Oh Lord, what's Eddie gonna do? He went to Disney and Universal too! Updated! 1/19/10

[pixeegrl]

Wow! awesome trippy! We went for the first time in Dec '08. Stayed at RPR. Best vacation ever! Can't wait for more of your TR, especially since we don't go back until Dec 2010 or early 2011.

 

[disneyfan67]

I'm going to try and knock some out tonight or tomorrow. The kids are out of school and it's been kind of hectic.

 

[angelmav]

Just stopping by to say I love your TR!

 

[Worfiedoodles]

More please!

 

[Ciavobella]

I'm enjoying your report. We stayed at the RPH is 2004, very beautiful resort. The only downside for us is no slide at the pool so we stay at the other resorts at USO now. I know you can pool hop, but I also know we wouldn't.

For $6.95 a kid and $16.95 for adults, it was a heck of a lot cheaper than what we had at WDW.

Well, breakfast buffets are cheaper than dinner at Disney too, $2 more for adults and $4 for kids, not really a heck of a lot more.

 

[tlinus]

yoo hoo



hope all is well with you, just hoping that you will get to finish here

 

[macraven]

i'm sending you a telepathic message



more, please...

 

[MichelleTO]

Can't wait to hear more as we are heading to RPR and then The Poly at the end of August and are loving the report, more please!!

 

[angela3676]

I just finished reading yor trip report, what you've posted so far. Loved all of it! I can't wait until I can stay at RPR. We went to WDW on the 4/3 deal this year and had a great time, but we were very very tired from getting up early to get to parks at opening and just generally rushing around. We plan to take a vacation next year around spring break, which will be about the 3rd week in March. My husband and I have been talking about either going to Disneyland in California or Universal Orlando. I'm hoping for Universal.


Waiting for more!

 

[disneyfan67]

We went back to the RPR ate a little and got everything ready for our swim at the HRH and I was looking forward to seeing the pool in person. We had cleaned up and changed into our suits but wore t shirts and crocs over to the HRH. Seems like a few others had the same idea. We got to HRH and found a group of chairs together and tried out the pool for the very first time. It's a beautiful looking pool, but I have to say after 30 minutes or so, I was kind of disappointed. I just found the pool to be too shallow for me to swim and it only came up to my lower waist in the deepest part. My wife and I found the best thing that worked for us was to actually sit in the pool and that worked for awhile. My kids on the other hand just loved it and went on the water slide over and over again. IMHO, the pool is perfect for kids and teens and just so so for adults. It's all up the person I guess. I found the pool at the RPR to be better, but the best resort pool IMO, is the ones at the Portofino. More on that later though.

The thing that I remember the most about our swim over there was my experience at the pool bar. I had gotten out of pool and went back to my chair and relaxed with my wife. My and I had struck up a conversation with a couple next to us that were from Chicago. Small world isn't it? I got up to get me a drink and walked over to the bar. I decided to surprise my wife and get her a Bloody Mary, which is her favorite and possibly a tropical drink for me. I let the lady bar tender talk me into a Margarita while she made my wife's Bloody Mary. The bar tender had tried to upsell me in the premium Vodka, but I said just use the house brand. I got the bill for both drinks and the bar tender told me gratuity was already included, which was unnecessary in my opinion since I walked up to the bar myself. Would you believe the bill for two drinks including a 18% tip came to 29 bucks? I was kind of shocked and the drinks were OK, but not worth almost 30 dollars. Oh well, lesson learned and that won't happen again. There's no reason for gouging guests like that, especially when they didn't order anything exotic or with premium alcohol.

It was getting late and time for us to go and we got the boys dried off and into their shirts and crocs. We stopped by Emack & Bolios Marketplace and got everyone ice cream, which was great. Got back on the water taxi and headed back to the RPR. We got changed and went back to City Walk and ate at Jimmy Buffett's, again. The food was good, fairly affordable, and the atmosphere was great. The time we got back it was late and time for bed. Would you believe my kids wanted to go swimming again? No way and I said there was plenty of time for that tomorrow when we would head over to the Portofino the afternoon.

 

[disneyfan67]

Followed our usual routine of the breakfast buffet at our resort around 9:30 am or so and headed of to IOA for a little while. Our plan was to go to the PBH later that afternoon and then eat at the HR Cafe that night around 8 to 8:30. The day at IOA went pretty smooth and about 2pm we went back to the RPR and got ready for our swim day at PBH. That one of the great things about the express pass is that you can come and go as you please and do what you want with hardly no wait. We got back on the taxi and were headed off to the Portofino and I was more exited than the kids. The beach pool is fantastic and it is so damn easy to lose track of time.

We practically had the pool to ourselves and it was awesome. I truly enjoyed myself and made a vow to stay there on my next visit.

I left the pool and got my family some drinks and and a pizza from the Splendido Pizzeria and we just lost track of time. Before I knew it they were closing the pool and it was around 6, if I remember correctly.

The life guard said the Villa pool was open 24 hours and to try that. We didn't get to see that pool on our 2 day trip in 2007, so we checked it out. Boy are we glad we did! That pool was like living in a Holly wood mansion and it was almost unreal swimming there. I kind of felt out of place at first, but soon we just relaxed and got lost in the moment.

The water was perfect and it was the most relaxation I had had since getting to Orlando.

We started to call it the movie star pool and every where you looked, it was beautifully themed.

The hot tub was fantastic and my wife I talked to a few nice couple enjoying the moment like we were.

The time just got away from us and it was almost 9pm!

Still we found time to take one more photo or two.

We hustled back to the water taxi and rushed back to our room to change. Still it was worth every moment we spent at the Portofino and I still smile when I think about it.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Yea! I loved this segment! We stayed at PBH last month and my favorite pool was the Villa! I just sat in the warm plunge pool for awhile and relaxed. It was the most peaceful part of my trip

My ds was a huge fan of the slide at the beach pool. I sat on the steps on the side by the waterfall and hung out while dh and ds did the slide over and over. We all thought it was a great place to stay cool.

Maria

 

[dogodisney]

I'm so glad that you added to you TR. I'm looking forward to reading more. It is getting me excited for our trip!.

 

[disneyfan67]

We rushed back to the RPR to clean up and get over to the Hard Rock cafe by 9:15 or so. We had originally planed to eat dinner at 8, but had such a great time at the PBR and the villa pool, that we decided to just throw the schedule out the window. My sons wanted to go into the Hard Rock cafe since the beginning of the trip and since we hadn't been there as a family, why not? There was no line and we got seated right away. We had order drinks and my wife and one son decided to explore a little bit. They took a few pictures and here they are.

My one son loved the Cadillac and thought this was pretty cool.

I like this one of the ceiling that my wife took from the 2nd floor.

This staircase is pretty cool as well.

I was really impressed by this stained glass mural and took this photo myself

Over all I didn't think the food was all that great and pretty expensive for what you got, but it took care of dinner and we could say we ate there. I may go back for lunch on my next visit, but there's more places I would like to try.

Here's the sign close up at night as we were leaving. We got back to the RPR and got ready for bed. We watched tv for a little bit to get the boys to wind down and it worked on all of us. The next day was going to be our last full day at USO and in the back of my mind, I knew the vacation was comming to an end way too fast.

 

[Ciavobella]

I'm so glad you're back Wonderful pictures, can't wait to try out the Villa Pool myself.

 

[JESW]

Just discovered your report and I am enjoying it! We are big Disney people (20+ trips) but someday I would like to head over to US/IOA to check them out. I completely understand the kid thing as I have a ds14 who is an Asperger's kid and WDW works for us as it is familiar to him and when he has had enough he & dh can go back to the room while dd10 and I can keep going.

Did you happen to see the Delorean (sp?) from Back to the Future? That is one of ds' "special interests" and he doesn't really want to do the Simpson's ride as I guess the Back to the Future ride was in that building before?? Oh yes, their logic is something else!

Jill

 

[disneyfan67]

Just discovered your report and I am enjoying it! We are big Disney people (20+ trips) but someday I would like to head over to US/IOA to check them out. I completely understand the kid thing as I have a ds14 who is an Asperger's kid and WDW works for us as it is familiar to him and when he has had enough he & dh can go back to the room while dd10 and I can keep going.

Did you happen to see the Delorean (sp?) from Back to the Future? That is one of ds' "special interests" and he doesn't really want to do the Simpson's ride as I guess the Back to the Future ride was in that building before?? Oh yes, their logic is something else!

Jill

If you stay onsite and your ds has had enough, you can be back at room in literally 20 minutes or less. The FOTL feature enables you come and go as you please and ride what you want with literally no wait. As for the Delorean, it's there along with the train from BTTF3. My son loves BTTF and this was a mandatory stop for us.

I hope that helps.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Delete -- I'm so ready I posted twice!

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Hoping there's more!

 

[macraven]

the pictures you took, could be postcards.

you did a great job in capturing everything!