Mike & Jodie’s Birfday Romp @ UO/RPR Club ’06. With pics. Not good ones. Just pics.

AlexandNessa

<font color=red>Proud Redhead<br><font color=green
Joined
Jun 14, 2003
Messages
5,407
Sometimes I feel like I spill too much of my guts on these boards, and some day that will come back to haunt me. Too bad. Life is short. Love me or leave me. :goodvibes

So, with that disclaimer, if you don’t know us by now; here is your cast of characters for the umpteenth time since 2004:

Jodie, actual birthday, May 1. Celebrated birthday at UO/RPR Club: 5/4 – 5/9. Age? 30-something. Depressing, but I hear 40 is the new 30, so I think I’m OK with that. :thumbsup2

Hubby, Mike. Older than me (and don’t think I ever let him forget it ;) ). Judges his age by how many years he has left before he has to see who he calls “the butt doctor.” Most of you refer to this person as a Proctologist. Started to get depressed once he didn’t even need one hand to count the years left anymore. Hence all our vacations at theme parks.

So, you may have read that Mike and I don’t do birthday presents, Christmas presents, anniversary presents, Valentines presents, or any other type of present. That was too hard to come up with something good, that we wouldn’t go out and buy for ourselves anyway. And so we concentrate on making memories. We both work 24/7/365 jobs, and we often work on separate shifts, meaning there are weeks (and weekends and holidays) when we see each other for less than 2 hours a day, and not all of these 2 hours are spent awake and/or coherent. And, so trips away where actually get to spend 24/7 together is a big, bad treat for us.

And so, I like these times away to be nice and relaxing with as few interruptions and bumps in the road as possible. We are not commandos. We are creatures of habit, and are usually loyal to places that offer us good service. We gladly pay for convenience. And so we booked our 4th or 5th stay at RPR Club in about a year and a half. I told you: creatures of habit.

Rather than give you a day-by-day, minute-by-minute description of our trip (which I started to do, but by day 2, I was up to 10 pages, boring even myself :rolleyes1 ), I will give you pictures and highlights and lowlights.

If you read any of my other TRs, you know that Mike and I like to sleep late (which is the main reason we will never ever stay off-site. Ever. Unless they do away with FOTL, in which case we’ll find a new vacation venue.).

Mike never eats till dinner time, which makes staying Club level convenient since it’s easy for me to grab breakfast and snacks without always having to make him stop for me to eat something.

I like the pool, Mike doesn’t. Unless he feels the need to work on his tan.

We love rollercoasters, hate T2 and Poseiden’s Fury (technically, I fell asleep during T2, so I really haven’t even seen the whole thing yet. Mike hated it, and I eagerly agreed “oh yeah, that was bad” primarily because I didn’t want him to know that I actually fell asleep during the show. P’s Fury: way too much standing for us, so we went once in 2004 and never went back). We are both afraid of Dr. Doom’s Fearfall, skipped Shrek this time since we get bored at the pre-show -- we both think it’s too long and don’t like to be standing that long, squished in a room with stranger-on-stranger, skin-on-skin contact (see also Poseiden’s Fury). If we could skip the pre-show, we’d like Shrek a whole lot better. We love Jimmy Neutron, especially Carl. (Say it with me now, “Llama. Llama. Llama. Llama. Llama!” :rotfl: ). We suck at MIB, but are very competitive with one another on it and can ride it over and over. We love Jaws and the Mummy. Mike gets motion sick on Spiderman, but goes on with me time and again since it’s my favorite, and I tell him it’s his own fault he gets sick since he won’t take the Bonine I offer to him on a nightly basis. ;) We take one day as “water ride day” since we don’t like to be wet walking around the park and so take one day to do nothing but get wet, walk “home,” hope for no chaffing. We skip Twister and Earthquake, unless we’re taking newbies to the parks. We shamelessly use our hotel keys to go on One Fish, Two Fish, even though there are families with lots of little ones in the regular line. This usually makes us feel bad, but we do it anyway. Mike never remembers the name of this ride and often refers to it as “Fat Fish, Thin Fish, Christian Fish, Jewish Fish.”

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We never miss beer o’clock in the club lounge (5-7 pm, nightly). Club staff is so used to us that if we ask for a round “for the road,” they say, “just one to go? None for later?” Told Mike, next time we come, they’ll be hiding Miller Lites all around the club lounge like an Easter Egg Hunt for us, which gave me the brilliant ideas for my club pictures. (I believe it was Cornish Pixie who wanted “new” photos. These are new, never-seen-before and probably will never-be-seen-again pics!). This trip, AJ (club staff) confided to us that they usually wind up running out of Coronas during evening reception, but that week, he couldn’t keep enough Miller Lites in stock. Hmmm, wonder why?

After beer o’clock, we head to City Walk for entertainment and socializing. We talk to just about anyone, and often times, just about anyone will talk to us.

So, got the idea of us now?

Lowlight: limo company late picking us up to take us to the airport.

Highlight: made it to the gate with 10 minutes to spare.

Highlight: Mike and I love Jet Blue. We were the only two in our row of three seats. Mike took the window and I took the aisle, and we cupped our hands to our mouths and yelled, “Hello over there!” The extra space was great.

Lowlight: Jet Blue to Orlando is also very popular with families with small children. Small children are not the lowlight. Parents who don’t do enough to entertain their children during the flight are. I understand that kids scream and whine (and we enjoyed LOTS of this on both our flights). I don’t understand parents who do little or nothing to alleviate that as if the whole plane doesn’t mind. I don’t understand parents who let their kids kick the seats in front of them for the entire flight (we were treated to this too). At least make an effort to control or comfort your kid. Just because you can tune your kid out doesn’t mean the rest of the plane can. I’m just being honest. Love me or leave me.

Lowlight: assigned to 6th floor, with RPR Club access. They expanded Club to both 6th floor and 7th floor because it had become so popular, but I don’t like it. Nothing like having to go “up” a floor to get your bottles of water to take to the park before you go “down and out.” It’d be different if a club lounge were on each floor, or if the lounge were convenient to access on your way “down and out,” but you literally take a detour “up” if you want to use the lounge. I didn’t like that one bit. Tried to express my dissatisfaction of the change with the front desk, who was useless and didn’t offer help or options. Said so in my survey too. Also, didn’t like having to carry 2 keys – one for the room, one for access to the club lounge. Computers are smart these days – develop a program to encode both accesses into one key. That’s just me.

Highlight: saw our buddy Shannan who manages the Club Lounge, and she moved our room to the 7th floor for us the following morning, got our new room keys so we didn’t have to stop at the front desk again, and arranged a very easy, seamless transfer for us. Shannan is like family to us. She was there for our first trip to the RPR, our engagement trip, our honeymoon trip; we were there when she was pregnant with her son. She’s the one who makes us feel like we are “home.” Got to see pics of her son, who is now 4 months old. So cute and you can tell Shannan is a great mom.

Highlight: Club Staff. Club offerings.

Lowlight: Crummy front desk staff (have not met Pia, but wish some of their staff could learn from her from all the great things we hear about her :) ). Crummy bell service initially. Hey, if we give you $5 for 2 bags, I expect a little more that putting 2 small suitcases on a dolly outside and then rolling them in to leave in a pile-up at the end of the front desk. After we learned that our room wouldn’t be ready for a few hours, we found our luggage and dug through it freely, without anyone stopping us or anything. How did they know it was our luggage? I didn’t like it being left out in the open like that, unattended. When we were done packing up extra stuff we wouldn’t need to take to the parks with us, we walked our luggage over to luggage services ourselves to put in the secure room. Perhaps I’m just a worry wart, and many of you would feel comfortable with your luggage in a pile near the front desk. What do I know? :confused3

Highlight: Got to ride Fire on Friday while DD was in rehab. Tickle fights in the “scarab room” on the Mummy.

Lowlight: Hoped to ride Ice on Saturday, but DD was closed that day. Rode Flying Unicorn for the first time this trip. Wanted 23 seconds of our life back.

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Highlight: got a new AP with my married name. It’s a pretty blue. Mike has “pass envy” now since he still has the old red one.

Lowlight: my new AP pic isn’t as good as my old one.

Highlight: got to meet our friends at Margaritaville on Sunday night for dinner. Even got a balloon hat.

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Lowlight: they got stuck in traffic on the way home due to road closures as a result of the brush fires. Took them 2 hours to get from UO to Saratoga Springs. Another lowlight in a similar vain: the water pressure at the RPR used to be AWESOME. Because of the draught, they’ve weakened the water pressure, and the showers aren’t as heavenly as they used to be. C’mon RAIN! Orlando needs rain! And lots of it!

Lowlight: Nachos at Margaritaville were cold and soggy. The bartender saw we weren’t eating them, and we asked if they could just be warmed up, if he didn’t mind. Mike wanted the chili on the side, and I stuck my finger in it (just to see, not because I am completely lacking table manners), and it was bone cold. Nachos returned, still on the cold side, minus the guacamole and minus the sour cream. And the chili came back just as cold as we’d returned it, only this time with a bit of sprinkled cheddar cheese on top.

Highlight: Ordered the Cheeseburger in Paradise, and that was hot and good.

Highlight: Happy hour at Finnegan’s. Two pints of Miller Lite: $4.75, good entertainment, met lots of friendly people.

Lowlight: Ran into not-so-smart drunk girl one night at HRC who was very sick in the downstairs bathroom. Asked her if she needed help or if there was someone I could get for her. She asked me to find her friend Leslie. Found her friend Leslie at the bar after asking about 10 people.

Leslie wasn’t a good friend and did little to help drunk girl. First clue: when she went down to help her friend, she only took her own purse downstairs to the bathroom and left her friend’s on the bar, unattended. Two guys came over near her purse, and I shot them a look and they said, “It’s OK, we met them earlier tonight.”

Right. Perfectly fine now.

Leslie came back upstairs to flirt with the guys, leaving her friend still ill in the bathroom.

Brought drunk girl (who was still downstairs in the bathroom an hour after Leslie came back up) a glass of water and some mint gum. Mike got ticked and told me to mind my own business. Took the water and gum to drunk girl anyway. Tried to get her upstairs so she could get some fresh air. Drunk girl threw up on her way up the stairs. One of the servers asked if he should call Health Services for her, and I said yes, but don’t think they ever came. Told Leslie her friend was now outside getting some fresh air, but she wasn’t in the best of shape. Leslie became defensive and said, “She only had 3 beers and a shot!”

What’s that supposed to mean? Told her I don’t care what she had, her friend needed help. Leslie said, “She has a tab. Will they let me forge her name for her?”

Good grief. Sat with drunk girl outside for a while. Thought Leslie was paying her tab and would be out soon.

Wrong.

Mike came outside and as soon as he saw drunk girl, apologized for snapping at me. She obviously needed help. Drunk girl thanked him by throwing up on his shoes.

Left Mike to watch drunk girl, asked another server if Health Services was coming, got a look of confusion. Told him there was a sick drunk girl on the steps who needed help. He asked me if I was with her. Said no, was just trying to help. Don’t think he called Health Services, but I asked for another glass of water for her, which he gave me to go.

Had her drink some water, went back inside to find Leslie who was gone, but left drunk girl’s purse and camera at the bar. Asked drunk girl where she was staying, and they had a room at HRH. Mike and I thought we should at least get her back there so she could lie down.

Decided we’d take the boat back to HRH. Probably a shorter walk back to the hotel, but I’d never stayed there before and didn’t know where the path was.

So, to recap: I’ve got the girl’s room key (and I know her room number), her purse, and her camera. I am sitting behind her and Mike on the boat, and she’s practically passed out on Mike’s shoulder. I began thinking what if it weren’t Mike’s shoulder she was passed out on, but Joran Van Der Sloot’s? What if it weren’t me with her purse and room key but Joran Van Der Sloot’s dad?

Took a picture of her and Mike with her camera. She’ll probably not remember who he is once she gets her film developed.

I am sure this girl didn’t appreciate the situation she was in. What if Mike and I were sinister, malevolent spirits?

Found Leslie back in their room (She said, “I was wondering where you were. I was just coming to look for you.” Duh.) Read her the riot act to make sure drunk girl got plenty of water, plenty of rest, put a trash can next to her bed, and call health services if she didn’t get better soon. And, for God sakes, DO NOT LEAVE HER THIS TIME.

Still kicking myself for not being more aggressive in getting Health Services to come take a look at the girl and leaving her in the care of her “good friend” Leslie. Hoped that since the clubs were all closed and Leslie didn’t seem like she was drunk, that she would be OK. And at least she didn’t take those boys back to their room.

Or, I should have called security. Or something. Had a few nightmares after that. I suppose I just feel if ONE person looked after Natalee Halloway, we wouldn’t know who she is because she’d be safely home in Alabama and not missing and presumed dead in Aruba. That’s just me.

Highlight: got to see the inside of an HRH room for the first time. They looked pretty nice, although we did find the hallways to be a little windy and confusing. Probably easier to navigate without holding up drunk girl.

Highlight: Pat O’Brien’s piano bar whenever Don is playing.

Lowlight: Captain Quint’s turned into a Boardwalk Snack Shop. We paced back and forth past it for 10 minutes wishing it would change back. We miss our fish and chips to go!


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Lowlight: Tried to watch the final Laker/Suns play-off game in NBA City. We went to sit at the bar, but some guy snapped at us and said the seats were taken. 45 minutes later, his friends still hadn’t shown and no one was sitting in the seats. Shot Chair Saver guy a “what gives?” look, and he left.

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Highlight: Chair Saver guy was rooting for the Lakers who finished their play-off season that night, getting crushed by the Suns. (OK, so maybe I am a sinister spirit. :rolleyes: )

Lowlight: Mike was rooting for the Lakers too, and I was sad for him that their season was over.

Highlight: Spending 24/7 on the same schedule with my most handsome hubby in our favorite happy place for 5 glorious nights!

Highlight: Next trip: September 3!
 
Yes, I do so amuse myself.

Some were asking for more pics of the club lounge. So, I thought I'd get some details you usually don't see, and I thought that I'd post some pics of the club lounge bathroom (because no one EVER sees those, right?).

The tissue holder in the RPR Club bath (and my Miller Lite):

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The personal care goodies in the in the RPR Club bath (and my Miller Lite):

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The hand towels in the RPR Club bath (and my Miller Lite):

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The RPR Club bath vanity (and my Miller Lite):

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The toilet in the in the RPR Club bath (and my Miller Lite):
(I also have a pic w/the toilet seat up. Mike took the camera away from me, not too long after that. ;))

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The hamper in the RPR Club bath (and my Miller Lite):

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Art work in the RPR Club bath:

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Some shots of the view from the lounge:

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Wrapped PB&J sandwiches (and my Miller Lite):

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Mike didn't see me take this. Don't worry, there isn't usually a Miller Lite in the basket with the children's toys:

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This one is a personal favorite. Art work in the lounge:

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A table in the lounge:

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Coffee and Tea service in the lounge:

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Sitting areas in the lounge:

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This would be our favorite pose, and coincindentally, our favorite bathroom outside of Jaws:

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Flowers outside of that bathroom:

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No, I didn't butt out any children to take this pic. The wee ones were all gathered around the Grinch and Thing 1 and Thing 2:

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MIB Wannabe or I Dream of Genie?

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I told you we never miss Beer O'Clock in the Club Lounge:

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For the record, my eyes were red from allergies:

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Waiting for our friends outside of Margaritaville:

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Here's what a King Room looks like with the bed not made:

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and with towels thrown on the bathroom floor:

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I like this pic of the boat coming under the bridge:

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Thank you for your report and the pictures. I am looking forward to our family vacation in August. We are also staying 5 nights. Have never been club, but will be staying in a King Suite due to an awesome Plat upgrade. Gotta love Loews First!

Glad you took care of that girl. How are Mike's shoes?
 

Thanks for the report and laughs!!

The drunk girl should be thanking God you were there to help out. Who knows what would of happened to her if you didn't show up. Leslie sounds like a horrible friend.
 
I never knew a Miller Lite could be such an interesting piece of art. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Kudos for playing nurse maid. Wish everyone was that kind & caring. :grouphug: And the friend..... :sad2:
 
IMGONNABE40! said:
how are Mike's shoes?


Fortunately (or unfortunately, I should say), he was wearing flip flops so at least they made for an easy clean-up. :)

P.S. Enjoy your King Suite in August. I have always wanted to try one of those. Mike and I tried to reserve a King Suite with Club Access for our September trip -- first, it was nearly impossible to reserve. Second, they wanted $444 a night -- in low season :rolleyes: , and they couldn't promise us 7th floor. That's a little too rich for my blood (for a full week anyway), especially with a great chance of being on the dreaded 6th floor!
 
Thanks so much for the GREAT report. My DW and I like to sit in the same chairs outside MV that you had your picture made.


Thanks again! :thumbsup2
 
Hi Mike and Jodie :goodvibes
Thankyou soooooooo much for the pics, Have put smiles on many faces tonight, especially my Hubbie's He is amazed that there are so many beer holders in the Club!!!!!
You obviously have the same sense of Humour as us (warped!!)
Im sorry to hear about the young girl who obviously was in great need of a helping hand.
THANK GOD you were there, her friend(if thats what you could call her) wasn't the most helpful was she?

Anyway it looks like you had a great time and Belated Birthday wishes to you :bday: party: :bday: party:

Have tried to book Club for next August 07 but still being told they haven't released them yet!
Will keep trying but thanks to you both ( and the beer) we are definately going to do Club Level.
Once again Thanks so much for your brilliant reports and general fun and advice,
Take Care
Cornish Pixie :wave2: :wave2: :wave2:
 
Wonderful trip report! Love the pictures. You definitely have a knack for writing. It's nice to know that there are people like you who still care about others. That girl is very lucky that you happened to be there for her-others haven't been as fortunate.
:thumbsup2
 
Happy belated Birthday! :bday: :cake: :bday:

Fun trip report and love the pictures! Thanks.
 
Enjoyed reading your reports ~ Thanx for sharing.
 
What a great report :thumbsup2 I loved your pictures, especially the ones with the Miller Lite bottle....too funny.

You were such an angel to take care of that sick girl. Thank goodness you and Mike were there.
 














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