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

[keishashadow]

Carole - enjoy! The weather will be decidedly different the next trip

 

[schumigirl]

Carole - enjoy! The weather will be decidedly different the next trip

lol…..you couldn’t say a truer word if you tried!

At least it’s been warm, but the rain has been crazy! Sitting in our hotel room right now after seeing friends off from the hotel listening to high winds and torrential rain, but hey Ho……we’ve spent some time with loved ones, doesn’t get better than that!

But, we do look forward to Orlando weather for sure…….

 

[schumigirl]

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[disneyseniors]

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Wow, that seems to have come up really quick!!! That's great. Now our trip is getting closer too Love your TR!

 

[SCDizFan]

Yay! Like I said before, when your trip gets closer, so does mine!

I love Orlando in the fall! We leave a week from Sunday for four nights in Disney on the tail end of our annual passes and the hubs wants Universal annual passes next. I would imagine this will be on hold until sometime 2025.

We will be in Orlando before and right after your trip!

I love following your trip reports, thanks for all of the hard work!

 

[schumigirl]

Wow, that seems to have come up really quick!!! That's great. Now our trip is getting closer too Love your TR!

Thanks Ruth!! Always glad to see you post here and happy you enjoy it!

Yes, those trips are creeping up for all of us, you and your boy will be getting more excited for this trip!!

 

[schumigirl]

Yay! Like I said before, when your trip gets closer, so does mine!

I love Orlando in the fall! We leave a week from Sunday for four nights in Disney on the tail end of our annual passes and the hubs wants Universal annual passes next. I would imagine this will be on hold until sometime 2025.

We will be in Orlando before and right after your trip!

I love following your trip reports, thanks for all of the hard work!

lol....true!!!

We did miss September last year, yes this upcoming time of year is our favourite time, although May is our favourite too....lol.....

Oh I hope you have a lovely trip, it`s so close you can almost touch it I wish our dates had aligned even to say a quick hello, maybe one day!!

Hope all your plans go just fine when you`re there, will Disney be getting slightly quieter by then?? I had some cousins there before the bad weather last week and they said they felt it was quieter at times, other days they felt they had been sent to Hell!!!

Thank you so much, I`m always happy to read nice comments.....I take them all

And hope your trips are amazing when you do get there!!! Look forward to hearing it was extra special!!!!

 

[Pumpkin1172]

It is sneaking up fast!!!!!!

 

[schumigirl]

We all know waiting for a trip can sometimes feel like time really has stood still and on other days it feels like time is running away with us and we could be leaving tomorrow.

So, if I may go off topic for a time, I will get back into Orlando plans soon ......but, this past week we took a very short trip up to Scotland to see my family and spend some time with them, we hadn`t been up since March so it was too long between visits, but life sometimes has a way of keeping one busy.

The weather for this trip was laughable at times for two of the days, honestly, it was like Orlando 3pm storms for some of the journey and during our stay, but at least it was warm despite being rainy and windy. However we did get a couple of pictures, not too many as it was just a visit to meet up with family and some friends which we certainly did. I wish we had got some more pictures but the weather put a stop to that.

One of my favourite signs in the whole world!!! You know when you hit the border between Scotland and England, you`re home. Well, still a couple of hours to drive from here, but it`s home

We pass through some beautiful landscapes on the way up, the lowlands and highlands are both stunning in different ways, the real highlands are incredibly impressive but it`s not too shabby here either.

The hotel is one of our favourites, we always stay there when we go up to visit, it is a huge wedding venue and we were lucky to get a room for three nights as they are usually full, but we booked in March when we were up, we had wanted to stay five nights, but three nights would work ok, better than nothing.

It has a lovely lobby, very bright and airy











We had a beautiful sea view and at least we can say we did see the view and the island at some point of the trip!!! This is where I can sit for hours overlooking my favourite place in the UK.

I grew up overlooking this island and these beaches were my playground for so many years, albeit about 20 minutes down the road, but this is home to me.

The hotel from the beachside of the property is very traditional, they have added more modern parts to it over the years to include a very popular wedding venue and some some separate annexes as the demand only got larger over the years. It is one of the most popular hotels in the area due to location and service, they are wonderful. ​

Weather forecast here is generally.....if you can`t see the Island, it`s raining....if you can see the Island, it`s going to rain.

Usually correct.

These pictures were taken twenty five minutes apart. Scotland really can be four seasons in one day.

And sunset, which is just about perfect.

This is what the view should look like. We had this picture blown up and takes pride of place in our main sitting room at home, I love it.

This pictures below are not from this trip, but another couple of sunset pictures that I absolutely adore. This makes me homesick when I see these pictures. The first one is from the beach I grew up playing on and the second was from the hotel on a trip a couple of summers ago.

There are so many gorgeous areas around here, usually we`d walk along the beach and drive to the next main town, the beach there is lined with palm trees which surprises people when they hear Scotland has them, but we do and they are beautiful.





(Google pic)

This trip does lack some views and pictures, but we spent so much time with family, friends and avoiding the worst of the weather, but we had a blast and have already booked the hotel for a Christmas visit this year back in March this year too.

If you ever get the chance to visit the West Coast of Scotland, don`t hesitate, it is the most beautiful place and you`ll get a very warm welcome there too.

Apologies for wandering off topic, but it certainly helped me pass some time waiting for next month`s trip. I always enjoy saying that we go next month ​

 

[schumigirl]

It is sneaking up fast!!!!!!

It is freaky how fast these last few weeks seem to go in, yep, it is just around the corner, and you`re not too far behind us now too!!!

 

[keishashadow]

This is what the view should look like. We had this picture blown up and takes pride of place in our main sitting room at home, I love it.

Just stunning Who could ever grow tired of that ever-changing view out their window?

 

[schumigirl]

One of the things we have always thought we might do at one time or another is a Monorail hotel bar crawl at Disney.

We had heard some really good things about the Tiki Bar at the Poly so thought we would make an evening of that one time, get an Uber and work our way around them and there were a few to choose from.

But, after speaking to several folks, well, many folks really we decided it wasn`t worth it. Generally, everyone said apart from the Poly, none of them were really worth the effort.....and one of them works in one of those bars which did make me laugh when he said that!!! I won`t tell anyone buddy

So, we got to thinking, rather than go to Disney, we could do a bar crawl at Universal....why not. Why did it never occur to us before.....







They have some lovely bars in the hotels alone, never mind Citywalk so we had a thought and decided we would do something like that, the hotels one night and maybe Citywalk bars another night.....

The best part of this plan aside enjoying some lovely cocktails is we can utilise the boats to get to each place, so there`s not much walking involved wherever we go! Genius!!

First up will be The Thirsty Fish at Portofino Bay, it has been years since we have gone in there for a drink, maybe 10 years, maybe more, but it`s been a while anyway.








We thought we`d start furthest away and work our way home, always makes sense somehow. We did like Bar Americana at PB, but that is long gone having been incorporated into their updated Club Lounge, so the Thirsty Fish is one we`ll start with.

They do some nice snacks and light meals here which sounds nice especially since we`ll be having a cocktail or two along the way. Portofino Bay doesn`t appeal to us in many ways restaurant wise, but we can easily get some snacks here, it does look nice.

The Italian Breeze cocktail appeals to me the most there, it has coconut rum, disaronno, cranberry and pineapple juices and Tom might choose the OFTD or Italian Old Fashioned, but the options are nice enough and we "plan" to have to have a rule that we only have ONE cocktail in each place.....

The Velvet Lounge in the HRH is probably a place we have only visited once and we got the bartender with an attitude! There`s always one, but it was an ok place and if you`re going to do a Universal hotels bar crawl, then you have to include it....although technically we could sit at the bar in The Palm, but we`ll see.

You can`t miss this lounge, it is quite dark and atmospheric and some of the drinks don`t appeal very much but they do an excellent Mai Tai called and Electric Cumberbatch and they also do some rather lovely sounding Gin cocktails.....just to tempt me to overrule the one drink at each place rule before we even get there!!!









And of course our second favourite bar in the Universal hotels, Jake`s American Bar in RPR.









Classic cocktails and a full menu which is always nice and this is somewhere we feel very much at home sitting in. It`s on the lowest level of the hotel tucked away and it`s quite a cosy bar in it`s own way.

And ideal if we`re still at RP if we do finish of here.....

But, I doubt we will as we will probably end up in our favourite bar anywhere!!!!

STRONG WATER TAVERN









If you`ve ever read any of these TR`s before, you`ll know we adore Strong Water Bar in the gorgeous Sapphire Falls. We can never say how much we love this place and everyone who works here too, it is an incredibly welcoming place and the food and drinks are unsurpassed anywhere onsite.

So many choices with both food and drinks, we truly are spoiled for choice every time we go in. Apart from a couple of new drinks and dishes we`ve tried them all and none of them disappoint.

One of the things that make the drinks so special here is all of the shrubs and juices are made in house, you can often see them stirring a simmering pot of deliciousness behind the bar as they create the bases for so many of the cocktails they serve.

As to which of these we`ll opt for if we only have to have one......who knows what that one will be!!!!

We have no plans to go to Bar17 in Aventura, we have tried it a couple of times now and we weren`t impressed at all and hearing reports recently, it hasn`t changed much over the years since it opened. I`m not sure what it`s missing, but it is missing something.

So, hotel bar crawl is sorted.....Tom just asked which bars in Citywalk we`ll hit on another evening!!!

Hmmmm, now that`ll be fun to plan!!

​

 

[schumigirl]

Just stunning Who could ever grow tired of that ever-changing view out their window?

Thank you Janet, yes it is stunning, the change of seasons help make it of course, the eternal rain is why our land is so green and lush all year round!!!

If anyone is visiting Scotland, this is one area they should go see, it`s very beautiful.

 

[schumigirl]

I love discovering new places and will happily take credit for such if anyone goes to a place we suggest and likes it....if they don`t like it, it was someone else who suggested it....

We like to try at least a couple of new restaurants or bars each trip and always feel disappointed if we don`t find anywhere new we`d like to try, I think sometimes it`s so easy to keep going to the same places that we do love so much we can miss out on new and interesting places that could be new favourites.











When I mention oysters to Tom, this is the face I always get, every single time..

I am thankful I am not surrounded by a fussy eater in either my husband or son, but one of the very few things Tom won`t touch is oysters, and being honest, he`d rather not watch me eat them either, but he doesn`t complain....too much!!! I love them, absolutely adore them and would order them every night and never tire of having them.

When we go to Scotland we can get hand dived oysters and scallops in certain places and it`s a must do for me as they are the best in the world. Tom will eat mussels and most other seafood so, when I first mentioned Wine 4 Oysters to him, well, he did give me a funny glance wondering if they had anything other than oysters on the menu.

Did he really think I`d take him to a place where he couldn`t get anything to eat? Hmmm. For Oysters, well maybe....no, honestly, I really wouldn`t do that

All these pictures are from Wine 4 Oysters website, I can`t claim credit for any of them, but the food all looks amazing and I immediately saw that they do plenty of options other than oysters.

Scallops are among our favourite seafood options and I know this will tempt Tom, of course if lobster is on the menu anywhere, all bets are off as he will always opt for lobster in most places.











Anytime I see seafood displays, there are never enough oysters in them, but seeing a platter just bursting with oysters is a dish that makes me happy to see!!

I read that they do a Green Goblin option which are on this platter and they are definitely on my radar.

I don`t choose to have steamed oysters, I do prefer them raw but I think I could be tempted to try some from here, but I`ll probably stick to raw when it comes down to it.











Any oysters that have a spicy accompaniment to compliment them always works for me, spicy tabasco and lemon is very traditional as is the champagne vinaigrette, but many places offer spicy cocktail sauce or atomic horseradish which is not for me, they just overpower how delicate they are. So, might be dull to some, but tabasco and lemon for me.









Can`t go wrong with Garlic and lemon shrimp as a dish and one to share I think before we indulge.

For both of us, we love peel and eat shrimp and we have heard the ones here are top notch, although to be fair, we haven`t ever come across a bad portion of these anywhere in Florida!!!

One place we do like is Hot'n'Juicy Crawfish on Sand Lake Rd, their shrimp in the bag with all the flavours and various spice levels works for us and we`re in shrimp heaven there, although it is kinda messy, but fun!!










I had a little whoop when I saw this picture below, I assumed it was on their menu, but seems it was a special for a NYE event they did, but my goodness, Tom and I could eat one of these each and feel no shame at all at the thought!











This place is set within a little row of stores on Turkey Lake Rd before the major junction with Sand Lake Rd, so it`ll be a few minutes in an Uber to get there which is very handy as it`s so close to whichever hotel we`ll be staying at when we do go. Tom said he wants to go early in the trip in case he absolutely loves it and wants to go again which sounds promising!

They have a lovely cocktail and wine list, so there will be no driving that night as they all sound beautiful, but this place gets so many good reviews, that goes along way as well as a personal recommendation which for us is the best type of review.

They also do events and one of them is quiz and trivia nights on different subjects, we`ve heard of Friends and Potter quiz nights which would be right up our street and some are quite adult themed so it`s over 21`s only on those nights....I like the sound of those!!!

We are excited to try this place.




Coming up.....Citywalk Bar Crawl anyone ​

 

[disneyseniors]

When I mention oysters to Tom, this is the face I always get, every single time.

LOL, I'm with Tom on that. I really don't like any seafood. I can eat a really good fresh crabcake patty, but that's it.
But it sounds like a wonderful place for the 2 of you

 

[schumigirl]

LOL, I'm with Tom on that. I really don't like any seafood. I can eat a really good fresh crabcake patty, but that's it.
But it sounds like a wonderful place for the 2 of you

Oh yep, so many folks don`t like oysters or even seafood, but than goodness he loves everything else seafood, it is only oysters he can`t eat.

Selfishly, I`m quite happy as I don`t need to share them lol Is it awfully bad of me to think like that....

I think we`ll enjoy it, hopefully twice if it`s as good as I think it`ll be.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Oysters don’t appeal to me either, but those other photos look delicious!

I’ve also had a cocktail at the little bar in the lobby of Cabana Bay and it was very pleasant — but not easily part of your loop

LOVE the photos from Scotland

I’m eager to see what your Citywalk crawl will include!

 

[schumigirl]

Oysters don’t appeal to me either, but those other photos look delicious!

I’ve also had a cocktail at the little bar in the lobby of Cabana Bay and it was very pleasant — but not easily part of your loop

LOVE the photos from Scotland

I’m eager to see what your Citywalk crawl will include!

I need to check this thread more often when I haven`t posted, almost missed your post!!!

lol.....yes, oysters aren`t for everyone, but yes the displays look beautiful.

Yes, CBay is not on my list of places to visit, I just can`t get over my dislike of the place, everyone thinks it`s funny I have such an aversion to the place!

Thank you, I love visiting back home not just to see family, but the scenery, usually.....is just stunning.

Working on Citywalk thoughts right now, it`s making us want a cocktail instead of a pot of tea though.....maybe not!!!

 

[schumigirl]

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[schumigirl]

CITYWALK BAR CRAWL



Well, there are a few places that we love in Citywalk for drinks and maybe a snack or two, but usually we hit Citywalk for one or the other and we are spoiled for choice really.

There are a couple of places there we won`t set foot in again, Bubba Gump is one as it was truly dreadful on the occasions we have gone there and it`s a never again for us, I do wish they would open up a real seafood restaurant in CW but doubt they ever will as it might be deemed as too expensive, but we`d love it. We also won`t go to Toothsome, again, for us it`s completely overrated and food was underwhelming when we went and thought the desserts were awful, they were just sweet, nothing else. HRC is somewhere Tom would go back to again so we might try that one day for a lunch or maybe sit at the bar, but again, I was underwhelmed.

It`s not everyone`s cup of tea, but we do enjoy Margaritaville again, a few years back it did drop in quality for us, not that it tries to be a high end place, it is what it advertises, good food with a fun atmosphere and it does deliver.

So this will be a favourite for a bar crawl for sure and I`m sure we`ll pop in a couple of times during the day too after the parks if we`re not going offsite later in the evening, if we have a drink at lunchtime neither if us will drive later.

Margaritaville if you`ve never been to Universal holds a prominent position in Citywalk, you can`t really miss it especially coming in and out of IOA or walking from the RP pathway as the security point is down the side of the building.











They have a store which sells some fabulous merchandise and I am a fan of Jimmy Buffet, so we do have several of the items in our home, usually a sign telling you it`s ok to have a drink as it`s 5pm somewhere, yeah like I need permission!!! But as far as store merch goes, I will buy something here every visit. Fortunately all the glasses we have bought here have made it home safely!

There is also an area where you can get cocktails to go, which is very popular, especially as it does fill up very quickly in here. The bar itself is another of those popular ones that people are just drawn to and some of it is down to the bar staff, some of whom have been here for several years and they do remember you from previous visits which is always nice.

Everyone wants to see the volcano erupt in here, to be honest, if you`ve seen it once, you`ve seen it, but it is fun and kids and adults alike love it. ​

Lunch and for an early dinner you can usually just walk in for a table, and they do take reservations which we never bother with, we much prefer sitting at the bar, it is always fun and again, folks talk to you there, we`ve had some lovely conversations with strangers from all over at many bars and this one is no exception.

And we do enjoy some Jimmy Buffet music too! ​

While they don`t beat Strong Water for cocktails they do have some gorgeous ones and my "new" favourite is a Spicy Margarita, very spicy would my preference and some are better than others at adding spice for some reason. I have had a couple of barman tell me the drink they prepared will be too spicy for me due to the amount of jalapenos in it, that I asked for...









They do make a decent cocktail here and the spicy margarita is darn good!! ​

Some of you (thinking of you Maria) will remember my old favourite cocktail from here was the Blackberry Margarita and it`s still a whopper of a drink, very fruity but packs a punch and would be my second choice of a drink here.

Tom is a fan of smoothy frozen style drinks and always gets a raspberry or mango based frozen drink and these are two drinks we enjoyed one lunchtime and planned to go back into the parks.....well as you can imagine, after two of them and a sample of another they wanted us to try out, we never made the park that afternoon

But, it was so much fun!! ​

One of Tom`s favourites, a mango concotion of some kind below.

The cocktail menu here is lovely and has allsorts of options to try for everyone, I have heard they do some good mocktails, but I have never once tried one of them.....no surprises there! ​

One option if you`re not sure about flavours is to try their rum flight, it is very nice and decent sized glasses too, we have enjoyed these a couple of times and surprisingly we enjoyed the watermelon one more than we thought we would. ​

And of course who can ignore the old Landshark lager offered here, one of Tom`s choices when he`s not in the mood for a cocktail, haven`t experienced that feeling myself of course, but the lager is actually quite nice. I`m not really a beer/lager drinker but have been known to have one occasionally, but not on a bar crawl as you can feel so bagged up with it. ​

If we were to have a snack here, I think it would be the lava lava shrimp, it`s a decent sized dish and if you add some jalapeno`s on the side, it can be quite spicy!!!

It`ll never be as nice as the shrimp dish Nascar Cafe had when they were in Citywalk, it was called Boogity Boogity Boogity Shrimp and it was lovely, very spicy without asking for more spice. We liked Nascar, now NBC of course. ​

Margaritaville is number 1 on our bar crawl options!!




Next up...








This little gem has pride of place in Citywalk and it gets incredibly busy on an evening, especially weekends and more so during HHN as folks wander in and out.

They don`t have a huge selection of cocktails, all slushy style but very nice, and come with a tooter, just to add some extra pzazz to their drinks.

Usually I`m not a fan of mass produced drinks, but when it`s a slushy, it`s kind of forgiveable. Some of the options are Strawberry, Pina Colada, Margarita, 190 Octane and Cat 5 Hurricane and some of them are very nice with a mix of two flavours, they`ll mix any of them for you.

I don`t have any individual pictures of the drinks, but this was out last visit there in November last year, it was a very hot night and these went down rather well.

​

They do have some tables to sit around and you have a lovely view over Citywalk and everything going on there during the evenings. They do have singers and bands on some evenings and it is nice to sit and listen as they perform with a drink or two.

Cowfish is a place that we enjoy for cocktails, appetisers and a burger now and again, they do have very nice burgers but their sushi is among some of the worst we have ever tried. It looks nice, but any that we have tried has been disappointing and won`t have it again, if we want sushi we`ll go to Orchids or Nagoya Sushi.

But, cocktails here are very nice, only once did we get a poor pour but it was soon rectified when we mentioned it to one of the regular bar staff, the next one would have blown anyone`s socks off!!

This is another bar that get`s incredibly busy, Cowfish is a very noisy restaurant we have always found that and it does put us off ever eating at a table again, so the bar suits us.
​

The cocktail I`ll get here for sure is a mango ginger, usually served with tequila, I opt to have it with rum, it`s smoother and only once has a bartender questioned it, till she tried it of course.

It does have small pieces of fresh ginger in it, so if that`s not your thing avoid it, Tom won`t drink it because of the ginger, but it`s a lovely drink and not on the menu, but they will make it up if asked. ​

Tequila Sunrise was an odd one when it turned up, we usually know this as a taller drink and much more vibrant in colour, but Tom enjoyed this one albeit a very, very strong drink!! ​

Buffalo`s and Bacon is another odd one, but it is delicious!! It has bourbon, cherry liqueur, angostura and orange bitters, honey and a rather oddly placed piece of candied bacon, it is nice though. ​

If we do get a snack here, it will be the Crab Rangoon Dip and the Tuna & Avocado Tini which is one of my favourite dishes from anywhere that does it properly. It is full of flavour, and a little spicy but not too hot, most folks could eat it easily.

The dip is very nice too and comes with wontons and a sweet chilli sauce which go lovely together and very moreish!!! ​

So, that`s our first few places we plan to enjoy, there are more of course so I`m going to have a think and see where else we really want to go to , there are a couple that spring to mind and I`m sure Tom will want to add HRC......hmmm!!!




More coming up ​