3 weeks is not enough! Disney & Universal Sept 2016 – Day 14, KTTK & RPR

[sha9]

We were checking out of OKW today and Marie and I were moving on to Royal Pacific Resort at Universal for 4 nights. Mum and Dad were off to Vegas.
We set the alarm for 7am and got up and got ready. We had breakfast of what we had left and since there were eggs we had scrambled eggs and toast for a change. We made sure everything we wanted to pack was in the suitcases and waited for Bell Services to collect them at 8am. Mum and Dad were leaving a couple of suitcases with us and we had 3 between us plus our hand luggage bags so 7 in total. We gave them $10 though as we were on the 3rd floor! We packed up what food we thought would travel ok and left it in the car as well as some other stuff we hadn’t managed to fit into the suitcases. In the end we had enough to fit another suitcase!
We had a last check and visit to the loo before leaving OKW for the last time on that trip. Goodbye OKW! We were going to miss you!
We had planned to drop Mum & Dad off at Hospitality House to do airline check in and wait for Magical Express however we had a message on our answer phone that we had $12.90 outstanding on our room bill and could we pay it. I thought they automatically charged your card the night before check out but apparently not. Now earlier in the holiday we’d went to pay off what we’d spent on tips with the giftcard. We’d racked up $212.90 so the giftcard covered $200. I tried to pay the $12.90 cash but the CM kept going on about how we had plenty of time and paying it was so difficult we gave up and left. So now we were wasting time doing that and ended up later at MK than we’d hoped. Our KTTK was booked for 9.30am and we didn’t leave OKW until 8.40am. When we got to the parking booths they were heaving. The wait for the tram was huge so we walked from Simba but then there was a queue for the monorail. Bag check oddly enough was fine and we practically ran in to guest services for the tour. Of course when we got there we were told it was actually across the road at Tony’s where the character meets were. We got there at 9.20am so it wasn’t too bad and thankfully we were advised to have a toilet break before we started. We were given headphones, name badges and a bottle of water and asked to choose lunch for later. It was to be served at Tomorrowland Terrace.
Our tour guide was Tom and he was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about Disney. He clearly enjoyed his job and he told us how he’d got a job there as part of the college program.
I won’t say too much about the tour so as not to spoil it for anyone. We did a couple of rides and we got to see the utilidor! It was really interesting but long. Tom tried his best to give us shaded seating opportunities but we were pretty tired after the 5 hours. We finished as expected at 2.30pm in Main St. The park was heaving since it was Saturday so we headed straight for 7DMT. I’d booked a few FP in case we wanted to stay and do some rides. We felt ok was just went with it. The wait time for 7DMT said 30 minutes which seemed unlikely! We rode it fairly quickly with our FP and actually the main queue didn’t look that bad.
Afterwards we went to Gastons for a Le Fous Brew and used snack credits to get two cinnamon buns to go. There were no tables so we sat on the edge of the fountain to drink our Le Fous Brew.
Our next FP was 25 minutes away and was Splash Mountain. We took our time walking to Frontierland, looked in some shops and visited the rest rooms. We used up some snack credits in the sweet shop along the way as they had the small packets of coconut patties in there.
We didn’t have long a wait in the FP queue for Splashy and we enjoyed that as usual. Afterwards Marie said she was shattered and I agreed. We had hoped to spend more time in MK and have dinner there but we just couldn’t stay. We had 4 QS credits left and I suggested we just use them at OKW when we went to collect our luggage. On the way out of the park though I changed my mind and decided I wanted to sit inside in air conditioning! I suggested we go to one of the monorail resort QS places and since the Contemporary is the first stop on the monorail we decided on Contempo Café. We headed there via the sweet shop on Main St for some treats.

The dining report for today is here.

We enjoyed it here and it’s a good thought for future visits. The downside however is that when it’s busy you struggle to get back on the monorail. When we arrived there was a huge queue. The first monorail arrived quickly but was very busy. Lots of people got off but they didn’t allow anyone on. The next one a handful got off and a handful got on. We finally got allowed on the 3rd monorail.
When we got to the TTC we didn’t have the energy to walk to the car. There was a tram there but it was full so we had to wait for the next one.
Eventually we got to the car and left MK. We got just about at the Car Care Centre when we encountered a huge traffic queue. Apparently someone had drove into one of the posts of an overhead road sign on World Drive and knocked it down so everyone was being diverted. 3 lanes were down to one so it took at least half an hour to get through.
When we got to OKW we used our last QS credit in the shop to buy some milk and bottled drinks then went to Bell Services to get our luggage and tipped $7. We decided at this point to put everything that was in carrier bags into Marie’s fold up holdall which is a decent size. This meant when we arrived at RPR Bell Services could take everything.
The I-4 was fairly busy but we finally made it to RPR at around 7.25pm. We pulled up at the entrance and Bell Services took our luggage so another tip of $8 (although I think we gave $10 again). We decided to park first before checking in but the car park was full. We circled so many times and I could feel myself getting angry. It had been a long and tiring day and I knew we’d be paying $22 for the privilege so it was frustrating me. Just as I was about to give up and do valet parking we saw a couple heading to the car park. Like weird stalkers we followed them and took their space!
We headed across to check in and were given a choice of a back scratcher or a lei so we took the back scratchers! Our room was in Tower 1 on the ground floor so 2 floors down from the lobby but the same floor as the pool. We were offered the option of Bell Services taking our luggage to our room so we agreed and went to get out Express Passes. Before long we were in our lovely room unpacking then had a coffee and went to bed. We watched Empire Strikes Back for a while then went to sleep, totally exhausted!

[Excitedx4]

Would love to do KTTK maybe once the kids are older. Love RPR we are booked in for another night in August and a night at HRH too the kids wil be so excited.

[disneytrio]

we did KTTK on our last visit for my daughters birthday, wonderful day.
Another fantastic day reading along!

[Vikkicat]

the rooms in RPR look good, was it a nespresso machine i saw on one of the photos?

[sha9]

Originally Posted by Vikkicat

the rooms in RPR look good, was it a nespresso machine i saw on one of the photos?

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I don't think so. I think it may have been Krupps? I'll check my photos.

[Vikkicat]

Ohh - looking at your photos I think it is Krupps! thanks anyway!

[Mrs Red C]

Loved Keys to the Kingdom tour too, great info with the behind the scenes stuff 😁