Memorial Day Weekend trip report!

[jlima]

Trip dates: May 26 - 30. Cast: me, 38, DH40, DS11 & DS5. We live in Las Vegas. Began planning trip in February for a Memorial Day weekend getaway. Took a vacation day on Friday May 27 and worked it out with the kids' teachers to be absent.

Hotel - Stayed at the HRH. We paid for Thursday night 5/26 to ensure we had a room when we arrived Friday morning. Had AAA rate on the club floor. Food in the lounge was exactly as our stay last summer - bagels, muffins, donuts, cereal, fruit & toast in the morning; beer & wine with light hors d'oeuvres in the evening, then cookies late in the evening. DH checked out several CDs and one movie from the concierge and they made 2 dinner reservations for us. The kids enjoyed the turndown amenities; we had superballs, smiley face bead bracelets and temporary tattoos shaped like guitar pics. I have SPG and was offered my choice of standard amenity when we checked in and I chose cookies and milk. Was not offered a gift for the kids (I saw other children with inflatable guitars; if this was the kids gift that's OK as we still have the 2 from last summer) but did get the CD when we checked in. Also had local paper delivered each day. DS11 forgot his drumsticks and practice pad in one of the drawers when we packed up; security could not locate them but they were very generous and credited the cc we used for the amount of what it cost to replace them. Was not expecting that and it was much appreciated. Made it to the pool 2x. The dive-in movie on Friday night was the Spongebob movie. Kids were exhausted and dragging when we left US but when they saw the screen by the pool they could not run fast enough to the room to change into their suits! I rented a double tube for them to float on in the pool.

Transportation - Flew Delta Song R/T Las Vegas/Orlando (booked tix back in Feb). Flight left at 11:50pm Thursday and we returned Monday night. Rented car from National (full size); National rep asked if we had AAA and adjusted our rate right there at the counter! Saved 10%. Hate the tolls on the freeway; they should just put up signs - "Welcome to Florida, Now Open Your Wallet!"

Parks - ended up purchasing the Power Pass as we needed park admission for four days. Maybe we'll come back sometime before they expire!! Did MIB about 9 - 10 times over the weekend and my highest score was about 486,000. Why do I remember getting wet on Jaws? Twister was just as bad as I remembered but this time you could really see the wires on the cow; maybe the lighting was changed? DS5 insisted on riding the Pteranodon Flyers. Went there 1st thing on Monday morning and still had to wait about 30 mins. Why aren't the lockers at Ripsaw Falls free (they are $2 to rent)? Was very awkward carrying my purse and it got splashed on no matter how I tried to hold it. How long is the ET ride going to last before something better goes in here? DS5 wanted to ride, so we did. There was some kind of a breakdown and even with an Express pass we waited over half an hour.

The gas tanks blow up on Jaws

DS11 with Thing 1 and Thing 2

DS5 & DH on Pteranodon Flyers

DS5 breaks 100K on MIB

Maintenance seems to be slacking off; noticed several issues mostly in IOA - faded paint on the Red Dragon coaster, dirty conditions in the line area (fans, fences) and also on the coaster vehicles on the Hulk (chewing gum, grease, etc).

Meals - Breakfast was in the lounge every day. Lunch on park days was Finnegan's, Mythos and Lombards. Dinner was room service, Denny's on Kirkman Rd. and the Bice restaurant at PBH. Try to get a table at Finnegan's where you can see the Blues Brothers show - was an added bonus to our lunch. DH had black & tan with lunch! The potato web appetizer was terrific. We had the concierge make a reservation for Mythos; however we waited 15 - 20 minutes for our table and I when I asked the hostess why we were waiting when we had a reservation she gave a bizarre answer and said they didn't honor reservations (huh?). Food was fine . . . was somewhat disappointed in the tempura sushi roll appetizer. It had been fried too long and the overcooked batter was barely edible. The sauce only drizzled on the plate and would have liked more sauce on the side. Probably should have sent it back. Lombard's was fine. We ate here as it was so hot on Memorial Day and we just wanted to sit somewhere air-conditioned. There is plenty on the menu if you don't want seafood.

Some of the drinks at Finnegan's

Ordered room service on Friday night; 2 pizzas and a chicken cobb salad. This was an excellent way to end our day. Saturday night we drove to the Denny's on Kirkman Road!

Sunday night was Bice restaurant at PBH with excellent food but marginal service. We had asked the concierge to recommend somewhere as we wanted a few hours by ourselves when our kids went to Camp Little Rock, and she suggested Bice as it was new. A HRH bell desk CM drove us over in a van and then it was about a 3 - 5 minute walk. Waiter never took a cocktail order; I asked to order a drink when I ordered my dinner. They never refilled our water and just left the oil and vinegar at the table with the bread. I've never been to an Italian restaurant where they didn't pour out the oil for you. Waiter never offered to refill iced tea; had to ask for it then discovered when the bill came that you paid for iced tea refills. DH had shrimp fettuccini and I had osso buco. Dinner was $112 for one drink, 3 iced teas, 1 salad, 1 soup, and the 2 dinners mentioned above. Food was excellent but staff needs to go back to waiter school.

Blizzard Beach - DH insisted we go to BB on this trip. Arrived at 9am on Sunday and got chairs; rode chair lift immediately and went on Teamboat Springs. Kids wanted to go again so we walked up the 2nd time. After this we were all over the park on different slides and the lazy river. Almost lost my sunglasses on one slide! We had a wonderful day. Got more sun than I wanted to and left there at about 4p to make it to the DIS meet and then our evening alone.

DS5 on the "ice" floats at the Ski Patrol Training Center at Blizzard Beach

DIS meet - Finally met Motherfletcher! Also met Bev (phamton), Robert Walker, and Slacking. Was so cool to experience MIB with experts. You guys are great! Robert brought his DS and he and my DS11 spent some time together. Motherfletcher brought his daughter; they were going to the Fiesta Caliente event at CityWalk in the evening.

CityWalk - Took the water taxi from PBH after our dinner. There were some vacant storefronts and it didn't seem like there was variety to the shopping. The Cartooniversal shop and the Universal Merchandise shops only have park merchandise. A large area was partitioned off for the Fiesta Caliente event and this made getting around difficult. The flood of people moving from the parks to the garage was just a massive wave of humanity. If locals don't come here it's easy to see why.

Four days was just a little too long for us. Would have preferred to leave earlier in the day but the only direct flight was in the evening. DS5 was really dragging along by noon on Monday and we rented a stroller for him for the rest of the day and he was fine. We left US by 6p on Monday; left the hotel by 6:30. Flight was at 8:50pm and we were on the ground in Las Vegas by 10:20pm and home by 11:15. What a weekend! DS5 is asking can he go to IOA again . . . he even asked if we could drive there! There's always something you don't get to, no matter how long a trip is; we never made it on Terminator in US and never made it to the Sinbad show in IOA; DS11 & DH went on JP but I didn't make it this trip. Also never made it to The Kitchen in the HRH. There's always next time!

 

[mainelyj]

Thanks for sharing. I am glad to see that others take short weekend trips too.

 

[AllieKat]

Thank you for sharing...love the pics!

 

[TinkerBellz33]

Thank you so much for sharing your pics, and your great trip report!!!

 

[Motherfletcher]

I was nice meeting ya'll. How's the sunburn?

 

[jlima]

I'm still peeling and it's itchy! Had to wear hose for a job interview on Friday and I hated every minute of it. Are you home from your trip?

 

[Motherfletcher]

Home and broke!

 

[jlima]

MF - please tell me how was Fiesta Caliente - it sure was loud that I could hear!

 

[Motherfletcher]

We went both Saturday and Sunday nights because I bought 2 day passes for DD and myself and only one day for DW and DS since they flew out Sunday morning. It was just 20-30 minute sets from different Latin (mostly Puerto Rican) artists. Some were better than others. I liked Bimbo. I don't think I'd go again and probably wouldn't have done two nights if I hadn't bought the tickets. It really helped to know Spanish there because there wasn't a lot of English spoken. The boothes they had set up were trashy carnival T-shirts and trinkets and there wasn't food as advertised. It was set up in the hot sun with very little shade available and every one jumped on the 20 (more or less) chairs that were available up the hill and carried them down to the stage. There was a couple of good dancers in the audience that were drenched with sweat. It was Caliente or calor!

 

[Disbug]

I enjoyed reading your trip report! We were there also that weekend and I totally forgot about the Fiesta Caliente! LOL! You're right we could hear them singing behind the partitions but were never in the area long enough. I just assumed the bands were doing a sound check! Not being up on the current Latin bands (sorry, my DD's will be embarassed!) I am still stuck in the Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine era!

Glad you all had a happy, albeit busy time! (My DD10 always laments that we can't go on the Pteradon Flyers without a toddler....!) I am always secretly grateful since the line has always intimidated me, LOL!

 

[jlima]

I believe the cutoff for the Flyers is 48 inches & DS5 is 46 inches. So we barely made it. Can't believe the line! Legoland used to have a similar ride called the Spellbinder and the line situation was the same; only 2 people could ride at a time.

 

[Motherfletcher]

I have to tell ya'll about the Pteranadon Flyers now that you brought it up.
We have rode it for years by going there first thing in the morning or within the first half hour of opening. We tried this first thing strategy June 1st and they told us that they were instructed to enforce the 56" rule as of May 26th. I had a long discussion with the attendant since there was nobody in the queue and no one showing up for the length of our discussion. Instead of walking away I stayed on the bridge to time when the first riders would actually show up. The attendant called the lead and he showed up about the same thing as one adult with a small child. He said his hands were tied but agreed with several points that I made and suggested I go to Guest Services which I did. There they went in the back and returned 5 minutes later telling me to back to the lead and we would be granted access. I told them that I was not seeking preferential treatment but was trying to get a ride policy changed and wished to lodge a formal complaint. I spent about an hour hand writing the complaint while DD11 read the entire Adventure Guide word for word.
The things that burned my butt were:
They say that the ride is designed for children 36" to 56". That is bull. They have to design a ride for the largest guest's size/load requirements. They intitiated this policy simply because the design of the ride was so bad that the hourly throughput is only 170. That makes it the slowest loading ride in any theme park in the country and twice as bad as the slow loading Dumbo. If kids ride it and freak out because of height, speed or sway there is little or nothing a parent can do to calm them down or comfort them since they are in a separate seat.
They argued at the ride that some rides such as Hulk and DD have minimums so this is to make that fair. I told them that Hulk and DD have minimums for safety reasons and so the restraints would fit properly not because of a faulty loading design.
The one that really got me was when the Lead suggested that we pair up with another group which had a child under 56". He said that as long as there was one qualifying rider that a party of 10 could all ride. I said that encourges "child borrowing" or lying (We're with them).
Another point was that the rule has no age limit so I could ride if I asked Junoir, the dwarf ticket attendant, to accompany our party?
I pointed out as well that with no one in the queue and no one showing up for 4 minutes that we had time to ride the 80 second ride 3 times before the first party even showed up.
When I completed the form they asked if we still wanted to ride and I had to laugh because by then the wait would be another hour.
When I got home I was telling my attorney who is a family friend. Its funny how human nature is to talk about the things that go wrong rather than the good things. He said that there might even be some civil rights concerns. I asked him how much he would charge to get me four nights at HRH with a two park VIP tour?

 

[Disbug]

I appreciate your insight and next time... we might be running back to try riding! With my luck, though... the ride attendant's will send me back to Guest Services as well!

 

[thedisneymom]

Great trip report-sorry it took me so long to get to it. Thanks so much !