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DAY: ONE
- TWO - THREE -
FOUR - FIVE -
SIX - SEVEN |
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DAY
1: Sunday, April 25th |
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| Jet
Blue |
| Our alarm
went off at 4:00, but I was already up and getting ready to go. We
left the house at 5:00, but didn't get into the airport until 6:00
(had to take a shuttle from the parking lot). Our flight left at 6:45, so we were late!!! We were rushed
through check-in, but then held up at security. We finally made it
into the plane about 10 minutes before it was to depart. With all
that rushing around I didn't even have a chance to get nervous
about the flight. The leather seats were great and the flight
wasn't booked, so we had an extra seat in our row. The Direct TV
was also very cool and helped to pass the time. The flight was
smooth and we landed a half hour earlier than expected! |
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| Avis |
| We picked
up our luggage and made our way to the Avis desk. There were a few
people in line in front of us, but it went quickly. The car was in the
garage right outside the door, very convenient. I received a
conference rate, but had to get a compact (Cavalier). It was tiny
and hard to drive after being use to an SUV!
We had great directions and were at the Hard Rock Hotel in about
20 minutes!! |
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| Hard
Rock Hotel |
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As we pulled
up to the front of the resort we saw the guitar fountain and the
place looked really beautiful. We parked at the entrance and went to
check-in. There was no line and our room was ready! We parked the
car ourselves and carried our luggage to our room. The parking
lots were great and I always found a spot really close to the
door. Our room was not in the best condition. The carpets,
furniture, etc all looked a bit worn. We also had no view (hotel
roofline pretty much). Since there was no balcony and we didn't
plan to spend any time in the room, we figured it was good
enough. We were still in our "northeast" clothes,
so we changed and headed for the pool! |
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The pool area was
bigger than I had pictured. We had a few drinks and then went for
a swim. I was surprised at how close we were to everything. All
the parks, resorts, and CityWalk were within a ten minute walk of
the HRH. We did take the boat a couple of nights though.
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| Universal
Studios |
| This was my
first trip to Universal Studios, but Joe had been once before. We
made our way to Jaws as our first ride of the trip. Since we were
staying on site we had Front of the Line privileges for every
ride. We never waited for more than 10 minutes to go on anything
the whole trip. This was an incredible perk! Next, we went on
Earthquake. We stopped at Finnegan's for lunch. The food and atmosphere
were great (there was a guy playing Irish tunes). Joe went out to catch part of the Blue's Brothers
show. We walked around for a while checking out all the buildings
and back lot stuff. Finally, we went on Twister which was my
favorite ride of the day. Joe's favorite was Jaws. It was really hot out, so
we headed back to the hotel for another swim. When we got back to
the room our complementary wine and nuts had arrived. We put it
into the minibar to drink later. |
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| Margaritaville |
| Margaritaville
was our first stop at CityWalk. I had never been to one and was
really looking forward to it! We had a few Margaritas at the
volcano bar and then ate dinner on the patio. For entertainment
they had a guy playing Buffett music and people on stilts making
parrothead balloon hats for everyone. We walked around Citywalk
for a while, but it had
been a long day, so we headed back to the resort and fell right
asleep. |
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