Wafflestoo
should be cleaning
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2006
We just returned from a wonderful vacation to Orlando, which included 6 days at the HRH doing the Universal Parks.
The Cast: Me (46) planner of all vacation, money watcher, thrill ride seeker, DH (52) loves to relax, afraid of spinning rides and roller coasters, DS (11) will do any thrill ride, any time, just point him in the right direction, loves to swim and DS (7)beginning to try the scarier rides. Loves to eat. Loves to swim.
The Setting: We have done Disney for the past few years and needed to try something new and different for a change. We included Sea World and Discovery Cove in this trip while staying at the Villas at Cypress Garden for the first 4 days. On to Universal…
Day 1: We checked into HRH at about 11:00 fully prepared to swim in the pool until our room was ready, but surprise, surprise… room was all ready for us. We stayed in room 2130, which was a FANTASTIC location. It had easy exit to pool or walk to parks. We were upgraded to pool view via Lowe’s First and we requested the bottle of red wine as our welcome gift… to our children’s displeasure… but hey… I’m on vacation too.
We spent a lot to relaxing time by the beautiful pool this day and headed over to Universal Studios about 4:00. I explained to the family that this was going to be the busiest time in the park, but hey… we had FOTL access. WOW… FOTL is truly amazing. NO WAIT FOR ANYTHING!!!! Do you know that you have to walk through 9 rooms of turnstiles at the Mummy to get onto the ride? It was a total walk on with Express Pass. I can’t imagine waiting in line. It would have been a totally different vacation for us. We loved Shrek and Terminator 2. The Mummy was cool, all 3 times and we enjoyed MIB (hubby hated the spinning part), and one of our all time favorites… Horror Make Up Show, What a crack up… They chose my youngest son as the boy who threw the rock (I’ll be watching you). The rest of the day was wonderful. After a few more rides we headed over to Bubba Gumps Shrimp Company and enjoyed our meal tremendously.
Day 2: We hit Universal Studios at 8:30. They let you in early for a few rides that open early. The park is SOOO empty at this time that it is total no wait on many of the features that our open. FOLKS … this is the way to do it. Yeah… you have to get up earlier in the morning, but the benefits are amazing. You get the total park to yourselves. We finished this park at 12:00, having done many of our favorites again. Back to the HRH for some swimming. We ate a huge meal by the pool and spent the afternoon by the pool. We headed over to IOA late afternoon totally prepared for the crowd, but still wanting to check things out. It was really crowded and we just spend an hour there walking around getting the lay of the land.
Day 3: 8:30 standing in line for IOA. We did the Hulk 3 times in a row because we had FOTL. We then headed over to the DD… for a little fire and ice. Tried Ice first then we did fire twice. Lots of rides in the AM and headed back to the pool for a lot of swimming. We walked over to the Portofino and spent the day playing in their pool. We ate at Jimmy Buffet’s Margarietaville and had another wonderful meal.
NOTE TO PEOPLE: STAY ONSITE the benefit from FOTL access are priceless. It made our vacation. It saves time and saves tempers, and sooo worth the price of the Universal Hotels, which by the way, are very nice first class hotels that are equal to if not better than many of the deluxe Disney hotels (which are more expensive). HRH was wonderful.
More later,
Meg
The Cast: Me (46) planner of all vacation, money watcher, thrill ride seeker, DH (52) loves to relax, afraid of spinning rides and roller coasters, DS (11) will do any thrill ride, any time, just point him in the right direction, loves to swim and DS (7)beginning to try the scarier rides. Loves to eat. Loves to swim.
The Setting: We have done Disney for the past few years and needed to try something new and different for a change. We included Sea World and Discovery Cove in this trip while staying at the Villas at Cypress Garden for the first 4 days. On to Universal…
Day 1: We checked into HRH at about 11:00 fully prepared to swim in the pool until our room was ready, but surprise, surprise… room was all ready for us. We stayed in room 2130, which was a FANTASTIC location. It had easy exit to pool or walk to parks. We were upgraded to pool view via Lowe’s First and we requested the bottle of red wine as our welcome gift… to our children’s displeasure… but hey… I’m on vacation too.
We spent a lot to relaxing time by the beautiful pool this day and headed over to Universal Studios about 4:00. I explained to the family that this was going to be the busiest time in the park, but hey… we had FOTL access. WOW… FOTL is truly amazing. NO WAIT FOR ANYTHING!!!! Do you know that you have to walk through 9 rooms of turnstiles at the Mummy to get onto the ride? It was a total walk on with Express Pass. I can’t imagine waiting in line. It would have been a totally different vacation for us. We loved Shrek and Terminator 2. The Mummy was cool, all 3 times and we enjoyed MIB (hubby hated the spinning part), and one of our all time favorites… Horror Make Up Show, What a crack up… They chose my youngest son as the boy who threw the rock (I’ll be watching you). The rest of the day was wonderful. After a few more rides we headed over to Bubba Gumps Shrimp Company and enjoyed our meal tremendously.
Day 2: We hit Universal Studios at 8:30. They let you in early for a few rides that open early. The park is SOOO empty at this time that it is total no wait on many of the features that our open. FOLKS … this is the way to do it. Yeah… you have to get up earlier in the morning, but the benefits are amazing. You get the total park to yourselves. We finished this park at 12:00, having done many of our favorites again. Back to the HRH for some swimming. We ate a huge meal by the pool and spent the afternoon by the pool. We headed over to IOA late afternoon totally prepared for the crowd, but still wanting to check things out. It was really crowded and we just spend an hour there walking around getting the lay of the land.
Day 3: 8:30 standing in line for IOA. We did the Hulk 3 times in a row because we had FOTL. We then headed over to the DD… for a little fire and ice. Tried Ice first then we did fire twice. Lots of rides in the AM and headed back to the pool for a lot of swimming. We walked over to the Portofino and spent the day playing in their pool. We ate at Jimmy Buffet’s Margarietaville and had another wonderful meal.
NOTE TO PEOPLE: STAY ONSITE the benefit from FOTL access are priceless. It made our vacation. It saves time and saves tempers, and sooo worth the price of the Universal Hotels, which by the way, are very nice first class hotels that are equal to if not better than many of the deluxe Disney hotels (which are more expensive). HRH was wonderful.
More later,
Meg
Glad to hear you all had a wonderful time 
