As an attempt to make this trip report more convenient for you to read, I have posted each portion of this report under the subject headings where you might be most likely to look for related info. Links are posted at the beginning of each report. If you have any questions at all, please please please ask! I paid attention to a huge amount of detail which can most likely be remembered if only you remind me.
Sat. 10/27 - Downtown Disney & Disney Quest
Sun. 10/28 - Animal Kingdom & Epcot
Mon. 10/29 - Disney MGM Studios
Tues. 10/30 - Sea World
Tues. 10/30 - Medieval Times
Wed. 10/31 - Busch Gardens Tampa & Howl-O-Scream
Thur. 11/1 - Open Day - All Star Resorts
Fri. 11/2 - Islands of Adventure
Sat. 11/3 - Halloween Horror Nights (The last night)
HRH, IoA & HHN (Finally!)
Sun. 11/4 - Round-trip Norfolk to Orlando on SouthWest
Characters & Plot: DH and myself returning to Orlando for our first wedding anniversary (which we like to consider the long-awaited second half of our honeymoon).
Modes of discount: AAA, Discount room rate offered by HRH (nothing available at Entertainment Coupon Book rate), Preordered Stay-n-Scream tickets, and a few wonderful members of this bulletin board with great advice <wink>!
First off...My sincere apologies for taking so long with this last report, which I've been trying to do from work when not too busy... Not only that, but this last part seems the most difficult to express verbally... Much too much too say... And as time passes by, I've forgotten names of places and things.... Bad grumbada!
Anywho... On with the show!...
Hard Rock Hotel
Never having stayed here at the HRH before, we were unsure whether to do the "valet" parking or the regular parking, which seemed rather pricey. Being in a hurry to get to the park as soon as possible, we just parked in the lot and carried all the bags to the lobby with hopes that the room might be ready (I was taking nothing for granted at this point). We checked in about 9:30am Friday and much to our surprsise, our room was ready! The place is fantastic, tastefully decorated with lots of great costumes, props, awards, guitars and generally tons of stuff that will make you go "WOW... Come here, take a look at THIS!!"
We didn't really mind the walk to the room, which after awhile I called the "down the hall to Elton John, turn right at Jimi Hendrix" voyage... We were not disappointed on our Pool View room (although the trees block the view a bit), which is much more plush than I'd imagined. The pictures I'd seen really don't do it justice. I was especially giddy about the little bottles of lotion, shampoo, and conditioner which minimalistically say "BODY", "HAIR", and "RINSE"... I admit, I ended up taking these home to give to my mom as a souvenier present (I knew she'd love this stuff too)... The bathroom and vanity area is well decorated in soothing shades of seafoam green and brushed chrome... Gave me great ideas for my own bathroom at home.
It took me a long time to understand the whole concept of who you call for which request. I'm used to asking housekeeping when you need another ashtray, or complimentary coffee or whathave you... But when I tried to ask the (kinda scary) housekeeper about it, she just kept saying very loudly "MINI BAH! MINI BAH!!" and pointing at the mini bar... and telling me to call star something (front desk?). I had originally left a note of request for her and a tip, but when we'd come back from or day at IoA, she was in the midst of cleaning, accosted us with shoutings of "Mini Bah!!!" (We hadn't even touched the darned Mini Bar)... And left without taking the tip.... And really didn't finish the room either... I started to fear the "evil-scary housekeeper lady", and I found myself avoiding her... Feeling the sting of her accusing glare from behind her cart... Okay, I'm trying to be funny here... But I'll tell you, the next day when she'd "cleaned" the room, I noticed that there were a few extra sundry bathroom items, that weren't there when we checked in... Meaning, she hadn't included them when she prepared the room in the first place.
Evil-scary housekeeper lady (Mini-Bah!!) was really one of our only complaints about our stay. I could not figure out the short-cut to the parks until it was too late (more walking), only one of the hot-tubs was working when we'd tried them and the jets on the one that did wasn't where I really needed it on my upper back... But other than that, the place is fantastic!! The staff is incredibly terrific, and very helpful. Yes, the staff are all dressed in black, and they actually looked very dressy... Heck, I was expecting bikers or something. Hubby and I probably look alot more "intimidating" with our waist-length hair than any worker there.... But not nearly as intimidating as Evil-scary housekeeper lady! ....MINI-BAH!!.....
Fri. 11/2 - Islands of Adventure
IoA was a first for both Hubby and myself, so we did not know exactly what to expect. For the most part, we had a great time even though it rained off and on for a good part of the afternoon. Unfortunately, we must have spent at least an accumulated 2 hours walking around the inside of ride venues trying to find the line entrance! Evidently, Universal had cut down on their staff so much that they expect their guests to figure out how to get to the entrance of the ride on their own. No need for Express Line access when you can't find it in the first place. And many of the attendants seemed pretty apathetic when you did finally find them to ask for help. My best advice to you would be to find an attendant first thing before even trying to get in line to ask directions This sounds silly now... But once you get lost in the empty queue maze for Dueling Dragons, you'll know what I'm talking about.
That being said I had a lot of fun in Seuss-land (the Cat in the Hat ride is fun!) and Jurassic Park (Loved that Indoor / outdoor water-ride!) and only wished I had a kid to escort so that I could ride the Pteranadon Flyers. If I had kids, I would love to take them to the learning center, where they can learn about dinosaurs through interactive modules.
I was unbelievably impressed with the exterior design of the (Poseidon?) show theatre. The show itself sort of needed something, but I can't put my finger on it. I marveled at the swirling water tunnel and would love to know how they do that! We'd used our HRH passes to be in the express lane (among the first 5 in), but it didn't seem to matter since we ended up in the back somehow for each portion of the show. The Mystic Fountain just outside it is hilarious! Hubby asked "it" why hot dogs always come in pages of 8 and hot dog rolls always come in packages of 10 Fountain replied "Maaaar-ke-tiiiiing.!!.." We noticed later in the day, perhaps after a shift change, that the fountain had a higher modulated voice. HA!
The giant tree (Merlin's Den?) was captivating and next time I definitely want to try some grub in there!
After much hinting and days of note circling on my part, hubby took me to Mythos for lunch!
We were able to use our HRH keys to make reservations and get good seats. Strange thing is, Mythos closed early
at 4pm, I believe. Since we where getting ready to go on rides, I didn't want to get too stuffed, so I got the quesedillas appetizer and that Banana gooey cake! WooooOO! Really nice décor and a great view of the park just outside on the deck (nice photo op).
Since we'd just had lunch at Mythos, we skipped out on Dr. Doom's Fear fall. But, I can proudly report that I DID ride Spiderman, that I had no motion-sickness problems, and that it was incredible! Probably one of my favorite rides ever! I did not get brave enough for the Hulk, but it was an incredibly breathtaking ride just to watch!! Hubby rode it and seemed pretty impressed I can quote him as saying that "it kicked *** " and that "the launch is the best part" Hubby is a big fan of comics and was especially impressed by all the Marvel details that you'd have to be a fan to get. Also, we were able to use my AAA card to get 10% discounts off merchandise, so that tie-dye Wolverine t-shirt was a tad less expensive.
Jurassic Park was deserted, but a whole lot of fun and I only wish that IoA stayed open later so that I could see how it looked at night. We purchased one of those "limited edition" thermos bottles (with the pull-out map in them... How Cool!) and were able to get discounted refills in the park with it. The Learning center (?) would be a great place to take kids, I thought. I have heard several posts about there being nothing for kids to do at this park, but I thought just the opposite was true. Please read Barry's post on this subject, because I found this to ring incredibly true.
I am a water-ride girl... And rain or shine or freezing weather, I'm gonna do them...At the end of the day of course.... But I think in this case, I would have been smarter to have bought a cheap rain poncho and packed it for the trip... Dudley doo right's flume ride (where-the-heck's the-entrance?...And exit!?) was pretty wet... But I got DRENCHED on Bluto's Barges. No waiting that evening for this ride, but I walked around and around and around inside it trying to find out how to get on... When I finally found my way outside it again, I asked the attendant again "How do you get on it?" He replied "Right there!" Nodding towards the exit sign... When I asked him if i was supposed to go to where it said EXIT, He replied "Umm, yeah?" Enough from nasty-attitude boy... I'm now on the ride... Very wet... very cold.. But alot of fun! And I realized too late that there is a place in the center of the raft to put your shoes so they don't get soaked... Doh!! To avoid the squishy walk home, we took the boat back to the HRH. Very nice ride, and worth the wait when you're drenched or too tired and sore.
Sat. 11/3 - Halloween Horror Nights (The last night)
This is the evening that we'd been looking forward to for all year. First off, we bought a HHN thermos bottle of soda, so that we cought get the cheap refills. Lines this year for the haunted houses still seemed long, despite the smaller attendance. I have to admit, even though I really did enjoy myself, I was slightly disappointed in the changes they'd made. A few of the scare zones where in better locals last year, and I have a feeling that maybe they'd moved them to reroute the Parade, which seemed even better this year than last. I think the parade went on four times, a folks were just as bead-greedy as ever.
The Illusions (?) magic show was very good, but seemed understated and strangely out of place with the theming. I enjoyed the side shows and only wished that there where more crowds around to watch them. We were more aware of the timing of shows letting out, which predicts the waiting time in lines. We where able to further lessen our waiting time for MiB for getting in the single rider line... We where perfectly willling to be seperated, but the irony here was that we ended up sitting together anyway!! I don't know the "secrets" so my score still sucks... But I always have fun on it anyway.
I won't rate the scare zones or houses individually, because I can't remember all the names. I can tell you that I was somewhat disappointed in "Run"... More irritating than scary. I think that if they'd paid more attention to the grouping and timing it could have been alot better... "Ooze Zone" seemed to be more of a Hip-hop dance club for the teen set... I was more impressed at the placement of Kong during the whole thing... Is it my imagination or was there TWO KONGS?? Yes, the foam was a cute touch... Coulda used alot more of it, but then it probably would have been a safety hazard. "Pitch Black" was definitely pretty cool... Somebody was acually using some creative thinking here... Only bad side is that it's a claustrophobic's nightmare... If you have problems being squished up against strangers in the dark, you were outta luck here. This could have been solved by better group que timing... But no one listens to me...
The Bill and Ted show was alot of fun and the addition of Jay and Silent Bob was unexpected and too dang funny for words... Perhaps someday they'll this will change to the Jay and Silent Bob show? HMMmmm! Last year's scrap between Lil Kim and Brittany Spears, and Tom Cruise's constant Mission Impossible roll-for-no-reason was funnier than this year's Sex in the City, Charlie's Angels and other female divas or something idea... But this is a salute to (or simultaneous nose thumbing of) entertainment pop icons of today... So watcha gonna do...?
I finally got to ride Jaws! They where closed for refurbishing last year... And I don't care what anybody says about it being "Lame" or whatever, I wasn't disappointed at all. I didn't see any fisherman like I'd heard others post here, but I have a feeling that alot of things on this (Last) night at HHN might have been missing... Some of the scare-actors seemed pretty apathetic... or absent! While others seemed to stay in character the whole time (the later in my opinion, make the whole event worth experiencing).
For anyone that's not gone to HHN yet, don't let me spoil this for you. I really DID have a great time and definitely would/will do it again. Haunted Houses take place in unused soundstages and backlots, and some Universal Studios rides shut down during the Halloween season so that they change and retheme it specifically for the HHN event. Sometimes it's the same ride (maybe it even goes backwards) and is rethemed like Earthquake did last year. Scare-Zones take place in pedestrian areas. Light and shadows and a good amount of dry-ice and good timing is used to startle the unexpecting guest. Good make-up effects and good scare-acting is icing on the cake...
But I gotta be honest... Busch Gardens Tampa's Howl-o-Scream definitely gave them some competition this year...
The next day was my birthday, we had the breakfast buffet at the Sunset Grille at the HRH, checked out, went to Ripley's Believe it or Not, saw Monsters Inc. at Downtown Disney, returned the car, had a light dinner at the Airport and flew home to Norfolk...
...And let me tell you... It's getting harder and harder for us to come back home each time...
Sat. 10/27 - Downtown Disney & Disney Quest
Sun. 10/28 - Animal Kingdom & Epcot
Mon. 10/29 - Disney MGM Studios
Tues. 10/30 - Sea World
Tues. 10/30 - Medieval Times
Wed. 10/31 - Busch Gardens Tampa & Howl-O-Scream
Thur. 11/1 - Open Day - All Star Resorts
Fri. 11/2 - Islands of Adventure
Sat. 11/3 - Halloween Horror Nights (The last night)
HRH, IoA & HHN (Finally!)
Sun. 11/4 - Round-trip Norfolk to Orlando on SouthWest
Characters & Plot: DH and myself returning to Orlando for our first wedding anniversary (which we like to consider the long-awaited second half of our honeymoon).
Modes of discount: AAA, Discount room rate offered by HRH (nothing available at Entertainment Coupon Book rate), Preordered Stay-n-Scream tickets, and a few wonderful members of this bulletin board with great advice <wink>!
First off...My sincere apologies for taking so long with this last report, which I've been trying to do from work when not too busy... Not only that, but this last part seems the most difficult to express verbally... Much too much too say... And as time passes by, I've forgotten names of places and things.... Bad grumbada!
Anywho... On with the show!...
Hard Rock Hotel
Never having stayed here at the HRH before, we were unsure whether to do the "valet" parking or the regular parking, which seemed rather pricey. Being in a hurry to get to the park as soon as possible, we just parked in the lot and carried all the bags to the lobby with hopes that the room might be ready (I was taking nothing for granted at this point). We checked in about 9:30am Friday and much to our surprsise, our room was ready! The place is fantastic, tastefully decorated with lots of great costumes, props, awards, guitars and generally tons of stuff that will make you go "WOW... Come here, take a look at THIS!!"
We didn't really mind the walk to the room, which after awhile I called the "down the hall to Elton John, turn right at Jimi Hendrix" voyage... We were not disappointed on our Pool View room (although the trees block the view a bit), which is much more plush than I'd imagined. The pictures I'd seen really don't do it justice. I was especially giddy about the little bottles of lotion, shampoo, and conditioner which minimalistically say "BODY", "HAIR", and "RINSE"... I admit, I ended up taking these home to give to my mom as a souvenier present (I knew she'd love this stuff too)... The bathroom and vanity area is well decorated in soothing shades of seafoam green and brushed chrome... Gave me great ideas for my own bathroom at home.
It took me a long time to understand the whole concept of who you call for which request. I'm used to asking housekeeping when you need another ashtray, or complimentary coffee or whathave you... But when I tried to ask the (kinda scary) housekeeper about it, she just kept saying very loudly "MINI BAH! MINI BAH!!" and pointing at the mini bar... and telling me to call star something (front desk?). I had originally left a note of request for her and a tip, but when we'd come back from or day at IoA, she was in the midst of cleaning, accosted us with shoutings of "Mini Bah!!!" (We hadn't even touched the darned Mini Bar)... And left without taking the tip.... And really didn't finish the room either... I started to fear the "evil-scary housekeeper lady", and I found myself avoiding her... Feeling the sting of her accusing glare from behind her cart... Okay, I'm trying to be funny here... But I'll tell you, the next day when she'd "cleaned" the room, I noticed that there were a few extra sundry bathroom items, that weren't there when we checked in... Meaning, she hadn't included them when she prepared the room in the first place.
Evil-scary housekeeper lady (Mini-Bah!!) was really one of our only complaints about our stay. I could not figure out the short-cut to the parks until it was too late (more walking), only one of the hot-tubs was working when we'd tried them and the jets on the one that did wasn't where I really needed it on my upper back... But other than that, the place is fantastic!! The staff is incredibly terrific, and very helpful. Yes, the staff are all dressed in black, and they actually looked very dressy... Heck, I was expecting bikers or something. Hubby and I probably look alot more "intimidating" with our waist-length hair than any worker there.... But not nearly as intimidating as Evil-scary housekeeper lady! ....MINI-BAH!!.....
Fri. 11/2 - Islands of Adventure
IoA was a first for both Hubby and myself, so we did not know exactly what to expect. For the most part, we had a great time even though it rained off and on for a good part of the afternoon. Unfortunately, we must have spent at least an accumulated 2 hours walking around the inside of ride venues trying to find the line entrance! Evidently, Universal had cut down on their staff so much that they expect their guests to figure out how to get to the entrance of the ride on their own. No need for Express Line access when you can't find it in the first place. And many of the attendants seemed pretty apathetic when you did finally find them to ask for help. My best advice to you would be to find an attendant first thing before even trying to get in line to ask directions This sounds silly now... But once you get lost in the empty queue maze for Dueling Dragons, you'll know what I'm talking about.
That being said I had a lot of fun in Seuss-land (the Cat in the Hat ride is fun!) and Jurassic Park (Loved that Indoor / outdoor water-ride!) and only wished I had a kid to escort so that I could ride the Pteranadon Flyers. If I had kids, I would love to take them to the learning center, where they can learn about dinosaurs through interactive modules.
I was unbelievably impressed with the exterior design of the (Poseidon?) show theatre. The show itself sort of needed something, but I can't put my finger on it. I marveled at the swirling water tunnel and would love to know how they do that! We'd used our HRH passes to be in the express lane (among the first 5 in), but it didn't seem to matter since we ended up in the back somehow for each portion of the show. The Mystic Fountain just outside it is hilarious! Hubby asked "it" why hot dogs always come in pages of 8 and hot dog rolls always come in packages of 10 Fountain replied "Maaaar-ke-tiiiiing.!!.." We noticed later in the day, perhaps after a shift change, that the fountain had a higher modulated voice. HA!
The giant tree (Merlin's Den?) was captivating and next time I definitely want to try some grub in there!
After much hinting and days of note circling on my part, hubby took me to Mythos for lunch!
We were able to use our HRH keys to make reservations and get good seats. Strange thing is, Mythos closed early
at 4pm, I believe. Since we where getting ready to go on rides, I didn't want to get too stuffed, so I got the quesedillas appetizer and that Banana gooey cake! WooooOO! Really nice décor and a great view of the park just outside on the deck (nice photo op). Since we'd just had lunch at Mythos, we skipped out on Dr. Doom's Fear fall. But, I can proudly report that I DID ride Spiderman, that I had no motion-sickness problems, and that it was incredible! Probably one of my favorite rides ever! I did not get brave enough for the Hulk, but it was an incredibly breathtaking ride just to watch!! Hubby rode it and seemed pretty impressed I can quote him as saying that "it kicked *** " and that "the launch is the best part" Hubby is a big fan of comics and was especially impressed by all the Marvel details that you'd have to be a fan to get. Also, we were able to use my AAA card to get 10% discounts off merchandise, so that tie-dye Wolverine t-shirt was a tad less expensive.
Jurassic Park was deserted, but a whole lot of fun and I only wish that IoA stayed open later so that I could see how it looked at night. We purchased one of those "limited edition" thermos bottles (with the pull-out map in them... How Cool!) and were able to get discounted refills in the park with it. The Learning center (?) would be a great place to take kids, I thought. I have heard several posts about there being nothing for kids to do at this park, but I thought just the opposite was true. Please read Barry's post on this subject, because I found this to ring incredibly true.
I am a water-ride girl... And rain or shine or freezing weather, I'm gonna do them...At the end of the day of course.... But I think in this case, I would have been smarter to have bought a cheap rain poncho and packed it for the trip... Dudley doo right's flume ride (where-the-heck's the-entrance?...And exit!?) was pretty wet... But I got DRENCHED on Bluto's Barges. No waiting that evening for this ride, but I walked around and around and around inside it trying to find out how to get on... When I finally found my way outside it again, I asked the attendant again "How do you get on it?" He replied "Right there!" Nodding towards the exit sign... When I asked him if i was supposed to go to where it said EXIT, He replied "Umm, yeah?" Enough from nasty-attitude boy... I'm now on the ride... Very wet... very cold.. But alot of fun! And I realized too late that there is a place in the center of the raft to put your shoes so they don't get soaked... Doh!! To avoid the squishy walk home, we took the boat back to the HRH. Very nice ride, and worth the wait when you're drenched or too tired and sore.
Sat. 11/3 - Halloween Horror Nights (The last night)
This is the evening that we'd been looking forward to for all year. First off, we bought a HHN thermos bottle of soda, so that we cought get the cheap refills. Lines this year for the haunted houses still seemed long, despite the smaller attendance. I have to admit, even though I really did enjoy myself, I was slightly disappointed in the changes they'd made. A few of the scare zones where in better locals last year, and I have a feeling that maybe they'd moved them to reroute the Parade, which seemed even better this year than last. I think the parade went on four times, a folks were just as bead-greedy as ever.
The Illusions (?) magic show was very good, but seemed understated and strangely out of place with the theming. I enjoyed the side shows and only wished that there where more crowds around to watch them. We were more aware of the timing of shows letting out, which predicts the waiting time in lines. We where able to further lessen our waiting time for MiB for getting in the single rider line... We where perfectly willling to be seperated, but the irony here was that we ended up sitting together anyway!! I don't know the "secrets" so my score still sucks... But I always have fun on it anyway.
I won't rate the scare zones or houses individually, because I can't remember all the names. I can tell you that I was somewhat disappointed in "Run"... More irritating than scary. I think that if they'd paid more attention to the grouping and timing it could have been alot better... "Ooze Zone" seemed to be more of a Hip-hop dance club for the teen set... I was more impressed at the placement of Kong during the whole thing... Is it my imagination or was there TWO KONGS?? Yes, the foam was a cute touch... Coulda used alot more of it, but then it probably would have been a safety hazard. "Pitch Black" was definitely pretty cool... Somebody was acually using some creative thinking here... Only bad side is that it's a claustrophobic's nightmare... If you have problems being squished up against strangers in the dark, you were outta luck here. This could have been solved by better group que timing... But no one listens to me...
The Bill and Ted show was alot of fun and the addition of Jay and Silent Bob was unexpected and too dang funny for words... Perhaps someday they'll this will change to the Jay and Silent Bob show? HMMmmm! Last year's scrap between Lil Kim and Brittany Spears, and Tom Cruise's constant Mission Impossible roll-for-no-reason was funnier than this year's Sex in the City, Charlie's Angels and other female divas or something idea... But this is a salute to (or simultaneous nose thumbing of) entertainment pop icons of today... So watcha gonna do...?
I finally got to ride Jaws! They where closed for refurbishing last year... And I don't care what anybody says about it being "Lame" or whatever, I wasn't disappointed at all. I didn't see any fisherman like I'd heard others post here, but I have a feeling that alot of things on this (Last) night at HHN might have been missing... Some of the scare-actors seemed pretty apathetic... or absent! While others seemed to stay in character the whole time (the later in my opinion, make the whole event worth experiencing).
For anyone that's not gone to HHN yet, don't let me spoil this for you. I really DID have a great time and definitely would/will do it again. Haunted Houses take place in unused soundstages and backlots, and some Universal Studios rides shut down during the Halloween season so that they change and retheme it specifically for the HHN event. Sometimes it's the same ride (maybe it even goes backwards) and is rethemed like Earthquake did last year. Scare-Zones take place in pedestrian areas. Light and shadows and a good amount of dry-ice and good timing is used to startle the unexpecting guest. Good make-up effects and good scare-acting is icing on the cake...
But I gotta be honest... Busch Gardens Tampa's Howl-o-Scream definitely gave them some competition this year...
The next day was my birthday, we had the breakfast buffet at the Sunset Grille at the HRH, checked out, went to Ripley's Believe it or Not, saw Monsters Inc. at Downtown Disney, returned the car, had a light dinner at the Airport and flew home to Norfolk...
...And let me tell you... It's getting harder and harder for us to come back home each time...
