Hi Everyone,
I just got back from a 5 night stay at Hard Rock Hotel with my two kids, age 18 and 22. We all had an awesome time, especially the 18 year old. This was the first time we've ever been to Universal and it was so much fun having new parks to explore. We thought the whole place was very charming. Staying on the grounds was wonderful. We loved the short walk to the parks and Citywalk. Our favorite rides were the coasters, Harry Potter's Forbidden Journey, Despicable Me, and the Simpsons ride. We had dinners at Hard Rock Cafe, Bubba Gump's, The Kitchen twice (soooo goooood), and Pastamore. We were happy with all of our dinners. The food at the Kitchen was the best!! One night I had the Filet, and the other night I had the pork chop which was like a steak too. We also had the breakfast buffet on the morning we left. The staff here is so friendly and welcoming we just wanted to keep going back! The only unpleasant staff member I encountered the entire trip was the housekeeping person who answered the phone when I called to ask for toilet paper and a couple coffee pods because we didn't get room service that day. She made me feel like a criminal for asking for 2 coffee pods!! Crazy. When they come to clean your room they replenish the coffee pods so I don't see what was wrong with asking for 2 pods when we didn't have room service that day. Everyone else at the hotel made up for her though.

I felt terrible having to leave my husband behind on this trip, but he doesn't have as much vacation time yet as I do. So now we're planning our next trip which will be Disney again. I do think some day we will plan another Universal trip, but I think I'd add a day at Seaworld and maybe one for the beach. That would be a perfect vacation.