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

The Thirsty Fish at Portofino
PBH used to be our home base, every now & again the mr surprises me by wearing one of the Thirsty Fish Tshirts.
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!
I'm laughing with you. I also used to shun it! Tried it initially for an add on, two days prior to an existing trip, was disappointed on several fronts.

Back to CB for a separate HHN long weekend. My mind was open, as it was all they had available last minute.

Surprised we wound up enjoying it that go-round for a short trip. Have returned several times since, it has grown on me, when the price is right, suits us for HHN only sort of visits. Nice that Loews now
has such a variety of resorts for all tastes & budgets.

Would I pick CB as my 1st choice for my main vacation resort? Nope! Did enjoy the lobby bar’s decent pours for a quick drink. I wouldn’t make a special trip over by any means for it tho.

Sounds like you have an amazing Universally themed bar crawl. Now, you need to get matching drinking around Universal Tshirts made! :)
 
PBH used to be our home base, every now & again the mr surprises me by wearing one of the Thirsty Fish Tshirts.

I'm laughing with you. I also used to shun it! Tried it initially for an add on, two days prior to an existing trip, was disappointed on several fronts.

Back to CB for a separate HHN long weekend. My mind was open, as it was all they had available last minute.

Surprised we wound up enjoying it that go-round for a short trip. Have returned several times since, it has grown on me, when the price is right, suits us for HHN only sort of visits. Nice that Loews now
has such a variety of resorts for all tastes & budgets.

Would I pick CB as my 1st choice for my main vacation resort? Nope! Did enjoy the lobby bar’s decent pours for a quick drink. I wouldn’t make a special trip over by any means for it tho.

Sounds like you have an amazing Universally themed bar crawl. Now, you need to get matching drinking around Universal Tshirts made! :)

lol....you got me at good pour!!! I never considered going to their bar....but well, er, maybe in fairness we should give it a bash....I can just imagine his face if I tell him we`re going to Cabana Bay :rotfl:

I`m always glad to hear folks have a good time there though, many enjoy it and that`s all that matters, yes, it is good everyone has options.

Did you always enjoy The Thirsty Fish? So far I`ve had one person saying I`ll be disappointed, but others saying it`s ok for drinks, we`ll give it a bash. I know the tees you mean, they are nice.
 
Did you always enjoy The Thirsty Fish?
It’s not the sort of place I’d linger long. Nine times out of ten, we were among the few there. Do enjoy sitting waterside to decompress when coming back from the parks before heading up to our room.

Opposite situation when there’s a convention, the bar/space is too small to accommodate the throngs, which tend to get quite loud. Think all those hard surfaces increase the volume level.

There are two sorts of people who stay @ CB. Those who obey the edict to not chance it to run across the street to SF/A & the rest of us. :rolleyes1 It can be a hair-raising experience. IMO not worth the journey/time to bus or walk there if not a guest.

If not a guest would only stop in for a quick one @ CB’s swizzle bar if you happen to want to see the HHN display they put on upstairs (of which I’ve heard no construction yet a week or so ago, seems very late in game). They do have an acoustic musician on Fri & Sat there that is usually entertaining.
 
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.






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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.




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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!





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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...:rolleyes:



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😁



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





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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!!





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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!





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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.





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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.





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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.




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Margaritaville is number 1 on our bar crawl options!!




Next up...



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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.




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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.





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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.





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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!!





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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.





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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!!!






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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 🍹
My stomach is burning just thinking about all that spiciness, :scared: I'm one that can't take spicy anything, which sounds pretty dull:) I always ask for the spiciness to be toned down or removed on dishes. But the margaritas sound nice:)and I know you love spicy:)
 

PBH used to be our home base, every now & again the mr surprises me by wearing one of the Thirsty Fish Tshirts.

I'm laughing with you. I also used to shun it! Tried it initially for an add on, two days prior to an existing trip, was disappointed on several fronts.

Back to CB for a separate HHN long weekend. My mind was open, as it was all they had available last minute.

Surprised we wound up enjoying it that go-round for a short trip. Have returned several times since, it has grown on me, when the price is right, suits us for HHN only sort of visits. Nice that Loews now
has such a variety of resorts for all tastes & budgets.

Would I pick CB as my 1st choice for my main vacation resort? Nope! Did enjoy the lobby bar’s decent pours for a quick drink. I wouldn’t make a special trip over by any means for it tho.

Sounds like you have an amazing Universally themed bar crawl. Now, you need to get matching drinking around Universal Tshirts made! :)
We've never been to Cabana Bay, but the atmosphere is not what I want in a resort. I lived through that era of orange and gold and all the other 60's things at CB. Once was enough. We really like the tropical atmosphere since we live in the frozen North, so it's RPR for us.
 
We really like the tropical atmosphere since we live in the frozen North, so it's RPR for us.
Lol yes, def a 60’s vibe going on there, we remember a lot of it and find it a giggle. Hard to beat tropical vibes tho! RP is indeed lovely. Would certainly book it over CB in a heart beat. just that the price is difficult for me to justify as an add on to an existing trip.
 
It’s not the sort of place I’d linger long. Nine times out of ten, we were among the few there. Do enjoy sitting waterside to decompress when coming back from the parks before heading up to our room.

Opposite situation when there’s a convention, the bar/space is too small to accommodate the throngs, which tend to get quite loud. Think all those hard surfaces increase the volume level.

There are two sorts of people who stay @ CB. Those who obey the edict to not chance it to run across the street to SF/A & the rest of us. :rolleyes1 It can be a hair-raising experience. IMO not worth the journey/time to bus or walk there if not a guest.

If not a guest would only stop in for a quick one @ CB’s swizzle bar if you happen to want to see the HHN display they put on upstairs (of which I’ve heard no construction yet a week or so ago, seems very late in game). They do have an acoustic musician on Fri & Sat there that is usually entertaining.

Yes, from memory it’s a place we’ll have one and leave, convention crowds are never fun to deal with, they get so loud!

Yes, I doubt we’ll make a special visit for the bar, but we might visit if they do a HHN display, again if I can drag Tom over there, think he dislikes it more than me! I don’t mind an acoustic guy now and again, I’m not fond of the guitar guy in Strong Water, he’s too loud!

Might wander over at some point.
 
My stomach is burning just thinking about all that spiciness, :scared: I'm one that can't take spicy anything, which sounds pretty dull:) I always ask for the spiciness to be toned down or removed on dishes. But the margaritas sound nice:)and I know you love spicy:)

lol……I live for spice!!! The hotter the better for me.

But, I do get folks not liking or enjoying it in dishes or drinks. One, and only one of my friends hates spice, she’s the only one in that group that likes non spicy foods, we’ll keep her though!

Hope you had a nice day today Ruth :)
 
We've never been to Cabana Bay, but the atmosphere is not what I want in a resort. I lived through that era of orange and gold and all the other 60's things at CB. Once was enough. We really like the tropical atmosphere since we live in the frozen North, so it's RPR for us.

I remember my grandma’s house in the early 70’s, sitting room was mainly brown and green with gold shimmers through it lol….

Yes, we much prefer RP.
 
The bar crawl sounds good so far! I do enjoy the blackberry margarita At Margaritaville , and I agree the flight is a great choice if you want to try a few to find your favorite 🤩 I would much rather have a drink than food at Cowfish, we have not had good luck there with food or service so are giving it a pass for awhile.

I wanted to check out CB, and we enjoyed a drink the Swizzlw Inn. I agree I wouldn’t have gone just for that, but I wanted to check out the Mad Men vibe 😉

I agree about not setting foot in Bubba Gump again. And can I say their mascot is a bit terrifying?! 🍤

I have a contender for most generous pours; I’m going to see if it comes up on this CityWalk leg 😊
 
Thot I was cat's meow having Harvest gold appliances in my first home lol

lol.....I remember that colour!! At one point my aunt who was very classy.....had harvest gold kitchen appliances, yes, kettle, teapots, toaster all harvest gold with drapes to match!!

I do remember someone having a car in that colour in the 70`s, it was much coveted.

Nothing wrong with retro...in the right setting ::yes::
 
The bar crawl sounds good so far! I do enjoy the blackberry margarita At Margaritaville , and I agree the flight is a great choice if you want to try a few to find your favorite 🤩 I would much rather have a drink than food at Cowfish, we have not had good luck there with food or service so are giving it a pass for awhile.

I wanted to check out CB, and we enjoyed a drink the Swizzlw Inn. I agree I wouldn’t have gone just for that, but I wanted to check out the Mad Men vibe 😉

I agree about not setting foot in Bubba Gump again. And can I say their mascot is a bit terrifying?! 🍤

I have a contender for most generous pours; I’m going to see if it comes up on this CityWalk leg 😊

I hear you on that. I think we`ve been lucky with Cowfish but it`s usually just apps and drinks, but for us, NBC is one that I`m reluctant to go back to, like Cowfish burgers are fine but everything else lacks substance, so yes, poor service would make me stop going too.

lol.....I never thought about that with BG`s!!! Yep, we won`t go back there ever!!

If CBay does a HHN thingy we might pop over, if I can drag Tom along...lol....maybe tempting him with a cocktail while we`re there might work!!!

Well, my mind is curious now????? I do have a couple more places to consider in Citywalk, I might need to pick your brain there!!! 🍹🍹🍹
 
Haha the other options were white & a color they called avocado, nope…more like institutional green they used everywhere then.

I`m laughing, the first flat (apartment) I bought when I was 20 before I met Tom, had an avocado coloured bathroom suite, it had carpet in it too which was also avocado....I wish I had pictures of it, but it was ripped out and replaced before you could blink!!!

Fast forward to the second house Tom and I bought together, beautiful home but it had yup....an avocado coloured master bathroom suite!!! First thing we changed lol.....

The 70`s and even 80`s had some amazing styles, some of course may say gaudy:duck:but it had it`s own style for sure.
 
Lol yes, def a 60’s vibe going on there, we remember a lot of it and find it a giggle. Hard to beat tropical vibes tho! RP is indeed lovely. Would certainly book it over CB in a heart beat. just that the price is difficult for me to justify as an add on to an existing trip.
Yes, Janet. I lived through that era. In my kitchen I had orange, lime green, and gold wall paper!!! In the living room and dining room I had royal blue plush carpet with gold walls............ I look back on that and cringe now, LOL.
 
Yes, Janet. I lived through that era. In my kitchen I had orange, lime green, and gold wall paper!!! In the living room and dining room I had royal blue plush carpet with gold walls............ I look back on that and cringe now, LOL.

I think we need pictures Ruth!!!!😁

When I bought my first flat in the 1980`s everyone was rag rolling and stencilling walls then, I think I was the only one who didn`t do it among friends and relatives, glad that phase didn`t hang around too much.

But some retro looks are amazing!!
 
The height of Elegance. I recall having brown/tan tricolored, multilevel shag carpet. A small child could easily get lost in it.

Oh lordy the much coveted shag pile carpet lol.....they were certainly a look!!!

I wish I had more pictures of our childhood homes, but taking pictures tended to be for special occasions back then and not just an everyday thing like today. I don`t think we always had a camera when I was young.
 












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