We got back last Friday from our 4th trip to Universal. Stayed at the HRH. The majority of our trip was great, a few downers, but isn't that true of every vacation?
We arrived Sunday about 1 p.m. We were told our room wouldn't be ready until 4 p.m. or later. So we went to the car to change into shorts to head into the parks, and got the phone call that our room was ready. Moved into our room and headed to USF about 2 p.m.
We went straight to MIB with our room keys and still waited 25 minutes! Left there and walked to the Mummy, it was broken down. So we got in line for Shrek (just one line, no express line). While we were waiting, DS went back to check the status of the Mummy, and it was open, so we left the Shrek line and walked on the Mummy. After that folks realized it was open again and the crowds returned. So we went back to our room and rested up.
Monday the crowds were much much smaller, there must have been a lot of locals there on Sunday. During the week we learned that most of the crowds arrive at Universal around lunchtime and leave at 5:00. So we got to the parks about 9:00 and stayed until 1 or 2 p.m. Went to the pool and/or rested and returned about 5:00. One downer was that the parks closed at 7:00 every night!
I got to ride my favorite MIB at least 25 times! One morning we went straight to MIB, and we were the only people on the whole ride for about 30 minutes! It was great, except there were no one to shoot against.
We had already resolved ourselves that Dueling Dragons wouldn't be open, so we were so surprised Thursday to see Fire running! Since only 1 side was running, it was a 30 min wait in Express. Still only one side going on Friday, we waited about 20 minutes to ride.
One thing I noticed was that Universal has increased the prices of their ride photos, but downgraded the frames from those really decorative frames to a cheap, plain black frame. Downer! I usually take a picture with my digital camera of the screen, but the employees at the Hulk yelled at me for doing so. I didn't know that was a no-no.
We tried some new restaurants this trip. The Enchanted Oak (across from Dueling Dragons) was really good food and I loved the atmosphere there. We had some good burgers at Richters in US, and the Nathan's dogs next to Jaws are my DH's favorite!
We did the Horror Make up Show again, which is one of the most underrated shows around. It was hilarious as usual. One great line from the make up artist who was cutting up with a kid in the audience "This isn't Disney World you know, we don't have to be nice to you"
Overall, we had a great time in the parks, we hardly waited for anything.
The Hard Rock had its good and bad points. Our room was next to the ice machine, so we heard a lot of clanking all day and night from the ice. One machine was broken and stayed broken the entire week. So getting ice was hit and miss. We heard lots of noise in the hallways. Kids running and yelling all hours of the day and night. A couple of days our maid service was excellent, then a couple of days I had to beg for soap and towels.
Wed. or Thurs. night there was a Velvet Sessions in the hotel. (I can't remember which night). Two of the members of Boston were playing. The bad side of this for hotel guests was it brought a lot of cars into the parking lot. We were going out for dinner, but decided against it since parking spaces were coveted! People were parking along the curbs because all the spaces were full.
All in all, we had a great trip, got to ride our favorite rides as many times as we wanted!
We arrived Sunday about 1 p.m. We were told our room wouldn't be ready until 4 p.m. or later. So we went to the car to change into shorts to head into the parks, and got the phone call that our room was ready. Moved into our room and headed to USF about 2 p.m.
We went straight to MIB with our room keys and still waited 25 minutes! Left there and walked to the Mummy, it was broken down. So we got in line for Shrek (just one line, no express line). While we were waiting, DS went back to check the status of the Mummy, and it was open, so we left the Shrek line and walked on the Mummy. After that folks realized it was open again and the crowds returned. So we went back to our room and rested up.
Monday the crowds were much much smaller, there must have been a lot of locals there on Sunday. During the week we learned that most of the crowds arrive at Universal around lunchtime and leave at 5:00. So we got to the parks about 9:00 and stayed until 1 or 2 p.m. Went to the pool and/or rested and returned about 5:00. One downer was that the parks closed at 7:00 every night!
I got to ride my favorite MIB at least 25 times! One morning we went straight to MIB, and we were the only people on the whole ride for about 30 minutes! It was great, except there were no one to shoot against.
We had already resolved ourselves that Dueling Dragons wouldn't be open, so we were so surprised Thursday to see Fire running! Since only 1 side was running, it was a 30 min wait in Express. Still only one side going on Friday, we waited about 20 minutes to ride.
One thing I noticed was that Universal has increased the prices of their ride photos, but downgraded the frames from those really decorative frames to a cheap, plain black frame. Downer! I usually take a picture with my digital camera of the screen, but the employees at the Hulk yelled at me for doing so. I didn't know that was a no-no.
We tried some new restaurants this trip. The Enchanted Oak (across from Dueling Dragons) was really good food and I loved the atmosphere there. We had some good burgers at Richters in US, and the Nathan's dogs next to Jaws are my DH's favorite!
We did the Horror Make up Show again, which is one of the most underrated shows around. It was hilarious as usual. One great line from the make up artist who was cutting up with a kid in the audience "This isn't Disney World you know, we don't have to be nice to you"
Overall, we had a great time in the parks, we hardly waited for anything.
The Hard Rock had its good and bad points. Our room was next to the ice machine, so we heard a lot of clanking all day and night from the ice. One machine was broken and stayed broken the entire week. So getting ice was hit and miss. We heard lots of noise in the hallways. Kids running and yelling all hours of the day and night. A couple of days our maid service was excellent, then a couple of days I had to beg for soap and towels.
Wed. or Thurs. night there was a Velvet Sessions in the hotel. (I can't remember which night). Two of the members of Boston were playing. The bad side of this for hotel guests was it brought a lot of cars into the parking lot. We were going out for dinner, but decided against it since parking spaces were coveted! People were parking along the curbs because all the spaces were full.
All in all, we had a great trip, got to ride our favorite rides as many times as we wanted!
.
