From the Sea to the World - Completed!

[speedo]

My last two trips to the World where with my lovely sister Katharina (nodnol here on the DIS) and you can read about those in my previous trip reports (links are in my signature). This time she did not come along but she told me quite some time before the trip that she expected me to write a trip report about this new trip so that she could read all about it here on the DIS. And I would never disappoint my little sister!!!

I usually travel with my sister so I am definitely going to check out your other reports! This one is great so far even though it is a trip without your sister

Hello!!!

I accept thank you notes from all other readers

Thank you!!! Glad you kept her on track with writing a TR. I am doing the same with my sister. I am making her write the TR for both of us and then I just chime in once in awhile. It is great!

 

[wiigirl]

Loving your TR!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Since Michael lives in Florida having him as a travel companion would also have the wonderful side effect that I had a car and chauffeur for the whole trip.

And the price was right!

It did not take us long to get to the hotel despite the enormous amount of building work that was happening. Mainly to introduce toll lanes on a formerly toll free highway. A concept that seemed very strange to me, but then in Germany all roads are toll free for cars (trucks over a certain size on the other hand have to pay on nearly all multi-lane roads).

Highway engineers. You have to watch those guys.

But I guess you are less interested in road financing than in our lovely hotel in Fort Lauderdale.

Speak for yourself! These roads don't pay for themselves, you know.

Our room was really nice, even though I could not understand the choice of the light coloured carpet as it seemed to be difficult to keep it stainfree.

Is that the voice of experience?

Of course it is just a supermarket – but supermarkets in other countries are always full of interesting things as there are different brands – and even items that you had no idea that they existed. Liked Cool Whip. I was intrigued that there was a whole cupboard full of it:

Some people can make a whole meal of it!

 

[Flossbolna]

Hey don't knock the Cool Whip... LOL I love it.. I think the closest thing you can compare it to is a whipping cream... the fat free version is I like it on an Angel Food cake with strawberries. Or just plain fruit or Jello.... Or just right out of the container....

Nice start to your trip... wish we could have some of that sunshine right now... Crazy Spring weather we are having I'm so sick of rain...

I guess next time I am in the US, I need to try Cool Whip!!

I could use some of that sunshine, too. It just is cold and miserable here day after day... And it is nearly June!!!

Oh, I know that Publix. Definitely not my favourite one.

The one we go to is "kind of" behind the Outlet Mall that you can see from the highway when you are close to DTD.

The Silverado winery belongs to Diane Disney Miller. There wines are really good, lots of very yummy whites.
We visited the winery when we visited California in 2006 and went on a tour through the wine cellar.
They are still a small winery, so you cannot find the wine easily, that's why I was so surprised that that particular Publix carried a few different ones.

Good to know that other Publixs are better, but if one is staying at AKL that one we went to was very convenient!! Just a short drive away without any traffic. Getting over to DTD is a nuisance...

Thanks for the info on the Silverado wines. Interesting!

 

[Flossbolna]

I usually travel with my sister so I am definitely going to check out your other reports! This one is great so far even though it is a trip without your sister

The 2010 one is certainly the more interesting trip report! I hope you enjoy it! I think it has a bit of cute banter between me and Katharina - we seemed to amuse quite a few of our readers with it.

Thank you!!! Glad you kept her on track with writing a TR. I am doing the same with my sister. I am making her write the TR for both of us and then I just chime in once in awhile. It is great!

I just started reading your newest one yesterday - and can already see that! So who of you is the older one?

Loving your TR!

Thanks and

And the price was right!

Taking Michael along made a lot of financial sense! Not only did I not have to pay for a rental car, but also saved money on the cruise fare because he qualified for the Florida resident discount. But besides the financial aspects, he was also a wonderful travelling companion!

Highway engineers. You have to watch those guys.

I hear they are really dangerous!!!

Speak for yourself! These roads don't pay for themselves, you know.

Ok, I should have said: nearly everyone of you besides the Captain would rather hear about my hotel than roads in Florida... Well, I guess even strange topics need some fans...

Is that the voice of experience?

Yep - my first ever appartment came with cream coloured carpet. I hated it!

Some people can make a whole meal of it!

 

[Flossbolna]

Day 2:

Thanks to staying up very late despite the time difference I managed to sleep in, but by 8 am I was wide awake. We had a slow morning, but the first thing I had to do is get on my balcony to see how nice and warm it was outside. March had been extremely cold in Germany, we even had a lot of snow still and April had not been that much better. Out there on the balcony my first surprise was that there was indeed a ship in the port, the Island Princess:

After taking some time to get ready, we headed to the nearest Starbucks to get some breakfast. Since the Starbucks was only two blocks away, we decided to walk and on the way there we saw a lot of SWAT cars at a street corner together with a group of people in sports clothes. We were wondering what was going on and then we saw some police cars approaching – there was even a police Corvette – followed by more SWAT trucks and then a group of maybe 30-40 runners, some of them in sport clothes that where brown and looked uniform-like. I had no idea what this was, maybe it was some kind of Run for Boston event? At least we got something out of the ordinary to see for our short little walk.

At Starbucks I picked a very untypical breakfast, a box with chicken and hummus. But it was delicious and fairly healthy.

It seemed that the selection of food at Starbucks in the US is much more varied than what we have here in Germany. Another reason for going to Starbucks was that the hotel did not have free Wifi, so I made good use of it and sent emails to my family to let them know that I had arrived and was having a great time in Florida.

Next I needed some more pool time! So once back at the hotel we headed down there. Just after I had found the perfect chair, someone from the pool bar came walking around with a large platter which to me seemed like lots of green and black olives. I had seen that you could order food from the pool bar and thought someone might have ordered a plate of olives. I was just a little bit shocked at the portion size as this was a big plate which was filled generously. He first approached two ladies said something to them, and they shook their heads. It seemed that he did not remember who had ordered these olives. Next he came up to me and – no, he did not ask me whether I had ordered any olives. Instead he asked me whether I would like some frozen grapes. It turned out that the plate was full with little skewers with grapes that had been frozen. I happily took some and thought that was a great idea for a snack in hot weather!

The pool area was actually very nice with comfortable chairs, lots of nice and fluffy pool towels and a place where you could get citrus infused ice water.

And a little later my new friend from the pool bar came around again, this time offering little cups with a taste of the drink of the day, a Pineapple Mojito. Delicious!

As nice as the pool was, there were other things I wanted to do and see as well, so after a couple of hours it was time to get cleaned up and head out.

Next: Being a typical European Tourist

 

[Poolrat]

Well done!!

Thanks - I was in Spring cleaning mode.

The way it worked out this time was actually ok. I had other nights when I woke up once every hour, checked the time and then realised that it still wasn't time to get up. Not very restfull...

Oh Yes I have had those nights. I pay for them a couple of days later.

See Katharina!! Pat agrees with me!!

And Free.... I had free drink tickets for Southwest Airlines and the last trip I was drinking at 10am, to use them.

I think a lot has to do with workplace culture. Obviously the German economy still hasn't crumbled under the stress of people regularly being away for three or four weeks at a time... But I also think that long absences put a stress on colleagues, but it is accepted because everyone does it. However, in higher level jobs there is more pressure that people are not away for longer than two weeks at a time, too.

It seems like my supervisor likes to get a little comment in every time I am away. If anything happens( and those things have nothing to do with me not taking care of things, like smoke in my office ) it seems like she says, it happens because you were out. Kind of take the rest out of my vacation when I get back.

 

[GoofyFan1515]

All caught up! I can certainly relate to your pre-trip night waking up. It seems anytime I have to get up early to travel I wake up about every hour and finally just go ahead and get up!

Sounds like you had a good flight, but what an experience making your connection in Paris! ! And hey, free booze is free booze right. Your food looks pretty good too (although stinky cheese doesn't sound very appealing).

That is really that you could pick out your hotel from the air as you flew into Miami. It is a really nice looking hotel, and you did a great job of getting so many pictures of the views and the yachts. And you are off to a great start getting to relax a little at the pool and let your body adjust to the long trip and time change instead of having to jump right into a lot of activity.

 

[lovealldisney]

Hmmmm a police corvette??? Now this is something DH would loved to have seen... Love frozen grapes!

Nice relaxing start to your trip. And I love the red nail polish!

And I see that Germany is having the exact same weather Wisconsin is having at the moment...

Being a typical European tourist?? I wonder what that's about...??

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

I hear they are really dangerous!!!

You have no idea.

Thanks to staying up very late despite the time difference I managed to sleep in, but by 8 am I was wide awake.

Nice work! Sounds like you adjusted to the jet lag pretty well.

After taking some time to get ready, we headed to the nearest Starbucks to get some breakfast.

Kathy will be proud of you.

Since the Starbucks was only two blocks away, we decided to walk and on the way there we saw a lot of SWAT cars at a street corner together with a group of people in sports clothes. We were wondering what was going on and then we saw some police cars approaching – there was even a police Corvette – followed by more SWAT trucks and then a group of maybe 30-40 runners, some of them in sport clothes that where brown and looked uniform-like.

A police Corvette? The taxpayers might have some questions about the department budget requests.

Just after I had found the perfect chair, someone from the pool bar came walking around with a large platter which to me seemed like lots of green and black olives. I had seen that you could order food from the pool bar and thought someone might have ordered a plate of olives.

Instead he asked me whether I would like some frozen grapes. It turned out that the plate was full with little skewers with grapes that had been frozen. I happily took some and thought that was a great idea for a snack in hot weather!

Interesting. Never heard of that before. I remember playing golf once in the summer in Arizona, and they had a guy riding around on a cart offering cold towels that had been soaked in ice water to the golfers. You just took it and placed it on the back of your neck...very refreshing!

 

[Minnie&Nana]

Frozen grapes - yum! Those and the Pineapple Mojito sound so tropical vacation! Nice way to spend an afternoon.

Looking forward to reading about a "typical European tourist". When I travel to Europe I never want to be the typical American tourist!

 

[Flossbolna]

And Free.... I had free drink tickets for Southwest Airlines and the last trip I was drinking at 10am, to use them.

How does one get free drink tickets for Southwest? Not that I am planning to fly with them anytime soon, but might be useful sometime!

It seems like my supervisor likes to get a little comment in every time I am away. If anything happens( and those things have nothing to do with me not taking care of things, like smoke in my office ) it seems like she says, it happens because you were out. Kind of take the rest out of my vacation when I get back.

Not nice!!

All caught up! I can certainly relate to your pre-trip night waking up. It seems anytime I have to get up early to travel I wake up about every hour and finally just go ahead and get up!

Yes, that's not pleasant. But I still prefer morning departures, because otherwise I just wait all day long for the travels to start.

Sounds like you had a good flight, but what an experience making your connection in Paris! ! And hey, free booze is free booze right. Your food looks pretty good too (although stinky cheese doesn't sound very appealing).

Connections to long distance flights are never pleasant! And I was happy to avoid the additional baggage check.

And by connecting only in Europe, at least my luggage was checked through. If you arrive internationally in the US and connect to a domestic flight, you always need to claim your luggage, go through customs and then hand it back to the airline. Here in Europe customs is always at the final airport.

That is really that you could pick out your hotel from the air as you flew into Miami. It is a really nice looking hotel, and you did a great job of getting so many pictures of the views and the yachts. And you are off to a great start getting to relax a little at the pool and let your body adjust to the long trip and time change instead of having to jump right into a lot of activity.

It was indeed very cool! And spending time outdoors at the pool is a good way to help with jet lag indeed. Supposedly you should try to get as much natural light as possible as the body reacts to that by not getting tired.

Hmmmm a police corvette??? Now this is something DH would loved to have seen... Love frozen grapes!

I was thinking about taking a picture because it looked so strange (even though we do have BMW police cars here in Bavaria). But then I wasn't quick enough with my camera and also not so sure how the police would think about a foreigner taking pictures of police cars...

Nice relaxing start to your trip. And I love the red nail polish!

Thanks! Unfortunately it did not live very long as sand and nail polish aren't the best friends and there will be some sand in the near future...

And I see that Germany is having the exact same weather Wisconsin is having at the moment...

Yes.

Being a typical European tourist?? I wonder what that's about...??

I wonder whether anyone has an idea...

 

[Poolrat]

How does one get free drink tickets for Southwest? Not that I am planning to fly with them anytime soon, but might be useful sometime!

I belong to their reward program and they mysteriously appeared in my mailbox. The letter they were attached to said they were a Thank You.


Not sure for what but they were put to good use.

 

[eandesmom]

Day 1:

Work had been rather horrible the last few months and due to certain work commitments I had to work until the day before I left and had to get back to work immediately after I returned. Normally I would try everything to avoid this, but for this trip I wanted to make the best use of the time I could take off from work.

So this meant that the days before day 1 were very busy with preparing and packing. But I was able to get everything organized so that I did not get to bed too late the evening before. Which was important as my flight from Nuremberg left at 6:30am.

Luckily I dont live very far from the airport and the airport is a rather tiny one. So I had set the alarm on 4:25 am. At 4:15am I woke up, saw what the time was and gave Michael a quick call to let him know that I was awake. Since Florida is 4 hour behind, it was only 10:15pm of the previous day for him. If I had not called him by 10:30pm his time, he would have called me in Germany to make sure that I dont miss the flight! While we chatted I realised that out of the three alarms I had set, only one was actually switched on. The other two were set to the correct time, but I had forgotten to actually switch on the alarm. Got a little scare in hindsight, but then everything worked out fine without me even have to rely on one single alarm!

I avoid early morning flights like the plague for exactly this reason. I've only missed one flight ever but...it was an early morning one! either forgetting to set, turn on...set it for PM instead of AM...so many things can go wrong. I've been known to set my phone, the clock and if already in a hotel, get a wakeup call as well!

I was quite excited that I would be on the upper deck! Air France currently is the only airline in the world that has Economy class on the upper deck with a seat pitch that is 35 inches instead of the standard 32 inches. They charge a supplement of 50 ¬ if you want to reserve one of the seats and I had done this as I thought a little bit more space would be worth the price. It is not as nice as premium economy, but also much cheaper.

After take off we were first handed the menu for the flight. You could see the different choices (mainly you could chose between chicken or pasta), what kind of meals they were going to serve as well as what kind of drinks you could get.

First they came around with drinks I think these were meant as aperitifs and they were serving champagne. Air France also prides itself as the only airline that serves champagne in Economy class (on international flights only though), so I had to take advantage of that:

I also got some water and everyone got some breadsticks. Next they served the meal, I chose the pasta as you can see here:

I also got some white wine with it (once I started celebrating being on vacation with the champagne, I thought why not continue). The salad was a bit strange, but not bad. The pasta was tasty. Surprisingly the triangle of camembert cheese which was in the gold wrapper turned out to be quite stinky (which I like) and I thought that this is really only the French who would serve cheese like that on a plane, but I love them for it, their cheeses are truly wonderful (but my second favourite cheese country would be the UK!).

After that lunch I took a nap. The champagne and white wine were rather helpful for that& Since I had to get up so early I did not have a lot of sleep the previous night and my plan was to try to stay up as late as possible after my arrival in order to get used to the new time zone as soon as possible.

With the nap, the film and some reading time went by reasonably well. Still, 8.5 hours is a long time on a plane& At some point we got served small ice cream bars:

As we were approaching Florida we got served a second meal:

This was some chicken on quinoa salad. It was very good! And I also loved the little lemon tarte I got for dessert as I love nearly everything citrus!

After all that work, you deserved a glass of bubbly and white wine! Good for you and it looks like it worked brilliantly..you seem to have navigated away any jet lag and time change adjustment quite well. Lovely food selections.

Seeing the pool I decided that I wanted to celebrate my arrival in sunny Florida with a dip in the pool, so that’s what we did. It was the best way to get rid of all the tiredness travelling brings with it. After a quick shower we decided to just get something quick and easy for dinner and went to a chain called Pollo Tropical where I had some kind of bowl with some pork, lettuce and toppings – I think I had beans, tomatoes and corn. You could then add sauces. And I also got a side order of fried plantains. All very delicious, but I forgot to take a picture. It appears that the chain is mainly present in Florida and there are a number of them in Orlando. So if you want to get some fast food in Orlando that is different from what you have at home, I can recommend this chain!

What a great way to celebrate arrival, with a dip!

Dinner sounds good, I will have to remember that chain

After dinner we headed to Publix to pick up some drinks for the room. I was very excited about this as I have read so much about Publix here on the DIS that it felt like I finally found out what people were talking about. Of course it is just a supermarket – but supermarkets in other countries are always full of interesting things as there are different brands – and even items that you had no idea that they existed. Liked Cool Whip. I was intrigued that there was a whole cupboard full of it:

Overall this Publix was especially interesting as it was the one closest to the yacht harbour where our hotel was, so I guess the chefs from the yachts were buying there as the selection was definitely much more upscale than the Publix we would visit later in the trip in Orlando!

that's a LOT Of cool whip I really think one could live their life not knowing it existed...and be just fine!

Day 2:

Thanks to staying up very late despite the time difference I managed to sleep in, but by 8 am I was wide awake. We had a slow morning, but the first thing I had to do is get on my balcony to see how nice and warm it was outside. March had been extremely cold in Germany, we even had a lot of snow still and April had not been that much better. Out there on the balcony my first surprise was that there was indeed a ship in the port, the Island Princess:

After taking some time to get ready, we headed to the nearest Starbucks to get some breakfast. Since the Starbucks was only two blocks away, we decided to walk and on the way there we saw a lot of SWAT cars at a street corner together with a group of people in sports clothes. We were wondering what was going on and then we saw some police cars approaching – there was even a police Corvette – followed by more SWAT trucks and then a group of maybe 30-40 runners, some of them in sport clothes that where brown and looked uniform-like. I had no idea what this was, maybe it was some kind of Run for Boston event? At least we got something out of the ordinary to see for our short little walk.

At Starbucks I picked a very untypical breakfast, a box with chicken and hummus. But it was delicious and fairly healthy.

Definitely not a typical breakfast but pretty tasty, I've had that box before!

Next I needed some more pool time! So once back at the hotel we headed down there. Just after I had found the perfect chair, someone from the pool bar came walking around with a large platter which to me seemed like lots of green and black olives. I had seen that you could order food from the pool bar and thought someone might have ordered a plate of olives. I was just a little bit shocked at the portion size as this was a big plate which was filled generously. He first approached two ladies said something to them, and they shook their heads. It seemed that he did not remember who had ordered these olives. Next he came up to me and – no, he did not ask me whether I had ordered any olives. Instead he asked me whether I would like some frozen grapes. It turned out that the plate was full with little skewers with grapes that had been frozen. I happily took some and thought that was a great idea for a snack in hot weather!

The pool area was actually very nice with comfortable chairs, lots of nice and fluffy pool towels and a place where you could get citrus infused ice water.

And a little later my new friend from the pool bar came around again, this time offering little cups with a taste of the drink of the day, a Pineapple Mojito. Delicious!

As nice as the pool was, there were other things I wanted to do and see as well, so after a couple of hours it was time to get cleaned up and head out.

Next: Being a typical European Tourist

Nice pool snacks! It's going to make me crazy..some pool, somewhere, this happened to Jeff and I, I loved it. Great little refreshing treat.

 

[Poolrat]

I avoid early morning flights like the plague for exactly this reason. I've only missed one flight ever but...it was an early morning one! either forgetting to set, turn on...set it for PM instead of AM...so many things can go wrong. I've been known to set my phone, the clock and if already in a hotel, get a wakeup call as well!

I have been known to set watch, set phone, set clock in room. If I am still not satisfied I will also get a wake up call.


One Disney Trip, I had a wake up call set , got up early an got in the shower. After I guess I was out there was a knock at the door- since I didn't pick up the phone they sent someone out to knock on the door.
Can't really remember where I was staying but CSR seems to ring a bell. That was a far walk for the CM to knock on the door.

 

[nodnol]

I wonder whether anyone has an idea...

I know, I know: lying on a beach in the sun and getting sunburn!

 

[Flossbolna]

I know, I know: lying on a beach in the sun and getting sunburn!

While this is a correct answer to what the typical European tourist does - mine was different. And still typical. And not weather related.

However, while I managed to avoid getting sunburned (not even a little bit pink!) I did see many American tourists on the cruise ships with very nasty sunburns, especially on the evening of Castaway Cay day. That might be one of the reasons why they schedule the stop there always on the last day.

 

[Flossbolna]

A police Corvette? The taxpayers might have some questions about the department budget requests.

I guess the reason they "need" the corvette is because they need a fast car to catch the people who speed on the highways...

Interesting. Never heard of that before. I remember playing golf once in the summer in Arizona, and they had a guy riding around on a cart offering cold towels that had been soaked in ice water to the golfers. You just took it and placed it on the back of your neck...very refreshing!

I never had a frozen grape either, but they were great. I am thinking of putting some in the freezer once summer arrives in Germany as a nice an healthy snack!

And there will be cold towels later on in the TR

Frozen grapes - yum! Those and the Pineapple Mojito sound so tropical vacation! Nice way to spend an afternoon.

Looking forward to reading about a "typical European tourist". When I travel to Europe I never want to be the typical American tourist!

I think it was so smart to bring us these little tasters of the drink, I nearly bought one even though it was before lunch!

And I can promise you that this "typical European tourist" activity is highly encouraged by the locals!! And generally I try not to be of a typical tourist either!

 

[Flossbolna]

I belong to their reward program and they mysteriously appeared in my mailbox. The letter they were attached to said they were a Thank You.

Not sure for what but they were put to good use.

That is nice of them!! I once got a 5 € certificate to spend in the train cafeteria from the German railways as a valued customer (I do have a railway card which gives me 50% off of all railway travel).

I avoid early morning flights like the plague for exactly this reason. I've only missed one flight ever but...it was an early morning one! either forgetting to set, turn on...set it for PM instead of AM...so many things can go wrong. I've been known to set my phone, the clock and if already in a hotel, get a wakeup call as well!

At least the AM and PM mistake is something we can't make as we work with the 24 hour clock here in Germany. But one should not rely on one's sister to set the alarm after a transatlantic flight. I learned that the hard way...

After all that work, you deserved a glass of bubbly and white wine! Good for you and it looks like it worked brilliantly..you seem to have navigated away any jet lag and time change adjustment quite well. Lovely food selections.

I love flying westwards, in that direction time change never bothered me. Coming back eastwards is the bad direction... I know that friends who regular fly to Thailand for vacations (about the same time difference, but East of Europe) say the same, so it must be something about stretching days being easier than shortening them...

Food was very nice, especially the quinoa was surprisingly tasty!

What a great way to celebrate arrival, with a dip!

Yes! Ah, I wish I could dip into a pool now. But it is raining and raining here.

Dinner sounds good, I will have to remember that chain

They also had half rotisserie chickens and stuff like this. I found it interesting because it was so different from what I could get at home. I think Michael called it "Islands cuisine".

that's a LOT Of cool whip I really think one could live their life not knowing it existed...and be just fine!

That's a relief!!

Definitely not a typical breakfast but pretty tasty, I've had that box before!

Actually, Germans tend to eat more or less the same for breakfast as they would for a cold meal at lunch or dinner: bread with cheese and sausages. Some people would have jam on their bread, but it isn't obligatory, just an option.

However, that's a question for Karin: When I was in Austria with the school for a week in the winter for a skiing trip, breakfast alway only consisted of bread rolls, butter and jam. I always wondered whether cheese and sausage for breakfast are less common for breakfast in Austria or whether this was just due to the cheap hostels we stayed in?

Nice pool snacks! It's going to make me crazy..some pool, somewhere, this happened to Jeff and I, I loved it. Great little refreshing treat.

It's just so nice if you get something for free - and if it is only three grapes on a stick.

I have been known to set watch, set phone, set clock in room. If I am still not satisfied I will also get a wake up call.

One Disney Trip, I had a wake up call set , got up early an got in the shower. After I guess I was out there was a knock at the door- since I didn't pick up the phone they sent someone out to knock on the door.
Can't really remember where I was staying but CSR seems to ring a bell. That was a far walk for the CM to knock on the door.

That's great service! I guess the automated system sends an alarm if nobody picks up.

 

[Flossbolna]

The one thing Europeans do in Florida the most, it seems, is shopping. Part of this is certainly due to the exchange rate, which is still somehow favourable for us. But I think it also has to do with the fact that a lot of American brands are very popular in Europe and are still perceived to be “exotic”, so can charge higher prices in Europe for the same clothes. Jeans are the prime example for this.

Since most of my recent trips to the USA where trips that only included WDW, I did not have a lot of shopping experiences. So one of my goals was to do some shopping. As it turns out, not far from where we were staying is Sawgrass Mills, supposedly Florida’s second most visited tourist attraction (I guess you all know which attraction is # 1), and a gigantic outlet mall. So this was our destination for the afternoon.

Before starting all the shopping excitement, we needed some lunch and picked another fast food place that was new to me: Arby’s. I am sure most of you know what the food looks like, but I still took a picture of our tray:

I found the sandwich to be pretty good for what it was, definitely a chain I would revisit in the future.

This was our destination:

I guess for you it just looks like any mall anywhere. Somehow I think the outlet concept has still not grown as big in Germany as it is in the US. So that was certainly interesting. Also interesting was that there were these carts available which you could fill with your shopping bags and there were people that had them all filled up. They for sure needed a whole additional suitcase to bring that stuff back home!

And true to the stereotype, I heard many languages being spoken in the mall, a lot of German, but also French, Spanish, Danish, Dutch and a lot of the English I heard had very distinct British accents.

Sawgrass Mills is also home to a Disney outlet – which is being managed by WDW, they had the same shopping bags, people with CM tags etc. So obviously that was an important stop for me! They had a strange collection of things, even some stuff from Disneyland – including Carsland merchandise. There was also a lot of “Inaugural Season” stuff from the Fantasy. And some of the t-shirts we saw there heavily reduced we would later see again at WDW – at full price.

But I found two things, which I really wanted to have. One is a little box (just big enough for one necklace or so):

And the other is a coffee mug that was on sale for the 40th anniversary of WDW. I had looked at it quite a few times during the 2011 trip to WDW, but could not really make up my mind. But now it was only 8 $ at the outlet and I thought that was a great opportunity:

It looks like one of the paper cups they had at WDW in the 70s (supposedly, I wasn’t there then…).

Sawgrass Mills is really huge and seemed to go on and on and then there was even an outdoor addition. There I found these cute guys:

One of the things I had planned on buying was some cruise wear, I was thinking especially about a sundress. However, I find it very difficult to go shopping somewhere, where I don’t know which shop might be worth looking into. I did not expect Michael to be of any help with sundress shopping, so I had asked Cynthia (eandesmom) for help some time before the trip. She had sent me quite a list and I looked at numerous websites to get a feel for it. Her help was very much appreciated and thanks to her, I had decided that I wanted to have a look at the Tommy Bahama outlet. I was in luck as they had everything in the shop at 50% so ended up finding a really cute dress for a halfway reasonable price! Thanks Cynthia! I did wear my new dress on embarkation day and to Palo brunch, but unfortunately there aren’t any good pictures of me in it, so you get one without me in it:

After a lot of successful, but also exhausting shopping we were ready for dinner. Before the trip I had told Michael quite a few times that I definitely wanted to be sure to go to a steak house, because I love steak and don’t eat it that often in Germany. Somehow, for me steak is quite the quintessential American dish – maybe also because we don’t have a German word for steak, we use the English word. So that makes it more “exotic”?!

So for tonight we chose to a place called Longhorn, which I understand is a chain as well. I had a delicious steak – unfortunately this is one of the few meals where I forgot to take a picture of… I had a baked sweet potato with my steak which was so delicious! Sweet potatos are not common here in Germany and I love them! Of course then I had no idea how many steaks I would eat during the course of the trip...

And with that ends the first full day in Florida.

Next: Water – in Different Varieties