Day 4 - The Day We Went To Hard Rock and Almost Got Divorced

[caitlinsmummy]

Welcome to our trip report! I'll start off by introducing the family and a little about the name of the report in case you haven't read the pre-trippie.

We are a family of five and we returned from Orlando in November 2018. In September 2018 Virgin had a MASSIVE sale and I found a bargain for just over £300pp for direct flights, accommodation at Rosen Inn International and transfers for 9 nights! It was too good a deal to pass up so I booked it. I intended to tell everyone at Christmas but needed to tell Mr Grump earlier. We told the kids on Christmas morning and they were over the moon.

Find the Index HERE

Previous day is HERE

So this trip consisted of:

Myself (Kelly) - Chief planner and organiser ... none of the trip would have happened without me

Husband (Chris) - The laid back photographer one ... I guess it wouldn't have happened without him paying for it so I have to give him some recognition there

Caitlin (12) - total drama llama and pre teen one.

Thomas (10) - the cheeky brain box one.

Noah (6) - the cute one. Noah is autistic and struggles with change so holidays are quite often a challenge for him

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Day 4 - The Day We Went To Hard Rock and Almost Got Divorced

I'm not sure on the time I was up this morning but I know it was earlier than the others as I sorted a case of clothes out and took them down to the laundry. When I got back we finished packing the case and bag for Universal and I received a message from my tutor at Uni stating that I had been awarded the 'Student of the Year' for our course which was a lovely message to receive!

After this we headed to IHOP. We arrived at IHOP at 8.59am.

IHOP - International Drive (Near the big McDonalds)

It was relatively quiet. We were seated immediately and had a look through the menu, we were really looking forward to this. Before I came I signed up and we had 2 coupons, one for a free birthday pancake stack and one for a free birthday breakfast I think. We ordered drinks and asked for more time to order. Now I felt the server was rather pushy, she gave us about 30 seconds before returning to the table to ask if we weer ready to order again. I said not quite and could we have longer. She appeared very huffed at this but let us have a look at the menu.

I had:

Build Your Own French Toast Combo - Choose your French Toast flavor and we’ll serve it with two eggs*, hash browns and two crispy strips of hickory-smoked bacon or two pork sausage links

I really enjoyed this, it was nice to have something different to waffles and pancakes. I just have plain french toast. The bacon, hash brown and eggs were just like everywhere else, although I did find IHOPs more greasy than Denny's.

Chris had:

Classic Breakfast Crepe - Exceptional crepes made right here in our kitchen from our own crepe batter. The Breakfast Crepe includes two of our freshly prepared, made-to-order crepes, filled with fluffy scrambled eggs, white Cheddar cheese, hickory-smoked chopped bacon & ham, then topped with a creamy Cheddar cheese sauce.

Chris was really disappointed with this, he said it didn't taste very nice at all and he'd wished he'd gotten something else. Now we all know things NEVER look like they do in menus but we just felt it was thrown together and was nothing like the menu ... here's the menu picture for reference

I honestly can't remember what Noah had ... looking at the menu I can only assume it's this but instead of birthday pancake he has strawberry

Jr. Cupcake Pancake Combo - A completely sweet breakfast! You’ll get one buttermilk pancake filled with festive rainbow sprinkles and topped with cupcake icing and even more sprinkles! Plus it’s served with 1 piece of bacon, 1 sausage, and 1 scrambled egg.

Noah didn't mind this but he did say he preferred his pancakes at Denny's the other day and he only ate around half. He was getting really fed up of the food by now

Thomas had:


Jr. Chicken and Waffles - Two all-white meat chicken strips, battered and fried to a golden crisp paired with two Belgian waffle quarters. Served with whipped butter and your choice of dipping sauce.

Thomas enjoyed these although he eats at snails pace and took forever

Caitlin had:

Cupcake Pancakes - What could be better than our signature buttermilk pancakes? How about when they’re filled with festive rainbow sprinkles, then topped with cupcake icing, more rainbow sprinkles and whipped topping! These sweet treats are part of a tasty trio, perfect for sharing with your friends and family.

Caitlin didn't like these much at all, she said they tasted really dry. She mainly ate the cream, icing and sprinkles off the top instead

We tried the pancakes and thought the same.

Overall we weren't wowed by breakfast here and wouldn't rush back which I'm really disappointed with as we were really looking forward to it. I think next time we may try ad different branch but it's definitely not somewhere we have on a must do again list. We used the coupon for the free stack of pancakes (Caitlin's).

Total bill here was $54.49 including tip

Denny's was almost $15 less and we all enjoyed it so much more. I definitely don't think it's somewhere we would rush back too.

After this we headed back to RII where I took the laundry out, folded it all up and put it back in the case. I then popped the case back into the car and we headed off to Universal at 10.08am. Chris took a wrong turn on the road somewhere so this ended up taking us just over 15 minutes ... putting us both in a snappy mood Just as we were waiting to turn left into the Hard Rock Hotel I had a sudden realisation that we didn't have our Universal Annual Passes

Queue Mr Grump whinging and blaming me for forgetting them ... yep coz I'm the one left to sort everything I told him to drop me off and him head back for the passes ... even had to tell her where about's in the safe they were I said I would check in so I grabbed my passport out of the bag and off he and the boys went, whilst Caitlin and I went to check in.

Check in wasn't a problem until the CM wanted a credit card to guarantee the room Those who haven't read the previous days, on day 2 I had all my cards and driving licence stolen ... so obviously I didn't have a card. Caitlin and I waited for Mr Grump to come back. Once he arrived Caitlin went and got the wallet from him and came back to Reception whilst Mr Grump and the boys parked and got sorted.

Caitlin brought the wallet to me ... no Revolut card As it was just a guarantee for the room I thought I'll just use Mr Grumps bank card ... declined ... tried the joint account card ... declined. By this point I was ready to cry, I then remembered that I had paid for the food in IHOP with Mr Grumps card whilst he got the kids in the car, I remembered putting it in the centre console of the car. Mr Grump wasn't picking his phone up so I had to send poor Caitlin down to get it from him again. By this point he was half way up the stairs to HRH from the car park. At this point Mr Grump snapped and ranted to Caitlin about how 'I was absolutely useless and couldn't organise anything!'

Caitlin returned to me with the card and I eventually got us checked in. She told what Mr Grump had said and I had to stop the tears from falling, I was so angry but also so frustrated. I was already still fragile after the stolen cards of day 2 and I was just feeling so overwhelmed with everything ... also pretty fed up that everything is ALWAYS left to me. Mr Grump came back and I just blanked him, I was so annoyed with him. I finished check in and took the case over to Bell Services to keep until our room was ready later.

I grabbed the pushchair with Noah in and headed to IOA ... it was now 11.10am. I ignored Mr Grump and he said 'I'm guessing Caitlin told you what I said.' Again I didn't speak to him I then told him that I'm fed up of everything being left to me to sort, the bag the night before, the itinerary, the kid's ... just everything basically. He apologised and said he was just annoyed that he had needed to go back several times ... I suggested that maybe in future he could organise things. He spent the rest of the day grovelling and saying he appreciates everything I do and that he understands that it must be so hard to remember everything and that there's no way he could plan everything I had done

We arrived at Universal for around 11.20am and decided to get a photo at the ball. There was a couple in front of who were taking another families photo. Once they had taken the families photo they left leaving the poor couple with no one to photograph them! I found this really rude tbh, I think if someone takes your photo it's common courtesy to offer to take theirs!

We took a photo for the couple in front of us and they offered to take ours. I said it was ok as they'd already taken the other families photo and they'll want to get on with their day, but they insisted which was lovely.

Once we were in we headed straight for Seuss Land where we rode The Cat In The Hat.

We exited through the shop where Noah bought a Thing 2 Plush and a Cat In The Hat children's cup with some of his money. Next we headed to One Fish Two Fish and Caitlin opted out of this ride so she waited with the pushchair and bags

We headed to Circus McGurkus and reactivated our refill mug. Just as we left Story Time was happening so we went and sat down. Those who read last years report will know we had an amazing experience with the Things in Universal and this time it was exactly the same. Thing 2 came and sat with Noah and hugged him (notice his Thing teddy too )

Once it was finished we walked round to meet Cat and The Things and got some great photos again.

As we were leaving Thing 2 stole Noah's plush and was showing it to Thing 1 who was getting annoyed that it wasn't Thing 1

We went into the bakery type store in Seuss Land (can't remember the name of it ) The kids all choose something each and Mr Grump and I got 3 Macroons to share. I can't remember exactly how much this came too and we must have used cash as I can't find the receipt but I think it ended up around $25 we also reactivated our refillable mug from last year for $9.58.

Mr G and I had had 2 other macroons but I can't remember the flavours and I didn't record it sorry! I used my preferred pass for the cookies and treats but forgot for the refillable drink earlier!

Next up we went through to Hogsmede where Caitlin and Thomas did some spells with their wands and let Noah have a go too. Mr Grump and Thomas went on Forbidden Journey and Caitlin, Noah and I did Flight of The Hippogriff and waited for Mr Grump and Noah to come off their ride. It was scorching yet again at 32C!

When they got off they all went back on Flight of The Hippogriff, I gave it a miss as I was feeling sickly again, I think it was the heat and humidity.

We walked round to Jurassic Park and rode the River Ride and got soaked ... Caitlin opted out of this one again and good thing really as we got much wetter than last time

Chris and the boys wanted to King Kong again but as my back was still bad I opted out and Caitlin found it too loud last time so she did too.

Thunder Falls

We all shared this as a snack/lunch as we were all feeling peckish and had a few more hours before dinner. Caitlin and I ate whilst we waited for the others and they finished it off when they got back.

This was $12.45 with the preferred pass discount.

We had a walk round to Toon Lagoon where we decided not to ride Bilge Barge Rats this time ... I can't remember why as it was red hot and we could have done with a cool down ... might have been as I stupidly wore denim shorts instead of a dress to dry off quicker. The boys went for a play in the water fountains which they loved ... until right at the last minute as they were leaving and Noah got sprayed straight in the face with water poor little guy.

This resulted in mini meltdown from Noah kicking off that he didn't want his shoes back on but wanted to walk, not be in the pushchair! We find he does this sometimes, particularly when he's hurt himself. It's like he feels embarrassed and he just kicks off. I eventually managed to distract him and calm him down and we went round to Spiderman where the boys rode. Caitlin and I looked in the shop for a Marvel themed lanyard for a friend back home. We were all realyl hot by this point and decided to head back to HRH. It was almost 4pm and we had promised the kids we could go to the pool for a couple of hours before food.

It's barely a 10 minute walk from the parks to HRH which is perfect. We really loved the theming in the hotel and also loved the music playing throughout. We went to the room and got changed, the kids snacked on Cheetos we'd brought from RII and cookies then we went down to the pool.

The pool area wasn't too busy but there was a photographer there and he was taking pictures of some kids jumping in the pool and stuff, we guessed it was probably a photo shoot for some brouchure for HRH. I chilled on the sun lounger for a bit whilst they all went in the pool and I had a look at the cocktails, I was very tempted to order but just as I was about to I realised the Revolut card was upstairs perfect timing as Noah had came over and asked me to go in the pool with him so off we went. The older 2 enjoyed going down the slide ... Noah went once but didn't like it as he had to go on himself. Chris was playing with his GoPro and got a few pictures of us too

After an hour we headed back to the room for showers before dinner. We were all ready and left the room at 6.35pm. Chris took these photos on our way out.

We were in the car and heading to Friendly's by 6.54pm. We arrived at 7.08pm.

Friendlys

We arrived at Friendly's a little later than planned around 7.10pm. We went to the one just off International Drive. When we first walked in we weren't impressed at all. It looked very run down and there was a really funny smell in the reception area now I know it's a diner and it did smell greasy but there was another type of smell that we just couldn't put our finger on. To the point Mr Grump said he really didn't want to eat here and wanted to go elsewhere. I told him if he wanted to leave we needed to go now before we were seated.

In the end he agreed to stay. We were seated immediately. Shortly after our drinks order was taken and then we placed our food order. Whilst waiting for our food a lady making balloon characters came to our table, she was working for tips and made a character for each of the kids, they were fabulous. See if you can guess what each one is:

Thomas had:

Friendly's Chicken Pops - Even the pickiest eaters can't resist Friendly's Chicken Pops! (Comes with fries or choose a side.)

He choose to just have fries with his. He really enjoyed these and said they were some of the best nuggets he'd had.

Noah had:

Cheeseywich - Served with apples or your choice of a side, we're grillin' up homestyle grilled cheeses right here at Friendly's!

Noah opted for a side of fruit with his but it didn't come till later. He didn't like the cheeseywich even though it's similar to the toasties we have at home he ate most of the fries and the fruit though.

Caitlin had:

Mini Cheeseburgers - Friendly's Mini Cheeseburgers come with fries or your choice of side.

She doesn't like cheese apart from on pizza so had plain burgers with a side of oranges Honestly the looks we got ordering this She really enjoyed them.

Mr Grump and I both got the same. We meant to get some onion rings to share but we forgot

Bacon Mac N Cheese Burger - Friendly's Big Beef® Burger topped wth melted American cheese, our cheesy mac & cheese and crispy applewood-smoked bacon all on a grilled Brioche roll and served with golden fries.

These burgers were sooooo good! Honestly the best burgers we had on holiday so tasty and juicy, we really wouldn't hesitate to return in future.

I knew we wouldn't make the light show at HP so we decided to just get the kids dessert instead. I had Caitlin's ice cream as she doesn't like it. I got the monster mash sundae and 2 create your own sundaes these were nice enough. I had a 25% off coupon for here which I almost forgot about

Total came to $45.21

As we were too late for the HP lightshow I suggested to Mr Grump about heading to the Premium Outlets as we were nearby anyway and would save us having to go back another day ... yeah right who was I kidding We arrived at 8.53pm. We went to Michael Kors where I got a new black handbag and Mr Grump bought me a MK watch (think he was still trying to grovel from this morning! ). We then went to Kate Spade where I got a small purse as all my purses were large and I needed a smaller one for smaller bags. I honestly can't remember what other shops we went to but we were there till 10.40pm so we must have went to more I think we did character warehouse and the kid's spent some of their money. I was also hunting round for Charlotte Russe as I got some jeans there last year (Buy one paid get the 2nd for $10) but it had closed down I was devastated as they're the most comfy jeans I've had in a long time but since losing weight I now needed them in a smaller size

It took us a while to get back as Mr Grump had put Rosen Inn International into the sat nav we eventually arrived back at 10.55pm and everyone was fast asleep as soon as we got in Another great day with not too many meltdowns, but this heat was really affecting us this time!

[collybird]

Oh Kelly, I am so sorry this trip wasn’t panning out as you’d hoped, so much bad luck.

Love your shopping pictures, they are my second favourite after food haha. Your little purse is so pretty, come to think of it I actually need a little purse. We don’t have a car this year though so no outlets for us.

[Cinderella]

A great day once you got to IOA 👍

[Goldia]

Congratulations on being awarded student of the year, that's amazing, you must have worked really hard! Such a shame the morning didn't live up to this impressive start. Argh...forgetting the APs and then the credit card not working at check in.

The pool photo looks great though and you all look like you're enjoying yourselves. It turned out fine in the end I think with your shopping haul.

[caitlinsmummy]

Just realised I forgot to put the photos in of the balloon characters ... I've added those now x

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by collybird

Oh Kelly, I am so sorry this trip wasn’t panning out as you’d hoped, so much bad luck.

Love your shopping pictures, they are my second favourite after food haha. Your little purse is so pretty, come to think of it I actually need a little purse. We don’t have a car this year though so no outlets for us.

See more...

Yeah it definitely wasn't as plain sailing as the Disney trip. I'm unsure if it's because there was more planning involved (different places to go and eat etc) or if I had just lost my mojo

Can't beat a good shopping trip!

Oh no, would you not consider an UBER or LYFT and just go to one of the outlets? I think the purse was only around $40 too! I can't believe how quick your count down is going by the time Abby's back it'll be almost your turn x

Originally Posted by Cinderella

A great day once you got to IOA 👍

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It was thank you for reading Xx

Originally Posted by Goldia

Congratulations on being awarded student of the year, that's amazing, you must have worked really hard! Such a shame the morning didn't live up to this impressive start. Argh...forgetting the APs and then the credit card not working at check in.

The pool photo looks great though and you all look like you're enjoying yourselves. It turned out fine in the end I think with your shopping haul.

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Thank you, I was over the moon and totally didn't expect it. I actually found out a few weeks ago just before I graduated that I had an overall grade of 81% which I was ecstatic with.

This whole holiday was just doomed tbh but luckily I think that was it for bad luck for the rest of the holiday thankfully.

We did and it was so nice to cool off xx

[Goldia]

Thank goodness this was the end of the run of bad luck! I'm looking forward to some plain sailing days without the stress and just the fun.

[GezzasGem]

Brilliant news on your award, Congratulations! 😁👌 what a stressful start to the day - I think you were remarkably calm and handled it really well - I mean Chris is still alive so good job! 😂👍 your pics have made me so excited to see HRH, but those balloon animals took the prize- fantastic! 😊👌

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by GezzasGem

Brilliant news on your award, Congratulations! 😁👌 what a stressful start to the day - I think you were remarkably calm and handled it really well - I mean Chris is still alive so good job! 😂👍 your pics have made me so excited to see HRH, but those balloon animals took the prize- fantastic! 😊👌

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Thank you

So did I ... although walking to Universal I was so tempted to push him into the waterways I was even plotting how to make it look like an accident too

Can't wait to see what you think of HRH. I just wish we'd been able to spend more time looking around the hotel.

They're awesome aren't they, she rhymed off so many different ones she could do, Noah choose Mickey, Caitlin Belle, and Thomas a Tiger xx

[nats1211]

Great day. Glad you got it all back on track.

Say it isn’t so that Charlotte Russe has gone from the premium outlets? I love the jeans from there ☹️