We are here ~ YEAH!! LIVE from the Hard Rock, Universal.
Here is Day One - Saturday Aug 16th.
The Cast
Cassie - 38 - Mom and former travel agent, planning is what I do.
Noel - 9 - Thinks she is a princess and everything is free.
The Plan - 6 nights Hard Rock Club Level, 7 nights Beach Club Concierge, 3 nights AKL Concierge and a few extra goodies along the way.
~~~~~
The alarm went off and we leaped out of bed and started dressing.
The Airport Limo arrived for us - funny, the number on the towncar is "666" I joke with the driver and he says "Don't worry ma'am, I have a bible in the glovebox" After a day of power outages and major stress I find the 666-mobile limo number very fitting.
We arrive at a crowded but very orderly Terminal II at Toronto's International Airport. I am expecting total chaos as most flights on Friday were cancelled, to my surprise it is not bad at all. In fact - WAY better than last time I flew.
I put Noel in the express check in line with our trolly of luggage and go to the express machines that efficiently spat out our bording passes with one swipe of my Aeroplan card.
We are in line with other relieved travellers who were also expecting the worst. Moments later an airport worker came by offering us complimetary bottled water, wow. We breezed through check in into the next section.. US Customs, which is pretty well deserted taking all of 5 minutes but gave me a moment to chat with a girl from Ottawa who was on her way to the Disney Cruise.
Customs was completed and then we were on to security to be xrayed and scanned. As we had a cell phone, camera, laptop and DVD player.. it took about 20 minutes for a fellow wearing a turban who did not speak english to decide we were no threat to our fellow passengers and he set us free.
We got to the gate in record time and still had 60 minutes to departure. I set Noel up with her DVD player in a quiet corner near a big plant, she was sitting on the carpet and I went to get us a drink and a snack... when I returned there were 4 kids sitting with her and they were all watching Harry Potter. The DvD player was a big hit, parents thanked me for entertaining their children - Noel was the belle of the ball.
The flight was great - Noel got a kids meal of chicken fingers and fries and a brownie - she was thrilled.(I don't remember ordering it) We watched Shrek on the plane with her DVD and we were in Orlando before we knew it. The flight left about 40 minutes late and arrived maybe 15 minutes late - I was so happy considering just 18 hours prior no flights were operating.
Our luggage was on the belt when we arrived at the baggage claim as was a little tiny woman from Happy Limo who had my name on a sign... she whisked us to her town car, thankfully not a "666" and we were at the Hard Rock at 2:15pm.
The front desk had no line - our room was ready - I had requested a poolview and recieved a great room 7046 - just a short walk from the Club Lounge and a gorgeous poolview with 2 queen size beds. I did not ask about upgrades... I did not ask about loews welcome gifts, I did not ask about kids gifts... I really just wanted to get to the pool.
We had booked a cabana for today - the yellow submarine themed one, so after dropping our bags and having a look at our room we headed for the cabana. It was great.. we spent the whole afternoon/evening there and had lunch, there was a fridge full of drinks, a big fruit bowl, towels and 2 float rafts.
The pool was great and we were there till 7:30pm. Actually I popped up to the room to unpack and left Noel playing with a bunch of kids having a great time. By the way - the cabana has a TV and it was neat to watch it during our lunch and also during a brief rainfall of about 20 minutes this afternoon.
At 8pm we dried off and changed and caught a water taxi to citywalk which was packed... we looked around and came back to the Club Lounge where tonights gourmet offerings were Chocolate and Vanilla puddings, oreos, chocolate chip cookies and rice krispie squares. City walk is so pretty at night, all the palm tree trunks are wrapped with lights.
About the Hard Rock - it is beautiful hotel, great staff (so far) pool..etc.. very clean, room is normal size.. nice bathroom, 2 sinks, outside and inside, lots of drawers and a good size closet. 3 big chairs and a star shaped stool that Noel has claimed.
The slide at the pool is long and fast.. Noel was really enjoying it - personally I find the pool really shallow, and smaller then the Royal Pacific's pool. Gardens are beautiful, fountains and rock and roll stuff is cool... music everywhere. Lunch was good, just hot dogs and fries... we skipped dinner as lunch was so late.
I also want to let you know there is a dog on the club floor that is barking incessantly.. it is about 4 doors down and won't shut up. So FYI this is not a pet free zone. One of those little annoying dogs.. like a ****zu, shizhu? (spelling?)
Thanks for reading... tomorrow we hit the parks
Goodnight from the Hard Rock
>>^..^<<
Here is Day One - Saturday Aug 16th.
The Cast
Cassie - 38 - Mom and former travel agent, planning is what I do.
Noel - 9 - Thinks she is a princess and everything is free.
The Plan - 6 nights Hard Rock Club Level, 7 nights Beach Club Concierge, 3 nights AKL Concierge and a few extra goodies along the way.
~~~~~
The alarm went off and we leaped out of bed and started dressing.
The Airport Limo arrived for us - funny, the number on the towncar is "666" I joke with the driver and he says "Don't worry ma'am, I have a bible in the glovebox" After a day of power outages and major stress I find the 666-mobile limo number very fitting.
We arrive at a crowded but very orderly Terminal II at Toronto's International Airport. I am expecting total chaos as most flights on Friday were cancelled, to my surprise it is not bad at all. In fact - WAY better than last time I flew.
I put Noel in the express check in line with our trolly of luggage and go to the express machines that efficiently spat out our bording passes with one swipe of my Aeroplan card.
We are in line with other relieved travellers who were also expecting the worst. Moments later an airport worker came by offering us complimetary bottled water, wow.
We breezed through check in into the next section.. US Customs, which is pretty well deserted taking all of 5 minutes but gave me a moment to chat with a girl from Ottawa who was on her way to the Disney Cruise.Customs was completed and then we were on to security to be xrayed and scanned. As we had a cell phone, camera, laptop and DVD player.. it took about 20 minutes for a fellow wearing a turban who did not speak english to decide we were no threat to our fellow passengers and he set us free.
We got to the gate in record time and still had 60 minutes to departure. I set Noel up with her DVD player in a quiet corner near a big plant, she was sitting on the carpet and I went to get us a drink and a snack... when I returned there were 4 kids sitting with her and they were all watching Harry Potter.
The DvD player was a big hit, parents thanked me for entertaining their children - Noel was the belle of the ball.The flight was great - Noel got a kids meal of chicken fingers and fries and a brownie - she was thrilled.(I don't remember ordering it) We watched Shrek on the plane with her DVD and we were in Orlando before we knew it. The flight left about 40 minutes late and arrived maybe 15 minutes late - I was so happy considering just 18 hours prior no flights were operating.
Our luggage was on the belt when we arrived at the baggage claim as was a little tiny woman from Happy Limo who had my name on a sign... she whisked us to her town car, thankfully not a "666" and we were at the Hard Rock at 2:15pm.
The front desk had no line - our room was ready - I had requested a poolview and recieved a great room 7046 - just a short walk from the Club Lounge and a gorgeous poolview with 2 queen size beds. I did not ask about upgrades... I did not ask about loews welcome gifts, I did not ask about kids gifts... I really just wanted to get to the pool.
We had booked a cabana for today - the yellow submarine themed one, so after dropping our bags and having a look at our room we headed for the cabana. It was great.. we spent the whole afternoon/evening there and had lunch, there was a fridge full of drinks, a big fruit bowl, towels and 2 float rafts.
The pool was great and we were there till 7:30pm. Actually I popped up to the room to unpack and left Noel playing with a bunch of kids having a great time. By the way - the cabana has a TV and it was neat to watch it during our lunch and also during a brief rainfall of about 20 minutes this afternoon.
At 8pm we dried off and changed and caught a water taxi to citywalk which was packed... we looked around and came back to the Club Lounge where tonights gourmet offerings were Chocolate and Vanilla puddings, oreos, chocolate chip cookies and rice krispie squares. City walk is so pretty at night, all the palm tree trunks are wrapped with lights.
About the Hard Rock - it is beautiful hotel, great staff (so far) pool..etc.. very clean, room is normal size.. nice bathroom, 2 sinks, outside and inside, lots of drawers and a good size closet. 3 big chairs and a star shaped stool that Noel has claimed.
The slide at the pool is long and fast.. Noel was really enjoying it - personally I find the pool really shallow, and smaller then the Royal Pacific's pool. Gardens are beautiful, fountains and rock and roll stuff is cool... music everywhere. Lunch was good, just hot dogs and fries... we skipped dinner as lunch was so late.
I also want to let you know there is a dog on the club floor that is barking incessantly.. it is about 4 doors down and won't shut up. So FYI this is not a pet free zone. One of those little annoying dogs.. like a ****zu, shizhu? (spelling?)
Thanks for reading... tomorrow we hit the parks
Goodnight from the Hard Rock
>>^..^<<
