Kids at Heart, Gluttons for Punishment, or just plain Idiots? We report. You decide.

[AlexandNessa]

Highlander, I hope I didn't offend you. Perhaps we were just there at a bad time. We tend to sit at the bar a lot, so it's easy to see and notice, and it was just something we noticed a lot this trip. They were some who did tip, but definitely in the minority.

Barb, nice summary! Perhaps you should write my next day's report?

Janet, we've had some trouble at NASCAR too with the cards, but we used our room key cards at NBA City all week without a problem. I don't remember if they have Michelob on tap. I know they have Fosters and Sam Adams, but I don't remember what else they have. Sorry!

Tricia, see, you always get me! It bothers me that we have a rep for being "Ugly Americans" when we travel overseas and then that seems to follow us even when the overseas people visit here.

Akdar, thanks for backing me up. Yes, if you didn't get my feelings: the new lap bars SUCK!

 

[highlander447]

Highlander, I hope I didn't offend you. Perhaps we were just there at a bad time. We tend to sit at the bar a lot, so it's easy to see and notice, and it was just something we noticed a lot this trip. They were some who did tip, but definitely in the minority.

Barb, nice summary! Perhaps you should write my next day's report?

Janet, we've had some trouble at NASCAR too with the cards, but we used our room key cards at NBA City all week without a problem. I don't remember if they have Michelob on tap. I know they have Fosters and Sam Adams, but I don't remember what else they have. Sorry!

Tricia, see, you always get me! It bothers me that we have a rep for being "Ugly Americans" when we travel overseas and then that seems to follow us even when the overseas people visit here.

Akdar, thanks for backing me up. Yes, if you didn't get my feelings: the new lap bars SUCK!

Hi no no offence given none taken, its what you saw and have seen myself more common at bars

 

[RVGal]

Tricia, see, you always get me! It bothers me that we have a rep for being "Ugly Americans" when we travel overseas and then that seems to follow us even when the overseas people visit here.

Of course. I also say, what you do comes back to bite you in the posterior.

When Brad & I were in French Polynesia, I think Tahiti, but could have been another island, we overheard a group of American tourists at the next table saying, "I'm not exchanging MY money. If they won't take an American dollar, then I'm not doing business with them."

I looked over at Brad, since we were near the end of our trip, and smiled. See, most of the stores/restaurants/etc have prices up in CFP Francs OR US dollars. The thing is, if you do the currency conversion in your head, they are charging you MORE for using US dollars. Hey, I don't blame them. If you are too lazy to convert your money to the local currency, you deserve to get screwed.

The "Ugly American" thing gets old. I have seen some, but I also know there are plenty of us that try to respect the local customs and don't expect the world to bend to our way of doing things.

 

[bubba's mom]

I looked over at Brad, since we were near the end of our trip, and smiled. See, most of the stores/restaurants/etc have prices up in CFP Francs OR US dollars. The thing is, if you do the currency conversion in your head, they are charging you MORE for using US dollars. Hey, I don't blame them. If you are too lazy to convert your money to the local currency, you deserve to get screwed.

absolutely!!!!

The "Ugly American" thing gets old. I have seen some, but I also know there are plenty of us that try to respect the local customs and don't expect the world to bend to our way of doing things.

I agree...this is almost a daily "beef" with me The "office" job I work, well, we teach food & alcohol safety. Now, think about it....chinese restaurants, italian restaurants, LOTS of Hindi's own Dunkin Donuts and such...it really irritates me when someone calls our office asking: 1) Does anyone there speak Spanish (or any other language than English, Spanish & Chinese)? 2) Do you give the test/exam in Hindi (or any other language than the previously stated)? Um....NO!!! THIS IS AMERICA AND OUR LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH....LEARN IT! SPEAK IT! OR GET OUT!!!! (Sorry, but it's a hot topic at work and really gets under my skin!) Ya know, if I were to travel to another country, say France, Germany, China, etc....I would do my absolute best to communicate in THEIR language. I would never go to another country and expect them to speak English (like they do here )

 

[pauldents]

Great trip report:

Re Configuration of your king suite. We also had one exactly like that. Did you manage to flip your king bed into the wall? At first it took me a couple of hours to work out why there were spotlights under the bed!

Re: Soarin. We also went over to EPCOT from the HRH and did this ride. Even in the FP line it took 20 or so minutes to ride it and one of the servers from the Garden Grill said the park was dead!

Re: Brits and the tipping thing. Trust me, I am from the U.K. and my nightmare job would be a bar person on I-drive! I think the part of the problem stems from bar people in the U.K. don't rely heavily on tips as they get a higher basic wage, whereas in the U.S. they rely more on tips. Same with restaurant servers. It's not because Brits are tight with their money (several thousand $$ just to get there), it's just that more of the service part is included in the basic wage of the server. Also some Brits who understand the tipping process in restaurants, may not at bars. The U.K. is slowly coming around to the whole Americanized tipping culture over here and believe me I for one would rather see it like the American system as I'm sure the service would be far better.

This whole tipping procedure may be like second nature to you guys, but is a quite a learning process to us. It took me a while to grasp the whole concept and etiquette (i.e. when to tip, who to tip, where to leave the tip etc) of tipping in the U.S. and I have been to your country many times. We have always been great tippers. Most of the time at least 25%.

Please don't see this as an excuse for Brits not tipping, because it's not. I completely agree that someone who visits another country should adapt and respect that countries customs. "When in Rome.........", but like Highlander I saw two examples of Americans not tipping on our recent trip there.

As for the Welsh guys at the bar, it doesn't help when our stupid media keep bombarding us with "news" stories like this one today: http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1290248,00.html or this http://www.mirror.co.uk/archive/200...tal-snow-and-hagatha-christie-89520-12391630/

 

[AlexandNessa]

Great trip report:

Re Configuration of your king suite. We also had one exactly like that. Did you manage to flip your king bed into the wall? At first it took me a couple of hours to work out why there were spotlights under the bed!

No, we never did flip the bed up! Never realized we could, but being only the 2 of us, we never really "needed" to, I guess.

Don't get me wrong. I think Americans who don't tip are worse. Americans know the deal, and are just being plain cheap when they don't tip bartenders. No feigning ignorance there ... No wonder when bands play, there are always reminders to tip the bar staff.

I think much of the Media in the western world has a liberal slant. I clicked on the articles and read the headers, but I couldn't stomach reading them.

I don't mean to turn the trippie into a political debate by any means. Tomorrow is a full day at Busch Gardens. Stay tuned!

 

[pauldents]

No, we never did flip the bed up! Never realized we could, but being only the 2 of us, we never really "needed" to, I guess.

This is what it looked like in the "flipped up" position! We didn't need the extra room. I was just curious as to why there was spotlights under the bed and ended up putting it in the upright position! All I could think is they may use these rooms for hospitality stuff or small meetings as it created a lot of room in the suite.

Anyway. Apologies for hi-jacking your thread. Look forward to reading about BG.

 

[AlexandNessa]

Thanks for the pic with the bed flipped up! I am going to have to show Mike that one. It would make perfect sense that they use the room for a hospitality suite with the bed flipped up that way.

 

[bubba's mom]

Thanks SO much for posting those pix of the bed "flipped".... I had absolutely NO idea what you guys were talking about Kinda cool....maybe 2009 trip we'll get a king at HRH an give 'er a try

Regarding tipping...ironically, i wish the USA would pay their tenders and servers MORE so they have to rely on tips LESS. Too many "cheap" people and the server/tender could give great service and still come out on the short end I think servers should earn at LEAST minimum wage...but, most don't. I won't go into it anymore, as this is Jodie's trip report...... so...carry on J!

 

[JawsCPA]

Jodi -
Enyoing your trippie.

I need to thank you for "water ride" day. I read an earlier trip report from you before our vacation, and used this policy. We also had a water ride day at IOA. We did all the rides twice. It was great - not caring how wet you got since when we were done, we were walking 10 minutes back to HRH and dry clothes.

 

[keishashadow]

adorable tyke...just had to see the rolling stones pic again

 

[macraven]

sorry jodie, forgot to tell you that about the bed.

 

[AlexandNessa]

Most people think that “a.m.” means “ante meridiem” and “p.m.” means “post meridiem.” If you live in our house, you know that “a.m.” really means “Angry Mike” and “p.m.” means “Pleasant Mike.”

Which is why my better half was cursing me this fine morning.

We would be taking the bus to Busch Gardens Tampa (or Africa, whatever you want to call it) this morning, which would be why the alarm woke us up at the ungodly hour of 6:30 a(ngry) m(ike).

You see, the bus from Universal to BGT is only $10pp r/t. Which pretty much beats the price of virtually every other mode of transportation. The drawback? It leaves at 8:30 am and doesn’t return until 6:00 pm.

The previous day, Mike had warned me that he wouldn’t start talking to me until about 11 am or so, and I would just have to deal with it. Later that previous day, the talking and pleasant hours were pushed back till noon, followed by 1, then maybe he’d talk to me around 2. I told him that technically, Pleasant Mike started at noon, and he shouldn’t push his luck.

I really, really should have taken pictures of City Walk that morning, but I was just waking up myself and was too lazy to pull out my camera. The bus picks you up in the Universal Parking Lot bus section. Having always stayed on-site, we never knew where the parking lot even was. Sad, eh? Since we had never, ever ventured to the parking lot before, we had done a trial run the day before to make sure we knew where we were going. Bottom line: following the moving walkways. When they end, take a right, and go downstairs to find the buses. Easy peasy.

When I tell you that at 8:15 in the Angry Mike hours that City Walk is DEAD, I do mean D-E-A-D dead. There wasn’t a person in sight. I don’t even think there were people at Starbucks yet. Mike, of course, took every opportunity to rub this in and to point out that we were the only two to be up at this uncommon hour voluntarily. At least everyone else who was up at that time was working.

I told Mike to buck it up; he could sleep on the bus as it was almost an hour’s drive.

The bus was nice enough but it was a bit cramped. Not much leg room, and as luck would have it, didn’t I pick the seat with the creaky window. The creaky window was, of course, all Mike could hear, and he didn’t nap as planned, further cementing my fate as world’s meanest wife.

Nonetheless, the ride to BGA/BGT was uneventful, and we arrived before the park even opened. Still, you know I can’t go too long without announcing a pet peeve, right? What’s the deal with people with bags going through the “guests with no bags” line? Can no one read anymore? Sheez. Mike and I do not bring bags for a reason, and didn’t we get stuck behind a whole slew of people with bags who’ve planted themselves in the “no bags” line and the BG people didn’t seem to care. What gives?

We headed straight for the Adventure Tour Center. We had wanted to sign up for the Guided Adventure Tour, but they weren’t offering it that morning. I was bummed at first, but then realized that we didn’t need it at all.

We did Gwazi first. I don’t know why we bothered. Think we did it because there was no line. We actually don’t enjoy wooden coasters much because we always feel we end the ride with a concussion and a headache.

After Gwazi, we were going to head over to SheiKra, but of course the rest of the park wasn’t even open yet, and we had to wait.

Here’s Mike making a plan of attack while we waited:

Except that we got tired of waiting, and Mike decided to take the opportunity for a pit stop:

When they opened the rest of the park at 10:30, we headed straight for SheiKra. Think I rode this with my eyes closed. It’s pretty intimidating. It drops you 90o, but not before coming to a buck stop, stall, and then drop. The rest of the coaster was cool, if not a bit anti-climactic after the initial drop. We both gave SheiKra two big thumbs up, despite it still being in the Angry Mike hours.

We wound up riding the train (Serengeti Railway) around the park.

I grabbed some lunch which was unmemorable. I think I had a hotdog and water.

We rode Kumba, which we dubbed Hulk 2 without the takeoff.

We also saw Pirates 4D. Pirates 4D was pretty lame, but it was a hot day and it was nice and cool in the theater. The effects certainly were not up to par with Shrek 4D or Honey I Shrunk the Audience. But it was mildly entertaining.

We moved onto Timbuktu, where we did The Scorpion, which lasted about 26.4 seconds, but there was no line, and we didn’t care. We also did Cheetah Chase, which was very reminiscent of the Primevil Whirl in Animal Kingdom’s Dinoland.

I forget what they called this, but Mike refused since it went all the way upsidedown:

Really, there were no lines ANYWHERE.

Honestly, it was only about 1:30, and we weren’t sure we could fill another 4.5 hours at the rate we were going. We decided to meander through the Edge of Africa, and got some pics there. We saw meerkats, hippos, hyenas, crocs, etc.

Good grief: it’s only 2 o’clock.

We did the skyride, and took pics there.

We rode SheiKra again, a second time with no wait whatsoever.

We wandered to Egypt and rode Montu, which we dubbed Dueling Dragons 2 minus the Dueling.

We toyed with going on the Rhino Rally, but Mike decided it was too hot to pile in a truck and go on a safari. I don’t blame him. It was super hot that day, and the truck ride looked like it would be rather rough. Heading toward the Rhino Rally, we took some time to bond with the elephants. I swear to you, there was one elephant who looked like he was dancing to the music they were playing. We got such a kick watching him sway back and forth to the music.

Of course, this is Mike’s favorite pic from our trip:

This is his other favorite:

Can you tell what the turtles are doing?

That’s right. Mike said, “Geez. They even do THAT slow.”

By this time, it was time for us to sit and veg for a bit, so we went to see KaTonga. Now, I am pretty sure I inadvertently fell asleep during this show. We were a bit early, and the show was 35 minutes long (we know because we asked before entering). Mike said he didn’t care what the show was about; this show was going to kill about 45 minutes for us so that’s all that mattered to him. It was a Broadway type show, but certainly not on the scale of any Disney productions. From what I saw, it was cute and entertaining and about these aspiring storytellers who tell whimsical tales from the Jungle. I don’t know. Something about monkeys. Something about a frog. There was an ocean scene. Maybe it was a river. What do I know?

We came out of the show, and it wasn’t even 4:00. We couldn’t get on the bus till about 5:30.

We decided to go to the Colony House, and I had a slice of pizza and we split a soda. Ah, eating healthy today. A hot dog and a slice of pizza. What am I? 12?

We killed about 25 minutes in there.

I’m sure at least some of you are surprised that Mike and I didn’t take advantage of the free beer. We don’t tend to drink during the day, and we were already plenty tired without adding alcohol to our systems.

We had seen just about everything. Done just about everything … we even killed 5.2 minutes going through King Tut’s Tomb. We did the Myombe Reserve and the Bird Gardens too. Really, it was just too long of a day for too small of a park during the low season.


We got to the bus around 5:45, snagged seats that we were sure were free of a window creak, and snuggled in to get back home. I had wondered if the bus would make several stops to area hotels before running us back to Universal, but there was just the one stop, so we were glad for that.

We were exhausted. It was a very long day.

Now, if the park were busy, it would probably have been a perfect amount of time. But, our suggestion would be that they have a non-peak schedule and a peak schedule. We could’ve used a 3pm pick up.

It was only about 7:30, and we had a beer at the Beach Club because I had asked for turn down service at 7:30, and we wanted to give housekeeping a chance to get in the room. By 8 or so, we decided to shower and then go to NBA City to see our friend Axe and then go to Margaritaville.

Somehow at Margaritaville, we missed out on dinner as the kitchen was closed. Poor Mike was hungry by this time, and we went back to the hotel for a second chance at room service.

Mike was in the mood for pizza. I was bummed that I hadn’t brought the number for Flippers (and I don’t know how late they deliver anyway), so we opted for the delish pizza of the HRH. I am lying. I am totally lying.

If you learn one thing from my trip report, it must be this: the room service pizza at HRH is among the worst I have ever had in my entire life. EVER. Think tasteless, doughy crust spread with tomato paste and no additional seasoning, some cheese and whatever toppings you want. We had thought they just maybe had an “off” night with the grilled cheese sandwich, but how do you make a pizza THAT bad? We decided then that we would make a point of eating early as room service was now officially not an option anymore. Live and Learn.​

 

[TigerLilly's Mom]

Love the turtle picture! I will keep that in mind about the HRH room service. We have ordered room service from RPR and it was great, but never HRH. Poor Mike, I hope that you let him sleep in tomorrow.

 

[bubba's mom]

Sounds like an "okay" day....hot, not much fun nor much to do....like you mentioned "too small a park when you're stuck there".... Never been to FL BG (VA waaaay long ago), maybe someday we'll check it out...but have our own transportation

You gots a cranky husband early vacation mornings too ....me too. Guess it was good to be "home" after that day.......

Lookin' forward to more...... (no cliffhanger )

 

[AlexandNessa]

Don't get me wrong ... I just reread the report, and we didn't have as bad a day as it probably sounds! It was fun. We're glad we did it. If we do it again, we'll be taking our own transportation; that's for sure! SheiKra was really great! Especially now that it's floorless.

But, yes, it was a long day, and we were very glad to be back "home."

I did let Mike sleep in the next morning, and he thanked me for that.

Mmmmmm, I couldn't think of a good cliffhanger. Suffice it to say that the following night has my favorite pics of the trip, but not all are suitable for posting!

 

[highlander447]

A good day, u struck lucky get such a quiet day

 

[bubba's mom]

Mmmmmm, I couldn't think of a good cliffhanger. Suffice it to say that the following night has my favorite pics of the trip, but not all are suitable for posting!

pleez

 

[RVGal]

Wait...

First you tell me that we are suppose to be posting "good" pictures of ourselves...

Now you tell me that we are suppose to be posting "suitable" pictures too?

Dang.

I've been going about this all wrong.


It sounded like you had a good day, but a good day can turn into a so-so day if you find yourself dragging things out to fill up extra time you are stuck with.

 

[keishashadow]

Thanks for the BG review; we're not fans of Williamsburg version (may have had something to do with 100% humidity on busy August weekend lol); did want to check out the TPA version though...interesting that it wasn't crowded.

all that commando touring should make Mike very appreciative of the U vibe remind him how great u r for planning it - frequently