themepark
Wanted: Your trip reports!<br><font color=00cc22>I
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2003
- Messages
- 1,469
Cast of Characters:
Me...36 yr old mother of two
DD...10 yr old social events planner
DS... 7 yr old who thinks he is too old to hold his mother's hand
Monday, March 22
We drove up to RPR at around 9:00am. Ahhhh...our home away from home. We pulled in and were greeted by a bellhop with "Welcome to the Islands". I love that. He told us rooms were not yet available. DD still was not feeling well so I decided to leave our luggage in the car so we would have access to whatever we needed during the day. She said she did not feel like going to a park and decided maybe she would just lay around by the pool. DS thought this plan stunk since he was ready to ride Spiderman, but he agreed to go along with the plan (like he had any other choice).
I parked the van and I felt so good as we walked across the bridge into the hotel. People were checking out and leaving and I felt sorry for them. I refused to think about the fact that we would be doing the same thing in a few days. We walked right up to the Loews check-in and were greeted by Pia. She was so nice and so wonderful. I asked if any room upgrades were available and she said she was already looking for me. Unfortunately there were none. So then I asked if it would be possible to get a room with a theme park view. She said, " I am checking on that now for you." She was always 2 steps ahead of me. She offered me a 4th floor room with a view of IOA or a 7th floor room with a front of the hotel view. Having had both views before, I chose the 4th floor since that's what the kids wanted. She talked to the kids about the parks and the hotel and gave them some sand buckets. We chose the fruit and water welcome gift and I was told we would receive the NY Times.
We headed down to the pool, grabbed some towels and plopped down in the comfy pool chairs under an umbrella. The pool was warm and was not crowded. The sun was warm but the air was chilly. It was very windy. DD sat down for awhile under a umbrella and ate some crackers and a banana. She started feeling better and decided to get in the pool. A boy who was leaving came by and gave my kids his beach ball. How nice! They swam for quite awhile and played with the ball. DD had really perked up by now and stated that our day would be complete if we could visit one of the other hotels and ride the water slides. We had been to the HRH pool before so I suggested we go there. We packed up our pool stuff and headed to the water taxi dock. We waited maybe 5 minutes and enjoyed our ride to Citywalk. We hopped on the HRH water taxi at Citywalk. We were the only people on it. The skipper/driver was a super nice guy and really talked it up with the kids. We arrived at the HRH pool and got our towels and started looking for chairs. The pool was not crowded but there were towels on almost every chair. We finally found 2 next to each other so we had our resting place. The kids swam and went down the waterslide time after time. They finally got hungry so grabbed a table at the Beach Club and ordered lunch. DD had a milkshake and a cheeseburger. DS had chicken fingers. I had the quesadillas and 2 Hard Rockin' Lemonades. I just love that drink. After lunch I headed back for my chair and the kids headed back to the slide. They kept begging me to go down the slide, but I have memories of hitting my backside on the bottom of the pool when I went down the slide last summer. I opted for playing games with the beach ball with them instead. We had a great time at the HRH pool. One thing I did notice was that we were there for 3 hours and were surrounded by those chairs where people had left towels to save seats. No one ever came to any of those chairs. What's up with that? In the 3 times we have stayed at RPR I have never seen that. Hmmm. At about 2:00, I called to check on our room, but was told it was not yet ready.
DD said she was still feeling pretty good and she really wanted to ride Jimmy Neutron. She talked DS into getting out of the pool and heading over to US. We dried off a bit and headed down the path for the short walk to US. We walked right on Jimmy using our magic room key. After the ride, the kids played the computer games in area where you exit the ride. Spongebob was there but we already had pictures with him from our last 2 trips so they didn't want to see him. We rode Shrek after maybe a 10 minute wait. "Check out ze handsome piggy on ze left". I love the preshow even though it has little to do the movie you see. Someone's cell phone rang during the preshow and I just knew we were going to see a flogging! Shrek was as awesome as I remembered. What amazing 3-D effects. The spider thing gets me everytime. I hate spiders. DD said she had to see the Beetlejuice show so we headed over to the 4:00 show. We sat on the back row and it was nice to have something to lean back on. We enjoyed the show and all the music, but DD proclaimed that it wasn't as funny as she remembered. I thought it was the same, but maybe this Beetlejuice wasn't as crude as the one we had seen before. When the show was over, I told the kids we needed to head back to RPR and get our bags to our room. US was not crowded at all on Monday. I couldn't believe how few people there seemed to be there. Of course we didn't go all over the park, but the crowds did seem very light.
We walked back to RPR. I do enjoy the walking paths, that is if my feet aren't hurting from walking all day at the parks. We had a nice leisurely stroll back discussing what all we wanted to do during our stay. We went to get the van and pulled up to the front and had our luggage unloaded. We had 3 bags and a small cooler and the kids pillows. The bellman stayed with the bags and the kids while I parked the van. I tipped him $5. Another bellman took our bags to our room. We tipped him $5 also. Both guys were super. We were assigned room 1446. We had a nice view of a palm tree, but we could see the Hulk and Dr. Doom pretty well and we could see the water taxi's going by. We have always stayed in Tower 1 and I love having that view even if partially blocked by a tree. Our welcome gift was a huge glass bottle of Evian and a fruit basket containing grapes, a banana, two apples, an orange and some strawberries. I was hoping for the bottles of Fiji water. I don't know why. I guess just because it seemed exotic last time.
We relaxed for awhile and the kids watched TV while I unpacked and devised my great plan. There were 3 of us and we were staying 3 nights so each one of us could pick where we would eat one of the nights! Silly me didn't consider that they would fight over which night they got to choose. I quickly solved that problem by writing Mon, Tue, Wed on 3 pieces of paper and we each drew a day. DS drew Monday and quickly chose NBA City. We freshened up a bit and headed out. We arrived at 6:30 and were seated right away. DS had the Denver Nuggets, DD had the Bulls Burger, and I had the Pork Chop. I can't remember what exactly it was called, but it was DELICIOUS. It came with some mashed potatoes and steamed veggies. After dinner, we looked around in the shop and decided not to play any games because it was really crowded. The kids enjoy putting their hands in the handprints of basketball players. Those guys have some huge hands! We left and FROZE on our walk back to RPR. The sun had gone down and the wind had picked up and it was very chilly. Everyone except us had on jackets and such. Brrrrr. We made it back to RPR in record time. We laughed at the ducks swimming in the pool and the parents who were all bundled up sitting poolside while the kids swam. Not even my waterdogs were willing to get in the water now.
DD was feeling better but was very tired. DS watched a little TV. I read a little and we were all asleep by 10:00pm. Stay tuned for Tuesday's adventures!
Me...36 yr old mother of two
DD...10 yr old social events planner
DS... 7 yr old who thinks he is too old to hold his mother's hand
Monday, March 22
We drove up to RPR at around 9:00am. Ahhhh...our home away from home. We pulled in and were greeted by a bellhop with "Welcome to the Islands". I love that. He told us rooms were not yet available. DD still was not feeling well so I decided to leave our luggage in the car so we would have access to whatever we needed during the day. She said she did not feel like going to a park and decided maybe she would just lay around by the pool. DS thought this plan stunk since he was ready to ride Spiderman, but he agreed to go along with the plan (like he had any other choice).
I parked the van and I felt so good as we walked across the bridge into the hotel. People were checking out and leaving and I felt sorry for them. I refused to think about the fact that we would be doing the same thing in a few days. We walked right up to the Loews check-in and were greeted by Pia. She was so nice and so wonderful. I asked if any room upgrades were available and she said she was already looking for me. Unfortunately there were none. So then I asked if it would be possible to get a room with a theme park view. She said, " I am checking on that now for you." She was always 2 steps ahead of me. She offered me a 4th floor room with a view of IOA or a 7th floor room with a front of the hotel view. Having had both views before, I chose the 4th floor since that's what the kids wanted. She talked to the kids about the parks and the hotel and gave them some sand buckets. We chose the fruit and water welcome gift and I was told we would receive the NY Times.
We headed down to the pool, grabbed some towels and plopped down in the comfy pool chairs under an umbrella. The pool was warm and was not crowded. The sun was warm but the air was chilly. It was very windy. DD sat down for awhile under a umbrella and ate some crackers and a banana. She started feeling better and decided to get in the pool. A boy who was leaving came by and gave my kids his beach ball. How nice! They swam for quite awhile and played with the ball. DD had really perked up by now and stated that our day would be complete if we could visit one of the other hotels and ride the water slides. We had been to the HRH pool before so I suggested we go there. We packed up our pool stuff and headed to the water taxi dock. We waited maybe 5 minutes and enjoyed our ride to Citywalk. We hopped on the HRH water taxi at Citywalk. We were the only people on it. The skipper/driver was a super nice guy and really talked it up with the kids. We arrived at the HRH pool and got our towels and started looking for chairs. The pool was not crowded but there were towels on almost every chair. We finally found 2 next to each other so we had our resting place. The kids swam and went down the waterslide time after time. They finally got hungry so grabbed a table at the Beach Club and ordered lunch. DD had a milkshake and a cheeseburger. DS had chicken fingers. I had the quesadillas and 2 Hard Rockin' Lemonades. I just love that drink. After lunch I headed back for my chair and the kids headed back to the slide. They kept begging me to go down the slide, but I have memories of hitting my backside on the bottom of the pool when I went down the slide last summer. I opted for playing games with the beach ball with them instead. We had a great time at the HRH pool. One thing I did notice was that we were there for 3 hours and were surrounded by those chairs where people had left towels to save seats. No one ever came to any of those chairs. What's up with that? In the 3 times we have stayed at RPR I have never seen that. Hmmm. At about 2:00, I called to check on our room, but was told it was not yet ready.
DD said she was still feeling pretty good and she really wanted to ride Jimmy Neutron. She talked DS into getting out of the pool and heading over to US. We dried off a bit and headed down the path for the short walk to US. We walked right on Jimmy using our magic room key. After the ride, the kids played the computer games in area where you exit the ride. Spongebob was there but we already had pictures with him from our last 2 trips so they didn't want to see him. We rode Shrek after maybe a 10 minute wait. "Check out ze handsome piggy on ze left". I love the preshow even though it has little to do the movie you see. Someone's cell phone rang during the preshow and I just knew we were going to see a flogging! Shrek was as awesome as I remembered. What amazing 3-D effects. The spider thing gets me everytime. I hate spiders. DD said she had to see the Beetlejuice show so we headed over to the 4:00 show. We sat on the back row and it was nice to have something to lean back on. We enjoyed the show and all the music, but DD proclaimed that it wasn't as funny as she remembered. I thought it was the same, but maybe this Beetlejuice wasn't as crude as the one we had seen before. When the show was over, I told the kids we needed to head back to RPR and get our bags to our room. US was not crowded at all on Monday. I couldn't believe how few people there seemed to be there. Of course we didn't go all over the park, but the crowds did seem very light.
We walked back to RPR. I do enjoy the walking paths, that is if my feet aren't hurting from walking all day at the parks. We had a nice leisurely stroll back discussing what all we wanted to do during our stay. We went to get the van and pulled up to the front and had our luggage unloaded. We had 3 bags and a small cooler and the kids pillows. The bellman stayed with the bags and the kids while I parked the van. I tipped him $5. Another bellman took our bags to our room. We tipped him $5 also. Both guys were super. We were assigned room 1446. We had a nice view of a palm tree, but we could see the Hulk and Dr. Doom pretty well and we could see the water taxi's going by. We have always stayed in Tower 1 and I love having that view even if partially blocked by a tree. Our welcome gift was a huge glass bottle of Evian and a fruit basket containing grapes, a banana, two apples, an orange and some strawberries. I was hoping for the bottles of Fiji water. I don't know why. I guess just because it seemed exotic last time.
We relaxed for awhile and the kids watched TV while I unpacked and devised my great plan. There were 3 of us and we were staying 3 nights so each one of us could pick where we would eat one of the nights! Silly me didn't consider that they would fight over which night they got to choose. I quickly solved that problem by writing Mon, Tue, Wed on 3 pieces of paper and we each drew a day. DS drew Monday and quickly chose NBA City. We freshened up a bit and headed out. We arrived at 6:30 and were seated right away. DS had the Denver Nuggets, DD had the Bulls Burger, and I had the Pork Chop. I can't remember what exactly it was called, but it was DELICIOUS. It came with some mashed potatoes and steamed veggies. After dinner, we looked around in the shop and decided not to play any games because it was really crowded. The kids enjoy putting their hands in the handprints of basketball players. Those guys have some huge hands! We left and FROZE on our walk back to RPR. The sun had gone down and the wind had picked up and it was very chilly. Everyone except us had on jackets and such. Brrrrr. We made it back to RPR in record time. We laughed at the ducks swimming in the pool and the parents who were all bundled up sitting poolside while the kids swam. Not even my waterdogs were willing to get in the water now.
DD was feeling better but was very tired. DS watched a little TV. I read a little and we were all asleep by 10:00pm. Stay tuned for Tuesday's adventures!
Thank you for shareing your trip with all of us! I too love priceline! But never will i do a 2 star again (niki Bird)Did your dd get to fealing better? And you are so right those hand prints are huge!
).
