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Day Two
Sunday, August 3
Woke up to beautiful sunny skies at 8:45am. Now keep in mind that I had planned on us getting up early, eating breakfast in the room, and being at the parks at opening. That's what everyone says to do so I wanted to follow the advice of getting there early, leaving mid day and returning later. I quickly abandoned my plans since no one else seemed interested in my thoroughly researched and well thought out ideas. This actually turned out to be a good thing. We found that with FOTL you really don't need to worry about crowds and schedules. So we finally woke the girls up, had breakfast in the room (pop-tarts, cereal, fruit, juice) and debated on what to do. The Sunday edition of the Miami Herald was waiting outside our door. The kids really wanted to go swimming. Our shoes were still wet from the night before so this sounded like a good idea. DH and the kids went down to the pool. I met them there about 20 minutes later. I told DH about the Hard Rock having a water slide at the pool. He suggested we pool hop and check out the HRH. The kids thought that was a great idea. We swam at the RPR for awhile then took the water taxi to Citywalk then hopped on the water taxi to HRH. We wandered around the HRH looking for the pool. The outside of the hotel was beautiful as was the lobby. We liked the guitar fountain out front and the saxophone chandelier we saw inside. The pool was nice and much more upbeat than the RPR pool meaning there was loud music and more of a "party" atmosphere. We were given bracelets to wear at the pool when we got our towels. The CM said they do that because people who aren't hotel guests try to come to their pool. DD whipped her head around and stared at me like, "we're gonna be caught because we aren't staying here!" We told the CM we were RPR guests and he said "oh no problem. Any Universal hotel guest is welcome." DD now looked relieved. He never asked to see our room key though. The kids LOVED the HRH slide but all agreed that they liked the RPR pool better. DH and I each rode the water slide once. Adults be warned! We both landed on our backs on the bottom of the pool when coming off the slide. The water is not very deep there. We ate lunch poolside at the Beach Club. The food and drinks were quite good. DH had the cuban sandwich and a beer . I had the quesadillas (delicious) and Hard Rock Lemonade. Girls had smoothies and mozarella sticks. DS had a burger, fries, and coke. The bill was $60 something using AP discount. We hung out at the pool for awhile longer then headed out on foot to IOA. The walking path from HRH is very nice also.
We arrived at IOA at 2:45pm. We rented a locker ($7) at the front to store our pool stuff. We were all still wearing our swimsuits so planned on hitting the water rides again. We stopped first at Spiderman. You cannot walk by this amazing one of a kind attraction without riding it! Wait time posted 75 minutes. We waited 8 minutes. Next we rode Popeye 2 times waiting under 5 minutes each time. We did get some dirty looks when entering through FOTL here. The express line just pours you directly into the regular line. We headed over to Ripsaw Falls and waited about 10 minutes. It was hot and the regular lines were long. We decided to try JP River Adventure in the daylight. We walked right on and sat in the front of the boat. We got to see more of the attracton than we did in the dark the night before. DD did not care much for this ride. The pictures they take on the ride were hilarious both times. DS had the look of pure terror on his face in both pictures. DD's face is scrunched up against my arm and her eyes are closed. I was screaming. DD's friend look worried. We saw a funny picture of one group who all were making the junior birdman goggles. DH and I agreed to do that next time.
A storm was blowing in so we walked back to RPR at 5:00pm.
We cleaned up a bit and rested until the storm was over. It was still raining a little so we rode the water taxi to Citywalk. We walked into Pat O'Brien's at 6:30 and were seated in the piano bar. The outside seating was closed due to rain. DH and I ordered Hurricane's ($8.95) which came in souvenir glasses. The waiters gave the kids mardi gras beads. DH and I both had Jambalaya. DH also had the Shrimp Gumbo. The kids had the usual cheeseburgers and chicken fingers. All 3 kids meals were free with our APs. Bob the Piano Man provided lively entertainment. He was great with the kids and even came around to our table to talk. The kids had written out a list of requests and he joked around with them about the songs they requested. He played the Spongebob theme song, Chicken Dance and lots of sing alongs. Bob would ask people coming in, "Where ya from?" They would answer and he would always say, "Oh yeah? Me too!" and break into a new song. It was a fun time. It was now close to 8:00pm.
DS really wanted to see the Terminator. The girls wanted to check out things they hadn't seen at IOA. We decided to split up. DS and I headed for USO. DH and the girls went to IOA. DS and I walked right into Jimmy Neutron. Another great ride on Jimmy's rocket piloted by Jimmy for the first time. We then started walking toward MIB. DS had to go to the bathroom so after we found one, he decided he really wanted to get to the Terminator so we turned around. I didn't realize how long it was until the next show so we waited quite awhile. We saw the last show of the day. It was an awesome combination of 3-D and live action! I thought DS might have been scared a couple of times but he said he loved it and couldn't wait to take his dad. I wasn't wearing a watch so I wasn't sure what time it was. I thought we might have enough time to see Shrek but when we reached the line, the clock at Neutron said it was 9:06. They had closed the line to Shrek. DS and I walked to the water taxi in the rain. When we were exiting USO, the music was louding playing, "If you like Pina Coladas and gettin caught in the rain..." I thought that was fitting. DS and I arrived back in our room at the RPR at 9:35. We watched the IOA fireworks from our room. Very nice!
Meanwhile, DH and the girls left Pat O'Brien's and went to IOA. They rode Dr. Doom once and Spiderman 2 times with no wait. They somehow got lost walking around Me Ship the Olive but eventually ended up at the Cat in the Hat which they rode once. They shopped a little and ended up watching the fireworks from the water taxi dock. They ran into the room at 10:20, changed and went down to the pool until it closed at 11:00.
Another excellent day! Stay tuned for Day 3 at USO and the RPR pool!
Sunday, August 3
Woke up to beautiful sunny skies at 8:45am. Now keep in mind that I had planned on us getting up early, eating breakfast in the room, and being at the parks at opening. That's what everyone says to do so I wanted to follow the advice of getting there early, leaving mid day and returning later. I quickly abandoned my plans since no one else seemed interested in my thoroughly researched and well thought out ideas. This actually turned out to be a good thing. We found that with FOTL you really don't need to worry about crowds and schedules. So we finally woke the girls up, had breakfast in the room (pop-tarts, cereal, fruit, juice) and debated on what to do. The Sunday edition of the Miami Herald was waiting outside our door. The kids really wanted to go swimming. Our shoes were still wet from the night before so this sounded like a good idea. DH and the kids went down to the pool. I met them there about 20 minutes later. I told DH about the Hard Rock having a water slide at the pool. He suggested we pool hop and check out the HRH. The kids thought that was a great idea. We swam at the RPR for awhile then took the water taxi to Citywalk then hopped on the water taxi to HRH. We wandered around the HRH looking for the pool. The outside of the hotel was beautiful as was the lobby. We liked the guitar fountain out front and the saxophone chandelier we saw inside. The pool was nice and much more upbeat than the RPR pool meaning there was loud music and more of a "party" atmosphere. We were given bracelets to wear at the pool when we got our towels. The CM said they do that because people who aren't hotel guests try to come to their pool. DD whipped her head around and stared at me like, "we're gonna be caught because we aren't staying here!" We told the CM we were RPR guests and he said "oh no problem. Any Universal hotel guest is welcome." DD now looked relieved. He never asked to see our room key though. The kids LOVED the HRH slide but all agreed that they liked the RPR pool better. DH and I each rode the water slide once. Adults be warned! We both landed on our backs on the bottom of the pool when coming off the slide. The water is not very deep there. We ate lunch poolside at the Beach Club. The food and drinks were quite good. DH had the cuban sandwich and a beer . I had the quesadillas (delicious) and Hard Rock Lemonade. Girls had smoothies and mozarella sticks. DS had a burger, fries, and coke. The bill was $60 something using AP discount. We hung out at the pool for awhile longer then headed out on foot to IOA. The walking path from HRH is very nice also.
We arrived at IOA at 2:45pm. We rented a locker ($7) at the front to store our pool stuff. We were all still wearing our swimsuits so planned on hitting the water rides again. We stopped first at Spiderman. You cannot walk by this amazing one of a kind attraction without riding it! Wait time posted 75 minutes. We waited 8 minutes. Next we rode Popeye 2 times waiting under 5 minutes each time. We did get some dirty looks when entering through FOTL here. The express line just pours you directly into the regular line. We headed over to Ripsaw Falls and waited about 10 minutes. It was hot and the regular lines were long. We decided to try JP River Adventure in the daylight. We walked right on and sat in the front of the boat. We got to see more of the attracton than we did in the dark the night before. DD did not care much for this ride. The pictures they take on the ride were hilarious both times. DS had the look of pure terror on his face in both pictures. DD's face is scrunched up against my arm and her eyes are closed. I was screaming. DD's friend look worried. We saw a funny picture of one group who all were making the junior birdman goggles. DH and I agreed to do that next time.
A storm was blowing in so we walked back to RPR at 5:00pm. We cleaned up a bit and rested until the storm was over. It was still raining a little so we rode the water taxi to Citywalk. We walked into Pat O'Brien's at 6:30 and were seated in the piano bar. The outside seating was closed due to rain. DH and I ordered Hurricane's ($8.95) which came in souvenir glasses. The waiters gave the kids mardi gras beads. DH and I both had Jambalaya. DH also had the Shrimp Gumbo. The kids had the usual cheeseburgers and chicken fingers. All 3 kids meals were free with our APs. Bob the Piano Man provided lively entertainment. He was great with the kids and even came around to our table to talk. The kids had written out a list of requests and he joked around with them about the songs they requested. He played the Spongebob theme song, Chicken Dance and lots of sing alongs. Bob would ask people coming in, "Where ya from?" They would answer and he would always say, "Oh yeah? Me too!" and break into a new song. It was a fun time. It was now close to 8:00pm.
DS really wanted to see the Terminator. The girls wanted to check out things they hadn't seen at IOA. We decided to split up. DS and I headed for USO. DH and the girls went to IOA. DS and I walked right into Jimmy Neutron. Another great ride on Jimmy's rocket piloted by Jimmy for the first time.
We then started walking toward MIB. DS had to go to the bathroom so after we found one, he decided he really wanted to get to the Terminator so we turned around. I didn't realize how long it was until the next show so we waited quite awhile. We saw the last show of the day. It was an awesome combination of 3-D and live action! I thought DS might have been scared a couple of times but he said he loved it and couldn't wait to take his dad. I wasn't wearing a watch so I wasn't sure what time it was. I thought we might have enough time to see Shrek but when we reached the line, the clock at Neutron said it was 9:06. They had closed the line to Shrek. DS and I walked to the water taxi in the rain. When we were exiting USO, the music was louding playing, "If you like Pina Coladas and gettin caught in the rain..." I thought that was fitting. DS and I arrived back in our room at the RPR at 9:35. We watched the IOA fireworks from our room. Very nice! Meanwhile, DH and the girls left Pat O'Brien's and went to IOA. They rode Dr. Doom once and Spiderman 2 times with no wait. They somehow got lost walking around Me Ship the Olive but eventually ended up at the Cat in the Hat which they rode once. They shopped a little and ended up watching the fireworks from the water taxi dock. They ran into the room at 10:20, changed and went down to the pool until it closed at 11:00.
Another excellent day! Stay tuned for Day 3 at USO and the RPR pool!
