millerglass
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2001
We checked into the Hard Rock Hotel on Thursday morning 11/29/01 at about 10:00. We had a pool room reserved and asked for a Loews upgrade but none were available. She was very friendly and did ask us if we wanted milk and cookies in the room that night and yes they did show up.
Since we just got off of the Disney Wonder Cruise Ship that morning, the HRH room was huge compared to what we were in the last 4 nights. Even still, the room was very large and was extremely comfortable. My 2 daughters screamed with joy as soon as they walked into the room. Plus the view of the pool was simply beautiful.
The pool was unbelievable. It has diferent depths all around the pool. Over by the the sandy beach end, it starts from 0 inches and works its way up from there. Most areas are 3' deep but over by the basketball area it is 4' - 6" deep. There is also a nice and long slide coming down into the pool that adults can also come down and it never had a line.
On Friday night there was the Dive-In movie. It started at 7:00. I can't quite remember the name of the movie but it was the Christmas movie where Tim Allen becomes Santa Claus. They bring a huge screen out to the beach area that must be about 8' X 8' and face it toward the pool. Half of the people were in the pool and half of the people were on the lounge chairs eating popcorn & pizza and drinking there favorite beverages. We have a pool at home so my best guess of the water temperature was about 80 degrees. Me and my 2 daughters thought that it was perfect but my wife opted to stay on the lounge chair.
They did charge us $5 a day for parking which was added onto our room bill. We just needed to swipe our room key when leaving and entering the parking lot.
The hotel and its grounds are beautiful. It only takes about 4 or 5 minutes to walk to USF and maybe another 4 or 5 minutes more to walk through city walk to get to IOA. They also have shuttle boats that shuttle back and forth from the HRH and City Walk. We did that every night going back to the hotel.
We purchased a buy 2 days - get the 3rd day free ticket from AAA before we left home. The first day (Thursday) we did USF. It was pretty empty but still used the FOTL for most rides. About the only times it was really need was for Jaws and MIB. Boy what a great ride MIB is. I think that during the course of the day we must have been on that ride 8 or 9 times. We did every other ride 1 time except for Twister which we did twice.
Friday we started in IOA. We did the Suess area and got as far as the dueling dragons before we needed to be at Mythos for our 11:30 reservations. During the whole lunch, there were only 2 other couples in there besides ourselves. What a place and what a lunch!! We waddled out of there.
We then headed back to USF because our daughters wanted to try and get onto Slime Time Live and they said that they were going to give out tickets at 2:00. Believe it or not, they both got picked to be on the show (12) and (9) and my wife and I got tickets to be in the audience for the 5:00 to 6:00 segment. We called home to my wife's mother so that she would tape it for us and sure enough, the 12 year old got slimed and the 9 year old got a pie in the face. Talk about having a good time!!!! And yes, the grandparents got to see them back at home in Pennsylvania while it was happening. Pretty cool.
Saturday we went back to IOA. This day was the busiest of them all so the FOTL really came in handy for a lot of the rides but still, the most I saw posted for any of the rides was 20 minutes for Spiderman and the Hulk. My daughters and me got addicted to the front seats of the dueling dragons. We probably did that ride 8 times with 4 of them being in the front. We did get soaked on Popeye and got a little wet on Dudley and Jurassic.
We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe Saturday night. We got a discount ticket for a free kids meal while walking through city walk, we got the 10% AAA discount, and also got a free gift coupon from the front desk of the HRH. (a HRH shot glass).
One more thing. Before our flight out on Sunday, we asked if we could walk over to the Portofino Hotel and tour it and also use their pool. I personally like the atmosphere of the HRH better. The pool was a lot of fun though. They also have a slide.
OK, I'm sure I missed a lot but if you have any other questions, you know how to find me. And if I can sum it all up for you. It was a fabulous time. It was in the 80's every day and we did not have a drop of rain. If I had to do it all over again, I don't know what I would change other than make reservations sooner so that I could have gotten the Entertainment rate. Eric
Since we just got off of the Disney Wonder Cruise Ship that morning, the HRH room was huge compared to what we were in the last 4 nights. Even still, the room was very large and was extremely comfortable. My 2 daughters screamed with joy as soon as they walked into the room. Plus the view of the pool was simply beautiful.
The pool was unbelievable. It has diferent depths all around the pool. Over by the the sandy beach end, it starts from 0 inches and works its way up from there. Most areas are 3' deep but over by the basketball area it is 4' - 6" deep. There is also a nice and long slide coming down into the pool that adults can also come down and it never had a line.
On Friday night there was the Dive-In movie. It started at 7:00. I can't quite remember the name of the movie but it was the Christmas movie where Tim Allen becomes Santa Claus. They bring a huge screen out to the beach area that must be about 8' X 8' and face it toward the pool. Half of the people were in the pool and half of the people were on the lounge chairs eating popcorn & pizza and drinking there favorite beverages. We have a pool at home so my best guess of the water temperature was about 80 degrees. Me and my 2 daughters thought that it was perfect but my wife opted to stay on the lounge chair.
They did charge us $5 a day for parking which was added onto our room bill. We just needed to swipe our room key when leaving and entering the parking lot.
The hotel and its grounds are beautiful. It only takes about 4 or 5 minutes to walk to USF and maybe another 4 or 5 minutes more to walk through city walk to get to IOA. They also have shuttle boats that shuttle back and forth from the HRH and City Walk. We did that every night going back to the hotel.
We purchased a buy 2 days - get the 3rd day free ticket from AAA before we left home. The first day (Thursday) we did USF. It was pretty empty but still used the FOTL for most rides. About the only times it was really need was for Jaws and MIB. Boy what a great ride MIB is. I think that during the course of the day we must have been on that ride 8 or 9 times. We did every other ride 1 time except for Twister which we did twice.
Friday we started in IOA. We did the Suess area and got as far as the dueling dragons before we needed to be at Mythos for our 11:30 reservations. During the whole lunch, there were only 2 other couples in there besides ourselves. What a place and what a lunch!! We waddled out of there.
We then headed back to USF because our daughters wanted to try and get onto Slime Time Live and they said that they were going to give out tickets at 2:00. Believe it or not, they both got picked to be on the show (12) and (9) and my wife and I got tickets to be in the audience for the 5:00 to 6:00 segment. We called home to my wife's mother so that she would tape it for us and sure enough, the 12 year old got slimed and the 9 year old got a pie in the face. Talk about having a good time!!!! And yes, the grandparents got to see them back at home in Pennsylvania while it was happening. Pretty cool.
Saturday we went back to IOA. This day was the busiest of them all so the FOTL really came in handy for a lot of the rides but still, the most I saw posted for any of the rides was 20 minutes for Spiderman and the Hulk. My daughters and me got addicted to the front seats of the dueling dragons. We probably did that ride 8 times with 4 of them being in the front. We did get soaked on Popeye and got a little wet on Dudley and Jurassic.
We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe Saturday night. We got a discount ticket for a free kids meal while walking through city walk, we got the 10% AAA discount, and also got a free gift coupon from the front desk of the HRH. (a HRH shot glass).
One more thing. Before our flight out on Sunday, we asked if we could walk over to the Portofino Hotel and tour it and also use their pool. I personally like the atmosphere of the HRH better. The pool was a lot of fun though. They also have a slide.
OK, I'm sure I missed a lot but if you have any other questions, you know how to find me. And if I can sum it all up for you. It was a fabulous time. It was in the 80's every day and we did not have a drop of rain. If I had to do it all over again, I don't know what I would change other than make reservations sooner so that I could have gotten the Entertainment rate. Eric
