Sunday, 11/26
I felt much better today. The rash I got from the down bedding is cleared up. Dave and I were able to spend the entire day at Universal’s Islands of Adventure.

Hulk Smash Long Lines
As pissed as I am about the Hard Rock Hotel’s bedding situation, it’s still one of my favorite hotels to say in. One of the perks of staying there is that your room key serves as a pass for the theme parks’ Express lines. While everyone else is typically waiting a half hour to get on something like Incredible Hulk Coaster, we only had to wait 5 minutes — sometimes even NO WAIT! This time of year is typically less crowded anyhow, so bypassing the regular lines means that we were able to ride everything in the park in half a day.

Another bonus at the HRH: The Pool!!! The HRH pipes music throughout the entire resort, which can be heard even when swimming underwater. Now that’s cool. Lounging poolside is one of my favorite things to do on vacation. After a major dip in the pool, I like to kick back on a lounge chair with my book. It’s the only way I can relax and as I’ve mentioned before, I really need to relax on this trip.

After our afternoon at the pool, we went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, another favorite place to go and luckily, they have several veggie options. I have to say, we were worried about what we’d be able to eat on this trip, but so far, it’s been easy. A lot of places serve veggie burgers, fries, and salads. The parks also have pasta with marinara sauce and asian veggies and rice.

HRH was decorated beautifully for Christmas. The night we arrived is when they lit the tree and put out all of their gingerbread houses.

We sat by the Christmas tree and attempted to recreate this photo from our 2004 trip. Didn’t quite work out the same, since the tree was decorated differently and was in another section of the lobby.

Monday, 11/27
We got up early, checked out of the hotel, and hit both parks, which were EMPTY! No waits at all for any ride. If anyone wants to go to Universal Studios, the Monday after Thanksgiving is the day to go. We went straight to Marvel Super Hero Island (the best theme park area ever!) and rode Incredible Hulk Coaster, Doctor Doom’s Fearfall, and The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. Then on to Dueling Dragonsroller coaster and all the attractions in Seuss Landing.

We finished up at IOA and went back to the Studios and did The Mummy and Men In Black again! Then on to Back to the Future The Ride. I wish we had the camera on us because they had the Doc and Marty characters there! They good great and had their mannerisms down pat. We finished up with Terminator 2:3D and E.T. Adventure. On the E.T. ride, you give your name to them and at the end, E.T. says good-bye to you. Even though our car was totally full, at the end E.T. said “Good-bye Eve … David …” and that was it! No one else got a personal good-bye from E.T. and since this was our last day there, it was even more special, he he.

That reminds me, the other night we went on the Jaws ride, which was cool because it was the first time we got to ride it at night!

Bye bye Hard Rock Hotel and Universal Studios Florida, it was loads of fun. We’ll miss you. On to our hotel at Disney World for more fun and relaxation.

NEXT UP: Days 5 & 6 Disney World

Listen to this podcast