It's Jamerica Kids! August 2014 - Day 9 - Checking into RPR Club Level / IoA / Hard Rock Cafe

[JoJo88]

It’s Jamerica kids, but not as we know it….. August 2014

INDEX

Day 9 – Checking into RPR Club Level / IoA / Hard Rock Cafe

Saturday 16th August 2014

“I wanna be great like Elvis, without the tassles” – Rock Star by Nickelback (again )

The day started a lot earlier than I would have chosen it to. As I mentioned yesterday, Simon was keen to get on the road early, but I would have preferred to take things a little slower, give me time to recalibrate! As it happened, I didn’t feel too bad when I woke up, still lethargic but not so much that I couldn’t get up and out of bed, unlike yesterday! In true Men are from Mars fashion, Simon just wanted to fix me, which meant getting me away from Clearwater as quickly as possible. For him particularly, the memories of Clearwater are tainted, however having almost been through childbirth (almost, as the boys eventually both escaped through the sunroof ), I’m able to don rose-tinted glasses, and therefore the bad is fading and I think back on our week there with fondness.

I know Daniel does too, even now Clearwater is a highlight for him, he certainly made the most of what was on offer, including having a double bed all to himself!

We finished off the packing, which was a challenge – I didn’t want to have to take everything into RPR, so only packed what I thought we’d need for the four days there. We chucked some breakfast down the boys, which was a bit reckless, and once we’d cleaned them up, we then gave them something to eat Daniel was reluctant, he’s like me, needs to be awake a while before eating, whereas Simon & Adam both wake up starving! Simon grabbed some toast, whereas I didn’t have anything – yep, do as I say, not as I do! I was still feeling delicate in the stomach department so just packed myself a banana to keep me going during the journey should I need it.

We had a quick tidy round, emptied the bins into the containers out the front, put any useful food and drinks in the cool box and finally loaded up the car and were on the road by about 9.45. I put the cool box on the back seat in between the boys to try and stop any rowing about being on each other’s territory, but it didn’t do any good as they both then decided to use it as an arm rest and of course elbows were then encroaching!

Thankfully the roads were quite quiet to begin with, and we all started to get excited about the next leg of our holiday. This was going to be the true test of whether or not we would miss Disney! I have to be honest, as we approached Orlando and began to see the familiar sights I did start to wobble a bit, and it was particularly painful at these points…

However, we ended up stuck in traffic at that particular stretch of road for what seemed like an age and so I soon got bored of the signs!

Eventually we were on the move again, and fast approaching our new home for the next few days

And at around 11.45am we pulled up outside Royal Pacific Resort

Simon dropped me and the boys, along with a few of our bags at the entrance while he went off to park the car. There was a fairly hefty queue for the main desks, and despite there being several desks open, nobody seemed to be in much of a hurry – I guess that’s the laid back vibe that RPR goes go for!

There was an American lady in front of me in the line with her son, who was probably around 10 years old, and they kept taking selfies together and then texting them to their daughter/sister, and laughing about how cruel they were seeing as she was back at school! I can just imagine how thrilled Adam would be to receive texts like that from me & Daniel!

After around 25 minutes, it was finally our turn to check in, and when the receptionist typed our name into the computer she excused herself and disappeared for a few minutes. When she returned she handed me an envelope and once I’d opened it and had a quick glance at the contents she commented on how generous Virgin Holidays were with their perks. Inside the envelope I found vouchers for 4 welcome cocktails at the bar, (we forgot to use them, for reasons which will become apparent later!) plus 4 kids eat free vouchers, (also unused!) as well as the free parking we were expecting.

Our room wasn’t ready but we were given our inactive room keys and had our pool bag handy (Simon had checked in the rest of our bags), so it wasn’t too much of a problem. Usually as soon as we get our rooms keys we are speed walking over to the parks, but with four glorious days ahead of us we didn’t need to do that and opted for a swim instead. But before that, we had a little surprise for the boys…..

We went round the corner to the lifts and once inside asked the boys to press the button to the 7th floor. (You guessed it – “I’m pressing it” “no, I’m pressing it” blah blah blah ). For some reason, unbeknown to them, (but completely known to me & Simon) the lift wouldn’t move, so I pulled out a room key, swiped it in the card reader and asked them to try again, this time it working of course. I fobbed the boys off, explaining that they must have extra security in hotels like this now.

Anyway, we reached the 7th floor and made our way down the long hallway, until we came to an open room at the end of the corridor, and walked inside. Both boys immediately clocked the cans of pop on the side, and asked if they could have one. After being told to go ahead, they brought them over to us, expecting us to go and pay, but we told them we didn’t have to pay, we could help ourselves.

Their faces were a picture, they couldn’t believe they were free, but it didn’t take them long to get used to the concept and they began to explore to see what else was on offer before making themselves comfortable in front of one of the huge TVs to watch the football!

Simon & I had been really looking forward to seeing what the Club Room was like after (me!) reading so much about it online, and first impressions didn’t let us down. Here’s what was on offer for us at lunch time (which is between 12pm & 3pm):

A choice of fizzy pop, as well as iced water and apple juice. The cans weren’t cold but there was plenty of ice available with takeaway cups and straws. Also coffee with flavoured syrups and a variety of tea. Bottled water was also available but you had to ask for it.

Foodwise there was a variety of snacks, mixed nuts and fruit, crisps, Bombay mix, yogurt coated pretzels, goldfish crackers as well as shiny green or red apples:

Also cereal bars and PB&J sandwiches

I also snapped a photo of what would be available for breakfast:

We helped ourselves to some snacks and drinks, although none of us fancied trying the sandwich. Out of the four of us it’s only me that likes peanut butter anyway, but despite knowing how popular the combination is, I didn’t like the thought of having it with jam (or should I say jelly?! )

It was really quiet in the room, with lots of tables and chairs as well as a few comfortable sofas, and a couple of PCs set up with printers (and paper!). There was a lovely big ‘restroom’ which was perfect for us to use to get changed into our pool clothes, and at around 12.45pm we made our way back downstairs for a swim. The boys were absolutely thrilled with their surprise which I was delighted about as looking at it from their point of view, all their food & drink is free (to them anyway!) They also couldn’t believe that we’d managed to keep it a secret from them!

Once down by the pool we helped ourselves to a towel, which were always in abundance, freshly laundered, and pitched up on a couple of sunbeds at the water’s edge. It was a hot day and sliding into the pool was blissful, the water almost like a bath but still refreshing after being in the hot sun albeit for a few short minutes!

We stayed at Royal Pacific for one night during our 2009 holiday, and having also stayed a couple of times at Hard Rock Hotel, again for one night each time, and we’d decided to go back to RPR for a few reasons, most notably because the Club Room seems to get better reviews over the one at HRH, plus it’s a lot cheaper. However, there was one other deciding factor that we thought the boys would appreciate over any of the others….

The squirters! Those of you who have read my previous reports will know that my boys (all three of them!) could spend hours and hours squirting people with water, particularly if they’re not expecting it, like on the lazy river at Typhoon Lagoon, or Ripsaw Falls at Island of Adventure! And I was right, the water play area was a huge hit with them, although on one occasion there was almost a mutiny, but I’ll tell you about that another time!

I noticed another Dad who must have just arrived too, I’ve scoured my photos but I can’t find him on any, so picture a slightly chubby Lee Evans, with perhaps twice as much energy. Anyway, he was rushing around from one thing to another, calling out to his son in a faint southern drawl ‘hey Connor, come see this, hey Connor, look, this is awesome’ etc etc. From then on I referred to him as Mr K.I.S.S. as he was like a Kid In a Sweet Shop. It was really endearing to see someone sooooo enthusiastic about everything, and we saw him several times throughout our stay.

We really enjoyed being at the pool, there was a nice atmosphere – a bit of music playing, but not too loud and ‘partylike’, just fun. Daniel enjoyed himself on the sunbed for a while, taking it all in.

At around 1.30pm it started to rain, and after a short while the rain became more like a monsoon and everyone was asked to leave the pool and get undercover. We found a spot on a wall just outside the pool area to try and dry off a little before going inside. If only I’d known at this point about the wonderful gym changing rooms just a few feet away – we could have all showered and changed as the showers were fully stocked with everything you could possibly need (which I found out later in the holiday!).

I spotted Mr Kiss again as we were sat waiting, he walking past a big bundle of towels in the towel hut, and I heard him say to himself ‘towels! Neat! ” and grab a handful. He then walked passed us and offered me one with a big grin on his face, again saying again ‘towels! ’. I was hoping to bump into him as he hit the parks, I’ve heard of spontaneous combustion, but never actually witnessed it……

Anyway, at around 2pm we headed back inside to see if our room was ready (it wasn’t) so we went back up to the Lounge and enjoyed another cold drink and some wi-fi. After a little while, I saw a familiar face appear through the door, fellow Dibber Joanna23! I knew she was staying at RPR the same time as us but wasn’t sure exactly when she was checking in. Turned out it was today! Anyway, we spotted each other at the same time, both gave a smile and a little wave, and then Jo came over and honestly, I know people say this all the time, but it was like we’d known each other forever. We caught up on our holidays so far and chatted about all sorts of other things, the Dibb included! Of course, it probably felt like we knew one another having followed each other’s trip reports, but it is a really strange feeling (in a nice way) to meet someone who knows so much about you, and vice versa, without ever having met or spoken before. As we were both staying Club Level, it was inevitable we would bump into each other throughout our stay, which we did, and it was really nice to see a friendly face every now & then, and have a bit of a chinwag. Hi Jo if you're reading!

Eventually we all took it in turns to get properly changed out of our pool clothes in the humungous restroom, and after asking the concierge to let us know when our room was ready, just before 4 we were given our room number, 3747 which was conveniently just a few doors down from the Lounge. Simon popped down to pick up the rest of our cases and after we’d dropped everything off in our room we headed back down to the lobby to print off our FOLPs before making our way to City Walk.

The process is quite simple. Put your (named) room key into the machine, pose for a photo and wait for your ticket to smugness pop out

It was just after 4 when we left the hotel and we decided to walk rather than wait for a water taxi. The rain had stopped now and it had turned out really warm making my camera the victim of condensation once again….

It took a leisurely ten minutes to get to the entrance of Islands of Adventure, and as I had a voucher to exchange for tickets I joined the short queue at the booth.

The ground was still soaked after the monsoon earlier, but it was soooooo hot stood out in the sun. I know we were expecting it to be hotter than what we were used to, but it really was noticeable!

The queue may have been short but it barely moved. I could hear one family going through every possibly ticket combination, eventually settling on Annual Passes (good work salesperson!), and after about 20 minutes it was finally my turn. I could then see why it had taken so long – the girl was extremely thorough, and seemed to be fascinated by my passport photo, she took so long studying it – probably wondering how I was let into the country!

By 4.40pm we were finally in the park, and first stop was to be Hulk. As I was still feeling a bit fragile following my brush with death the day before, I declined Simon’s chivalrous offer for me to ride with Adam, and waited with Daniel instead. We had a little wander about, Daniel continuing with his photo taking responsibilities from our previous holiday with varying degrees of success!

We found a pew near the ride for some people watching. I knew the express queue for Hulk didn’t take you right to the front of the line, but we seemed to be waiting a lot longer than ever before, the perils of peak time holidays! . We had a look at the wait time for the ride, which was 45 minutes, so at least we knew they wouldn’t be any longer than that! As it happened they were only 20 minutes, and from there we took the short walk round to The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman

This was virtually a walk on, which was a lot more like we were used to with usually coming off peak! Great ride as ever, and even in my delicate state it was a lot of fun.

We continued anti-clockwise round the park where the boys happened upon one of their aforementioned favourite pastimes

We somehow appeared to acquire a third son, doesn’t he slot in nicely height wise?!

We spent a small fortune on soaking the poor unsuspecting souls in the boats, who might as well have jumped in the water by the time my lot were finished with them.

Continuing on through Jurassic Park, we stopped for a quick photo

Daniel not quite realising the danger lurking behind him!

Eventually we crossed the bridge into The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It was 5.45pm by now, and understandably it was busy

We had a quick wander through Hogsmeade to see what the wait time was for Forbidden Journey, and as it was 30 minutes, (no express queue for this ride), we joined the line.

Daniel was getting a bit fidgety and nervous in the queue, remembering there were certain bits of the ride he didn’t like, namely the spiders, so once we got to the boarding platform, he positioned himself between me & Simon so that we could both warn him when to close his eyes, remembering to let him know when to reopen them!

I love this ride, it’s so cleverly done, and I can’t help but join in with the clapping as it comes to an end!

Once we were back out in the open air we decided we’d done enough for the afternoon and made our way back out towards the exit, in a sort of slow shuffle as we were in a crowd bigger than any we’ve experienced before at Universal, but perhaps not quite as bad as trying to leave Epcot after Illuminations!

Once we found a bit of space, Daniel & I spotted a little boy of about 5 walking along with his head down, scuffing his shoes, looking completely fed up. He had a rather impressive rats tail which Daniel was looking at, and obviously catching Daniel’s eye, the charming young lad turned round and said, in a surprisingly aggressive West Midlands accent (surprising as he’d looked American to me with the mullet and singlet he was sporting), ‘What have I done wrong?’.

Daniel replied ‘I don’t know’, and the boy then scoffed ‘well what are you looking at me for then?!’ Cheeky little blighter! He was obviously used to being told off I’d imagine, with his choice of question!

I then spotted his parents, dressed similarly and with what appeared to be equally as friendly demeanours, so we decided to beat a hasty retreat and get lost in the crowd, not wanting to get caught up in any trouble on our first night. It’s not every day I get intimidated by a toddler!

Now, the next thing that caught my eye was something I’d never seen before, but is apparently very commonplace these days. We were walking behind a young girl who appeared to have a very strange gait, moving her head from side to side and flipping her hair with one hand, while holding her other arm outstretched, all the while looking up in the air. Then I saw what she was doing…….

Yup, my first encounter with a selfie-stick. I’d seen it all now. I was trying to see the point in it, I mean, there she was, walking round the park watching herself walking round the park, not actually seeing anything around her. What is the point?! I can see the benefit of taking photos with landmarks behind you, but honestly, all you could see in the screen was her face! #facepalm

As we approached the exit it was around 6.30pm, and having not eaten much that day apart from a bit of rushed breakfast and some snacks in the club room, we decided we might as well grab some tea while we were out. Adam really wanted to go back to the Hard Rock Café, and despite a less than satisfactory meal on our last visit, we gave it a go. We were seated straight away, up the stairs and almost towards the very back of the restaurant, in the Elvis Presley Suite!

We ordered some drinks and then took it in turns to visit the restrooms, mainly to wash our hands.

Having a look through the menu, I could see that my appetite wasn’t anywhere to be seen as I didn’t fancy anything, but I went for the nachos as I knew that the others would help me with them. Simon and Adam went for burgers and Daniel went for chicken tenders of course!

Now, on our last visit, three out of four burgers had to be sent back as they were cold, and unfortunately, the same thing happened again. Both burgers were stone cold. Adam was starving so carried on eating his, but Simon waited to catch the eye of the waitress and explained to her what was wrong, as well as letting her know we’d had the same experience last time. She couldn’t apologise enough and took Simon’s meal away. Adam though decided to crack on with his.

The waitress came back with another (hot!) burger for Simon, and she also brought the Manager with her. Simon explained to him that this was the second time this had happened, but we’d returned as Adam really likes it, it being one of his favourite restaurants. He offered to take Simon’s burger off the bill and gave us 20% discount which seemed pretty fair. We also pointed out that Adam had decided to carry on eating his meal as he was hungry, and what happened next was quite bizarre……..

We’d all finished our meals (I picked at my nachos, but Daniel loved his tenders), and out of nowhere came the Manager again, and in his hand he had another burger meal. He started to hand it over to Adam, saying something along the lines of ‘here you go buddy, have yourself another burger’. Ermmmmmmm……. Nooooooooo, I don’t think we’re going to let our 11 year old son eat two meals in less than an hour, even though he’d be quite capable of doing so! So in what was quite embarrassing for everyone, we declined the kind offer and the extra meal was taken away.

We settled the rather tiny bill

Leaving a proper tip for our server as despite the cold food, she was really good and dealt with everything as best she could.

By 6.45pm we were back outside but rather than heading back to the hotel we decided to have a mooch around City Walk.

It was nice for it to still be light – usually by the time we’ve had our meal it’s pitch black being the winter months!

My three are going to have to work on their poses………

We tried to find Bubba Gump’s restaurant so that we could have a look at the merchandise. Adam & I watched Forrest Gump just before the holiday, which resulted in us blubbing like babies and being laughed at by Simon & Daniel! I mean, I’ve seen it before, several times, but it didn’t stop me sobbing so much I gave myself a headache We eventually found Bubba's, tucked round the back of City Walk, but it was heaving so after trying to squeeze our way round the shop we gave up and tried our luck in getting a turn on Forrest’s bench instead. I had to ask someone if they would mind moving for a minute so that we could take some photos, which she happily did

As I was taking these photos, I suddenly felt a tap on my shoulder, and when I turned around I saw a familiar, happy smiling face. It was Neil, AKA Dibber GingerMoonMan!

The boys had spotted him creeping up behind me, but Neil had motioned to them to ‘shhhh’, which they did. They were hoping to eat at Bubba’s but there was a huge wait. We had a little catch up, they were having a wonderful time, and then said our goodbyes. I was really saddened to find out a few weeks later that at the end of his holiday Neil's villa had been burgled, leaving them all devastated. There's a word for people that do things like that, but it's not allowed on the Dibb...

It was just after 8pm by now and we decided to head back to the hotel. There was some entertainment on the little stage area by the ‘green steps’ but we didn’t stop to see what it was and instead headed to the water taxi rank to catch a lift home.

We had a short wait, but by 8.45pm we were back at RPR and just made it back to the Lounge in time for the dessert hour, which is between 8pm & 9pm.

There were a few little sweet treats to choose from, but to be honest, it wouldn’t be something we would rush back for.

In fact, we’d already decided that we wouldn’t plan our day around the club room time slots as we didn’t want to be tied down. For example earlier in the day we could have waited before heading out to City Walk as it was only half an hour before the early evening happy ‘two’ hours, but we didn’t want to be hanging around. As it happened, over the next few days we did get into a sort of routine which just happened to fit in with the Lounge, apart from the late night desserts.

We sat and had a cookie and a taste of the puds, along with a nice cold drink, then the boys asked if they could go back down to the pool which is exactly what we did.

There was a movie playing in the pool, I think it was Night at the Museum but I can’t be sure, and we all got in the water and messed around for a while. After having had such a horrible day the day before and feeling so poorly, just being in a new environment and away from the potential threat of being eaten alive, I was feeling so much better. I was ready to put the lows of the last few days behind me and get on with the next leg of the holiday, the only blot on my copy book being a lack of appetite, how cruel is that?!

Eventually we headed back up to the room for showers and to get ready for bed. Simon was out for the count as soon as his head hit the pillow, but me & the boys watched some Modern Family and finally went to sleep at around midnight. Oooops, that didn’t bode well for our planned early start in the morning to get to Diagon Alley before the crowds arrived!

It was easy to see already that we were going to love staying at Royal Pacific Resort. The boys loved the pool area, we all enjoyed the convenience of being so close to the parks, and despite thinking that we were more ‘villa’ people, I could tell that we were all going to enjoy the more social aspect of staying in a resort. As for the Club Room, well, it had already saved us a fortune as our total spend for the day was the $55 on the meal at Hard Rock Café! We hadn’t bought one drink (outside of the meal), nor had we bought any lunch or snacks! This hadn’t been our intention, and we still had our usual daily budget, but it was good to know that we probably wouldn’t need it!

The only problem we had now though was wondering if 4 nights was going to be enough…….

Day 10

[sheluk]

Great day. So glad you were feeling better it looks like such a lovely resort

[jocat]

Glad to hear you're feeling a bit better

You've just taken me back a few years, to the days when my children were young enough to also need separating by a cool box on day trips and holidays! It never worked for us either, but we always tried. I can say it gets better, but as they're 21 next week, you might have a while to wait yet.

RPR looks lovely. We've only done HRH for one night before so to stay for 4 nights sounds great.

[ely3857]

RPR sounds fabulous. Can't wait for me kids to be older/braver to make US/IOA worth while!

[nasty]

Fab day. My two love those water blaster thingys at Ripsaw Falls too. We have many a laugh drenching people further. Evil I know !
Glad I'm not the only nutter who likes to clap at the end of Forbidden Journey. I love that ride. It's my fav at IOA. Glad you're feeling better too.

[KittyBlackDog]

A great day Jo. Glad you were feeling better and that club level wash working out well for you all. Shame about HRC being a let down again.

Looking forward to reading about your early morning tomorrow

[beck_loz]

Great day x

[beck_loz]

Great day x

[Fuellady]

So glad you're feeling better Jo... hope your appetite reappears soon! It's good that you got to use the pool already (twice!), we just didn't have time during our one night stay at RPR, shame really, it was on the to do list.

Nice, easy first day at IOA and the meals at Hard Rock look nice, despite being cold. What possessed the Manager to think that it was a good idea to bring a second meal to a child, or anyone for that matter Still, it made for a cheap day!

Glad the boys were pleased with your surprise... Club Level looks great

[mick]

Sounds like a great day