Thing 1 and Thing 2 Take on Orlando Oct 2010: 3/13 HHN Video, final thoughts

[DISNEYaddict4evr]

This one made the Christmas card

OMG! that is sooooooooo adorable. The package was worth it for that one picture I think

 

[sand2270]

OMG! that is sooooooooo adorable. The package was worth it for that one picture I think

Thanks I felt the same way . That one is my favorite.

 

[sand2270]

My DD was nervous about the two sting ray pools so we decided to snorkel in Serenity Bay. The water in here was heated and was really nice and warm. My DD had never snorkeled before so I had to give her a quick lesson, she caught on quick. We made our way around the lazy river area. It was really nice and relaxing.

We decided to check out the sting rays, on the way over we passed by the live animal displays. We stopped at these often throughout the day, they had some interesting animals to check out.

At the sting ray tank there are two sides. One is the tropical reef side where you can snorkel and there are large sting rays as well as other fish and ocean life. Next to that is the sting ray petting tank where you wade in and are standing while smaller sting rays are swimming around you. This is also where you can feed the sting rays.

Tropical Reef snorkeling area

Tropical Reef sting ray petting area

We went into the tropical reef but my DD was nervous to go off the shallow area and swim around with the large sting rays. We stayed in the shallow areas and I would swim out a little and take pictures with our water proof disposable cameras. The water in these pools was much colder!!

We decided to snorkel in Serenity Bay again so we did another round in there. We went back to the sting ray feeding area. They were doing another feeding, you get in a circle and you are given a fish (or something fishy…and slimey). You are instructed to hold your hand under the water with the fish sticking straight up out of the hand. The sting rays come over your hand and suck in the fish. It was a weird feeling at first.

We made our way back and forth between the tropical reef and Serenity Bay as the day went by and snorkeled and fed the sting rays.

My DD wanted to swim in Serenity Bay for a little bit so she did that while I walked over to the Dolphin area to take a few pictures.

All the food, drinks (including alcoholic) and snacks are included in the price. For lunch I had a buffalo chicken sandwich and carrot cake, I can't remember what DD had, maybe a hamburger. Lunch was good, perfect for all the activity we were doing.

I knew snacks were included but I could never figure out where you got them. Closer to the end of the day I finally saw the snack bar by the tropical reef…I just kept missing it. We snacked on mini hot pretzels, Chips Ahoy, Fig Newtons. The Chips Ahoy, Fig Newtons, etc. were in baskets and you could help yourself. You had to be served the pretzels, ice cream and drinks. I didn't drink anything with alcohol, I wasn't in the mood and knew it would just make me tired. I saw Bud and Bud Light, not sure what else they had. I wish I had figured out where the snack bar was earlier in the day, but oh well.

Closer to the end of the day we sat on some loungers and ate our snacks just enjoying the atmosphere. This was really a great day! Completely relaxing…I hardly ever have relaxing days on vacation, we are always so go go go. We both loved Discovery Cove. I thought this would be something we would do once…cross it off the list. But I really think if we do another Orlando trip we will return. We may skip the dolphin swim, but I thought it was a great experience and completely worth the money considering the small crowds, all inclusive food and drinks and Sea World admission.

Eventually we decided it was time to get ready to leave. I think I wanted to get a head start before the showers got too crowded. We checked out the showers and saw that shampoo, conditioner and soap were available from dispensers in each shower. The showers also had a small changing area attached to them. We decided to shower there before we left. I was glad we went over when we did. By the time we were done showering and got dressed there was a huge line for the showers!

We walked over to the dolphin area to watch the dolphins before we left.

On our way out we stopped to pickup our pictures. There was a pretty long line for this, so I waited in line and my DD looked in a gift shop across the way. When I got to the counter to get my pictures they had some frames on display that were for sale. I thought they were nice and considered buying one, but I had spent enough on the pictures.

When she brought out my package, which included the cd, some prints and a couple of keychains I also got a free frame for buying the big package!! YAY!!

We looked in the gift shop before we left. I got us each a Discovery Cove pin. We finally decided it was time to leave…though we didn't want to it had been a great, relaxing day.

 

[sand2270]

I forgot to mention...you are required to use a wetsuit or life jacket, which are provided by Discovery Cove. They also provide snorkeling equipment. This is located right across from the lockers. When you get to the lockers in the morning there is an attendant who will show to a locker to use. The key is on a lanyard so it's easy to keep with you. The bathroom and showers are located right by this area, so everything is in one place.

We decided to go with lifesuits since I thought the water might be chilly. They were a pain to get on and off, I had never worn a wetsuit before. But the water was chilly in some areas so I was glad we wore the wetsuits.

 

[sand2270]

We got back to the hotel and the plan was to take it easy that night. I had made a reservation at the Concierge desk for The Kitchen at our hotel that morning when we were leaving for Discovery Cove. We had some time so we decided to walk down to Citywalk. When we got to the boat launch one of the rickshaw drivers asked if we wanted a ride. DD was dying to try this so we did that instead of the water taxi. These are kind of crazy…the rickshaw drivers seem to have no fear. It was fun and we ended up using them a few more times. Since it is free and they work for tips I would tip them $5 each time we took one.

I just realized what Citywalk reminded me of...Vegas...it has that same vibe. That is not good or bad, I like Vegas but it is a much different vibe than DTD.

We walked around the Universal store where DD found a build a stuffed animal machine…similar to Build a Bear. She found a beagle and decided she wanted to purchase it. Our beagle died in July and she wanted this dog to name after him. It took a really long time to get someone over to run the machine. The store was busy but they only had one person running the register. She finally got someone to take over the register so she could run the machine. Once that was done we headed back to the hotel for dinner.

We checked in at The Kitchen for dinner. I did not need to worry about that reservation, the place was not busy at all. We got sat in a comfy booth and given our menus. The kids menu is an oven mitt, so cute!

There is also a kids area in the restaurant but my DD was not interested, she did walk over and take some pictures for me at my request.

I ordered the filet mignon and a glass of red wine, my DD ordered the child's steak and had water. Our meals were good. The restaurant was quiet and our dinner was relaxing. I did not feel like dessert, my DD ordered some fresh strawberries.

On our way out we saw this...a seat from The Partridge Family bus! (You can see her new beagle in the picture)

I really wanted to check out the other two Universal resorts at some point, so we decided to walk over to the Portofino. We took the path from Hard Rock which was a nice walk along the well lit walkway by the water. The weather on our trip was perfect, I don't think we had any rainy days.

The walkway brings you to the backside of the Portofino which looks out on the water with some boats docked in the water. I could not get a good picture of this, I wanted to return during the day to get better pictures but we never made it back over.

There are restaurants and shops on the backside and lots of people sitting at tables eating and relaxing. We decided to get some gelato at Sal's. Yes my DD got two desserts this night . Her first dessert was fresh strawberries so I felt ok letting her get some gelato. After we got our gelato we found a table outside.

We wandered around the resort for a little while, it is really very pretty.

I thought this was pretty...

Eventually we headed back to get ready for our next day.

 

[klacey1]

Love the picture of your DD and the dolphin!! So cute. The frame is great, too.
I can't believe the quality of your waterproof camera. Amazing.
City Walk is definitely different from DTD, that's for sure. DTD has more of an outdoor mall feel to me-- I think CityWalk is most about entertainment and the sites. Definitely kind of Vegas-like.

 

[cheshireqt]

Loving your Trip Report. Never been to Discovery Cove, you make it look fun!

 

[sand2270]

Love the picture of your DD and the dolphin!! So cute. The frame is great, too.
I can't believe the quality of your waterproof camera. Amazing.
City Walk is definitely different from DTD, that's for sure. DTD has more of an outdoor mall feel to me-- I think CityWalk is most about entertainment and the sites. Definitely kind of Vegas-like.

The pictures outside the water were taken with my digital camera, only the ones in the water were with the disposable water proof cameras. Wasn't sure which ones you were referring to .

Loving your Trip Report. Never been to Discovery Cove, you make it look fun!

Thanks...we really loved Discovery Cove.

 

[sand2270]

I don’t remember this morning too well, but I know I got up, made coffee in the Keurig and got ready. We went back to Islands of Adventure today for early entry into Harry Potter World. DD wanted to do the wand picking ceremony and I knew we would have to line up early for that. Since we weren't rushing to get on the ride though we did take time to stop and take some pictures on the way.

I don't remember if it was a hazy day or if it was just my camera, but a lot of my pictures seem to have a haze in them…

We got in line for the ceremony, it was not long and I think we got in when the next group entered. A teenage boy dressed as Harry Potter was chosen. It was a cool little show with special effects and some humor.

DD wanted to ride Flight of the Hippogriff again. We rode this a few times and walked right on, even with the FOL access we didn’t really need to use it, it was not crowded at all.

DD wanted to do the wand picking ceremony again. The line was still not bad so we got in line and were in the second group to enter. DD wanted to get picked so bad but she wasn't .

I wanted to try a pumpkin juice, so we stopped at a cart and got a pumpkin juice, a churro and a pretzel. The pumpkin juice was ok, I probably wouldn't drink it again, it was like syrupy pumpkin pie. We wandered around and took some more pictures. I like all the crooked chimneys.

We walked back to Seuss landing and took some pictures.

We rode the Caro-Suess-el and were the only ones on. I think I remember the attendant asking if we wanted to go again so we did.

We walked over to the Marvel comics area and rode Spiderman since we missed it the other morning.

Spiderman was available for a meet and greet after the ride, DD took her picture with him since her half-brother loves Spiderman!


Continued in next post...

 

[sand2270]

We wanted to spend some time at Universal Studios, so we left the park and walked over. On the way we stopped in at the Hard Rock store. I had a credit for joining All Access. Nothing grabbed me…same thing at the hotel store, so we didn't buy anything. I will have to use my credit another time.

We went on Jimmy Neutron and Shrek since they were in the front of the park. When we exited Shrek there was a Donkey and Fiona meet and greet. We did not get in line but we listened to Donkey for a little bit, he was hysterical.

This was not running...

We also stopped in a Nick Store and got small gifts for DD's dad's family (I hope that makes sense LOL...her dad, stepmom, siblings), I purchased some small Spongebob magnets, and DD bought a Thing 1 and Thing 2 lanyard. We also stopped at a pin cart, and DD got a pin.

We started making our way back to The Simpson's ride. All the Halloween party decorations were up so we looked at those.

We walked by a Simpsons meet and greet and got DD picture with them.

We went on the Simpsons ride. I thought the theming was cool, but I couldn't figure out the queue. You go through a normal queue line, it was not busy that day so we walked right in. I guess the queue almost made me feel like we were walking through a funhouse. At the end of that queue you get in another queue in a room with Simpson's videos playing. Than an attendant takes each group to a room where you wait some more. Than we loaded our vehicle and entered what looked like a theater set up similar to Soarin. I don't know, it seemed like a lot of work lol. So they must load the cars and than have them enter the theater.

We next rode Men In Black. The required locker keypad was a pain and wouldn't work. You had to hit it really hard with your knuckle to get it to register the numbers…I am not sure why I didn't move to another one. After the ride I couldn't get it to work and I knew the people behind me were getting upset but the stupid thing wouldn't work!!

We headed over to ride Jaws. This ride had a bit of a wait, we used our FOTL and got on pretty quickly. I was concerned that this would really scare DD. I never know whether she will love something or hate something. She loved it, laughed her head off and wanted to go on again.

We stopped for lunch at Louie's Italian. The line moved very slowly but the pizza was very good. I think we rode Jaws again and than rode Disaster. Jaws had more of a wait this time, and we had to wait a little longer this time in the FOTL line. Disaster ended up being sort of similar to the Tram tour at Universal Studios in CA. The part where you are in the subway station and there is a flood. But you start with a show where they have volunteers do certain actions that get recorded. At the end of the ride they show you a video of the volunteers and your reactions to the flood. It turned out to be very funny and we both enjoyed it.

We decided to go swimming and went back to the hotel. I think we took a rickshaw back. I took some pictures of the room before I forgot.

We had a good time playing in the pool together and trying to stay under the water enough to hear the underwater speakers. It was much less crowded than the weekend was. They had hula hoops so DD played with a hula hoop for a little while.

Yellow Submarine cabana

Our plan was to go to the outlets and than have dinner at Tu Tu Tango. I put the wrong outlets in my iPod map program and we ended up at the wrong ones. On the way I noticed the car had a light going on. I pulled into the parking lot at the WRONG outlet and called Alamo. They said I needed to put air in the tires. We found a gas station, I put air in the tires and the light went off. The car was still making this strange sound it had been making all week. I put the right outlets into my ipod and we found them!

I wanted to check out Coach, we walked around in there for awhile but I decided not to purchase anything. We also went into the Disney outlet and Toys R Us. DD bought a battery operated hamster that comes with a hamster ball. Than we got turned around in the outlet and it took awhile for us to figure out how to get back to the car. At this point I was tired and kind of grouchy and just wanted to eat.

I had heard about Tu Tu Tango from a co-worker who ate there when she was in Orlando for a business trip. She highly recommended it. I had looked at the menu and it looked good. Since we had a rental car I figured we might as well try it.

We found Tu Tu Tango but drove past it a few times trying to figure out how to get into the parking lot. I had to make a u-turn but the turn in is hard to see so I ended up making the u-turn more than once. The restaurant hosts local artists who are on site working on and selling their art. We ordered dumplings, edamame, smiley fries (for DD) and saganaki, which is flaming cheese. I also had a sangria and DD had cocoa. While we were sitting there some music started playing and a woman started tap dancing through the restaurant. It was nuts but we loved it! We really had a good time here, it was such a fun restaurant. DD was curious about some of the art work and got up to look at it, she brought over a painting and the artist came over and spoke to us. We really enjoyed our dinner and I would definitely return.

After we left I couldn’t figure out the directions so we kept getting turned around. So again it involved multiple u-turns. Finally we found our way back to the hotel and we went to bed.

 

[DISNEYaddict4evr]

great update! So what your favs and worst rides at the parks? I'm trying to figure out what my mom will like. She is not a big thrill person, we are mostly going for WWoHP.

 

[sand2270]

great update! So what your favs and worst rides at the parks? I'm trying to figure out what my mom will like. She is not a big thrill person, we are mostly going for WWoHP.

hmm...well I am generally not a roller coaster person and my DD changes her minds about rides all the time. That being said at IOA we liked Spiderman, DD loved Jurassic, the water rides were a lot of fun but be prepared to get soaked, Suessland was fun...rides were comparable to Fantasyland rides, not terribly exciting but fun. I think we would have like Forbidden Journey if we went on again, but it is very jerky and jarring the first time you ride it.

At Universal DD loved Jaws and The Simpsons. I felt a little motion sick on the Simpson's. Men in Black was ok, similar to Buzz Lightyear. We both had a lot of fun on Disaster. Shrek and the Nickelodean rides were ok. We missed some of the big ones...Terminator, Mummy, and Twister so I can't comment on those.

 

[sand2270]

Today was our SeaWorld day, I think the morning in the room was similar to the other mornings. We got to the park shortly after it opened. It was a nice, cool, clear morning. We had great weather on this trip.

Since penguin encounter was closed when we went to Sea World in San Diego a few years ago, we decided to go here first. Penguins are always fun…I love watching them zip around under the water.

After we went over to Pacific Point Preserve to feed the seals. I wanted to do this early when it wasn't as crowded. We were the only ones over there. We bought some food and got to feed the sea lions all alone which means we got all their attention .

After we went over to Shark Encounter.

We lined up for the Sea Lion and Otter show. After we got in and found our seats we had a good time watching the mime follow people into the theater. I have seen the Sea and Otter show many times and while it hasn't changed much it is always fun.

After the show we decided to have lunch at Antarctic Market. We got a turkey sandwich, roast beef sandwich, caesar salad to share, carrot cake and parfait. We sat outside so we could watch the Manta roller coaster go by. Everything tasted good. While we were eating a squirrel kept running by our table. A few times he even ran up the side of DD's chair…we were incredibly entertained by him.

We went back to the shark encounter area so DD could feed the sharks. After that she got some dots (ice cream pellets…I don’t how else to describe them lol) at the cart.

We rode Journey to Atlantis, this was walk on, there was no line. We got soaked! When we got off we saw a people dryer as we were exiting. We did not have a change of clothes and we were soaked through so I decided we would try it. We got change from the gift shop and got in the dryer, I think it cost $3 for 5 minutes. It did help somewhat, didn't dry us completely but we were better than we were after we first got off the ride.

DD had been looking for this bracelet with her initial on it in the all the gift shops. Anytime we saw a gift shop we had to stop so she could see if they had the bracelet. Most shops had them but they did not have her initial. We went back to that gift shop where we got change she finally found it! We also walked around to the front of the ride where you can pay to squirt riders with water as they come down the ride. DD did this a few times.

Next was the manatee rescue area.

After this we saw the Whale and Dolphin show.

Continued in next post.

 

[DISNEYaddict4evr]

hmm...well I am generally not a roller coaster person and my DD changes her minds about rides all the time. That being said at IOA we liked Spiderman, DD loved Jurassic, the water rides were a lot of fun but be prepared to get soaked, Suessland was fun...rides were comparable to Fantasyland rides, not terribly exciting but fun. I think we would have like Forbidden Journey if we went on again, but it is very jerky and jarring the first time you ride it.

At Universal DD loved Jaws and The Simpsons. I felt a little motion sick on the Simpson's. Men in Black was ok, similar to Buzz Lightyear. We both had a lot of fun on Disaster. Shrek and the Nickelodean rides were ok. We missed some of the big ones...Terminator, Mummy, and Twister so I can't comment on those.

Thanks for the input

 

[DISNEYaddict4evr]

I've been there on getting soaked on Atlantis. It was brand new when I went so my dad and I rode first thing in the morning. Bad... I repeat bad idea. No water had had time to splash out so it was REALLY full. When we hit the bottom of the drop a 1 foot think solid wave came rushing over the front of the boat and since we were the only peopel in the boat we were in the front row. We were completely WET, not soaked. Man was my dad mad , wish they had had people dryers then how convenient.

 

[Metro West]

Great report and pictures! Thanks for sharing!

 

[sand2270]

SeaWorld continued...

After the Whale and Dolphin show we went to see the alligators and Dolphin Cove.

We tried to pet the dolphins, but it was hard if you weren't feeding them. Since we had done Discovery Cove I didn't pay to feed the dolphins. I remember seeing some type of feeding discount, where you could feed the dolphins, sharks and sea lions for a discounted price. We did not do this just mentioning in case someone is interested.

My back and right leg started hurting a lot. We went over to the Stingray Lagoon where I took a pain pill and sat down on a bench, while DD played with the stingray's. I also did some stretches while sitting to try and relieve some of the pain. DD was within eyesight and seemed absorbed with petting the stingrays, so it gave me time to wait for my pain pill to kick in.

Once I started feeling better we walked over to the small turtle area.

Than we walked over the Manta viewing area by the Manta ride.

I had been looking for Manta Ray merchandise and wasn't finding much in the gift shops. Strange fact…my name is an anagram of Manta Ray LOL. Someone pointed that out to me last year and now I love finding Manta Ray ride merchandise. I was getting frustrated that I couldn't find anything in the gift shops. I thought there had to be a Manta Ray ride gift shop since all the rides exit to gift shops. It was hard to find since it wasn't at the exit, but across the way from where the ride exits. The entrance does not face the exit so you really have to be looking for it to find it. I was so excited and bought a keychain and a coffee mug. DD also got a new penny press book since she was still pressing pennies.

There was a snack bar close by and we decided to get some churros. They also sold Manta Ray water bottles filled with a soft drink of your choice and I wanted to get one. DD wanted one too so we each got one. We sat on a bench, ate our churros and watched Manta go by. It was a nice break.

Dolphin rehab area

We made our way over to the Wild Arctic and rode the motion simulator ride. My pictures did not come out very well.

DD bought a white seal back pack in the gift shop and we headed over to the Shamu viewing area.

We watched Shamu for a bit from the viewing tank than walked over the stadium to see the Shamu show.

After Shamu we were getting tired and decided it was time to go.

I took some pictures from the room. The grassy area was where you would see people playing and taking their dogs out. Hard Rock Hotel is pet friendly and I think I remember seeing plastic bags available. If you look in the first picture you can see the waterway, this is where the water taxis picked you up.

After we got back to the hotel we decided to take the water taxi over to Citywalk to get dinner. We did have an ADR at DTD for House of Blues. I had a restaurant.com certificate that I wanted to use, so I made an ADR thinking we might go over if we weren't too tired. We decided to hang around the Universal area instead. While we waited for the water taxi DD played in the grassy area with her new stuffed beagle. DD got Panda Express from the food court and I got spaghetti and an italian margarita from the Pastamore counter service place. I had wanted to try the Latin Quarter counter service but it was not open. Neither the spaghetti or margarita was very good, which was too bad, I really like italian margaritas. I had considered getting one from Margaritaville since they made really good ones, but I thought I would save a trip. Next time I will know better! It was a nice night out so we sat outside Pastamore.


We looked in the Endangered Species store where I bought a pool coverup. We went to the Universal Studio Store, where I got a Hogwarts shirt for a coworker and postcards. After all this we went back to the hotel for the night.

 

[sand2270]

I've been there on getting soaked on Atlantis. It was brand new when I went so my dad and I rode first thing in the morning. Bad... I repeat bad idea. No water had had time to splash out so it was REALLY full. When we hit the bottom of the drop a 1 foot think solid wave came rushing over the front of the boat and since we were the only peopel in the boat we were in the front row. We were completely WET, not soaked. Man was my dad mad , wish they had had people dryers then how convenient.

I know my DD loves water rides I just need to start packing a change of clothes for us since this seems to always happen to us.

Great report and pictures! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks!

 

[sand2270]

This was our last day at the Hard Rock Hotel. I had tossed around the idea of taking a drive to the beach, however DD and I discussed it and we decided to skip it. There were still things we wanted to see at Universal so we decided to spend the morning at the parks before checking in at Port Orleans French Quarter. DD wanted to ride Jaws again so we were going to try and do that. We slept in a little, packed up and called valet to help us with our bags. We had the bags stored while we went to the park.

We rode Spiderman again and took some pictures in the Sunday Comics area.

We wanted to get lunch and DD wanted to eat at Pizza Predator. I think she just liked the name and cute sign. We split a cheese pizza and sat on the benches in the shade. Universal's pizza was so much better than Disney's! Now pizza is one of my favorite foods and while I love good pizza, I also do believe that even bad pizza isn't bad and I really don't mind Disney's pizza. But this really was better.

After lunch DD wanted to ride Pteranodon Flyers, this ride does not have FOTL, adults can only ride with a child and it is very slow loading. We waited in line for awhile for this, which was not good for me with my back, but DD really wanted to ride so I coped. We tried taking some pictures of ourselves in line. I couldn't get a good one and the lady in front of us offered to take it for us.

You see we are wearing our shirts again, DD loved them and wanted to wear them again.

Let me see if I can describe this ride. The child sits in the front and the adult in the back (or heavier person). It can go fast at times but it also slows itself down. The ride is over really fast. DD liked it. I probably would not wait in that long of a line again and if I had known better we would have hit it first thing in the morning.

We headed back to WWOHP World, I had a bunch of postcards to send and I wanted the special Owl post. Since I knew this would be our last Universal day I I also bought another frozen butterbeer. Mmm so good!

I got one more picture of Hogwarts

Since DD wanted to ride Jaws we decided to head out. When we had entered the park that morning I had stopped in the photoshop to see the pictures taken of us at the entries and also DD's picture with Spiderman. I really liked a few of them and they had a CD you could purchase…by itself…no package…and it wasn't priced too bad. I decided I wanted to do that, but when they tried they said the systems were down and to come back later. On our way out we stopped again…and the systems were still down!! I was so frustrated but decided to just forget about it or try to make it back after Universal. I think they gave me some information I could use if I wanted to try and purchase them after we got home.

What ended up happening was I can't remember if I contacted Universal or had info, but I was able to access the pictures online. The cd option was not available online, so I just ended up purchasing prints of the few pictures I wanted. I bought a scanner shortly afterwards and was able to load them into my computer.

These are the other pictures I purchased. One is in the first post…

I also took these pictures on the way out…

As we were walking over to Universal DD started complaining that her stomach hurt. We decided to rest and sat on the Hard Rock steps for a little bit and took some pictures. She finally decided she didn't feel good enough and wanted to go back to the hotel. I can't remember if we took the water taxi, a rickshaw or walked. I think we took a rickshaw back. I was hoping we could get a few rides in we missed but I was tired too so we just decided it was best to go.

I did want to see the butterfly garden and DD felt ok to do this so we walked back over and looked around.

I needed to buy a new memory card, I could not believe I was running out of space, I have a large memory card! I checked with concierge and they gave me information about Target locations, I figured we could stop on our way over to WDW.

I wanted to take some pictures of the lobby before we left so DD found a chaise to relax on while I walked around the lobby.

When I was done I laid down next to DD and we relaxed on the chaise for awhile. It was really nice and relaxing and we didn't want to leave.

We finally decided it was time to say goodbye to Hard Rock and leave. We got our stuff from valet…but I felt bad. So the Hard Rock rooms do not have a mini-fridge you can use. I had refused the key for the fridge in the room because I did not want to accidentally get charged for anything. Well we bought milk for the cereal at Walmart. I knew we would get milk so I brought a small softsided cooler that I could pack flat with us. This was a pain, we had to keep changing out the ice twice a day. Actually my DD enjoyed running down to the ice machine to fill it up…this was her "responsibility" in the mornings. Well dumb me I should have dumped the milk, but instead I zipped it into the cooler with the ice thinking it would be ok until we got to POFQ. Well it wasn't…the stupid thing started leaking, I ended up just dumping the ice and throwing the milk away. I tried.

Continued in next post...

 

[Princess Sleepy]

hmm...we had more than one day so I knew we could do one the first day and the other the next. From what I have read some early entry people do the wand ceremony than head over to FJ...I just don't know since we didn't ride again after our first day.

We managed to do the wand ceremony twice during early entry...but the time of year we went is a slower period also.

What exactly does the wand ceremony involve? I didn't know you had to get picked. Is it still fun even if you are just watching?