Yahoo. We were finally here - home for the next 6 nights - Crowne Plaza Universal. What a great hotel - right on the junction between Universal Boulevard and Sand Lake Road - 5-10mins walk and you are on I Drive.
Nice marble reception area, very bright and spacious and polite efficient reception staff. Within 2 minutes we had checked in and were being shown to our room by one of the bellmen. We were on the 8th floor - we reached it by way of a high speed glass elevator right in the middle of the hotel - very impressive. The rooms are arranged on 15 floors in what i can only describe as a large U shape with railings all the way up to a domed ceiling. The bellman asked what our plans were for the next few days and we told him that we were staying 6 nights and then heading to Naples for the next 4 days before finishing our trip at WDW. He then told us that Hurricane Isabel looked to be heading our way and that we may like to think about changing our plans just incase - more on that later.
The room was great - fairly spacious, probably just a bit bigger than the rooms at a moderate resort. Nice neutral tones, relaxing and our room had the most comfiest, kingsize bed I've slept in!! Spacious bathroom with really powerful shower and some nice ginsing toiletries, hairdryer, plenty of towels and a magnifying shaving mirror. Great said DH - oh God, look at my crows feet -I moaned!!
We went for a wander around the hotel - fair size pool with plenty of towels on hand. Bar, restaurant, market cafe - you could get a " Tiki" refillable mug for about $9 - but we didn't bother with this. There was a small gift shop and a ticket desk at the front desk for all the theme parks. Our hotel also ran a really efficient bus service to Universal/ Wet and Wild etc at no extra charge.
It was 2001 when we were last in Orlando and then stayed at the Country Inn and Suites before AKL - when we stepped out of the hotel DH announced - " I know where we are, there's our old hotel" -right enough we were staying just across the road and we remember the hotel being built on our last trip. It's also opposite the Siam Orchid - great Thai food!
We loved Tony Romas before and decided to head there for our first meal. DH drooled over their famous ribs and opted for that which meant that he sampled all 4 sauces - big disappointment - it used to be each quater of the rack were cooked in 1 sauce, now the ribs are bare and you add the sauce yourself - not the same. My Terrayaki Chicken Sandwich was shredded chicken SMOTHERED in sauce, not what I expected. Never mind, we came across some really excellent restaurants that I'll mention in my next post tomorrow. Hope this ok guys and what you want to hear. I'll also let you hear about our first driving experience when we finally sussed how to get the car into reverse!
TTFN
TTFN
Nice marble reception area, very bright and spacious and polite efficient reception staff. Within 2 minutes we had checked in and were being shown to our room by one of the bellmen. We were on the 8th floor - we reached it by way of a high speed glass elevator right in the middle of the hotel - very impressive. The rooms are arranged on 15 floors in what i can only describe as a large U shape with railings all the way up to a domed ceiling. The bellman asked what our plans were for the next few days and we told him that we were staying 6 nights and then heading to Naples for the next 4 days before finishing our trip at WDW. He then told us that Hurricane Isabel looked to be heading our way and that we may like to think about changing our plans just incase - more on that later.
The room was great - fairly spacious, probably just a bit bigger than the rooms at a moderate resort. Nice neutral tones, relaxing and our room had the most comfiest, kingsize bed I've slept in!! Spacious bathroom with really powerful shower and some nice ginsing toiletries, hairdryer, plenty of towels and a magnifying shaving mirror. Great said DH - oh God, look at my crows feet -I moaned!!
We went for a wander around the hotel - fair size pool with plenty of towels on hand. Bar, restaurant, market cafe - you could get a " Tiki" refillable mug for about $9 - but we didn't bother with this. There was a small gift shop and a ticket desk at the front desk for all the theme parks. Our hotel also ran a really efficient bus service to Universal/ Wet and Wild etc at no extra charge.
It was 2001 when we were last in Orlando and then stayed at the Country Inn and Suites before AKL - when we stepped out of the hotel DH announced - " I know where we are, there's our old hotel" -right enough we were staying just across the road and we remember the hotel being built on our last trip. It's also opposite the Siam Orchid - great Thai food!
We loved Tony Romas before and decided to head there for our first meal. DH drooled over their famous ribs and opted for that which meant that he sampled all 4 sauces - big disappointment - it used to be each quater of the rack were cooked in 1 sauce, now the ribs are bare and you add the sauce yourself - not the same. My Terrayaki Chicken Sandwich was shredded chicken SMOTHERED in sauce, not what I expected. Never mind, we came across some really excellent restaurants that I'll mention in my next post tomorrow. Hope this ok guys and what you want to hear. I'll also let you hear about our first driving experience when we finally sussed how to get the car into reverse!
TTFN
TTFN
(yep, I WAS navigating
).
