Friday, October 9th
I woke up and it was almost 9 am. I must have been tired. That is pretty late for me to be getting up.
The curtains keep the sun out completely when closed. There is a back curtain that is a heavy material that keeps the sun out totally and a sheer curtain in front of that. Both can be opened and closed separately.
I showered and made the bed and decided to take to pictures of my room.
I had a room with a king size bed since I was traveling alone. The couch can roll out into a bed if needed.
There is a nice table and chairs. There are plug ins and USB ports on both ends of the black and white strip by the table light.
A nice size dresser with plenty of deep drawers for storage of clothes.
The beds, pillows and sheets are very comfortable. There are USB ports and plug ins on the front of both bedside tables.
There is a small refrigerator and single cup Keurig coffee machine and coffee supplies in the center of the dresser.
There is plenty of space in the refrigerator to store some items that need to be kept cool.
There is a nice size closet with plenty of storage. There is a safe in the closest.
There is a large sink and counter and the shower and toilet area are separated by a sliding door.
The shower is fantastic. All your toiletries are provided. Shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, face soap, body soap and lotion. Q tips and cotton balls are in a decorative container on counter.
The towels, wash rags and hand towels are nice and soft.
There is no maid service during your stay. So your used towels are put outside your door as is any trash you have and it is collected.
Just call Star services on your phone in your room before you leave in the morning and fresh towels, any of the above toiletries, coffee supplies will be delivered in a bag to your door.
The room was spotless when I arrived. Did I bring bleach wipes with me. Yes I did. I clean door knobs and all hard surfaces at home with them. I was not going to change the game plan here.
I change my sheets at home every 7 days or sooner if I decide too. I called for fresh sheets and pillow slips to be delivered on day 7 and changed my sheets and put the used sheets in the large bag that the fresh sheets had been delivered in and put them out outside my door the next morning to be collected with towels and trash.
Now the big question. Did I mind not having maid service. No. I understand why it was not being provided.
Universals Resorts are trying to protect their employees and their guests.
I ‘am so thankful for all the Resort employees and park TM’s that are coming to work. Without them people like me and others who are looking for a place to get away for a while and shut out the world would not be able to.
After taking some pictures of my room I showered got pulled together and picked a mask for the day and off I went.
I made a mask for everyday I was on vacation here are a few.
I stopped at the front door and had my temp check and received my wrist band. Then off to the parking lot.
I needed go back to Disney Springs and exchange a Mickey light Pumpkin that I had purchased for my younger sister. I had been repacking all the purchases and found a large crack in the plastic.
I always take what I call the back way to Disney Springs. Turkey Lake road to The light at Apopka-Vineland left at the light and right at hotel row. There is a big welcome to Disney signs there.
I was glad the Lime parking garage was open. This meant a shorter walk to the world of
Disney Store.
I parked in the 3rd level of the Parking garage. Elevator takes to second level and everyone’s temperature is taken before you can go down and enter Disney Springs.
Temperature taken and all well. I took the escalator down and over to The World of Disney Store.
I exchanged the pumpkin and back to the garage I went.
I decided to go to “Hash House a go go” for lunch. I had read about the restaurant in one of Gina Gina bo bina’s trip reports.
I went there with my older sister a couple of years ago and we had a nice lunch.
Their food theme is twisted farm food.
When your leaving RPR....you turn right at the light on Hollywood Way......right on Universal Boulevard........left on International Drive and it’s about 2 miles down on the right.
It was about 11:30 and it was not busy. I was seated right away. I chose the Kokomo meatloaf sandwich. They are known for their large portions and it looked like a manageable sandwich.
The sandwich and fries came to the table piping hot. As you can see it was served with a knife because this sandwich needed to be cut to eat. It was big. The fries had a nice coating and were mildly crispy and very good.
My waitress was very nice and attentive.
There is a large bar area to the left of the dining area when you come in. There is a large cocktail and beer and wine selection.
I noticed they had Nashville hot chicken sandwich on the menu. If this is anything like the Nashville hot chicken in Nashville beware. You need a cast iron stomach a mouth lined with heat resistant coating to survive that chicken.
I remember seeing an episode of a cooking show talking about this chicken and how nuclear hot is a nice word to describe it. Not for me.
After lunch I needed to make a trip back to Mall at Millenia to pick up something I had ordered from Tiffany. I received an email telling me my order was ready to be picked up.
I went inside the Mall and went to Tiffany. I noticed a man standing outside the door waiting to get in. I knew the store hours and it should be open.
I saw the security guard at the door and he unlocked the door and told me the store was at compacity. I told him I received a email to pick up an order. He asked for my driver’s license and closed the door.
A few minutes later a man came to the door with my bag and my drivers license. I told him I thought the box was to small to contain what I ordered. He assured me it was all there.
Package in hand I told the guy waiting to get in that I hoped his wait would be short and off I went.
I was almost to my car in the parking lot when I received a call from the guy at Tiffany who brought my bag to the door.
He told me that he relooked at my order after I left. He said it indeed it was not everything I had ordered.
He became defensive with me and told me the email sent to me said it was half the order to be picked up. I told him I looked at the email again and it just said your order is ready to be picked up period. He then told me that happens.
It was agreed that the remainder of the order would be shipped.
I have to admit this experience left me pretty unhappy with the whole ordeal.
First off the store appeared to be empty. So my guess is there was a celebrity inside and the store Closed to accommodate them or their Covid capacity number were all huddled in the back of the store. No problem. I just wanted to pick up my order and I would be on my way.
Then the off putting behavior of the person who I dealt with was not good. At this point I not sure I will ever shop there again.
I have always had a wonderful experience there in the past with everyone I have encountered.
Everyone has an off day......I understand that, but the guy I dealt with was a bit over the top.
This was my vacation time and while I like Tiffany and Mall at Millenia I did not want to keep coming back there multiple times to pick up pieces of an order.
Ok......rant over
I only had two days left of vacation and I wanted to enjoy what time I had left.
I headed back to RPR. It is always nice to walk through the front door. The scenery is beautiful, the security folks are always so nice. I held up my wrist to show I had the temp check wrist band for the day and they always say welcome back.
I went to my room my took my mask off and put my things in the closet.
I needed to do my laundry. I had put it off as long as I could. A few years ago I bought a box of small Tide liquid laundry soap travel packets. I put a few of these in a small zip lock bags with some dryer sheets to have on vacation.
I also carry a Tide pen in my purse for quick stain removal. The pens are very compact. If you can’t find those small alcohol swabs do the trick also.
I gathered my laundry went to the laundry room that is near the pool.
The door to the laundry room is closed. You need your room key to get in.
There is a television on the wall and as laundry rooms go it’s pretty nice.
The washers and dryers are set up to take coins or credit card.
I was lucky it was not busy. So put the laundry in the washer in and did some reading.
While I was sitting a nice man came in and moved his families laundry to the dryer. We talked a bit. He told me he and his family like to vacation a few times a year at Universal.
After my laundry was done I went back to my room and put things away.
I wanted to go to the pool for a little while. So swim suit and swim cover on, book and sunscreen in bag and off I went to the pool.
Side note on the elevator. When I first arrived at the start of my stay at RPR the resort didn’t appear to be busy. I noticed on Wednesday things starting to pick up and by Thursday it was noticeably busy over all.
I was pretty sure a lot of folks had put these few days together with the weekend and Monday Columbus Day for a nice stretch of days off.
That said, when I was going out or returning to the Resort. I pushed the button to call the elevator and if it opened and someone or a family were on it I would just wait push the button again and wait to get the next one. For the most part others did the same.
I had a couple of incidents were I had called the elevator and was leaving to go to the boat and as soon as the elevator doors opened on another floor a large family walked in and some in the group had pulled their masks off. I stepped out of the elevator and just called for another one. They did not care at all.
I realized that as the resort got busier that being able to get an elevator alone was not possible. I was ok with that. I didn’t mind sharing one with a couple of people who were wearing their masks, but 5 or six and add to that those who had removed their masks Nooooooo.
Over all the elevator situation worked at the resort with the exception of a few occasions. This is not the fault of the resort, as there are signs everywhere about social distancing and hand sanitizer provided everywhere including by the elevators.
to be continued