WDW 2006 - Day 15

Room at Portofino Bay Resort

I'll most likely interject some other rants along the way. I just wasn't thrilled with our Universal stay this year and we'll be skipping Universal for a few years I think.

Back to check in - we headed inside and the line was REALLY long. Since this was the last weekend before many Floridian's head back to school I think it really filled up the place. People around us were from Jacksonville, Boca and Tampa. The line moved pretty slowly, but we eventually got to the front of it. It was about noon and our room was not yet ready. Expecting this we were prepared. Kristen and the girls headed to the pool while I decided to go to Islands of Adventure.

I have a Preferred Annual Pass which is good anytime, but the girls each have a power pass which is only good on weekends in July - so they can hit the parks on Saturday and Sunday. The Preferred Annual Pass is a positive at Universal in my eyes. We received a discounted room rate with the pass, and many shops and restaurants give either 10% or 20% discounts. (Worked everywhere except one of the hotel gift shops which the employee said was independent). We saved a lot using this!

I headed out to the pier to catch the boat and of course just missed it. (This too would become a theme of our stay) Boats took about 20 minutes to come and sometimes even longer. It was WAY too long for me and became a real annoyance. The number of people would really build up and the boats fill quickly. So several times we were THERE when the boat came, but had to wait for the next one anyway because they were not running enough to handle the resort load. Ugh. We ended up walking to/from the parks 3 times and it’s a long haul from Portofino. Not my idea of a flagship resort.

Got to the parks and headed on to the Hulk. I wanted to get a few of the rides I knew the girls would not do out of the way. Right to the front of the line, but thwarted by the weather. It started raining and they shut down. I waited quite a while, but the rain must have been continuing because they did not start back up for over an hour. I had left and decided to head for Universal Studios. I figured if Hulk was closed then Dueling Dragons would be as well.

Over at Universal I rode Twister, the Mummy and watched the Terminator 4D show. LOVE those but the girls do NOT. So it was good to get a chance to do them. After that I headed back and walked since I saw the boat just leaving the dock. I can walk it in the 20 minutes I'd wait for the boat to return. I get back to find the girls still at the pool waiting for a room (its 4:30!) We had been promised a call when the room was ready. This seems to NEVER work as it should. Nick never called back either!

I head inside to wait in the long line again. Ugh. I like the way Disney lets you call for your room. Get up to the front and he checks the computer. Says room is still dirty, so he switched us to a clean room that was ready. We had no special requests or views, so this was fine with me. Wish they had done it sooner! They had to cut new keys because of the new room. (Don't understand that with a swiped key, but I guess they can't recode them after they have been assigned). Had to go get the girls and give them keys while I headed up stairs to meet the bellman. We ended up with a garden path view in the East Wing. Room is very nice and the bathroom is quite large. Big comfy beds and quite roomy. Nice.

Bellman arrives and brings in the bags. I had noticed that the safe is not working and he calls security to come fix it. They do this within 15 minutes or so no problem. Girls return from the pool and we get settled in and then head to City Walk for dinner. Tonight we went to Hard Rock Café with was a walk in at 7pm. I was surprised to have it so quick on a Friday night. I didn't even need my All Access card (which they do still take by the way). SOMEHOW I had allowed myself to leave the room without my camera! :-O D'oh! So no Citywalk pics tonight… Kristen's camera seems to be on the blink as well, so we are out of luck. AND to top it off we are seated in the Elvis room upstairs. All this Elvis memorabilia and I can't even get one picture for Moley!!! :'-( Sorry Moley!

Dinner was very good and then we headed down to City walk to walk through the shops and stands. It was hopping there on a Friday night and we even caught the boat without waiting for ever. Back to the resort for a good nights sleep before hitting Universal Studios in the morning.