Thursday, Day 2: A Much Better Day.
Recap:
Action Figures: Wife, Husband, D16, D14
Locations: Four nights at Homewood Suites Nearest Universal, four nights at Royal Pacific Resort, club level.
Tickets: Wet n Wild and Universal
As Super-Mom (I cant believe sometimes my girls have other names for me!), I do all the planning, the rate watching, dining reviewing, the printing of boarding passes, etc. and my family is fine to let me coordinate everything, which is great because it makes me happy because it makes the vacation seem longer. Ive priced out everything and weighed whether its a good deal, bad deal or a deal with the devil.
We wake up all happy and hungry. I love that first morning before you get out of bed with the vacation stretching out before you how can the vacation ever possibly be over at this point? We have soooo much time! We head down for breakfast which consists of warm egg products, corned beef hash, fruit wrapped in cellophane, English muffins (yea for Super-Mom), bagels and some of the saltiest sausage (I swear it was made in the Dead Sea) ever reheated. The coffee, thank goodness, is drinkable. The juices are water and concentrate sprayed from a machine into your cup, if youre lucky. Now you may think Im being hard on the hotel food at HS but later in the report we were totally charmed by the Royal Pacific food presentations. (And, of course, we had a different room rate, shall we say.)
Five days before we left on our trip I sprained my ankle trying to save kittens from a burning building. I would have been fine if I hadnt tripped over the rare Panda. Okay, that part isnt true, but I did sprain my ankle enough to come to Orlando with a crutch and a black ankle support. So we decided to catch the free shuttle to Wet n Wild instead of walking the 2.5 blocks. When it arrived the driver was obviously harried and unhappy that we were the only ones on a packed bus wanting to go to Wet n Wild when the rest were going to SeaWorld. Stone cold silence met us as we boarded. I dont know how many hotels were picked up before us, but Im guessing 72. So, with an extra wince to show I was really wounded, we took the 3-minute trip to WnW and quickly got off before it got ugly.
Note to Self: Heal That Ankle NOW.
We buy Length-of-stay passes for $39.99 and head on in at opening. My favorite waterpark is Typhoon Lagoon so I know in advance it will be a different experience. Our family is pleasantly surprised. The park is sparsely populated for the first two hours and we get to ride everything we want. I love floating on the Lazy River when no one is in it! Love it, love it, love it! Jack and I spend 45 minutes just talking and floating, ahhhh, here comes the relaxation. Goal #2: achieved. The wave pool is nothing compared to Typhoon, but we knew that. What WnW does well are the fast rides. Our girls loved all the rides with names like Spin n Jerk, I Cant See Anymore, and The Brain Strainer or something like that. There are two really good family rides. The Surge takes you down five twisting, curving stories in a big, round, tarp tube. Its a lot of fun and fast, but not really spinny. The second is the Flyer. It fits up to four people, log-ride style and wow does it zip. With two people, its much slower. We thought we would turn over at one point, but we didnt so we rode it a couple more times just to test the theory. The girls are happy, were happy, and I love my family. Good Deal.
About noon it gets crowded so we walk a block to the IHOP for lunch. This is an older, unrefurbished one (I know my IHOPs because my Dad, 85 yrs., will eat at an IHOP any time of day or night), but the food does its job and we are on our way to the Hilton Garden Inn pool. Two must-have items for any vacation are a Bouncy ball and a deck of cards. A small, nerfy ball in a pool provides hours of entertainment for the easily amused like us. It goes like this: $9.95/each for a round of mini-golf that takes 20 minutes? Bad Deal. $1.99 for a Bouncy ball at Walgreens that provides 6 hours of entertainment? Good Deal. Deck of cards & refreshments that keep you up wayyy past your bedtime? Deal With the Devil.
Tonight we are meeting Jacks friend who has worked at Universal for 100 years. Well call him Winslow to protect his identity. Winslow picks us up for dinner, so I cant report on the Homewood Suites dinner offerings tonight and I think HS management would prefer that. Winslow takes us to Stallones for dinner, which is owned by the actual Stallone family. Its a place where you order at the counter and they bring it to your table. We order an antipasto salad and the girls have pizza, Jackspaghetti, mePasta Al Fredo w/Procuitto & Peas. My pasta is excellent and a good deal. The others report that theirs was good, but not great. They also serve wines & beers by the glass. I think dinner was about $66 for five of us including drinks. Good Deal. I like the place and also like the Stallonish accents of the servers. I refrained from ordering six raw eggs in a glass. During dinner we discuss our plans with Winslow. We have bought 7-day Universal tickets and plan to just check out the park tomorrow, since we dont have FOTL until we get to Royal Pacific until Sunday. Maybe well go back to WnW or do some outlet shopping.
After dinner Winslow suggests we go to this neat little place called The Dessert Lady. Score! Ive heard of this on the Disboards. Its a neat little café style place with artwork on the walls under muted lighting and a long wooden bar stretching towards the back. Jack and I order something densely chocolate to split over glasses of red wine. The girls split a slice of chocolate cake and Winslow has chocolate cheesecake. The servings are huge and we even take some home. I highly recommend this place if you like really good (and somewhat expensive) desserts. As we are talking, Winslow does something to make our experience at the parks on Friday and Saturday the best ever. Then we all head back to the Hilton Garden Inn pool. The adults talk in the sultry June evening air while the girls swim. Ahhhhh.
Coming up: Friday, Day 3: Your Ankle Cant Take The Truth!
Recap:
Action Figures: Wife, Husband, D16, D14
Locations: Four nights at Homewood Suites Nearest Universal, four nights at Royal Pacific Resort, club level.
Tickets: Wet n Wild and Universal
As Super-Mom (I cant believe sometimes my girls have other names for me!), I do all the planning, the rate watching, dining reviewing, the printing of boarding passes, etc. and my family is fine to let me coordinate everything, which is great because it makes me happy because it makes the vacation seem longer. Ive priced out everything and weighed whether its a good deal, bad deal or a deal with the devil.
We wake up all happy and hungry. I love that first morning before you get out of bed with the vacation stretching out before you how can the vacation ever possibly be over at this point? We have soooo much time! We head down for breakfast which consists of warm egg products, corned beef hash, fruit wrapped in cellophane, English muffins (yea for Super-Mom), bagels and some of the saltiest sausage (I swear it was made in the Dead Sea) ever reheated. The coffee, thank goodness, is drinkable. The juices are water and concentrate sprayed from a machine into your cup, if youre lucky. Now you may think Im being hard on the hotel food at HS but later in the report we were totally charmed by the Royal Pacific food presentations. (And, of course, we had a different room rate, shall we say.)
Five days before we left on our trip I sprained my ankle trying to save kittens from a burning building. I would have been fine if I hadnt tripped over the rare Panda. Okay, that part isnt true, but I did sprain my ankle enough to come to Orlando with a crutch and a black ankle support. So we decided to catch the free shuttle to Wet n Wild instead of walking the 2.5 blocks. When it arrived the driver was obviously harried and unhappy that we were the only ones on a packed bus wanting to go to Wet n Wild when the rest were going to SeaWorld. Stone cold silence met us as we boarded. I dont know how many hotels were picked up before us, but Im guessing 72. So, with an extra wince to show I was really wounded, we took the 3-minute trip to WnW and quickly got off before it got ugly.
Note to Self: Heal That Ankle NOW.
We buy Length-of-stay passes for $39.99 and head on in at opening. My favorite waterpark is Typhoon Lagoon so I know in advance it will be a different experience. Our family is pleasantly surprised. The park is sparsely populated for the first two hours and we get to ride everything we want. I love floating on the Lazy River when no one is in it! Love it, love it, love it! Jack and I spend 45 minutes just talking and floating, ahhhh, here comes the relaxation. Goal #2: achieved. The wave pool is nothing compared to Typhoon, but we knew that. What WnW does well are the fast rides. Our girls loved all the rides with names like Spin n Jerk, I Cant See Anymore, and The Brain Strainer or something like that. There are two really good family rides. The Surge takes you down five twisting, curving stories in a big, round, tarp tube. Its a lot of fun and fast, but not really spinny. The second is the Flyer. It fits up to four people, log-ride style and wow does it zip. With two people, its much slower. We thought we would turn over at one point, but we didnt so we rode it a couple more times just to test the theory. The girls are happy, were happy, and I love my family. Good Deal.
About noon it gets crowded so we walk a block to the IHOP for lunch. This is an older, unrefurbished one (I know my IHOPs because my Dad, 85 yrs., will eat at an IHOP any time of day or night), but the food does its job and we are on our way to the Hilton Garden Inn pool. Two must-have items for any vacation are a Bouncy ball and a deck of cards. A small, nerfy ball in a pool provides hours of entertainment for the easily amused like us. It goes like this: $9.95/each for a round of mini-golf that takes 20 minutes? Bad Deal. $1.99 for a Bouncy ball at Walgreens that provides 6 hours of entertainment? Good Deal. Deck of cards & refreshments that keep you up wayyy past your bedtime? Deal With the Devil.
Tonight we are meeting Jacks friend who has worked at Universal for 100 years. Well call him Winslow to protect his identity. Winslow picks us up for dinner, so I cant report on the Homewood Suites dinner offerings tonight and I think HS management would prefer that. Winslow takes us to Stallones for dinner, which is owned by the actual Stallone family. Its a place where you order at the counter and they bring it to your table. We order an antipasto salad and the girls have pizza, Jackspaghetti, mePasta Al Fredo w/Procuitto & Peas. My pasta is excellent and a good deal. The others report that theirs was good, but not great. They also serve wines & beers by the glass. I think dinner was about $66 for five of us including drinks. Good Deal. I like the place and also like the Stallonish accents of the servers. I refrained from ordering six raw eggs in a glass. During dinner we discuss our plans with Winslow. We have bought 7-day Universal tickets and plan to just check out the park tomorrow, since we dont have FOTL until we get to Royal Pacific until Sunday. Maybe well go back to WnW or do some outlet shopping.
After dinner Winslow suggests we go to this neat little place called The Dessert Lady. Score! Ive heard of this on the Disboards. Its a neat little café style place with artwork on the walls under muted lighting and a long wooden bar stretching towards the back. Jack and I order something densely chocolate to split over glasses of red wine. The girls split a slice of chocolate cake and Winslow has chocolate cheesecake. The servings are huge and we even take some home. I highly recommend this place if you like really good (and somewhat expensive) desserts. As we are talking, Winslow does something to make our experience at the parks on Friday and Saturday the best ever. Then we all head back to the Hilton Garden Inn pool. The adults talk in the sultry June evening air while the girls swim. Ahhhhh.
Coming up: Friday, Day 3: Your Ankle Cant Take The Truth!
