I guess your wondering what happened. Well, we spent 4 days and 3 nights up in Orlando at Universal Studios at their Royal Pacific resort hotel. The hotel was a little pricey, but the key to the whole thing was that by staying on grounds, we get to use their "express" service in the park, which basically allows you to jump right to the front of the line. That may not mean anything to you in the winter...but in the dead of summer---OMAN. It was worth every penny.
We got there Sunday, checked in and then were joined for dinner by Kim's friend Pam. We had to take advantage of the opportunity to get a Chicago style pizza at Uno's (who aren't down in south Florida). Of course, I should say we had to take advantage of the opportunity to get some major heartburn. Oy vey! Anyway, after dinner we went over and got our express passes so that we would be ready and raring to go in the morning. We got back to the hotel and noticed our first problem.
There seemed to be a "slight" problem with the water pressure at the hotel. And by "slight", I mean....ya know....almost none. Imagine if you will, standing under a hose in your backyard. That's about how much water pressure this "luxury" resort was offering. The next day we hit the park, first going to the Universal side as we let Kellie overcome her fears by returning to the "Twister" exhibit. The last time we had all gone there she about freaked out over the whole tornado thing. Of course, as I reminded her...that was back when she was just a kid. (Cough) Next up we managed to go to the Men in Black//Alien Attack ride, which was fun except for the whole spinning around thing that I hate. We also did the Earthquake ride, which by now is slightly tame in comparison to some of the others....and caught the new Mummy roller coaster ride, which was actually pretty darned good in a sort of Space Mountain-esque way. Ya know, the whole roller coaster ride in the dark thing. Eventually we made our way over to the Jaws boat ride, which was one of the real highlites of the week for us, as Kellie forgot about the fake shark for a moment and it came out of the water right next to her. She must have jumped a foot out of her seat--it was hilarious! After dinner, we went over to the Islands of Adventure park and let Andy do the Incredible Hulk roller coaster (no thank you) and did the Spiderman & Doctor Doom rides. Finally, as the sun began to go down, we went over to the waterpark section and rode the rapid rivers of the Popeye ride--one of my personal faves at the park. Kim got absolutely soaked.
The Dudley Do Right ride was also a lot of fun, as was trying to explain to the kids that the joke was that Dudley was the stupid one--the horse was the smart one.
The next day, we decided to skip the buffet at the hotel (only $15 each!) and just sort of skipped breakfast. More rides for the kids, more heat from the sun, and more blisters on my feet. Am I really getting to be an old fart? So finally, its the day we leave. We move our checkout time back to noonish, and are going to let the kids hit the rides that they wanted to do again one more time and then head out home. So we all get up, and I'm in the bathroom shaving, ya know, looking sexy like only I can....and I notice this flashing light in the bathroom.
"Kim, what the hell is with the flashing light?"
"I think its a fire alarm."
"Well send Kellie out into the hallway to find out what's going on."
So Kellie goes out into the hallway, and sees some workers from the hotel at the end of the hallway. She hears something, calls for her mom, who reports to me.....
"They just said the fire alarm went off because of something in room 1205."
Wanna guess what room we were in?
Anyone? How about you?
So Kim immediately begins grabbing things near and dear to her, preparing for the mad dash into the hallway....and I'm telling her that there is NOT a fire. (Good thing too, with that crappy water pressure in the hotel) So the hotel staff comes in the room, checks it out....and figures out (this is a good one)...that the cleaning staff, while cleaning the room next door to us--ya know, the one that connects to our room--had done just a little TOO GOOD on the cleaning, and had stirred up so much dust in their cleaning....that it set off the fire alarm.
This shit only happens to me.
So now that the Towering Inferno has been resolved, we decide to head to the park.
Before we go in, Kim decides she wants a croissant or something, so we go into this little restaurant inside the Islands of Adventure. I orderd a hot chocolate, and I'm sitting there....when holy crap, my main man Barry Rose walks past!! Yep, the original Playboy himself. Kim shakes her head in amazement, because she always jokes about how, whereever we go, I always run into someone I know. I'm going to have to vacation in Antartica and see if that shit is true.
Anyway, I have a nice visit with Barry, do some quick catching up--find out he's the manager of the restaurant and has worked there for like 2 years (that's me--Mr. Keep in Touch with everyone!) and how he & his wife are doing, etc. We happen to mention the whole water pressure thing to him, mainly because he said that the Universal people are really conscious of wanting everyone to have a great time, and be return customers...that sort of thing. He told us to mention the water pressure at the front desk when we checked out and see what happened.
Well, suffice to say....we did just that....and got $100 off of our bill.
Squeaky wheel gets the grease baby. But it was sure good to be home.
Later,
Jeff
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