Andy's mom
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2003
- Messages
- 11
We spent Feb. 12-15 at the HRH with our three children (10,8,5) and had a good time. Didn't love the "attitude" of the check-in clerk - was young and thought he was too cool. Having requested a roll away at 1) time of reservation, 2) confirmation of reservation, 3) check in, 4) return from dinner and call to housekeeping, 5) 2nd call to housekeeping (where she informed me the first she had heard of it was upon my call 15 min. before) and a visit to the manager, the cot arrived and my 5 year old could go to bed at 10:00! They did not charge us the $25 fee for the rollaway that night however. We left our room at 8:00 the next morning to go to the parks and returned at 4:00 to unmade beds and dirty towels - so not okay! Again a visit to the manager and the maid showed up immediately. Also had to call and request our Lowe's milk and cookies (which were delicious when they arrived). We had snagged $99 rates and I really did feel "you get what you pay for." Hard not to think service directly correlates to your room rate based on our experience. Having said that, the front of the line perk was incredible and payed for itself as the park became more crowded on Fri. The plus side of our trip and stay was: dinner at Tchoup Chop (one of the best meals we have had in a long time and fab. service) and children had a blast at Camp Lil Rock. The pool and slide were also a big hit.
We liked the two parks, but thought they had an entirely different feel than WDW. Perhaps we are a bit nostalgic, but they felt edgy and trying too hard to be hip. Really liked Seuss Landing, but could have done without the loud music at Marvel Island and others. Actually liked Universal on the whole better than IOA. ET, MIB, Ghostbusters, Blues Bros., Animal Planet were great. My husband went on Twister and Jaws and was unimpressed by both (esp. Twister).
Clearly theme parks are not meant to be calm vacations, but we would do WDW before we returned to Universal. Perhaps when the children are teenagers. We had fun and do have some great pictures, but do feel the service was sub-par.
We liked the two parks, but thought they had an entirely different feel than WDW. Perhaps we are a bit nostalgic, but they felt edgy and trying too hard to be hip. Really liked Seuss Landing, but could have done without the loud music at Marvel Island and others. Actually liked Universal on the whole better than IOA. ET, MIB, Ghostbusters, Blues Bros., Animal Planet were great. My husband went on Twister and Jaws and was unimpressed by both (esp. Twister).
Clearly theme parks are not meant to be calm vacations, but we would do WDW before we returned to Universal. Perhaps when the children are teenagers. We had fun and do have some great pictures, but do feel the service was sub-par.
