Anz n Andy's Very Disney Christmas - Day 6

[MsPennieLane]

Tuesday 21st December

Today we were moving to the Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando for the one night, so we could take advantage of the front of the line access. We had breakfast at the food court (we both had breakfast bagels) and we packed for our night away. We stopped at Florida Mall as they were still having a sale at Old Navy with up to 50% off. Part of my Christmas pressie from hubby was a spending spree here. I got a pair of very fluffy lounge pants and about 8 or so tops and all for the bargain price of $76. Next we drove to Circuit City to look at digital cameras as ours had been annoying us for some time. Not only did it eat batteries like there was no tomorrow but it wouldn’t keep settings and we kept having to reset it all the time. We bought a Sony Cybershot camera and so far so good, we’re very pleased with it. Circuit City were having a 3 day sale and I got Shrek for $14.88 and the Princess Diaries 2 for $17.98 – bargaintastic!

We drove straight to the Portofino to check in. Wow, is it plush or what? Very snazzy!

It’s lovely, don’t get me wrong, but it didn’t have the mega wow factor that I felt when I first walked into the Hard Rock Hotel – I think that will always be my favourite. We were staying in the Villa Guest wing on the 2nd floor. Our room was huge!

The bathroom was gorgeous and even had a walk-in shower. It had a kingsize bed and it was so comfortable. We even had our own balcony area. We were very impressed with our room, considering we’d got it cheaply using the entertainment card rate. We were also close to the water taxi to the parks, which was great.

We were feeling hungry so we drove to Chilis on International Drive for lunch. We shared the wings as usual, hubby had the awesome blossom and I had my usual burger. We went back to Portofino and made our way to the water taxi – it was time to hit Islands of Adventure! We just missed a taxi so waited about 5 minutes for another one. I love the water taxis, they are such a great way of getting around.

continued in the next post

 

[MsPennieLane]

continued....

Hard Rock Live from the water taxi

We made it to Islands of Adventure about 3pm. We got in no problems with our annual passes and headed straight for hubby’s favourite ride – Hulk. He had 2 rides on it using our hotel room key for front of the line access – what a perk! As usual, he loved every minute of it.

Then it was my turn to get on a favourite ride – Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges – yay!!

There wasn’t much of a queue and soon, we were on our barge. Oh boy did we get soaked. And the water was freezing – it really wasn’t water ride weather! We went round again twice and got even wetter.

my fave ride in the whole world!

Back to Hulk so hubby could having a couple more rides on it. By now it was 6pm. We left Islands of Adventure and walked slowly through Citywalk. We stopped at Margaritaville to look at the menu. It looked pretty good so we went back to our hotel room to get dry and change clothes. We didn’t have to wait long for the water taxi. By the time we got to Citywalk, it was all lit up and it looked wonderful.

We walked back to Margaritaville – it was an hour wait to sit inside or an immediate table on the patio – umm, patio then please! We were seated and to drink, Andy had a Coors Light (surprise surprise) and I had a bahama mama – more expensive than at Pop and half the size I might add! I do find Universal to be a lot more expensive than Disney but that’s just my opinion.

Anyway, we ordered volcano nachos to start – big mistake! The platter was huge – huge is an understatement! We didn’t even make a dent in it, and we ate quite a bit. Hubby ordered a turkey wrap and I had the Cuban sandwich. Both were really good. The cost of dinner was $50 before tip. Nice but we wouldn’t go out of our way to eat there again.

We were both feeling tired so we headed back to the Portofino. We stopped at Bar American for a drink – Coors Light for hubby and diet coke for me – then headed for bed. Lying in bed was hysterical – we were on our respective sides of the bed yet we were a mile apart. We were in bed by 11pm for another few hours of fun at Universal the next day.

Anz

 

[MsPennieLane]

Some more photos for you:

I love this sign

the water taxi

The tree lit up at night

the fountain by reception

 

[mandymouse]

Wow!!! What a fantastic hotel, you're reports and photos are brilliant. I had to smile at your DH's t-shirt, my DH has the same top. You must've been frozen after that raft ride. Keep up the good work.

mandymouse

 

[Miffy2003]

A great day Anz

Tell me more about your new camera How does it compare to your old/my camera???

 

[florida sun]

Anz

Looks a fab hotel and that bed looks huge, great photos.

Sue

 

[KayleeUK]

Wow your room was great PBH looks like a lovely resort

 

[MsPennieLane]

Tell me more about your new camera

Well I find it a lot easier to use, and I don't have to remember to change to the right setting when I turn it on - that's what used to annoy me the most. I know you didn't have this problem so maybe ours was going faulty or something. Also, the other great thing about the Cybershot is that it comes with rechargable batteries and they last forever in it, unlike regular batteries which are swallowed quicker than anything I've seen before. Here's a link to it at Dixons: Sony Cybershot

It can record bits of footage as well but we won't use it for that.

Anz

 

[fizz13]

Oh we got so soaked on those barges!! We had to find new clothes for DD5 it was so bad. Great ride though. Loving the reports,
Claire

 

[MazdaUK]

That hotel looks fantastic! A must-try for me!!

We had a huge bed on our honeymoon three pillows wide and I still ended up right on the edge