WOOHOO Complete 4/08 Trip Report NOW UPDATING WITH NEW SPRING 2011 PRE TRIP PLANNING
- Thread starter wwessing
- Start date
Hi Wendy, can't wait to read the rest!Let me preface this post by saying that this day will be broken down into at least 3 posts because we have so many pictures they won't all fit into one, or even two posts. I know this because I spent several hours last weekend preparing the narrative, adding the pictures only to get the error message that there were too many pics to post, so I broke it down into two, same message so I broke it into smaller chunks and lost the whole thing. Due to post-tramautic trippie syndrome, I've taken a week off, gotten some therapy and think I'm ready to get this done. With enough of my whining. . .here we go. . . .
So its up early, breakfast in the room and everyone is cooperating with getting ready. I take a few minutes and make an early call to the m.o.d. regarding the shirt dh has decided that they should be responsible for removing the paint. Fortune is with me and its the same manager as I had spoken with the day before. We discussed the shirt and almost before hanging up the phone, there was a knock on the door and it was someone wanting dhs shirt. I mentioned that the milk and cookies had never shown up the day before and neither did the pillows or robe we requested. Now this manager was not happy. She couldnt apologize enough and gave me her personal promise that we would have everything we should have the day before and asked what our plans were for the day. I told her what we were doing and she guaranteed everything would be good when we returned. . .she even wanted to know what time we would like turn down service. It was going to be a great day!
So, business taken care of, I make sure we have our necessary tickets and off we go. GPS took us right to where we wanted to be and in just under 90 minutes. We had actually gotten their earlier than planned because the hours changed since we left home and BG was not opening until 9:30. . .great, I gotta pee! There are only 4 other cares when we arrive and the lines quickly filled up. Finally, the parking gates open and we get a great parking spot again. Parking was $15 for preferred, and we find out later that we should not have been charged for preferred that early. Oh well, $5 is not worth an issue at the point when we left, so we let it go. Anyway, we park and hike as fast as possible to the gates and Im just hoping and praying there will be a bathroom I can get to without waiting in another line. Lady luck is with us and sweet relief, there is a restroom and no waiting inside! Ok, so whew, that business taken care of, we go through the turnstyles around 9:15, but have to wait in another area until 9:30. At least they have some entertainment and we enjoyed some bugles and other horns while we waited.
Finally, 9:30 and we head directly to Rhino Rally as I had read that if youre going to ride it, do it early because it has a tendency to break down later. So we speed back to that area and discover, can you guess. . . yep, another STUPID ROPE! This area of the park doesnt open until 10:00. What the. . . . . so we decide to wait and dh gets us some fruit from a nearby stand and I had skipped breakfast and a couple drinks while we wait. There were some exhibits we had sped past, so decide to backtrack a bit and take a look at those.
Heres what we saw
Finally, that stupid rope is removed and we had gathered some valuable park information by sitting and listening while we waited. Its not far to Rhino Rally and we are excited as weve been looking forward to this ride for many months. We rush up the walkway to see only a few people in line and make it to the turnstile . . . but wait . . . what is that sign?? The water portion of Rhino Rally is not in operation???? WHAT THE. . . . . I start thinking about explaining to the innocent employee standing at that entrance about how far weve come and how excited we were and try to make her understand that it HAS to be working when common sense overtakes me and under my disappointment I realize there is absolutely nothing she can do except stand there smiling, nodding and apologizing (and thinking look crazy, stupid lady, I didnt purposely break the darn thing so your family would be disappointed) So, I suck it up like the adult I am, very nicely ask if she has any idea what the problem is or if it might be back up and running today and she responded she really had no idea. Well, ok, thanks anyway and we decide to go ahead and get in line. We are on the next truck and dd11 is chose to sit up front with the driver, which is part of the whole thing. I wouldnt ride it again without the water portion. There was really nothing to it, but my kids seemed to enjoy it for all of the 5 minutes it took to go in this seemingly little circle where we saw virtually nothing. . . but what the heck, dd11 had a great time with the driver, the other girls giggled the whole time (ok, the driver was a hottie in a very hot way) and it wasnt so bad. We can say we rode Rhino Rally. As an aside, dh and I have talked about our next Orlando vacation and had kind of decided that we wanted to allot our time differently and while I said I could give Busch Gardens a miss the next time, he want to include it so we can ride Rhino Rally with the water portion. Im like, look, theres no guarantee that it will be working next time we go. . . so we will see where this goes. Back to the current vacation. . . . . we exit Rhino Rally and head for the train. We love to ride trains and this is a good way to see some of the park we probably wouldnt otherwise see. As we sit, we realize that the next train isnt due for like 30 minutes. DH and I look at each other and are like, dang, or timing is way off today so we go back toward Rhino Rally where there is a Dippin Dots stand that the kids had seen a few minutes before and wanted. We took a couple pics in the Rhino Rally wrecked truck display and got the girls their Dippin Dots and some water ($20.31).
By the time they finished their treat, it was time to go back to the train station. We head back over and get in line. In a few minutes, the train rolls up and its still early enough that things arent crowded yet, so we were able to spread out in two seats instead of all 5 of us squeezing into one.
It was a very nice ride and we went once full around the park, then got off to have an early lunch at Crown Colony. We knew we wanted to eat on the veranda, and since breakfast had been so early for the girls, we figured an early lunch around 11:00ish would be just the thing today. We wander to the restaurant, make our way up the stairs and place our name on the list. There was already someone ahead of us, and several people came in right behind us. The list lady was not very friendly and behaved as though she were in some famous, world renowned restaurant. . . . we could tell by the height at which she had her nose stuck in the air. Dh says, gosh, I hope it doesnt rain and the girls were like why, we are inside and dh says, its a good thing because otherwise that lady would drown. They thought that was hilarious and because they were giggling, that stuck up waiting list lady seated the people that came in behind us first. That only made us laugh more and she knew she had to seat us next or risk us asking what was going on, so I allowed my kids to continue giggling all the way to our table. I hope snobby waiting list lady reads this and realizes how ridiculous and out of place her attitude and aires were! So, we settle the kids down once we are seated, place our drink order and work on figuring out whats for lunch. Miss mouthy from the night before speaks right up and says I want to order off the kids menu . Dh and I look at each other and cant help but laugh! So what she learned from the night before was not that sharing is a good thing but that she would start ordering what she knew would be smaller portions!! Kids!!! Will we ever figure them out? So when the waiter comes back with drinks, I ask if she may order from the kids menu and he says the only way we could do that is if she is ordering something not available on the adult menu, then he could get by with it. Ok, so now we have some direction. . . but dd15 wants chicken fingers, which is available as a regular entrée. So we try to explain this to her, but shes not getting it. Finally, she finds something she wants and figures she can eat all of so we order a kids meal spaghetti for dd9; dd11 wants soup and salad; dd15 gets a grilled chicken breast fillet; dh orders salmon and I get the mahi special. Salads came, which were shared with dd9 and then the entrees came. The food was very good and our original bill was only about $73. We used our AAA discount and with tip, the total was $80. I give Crown Colony my recommendation and remind everyone to whip out that AAA card where ever you go! Sorry, no food pics. This was one of those meals where I was distracted and hungry and didn't take any pics before we dug in. My kids had this wonderful habit of reminding me, with their mouths stuffed full, that I didn't take any pictures yet and did I want to.
Next up. . . .after lunch
So its up early, breakfast in the room and everyone is cooperating with getting ready. I take a few minutes and make an early call to the m.o.d. regarding the shirt dh has decided that they should be responsible for removing the paint. Fortune is with me and its the same manager as I had spoken with the day before. We discussed the shirt and almost before hanging up the phone, there was a knock on the door and it was someone wanting dhs shirt. I mentioned that the milk and cookies had never shown up the day before and neither did the pillows or robe we requested. Now this manager was not happy. She couldnt apologize enough and gave me her personal promise that we would have everything we should have the day before and asked what our plans were for the day. I told her what we were doing and she guaranteed everything would be good when we returned. . .she even wanted to know what time we would like turn down service. It was going to be a great day!
So, business taken care of, I make sure we have our necessary tickets and off we go. GPS took us right to where we wanted to be and in just under 90 minutes. We had actually gotten their earlier than planned because the hours changed since we left home and BG was not opening until 9:30. . .great, I gotta pee! There are only 4 other cares when we arrive and the lines quickly filled up. Finally, the parking gates open and we get a great parking spot again. Parking was $15 for preferred, and we find out later that we should not have been charged for preferred that early. Oh well, $5 is not worth an issue at the point when we left, so we let it go. Anyway, we park and hike as fast as possible to the gates and Im just hoping and praying there will be a bathroom I can get to without waiting in another line. Lady luck is with us and sweet relief, there is a restroom and no waiting inside! Ok, so whew, that business taken care of, we go through the turnstyles around 9:15, but have to wait in another area until 9:30. At least they have some entertainment and we enjoyed some bugles and other horns while we waited.
Finally, 9:30 and we head directly to Rhino Rally as I had read that if youre going to ride it, do it early because it has a tendency to break down later. So we speed back to that area and discover, can you guess. . . yep, another STUPID ROPE! This area of the park doesnt open until 10:00. What the. . . . . so we decide to wait and dh gets us some fruit from a nearby stand and I had skipped breakfast and a couple drinks while we wait. There were some exhibits we had sped past, so decide to backtrack a bit and take a look at those.
Heres what we saw
Finally, that stupid rope is removed and we had gathered some valuable park information by sitting and listening while we waited. Its not far to Rhino Rally and we are excited as weve been looking forward to this ride for many months. We rush up the walkway to see only a few people in line and make it to the turnstile . . . but wait . . . what is that sign?? The water portion of Rhino Rally is not in operation???? WHAT THE. . . . . I start thinking about explaining to the innocent employee standing at that entrance about how far weve come and how excited we were and try to make her understand that it HAS to be working when common sense overtakes me and under my disappointment I realize there is absolutely nothing she can do except stand there smiling, nodding and apologizing (and thinking look crazy, stupid lady, I didnt purposely break the darn thing so your family would be disappointed) So, I suck it up like the adult I am, very nicely ask if she has any idea what the problem is or if it might be back up and running today and she responded she really had no idea. Well, ok, thanks anyway and we decide to go ahead and get in line. We are on the next truck and dd11 is chose to sit up front with the driver, which is part of the whole thing. I wouldnt ride it again without the water portion. There was really nothing to it, but my kids seemed to enjoy it for all of the 5 minutes it took to go in this seemingly little circle where we saw virtually nothing. . . but what the heck, dd11 had a great time with the driver, the other girls giggled the whole time (ok, the driver was a hottie in a very hot way) and it wasnt so bad. We can say we rode Rhino Rally. As an aside, dh and I have talked about our next Orlando vacation and had kind of decided that we wanted to allot our time differently and while I said I could give Busch Gardens a miss the next time, he want to include it so we can ride Rhino Rally with the water portion. Im like, look, theres no guarantee that it will be working next time we go. . . so we will see where this goes. Back to the current vacation. . . . . we exit Rhino Rally and head for the train. We love to ride trains and this is a good way to see some of the park we probably wouldnt otherwise see. As we sit, we realize that the next train isnt due for like 30 minutes. DH and I look at each other and are like, dang, or timing is way off today so we go back toward Rhino Rally where there is a Dippin Dots stand that the kids had seen a few minutes before and wanted. We took a couple pics in the Rhino Rally wrecked truck display and got the girls their Dippin Dots and some water ($20.31).
By the time they finished their treat, it was time to go back to the train station. We head back over and get in line. In a few minutes, the train rolls up and its still early enough that things arent crowded yet, so we were able to spread out in two seats instead of all 5 of us squeezing into one.
It was a very nice ride and we went once full around the park, then got off to have an early lunch at Crown Colony. We knew we wanted to eat on the veranda, and since breakfast had been so early for the girls, we figured an early lunch around 11:00ish would be just the thing today. We wander to the restaurant, make our way up the stairs and place our name on the list. There was already someone ahead of us, and several people came in right behind us. The list lady was not very friendly and behaved as though she were in some famous, world renowned restaurant. . . . we could tell by the height at which she had her nose stuck in the air. Dh says, gosh, I hope it doesnt rain and the girls were like why, we are inside and dh says, its a good thing because otherwise that lady would drown. They thought that was hilarious and because they were giggling, that stuck up waiting list lady seated the people that came in behind us first. That only made us laugh more and she knew she had to seat us next or risk us asking what was going on, so I allowed my kids to continue giggling all the way to our table. I hope snobby waiting list lady reads this and realizes how ridiculous and out of place her attitude and aires were! So, we settle the kids down once we are seated, place our drink order and work on figuring out whats for lunch. Miss mouthy from the night before speaks right up and says I want to order off the kids menu . Dh and I look at each other and cant help but laugh! So what she learned from the night before was not that sharing is a good thing but that she would start ordering what she knew would be smaller portions!! Kids!!! Will we ever figure them out? So when the waiter comes back with drinks, I ask if she may order from the kids menu and he says the only way we could do that is if she is ordering something not available on the adult menu, then he could get by with it. Ok, so now we have some direction. . . but dd15 wants chicken fingers, which is available as a regular entrée. So we try to explain this to her, but shes not getting it. Finally, she finds something she wants and figures she can eat all of so we order a kids meal spaghetti for dd9; dd11 wants soup and salad; dd15 gets a grilled chicken breast fillet; dh orders salmon and I get the mahi special. Salads came, which were shared with dd9 and then the entrees came. The food was very good and our original bill was only about $73. We used our AAA discount and with tip, the total was $80. I give Crown Colony my recommendation and remind everyone to whip out that AAA card where ever you go! Sorry, no food pics. This was one of those meals where I was distracted and hungry and didn't take any pics before we dug in. My kids had this wonderful habit of reminding me, with their mouths stuffed full, that I didn't take any pictures yet and did I want to.
Next up. . . .after lunch
We want to visit Jungala, so head off that way.
After exploring a bit and doing some shopping, dd9 declares she is exhausted and wants to leave. Dd11 has seen the zip line and wants to ride,
so I take dd 9 & 15 and the bags with me to go sit in the shade for a bit. We find a cs restaurant, grab some lemonade, juice and some strawberries with a mound of whipped cream along with some grapes ($15.25). We grab a table and relax with our cold drinks and snacks. After a while, dh calls to find out where we are and says they are headed over. Dd15 & 9 want to go back to the counter to get their dad and sister drinks and a snack, so I hand over some money and they come back with just what we had (another $15.25). Dh is happy to have a cold drink and snack so sits for a few while they enjoy their strawberries. We are sitting next to this big, wooden, jungle gym type thing. It is huge and there are lots of kids playing on it, so dd9 & 11 decide they want to go play. Dh goes with them and they run though this thing for maybe 30 minutes before they decide to go see a couple of habitats they had noticed. Off they go again, but dd15 has had enough and doesnt want to go, so I stay with her in the shade. They arent gone long and return excited about what they had seen.
Its getting to be late afternoon and weve had a long day, so we decide to head back towards the front gates. As we begin walking, the kids notice the sky ride and want to go on it. Since I know it takes us to the front of the park, I readily agree. Once in line, the girls decide they want to ride in a car by themselves. Dh and I read the rules and determine they are old enough and with a warning to sit still while riding, allow them to get in their own car. Dh and I hop on in the next car, carrying all the packages and soak up the few minutes it takes to complete the ride back. The view was absolutely beautiful and we took a few shots of the park from up there. The ride was relaxing and the breeze cooling.
After exploring a bit and doing some shopping, dd9 declares she is exhausted and wants to leave. Dd11 has seen the zip line and wants to ride,
so I take dd 9 & 15 and the bags with me to go sit in the shade for a bit. We find a cs restaurant, grab some lemonade, juice and some strawberries with a mound of whipped cream along with some grapes ($15.25). We grab a table and relax with our cold drinks and snacks. After a while, dh calls to find out where we are and says they are headed over. Dd15 & 9 want to go back to the counter to get their dad and sister drinks and a snack, so I hand over some money and they come back with just what we had (another $15.25). Dh is happy to have a cold drink and snack so sits for a few while they enjoy their strawberries. We are sitting next to this big, wooden, jungle gym type thing. It is huge and there are lots of kids playing on it, so dd9 & 11 decide they want to go play. Dh goes with them and they run though this thing for maybe 30 minutes before they decide to go see a couple of habitats they had noticed. Off they go again, but dd15 has had enough and doesnt want to go, so I stay with her in the shade. They arent gone long and return excited about what they had seen.
Its getting to be late afternoon and weve had a long day, so we decide to head back towards the front gates. As we begin walking, the kids notice the sky ride and want to go on it. Since I know it takes us to the front of the park, I readily agree. Once in line, the girls decide they want to ride in a car by themselves. Dh and I read the rules and determine they are old enough and with a warning to sit still while riding, allow them to get in their own car. Dh and I hop on in the next car, carrying all the packages and soak up the few minutes it takes to complete the ride back. The view was absolutely beautiful and we took a few shots of the park from up there. The ride was relaxing and the breeze cooling.
LITTLEKID58
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Still tired, but glad for the relaxing few minutes, our sky ride comes to an end and we watch the girls get off and wait for us. We wind our way out (yes, you have to wind your way through the exit. . my thought at the time was “this is a very long and winding wheel chair ramp”) and head to the font gates. On the way, dd11 (btw, it’s taken me soooo long to write this report that dd11 is now dd12, so I’ll refer to her that way from now on. . . and yes, dd15 is now dd16) and dh spot a sign for something we missed. I’m tired and my feet hurt, and I’m kind of glad when dd’s 9 & 16 start whining that they are tired. So, being the martyr that I am, I agree to miss out on whatever they are going to visit and take the girls to find a seat and some shade. We find a spot near the gates, sitting on a bench under a tree (can you believe our luck) and relax. There was obviously a youth group from a local church that had visited today. They were apparently supposed to be meeting their chaperones near the gates so they could return to their bus. We watched as some groups appeared promptly and all together, and others that seemed to have stragglers. Why is it that the straggler groups are the ones with all the rowdy kids who apparently have not figured out that there are other people in the park?? Yes, I would agree that the busy front gate area is a perfectly appropriate place to play throw the balls as hard as you can at your friends face to try to impress the girls standing around trying to appear as if they aren’t watching the boys throwing the balls. Certainly an excellent game, until you hit the elderly man sitting under the shade tree, and yes, nearly hitting the fat and tired lady with her two kids waiting on the rest of her family to appear. Oh, gosh, is that your ball under our bench?? You’d like us to throw it to you??? Only if you stand perfectly still 6 inches from my throwing arm and allow me to plow it into your face. . . . . . ok, ok, I gave them their ball back and even smiled and quipped something funny as all the girls started giggling. I’m soooo sorry it’s time for you to go and your last straggler just showed up. Now that those teens are gone, it is very relaxing and I notice there’s a shop just across the way. I’ve not finished my shopping (especially since dh is not anywhere in sight) so I ask the girls if they want to go and warn them to stay put while I go check out the shop. I find a few little items I want to bring home to my dd20 and get in line for check out. There’s only one person in front of me, so it’s no time at all and a very nice young lady rings up my items and happy day, it only totals $35!! Geez, whip out my bag. . . wait, where’s my bag. . . . well S&*$, dh took baggallini with him because it had water, AND he took the camera bag as well, which had some cash in it too!!!! Ok, so the still very nice young lady offers to keep the bag ready at the register so when dh, who has EVERY STINKING PENNY WE BROUGHT WITH US gets back, he can come in and pay for my stuff. Back out I go, where my girls are sitting quietly and it’s not long before dh and dd12 return. They’ve gone to the aviary and have some great pics
Dh goes in, after scowling because I’ve been shopping again, and pays for my little bag of stuff. I’m thinking we did great today, because after all, we are at Busch Gardens where we could have spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars shopping for white tiger stuff, right?? According to my count, we’ve gotten out of there for less than $200 worth of shopping and I happen to think that is excellent. I figured going in that we would spend a lot more than that because 2 of our girls LOVE, love and love white tigers. Dh better start counting his blessings and stop being grumpy!
So bags in hand(s), we leave the park and head back to our car. We catch this tram, which we probably didn’t need to catch, but with all the bags and tired kids, we thought it would be a good idea to take one last ride. When the tram didn’t stop at the front lot we were in, dh went and asked if they would. Of course, they would be happy to assist us, and they stopped on the way back. We were within 25 yards of the van and happy for that.
Now it’s time to think about supper. We had planned on Chick-fil-A, but none of us really wanted that. We wanted to be a bit careful where we went because lunch had been our “expensive” meal of the day. Really, since we only spent about $80, dh figured we could get something a little better than fast food, so he decided to go back to Orlando and find something there. With cold drinks from our cooler, the kids relaxed on the way back and we end up at Lone Star. We were seated right away, and I don’t have food pics or details of the meal. I know I had a small fillet, dh had a steak and I think all the girls had the children’s menu steak. I think we might have had an appetizer of some sort, but the final bill was $67, with a 20% tip, so I’m thinking maybe we didn’t have one. I know it was good, and we all ate everything and dh didn’t mind signing the check, so it was a very good meal.
Now we are relaxed, tired and full and ready to go back to the room. Dh takes us back to HRH. We get to the room and turn down service has been provided, there are a few little trinkets for the girls and sitting ont the table is a tray with some giant cookies and some milk. The girls, though full from supper, go to work on the cookies and milk. We get showers taken care of, clothes out for the next day, everyone settled down and before long, all I hear is snoring. The kids were very happy with turn down trinkets and the snack that was waiting for them. Dh and I were also satisfied and glad that they had come through that day. We are thinking HRH is taking care of us and are super happy our kids were not disappointed again.
I take care of a little bookkeeping, gathering receipts, take a few notes and chat with dh for a few, all while enjoying a cup of Emeril’s decaf coffee. We check our charges on the tv channel designated for that, and discover that we have been charged for the shirt star services took to get the paint out of. I told dh I would take care of it in the morning, then it's lights out for me while dh watches a little tv.
Next up. . . tomorrow is another Studios day with lunch at Finnegan’s and dinner at Margaritaville!
Dh goes in, after scowling because I’ve been shopping again, and pays for my little bag of stuff. I’m thinking we did great today, because after all, we are at Busch Gardens where we could have spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars shopping for white tiger stuff, right?? According to my count, we’ve gotten out of there for less than $200 worth of shopping and I happen to think that is excellent. I figured going in that we would spend a lot more than that because 2 of our girls LOVE, love and love white tigers. Dh better start counting his blessings and stop being grumpy!
So bags in hand(s), we leave the park and head back to our car. We catch this tram, which we probably didn’t need to catch, but with all the bags and tired kids, we thought it would be a good idea to take one last ride. When the tram didn’t stop at the front lot we were in, dh went and asked if they would. Of course, they would be happy to assist us, and they stopped on the way back. We were within 25 yards of the van and happy for that.
Now it’s time to think about supper. We had planned on Chick-fil-A, but none of us really wanted that. We wanted to be a bit careful where we went because lunch had been our “expensive” meal of the day. Really, since we only spent about $80, dh figured we could get something a little better than fast food, so he decided to go back to Orlando and find something there. With cold drinks from our cooler, the kids relaxed on the way back and we end up at Lone Star. We were seated right away, and I don’t have food pics or details of the meal. I know I had a small fillet, dh had a steak and I think all the girls had the children’s menu steak. I think we might have had an appetizer of some sort, but the final bill was $67, with a 20% tip, so I’m thinking maybe we didn’t have one. I know it was good, and we all ate everything and dh didn’t mind signing the check, so it was a very good meal.
Now we are relaxed, tired and full and ready to go back to the room. Dh takes us back to HRH. We get to the room and turn down service has been provided, there are a few little trinkets for the girls and sitting ont the table is a tray with some giant cookies and some milk. The girls, though full from supper, go to work on the cookies and milk. We get showers taken care of, clothes out for the next day, everyone settled down and before long, all I hear is snoring. The kids were very happy with turn down trinkets and the snack that was waiting for them. Dh and I were also satisfied and glad that they had come through that day. We are thinking HRH is taking care of us and are super happy our kids were not disappointed again.
I take care of a little bookkeeping, gathering receipts, take a few notes and chat with dh for a few, all while enjoying a cup of Emeril’s decaf coffee. We check our charges on the tv channel designated for that, and discover that we have been charged for the shirt star services took to get the paint out of. I told dh I would take care of it in the morning, then it's lights out for me while dh watches a little tv.
Next up. . . tomorrow is another Studios day with lunch at Finnegan’s and dinner at Margaritaville!
Hey Mac! I'm glad you are hanging in there. I'll finish this dang report yet! I've still got all kinds of good stuff to come. I'm afraid I've lost some of the details, but I'm trying awfully hard to include all the minutia that I looked for when researching for our trip.
Hope the rest of you are still out there. . . . .
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Universal Studios
Today I wake early so I can shower and get ready before the crew gets up. Once my shower is done, I make a cup of that yummy decaf coffee I’m enjoying so much. As I get ready, the girls and dh are waking up. When I am ready for the day, I restock baggallini and replenish our funds and another cup of coffee. I like keeping housekeeping on their toes!
As the others are getting up, there is a knock on the door and it is dh’s shirt being returned from cleaning. As we take it out of the bag, we notice that the paint is still there, so I call our manager, who is thankfully on duty again this morning, and explain that the paint didn’t come out and that we had been charged for the cleaning. Needless to say, she was not a happy camper and said she was coming right up. Within minutes, she was at the door and we invited her in to discuss the shirt. Fortunately for us, her fiancé was a NASCAR fan so understood that the shirt we were discussing was not only a gift from a close family member, it was not something you could go out and replace. The shirt was a Dale Earnhardt, Sr., limited edition, printed by Chase Authentics. It was not irreplaceable. So, after apologizing another 50 times, she took the shirt with her and promised to do what she could with it as well as have that “ridiculous charge” removed from our account. Realizing that she was doing everything within her power, we were satisfied that there truly was nothing more to be done. It was all in her hands and we were going to enjoy our day.
So, off we went to Studios. The kids were hungry and tired of eating the things we had brought along, so we agreed to grab something light at the park. We had noticed the bakery, Boulangerie, at the front of the park on Monday, so we headed there. Once inside, we realized that everything was HUGE and too much for one, so we ordered several items to share. We got a chocolate chip cookie ($1.99), cheese Danish ($1.99), croissant ($2.49) and banana muffin. We had brought bottles of water, so no drinks were necessary. We went outside to sit and people watch while we ate. Sorry, forgot food pics again. Actually, there was a bit left over after we ate our fill so the girls crumbled it up and dropped it for the birds. I know, I know. . . it encourages the birds to be a nuisance, but where we are from, we always feed our birds.
With breakfast out of the way, we go to visit the Lucy tribute and dd16 has decided that she maybe does need a hat or something after all, so we stop in a shop for her to pick out a visor. We stop and make reservations for Finnegan’s for 2:00 and wander our way through the park. I can’t remember what we rode, but I know Jaws, Twister, MIB and several others were completed before lunch. Our room keys were magical, once again, and the most we waited for anything was less than 10 minutes. Keeping in mind that dh has motion sickness, and dd16 gets “boat sick”, as she puts it, I had them taking medication. Well, actually, dh and dd16 took it while I stopped for a restroom break, and I found out later he took like twice what he was supposed to, but fortunately gave dd16 the correct dosage. So now, he tired and drowsy and it’s interfering with his ability to enjoy the day, but I don’t know, at this point, what is wrong with him. So we are getting close to time for our lunch and are near Finnegan’s, so we hang out in the area and dh purchases a souvenier cup ($6.99) and we watch the Blue’s Brother’s show. Dh decides to go inside, even though we are like 20 minutes early, and they have our table ready. Excellent, except I was enjoying the show.
Here's some random pics taken during the morning. . . .
Seated at our table, we were given our menus and I have read so much about this place during my vacation planning that I don’t know what to have. We have never had scotch eggs, and I read great reviews, so I know we have to try that. We order our drinks ($2.25 for each soft drink) and are brought bread and butter, which was excellent enough that they had to bring more. I also ordered Scotch Eggs ($5.95) and Leak Soup ($3.95) that we were going to share. Both were excellent and we all enjoyed them. I apologize, again, but in our hunger, we neglected to take pics of the eggs and soup. I did gets some pics, but once we started eating the eggs and soup, I decided not to take pics. I think I said before that if we had taken bites out of a dish, I wasn’t going to take pictures cuz I think that’s gross! The scotch eggs were hard boiled with sausage wrapped around them and deep fried. The leek soup was, well, leek soup.
Because we knew we were going to Margaritaville that evening, we decided to share entrees. We ordered fish and chips with wedge fries I$12.95); a Mixed Grill ($11.95) and a burger and fries ($5.99 and included one child’s soft drink) from the children’s menu. It was way more than enough for all of us to share and we even had some left over. I did manage to get some pics of this food, along with the Irish Soda bread, so here’s your Finnegan’s food porn. . .
Here's the soda bread that was yummy and we asked for more.
Burger from the children's menu
Mixed Grill. . . . yum yum
and the much discussed fish and chips, which was very good
The total, minus AAA discount (yes, we whipped that baby out everywhere and got discounts every time we did) was $47.73, then dh added about 17% tip (service was good, but not stellar) for a total of $56.00. Let me take a moment to digress and explain what I mean by this. When we walk in a restaurant, our server’s tip starts at 15% and can go up or down from there. If the service is good to excellent, the tip can go to 25%, though this is rare. If the service is less than average, the tip may go down as low as 10%. Average service, obviously, deserves an average tip of 15%. So, for a 17% tip the service was above average, just not what we consider excellent. A couple of times our server forgot to bring items we requested and it seemed to take a while for him to get to drink refills. The service was still very good and the food came within a reasonable time. When it arrived, it was hot, properly prepared and very, very good. So Finnegan’s gets a much deserved thumbs up from us and a high recommendation. We will eat there again at our next visit, and that’s saying something since there are sooooo many food choices and soooo many places we didn’t get to.
So, after lunch, we are full and relaxed and a little tired and not wanting to ride much of anything for fear of shaking up lunch. We decided to take it easy and just walk around and check things out. We did some shopping and wandering and decided to leave around 4:00 to return to HRH for a bit of pool time before returning to City Walk for supper at Margaritaville. We stopped for a soda refill ($.74 including tax and btw, dh didn’t ask for aaa discount when he purchased the cup or the refills. . . he forgot). We bought some t-shirts and sunglasses and stopped in a candy store near the gates for the kids. We only spent around $100 shopping today – YEAH!!!
Some more pics while we wandered around in the afternoon. . .
We boated back to HRH. . . . ok, I have to digress again. While the walk is certainly very short between HRH and city walk, the boat ride is so nice. It is relaxing and we never had much of a wait. Sometimes on the return we might have waited 15 minutes or so, but I enjoyed those boat rides almost as much as everything else. Sometimes dh and some of the kids would walk there, or back, but I loved the boat and rode it almost every time.
Back at HRH, we went to the room after checking out the hotel and making sure we weren’t missing anything and the kids changed and went to the pool with dh for a while. I stayed in the room and showered, again, and got ready for an evening at City Walk. I had messages from the managers, so I returned those calls. The kids were wound up, but tired, when they came back up, and it took a while to get them changed and ready. While we were doing that, the manager that had taken dh’s shirt came to the room and brought it back. We could still tell a little, but it was ok, really. I think she sat in her office and scraped off the paint by hand. She said she asked everyone downstairs if they could see it, and no one was able to find the spot. We were as happy as could be with the results and thanked her for all her help.
Now, off to City Walk and Margaritaville. . . . . .
Universal Studios
Today I wake early so I can shower and get ready before the crew gets up. Once my shower is done, I make a cup of that yummy decaf coffee I’m enjoying so much. As I get ready, the girls and dh are waking up. When I am ready for the day, I restock baggallini and replenish our funds and another cup of coffee. I like keeping housekeeping on their toes!
As the others are getting up, there is a knock on the door and it is dh’s shirt being returned from cleaning. As we take it out of the bag, we notice that the paint is still there, so I call our manager, who is thankfully on duty again this morning, and explain that the paint didn’t come out and that we had been charged for the cleaning. Needless to say, she was not a happy camper and said she was coming right up. Within minutes, she was at the door and we invited her in to discuss the shirt. Fortunately for us, her fiancé was a NASCAR fan so understood that the shirt we were discussing was not only a gift from a close family member, it was not something you could go out and replace. The shirt was a Dale Earnhardt, Sr., limited edition, printed by Chase Authentics. It was not irreplaceable. So, after apologizing another 50 times, she took the shirt with her and promised to do what she could with it as well as have that “ridiculous charge” removed from our account. Realizing that she was doing everything within her power, we were satisfied that there truly was nothing more to be done. It was all in her hands and we were going to enjoy our day.
So, off we went to Studios. The kids were hungry and tired of eating the things we had brought along, so we agreed to grab something light at the park. We had noticed the bakery, Boulangerie, at the front of the park on Monday, so we headed there. Once inside, we realized that everything was HUGE and too much for one, so we ordered several items to share. We got a chocolate chip cookie ($1.99), cheese Danish ($1.99), croissant ($2.49) and banana muffin. We had brought bottles of water, so no drinks were necessary. We went outside to sit and people watch while we ate. Sorry, forgot food pics again. Actually, there was a bit left over after we ate our fill so the girls crumbled it up and dropped it for the birds. I know, I know. . . it encourages the birds to be a nuisance, but where we are from, we always feed our birds.
With breakfast out of the way, we go to visit the Lucy tribute and dd16 has decided that she maybe does need a hat or something after all, so we stop in a shop for her to pick out a visor. We stop and make reservations for Finnegan’s for 2:00 and wander our way through the park. I can’t remember what we rode, but I know Jaws, Twister, MIB and several others were completed before lunch. Our room keys were magical, once again, and the most we waited for anything was less than 10 minutes. Keeping in mind that dh has motion sickness, and dd16 gets “boat sick”, as she puts it, I had them taking medication. Well, actually, dh and dd16 took it while I stopped for a restroom break, and I found out later he took like twice what he was supposed to, but fortunately gave dd16 the correct dosage. So now, he tired and drowsy and it’s interfering with his ability to enjoy the day, but I don’t know, at this point, what is wrong with him. So we are getting close to time for our lunch and are near Finnegan’s, so we hang out in the area and dh purchases a souvenier cup ($6.99) and we watch the Blue’s Brother’s show. Dh decides to go inside, even though we are like 20 minutes early, and they have our table ready. Excellent, except I was enjoying the show.
Here's some random pics taken during the morning. . . .
Seated at our table, we were given our menus and I have read so much about this place during my vacation planning that I don’t know what to have. We have never had scotch eggs, and I read great reviews, so I know we have to try that. We order our drinks ($2.25 for each soft drink) and are brought bread and butter, which was excellent enough that they had to bring more. I also ordered Scotch Eggs ($5.95) and Leak Soup ($3.95) that we were going to share. Both were excellent and we all enjoyed them. I apologize, again, but in our hunger, we neglected to take pics of the eggs and soup. I did gets some pics, but once we started eating the eggs and soup, I decided not to take pics. I think I said before that if we had taken bites out of a dish, I wasn’t going to take pictures cuz I think that’s gross! The scotch eggs were hard boiled with sausage wrapped around them and deep fried. The leek soup was, well, leek soup.
Because we knew we were going to Margaritaville that evening, we decided to share entrees. We ordered fish and chips with wedge fries I$12.95); a Mixed Grill ($11.95) and a burger and fries ($5.99 and included one child’s soft drink) from the children’s menu. It was way more than enough for all of us to share and we even had some left over. I did manage to get some pics of this food, along with the Irish Soda bread, so here’s your Finnegan’s food porn. . .
Here's the soda bread that was yummy and we asked for more.
Burger from the children's menu
Mixed Grill. . . . yum yum
and the much discussed fish and chips, which was very good
The total, minus AAA discount (yes, we whipped that baby out everywhere and got discounts every time we did) was $47.73, then dh added about 17% tip (service was good, but not stellar) for a total of $56.00. Let me take a moment to digress and explain what I mean by this. When we walk in a restaurant, our server’s tip starts at 15% and can go up or down from there. If the service is good to excellent, the tip can go to 25%, though this is rare. If the service is less than average, the tip may go down as low as 10%. Average service, obviously, deserves an average tip of 15%. So, for a 17% tip the service was above average, just not what we consider excellent. A couple of times our server forgot to bring items we requested and it seemed to take a while for him to get to drink refills. The service was still very good and the food came within a reasonable time. When it arrived, it was hot, properly prepared and very, very good. So Finnegan’s gets a much deserved thumbs up from us and a high recommendation. We will eat there again at our next visit, and that’s saying something since there are sooooo many food choices and soooo many places we didn’t get to.
So, after lunch, we are full and relaxed and a little tired and not wanting to ride much of anything for fear of shaking up lunch. We decided to take it easy and just walk around and check things out. We did some shopping and wandering and decided to leave around 4:00 to return to HRH for a bit of pool time before returning to City Walk for supper at Margaritaville. We stopped for a soda refill ($.74 including tax and btw, dh didn’t ask for aaa discount when he purchased the cup or the refills. . . he forgot). We bought some t-shirts and sunglasses and stopped in a candy store near the gates for the kids. We only spent around $100 shopping today – YEAH!!!
Some more pics while we wandered around in the afternoon. . .
We boated back to HRH. . . . ok, I have to digress again. While the walk is certainly very short between HRH and city walk, the boat ride is so nice. It is relaxing and we never had much of a wait. Sometimes on the return we might have waited 15 minutes or so, but I enjoyed those boat rides almost as much as everything else. Sometimes dh and some of the kids would walk there, or back, but I loved the boat and rode it almost every time.
Back at HRH, we went to the room after checking out the hotel and making sure we weren’t missing anything and the kids changed and went to the pool with dh for a while. I stayed in the room and showered, again, and got ready for an evening at City Walk. I had messages from the managers, so I returned those calls. The kids were wound up, but tired, when they came back up, and it took a while to get them changed and ready. While we were doing that, the manager that had taken dh’s shirt came to the room and brought it back. We could still tell a little, but it was ok, really. I think she sat in her office and scraped off the paint by hand. She said she asked everyone downstairs if they could see it, and no one was able to find the spot. We were as happy as could be with the results and thanked her for all her help.
Now, off to City Walk and Margaritaville. . . . . .
Studios Day Part 2
Margaritaville!
Everyone is finally ready and we are all hungry. Out we go, to the boat, which we did not wait long for. It was dark by this time, so the boat ride is extra special and City Walk is way cool. It’s a beautiful and exciting place to be at night. Something I haven’t mentioned to this point is that my girls are all sunburned. I’m mentioning that now because you will likely notice it in the pictures to be included in this segment. . . and because tomorrow is Aquatica. . . yikes!!!
So we arrive at City Walk and head to Margaritaville. Dh goes to find out how long of a wait to expect and I head to get a pre-dinner drink. By the time we looked around in the shop and I was in line for a drink, our table was ready so I hopped out of line deciding to just order my drink from the table. Once we were seated it was only a moment before our server arrived to take our drink order. The girls all wanted shakes and dh and I ordered a margarita, of course, in a souvenir glass. Dh had listened to me talk about volcano nachos for months on end, so naturally, he had to order some.
Here's our drinks
While we waited for our nachos, the girls enjoyed their shakes and watched everything going on. They were fascinated with the stilt walkers and their interactions with the customers, especially big, loud groups. It wasn’t long before our appetizer arrived, and wow. . . wow.
This picture does not do this dish justice. It is just something you have to see for yourself. Not only do they heap all this stuff on a giant platter, they are GOOD! So we dig in. Now dd9 is a picky eater and doesn’t like to try anything new. I had to pick out some “empty” chips for her, so she was happy with those on her plate. I’ve been thinking about a Cheeseburger in Paradise for months, and I’m not going to fill up on nachos, but trust me, I ate enough so I felt like I had really tried everything on the nachos, but not so many so that I was feeling at all full. I haven’t had a cheeseburger in months. . . seriously, months. I have been taking the weight loss drug Alli, for those who don’t know that, since January 1 and cheeseburgers don’t work with Alli. Anyway, between the milkshakes and the nachos, I send out a warning to my girls to leave room for their entrée. . . or else. Between the four of us, we don’t put a dent in those nachos. It’s not long before I notice dh has just pulled the plate of nachos in front of him. I’m looking at him like, dude, you have a entrée to eat yet and you are working over those nachos. He said they were the best nachos he had ever eaten. By the time we left, he had eaten the whole thing. . .yes, I’m very serious. Besides what we ate, which was maybe 1/5th of the whole thing, dh polished off the entire plate. Ok, so there maybe was a random broken chip, some hardened cheddar and perhaps a jalapeno ring or two, but besides that, G O N E!!!! He didn’t eat them all before his entrée, but before we left he managed to finish them. Yes, he ate his dinner and yes, he was so full he was miserable and sick and grumpy. We were there for a long time. I think it took a couple hours from being seated to walking out the door. So here are our entrees.
I have apparently misplaced the detailed receipt from that meal, so I can’t list how much each item cost, but I know the total, with 20% tip was $106. That was an appetizer, 5 entrees, 3 milkshakes, a margarita with souvenir glass and a soft drink, plus tip. I think the bill was about $85 before tip though. Not bad at all!
Before the food came, I mentioned to our waitress that my girls would really enjoy a balloon souvenir from the stilt walkers. She said she would see what she could do. It wasn’t 5 minutes later, one of them came over and started talking to the girls. They are shy (what the heck!) and he sat down on the back of the booth right behind where I was sitting. So, while he’s talking, he’s making balloon things, and he asks where we are from. His fiancé is from a town not too far from us and he was talking about driving there for a family event and sympathizing with our drive. While he was there, our entrée’s arrived and everyone, but me, dug in. I was talking and talking and talking and thought it was kind of rude to eat while he was sitting there. I know he sat there for at least 20 minutes, which was ok, but I really wanted to eat my cheeseburger. Finally, I take a bite and that was all she wrote. I wasn’t talking to anyone until that baby was gone. He sat for another minute or two and dh took over talking (since he was full from the nachos anyway and had managed to choke down most of his entrée anyway) before he walked away. After he had made each of the girls something, I tried to tip him, but he said they couldn’t accept, but I don’t remember why, though he did explain. I would have gladly handed over that $10 bill for the entertainment he provided for my girls. They were so happy.
I think it was our favorite night of our entire vacation. We did eat better food (tomorrow night is Emeril’s, though we had no idea we were going to do it until the next day), but the food was good, the atmosphere was excellent and the margarita was top notch (and gave me a buzz)!
So now that we can’t get out of the booth because of all we have eaten and drank, we call a big fat tow truck to haul us out and decide we need to walk around a little bit. We go outside and get some random pics. We wanted to do a little shopping, but were too full for anything serious, so we just looked around and got an idea of some things we wanted to pick up before the end of our vacation.
You can see by that last pic that everyone is ready for bed. The boat ride was super nice and we wandered around HRH for a moment before we went up to hit the sack. Star services had been there so our beds were turned down, the room was nice and clean and there were some little trinkets for the girls. Fresh towels had been left and extra decaf (yes!). It was semi dark when we went in, so it took a couple minutes to realize there was something on the table. When we turned on the lights, there was a treat left because of all the trouble we had encountered (no welcome gifts after the clerk promised my girls; no robes, extra pillows or blankets after calling several times, and a few other little incidents, not including the wet paint issue had stacked up over the last few days). Here’s a couple pictures of what we found.
There was also a very nice card from star services apologizing for everything. It was very, very nice and completely unexpected. We eventually got all the things we had asked for anyway, and our turndown service had been top notch. They really took care of us, though I believe they were still trying to make up for painting our room 5 seconds before we went in. I don’t want to harp on that issue, but it is the one thing that really stuck with us. We understand everything else, but why in hell would maintenance paint our room right before we got there. It was just such a dumb thing to do. . .but worse, not even telling us that he had just touched up some spots when he was still in the room when we got there!! Ok, no more rants about the paint thing. . . promise. My girls were way too full to get into those cookies, so I put their milk in the cooler, we closed up the lunch boxes and they became their “treasure boxes”. Now they would have yummy snacks for the next few days. My girls don’t drink white milk, so knowing that, I had brought along some Ovaltine so we would be able to get some milk down them while vacationing. We were good to go!!
I called our manager and left a message saying thanks for everything they had done for us and got the girls moving towards bed. Dh and I did our book keeping and hit the hay.
Tomorrow is Aquatica and we’ve rented a cabana!!!!!!
Margaritaville!
Everyone is finally ready and we are all hungry. Out we go, to the boat, which we did not wait long for. It was dark by this time, so the boat ride is extra special and City Walk is way cool. It’s a beautiful and exciting place to be at night. Something I haven’t mentioned to this point is that my girls are all sunburned. I’m mentioning that now because you will likely notice it in the pictures to be included in this segment. . . and because tomorrow is Aquatica. . . yikes!!!
So we arrive at City Walk and head to Margaritaville. Dh goes to find out how long of a wait to expect and I head to get a pre-dinner drink. By the time we looked around in the shop and I was in line for a drink, our table was ready so I hopped out of line deciding to just order my drink from the table. Once we were seated it was only a moment before our server arrived to take our drink order. The girls all wanted shakes and dh and I ordered a margarita, of course, in a souvenir glass. Dh had listened to me talk about volcano nachos for months on end, so naturally, he had to order some.
Here's our drinks
While we waited for our nachos, the girls enjoyed their shakes and watched everything going on. They were fascinated with the stilt walkers and their interactions with the customers, especially big, loud groups. It wasn’t long before our appetizer arrived, and wow. . . wow.
This picture does not do this dish justice. It is just something you have to see for yourself. Not only do they heap all this stuff on a giant platter, they are GOOD! So we dig in. Now dd9 is a picky eater and doesn’t like to try anything new. I had to pick out some “empty” chips for her, so she was happy with those on her plate. I’ve been thinking about a Cheeseburger in Paradise for months, and I’m not going to fill up on nachos, but trust me, I ate enough so I felt like I had really tried everything on the nachos, but not so many so that I was feeling at all full. I haven’t had a cheeseburger in months. . . seriously, months. I have been taking the weight loss drug Alli, for those who don’t know that, since January 1 and cheeseburgers don’t work with Alli. Anyway, between the milkshakes and the nachos, I send out a warning to my girls to leave room for their entrée. . . or else. Between the four of us, we don’t put a dent in those nachos. It’s not long before I notice dh has just pulled the plate of nachos in front of him. I’m looking at him like, dude, you have a entrée to eat yet and you are working over those nachos. He said they were the best nachos he had ever eaten. By the time we left, he had eaten the whole thing. . .yes, I’m very serious. Besides what we ate, which was maybe 1/5th of the whole thing, dh polished off the entire plate. Ok, so there maybe was a random broken chip, some hardened cheddar and perhaps a jalapeno ring or two, but besides that, G O N E!!!! He didn’t eat them all before his entrée, but before we left he managed to finish them. Yes, he ate his dinner and yes, he was so full he was miserable and sick and grumpy. We were there for a long time. I think it took a couple hours from being seated to walking out the door. So here are our entrees.
I have apparently misplaced the detailed receipt from that meal, so I can’t list how much each item cost, but I know the total, with 20% tip was $106. That was an appetizer, 5 entrees, 3 milkshakes, a margarita with souvenir glass and a soft drink, plus tip. I think the bill was about $85 before tip though. Not bad at all!
Before the food came, I mentioned to our waitress that my girls would really enjoy a balloon souvenir from the stilt walkers. She said she would see what she could do. It wasn’t 5 minutes later, one of them came over and started talking to the girls. They are shy (what the heck!) and he sat down on the back of the booth right behind where I was sitting. So, while he’s talking, he’s making balloon things, and he asks where we are from. His fiancé is from a town not too far from us and he was talking about driving there for a family event and sympathizing with our drive. While he was there, our entrée’s arrived and everyone, but me, dug in. I was talking and talking and talking and thought it was kind of rude to eat while he was sitting there. I know he sat there for at least 20 minutes, which was ok, but I really wanted to eat my cheeseburger. Finally, I take a bite and that was all she wrote. I wasn’t talking to anyone until that baby was gone. He sat for another minute or two and dh took over talking (since he was full from the nachos anyway and had managed to choke down most of his entrée anyway) before he walked away. After he had made each of the girls something, I tried to tip him, but he said they couldn’t accept, but I don’t remember why, though he did explain. I would have gladly handed over that $10 bill for the entertainment he provided for my girls. They were so happy.
I think it was our favorite night of our entire vacation. We did eat better food (tomorrow night is Emeril’s, though we had no idea we were going to do it until the next day), but the food was good, the atmosphere was excellent and the margarita was top notch (and gave me a buzz)!
So now that we can’t get out of the booth because of all we have eaten and drank, we call a big fat tow truck to haul us out and decide we need to walk around a little bit. We go outside and get some random pics. We wanted to do a little shopping, but were too full for anything serious, so we just looked around and got an idea of some things we wanted to pick up before the end of our vacation.
You can see by that last pic that everyone is ready for bed. The boat ride was super nice and we wandered around HRH for a moment before we went up to hit the sack. Star services had been there so our beds were turned down, the room was nice and clean and there were some little trinkets for the girls. Fresh towels had been left and extra decaf (yes!). It was semi dark when we went in, so it took a couple minutes to realize there was something on the table. When we turned on the lights, there was a treat left because of all the trouble we had encountered (no welcome gifts after the clerk promised my girls; no robes, extra pillows or blankets after calling several times, and a few other little incidents, not including the wet paint issue had stacked up over the last few days). Here’s a couple pictures of what we found.
There was also a very nice card from star services apologizing for everything. It was very, very nice and completely unexpected. We eventually got all the things we had asked for anyway, and our turndown service had been top notch. They really took care of us, though I believe they were still trying to make up for painting our room 5 seconds before we went in. I don’t want to harp on that issue, but it is the one thing that really stuck with us. We understand everything else, but why in hell would maintenance paint our room right before we got there. It was just such a dumb thing to do. . .but worse, not even telling us that he had just touched up some spots when he was still in the room when we got there!! Ok, no more rants about the paint thing. . . promise. My girls were way too full to get into those cookies, so I put their milk in the cooler, we closed up the lunch boxes and they became their “treasure boxes”. Now they would have yummy snacks for the next few days. My girls don’t drink white milk, so knowing that, I had brought along some Ovaltine so we would be able to get some milk down them while vacationing. We were good to go!!
I called our manager and left a message saying thanks for everything they had done for us and got the girls moving towards bed. Dh and I did our book keeping and hit the hay.
Tomorrow is Aquatica and we’ve rented a cabana!!!!!!
Thursday May 1, 2008
Aquatica
I’m up early again. We want to be in the parking lot very early as I have read that Aquatica sells out and parking is a nightmare, with traffic backing up and blocking the streets. So I get ready and rouse the gang. I’m enjoying, of course, a couple cups of that delicious Emeril’s decaf while we pack our bag for the day. We’ve already got tickets and I’ve reserved a cabana for the day.
Last night, after Margaritaville, we took some pictures by Emeril’s, as you can see in the post above. To explain a bit, dd12 is a foodie in the making. She watches Emeril’s cooking shows, as well as several others, but Emeril is her favorite. She really wanted to go eat there, but we had decided we didn’t want to spend the money on someplace like that and had not put it in our plans. When Megan saw Emeril’s, she was really excited and wanted so badly to go. Apparently dh had thought a lot about this and decided we needed to go after all. I was like, “honey, there’s no way we will get ressies now. People make those weeks in advance.” He was like, well, can’t you at least try?? So I called the HRH concierge and asked about ressies for that night. He was like, can I call you back in like 10 minutes, I’m in the middle of something, and then I will be happy to help you. I said that was fine and hung up. You all know he needed 10 minutes to laugh his *** of f at us ignorant idots, right? I accepted that knowing we were the laughingstock of HRH that morning, but didn’t care as long as I could honestly say I had tried my best.
About 20 minutes later, the concierge calls back and said he was sorry; he was trying to get some tickets for another guest when I had called and asked what he could do for us. I asked if he had injured himself laughing at my request and he said no, that he’d had much more unreasonable requests and he would see what he could do. We talked for a couple more minutes, I explained what we would be willing to accept and he got busy. It wasn’t long before he called back and said he had managed to get a table for us, but it was kind of later in the evening. I was absolutely amazed and accepted the offer, so he called back and made our reservation for that evening. Crazy, right??
In the midst of all this, we eat a light breakfast in the room and off we go, right on time. I program our friend, GPS, with Aquatica’s address, though dh knows right where it’s at since he’s been paying attention with all the driving around we have done. We arrive early and get great parking for a small fee of $10.00. The landscaping is beautiful and very well done. One of the girls has to go to the bathroom, and right now, can’t wait until we get our cabana. So dh takes her off to find a restroom and I go inside the little customer service hut thing to find out about our cabana. I don’t have to wait long and we get everything straightened away and the young man assigned to our cabana is called to take us directly to it. Dh and dd’s are nowhere to be found, so we set off without them. We weren’t actually assigned a specific cabana, you have your choice and it’s first come, first served, so if you rent one, get there super, super early. We had some great choices, so I pick one without dh’s input since he’s not there and we drop our stuff. There was an issue with additional charges for any number of people over 4. Since I made our reservations prior to this rule, we didn’t have to pay for our 5th person and were brought extra towels and chairs. There were a couple loungers, a couple standard pool chairs and a couple beach chairs that sit really low to the ground. There was a small table and a refrigerator. The canvas sides were down, except the very front was tied back to make a doorway, but you could tie them back to see out any side you wanted, and you could completely close all sides if you wanted total privacy (ahem). The fridge was well stocked with soft drinks, water and some Hi-C drinks.
I decided I better go find dh because there’s no way he’s going to know where I’m at, so off I go, and finally run into him. We all go back to the cabana, where we get settled and tell the girls to put on lots of sunscreen. Remember I mentioned they were already sunburned? Well, the sunscreen burned the skin on their faces, so dd12 wouldn’t use any. She tried and it burned a little, so she wouldn’t put anymore on. There was no way we could go out with her like that, so we ended up sitting inside the cabana for like 2 hours until dh finally went and bought her a hat ($19.96 with cabana rental discount) that could be pulled down far enough so her whole face was shaded. In the meantime, the other girls had gone off to ride and were to check in from time to time. This park is HUGE, so you have to pay attention to where you are or it would be easy to get lost. Our cabana was right next to the wave pools, so it was pretty easy to keep track of where you were.
We were provided with a menu for lunch. You have lots of options and can go to several places to eat or pick up food, or you can order from a menu they provide you and your order will be brought to your cabana picnic style. We decided we would like to have our lunch brought early, so we ordered a variety of items and a few extra things, like fruit, to put in the fridge for a snack later. We ordered a roast beef sub ($6.99), Turkey sandwich ($6.79), 3 kids meals that had ham and turkey on foccacia bread ($7.28 each), a grilled chicken salad to share ($7.99), some melon ($3.29), grapes ($3.29) and a bag of chips to go with the kids meal sandwiches since it didn’t come with any ($2.49 each bag). The total, with tax, was $61.44. The kids meals came with souvenir boxes and some little memento. The food was good, but we thought it was pricey for what you were getting. Keeping in mind where we were, it wasn’t too bad however, and the portions were large. We had plenty for an early lunch since our breakfast was very light and then plenty for a mid-afternoon snack.
So dh and I are sitting in this cabana with our crying 12 year old, refusing to put anything on her skin, so after an hour of trying to reason with her, we decide to let her work it out herself and we leave the cabana to go check things out. We go find the lazy river and take a trip around. Just as we are getting out, the other girls come running up telling us dd12 wants us, so we head back to the cabana. She says she really wants to go play, but can’t put anything on, so I send dh off to look for a hat. He finds a shop, but doesn’t want to buy anything without her with him, so he comes back to the cabana, we put a towel over her head and off they go to get a hat. When they return, she was all smiles under her hat. So you are probably wondering why we didn’t do that in the first place. Well. . . I don’t have a freaking clue! We didn’t think of it I guess, but we certainly could have saved ourselves a lot of grief. As a result of all this, dh, dd12 and I didn’t get to experience the whole park. We spent time in the wave pool and lots of time on the lazy rivers and dh and dd12 went on a few slides. Dh says we will be going again on our next trip to FL and Aquatica will be our first day, and perhaps our second. He feels like he only saw half the park and didn’t ride 1/3 of what was there. The other two girls rode quite a bit, but they didn’t get to everything either. By 3:30, they are absolutely fried and hurting and ready to go, even though this is the coolest water park ever. Like I said, next time we will plan things differently. This was the one flaw in my 18 months of planning. I did not take sunburn into consideration. We did use tons of sunscreen, but that FL sun is something we are not used to, and, on top of that, our girls are very fair skinned. Around 2:30 the kids are hungry, so I get out the salad and fruit and it is plenty for everyone. After that, they are ready to go. It’s about 3:30, and we have dinner reservations we are excited about, so we pack up and head out. Did I mention that I took all the drinks from the fridge? There were lots of them left and we paid for them as part of the cabana rental, so why should we leave them in there??
The girls wore towels over their head and shoulders on the way to the parking lot. It was the hottest day so far and that sun was beating down on us. I was wishing for an umbrella for shade on my way out!
We snapped a few pics as we wandered out of the park.
So in the van and back to HRH for a little rest and showers in order to prepare for our big night out. Dh dropped us at the door at HRH, so we went in and waited in the lobby area for him to park the van and join us. Here's a few pics while we waited.
Hannah is holding the sand bucket that they got with their kid's meals at Aquatica.
You can see dd12 is not happy about waiting in the lobby. Dh had all the keys with him.
Feel the excitement!!
Finally, dh returns and we go to the room for some much needed rest and airconditioning.
I want to add a note here, about Aquatica cabana tipping. When the young man first led me to our cabana, he took a moment to explain how things work and what options we had. He explained about getting fresh towels whenever we needed them, bringing lunch if we ordered, etc. I took the opportunity to ask him about tipping, because I hadn't read anything about it and I just didn't know. So I asked him what most people did in that regard. He said that Aquatica didn't encourage tipping. They had to be asked THREE times to accept a tip before they could, and he said that most of the staff would still decline anyway. Tipping was definitely NOT encouraged here. Actually, it was refreshing and I liked the policy, though felt that they deserved a tip more than most. This policy may have changed, I don't know, but this is how things stood in the spring, 2008.
Added note: Thanks to an alert reader, I realize I neglected to include the cost of the Aquatica cabana. Please know that when I made reservations in like January of 2008, Aquatica was not yet open and their website did not yet even allow purchasing of tickets, much less reserving cabanas. So I called and spoke with a representative. It was obviously something that was way, way brand new, but we were quoted the price of $150 from open to close. There would be tax added at the rate of 6.5%, so %9.75 for a total of $159.75. I heard, before we even traveled, that the rate was going up and that they were charging an extra person fee for each person over 4. Perhaps a limit of 7 people per cabana was established and I think the fee was like maybe $35 per person extra. As you will read in a following post, I made the case that this was not policy when I reserved, so they didn't charge us for our 5th person. I know the rates were higher by at least $50 during the "season".
Next up, supper at Emeril’s!!!
Aquatica
I’m up early again. We want to be in the parking lot very early as I have read that Aquatica sells out and parking is a nightmare, with traffic backing up and blocking the streets. So I get ready and rouse the gang. I’m enjoying, of course, a couple cups of that delicious Emeril’s decaf while we pack our bag for the day. We’ve already got tickets and I’ve reserved a cabana for the day.
Last night, after Margaritaville, we took some pictures by Emeril’s, as you can see in the post above. To explain a bit, dd12 is a foodie in the making. She watches Emeril’s cooking shows, as well as several others, but Emeril is her favorite. She really wanted to go eat there, but we had decided we didn’t want to spend the money on someplace like that and had not put it in our plans. When Megan saw Emeril’s, she was really excited and wanted so badly to go. Apparently dh had thought a lot about this and decided we needed to go after all. I was like, “honey, there’s no way we will get ressies now. People make those weeks in advance.” He was like, well, can’t you at least try?? So I called the HRH concierge and asked about ressies for that night. He was like, can I call you back in like 10 minutes, I’m in the middle of something, and then I will be happy to help you. I said that was fine and hung up. You all know he needed 10 minutes to laugh his *** of f at us ignorant idots, right? I accepted that knowing we were the laughingstock of HRH that morning, but didn’t care as long as I could honestly say I had tried my best.
About 20 minutes later, the concierge calls back and said he was sorry; he was trying to get some tickets for another guest when I had called and asked what he could do for us. I asked if he had injured himself laughing at my request and he said no, that he’d had much more unreasonable requests and he would see what he could do. We talked for a couple more minutes, I explained what we would be willing to accept and he got busy. It wasn’t long before he called back and said he had managed to get a table for us, but it was kind of later in the evening. I was absolutely amazed and accepted the offer, so he called back and made our reservation for that evening. Crazy, right??
In the midst of all this, we eat a light breakfast in the room and off we go, right on time. I program our friend, GPS, with Aquatica’s address, though dh knows right where it’s at since he’s been paying attention with all the driving around we have done. We arrive early and get great parking for a small fee of $10.00. The landscaping is beautiful and very well done. One of the girls has to go to the bathroom, and right now, can’t wait until we get our cabana. So dh takes her off to find a restroom and I go inside the little customer service hut thing to find out about our cabana. I don’t have to wait long and we get everything straightened away and the young man assigned to our cabana is called to take us directly to it. Dh and dd’s are nowhere to be found, so we set off without them. We weren’t actually assigned a specific cabana, you have your choice and it’s first come, first served, so if you rent one, get there super, super early. We had some great choices, so I pick one without dh’s input since he’s not there and we drop our stuff. There was an issue with additional charges for any number of people over 4. Since I made our reservations prior to this rule, we didn’t have to pay for our 5th person and were brought extra towels and chairs. There were a couple loungers, a couple standard pool chairs and a couple beach chairs that sit really low to the ground. There was a small table and a refrigerator. The canvas sides were down, except the very front was tied back to make a doorway, but you could tie them back to see out any side you wanted, and you could completely close all sides if you wanted total privacy (ahem). The fridge was well stocked with soft drinks, water and some Hi-C drinks.
I decided I better go find dh because there’s no way he’s going to know where I’m at, so off I go, and finally run into him. We all go back to the cabana, where we get settled and tell the girls to put on lots of sunscreen. Remember I mentioned they were already sunburned? Well, the sunscreen burned the skin on their faces, so dd12 wouldn’t use any. She tried and it burned a little, so she wouldn’t put anymore on. There was no way we could go out with her like that, so we ended up sitting inside the cabana for like 2 hours until dh finally went and bought her a hat ($19.96 with cabana rental discount) that could be pulled down far enough so her whole face was shaded. In the meantime, the other girls had gone off to ride and were to check in from time to time. This park is HUGE, so you have to pay attention to where you are or it would be easy to get lost. Our cabana was right next to the wave pools, so it was pretty easy to keep track of where you were.
We were provided with a menu for lunch. You have lots of options and can go to several places to eat or pick up food, or you can order from a menu they provide you and your order will be brought to your cabana picnic style. We decided we would like to have our lunch brought early, so we ordered a variety of items and a few extra things, like fruit, to put in the fridge for a snack later. We ordered a roast beef sub ($6.99), Turkey sandwich ($6.79), 3 kids meals that had ham and turkey on foccacia bread ($7.28 each), a grilled chicken salad to share ($7.99), some melon ($3.29), grapes ($3.29) and a bag of chips to go with the kids meal sandwiches since it didn’t come with any ($2.49 each bag). The total, with tax, was $61.44. The kids meals came with souvenir boxes and some little memento. The food was good, but we thought it was pricey for what you were getting. Keeping in mind where we were, it wasn’t too bad however, and the portions were large. We had plenty for an early lunch since our breakfast was very light and then plenty for a mid-afternoon snack.
So dh and I are sitting in this cabana with our crying 12 year old, refusing to put anything on her skin, so after an hour of trying to reason with her, we decide to let her work it out herself and we leave the cabana to go check things out. We go find the lazy river and take a trip around. Just as we are getting out, the other girls come running up telling us dd12 wants us, so we head back to the cabana. She says she really wants to go play, but can’t put anything on, so I send dh off to look for a hat. He finds a shop, but doesn’t want to buy anything without her with him, so he comes back to the cabana, we put a towel over her head and off they go to get a hat. When they return, she was all smiles under her hat. So you are probably wondering why we didn’t do that in the first place. Well. . . I don’t have a freaking clue! We didn’t think of it I guess, but we certainly could have saved ourselves a lot of grief. As a result of all this, dh, dd12 and I didn’t get to experience the whole park. We spent time in the wave pool and lots of time on the lazy rivers and dh and dd12 went on a few slides. Dh says we will be going again on our next trip to FL and Aquatica will be our first day, and perhaps our second. He feels like he only saw half the park and didn’t ride 1/3 of what was there. The other two girls rode quite a bit, but they didn’t get to everything either. By 3:30, they are absolutely fried and hurting and ready to go, even though this is the coolest water park ever. Like I said, next time we will plan things differently. This was the one flaw in my 18 months of planning. I did not take sunburn into consideration. We did use tons of sunscreen, but that FL sun is something we are not used to, and, on top of that, our girls are very fair skinned. Around 2:30 the kids are hungry, so I get out the salad and fruit and it is plenty for everyone. After that, they are ready to go. It’s about 3:30, and we have dinner reservations we are excited about, so we pack up and head out. Did I mention that I took all the drinks from the fridge? There were lots of them left and we paid for them as part of the cabana rental, so why should we leave them in there??
The girls wore towels over their head and shoulders on the way to the parking lot. It was the hottest day so far and that sun was beating down on us. I was wishing for an umbrella for shade on my way out!
We snapped a few pics as we wandered out of the park.
So in the van and back to HRH for a little rest and showers in order to prepare for our big night out. Dh dropped us at the door at HRH, so we went in and waited in the lobby area for him to park the van and join us. Here's a few pics while we waited.
Hannah is holding the sand bucket that they got with their kid's meals at Aquatica.
You can see dd12 is not happy about waiting in the lobby. Dh had all the keys with him.
Feel the excitement!!
Finally, dh returns and we go to the room for some much needed rest and airconditioning.
I want to add a note here, about Aquatica cabana tipping. When the young man first led me to our cabana, he took a moment to explain how things work and what options we had. He explained about getting fresh towels whenever we needed them, bringing lunch if we ordered, etc. I took the opportunity to ask him about tipping, because I hadn't read anything about it and I just didn't know. So I asked him what most people did in that regard. He said that Aquatica didn't encourage tipping. They had to be asked THREE times to accept a tip before they could, and he said that most of the staff would still decline anyway. Tipping was definitely NOT encouraged here. Actually, it was refreshing and I liked the policy, though felt that they deserved a tip more than most. This policy may have changed, I don't know, but this is how things stood in the spring, 2008.
Added note: Thanks to an alert reader, I realize I neglected to include the cost of the Aquatica cabana. Please know that when I made reservations in like January of 2008, Aquatica was not yet open and their website did not yet even allow purchasing of tickets, much less reserving cabanas. So I called and spoke with a representative. It was obviously something that was way, way brand new, but we were quoted the price of $150 from open to close. There would be tax added at the rate of 6.5%, so %9.75 for a total of $159.75. I heard, before we even traveled, that the rate was going up and that they were charging an extra person fee for each person over 4. Perhaps a limit of 7 people per cabana was established and I think the fee was like maybe $35 per person extra. As you will read in a following post, I made the case that this was not policy when I reserved, so they didn't charge us for our 5th person. I know the rates were higher by at least $50 during the "season".
Next up, supper at Emeril’s!!!
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