Ciavobella
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2003
- Messages
- 57
A little late getting this posted but true fans of USO won't mind right 
Cast of Characters
Karen - Me
Lou - Dh
Ben - Ds16
Zach - Ds14
Ethan - Ds7
Day 1
This day started as all our trips to USO and WDW do, everyone was up and at em early and filled with joy. We quickly loaded up the van and were on our way to Winner Airport Parking, an excellent choice if you fly out of Philly. Our driver had us at the airport very quickly, we did our usual curbside check-in with Southwest and before we knew it we were past security. Philadelphia airport has changed a lot since we last flew out of it in September of 2008, it really is starting to look nice. My husband Lou stopped at the bookstore to get a book and the boys wanted Burger King for breakfast.
We didnt have to wait long before boarding began. We had gotten seats A39-A43 and so we were able to sit together. The flight was full. Things got a little nasty when some woman who boarded in A group tried to save seats for her friends or family that had C boarding passes. Somehow she was able to save a whole row, I cant believe more people than not actually listened to her, but no one sat there. Turns out she was saving the row for nothing. Oy.
We were away from our gate and in the skies in a matter of minutes, Im not kidding.
Our flight was 40 minutes early, 40! I love Southwest. Instead of arriving at 11:45 we were at the gate in Orlando at 11:05. My husband went to pick up our rental van while the boys and I retrieved the luggage. We usually use National Car Rental, but their prices were insane this year. Last year we paid $231 (including taxes and fees) for 8 days, this year they wanted over $600. We found a good price with Thrifty, $444 for 8 days (taxes and fees included.)
We arrived at Portofino Bay Hotel at 12:15 PM, 45 minutes ahead of my schedule. We decided to use valet parking since it was only $8 more per day. Unfortunately check in was nuts and we lost some time there.
I took some pictures from the balcony off the lobby while Lou waited in line.
We stayed club level and received a deluxe room in the villa wing, room 2566. There is no balcony and the view is of the bocce ball court and if you look left you can see the villa pool. There is a pullout sofa which we had requested. It is a very short walk to the elevator to the pools and Mandara Spa/gym. The walk to the lounge was a bit far, but no hardship.
We had lunch at Sals Market and it was very good. Ethan and Zach split a small pizza and the rest of us had paninis (panini is already plural in Italian, but I think adding an s is correct in English.)
After lunch we took the launch to US to see if Rip Ride Rockit was running, it wasnt. Ethan met Jimmy Neutron while we waited for Lou, Ben, and Zach to return from checking that out.
Next we decided to try the Simpsons since we hadnt experienced it yet, very fun so we rode again.
It started to rain and thunder, but we wanted to get in a few more attractions. We rode MIB 2x and then the Mummy, Ethan skipped the Mummy. At this point it was around 3 or 3:30 so we headed back to wash up since we had 6 PM ressies at Mama Dellas with Lous aunt and cousin who were also visiting Orlando.
Mama Dellas was a lot of fun, the food was good, especially for Florida. We still like Café DAntonio over in Celebration best. There were 11 of us and we ordered appetizers to share, 2 bruschettas (very good), 2 antipastos (very good), and 1 calamari (average at best.) I forget the name of what everyone had for dinner, I ordered some kind of stuffed shell which was very bland.
Lou had salmon which he rated as good, his aunt had the special of the day which was mahi mahi with shrimp, she loved it. Zach had eggplant parm which he rated as good, it was a really thick slice of eggplant and he prefers it thin. Ben had veal marsala over polenta which he rated as very good. The kids pizza look horrible, but they ate it.
The best part of the night, besides the company, was the strolling trio of singers. We had a lot of fun with them. When they first approached our table they asked if we had any requests, Lou, being the joker he is requested Stairway to Heaven. The accordion player began playing it and my husband sang, it was fun. Then the accordion player had us all sing different parts of Funiculi' Funicula', coming up with 11 instruments was not easy and we did not keep it straight, but that's 1/2 the fun. Although we didnt have them sing at our table the woman and man soloists were very good and we enjoyed them as they visited the other tables.
The night ended very well when Mama came over serve our coffee and brought us our dessert, stay away from the tiramisu by the way if you know what good tiramisu tastes like. The coffee was excellent, I think they sell it at Sals but I never did get over there to purchase some. Dinner ended at 8:30 and we decided to call it a night since we were up so early. Hugs all around as Lous family returned to their hotel. We visited the lounge to check out the offerings even though we had no plan on putting another morsel in our mouth. I have to say it really wasnt very enticing this night anyway. I think we were all fast asleep by 9:30.
Next Up: Day Two: Early morning at PBH and IOA
Cast of Characters
Karen - Me
Lou - Dh
Ben - Ds16
Zach - Ds14
Ethan - Ds7
Day 1
This day started as all our trips to USO and WDW do, everyone was up and at em early and filled with joy. We quickly loaded up the van and were on our way to Winner Airport Parking, an excellent choice if you fly out of Philly. Our driver had us at the airport very quickly, we did our usual curbside check-in with Southwest and before we knew it we were past security. Philadelphia airport has changed a lot since we last flew out of it in September of 2008, it really is starting to look nice. My husband Lou stopped at the bookstore to get a book and the boys wanted Burger King for breakfast.
We didnt have to wait long before boarding began. We had gotten seats A39-A43 and so we were able to sit together. The flight was full. Things got a little nasty when some woman who boarded in A group tried to save seats for her friends or family that had C boarding passes. Somehow she was able to save a whole row, I cant believe more people than not actually listened to her, but no one sat there. Turns out she was saving the row for nothing. Oy.
We were away from our gate and in the skies in a matter of minutes, Im not kidding.
Our flight was 40 minutes early, 40! I love Southwest. Instead of arriving at 11:45 we were at the gate in Orlando at 11:05. My husband went to pick up our rental van while the boys and I retrieved the luggage. We usually use National Car Rental, but their prices were insane this year. Last year we paid $231 (including taxes and fees) for 8 days, this year they wanted over $600. We found a good price with Thrifty, $444 for 8 days (taxes and fees included.)
We arrived at Portofino Bay Hotel at 12:15 PM, 45 minutes ahead of my schedule. We decided to use valet parking since it was only $8 more per day. Unfortunately check in was nuts and we lost some time there.
I took some pictures from the balcony off the lobby while Lou waited in line.
We stayed club level and received a deluxe room in the villa wing, room 2566. There is no balcony and the view is of the bocce ball court and if you look left you can see the villa pool. There is a pullout sofa which we had requested. It is a very short walk to the elevator to the pools and Mandara Spa/gym. The walk to the lounge was a bit far, but no hardship.
We had lunch at Sals Market and it was very good. Ethan and Zach split a small pizza and the rest of us had paninis (panini is already plural in Italian, but I think adding an s is correct in English.)
After lunch we took the launch to US to see if Rip Ride Rockit was running, it wasnt. Ethan met Jimmy Neutron while we waited for Lou, Ben, and Zach to return from checking that out.
Next we decided to try the Simpsons since we hadnt experienced it yet, very fun so we rode again.
It started to rain and thunder, but we wanted to get in a few more attractions. We rode MIB 2x and then the Mummy, Ethan skipped the Mummy. At this point it was around 3 or 3:30 so we headed back to wash up since we had 6 PM ressies at Mama Dellas with Lous aunt and cousin who were also visiting Orlando.
Mama Dellas was a lot of fun, the food was good, especially for Florida. We still like Café DAntonio over in Celebration best. There were 11 of us and we ordered appetizers to share, 2 bruschettas (very good), 2 antipastos (very good), and 1 calamari (average at best.) I forget the name of what everyone had for dinner, I ordered some kind of stuffed shell which was very bland.
Lou had salmon which he rated as good, his aunt had the special of the day which was mahi mahi with shrimp, she loved it. Zach had eggplant parm which he rated as good, it was a really thick slice of eggplant and he prefers it thin. Ben had veal marsala over polenta which he rated as very good. The kids pizza look horrible, but they ate it.
The best part of the night, besides the company, was the strolling trio of singers. We had a lot of fun with them. When they first approached our table they asked if we had any requests, Lou, being the joker he is requested Stairway to Heaven. The accordion player began playing it and my husband sang, it was fun. Then the accordion player had us all sing different parts of Funiculi' Funicula', coming up with 11 instruments was not easy and we did not keep it straight, but that's 1/2 the fun. Although we didnt have them sing at our table the woman and man soloists were very good and we enjoyed them as they visited the other tables.
The night ended very well when Mama came over serve our coffee and brought us our dessert, stay away from the tiramisu by the way if you know what good tiramisu tastes like. The coffee was excellent, I think they sell it at Sals but I never did get over there to purchase some. Dinner ended at 8:30 and we decided to call it a night since we were up so early. Hugs all around as Lous family returned to their hotel. We visited the lounge to check out the offerings even though we had no plan on putting another morsel in our mouth. I have to say it really wasnt very enticing this night anyway. I think we were all fast asleep by 9:30.
Next Up: Day Two: Early morning at PBH and IOA
Breakfast was pastries, bagels, toast, various cereals, yogurt, fruit, and trail mix. There was a good assortment of teas, coffee, juice, and milk. Probably hot chocolate too. One thing we noticed was they apparently love nuts at the Portofino Bay lounge (the kind that grow on trees.) Two of my children have tree nut allergies and it got frustrating at times to find a variety of things for them. Don't get me wrong there was always *something,* but ds7 especially was tired of eating the same thing. I asked the staff if they had anything in the back and they said no. They were very nice though. 
