Gryffindor's on tour 2017 Day 15 Hard Rock Hotel

[Excitedx4]

I reluctantly woke up to my alarm at 7.30am, to say I couldn't be ≈≈≈≈≈d is a complete understatement We had to be up early as we were to be stayed here...

Anyway I wasn't going to waste the good money it had cost to stay for a night so I dragged myself out of bed with the rest of them, getting Evan up was a nightmare! I packed us an overnight bag, all got showered and dressed and were on our way for 9.15am.

We checked in at HRH and were told now our room keys were now used for fast passes. I was quite sceptical after our palaver last week at RPR but it seems we were part of a trial run and I was assured it would be fine this time around. We'll see.

While we were checking in Jacob realised he had forgotten his wand after Dave putting it next to him in the bathroom whilst he was brushing his teeth right before we left telling him to take it! :angry: We walked half way to the park through the walkway and remembered we had left the refillable mug in the car :angry:. We were not being very organised at all this morning! I ran back to the car, boy I didn't realise how far it was, good job I go to the gym when I got back to dave and the kids I was like we should of just bought a new one

Anyway through security (I do love how close the onsite hotels are to the parks in comparison to wdw) we headed into Universal where all the boys went to ride jimmy Fallon and I took myself off to ride the mummy. I put all my stuff in the locker and went down the express lane and made another school boy error of the morning! I wear glasses and I'd put my bag with my normal glasses in the locker, I had on my prescription sunglasses and as we all know the mummy is very dark, I couldn't see a bloody thing with my glasses on due to them being sunglasses and couldn't see a bloody thing with them off due to me being blind! Anyway I rode the ride blind, still amazing. Jumped off the ride, walked to the locker got my normal glasses, put my stuff into another locker and headed back on! I love the mummy it's such an awesome ride!

When I got off all the boys were waiting for me and Evan was hungry, he'd only had a small cookie I made him eat en route to Universal and he has a medical condition called MCADD medium chain acyl dehydrogenase deficiency where he can't fast for longer than 12 hours ever. So we went into the monster cafe where both the boys shared a pizza. Now on the sign it states the pizza comes as a combo with a shake. I asked if I could swap the shake for some fries instead which were cheaper than the shake, the CM went and got a manager who told me this couldn't be done, I told him we didn't want the shake and he then proceeded to tell me you can order the pizza alone which brings the price right down from $13.49 to $9.58! Trying to rip people off, I was not impressed!

We tried on a few silly hats...

Dave and Evan went to ride Rip ride rocket and Jacob wanted to ride minions. The queue was so long even with the express passes. Me and Jacob had been in the que for around 25 minutes and in front of us were 2 Spanish or South American kids I'm presuming, well the next thing near the front of the line about 30 of them came trying to get in the que with them, I mean mum, dad, brothers, sisters, cousins, grandparents the lot! Not a chance told them all to get behind us I wasn't having it! Stood my ground and they were glaring at me behind us in the queue. The mum was holding a small child in her arms kept swinging the kid around so the kid was kicking me. I told her to stop it, really firmly. People in the queue were really staring the shame but I was in no mood! Anyway I told the CM that they had all pushed in and didn't have express passes and guess what she did? Nothing nada, not a frig&in thing :angry::angry:

Dave met us after minions and asked me why we'd been so long, told him about the queue and the Spanish lot. He knows me better than I know myself and was just like "Danielle let's get you some food" Yes I was hangry! We went to CityWalk for some Panda Express! We got 2x 2 entree plates and a large noodles 3 waters and 1 Diet Coke all came to $28. It was lovely as usual.

It was delicious, then we went to menchies for some ice cream for 3 cups which are weighed like pick and mix, this came to $13, and signed our name on the chalkboard

Suitably refreshed we head into IOA mainly to do the wet rides!

First we went to HP world where Dave and Evan rode Dragon Challenge and me and Jacob went on Hippogriff. We arranged to meet in the Forbidden Journey shop, Jacob and I found a spot in the corner and sat down not in anybody's way, some al fella working there in his wizards cloak come over really kicking off about us sitting on the floor! Really?! Felt like I was at school! Haha today was not my day between forgetting things and people wanting to rile me up Dave came in not long afterwards and we headed to Jurassic Park to start our tour of the wet rides!

On Jurassic park ride we don't get too wet just a bit of splash, we head round to ripsaw falls. I ponchoed up ready for it, we found this ride really really difficult to get Evan on to, it is definitely not disabled friendly. We got off here and I was quite dry just a bit wet on my demon shorts around the bottom area. Jacob and Evan were absolutely drenched!

Next onto Popeyes's. Here they have a wheelchair accessible boat and it was brilliant, we wheeled Evan onto the raft, transferred him onto a chair and they took the wheelchair off the raft. We all had so much fun on this ride, it was just the 4 of us and we laughed and laughed the whole way around! It was my favourite moment of the whole holiday! Every single one of us came off drenched!

With us all being drenched we decided to head back to HRH and get freshened up and dry clothes on. We were given room number 5075.

We got to the room at 4.30pm and we were all really impressed, I preferred HRH to RPR as did Dave. We got changed and freshened up and went out for tea at 5.30pm to Toothsome. We got seated straight away and seems we came at a good time as when we were leaving people were queuing up to get in. What was really nice here was that we could be seated upstairs as they have a lift, with Evan in his wheelchair we always end up downstairs so it was a real novelty for him and us. We had such a lovely meal in here. We got to meet lady Penelope and her robot. Lady Penelope wanted to know what these contraptions the boys had at the table (iPads) it just went over the kids heads. She was asking them what they were doing and they were jut like "playing games"

I had the chicken bourguignon, Dave had a burger surprise surprise, Evan had a margarita flatbread and Jacob had a burger. It was all delicious, mine was incredible I ate it all! It was really reasonably priced too.

Back into Universal we rode transformers before Jacob wanted the goblin ride (Gringotts), we headed over there using the dreadful lockers. It took forever, it was so busy in the queue and then we got to the disabled loading bay there were 2 wheelchairs in front of us and 5 behind us. Out of all 8 wheelchairs 7 of them were hired from the park! So these were not full time wheelchair users. The CM then pulled us out of the queue as we need a "full" wheelchair transfer and got everyone else on the ride in 2 vehicles. Then she told us we need the car she has just filled to come back around as that's the only accessible car! Seriously! So we had to wait for people who were behind us in the queue to come back because she had filled the only accessible car! These "disabled" people were literally jumping off the ride. Makes me so angry when people abuse the system! It took us 50minutes to get on the ride using FOLP and disabled area, so infuriating especially when we should of been on the first car. Anyway we got some nice pictures of the kids...

When we came out diagon alley was deserted so we got some good pictures and a look around the empty shops which was nice. It would of been a great opportunity for some spells if we had brought the wand

We walked back to HRH and found the smurfs on at the pool. The boys said they didn't want to watch it and were tired so we got some iced water from the shop and went to bed.

[Goldia]

Another full on day.mi can understand how you didn't want to waste the booking but it must have been hard to drag yourselves out of bed to go to HRH. I'm glad you were impressed with the room. Toothsome sounds good too.

[Excitedx4]

It was a good stay but if someone told me I could cancel the booking I would of done straight away without a second thought 😂🙈

[Pussycat Doll]

A day of ups and downs by the sounds of it. Food looks lovely!

[mouselover22]

We love the Hard Rock

Lovely pics of the boys

[i love jack]

I could just eat that Panda Express it looks delicious!
Very frustrating wait for gringotts

[Excitedx4]

Originally Posted by Pussycat Doll

A day of ups and downs by the sounds of it. Food looks lovely!

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It was but we still enjoyed it all and the food was fab!

Originally Posted by mouselover22

We love the Hard Rock

Lovely pics of the boys

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Thanks they can look like angels sometimes

Originally Posted by i love jack

I could just eat that Panda Express it looks delicious!
Very frustrating wait for gringotts

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It is! We really enjoy Panda Express! Sometimes people expect you to be able to get on rides quicker with a disabled person in the party but that really isn't the case especially when you actually genuinely need the disabled accessible vehicles and able bodied people just try it on, it really infuriates me. Selfish some people are!

[MinnieMrsA]

Sounds like one of those day I think! Still lots of fun xx

[Excitedx4]

Originally Posted by MinnieMrsA

Sounds like one of those day I think! Still lots of fun xx

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It was I think the heat gets to us all sometimes

[jothp]

What a shame that you forgot the wand. It still sounds like you had a great day, toothsome looks lovely.