Turkey and treacles, we went back! TR started! Park Day 3 added

Nice, I am glad you had a fun time at Surf City. Yeah, the winds can be annoying. Glad you got to enjoy the beach before they closed them.

Our next trip is next month, to the keys, as my littlest is going to be 16, and loves the beach and water. Ah, more sand everywhere.
 
90 DAYS AND COUNTING!!!!!!!!!! party:

We all know that one of the biggest advantages to a Universal vacations is that you actually feel like you've had a vacation. I like to think of it as set it and forget it.

Sooooo....when those big milestone days hit it's like :dancer::dancer:freaky dancing people in my head! When these creaky bones hit the floor in the morning we are 90 days from blast off!

The plans I'm currently mulling over in my head concern Thanksgiving Day. My parents live about 90 minutes outside of Orlando for six months out of the year. Not seeing them for 6 months means that we'll obviously want to be with them on Thanksgiving. We just need to decide if we want to go to where they live or if we want to have them come to Orlando and treat them to dinner somewhere that they wouldn't ordinarily go. Ocala is their normal territory.

I don't know why I'd never known this until now, but did you know that in Disney Springs there's a dedicated gluten free bakery????? We'd planned on one trip to DS to the running store and to do some Christmas shopping for our nieces, but finding that bakery.......I'm going to need the stretchy pants for that one. Celiac disease is no fun and it usually means saying no.......the thought of being able to walk into a bakery and being able to have anything I want is a bit more than I can comprehend. I still need to find either Fresh Market or Whole Foods close to HRH so that we can grab some of my favorite GF snacks to have on hand.

Any GF peeps have any recommendations on what/where to eat? We'll have a car so it doesn't have to be onsite.
 
Oh, I almost forgot! Football season is now in full swing, here's to an injury free season!!
 
90 DAYS AND COUNTING!!!!!!!!!! party:

We all know that one of the biggest advantages to a Universal vacations is that you actually feel like you've had a vacation. I like to think of it as set it and forget it.

Sooooo....when those big milestone days hit it's like :dancer::dancer:freaky dancing people in my head! When these creaky bones hit the floor in the morning we are 90 days from blast off!

The plans I'm currently mulling over in my head concern Thanksgiving Day. My parents live about 90 minutes outside of Orlando for six months out of the year. Not seeing them for 6 months means that we'll obviously want to be with them on Thanksgiving. We just need to decide if we want to go to where they live or if we want to have them come to Orlando and treat them to dinner somewhere that they wouldn't ordinarily go. Ocala is their normal territory.

I don't know why I'd never known this until now, but did you know that in Disney Springs there's a dedicated gluten free bakery????? We'd planned on one trip to DS to the running store and to do some Christmas shopping for our nieces, but finding that bakery.......I'm going to need the stretchy pants for that one. Celiac disease is no fun and it usually means saying no.......the thought of being able to walk into a bakery and being able to have anything I want is a bit more than I can comprehend. I still need to find either Fresh Market or Whole Foods close to HRH so that we can grab some of my favorite GF snacks to have on hand.

Any GF peeps have any recommendations on what/where to eat? We'll have a car so it doesn't have to be onsite.

Any date closer to your trip is worth celebrating.........

There's a whole foods store on Turkey Lake Road on the junction with Sand Lake Rd. Maybe 5 minutes by car away from the Universal hotels.........it's a really nice store even if you're not into healthy foods.........
 


So far, so good!! We're 4 football games into the season and so far the kid is in one piece. :worship:

Bit of forward motion good news for our November vacation. Going into the summer I had the best of intentions....I was going to be super smart and savvy and find the best theme park ticket pricing. Yeah, so much for that. Called Universal this morning and paid the hotel reservation and bought a Preferred season pass and two 2 park 5 day tickets.

It feels like we've been going non-stop for months....sooooo ready for this vacation to get here and slip into our much cherished family bubble.
 
I am so excited for you. We went that week in 2016 and are planning a return trip in 2018. We loved going at Thanksgiving. Yes, it was crowded but as long as you can plan you will be fine and have so much fun :)
 
34 days and counting!!

I can't even make this stuff up.

It's the dawn of another week, but it has to be better than last week. Last Monday had me getting a rather frantic call from the school nurse. Corey was in her office doubled over in pain that was coming from his right side...pain that had hit so suddenly and fiercely that he couldn't even sit up. It took most of the afternoon into the evening to confirm that it wasn't his appendix. After a follow-up appointment later in the week with a Gastro, it was confirmed that he has IBS as a result of antibiotics he'd taken last month for walking pneumonia. 16yrs old and IBS, dandy. Would you believe that wasn't even the worst part of my day?

I come in and go downstairs to put something in the chest freezer. The chest freezer that I hadn't opened since at least May (this is where you want to insert the horror movie soundtrack). At some point said chest freezer had died.....there is no description for just how bad it smelled. :crazy2::crazy2:

34 days and counting, 34 days. How bad this family is ready for this vacation....no words, people. No words.
 


Just one week ago today I was just waking up for the last time of our vacation at Hard Rock. Now comes the fun of reliving all the fun of telling the tales....

Travel Day 1 (Friday, 11/17)
Is there anything better than waking up on day 0 of vacation countdown? I woke up on this morning and hit the ground running. I jumped out of the bed and went to wake Corey up. I found him bright eyed and bushy tailed with as much vacation excitement as his dear old Mom. I hurriedly stripped all the beds and threw all the linens in the wash while Corey got ready for the few hours he'd be at the school. Meanwhile, the dog sat by his food mat not very happy....he knew something was up. DH was already in the office for the few hours he'd be at work for the day.

Corey and I left the house with Riley's overnight bags packed to take him to our much-trusted kennel. He went in as excited as ever when he saw everyone. With hugs, wags and kisses out of the way, Corey and I were back on our way. I took him to school and raced back home. Linens in the dryer I jumped in the shower. I packed our toiletries and did a last minute check to double check that we had everything. Made the beds, wrote out a couple of notes for my brother who'd be keeping a check on the house and paid the couple of bills not on autopay. I got our bags organized as to how they'd need to be packed and before I knew it, it was time to get Corey from school at 11:30!

I picked Corey up from school and it was home to get this show on the road! Tony and Corey got the bags loaded while I took care of a couple of things in the house. Right on time we were pulling out of the drive at 12:00 and on the road to our destination of Savannah, GA.

We had a very easy and uneventful drive to Savannah. We pulled in at Embassy Suites shortly after 7:00. We went across the way to Cheddar's for a quick and easy dinner. We turned in early knowing we'd be getting up in the morning and finishing off the drive to Orlando!
 
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Woot! Great start. Always a busy beehive when getting out the door for vacation.

I too will be picking little one up from school. I am debating on what time, as they are slow to get the kids to the office.

Glad to hear trip was uneventful to the first pit stop.
 
Travel Day 2 (Saturday, 11/18)
This was it. It was here. The day we'd been waiting months and months for was finally here.....wake up kiddies, you're going to Orlando TODAY!!

While our plan had been to not set an alarm and just wake up whenever.....by 6:15 we were awake and already laughing. Yeah, it was going to be a good day. We all got showered and ready for the 4 1/2 hour drive that would take us the rest of the way to Orlando. If you're ever in need of a stop over in Savannah, we'd easily recommend the Embassy Suites at 145 W. Mulberry Blvd. The access to I-95 was very easy and like always, you can count on a decent breakfast to get the day started. Once we'd had breakfast we checked out, got the bags re-loaded and by 9:30 it was back onto I-95 we were!

We passed the time laughing and talking about everything we were going to see and do. In the week leading up to our trip Tony and I had tossed around the idea of flying and now I'm so very very glad that we didn't. We enjoy road trips together and this was one that I'll always treasure. Everyone was in such a good mood and it was just such a great time. With Corey being 16, who knows how many more chances we'll have for times like that.

The only teeny tiny weird thing that *almost* happened was.....I almost bought an SUV going down the highway. Seriously, I almost bought an Armada. Here goes a tale in living life with me. For quite some time now I've had the decision made to go back to driving a full size SUV, the only reason I haven't pulled the trigger is what I want doesn't exist anymore. Nissan had to go and completely destroy the body of the Armada. I could kick myself for not buying a new '16 model when they were still on the lot. DH had begrudgingly agreed to a used one as long as it met certain criteria. Lo and behold, I'm playing around on my Mac and I find one.....in Orlando. It fit all of the criteria....it was the right specs, color, mileage, trim package. The only downside....the interior could only be described as baby poo brown. It was hideous. Despite meeting all the other criteria, it was deal breaker ugly. Looks like it's still going to be either a Tahoe or Sequoia. Oh well, I could certainly do worse.

Before we knew it, we were seeing the glorious welcome to Florida sign. I just didn't see it in time to get a decent picture of it. LOL!

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Up next we arrive at Hard Rock and luckily, the pictures do get better from here!
 
Woot! Great start. Always a busy beehive when getting out the door for vacation.

I too will be picking little one up from school. I am debating on what time, as they are slow to get the kids to the office.

Glad to hear trip was uneventful to the first pit stop.

We love living in our small town, but sometimes trying to do things quickly.....like picking up a kid on vacation departure day!!!!!......doesn't happen so quickly. The office staff can get a little too chatty! LOL! I left myself a half an hour.

What a smooth start of your trip!

After some of the mishaps we'd had leading up to the trip.....exploding freezers and holding my breath through every football game, we were ready for smooth! :car:
 
Travel Day 2 (Saturday, 11/18) Lots of pictures!
From the time we hit Jacksonville, I started bouncing in my seat with excitement! Corey and I started firing off HP trivia at each other and even Tony chimed in....with some hilarious answers!! By the time we hit Orlando we were in stitches! We couldn't believe all the construction!

After all the months of anticipation, we made the final turn and made that sweet sweet drive and pulled up and were met by the friendly Hard Rock valet staff! Everyone is so genuinely friendly and makes you feel like you're the most important person they'll speak with all day. Even though it's obvious that it's busy, they never make you feel rushed and hurried. It's vacation, they realize it and they want you to feel it every step of the way. With all the bags sorted to be stored until we had our room number, we handed over the keys to valet and off we went to check in.

Natalia greeted us at the check in desk and made us feel like we'd come home! She was friendly and welcoming without being fake. She could tell that I was excited and asked if we were celebrating anything special. I didn't give her a lot of details, just a very quick that we'd had to delay a couple of times due to Corey's injuries and that we were very very happy to be back.

Got through check in and went over to take care of our park tickets. With the in-hotel pickup, this is such a breeze! We'd purchased one Power Pass and two 5 day park-to-park tickets.

Tickets in hand we went off to explore the hotel for a few minutes to end up by the pool to grab a snack and drinks while we waited for our room number.

The sun was out and it was a beautiful day! Tony had the Ahi Tuna Poke, I had the Tomato Caprese salad and Corey had chips and salsa at the beach club. Tony and I enjoyed a glass of wine and a mojito and Corey had an orange Fanta. Shortly after we finished I got the text that we had a room number! We went back to the check in desk and Natalia was happily waving us back to see her. We'd be in room 6015. She apologized that it wouldn't be the greatest view...we were so happy to be back that we couldn't care less. She went over everything and told us that there was something for us in the room key portfolio. We thanked her for everything and went on our merry way. In the elevator Tony took a closer look in the portfolio and found that she'd given us three vouchers for the Kitchen breakfast buffet!

And just because you can never see too many pictures of an empty Hard Rock room. This is room 6015. I intentionally left all of the lights off so that it would show in the pictures as you'd see it in the light of day.


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And there you have Room 6015 at the HRH. While I wasn't jazzed about the view when we first arrived, we came to discover that it was perfect! Just to the right in that window shot was the roof of the front drive. On the couple of mornings that we had some drizzle, we could instantly tell whether or not it had stopped and with the windows and sheers opened we had a ton of natural light in the room. It's a room that we'd definitely ask for again. It was quiet during the week and far enough away from the elevators to not be bothered by foot traffic noise.

In short order bell services arrived with our bags. Tony and I changed into shorts and T-shirts and we headed to City Walk to get our lanyards for the trip and just take in that we were really there!

This was our first family selfie of the trip. :-)

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We made our way around to the Uni store and browsed....Corey and I may have giggled like 8yr olds.....and picked out our lanyards. I went with Gryffindor, Corey was Ravenclaw and my precious Tony....Merry Grinchmas. I also had a couple of T-shirts, Corey had picked out a Ravenclaw coffee mug and there were some other odds and ends. When I went to pay I was all excited to use my shiny new Power Pass for the discount, the TM laughed at my excitement and was bummed for me to discover that we hadn't entered the parks yet. She called someone over, he scanned something told us to have an absolutely amazing vacation and went on his way. I looked at our total and it had dropped by half! Whatever he'd done was overly generous and just sent me over the edge. I sought him on our way out and thanked him profusely and told him it was unnecessary but just made our day that much more over the top happy.

We made our way back to HR and I got us unpacked and the bags stored away in the closet. So glad I'd brought those extra packs of hangers from Target! I used an over the door shoe organizer on the bathroom door to keep the vanity clear. I also brought an extra large utility tote tucked away in a corner to drop park purchase bags in so we could keep the room clutter free. A large laundry tote would keep dirty clothes separate and make it easy when we went back home. Unpacked and organized, we headed down to the pool to unwind and cap off the night.

We were so relaxed by the pool we ended up just deciding to order dinner while we lounged.....life sure is stressful at HRH. :-) I had a turkey club wrap, Tony had a philly cheesesteak and Corey had chicken tenders. This is how we wrapped up the day.

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Day 3 is up early for park day 1!
 
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What an exciting way to start this vacation
Laid back and easy going

Thanks for sharing the pictures
I ❤️ The hrh when I started staying onsite!
 
Thanks for the idea of using the over the door shoe organizer. We always have too much clutter.
 
What an exciting way to start this vacation
Laid back and easy going

Thanks for sharing the pictures
I ❤️ The hrh when I started staying onsite!

I remember eons ago to our first trip in October 2010 when I first found the DIS, yours were some of the first great comments I found about HRH that had me sure we'd found the right hotel for us!

Thanks for the idea of using the over the door shoe organizer. We always have too much clutter.

Having that was awesome!! I found it at Target and if I remember right it was only like $10. It kept everything out of the way, but easily accessible. With the way the vanity is situated right beside of the bathroom door everything was within arms reach. It was perfect!
 

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