Day 3: Wednesday, April 28: Hang around the Resort; visit my family
Weather: High 70s to low 80s. Perfect day.
I remember waking up in the middle of the night. It took me a few seconds to figure our where I was. But when I did, I looked up at the alarm clock and say it was only 5:00 a.m. My kids rarely sleep past 7:00, but they were tired from the trip. Plus, they had stayed up until after 11:00 after we checked in since they were too excited to sleep. I estimated that they would sleep til 9:30. My wife thought 8:30. Either way, I knew I had at least three more hours of sleep in a very comfortable bed, so I was in happy-land.
The next thing I know, the alarm is going off at 6:30, which irks me since I couldn’t understand why my wife would set the alarm this morning. She, however, has an equally irked look on her face and begins struggling to shut the alarm off before the brats wake up. My kids are pretty sound sleepers and do not stir easily. But once they do, they are not going back to sleep. The music is not terribly loud, so I am hopeful they will not wake up. After about two minutes, DW realizes that the sound is not coming from our alarm clock. I could almost swear it was and she even puts here ear right up against it to verify that it is not. That's when we realized that it is the alarm clock in the room next to us. That's a problem for two reasons. First, there is no one in the room next to us, since it’s waiting for my family. That means that no one will be turning it off. The bigger problem, however, is that it means the walls are thin. We don’t know who’s getting that room, but if it’s my sister, she’s got a one-year old, which means “crying baby in the night”. Not good.
We immediately called the front desk and they got someone up there pretty fast to turn it off. But the damage was already done. Just as the door was shutting in the room next store, I saw the first signs of life in my son. I moved as quickly and quietly as I could to get to him, not to try and get him back to sleep but to prevent what I knew was coming. The bed sheet, however, was too tightly tucked and delayed me just a second too long. Before I could reach him, his sister had already taken a stuffed animal across the forehead (the yellow Labrador, I think) and was now up too. It’s 6:35 on one of the few days we have to sleep in in the next two weeks and both my kids are up, and they are not going back to sleep. I want to get angry at someone - the person who stayed in the room next to us who never turned the alarm off, housekeeping for not checking the alarm, the President of Universal Orlando for not personally ensuring that all alarms in empty rooms are off, somebody. But it doesn’t matter. I am already taking stuffed-shrapnel from my kids and my wife is enjoying every minute of it since she guessed they would sleep til 8:30 and under Price is Right rules, she wins, which means I have to get the kids ready for breakfast.
Let me take a brief moment to tell you about my kids. They are very good kids. They listen (to me, they pretty much ignore my wife), they never pull temper tantrums, they do not talk back (yet) and they both have kind hearts and share everything with each other. There personalities are very different. My son is quiet and reserved (like me). My daughter is loud and outgoing (like my wife). One thing they have in common, however, is that they are both Class-A ball-busters. They can make anything into a joke and they know how to push buttons. It’s not there fault, however. I was exactly the same was as a kid. So much so that my mother cursed daily hoping that I would have five kids just like me. Well, I got two. Everytime we see my parents, I catch the tiny smile on my Mom's face when I am yelling at my kids because she knows the curse has worked. Here's the funny part: I paid for my parents' room because I am going to impose on them to watch my kids on Thursday and Friday night so we can go out with my sister and brother and their spouses to City Walk. So my Mom is going to be stuck in a hotel room with the two kids she cursed me with, along with my one-year old nephew. My parting words on Friday night would be, “be careful what you wish for”.
Back to the day. We had breakfast at the Islands Dinning Room. It is buffer style and one of the best I've ever had. It cost about what an average character breakfast cost in WDW and was worth every penny, even without the characters. The hot station included scrambled eggs, sausage, smoke bacon (excellent), hot cereal, french toast with a hint of pineapple (excellent), pancakes and potatoes (also excellent). In addition, there was an awesome omelet station. The cold station had a ton of fruit (my wife said some of it was not ripe enough), cold cereal, muffins, bread and pastries, as well as bagels and lox. The breads and pastries was comparable to the Boma’s at AKL. This was the best breakfast place all trip. Grade: A+.
Next we went to the pool. The pool is set in an island oasis setting between two of the resort’s three towers which form a “U” shape. The pool is huge - at least twice the size of the Poly’s. It is too shallow, though. I think the deepest part was just over four feet. It is surrounded by palm trees, a few cabanas, two hot tubs, a snack shop, and a bar. The island theme is well played on all of the structures and in the pool itself, which has no defined shape and has a few mini-islands in the middle with a couple of palm trees on them. From the pool, you can see the lake, where the water taxi leaves for City Walk. About a fifth of the pools edge is made up of what looks like the deck of an ocean liner. It’s a play area for the kids, with water falls, a small tunnel and about a dozen water canons. My kids do not know how to swim. They had swimming lessons last summer. It cost me $300 to make them afraid of the water. The resort does not provide life vests for the kids, but they do sell them. They were only $5 each. It took a little while, but my kids fell in love with the water. By the time we hit the Poly next week, we will not be able to pull them out of the pool. They also loved the play area on the side of the pool. The only bummer was that the water canons were not working. But the fountains and waterfalls were, and they had a blast.
Around 2:00 we took walk over to City Walk. The resort staff will tell you it is only a five minute walk. No way. We are pretty fast walkers, and it took us twice that long. We didn’t spend too long at City Walk. My kids rode the carrousel (because it’s not like they are going to be on almost 100 rides in the next two weeks) and then we just looked around for about an hour. Although we would come back on Thursday and Friday nights, I can’t really compare City Walk to Downtown Disney. City Walk seemed to have more dining options, but Downtown Disney has cooler clubs and DisneyQuest, and plus it’s Disney. But I would need to spend more time there to make a fair comparison.
We left to see my family around 3:30. They live about 30 minutes northwest of Orlando in “Howey-in-the-Hills”. They’re kind of in the middle of nowhere. We had dinner at my sister’s house, which is next store to my parents. My brother lives about 15 minutes away in Clermont. It was great to see everyone, but the real reason I was there was to make sure everyone knew that they had to be at the RPR first thing in the morning for express checking so they could get their resort IDs with FOTL privilege. We were going to be doing IOA and I wanted to be there for when they opened the gates.
We got back to the RPR around 8:30 and ordered dessert through room service. The resort desperately needs a snack bar or food court. We ordered cookies and milk, two cups of ice cream for the kids, I had a Sundae and my wife had cheese cake. We also got a carafe of hot tea. The bill was $42! OK, I could live with the price since the resort is only half as expensive as the AKL and about a third as the Poly. I have to say, the RPR really gets room service right. They bring the food up on a table, instead of just a tray. And they will remove the table from your room when you are done. That means far less clutter in the halls, a sight I have gotten used to at Disney’s resorts. The only thing that irked me was that they charged us for the cookies and milk, which were supposed to be complimentary since we are Loews First members (takes two minutes to sign up for this on the internet). Oh well, I figured I would get them again the next night.
Sorry it was so long. Day 4 coming soon
Weather: High 70s to low 80s. Perfect day.
I remember waking up in the middle of the night. It took me a few seconds to figure our where I was. But when I did, I looked up at the alarm clock and say it was only 5:00 a.m. My kids rarely sleep past 7:00, but they were tired from the trip. Plus, they had stayed up until after 11:00 after we checked in since they were too excited to sleep. I estimated that they would sleep til 9:30. My wife thought 8:30. Either way, I knew I had at least three more hours of sleep in a very comfortable bed, so I was in happy-land.
The next thing I know, the alarm is going off at 6:30, which irks me since I couldn’t understand why my wife would set the alarm this morning. She, however, has an equally irked look on her face and begins struggling to shut the alarm off before the brats wake up. My kids are pretty sound sleepers and do not stir easily. But once they do, they are not going back to sleep. The music is not terribly loud, so I am hopeful they will not wake up. After about two minutes, DW realizes that the sound is not coming from our alarm clock. I could almost swear it was and she even puts here ear right up against it to verify that it is not. That's when we realized that it is the alarm clock in the room next to us. That's a problem for two reasons. First, there is no one in the room next to us, since it’s waiting for my family. That means that no one will be turning it off. The bigger problem, however, is that it means the walls are thin. We don’t know who’s getting that room, but if it’s my sister, she’s got a one-year old, which means “crying baby in the night”. Not good.
We immediately called the front desk and they got someone up there pretty fast to turn it off. But the damage was already done. Just as the door was shutting in the room next store, I saw the first signs of life in my son. I moved as quickly and quietly as I could to get to him, not to try and get him back to sleep but to prevent what I knew was coming. The bed sheet, however, was too tightly tucked and delayed me just a second too long. Before I could reach him, his sister had already taken a stuffed animal across the forehead (the yellow Labrador, I think) and was now up too. It’s 6:35 on one of the few days we have to sleep in in the next two weeks and both my kids are up, and they are not going back to sleep. I want to get angry at someone - the person who stayed in the room next to us who never turned the alarm off, housekeeping for not checking the alarm, the President of Universal Orlando for not personally ensuring that all alarms in empty rooms are off, somebody. But it doesn’t matter. I am already taking stuffed-shrapnel from my kids and my wife is enjoying every minute of it since she guessed they would sleep til 8:30 and under Price is Right rules, she wins, which means I have to get the kids ready for breakfast.
Let me take a brief moment to tell you about my kids. They are very good kids. They listen (to me, they pretty much ignore my wife), they never pull temper tantrums, they do not talk back (yet) and they both have kind hearts and share everything with each other. There personalities are very different. My son is quiet and reserved (like me). My daughter is loud and outgoing (like my wife). One thing they have in common, however, is that they are both Class-A ball-busters. They can make anything into a joke and they know how to push buttons. It’s not there fault, however. I was exactly the same was as a kid. So much so that my mother cursed daily hoping that I would have five kids just like me. Well, I got two. Everytime we see my parents, I catch the tiny smile on my Mom's face when I am yelling at my kids because she knows the curse has worked. Here's the funny part: I paid for my parents' room because I am going to impose on them to watch my kids on Thursday and Friday night so we can go out with my sister and brother and their spouses to City Walk. So my Mom is going to be stuck in a hotel room with the two kids she cursed me with, along with my one-year old nephew. My parting words on Friday night would be, “be careful what you wish for”.
Back to the day. We had breakfast at the Islands Dinning Room. It is buffer style and one of the best I've ever had. It cost about what an average character breakfast cost in WDW and was worth every penny, even without the characters. The hot station included scrambled eggs, sausage, smoke bacon (excellent), hot cereal, french toast with a hint of pineapple (excellent), pancakes and potatoes (also excellent). In addition, there was an awesome omelet station. The cold station had a ton of fruit (my wife said some of it was not ripe enough), cold cereal, muffins, bread and pastries, as well as bagels and lox. The breads and pastries was comparable to the Boma’s at AKL. This was the best breakfast place all trip. Grade: A+.
Next we went to the pool. The pool is set in an island oasis setting between two of the resort’s three towers which form a “U” shape. The pool is huge - at least twice the size of the Poly’s. It is too shallow, though. I think the deepest part was just over four feet. It is surrounded by palm trees, a few cabanas, two hot tubs, a snack shop, and a bar. The island theme is well played on all of the structures and in the pool itself, which has no defined shape and has a few mini-islands in the middle with a couple of palm trees on them. From the pool, you can see the lake, where the water taxi leaves for City Walk. About a fifth of the pools edge is made up of what looks like the deck of an ocean liner. It’s a play area for the kids, with water falls, a small tunnel and about a dozen water canons. My kids do not know how to swim. They had swimming lessons last summer. It cost me $300 to make them afraid of the water. The resort does not provide life vests for the kids, but they do sell them. They were only $5 each. It took a little while, but my kids fell in love with the water. By the time we hit the Poly next week, we will not be able to pull them out of the pool. They also loved the play area on the side of the pool. The only bummer was that the water canons were not working. But the fountains and waterfalls were, and they had a blast.
Around 2:00 we took walk over to City Walk. The resort staff will tell you it is only a five minute walk. No way. We are pretty fast walkers, and it took us twice that long. We didn’t spend too long at City Walk. My kids rode the carrousel (because it’s not like they are going to be on almost 100 rides in the next two weeks) and then we just looked around for about an hour. Although we would come back on Thursday and Friday nights, I can’t really compare City Walk to Downtown Disney. City Walk seemed to have more dining options, but Downtown Disney has cooler clubs and DisneyQuest, and plus it’s Disney. But I would need to spend more time there to make a fair comparison.
We left to see my family around 3:30. They live about 30 minutes northwest of Orlando in “Howey-in-the-Hills”. They’re kind of in the middle of nowhere. We had dinner at my sister’s house, which is next store to my parents. My brother lives about 15 minutes away in Clermont. It was great to see everyone, but the real reason I was there was to make sure everyone knew that they had to be at the RPR first thing in the morning for express checking so they could get their resort IDs with FOTL privilege. We were going to be doing IOA and I wanted to be there for when they opened the gates.
We got back to the RPR around 8:30 and ordered dessert through room service. The resort desperately needs a snack bar or food court. We ordered cookies and milk, two cups of ice cream for the kids, I had a Sundae and my wife had cheese cake. We also got a carafe of hot tea. The bill was $42! OK, I could live with the price since the resort is only half as expensive as the AKL and about a third as the Poly. I have to say, the RPR really gets room service right. They bring the food up on a table, instead of just a tray. And they will remove the table from your room when you are done. That means far less clutter in the halls, a sight I have gotten used to at Disney’s resorts. The only thing that irked me was that they charged us for the cookies and milk, which were supposed to be complimentary since we are Loews First members (takes two minutes to sign up for this on the internet). Oh well, I figured I would get them again the next night.
Sorry it was so long. Day 4 coming soon
