Sleepy
<font color=royalblue>I'll have to remember that o
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2000
cast:
me, age 31
DH, age 37
DS, age 9
Wednesday July 25...Hard Rock Hotel/SeaWorld
We wake up at Wingate Hotel at 9am and get ready for the day. We ate at KFC around 11am because DH again can't pick a place to eat. Still wondering what his problem is. We decide to early check-in for Hard Rock. I had called ahead a week earlier to make sure full payment was received for stay and that everything was set. We drive to the guard house and they take our name. Check the list and can't find us. HUH? I show confirmation slip and he waves us through. We get to lobby and were greeted by a very helpful person i think his name was Jeff (will explain why can't remember his name). I gave him our name and he can't find us. I show him our confirmation slip and he says our reservation was cancelled. I about flipped. Was ready to ask him what happened to my $600 which was already recieved and he said he would take care of us. I said ok and remained calm. I showed him my Lowes card and Entertainment card and gave him the card I received in the mail at christmas from Lowes for an upgrade and asked him for an upgrade if it was possible. I reserved a poolview which was all I really wanted, but if I could get upgrade, that would be great. He told us he was upgrading us to club level. WOO HOO!!!!! I was so excited. Hubby looked at me like..."What's club level?" Jeff(??) gave us a paper to fill out for Lowes benefit welcome gift (fruit or wine or cookies). Said since we were club level, this really wasn't necessary, but he had to fill it out. We got our temp room key for charging purposes and left with smiles a mile long
and more thank yous than I could give this wonderful place and employees. We left the hotel and went over to Shades of Green at Disney for our tickets to Universal and SeaWorld. Stopped by lobby to check on our ressies since Hard Rock cancelled us. Could not find our ressie in the computer either. HUH? Talk about a vacation that wasn't going to happen...lol. Found out they had my DH first and last name reversed in the computer. I had a long walk to the parking lot for the confirmation only to get back and find out DH took care of problem. We requested a room closest to the lobby as possible. She put the request in the computer. Ok, so it's about 1pm and we decide to go ahead and spend the afternoon in SeaWorld since we were to get 2nd day free. This Fl sun is hot hot hot and I needed a hair scrunchie. We stand in a line for the 2nd day free ticket w/ picture on it and it starts to rain again. Now my hair is really unmanageable and after the 30 minute wait for the 2nd day tickets, we find the hair accessories and some pressed pennies. WOO HOO!!!! We love pressed pennies. We go around and collect all of them and wait in line for a hotdog stand (can't think of the name for it). This line was not moving. One person got a hotdog and passed by us and it looked uncooked. I watched the person sit down and hand the hotdog to his father and the father felt it to see if it was even cooked. I told hubby lets go to the restaurant by it which served burgers...I think called dockside. The food was the regular park burgers. We then get in line for Wild Arctic. The line is of course long. We get in the seats and the film begins. All of a sudden, the film stops and the voice says to get off due to tech difficulties. I ask if this is a joke and everyone is exiting. I wait a few more secs and the CMs say go back to the seats. Apparently, 2 of the seats were not functioning properly and they had to move 2 people to another set of seat. Once again, the film starts and I could not believe how jerky this ride is. Worse than BTTF at Universal. I got caught offguard and my arm slipped off the arm rest and behind it and my DH arm and shoulder and I thought for a split second I had broken my arm. This ride is really intense in my opinion. We were in the last row. After the ride, we found the dolphins. We waited in the rain to touch one and they just got close enough that you could NOT touch them. DH said he was gonna get some fish to get them to come over. I thought he was joking or was about to try something illegal. 
He walked away and about 10- minutes later came back with fish bought at the stand. Oh, you can buy fish to feed the dolphins. Good idea. My son held a fish out and a dolphin came right over. If you don't feed them right away, they will start talking to you. We took almost a whole roll of film on just the dolphins. $4 on 4 fish is pretty expensive, but to get the opportunity to touch a dolphin...in my opinion, it is worth it. We were ready to go back to Hard Rock Hotel by now so we walk in the rain to the truck. Stop by lobby of hotel and get the permenant room keys and get our room #7045. I open the curtains and gloom falls over me
No pool view. I know, I got upgrade free, but I was hoping for a poolview as that is what I made ressies for. My son could care less about what kind of view. He was thrilled to have to use a room key in the elevator. They informed us of milk and cookies at 8:30pm. It's about 7pm and we are ready for dinner. We loved Hard Rock Cafe last time we ate there in March and I wanted one of those chicken sandwiches again, so off to Hard Rock we go. I told my Dh that all we had to do was go up to podium and show our room key and we could avoid the long line. We did so and the guy next in line got angry and said "Woah Woah Woah there" and we kept going. We sat in the Blues room upstairs by the fireplace. I had what I thought was that chicken sandwich from March visit and DH had Turkey sandwich and DS had pizza. My chicken was grilled not fried like in March (the only option on menu other than the Jerk chicken) and I did not like it. My fries looked like they had been refried to make them warm to keep from throwing them away. Lets just say my meal was not what I was expecting. I asked the waiter about the menu and he said they just changed it so the chicken sandwich I was hoping for was not even served anymore. Darn. Oh well, I leave this restaurant the way I left Planet Hollywood 2 years ago....been there, done that, don't care to do it again. As we left, we noticed the angry guy from the podium sitting in our room eating his meal. We walked over to IOA to show DS where we were going after Universal. The walk back to the room was nice. They were serving the milk and cookies in the lounge so DS insisted we go get some. He is not shy and jumped right in. Sorry to say, I was not impressed. I was expecting homemade cookies. There were Oreos, Nutter Butters and then some (what looked like) homemade oatmeal raisin and a very limited amount of M&M cookies (gone before we got through the line). We got to bed kinda early this night.
My impression of club level rooms was no better than the impression of garden view rooms. I would say same size. Our garden view had same furniture and everything. The size of the bathroom in garden view was smaller, but only because there was a seperate vanity area outside the bathroom and in club, the vanity/sink were in the bathroom. Double sink with double oval mirrors. Club level also had 2 bathrobes which I was not impressed with. They seemed stiff and thin. I prefer fluffy robes. THere is a complimentary use umbrella. We did not recieve the key to the mini bar, but that was ok, because we did not need it. Honestly, Garden view rooms are just as nice, if not more convenient with the seperate vanity area than the club level rooms. The carpet in our room was very dirty. Looks like alot of the food and drink served in the lounge made it's way to the rooms and then on the floor. The entire pathway in the room was speckled with drink spills. Not sure if this is permenant stain, but they need to clean the carpet in this room. I will comment on housekeeping in last report for HRH stay.
Tomorrow.....Universal.
me, age 31
DH, age 37
DS, age 9
Wednesday July 25...Hard Rock Hotel/SeaWorld
We wake up at Wingate Hotel at 9am and get ready for the day. We ate at KFC around 11am because DH again can't pick a place to eat. Still wondering what his problem is. We decide to early check-in for Hard Rock. I had called ahead a week earlier to make sure full payment was received for stay and that everything was set. We drive to the guard house and they take our name. Check the list and can't find us. HUH? I show confirmation slip and he waves us through. We get to lobby and were greeted by a very helpful person i think his name was Jeff (will explain why can't remember his name). I gave him our name and he can't find us. I show him our confirmation slip and he says our reservation was cancelled. I about flipped. Was ready to ask him what happened to my $600 which was already recieved and he said he would take care of us. I said ok and remained calm. I showed him my Lowes card and Entertainment card and gave him the card I received in the mail at christmas from Lowes for an upgrade and asked him for an upgrade if it was possible. I reserved a poolview which was all I really wanted, but if I could get upgrade, that would be great. He told us he was upgrading us to club level. WOO HOO!!!!! I was so excited. Hubby looked at me like..."What's club level?" Jeff(??) gave us a paper to fill out for Lowes benefit welcome gift (fruit or wine or cookies). Said since we were club level, this really wasn't necessary, but he had to fill it out. We got our temp room key for charging purposes and left with smiles a mile long
and more thank yous than I could give this wonderful place and employees. We left the hotel and went over to Shades of Green at Disney for our tickets to Universal and SeaWorld. Stopped by lobby to check on our ressies since Hard Rock cancelled us. Could not find our ressie in the computer either. HUH? Talk about a vacation that wasn't going to happen...lol. Found out they had my DH first and last name reversed in the computer. I had a long walk to the parking lot for the confirmation only to get back and find out DH took care of problem. We requested a room closest to the lobby as possible. She put the request in the computer. Ok, so it's about 1pm and we decide to go ahead and spend the afternoon in SeaWorld since we were to get 2nd day free. This Fl sun is hot hot hot and I needed a hair scrunchie. We stand in a line for the 2nd day free ticket w/ picture on it and it starts to rain again. Now my hair is really unmanageable and after the 30 minute wait for the 2nd day tickets, we find the hair accessories and some pressed pennies. WOO HOO!!!! We love pressed pennies. We go around and collect all of them and wait in line for a hotdog stand (can't think of the name for it). This line was not moving. One person got a hotdog and passed by us and it looked uncooked. I watched the person sit down and hand the hotdog to his father and the father felt it to see if it was even cooked. I told hubby lets go to the restaurant by it which served burgers...I think called dockside. The food was the regular park burgers. We then get in line for Wild Arctic. The line is of course long. We get in the seats and the film begins. All of a sudden, the film stops and the voice says to get off due to tech difficulties. I ask if this is a joke and everyone is exiting. I wait a few more secs and the CMs say go back to the seats. Apparently, 2 of the seats were not functioning properly and they had to move 2 people to another set of seat. Once again, the film starts and I could not believe how jerky this ride is. Worse than BTTF at Universal. I got caught offguard and my arm slipped off the arm rest and behind it and my DH arm and shoulder and I thought for a split second I had broken my arm. This ride is really intense in my opinion. We were in the last row. After the ride, we found the dolphins. We waited in the rain to touch one and they just got close enough that you could NOT touch them. DH said he was gonna get some fish to get them to come over. I thought he was joking or was about to try something illegal. He walked away and about 10- minutes later came back with fish bought at the stand. Oh, you can buy fish to feed the dolphins. Good idea. My son held a fish out and a dolphin came right over. If you don't feed them right away, they will start talking to you. We took almost a whole roll of film on just the dolphins. $4 on 4 fish is pretty expensive, but to get the opportunity to touch a dolphin...in my opinion, it is worth it. We were ready to go back to Hard Rock Hotel by now so we walk in the rain to the truck. Stop by lobby of hotel and get the permenant room keys and get our room #7045. I open the curtains and gloom falls over me No pool view. I know, I got upgrade free, but I was hoping for a poolview as that is what I made ressies for. My son could care less about what kind of view. He was thrilled to have to use a room key in the elevator. They informed us of milk and cookies at 8:30pm. It's about 7pm and we are ready for dinner. We loved Hard Rock Cafe last time we ate there in March and I wanted one of those chicken sandwiches again, so off to Hard Rock we go. I told my Dh that all we had to do was go up to podium and show our room key and we could avoid the long line. We did so and the guy next in line got angry and said "Woah Woah Woah there" and we kept going. We sat in the Blues room upstairs by the fireplace. I had what I thought was that chicken sandwich from March visit and DH had Turkey sandwich and DS had pizza. My chicken was grilled not fried like in March (the only option on menu other than the Jerk chicken) and I did not like it. My fries looked like they had been refried to make them warm to keep from throwing them away. Lets just say my meal was not what I was expecting. I asked the waiter about the menu and he said they just changed it so the chicken sandwich I was hoping for was not even served anymore. Darn. Oh well, I leave this restaurant the way I left Planet Hollywood 2 years ago....been there, done that, don't care to do it again. As we left, we noticed the angry guy from the podium sitting in our room eating his meal. We walked over to IOA to show DS where we were going after Universal. The walk back to the room was nice. They were serving the milk and cookies in the lounge so DS insisted we go get some. He is not shy and jumped right in. Sorry to say, I was not impressed. I was expecting homemade cookies. There were Oreos, Nutter Butters and then some (what looked like) homemade oatmeal raisin and a very limited amount of M&M cookies (gone before we got through the line). We got to bed kinda early this night. My impression of club level rooms was no better than the impression of garden view rooms. I would say same size. Our garden view had same furniture and everything. The size of the bathroom in garden view was smaller, but only because there was a seperate vanity area outside the bathroom and in club, the vanity/sink were in the bathroom. Double sink with double oval mirrors. Club level also had 2 bathrobes which I was not impressed with. They seemed stiff and thin. I prefer fluffy robes. THere is a complimentary use umbrella. We did not recieve the key to the mini bar, but that was ok, because we did not need it. Honestly, Garden view rooms are just as nice, if not more convenient with the seperate vanity area than the club level rooms. The carpet in our room was very dirty. Looks like alot of the food and drink served in the lounge made it's way to the rooms and then on the floor. The entire pathway in the room was speckled with drink spills. Not sure if this is permenant stain, but they need to clean the carpet in this room. I will comment on housekeeping in last report for HRH stay.
Tomorrow.....Universal.
