's more of it. The two shows I saw were okay - Wild West Stunt Show and the one with Beetlejuice - my teens thought this second one was funny because of the adult-type humor. I know Disney would never allow Beetlejuice's sexual jokes and I guess I was surprised that Universal would be okay with them. I'm sure the jokes went over the heads of the little ones anyway. I heard anti-Disney jokes at least 3 times by Universal staff. On the raft ride in Toon Lagoon, the attendants keep repeating that people should put on their seatbelts first and then put their stuff in the middle under the plastic. So one says, "Please put on your seatbelts. We don't want any accidents like they have at Disney." Another time there was a car - perhaps the ghostbusters one? - coming down the street and the driver was telling everyone to move. He said, "This isn't Disney. We'll run you over." I thought that was pretty funny, but I guess the anti-Disney jokes just showed that they feel a little inferior to Disney.
10. Doing the parks with two teens - My DH and two boys DS8 and DS5 stayed home in order to make the trip cheaper and because I thought there wouldn't be enough for them to do at Universal. My DD14 wanted to take her best friend because that's what teens like to do and because I don't do rollercoasters. My DD and I clashed a few times over her attitude and mouthiness but the BF was fine. Because I got mad with DD, I went to the parks alone one morning while they stayed at the pool. However, I didn't find it fun to do the rides alone. One night they went to the teen night at the Groove, so that was another time when I was alone. I missed having another adult to hang and talk with. It was nice and relaxing though without little ones. I missed my boys and this was the first time do a park without them, I felt kind of guilty because once there, I saw many things that they would have loved - like the Suess area and the pool. To sum up, I guess you could say I'm ambivalent about the split family type of trip. While I know that I couldn't have relaxed so much with the boys, I missed sharing the experience with them. My DH couldn't understand this at all, maybe it's a Mom thing.
11. The rides - I've already mentioned many of them above so I'll try not to repeat things. I'm deathly afraid of heights, that's why I don't do rollercoasters, but I did work up the courage to do the flume rides Dudley Do Right and Jurassic Park. For anyone else with this fear, you will definitely be able to handle these drops. The two teens were very disappointed with JP because from the outside the drop looks very big but it's not. I was happy. Dudley was awesome for all of us, the way you drop and then somehow go under and shoot back out at a high rate of speed - that was fun.
The barges were a blast. We noticed that later in the day they seemed to go much faster thru the rapids and someone commented on the ride that the attendants can make it faster. Don't know if this is true but seemed so. It's a fun experience to share with strangers because everyone ends up soaked most of the time, but everyone gets wet at different times. Someone might get wet at the very beginning, then near the end someone who's been dry finally gets it. My DD wanted to stay dry so everyone was laughing when she got wet, but the guy next to her didn't think she was wet enough, so he was flicking water on her - very funny.
MIB did remind me of Buzz, as others have said, but much more fun I thought with the spinning and the fog. We went on this at least 6 times, I finally beat my DD one time. Back to the Future - I don't get motion sickness, but if anyone is prone to it, I'd say this is the one that will get you. I didn't feel sick afterward, just a little woozy but the feeling went away a little later. Same with Jimmy Neutron, a fun ride but a very rocky ride.
Hulk - my DD loved it, easily went on 6 times or more. Liked Dueling Dragons but went on it less, probably because of its location far back in the park.
Cat in the Hat - reminded me of Pooh at Disney, very cute and fun.
Terminator - the preshow was pretty lengthy, the first woman who played the PR person was very funny, good acting job. I enjoyed it but didn't think the 3D effects were as good as other rides in the park. Very loud. This is the kind of ride that I'm not sure my kids would like because of the noise and those scary looking droids? (I forget what they're called) that shoot their guns at the beginning.
Twister - disappointed.
Earthquake - saw it twice, enjoyed it, again another lengthy preshow. The first time we saw it, they picked an audience member who was hysterical - he really was a ham and everyone was laughing - they practically had to pull him off the stage because he was having such a good time.
Spiderman - already said, but have to say it again - amazing, awesome, the best ride ever.
I'm sure I'm forgetting many other rides, but these are the ones I remembered off the top of my head.
Sorry if this is too long and rambling, I didn't know I'd have this much to say. Let me tell you, it's a bummer coming home to Boston - raining and cool and back to work.
To summarize - a great trip that I hope my DD will remember for a long time, great weather, relaxing yet hectic at the same time, no lines with FOTL access, superb hotel, clean parks with friendly personnel - a winner.
Thanks for reading to those who have endured,
Cheryl
