Fly on Friday the 13th?? Yep, we`ll turn superstition into 23 nights of fun!! A Sept/Oct 2024 TR

[schumigirl]

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 19TH





After such a good sleep we were up with the larks this morning, which was so unecessary as we were having a very lazy morning today, we did move a little slower though and enjoyed watching the sunrise in the distance and I marvelled at the amount of flights taking off and landing from MCO from very early which we could see clearly today.

We were down in the Club lounge for breakfast just after 8 and again it was fairly quiet, but with HHN being on last night, there are a lot of latecomers who turn up just before 10am wanting breakfast which is understandable after a very late night. We have some toast, croissants fruit and of course tea. Tom does enjoy a coffee here, the machine does a very nice one apparently, not really being a coffee drinker I don`t touch it.

We headed back to the room and got changed into swimwear and had some pool time this morning. The sun doesn`t cover the whole pool till just after 10am, so we have an hour or so in it without worrying about being in too much sunshine.

It is always quiet at this time of day and we had the pool to ourselves more or less most of the time with a few folks sitting on loungers in full sun enjoying the rays and heat, it was already very, very hot!!!

Being in the shade is perfect for us, we burn so easily and as we had no sun screen on, as soon as the pool was soaked in sun, we headed out and back upstairs to get showered and changed before heading out to the park. It was unusual for us to be in the pool when the sun shines, but as long as it was shady we took advantage of it and we really enjoyed some pool time in the day despite looking a little like vampires avoiding direct sunlight!!!



Once ready we got the boat to The Studios and boy was it boiling hot now, usually we can be heading out of the park at this time of day so it was different going in at this time. ​

We went straight to the Mummy and had a few blasts on that which was so much fun, we did three rides on this before I said that was enough for me at the one time and it was almost lunchtime now so we retrieved my bag and headed over to Finnegans where we were very lucky and managed to get two seats at the bar this time although we did have to wait for some folks to move first, you feel like a lurker doing this but if you want a seat here, you have to be fast.

Our favourite bar person doesn`t work here during the day much during HHN as she covers all the night shifts when it`s on but they have some amazing staff here who are just as nice and yep, we order two Rum Neuralysers straight away, we have been so looking forward to these this trip!!

​

Happy smiles all round!!!

We were lucky today as we had two guys who chatted while we were sitting, both were on their own and one was rather hilariously avoiding telling his wife where he was.....lol...I`m guessing she knew, but both nice guys and always nice to hear where folks are from and why they`re visiting and it`s just nice to chat to people anyway, we always enjoy that side of our visits a lot. ​

Maybe rather boring here with food, but we both always enjoy sharing the Cobb Salad minus the blue cheese, it comes with their own dressing which is very nice indeed and this is more than enough for two.

I admit I had worked through quite a lot of it before Tom stopped chatting but I didn`t eat it all he got his share and it is very nice, always fresh although the egg is completely solid, it would be nice if it were even a little runny. ​

The second Rum Neuralysers went down nicely too and whoever made the second one made it even stronger, maybe not the best idea in the middle of the day, but we had plenty of water and we were fine.

The weather had been amazing and not what we were always used to in September, we were used to a lot of rain at certain times and so far we hadn`t seen anything close to that and wouldn`t either thankfully. This would be the dryest September we had ever enjoyed and everyone kept telling us how bad August had been for rain, glad we missed it.

We wander around a little and get some snaps from around this lovely area, Tom went on Transformers as I roamed around and waited for him to come off. I don`t do that ride as the pixels on the screens just don`t work for me, makes me very off kilter somewhat, unlike Spider-Man that doesn`t do that to me. ​

We would try and catch the Blues Bros another day! ​

Marilyn and her girls had moved to a different location today, so we watched them for a time before I felt it incredibly hot standing in the sunshine, but it is such a good little show, everyone loves it and they always get one male to participate which can be very funny depending on their reactions. If you get the chance have a quick glance at least, it is fun! ​

Not exactly a tribute store but this used to be an amazing little place just after Mel`s Diner that had all sort of props from past times and it was always lovely wandering around, there were some amazing pictures and I always wanted to buy one of their vintage hats, but never got around to it sadly. However they have filled it with a kind of tribut store mixed with old video games from the 1980`s reminiscent of what you can see in some of the movies presented in the new parade they have now. ​

Can`t say we were very impressed with this store, but as you walked through they had some smaller but detailed displays of some of their 70`s/80`s movies including Jaws, ET and Ghostbusters.
​

I admit I thought the dummy on the bike would have been suitable for HHN, his face is kind of creepy for allegedly being for kids!! ​

More coming right up.....

 

[keishashadow]

We headed back to the room and got changed into swimwear and had some pool time this morning. The sun doesn`t cover the whole pool till just after 10am, so we have an hour or so in it without worrying about being in too much sunshine.

Best time, nice to have it almost to one’s self then.

we really enjoyed some pool time in the day despite looking a little like vampires avoiding direct sunlight!!!

You say vampire like it’s a bad thing

 

[schumigirl]

Best time, nice to have it almost to one’s self then.

You say vampire like it’s a bad thing

It is lovely when it`s so quiet, no one splashing!!!

lol.....I should have thought, yep, we do like a vampire or two!! We just watched Dracula, Dead and Loving it tonight with Leslie Nielson, funny movie in parts.

 

[schumigirl]

Chad??

Managed to sign in yet???

 

[macraven]

Chad, we are waiting for you!
Come join us!

 

[schumigirl]

Chad, we are waiting for you!
Come join us!

I have to send him an email as he hasn`t got back to me since I sent you the screen shot of what he was seeing when he tried to post.

 

[snoopboop]

Oatmeal or porridge as we call it in the UK is not for me in shape or form at all!! ​

I'm sure you'll think I'm crazy, but I love oatmeal, especially the oatmeal in the club lounge at Royal Pacific. Seriously, I daydream about it sometimes. For real.

 

[schumigirl]

Our main reason, well the only reason we were in the park this afternoon when we were usually somewhere very shady and cool by now was for the parade Universal here in the Studios.

When Horror Nights were on, the parade was at 2pm, otherwise it was later in the day, so we wanted to take advantage of the early afternoon one as parades are a one and done for us, but we knew a couple of folks performing today so we had to see it at least once when they were working.

I admit, it was bloomin hot, really hot and I said to Tom this was absolutely a one and done in the afternoon as it was just too hot even for this lizard. We never have to spend a full day in the parks anymore and haven`t for many, many years, we like doing our couple of hours in the morning then off somewhere, but each to their own of course and I can see why folks want to make the most of the parks while they`re here.

We chose to stand opposite the Five and Dime where it was a little shady and this is one of the prettiest streets in the Studios with the Hollywood detail in the buildings, it is beautiful and it is gorgeous during the Holidays, lots of twinkling lights as you`d expect. ​

When I said it was hot, I meant it, hot, hot and then even hotter!!!

So as it was a little time to go before the Parade started we headed over to the Five and Dime and had a look at what they had for Halloween this year and walking in those doors.....

That moment is the best when that cold air hits you as you leave the blazing heat outside and two of the best places are walking into MiB or sitting in Mythos as both are ultra freezing, but this was perfect today after that sunshine.

Five and Dime is the store where the Bourne show guests comes out into and it is a little lacklustre where you do come out from the show, but this other side of the store, being honest, it`s nowhere near to what it used !!!






​

Yes, I love the monsters, always have always will, but this store used to be fabulously decorated for Halloween. Not only did they have the classic monsters as they should do, but they had the large carriage that appears somewhere in HHN and the memorabilia all around it including a whole load of Hitchcock stuff and all the movies too and all around the store was exceptional, so this I hate to say felt cheap and had no effort whatsoever put into it.

You can see clearly where all the budget cuts are in the parks, folks who have never been before might not notice, but for long term guests some of it is as clear as the nose on your face.

Back over to the shady side of the street just in time for the parade to start, we had heard so many nice things about this one, everyone said we`d like it, it`s not huge but it is well done.

There were a few floats aimed at the very young, lots of pinks and happy looking creatures that I had no clue who they were, so we snapped most of the pictures of floats we really liked.

And the parades here we have never found to be overly crowded, even the Macy`s Christmas and Mardi Gras parades never seem mobbed which we like.

Back to the Future of course is a classic movie to celebrate in a parade, we absolutely love these movies like most folks do. ​

Some familiar and friendly faces between floats too, and I think some pictures may be out of sequence, but you get the idea of the parade.

One of our favourite family films of the 80`s was Ghostbusters and several years back they did a very good house of it for HHN, not a scary one, but fun and we enjoyed it, so this float we thought was wonderful and encapsulated basically the whole theme of the movie in one float.

And glad they made the marshmallow man soft and smiley and not the scary angry face a little later!

And another familiar face.

She is amazing as Gozer and the Ghostbusters themselves are very good, they stay in character really well and you can pinpoint who each of them are which helps of course. Sometimes trying to find performers who resemble the stars can be difficult but they do a great job finding them and if they`re not close, it`s amazing what hair, make up and outfits can do to help bring them to life.

Gotta love the library lady!!

This float really doesn`t need any introduction, one of the most famous movies ever made and a true classic!

I think the make up people wouldn`t have had to do much with Quint as his resemblence was uncanny, not only in looks but his mannerisms were on point.

This parade was indeed fun and there is more to come with the last of the blockbuster movie floats, Jurassic Park!

The guy who brought Blue over was so cute with the little kids who were around us, some of them were a little wary, but he was so gentle and didn`t approach the very young kids who you could see were a little bit wary of this baby dinosaur in front of them!

And the big angry guy himself.....

They did an incredible job with the whole parade, something for everyone from the very young to those of us old enough to remember when some of these came out first time. I was 8, almost 9 the summer of 1976 when Jaws came out in the UK and not being fond of water anyway despite living right next to the sea, I vowed never to go in the water again. Although where we grew up we only ever had dolphins and harmless Basking Sharks out in the water, but it had such an effect on so many people over the world when it was released.

Tom and I were both taking pictures this afternoon, I had come out of the shade a few times, a lady and I were both as pale skinned as each other and were both taking shelter from the sun and we were standing chatting right up against the wall, but after I had been standing in the sun for a time, I did feel it was blazing down on my left arm, but I had sunscreen on and felt it would be fine, so carried on picture taking. oops.


More of today coming right up!!!​

 

[schumigirl]

I'm sure you'll think I'm crazy, but I love oatmeal, especially the oatmeal in the club lounge at Royal Pacific. Seriously, I daydream about it sometimes. For real.

lol.....oh I don`t think you`re crazy at all, oatmeal is one of my mum`s favourite breakfasts, but only the traditional plain old fashioned Scottish oats, they are definitely not for me!!

Although, maybe dreaming about the lounge`s oatmeal is a little, er...different lol....in a nice way of course!!!

 

[I-4Bound]

The parade looks great! I’d love to see it in person!

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Oh absolutely, we love to always order different dishes to share, we both hate to miss out on each other`s meals lol.....

You do have amazing seafood where you come from for sure but we have found some places that do get fresh seafood and it was beautiful! We did have a giggle with a lady from Seattle and she claims they have the best seafood.....so of course I had to throw Scottish seafood in as the best too....lol.....

Hope the trip went well for you, yes it must be lovely for you to be home, was it a long flight, I forgot to ask you???

Glad to have you back and glad you`re enjoying it

Well compared to your flights to and from the US, not long at all it was 5.5 hours there and 4 back — those tailwinds were strong

 

[Worfiedoodles]

That parade looks amazing! I can’t believe the floats for franchises that are not “current.” Jaws came out a long time ago It’s a classic and I love that shark but it’s been awhile.

 

[schumigirl]

The parade looks great! I’d love to see it in person!

It was really good, not too long, but they really have done it well and it`s so good to see the classics being celebrated. I think you`d enjoy it

 

[schumigirl]

Well compared to your flights to and from the US, not long at all it was 5.5 hours there and 4 back — those tailwinds were strong

A good tailwind can be a godsend on the flight home. It`s caused us to make it home in just under 7 hours one time, I think that was the fastest one yet, but boy was it bumpy lol.....I loved it and slept through most of the flight, hard to beat turbulence for sleep! Well for me anyway lol...

That parade looks amazing! I can’t believe the floats for franchises that are not “current.” Jaws came out a long time ago It’s a classic and I love that shark but it’s been awhile.

It is a good parade and hearing all sorts of rumours that in years to come they plan to bring back some of the classics in some way to the parks. I think there will be big changes in the future for both IOA and Studios

 

[schumigirl]

The parade was lovely and now we had seen it once was enough, we wouldn`t bother spending another afternoon to see it, afternoons are just too darn hot for park time for us anymore, but we were glad we had seen it and the folks we knew in it had seen us watch them in it.

We headed out the park and I did feel my left arm was going to have some sunburn appear on it, it felt very hot to touch so I planned to put the cooling gel on it when we got home. We always buy a bottle of it just in case and usually happily put it in the trash when the trip is over and it`s unused, but I would open it today.

The walk back home is always lovely, but today we took the boat as there was one waiting to go and it was Capt Rob who we hadn`t chatted to this trip yet. He is the best of them all and one of the last original of the Boat Captains we`ve known for years, he is funny and is the King of "dad" jokes, yes they are awful, but he is a classic. Sadly not all the newer Captains have as much personality as the ones we had a few years ago. So, it was nice to have a little catch up with him today.

The boats are lovely, it`s a short ride unless you go to PB, but it`s a nice way to get to and from the parks especially if you have sore tootsies!!!

Seeing the Lone Palm without the plane is a little odd but it was getting a good old clean which it did need. ​

Tom fancied a snooze for an hour, he had a headache which is rare for him, so he shut the bedroom door and I think he fell asleep straight away, I sat with some ice in a cloth on my arm for an hour or so, along with the cooling gel and it worked, my arm cooled right now and maybe it wasn`t full on sunburn, but it certainly cooled it down massively.

I answered some emails and sent a couple of friends in the UK some pictures we had taken so far, I picked a good day as it was miserable in the UK that day and I send some glorious sunshine pics to them lol....I was popular!!!

We got showered and changed once Tom was awake, he had slept for about an hour and a half and felt a bit better after it, I don`t often snooze much here but sometimes wish I could. Although Tom did say he did wonder if he was coming down with something as he just didn`t feel 100%, but said overall he felt ok.

We went down to the Lounge and as always you get such a lovely welcome from all the staff, they are so much fun and work really hard to keep everyone happy and well looked after in here.

Tonight we did plan to have something to eat as it was Beef Bulogi with Lo Mein which is one of the nicest dishes they have ever brought up to the lounge for the hot dish. It`s weird though as some chef`s cook it different from the others, some nights it`s like a casserole and other nights it`s like a stir fry which is the way I like it best.


​

We were up at the food when the lovely Canadians came in, they were all going to a special event in Citywalk tonight where some of Citywalk would be blocked off for them and it sounded so good for them after their busy week and our new friend Dawn looked so lovely in her outfit.

They pulled some tables together again and had some olives delivered to the table for them again which was so nice, one of the supervisors had left a note for the ladies to do a bowl just for them, very considerate of her and they appreciated it. ​

We both grabbed some Bulogi and noodles, Tom had already got and opened two little bottles of Tabasco for me as I do like spice added to my food and it really does zing any dish up a little more. ​

Apart from the broccoli which I loathe with a passion, this dish is very nice and we were eating and chatting at the same time enjoying a glass or two of sparkly and it was so nice....yes, the grumpy family were taking it all in lol, it was funny seeing them glance over and quickly look away when one of us turned around! But, we were having fun as always.

Eventually it was time for them to leave, they were all leaving tomorrow but Dawn and Dinardo were staying another night but hadn`t managed to book Club Level, so it was goodbye to all of them and it was sad as we had such a connection with them over the week and enjoyed all our time with them and we had those memories of "rubbing the fingernail" ​

They left, we have each others emails and hopefully one day we`ll get the chance to meet up again, such nice people.

Tom and I pulled the tables back to the right places and then we had a second bowl of Bulogi as it is so nice, we had no plans to eat dinner out later and this was nice for a change as we don`t usually make this our main meal of the evening, but do enjoy this dish.

We sat for a little while longer then headed over to Strong Water Bar, we had told Fernando we would be over tonight so we were looking forward to it and catching up with everyone.

As always, you get the best welcome from everyone in here, for us it is the best place around for food, drinks and the friendliness of the staff here, can`t find anywhere better.

We were seated at one of Maggie`s tables, but lovely Demi wanted to look after us too, so we had two lovely ladies taking care of us tonight and they were amazing as always.

I don`t actually think we looked at the menu tonight, we enjoyed a selection of their newest cocktails and with each cocktail Fernando asked if we liked a variance of them and I don`t think we tried anything we didn`t like. ​

The first cocktail I had was the Rum Dream above which is the one with evaporated milk and not the clearest picture for some reason and I`m not sure which cocktail they brought for Tom to try!!!

Both were lovely. ​

Not a clue what this one was, but we shared it and it was beautiful!!!

Sattina who is one of the Rum Captain`s behind the bar came over to say hello and she is amazing and thankfully, one of the staff who is staying at SW!!! She is a very knowledgeable lady and makes amazing cocktails, I can always tell if Sattina has made the drink when she is there. ​

Maggie and Demi had both asked if we were eating and we said no, we might have some ice cream later but we had eaten, however she did say Chef Carlos was sending something out for us to try.....now, you cannot say no to Chef Carlos, so we would share whatever it was, it is nice to give our thoughts on his dishes, although we had never found a dish we hadn`t liked in all our years visiting here!!

He came out to say hi first, lovely, lovely man and we checked he wasn`t leaving with Fernando to go to Helios and we were glad to hear he is also staying!!!!

It will be very odd when Fernando leaves Strong Water for sure.

Chef asked if we liked Hot Dogs, so I was a little concerned as I`m not really a hot dog person, Tom loves them so I thought maybe if I didn`t like it (no chance) he could eat it.

But, when it appeared and he described what it was, I knew I would like it.

It was a hot dog soaked and cooked in beer and it had a pineapple salsa and crunched plantain chips on top with a flavoured ketchup that I forget which flavour it was, it might have been a spicy bbq or maybe not, I didn`t write it down this time and it came with french fries. ​

I have to admit, it was beautiful!! We did half it between us and if we hadn`t eaten earlier, we would have asked for another one between us, and he hit it out the park again, lovely dish!!

The night was passing quickly, Fernando sat with us again which was lovely, and I mentioned the pineapple-jalapeno shrub they make and how lovely it is, Sattina came up with a cocktail for me with it and Fernando brought over some samples of it straight, holy smokes it is spicy hot, but beautiful!! ​

At some point some Dulce de Delche appeared, this our favourite ice cream here and when we don`t feel like the Tres Leche cake which is incredibly filling, this hits the spot. ​

In our conversations tonight I mentioned to Fernando I missed the Vegan Hotpot on the menu, he still thinks it`s funny I would avoid anything that says vegan on the menu which we do as we are confirmed meat eaters, but this dish is one of our all time favourite dishes from Strong Water and asked him if it was coming back.

He did look a little confused and said it was on the Vegan/Vegetarian menu and always had been.

There`s a seperate Veg/Vegan menu!!!!

I had no idea, he did think this was funny for some reason, now we knew we could just order it if we felt like it, which I`m sure we would at some point, beautiful, fresh, healthy and spicy dish!!!

It is quite a violent green colour though!!!

They have the alternative menu`s at the table near the door so if anyone asks for it, it`s handy but I had no clue it was there and it looks so nice too we could both have tried every dish on this menu and I`m sure we would have loved them all.

​

We had enjoyed tonight so much, it is the friendliest and most welcome of places and it may change in some way of course when we next arrive, but it`ll still be a wonderful place to visit I`m sure and we`ll still be regular visitors.

We said goodnight to everyone and headed back home to RP, we were shattered now and it was late so we would be straight to bed with no tv tonight and tomorrow we moved to our other second home at the beautiful Sapphire Falls.

​

 

[SCDizFan]

"
There`s a seperate Veg/Vegan menu!!!!

I had no idea, he did think this was funny for some reason, now we knew we could just order it if we felt like it, which I`m sure we would at some point, beautiful, fresh, healthy and spicy dish!!!"""

Being plant based, I love this! Love reading along as usual!

You should start vlogging your trips! You guys could not be any cuter!

 

[schumigirl]

"
There`s a seperate Veg/Vegan menu!!!!

I had no idea, he did think this was funny for some reason, now we knew we could just order it if we felt like it, which I`m sure we would at some point, beautiful, fresh, healthy and spicy dish!!!"""

Being plant based, I love this! Love reading along as usual!

You should start vlogging your trips! You guys could not be any cuter!

lol....thank you!!!

Oh if you eat Vegan/Vegetarian you will love Strong Water, Chef Carlos puts as much into those dishes as he does the regular menu and if anyone could convert us to even try anything Vegan, it`s him. The amount of things I`ve said to him "I don`t like xxxx" and he has given me a dish with that ingredient in it and I`ve loved it lol.....except cilantro of course, he has never converted us to that!!

I`ve never met a chef who is so excited about food and creating new dishes as much as him and when you tell him something is amazing he is very humble in taking praise.

Glad you`re still reading along

 

[schumigirl]

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20TH









Another wonderful sleep on our last night at RP this trip, we had slept like logs and I was up first as usual and managed to get showered and dressed while sleeping beauty was still out for the count, until I dropped one of the suitcases on the bed to start packing up!! He had a "why are you disturbing me" look as it thumped on the bed, yes, moving day and although it doesn`t take us long to pack, we hadn`t even made a start yet with it being a late one last night.

Tom reluctantly headed for the shower as I brought the other two cases onto the bed to get sorted, and it really doesn`t take long to get packed up and by the time we were ready for breakfast we were just about done with a few things to sort out.

Breakfast was nice, and the new Rooms Control Manager was coming up to meet us this morning, so we said we wouldn`t leave until she appeared, we were in no rush to go anywhere today.

And it was again fairly quiet but a little busier than it had been up till now and we took our time and had the usual options we always enjoy including double strength tea bags in the cups, one on it`s own was just too weak for me, but doubling up the breakfast tea was fine to drink.

The watermelon today was lovely, so I had two bowls of it with some of the strawberry danish at the end, they were lovely. I think Tom had his usual croissants with either honey or with cheese and ham, he enjoys both of those for breakfast.

​

I know most folks drink coffee, but there are plenty of tea options for the few of us that do drink it every morning.



​

Kaitlin appeared as we finished eating and straight away we really liked her, very warm lady who again, we felt we had met before when she had worked in a different position and maybe even hotel, she also said she had met us before but it was a long time ago.

We sat and chatted for ages and she was so lovely and we did hope we would be seeing her again during our trip, someone we could sit and have a long conversation with. But, of course she had other things to do, but we were glad she had taken the time to come say hello.

We said goodbye and then we headed down to our room to finish last second packing as we wanted to hand the room over as quickly as possible so it could be turned around for the next guest.

We went down to the lobby and the line was a mile long, we just needed to get our stuff out of the security box, this was going to take forever, however one of the ladies on the desk saw us and called us over and it was nice we didn`t have to stand in line, she took Tom in and I waited getting a few side glances lol....we thanked her and asked how she was as we hadn`t managed to chat to her this trip, just a wave on the way past as she was with guests, nice lady and one of the few we have known for a long time at the front desk.

Tom went down for the car and the valet guys loaded up the car for us and we set off the short drive to Sapphire Falls where we parked up and headed in to the lobby, we had txted M to let her know when we would be over and she was very kindly meeting us with another manager who is so lovely, Justin, really nice guy who we have known for a time too.

We have a catch up and M says she`ll txt us when the room is ready, but we`re in no rush, we`re heading off for the day, so with luggage taken care of we thank them and get back in the car and we plan to go to Winter Park today.

Winter Park is around a 20 minute drive away from the Universal area and we have been visiting it for years, so there are no real surprises here anymore, but we like it. We have never gone to the Morse Museum which has the largest collection of works by American designer and artist Louis Comfort Tiffany. The galleries parade works such as jewellery, pottery, leaded-glass lamps, paintings and windows. There is also a chapel with an interior from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and art and artifacts from his Long Island country estate. It is a place we will visit at some point, but there are so many other things to do including a very nice boat ride around the lake which gets incredibly busy!

There are so many parking spots here, you wouldn`t be stuck and most are within a very short walk to the central area where all the shops and restaurants are.

And it is blazing hot again today!!

We have a wander round some of the stores and wander through some of the park which is lovely and is never too busy but there are a smattering of people around today enjoying the heat and sunshine with blankets and picnic baskets which is always nice to see.


​

There are many places in the shade to sit here and enjoy just how quiet this place is despite it being right along the main area of the town on one side and the railway lines on the other side, but it is very peaceful all the same.​

We spent some time sitting on one of the benches watching the world go by, but we did start to feel hungry about now.

There are so many places to choose from here, we have been to several and always enjoyed them and did want to go back to a couple of them, but we also wanted to try somewhere new and a place I always liked the sound of was Bosphorus.

We had heard so many good reviews of this place which serves Turkish cuisine, they have another place in Dr Phillips that we have often thought about visiting, but we`d give it a try today. ​

We were seated inside and it was fairly quiet, it did fill up quickly and seemed very popular.

Our waitress took our drinks order and we chose white wine and I didn`t know at this point my hair looked as though I had been dragged through that preverbial hedge backwards.....I blame the heat of course!!! ​

Tom however has no such issues with hair!!! ​

The lunch menu was nice enough, but nothing was springing out at us and we did struggle to choose from the menu as it just wasn`t overly inspiring, but Tom finally chose the Lamb Kebap as they called it, which was ground lamb compressed and thinly sliced and I went for the lamb sis kebap which was three large pieces of skewered lamb.

All dishes came with a rice pilaf and a weird mix of grated carrots, red onions, beets and pickled red cabbage topped with a strange vinaigrette.

We both love lamb a lot so were excited to try this version of Turkish food we do have some beautiful Turkish restaurants over here and we always enjoy when we go and always enjoy their food, so this place had a lot to live up to.

Hint.

It did look nice and although the weird raw veg didn`t seem to fit the dish, we`d give it a try.

And we do love lamb!!!


​

There`s always one meal every trip we regret and wish we hadn`t done and for this trip, Bosphorus was it.

One of the worst meals we have ever had and of course someone told us later we should have went to dinner instead and to the one in Dr Phillips as it is so much better!!! We maybe should have asked first!!

The meat was not tender, it was cool and had no real flavour at all, usually Turkish food we have experienced is always spicy and full of flavour but this......awful!!! It was tough, overcooked and yes, not that I have ever eaten feet, but I imagine this is what they would taste like.

Neither dish was nice.

But, we were quite embarrassed as the waitress was so lovely and she could see we had barely touched the dish at all, we ate what we could and ate more of the rice than we normally would just to make the plate look a little better.....why do we do that???? I admit we should have just sent it back, but we didn`t.

We just won`t go back.

Back out in the sunshine, it was double blazing hot, 95F so we headed into a few stores and one of our favourites up here is the Olive Oil/Balsamic Vinegar store which is hard to resist when you see their produce but most of their produce is heavy!!! So we try to limit our purchases today. ​

We didn`t buy too many items in here, Tom was hilarious though, every time I picked something up he was eyeing it up from the other side of the room trying to decide if it was heavy or not before he`d say if it looked good or not, he`s so obvious!!! I did pick up some chilli jams, a spicy chutney and a maple balsamic vinegar which we were low on at home and one bottle lasts for ages so we didn`t need any more. ​

It was just too hot to wander any further today, I still never complained but there wasn`t a breath around to move the heat so we headed back to the car where the aircon would be very much appreciated!!!

But, we always enjoy a wander round Winter Park, it is lovely, very quiet and so many things to see and do here, even if you do what we do and stand and watch those huge trains come through for a time!!! Our trains are far too boring in comparison.

But headed home now and ready to move into Sapphire Falls. ​

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Wow, everything you ate at the RP Club and SW looked amazing! And I love that you had such a wonderful time with your Canadian friends

I’m sure you will keep in touch and meet up again

It is hard to avoid sunburn out in the parks. It sneaks up on you and it’s hard to know when the sunscreen stops working

Transferring seems like it was a breeze, I’m so glad the staff keep it simple for you.

And you always find the fun when you explore Florida!

What do you most look forward to when you move to SF?

 

[schumigirl]

Wow, everything you ate at the RP Club and SW looked amazing! And I love that you had such a wonderful time with your Canadian friends

I’m sure you will keep in touch and meet up again

It is hard to avoid sunburn out in the parks. It sneaks up on you and it’s hard to know when the sunscreen stops working

Transferring seems like it was a breeze, I’m so glad the staff keep it simple for you.

And you always find the fun when you explore Florida!

What do you most look forward to when you move to SF?

They were so lovely, very genuine people and yes, we did enjoy the times we actually ate in the lounge, normally we don`t eat anything except breakfast and maybe some cheese with wine, but it was nice for a change.

I think because I was standing in one place with my arm not moving, the sun just caught me, but glad I got the ice on it and managed to cool it down so I didn`t burn in the end, but so easy to get caught out.

Well, we enjoy our trips, might not be everyone`s cup of tea as we have a lot of down time, but suits us and yes, they do make the transition very easy for us, we are so grateful to them for everything they do for us.

Oh that`s a good question Maria......in a word, everything The short walk after leaving Strong Water to our room is always a good one lol....and probably the beautiful Sapphire Suite for the extra space, lagoon view and extra bathroom we have there lol.

Have a lovely weekend Maria with your boy visiting