WeRblam
Dis Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2001
- Messages
- 638
Cast of characters:
Me - 41 (obsessed with Disney and planning, planning, planning)
DH - 45 ((goes along with my plans and the occasional How much is this going to cost me?)
DS - 15 (Loves Disney as much as I do)
DD - 11 (just glad to be on vacation anywhere)
Traveling with DB - 61 and his family (DW 50, DNEIC 8, DNEPH 11)
Day 2
We all awoke early and took our showers. The plan was to meet by 8:00 am in the lobby with DB and his family to head over to Hard Rock Hotel and then on to IOA to meet up with the others.
Check out was smooth, and DB (also an excessive planner) was waiting in the lobby right on time. They told us they had a nice dinner last evening at the Portofino Trattorria (sp?). It was buffett style (a bit on the expensive side according to him) but delicious. His niece and nephew who have never been to WDW or IOA/US were really looking forward to doing a park today.
We grab valet and load the cars up for our looonggg journey across the street. We arrive at Hard Rock three minutes later and again after tipping Valet, Luggage handler, bellhop and whoever else had their handout according to DH, we stop at the Front Desk. Our rooms are not ready, but they store our luggage and give me a safe deposit box so I can place my pocketbook and other stuff in for the day. They take down our cell phone #'s and promise to call us when the room is ready. They also promise that we have adjoining rooms, pool side. As we were checking in, the kids were getting hungry. We decided to stop in The Kitchen for a buffett breakfast. I only had coffee since I knew I would be going on some of the thriller rides today and did not want everyone else sharing my breakfast if you know what I mean. Anway, after breakfast we meet up with some of our friends, lets call them Family 1(BTW, they are like our extended family and we do lots of things with them) and join our troops together to walk over to IOA to meet up with Family 2. DB and wife know our friends so we just needed to introduce their neice and nephew to Family 1's kids. We then head on over via the walkway to IOA. We arrive at IOA and Family 2 is there to meet us. We again introduce them to DB and his family. We now have a huge entourage: 6 adults, 7 kids (ranging in ages 8 to 17). We decide to do Hulk first. Mind you, I am not a thrill seeker ride person but for some odd reason, I felt compelled to do this ride. Everyone except DH, DB and his DW and DNIEC (she was too short) went on. Well, I must say never again. I am happy that I did it once, but once is definately enough for me! I think the loops did it to me and I am glad (as I am sure everyone else was) that I did not eat breakfast! The younger crew all enjoyed it (Ahhh youth....) and had a blast. One thing I must mention is that when you stay at one of the three on-site properties (Hard Rock, Portofino or Royal pacific) they give you these room keys that you show at the entrace to the major rides and it is express (Go to the front of the class...err I mean line). The waits are minimal and it is like having a fast pass for every ride! Definately worth $$$ to stay onsite if you can manage it IMHO. After the hulk, our troops headed over to Dr. Doomsday Fear Fall. Thank you I will skip this one. I think only a few of the adults went while all the kids went on this one. Next stop was Spiderman 4-D which we all walked on. This happens to be one of the best rides ever! The graphics, theming, ride sequence and virtual reality is at its best. If you have never done this ride, I recommend it highly. Ok, we are now off to the wet rides. It is hot and even though it is early, it is a good time to get wet and cool off a bit. We head over to Popeyes river rapid ride and have a blast. We let the kids go on together and the adults went on together. Boy did some of us get wet. (Except for me, because I am a planner and I brought my trusty rain poncho from the dollar store hee hee hee). The ride was soo good, that everyone wanted to do it again. We walk right on and ride the rapids for a second time. More people get wet and I am still fairly dry. I take a lot of chiding about my rain poncho but I don't care - they are just jeolous that they did not plan for this! LOL ...next we head over to the Dudley's Do Right, but it is temporarily down. BOO HOO, we want more water! So we head off towards Dueling Dragons. All the kids go on this except for the littlest one. Most of the adults go on. They do ICE first and then all the adults decide once is enough and come back while the kids head over to ride FIRE. We adults try to decide a plan of action, should we eat, do more rides, etc. We decide to do the Sinbad and Poseidens Fury and then head over to Suess town to eat. Luckily the big restaraunt is airconditioned because did I mention it is HOT!. I then got the phone call that our rooms were ready HOORAY! After we refueled, the kids ride the cat in the hat ride and we decide we had enough for the day. We had dinner reservations at Mama Della's over at Portofino at 8:00 pm. We head back to our hotel when it starts to rain. Both rooms are ready, ours has two queen beds while DB has one king bed and sleep sofa. The rooms are adjoining which the kids think is so cool. We have a pool side view and are only three doors down from the Laundry Room (which I love, I know call me crazy, but I like a laundry room nearby because I do laundry while I am on vacation). Kids decide to check out arcade. DB and his family decide to nap for awhile and prepare for their evening (they are not joining us tonight for Mama Della's
DH and I and our friends head to the pool bar to wait out the rain. There was supposed to be an outdoor wedding at 4:30 and it was already five and it was still pouring. We see lots of dressed up people milling around waiting for the rain to stop.
Finally, the rain stops at around 6:00 and we head upstairs to shower and relax a few minutes before we meet for our dinner plans. We meet family 1 in the lobby of Hard Rock and head over to Portofino via a shuttle they have between the two hotels. We meet at Mama Della's and family 2 arrives. We have a party of 13. They seat us after about 15 minutes. The reseraunt is medium size (not to big, but certainly not a little hole in the wall either). It's decor is italian, looks like something you would find in italy. A picture on the wall display Mama herself with Al Gore...hmm what is that about? FLA and Al Gore....LOL
The waiter was absolutely superb! Since none of us have been to this resteraunt before, he was very patient and explained the offerings and treated the kids as if they were adults (since most of them are teenagers). The menu was not expansive but everyone found something they liked. We orderd table appetizers Calamari, Mussels,and I think a crab cake. Anyway, the food was delicious. While we are waiting for our next course, the salad (good ole Ceaser for me thank you!) arrives and so does the strolling musicians. They say to our table that since we are all "friends" what better song to sing then Hey Gumbadi (sp?) which means friend in italian. We all sing along and the kids each had a part that they had to sing when the verse was sung over and over. It was really fun and everyone in the restaraunt was helping us out! We had ordered a bottle of wine with dinner which was being served and finally our meals came. With no room for dessert, it was finally time to leave (it was now almost 11:00 pm!!!). We settled our bill (expensive, let me just say that, but worth it) and headed over to Citiwalk. We walked around for a little bit but DH and I were tired. We bid our good nights and let our DS stay but he had to be back by 12:00 pm (not much time but gave him a little freedom with his friends). Family 2 was going back to their new home in FL and we won't seem them until Nov.. Family 1 is leaving tomorrow for Disney where we will hook up with them again when we get over there on Monday. We finally get back to hotel it is about 11:30 pm and our heads hit the pillow and we were out (except for one of my eyes, I knew DS would be back shortly so I could not fully fall asleep no matter how tired I was! DS returns and we all have a wonderful sleep dreaming of our great day with friends and family! Stay tuned for Day 3
Me - 41 (obsessed with Disney and planning, planning, planning)
DH - 45 ((goes along with my plans and the occasional How much is this going to cost me?)
DS - 15 (Loves Disney as much as I do)
DD - 11 (just glad to be on vacation anywhere)
Traveling with DB - 61 and his family (DW 50, DNEIC 8, DNEPH 11)
Day 2
We all awoke early and took our showers. The plan was to meet by 8:00 am in the lobby with DB and his family to head over to Hard Rock Hotel and then on to IOA to meet up with the others.
Check out was smooth, and DB (also an excessive planner) was waiting in the lobby right on time. They told us they had a nice dinner last evening at the Portofino Trattorria (sp?). It was buffett style (a bit on the expensive side according to him) but delicious. His niece and nephew who have never been to WDW or IOA/US were really looking forward to doing a park today.
We grab valet and load the cars up for our looonggg journey across the street. We arrive at Hard Rock three minutes later and again after tipping Valet, Luggage handler, bellhop and whoever else had their handout according to DH, we stop at the Front Desk. Our rooms are not ready, but they store our luggage and give me a safe deposit box so I can place my pocketbook and other stuff in for the day. They take down our cell phone #'s and promise to call us when the room is ready. They also promise that we have adjoining rooms, pool side. As we were checking in, the kids were getting hungry. We decided to stop in The Kitchen for a buffett breakfast. I only had coffee since I knew I would be going on some of the thriller rides today and did not want everyone else sharing my breakfast if you know what I mean. Anway, after breakfast we meet up with some of our friends, lets call them Family 1(BTW, they are like our extended family and we do lots of things with them) and join our troops together to walk over to IOA to meet up with Family 2. DB and wife know our friends so we just needed to introduce their neice and nephew to Family 1's kids. We then head on over via the walkway to IOA. We arrive at IOA and Family 2 is there to meet us. We again introduce them to DB and his family. We now have a huge entourage: 6 adults, 7 kids (ranging in ages 8 to 17). We decide to do Hulk first. Mind you, I am not a thrill seeker ride person but for some odd reason, I felt compelled to do this ride. Everyone except DH, DB and his DW and DNIEC (she was too short) went on. Well, I must say never again. I am happy that I did it once, but once is definately enough for me! I think the loops did it to me and I am glad (as I am sure everyone else was) that I did not eat breakfast! The younger crew all enjoyed it (Ahhh youth....) and had a blast. One thing I must mention is that when you stay at one of the three on-site properties (Hard Rock, Portofino or Royal pacific) they give you these room keys that you show at the entrace to the major rides and it is express (Go to the front of the class...err I mean line). The waits are minimal and it is like having a fast pass for every ride! Definately worth $$$ to stay onsite if you can manage it IMHO. After the hulk, our troops headed over to Dr. Doomsday Fear Fall. Thank you I will skip this one. I think only a few of the adults went while all the kids went on this one. Next stop was Spiderman 4-D which we all walked on. This happens to be one of the best rides ever! The graphics, theming, ride sequence and virtual reality is at its best. If you have never done this ride, I recommend it highly. Ok, we are now off to the wet rides. It is hot and even though it is early, it is a good time to get wet and cool off a bit. We head over to Popeyes river rapid ride and have a blast. We let the kids go on together and the adults went on together. Boy did some of us get wet. (Except for me, because I am a planner and I brought my trusty rain poncho from the dollar store hee hee hee). The ride was soo good, that everyone wanted to do it again. We walk right on and ride the rapids for a second time. More people get wet and I am still fairly dry. I take a lot of chiding about my rain poncho but I don't care - they are just jeolous that they did not plan for this! LOL ...next we head over to the Dudley's Do Right, but it is temporarily down. BOO HOO, we want more water! So we head off towards Dueling Dragons. All the kids go on this except for the littlest one. Most of the adults go on. They do ICE first and then all the adults decide once is enough and come back while the kids head over to ride FIRE. We adults try to decide a plan of action, should we eat, do more rides, etc. We decide to do the Sinbad and Poseidens Fury and then head over to Suess town to eat. Luckily the big restaraunt is airconditioned because did I mention it is HOT!. I then got the phone call that our rooms were ready HOORAY! After we refueled, the kids ride the cat in the hat ride and we decide we had enough for the day. We had dinner reservations at Mama Della's over at Portofino at 8:00 pm. We head back to our hotel when it starts to rain. Both rooms are ready, ours has two queen beds while DB has one king bed and sleep sofa. The rooms are adjoining which the kids think is so cool. We have a pool side view and are only three doors down from the Laundry Room (which I love, I know call me crazy, but I like a laundry room nearby because I do laundry while I am on vacation). Kids decide to check out arcade. DB and his family decide to nap for awhile and prepare for their evening (they are not joining us tonight for Mama Della's
DH and I and our friends head to the pool bar to wait out the rain. There was supposed to be an outdoor wedding at 4:30 and it was already five and it was still pouring. We see lots of dressed up people milling around waiting for the rain to stop.
Finally, the rain stops at around 6:00 and we head upstairs to shower and relax a few minutes before we meet for our dinner plans. We meet family 1 in the lobby of Hard Rock and head over to Portofino via a shuttle they have between the two hotels. We meet at Mama Della's and family 2 arrives. We have a party of 13. They seat us after about 15 minutes. The reseraunt is medium size (not to big, but certainly not a little hole in the wall either). It's decor is italian, looks like something you would find in italy. A picture on the wall display Mama herself with Al Gore...hmm what is that about? FLA and Al Gore....LOL
The waiter was absolutely superb! Since none of us have been to this resteraunt before, he was very patient and explained the offerings and treated the kids as if they were adults (since most of them are teenagers). The menu was not expansive but everyone found something they liked. We orderd table appetizers Calamari, Mussels,and I think a crab cake. Anyway, the food was delicious. While we are waiting for our next course, the salad (good ole Ceaser for me thank you!) arrives and so does the strolling musicians. They say to our table that since we are all "friends" what better song to sing then Hey Gumbadi (sp?) which means friend in italian. We all sing along and the kids each had a part that they had to sing when the verse was sung over and over. It was really fun and everyone in the restaraunt was helping us out! We had ordered a bottle of wine with dinner which was being served and finally our meals came. With no room for dessert, it was finally time to leave (it was now almost 11:00 pm!!!). We settled our bill (expensive, let me just say that, but worth it) and headed over to Citiwalk. We walked around for a little bit but DH and I were tired. We bid our good nights and let our DS stay but he had to be back by 12:00 pm (not much time but gave him a little freedom with his friends). Family 2 was going back to their new home in FL and we won't seem them until Nov.
. Family 1 is leaving tomorrow for Disney where we will hook up with them again when we get over there on Monday. We finally get back to hotel it is about 11:30 pm and our heads hit the pillow and we were out (except for one of my eyes, I knew DS would be back shortly so I could not fully fall asleep no matter how tired I was! DS returns and we all have a wonderful sleep dreaming of our great day with friends and family! Stay tuned for Day 3
