Mom & Dad leave son in KY and head to US/IOA!!

[NashvilleTrio]

I thought I better at least type up this TR (even though I still don't have any pictures to add yet) before I forget everything from our trip!

DH (Greg) and I decided to do a quick 2 night UO getaway without our son. He's 7 and he LOVES UO, but we were able to pull the wool over his eyes and make this trip without him finding out. (He still hasn't found out!!) We sent him to KY to stay with my parents and he just thought we were at home!

So, here goes my report:

DAY 1
Thursday, June 28th - we had a 6:30am flight on Southwest. We woke up about 4:30 but for some reason got running behind and didn't leave the house until about 5:30. It only took us 15 minutes to get to the airport, but the line for security was SOOOO long. We barely made our flight. We walked on the plane at 6:20. That's the closest we've ever cut it on making a flight. **note to self - get to the airport extra early in the summer*** Our last trip was in January and the airport was not nearly as crowded.

OK, so the flight was fine. We even made it to MCO a little early - around 9:15am. We had decided to just take a cab to PBH instead of renting a car service. That turned out fine, but it was about $39 each way plus tip. I think we usually pay about $100 total for a car service. So, we may go back to doing the car service next time since it's almost the same price. And we get the free grocery stop.

PBH was gorgeous! We absolutely loved our stay there. We got there a little before 10am. We had booked a deluxe room, I think (hubby does all that stuff) but ended up getting a FREE upgrade to club level. So, we got access to the club lounge which was very cool! After checking in and leaving our cell phone # for them to call when the room was ready, we were off to IOA.

We caught the next boat and we were at the park around 10:40 or so. We decided to head toward Suess Landing first since most people go the other direction, and took a ride on Cat in the Hat. That's all we did at that island for the moment.

Then we moved on to LC where we went ahead and grabbed an early lunch. Since we were running so late at the airport earlier, we didn't have time to get any breakfast other than the little breakfast bar we got on the plane. So we were pretty hungry. We were excited to see that Fire Eaters Grill was open because we wanted to try it. I had the lamb gyro platter and Greg got the chicken stingers. My meal was very good - no complaints there. Greg's meal was ok...he doesn't like blue cheese dressing and that's what came with it. He tried to eat the chicken without any dressing, but he said they were pretty spicy. They even smelled really spicy. So, being the wonderful wife I am, I went back up to the window to get some ranch dressing for him. The response I got was, "That'll be 54 cents please." What?!?!? It was the same lady that waited on us so I know she remembered that we had just ordered food from them. So, it wasn't like I was just coming up to the window out of the blue and wanting some ranch. But the ranch costs 54 cents no matter what. I guess they're trying to ration it or something?? But at least it was a large packet like you would get with a salad at a fast food restaurant vs. a tiny little cup. So Greg finally was able to enjoy his meal a little more.

Next we rode DD - yes on a full stomach - but had a blast. Then we moved on to JP and rode River Adventure there, then Dudley's at Toon Lagoon. The line for Dudley's was the only long one we encountered this trip. But still I think we only waited about 10-15 minutes.

After that we went to ride Spiderman and Hulk. Then we were off to US. I'll save that for my next installment...

Until then...
-melissa

 

[bubba's mom]

.....gimmie more! Still can't believe Josh hasn't found out!

 

[Metro West]

.....gimmie more! Still can't believe Josh hasn't found out!

I know!

 

[keishashadow]

what a title for a TR

I would've had a heart attack @ the airport, glad it worked out for you & an upgrade to Club level

$.54 cents, not $.53 or $.55 guess they have problems with people who just eat the free condiments. Seriously, I understand the basic idea to limit excessive salad dressing abuse, still seems ridiculous since you ordered food there. Next, they'll start charging for the Heinz.

 

[bubba's mom]

$.54 cents, not $.53 or $.55 guess they have problems with people who just eat the free condiments. Seriously, I understand the basic idea to limit excessive salad dressing abuse, still seems ridiculous since you ordered food there. Next, they'll start charging for the Heinz.

i couldn't figure out why they couldn't substitute one for the other?

 

[NashvilleTrio]

what a title for a TR

I would've had a heart attack @ the airport, glad it worked out for you & an upgrade to Club level

$.54 cents, not $.53 or $.55 guess they have problems with people who just eat the free condiments. Seriously, I understand the basic idea to limit excessive salad dressing abuse, still seems ridiculous since you ordered food there. Next, they'll start charging for the Heinz.

Yeah - I'm guessing the 54 cents is 50 cents plus tax???

And like Barb said - I don't understand why we couldn't substitute the ranch for the blue cheese either. I asked if we could've done that but she said no, it would've still been 54 cents. Whatever - it helped Greg enjoy his meal.

 

[NashvilleTrio]

Larger font just for Janet!!

forgot to tell you guys that on Day 1, Thursday, we also rode Popeye's but got stuck right at the bottom of the big lift hill/"raft wash". We sat in our raft for about 10 minutes and finally heard some garbled message over the speakers. We couldn't really understand it, but heard something about "someone will be there to help you shortly". So, we were eventually escorted off the ride. I don't think that had ever happened to us before, so even though we didn't get to finish the ride we thought it was kinda cool...until it happened again to us on Friday!

We just did a few things as US on Thursday afternoon. Mummy, Jaws, Shrek, and MIB. We were pretty tired after that so we headed back to the hotel.

We had our dinner on Thursday at Sal's Market at the hotel. VERY GOOD! Greg had a panini with roast beef and I had the Americana Pizza with pepperoni, sweet italian sausage, and mushrooms. YUMMY! Will definitely be dining there again, even if we're not staying at PBH.

Day 2
Friday, June 29th

We got up fairly early and went down to the club lounge for breakfast this day. They had the normal continental breakfast selections...croissants, bagels, danishes, fruit, cereal, coffee, juice, milk, etc. It was good to me, probably because it was FREE!! (well, I know, not really free, but no extra charge) We went to US first and rode ET, Mummy, Jaws and saw the Horror Make-Up Show. This show gets funnier every time we see it! Our host this time was Mark Jacobs and the sidekick was a lady - I can't remember her name. But they made a good team. I especially liked the laytex/Playtex jokes!

We also watched the Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue this time. First time we had seen it, and I have to say that I just thought it was so-so. I know I'm probably going to get flamed for saying that, but it's JMO. I felt that the song selections were good, but the overall quality of the singing was not that great. Maybe it's because I live in "Music City" and am used to hearing good music all the time or something, I'm not sure. But I don't think we'll be putting that show on our list of things to do for our next trip.

After US, we headed back over to IOA. This was the day of the meet so I didn't want to do any water rides until after the meet so I wouldn't be drenched the whole day. So, we just did Hulk, Spidey, DD and then headed over to Margaritaville for the meet at 2:30.

As most of you have already heard, the meet was a lot of fun. It was us, Bubba's Mom, keishashadow, metro west, and letsbgoofy. Greg & I got the nachos which were awesome but the serving size is huge!! We probably finished about 2/3 of it. I also had the rasberry rita which was great. We chatted with the others and learned more about each of them. Around 4:30 we were the party poopers that left first. Not that we weren't enjoying our company, but we just wanted to continue our fun since at that point we only had 24 more hours before we were leaving. I think the rest of the gang left soon after we did.

After the meet it was water ride time!! We went straight to Popeye's and guess what?? We got stuck again!! This time we got stuck at an earlier point than the day before. I think it was just past Me Ship the Olive where people can spray you with the water guns from above. But this time we were only stuck for a couple of minutes and then the ride started again. But I guess they were having problems with that ride on that weekend.

Then we rode Dudley's and River Adventure, and then went to Seuss Landing to ride the Sky Trolley and Cat in the hat. Then we hit Spidey & Hulk again before leaving.

That night we had a late dinner from room service at the hotel. I had a caesar salad and Greg got the burger. Both were good. Then it was time to catch some zzzzzzz's.

Day 3/Final day coming soon...

 

[bubba's mom]

Larger font just for Janet!!

I don't think you and Popeye had a good relationship that weekend either that, or they wanted you to stick around!

Can't wait for the next day...

(oh, and good to know about Sal's )

 

[damo]

We love Sal's market. We ate there twice last vacation while staying at the HRH. It is good and very reasonable.