"Guess who`s back"...3 Return for 3 Weeks @ RPR. Parks, KSC with lots of good food and fun...A May 2023 TR

[schumigirl]

I am just t getting caught up in your report. My 88 year old mother died recently. She had been battling a brain tumor for over a decade that wasn’t malignant, but had tendrils that wove down into her esophagus and had 6 major surgeries. She was due for a treatment and I was due to go in a few weeks (10 hours away) , but something went wrong and she was gone in about a day. My dad is 93 and has no clue about their finances. So it has been long and numbing. Just starting to surface.

We live in PA and Carabbas saved us during the pandemic. When we just could not cook another time , we could order online, and it would show up less than an hour later. I love their chicken Bryan, with goat cheese and sun dried tomatoes in a lovely lemon butter sauce.

I am so very sorry to hear about your mum. It must have been a terrible shock for her to pass so quickly, even worse you didn’t get to see her before that happened.

It’s always a worry when one part of a couple passes and the other is left to deal with it all, you’ll get your dad though it I’m sure. I can imagine what you’ve been going through and it’s such a tough time. Sending you all good wishes and thoughts to get through the tough times ahead after losing your mum, doesn’t matter their age, it’s still your mum.

I’m glad you enjoy Carrabbas and I’m sure it was a godsend during the pandemic. I love lemon butter sauce, that does sound a good dish, I found their Chicken Piccata to be one of the nicest I had tasted, and would be happy to have it again.

Good to see you post and again, all good wishes for you and your family

 

[schumigirl]

FRIDAY MAY 12TH​

Not the best night for any of us, Kyle had a terrible night with his nose, I coughed as often as I breathed in and poor Tom just smiled and said we`d go get us some medicine and maybe tonight we`d sleep better!! Poor guy.

We took our time today, had a lazy breakfast and the lounge was nice and quiet today but we did get chatting again to a couple from the UK and they asked if we knew some folks who who were vloggers as they enjoyed watching them, I told her I had no clue as I never watched a vlogger in my life, she didn`t believe me....lol......but genuinely I don`t watch vloggers and much prefer to read about an experience. I know lots of folks read many sites, follow twitter accounts and more, but I tend not to do that. But they were a nice couple who were here for a couple of nights.

Once we had eaten and collected my bag, we headed out to get the car and it was another beautiful day....the walk over the bridge at the entrance is just beautiful and when you look down to the right going out there are a family of turtles who seem to live down there and there was a new baby this trip, it was so tiny and very cute.

On the way out to get the car I spotted one of the valet guys we have known for a good few years from before Covid, Daniel was there as we walked out. He was from Venezuela, really nice guy who had helped us out a few times by taking us to restaurants when cars hadn`t turned up or the ODC let us down. I thought he had left already, turns out this was his last day as he had graduated and was heading to Texas to work in Engineering there! I was so glad we got to say goodbye to him. His manager came over too and asked if Tom`s name was indeed Tom, he had heard someone speak of us I said yes it was and then Daniel said I was Clare.....well, years ago he misheard my name and has been calling me Clare all this time....I didn`t have the heart to correct him, but today I said, well....actually......and said my name wasn`t Clare, he did laugh but I said I hadn`t minded and quite liked it!!! Odd. But, we wished him well for his future and told him it had been an absolute pleasure getting to know him a little over the last years.

Weird thing about hospitality, everyone moves around so much, we had found ourselves getting to know so many people over the years, some still are friends of course, but most move on to another position or a completely different path. It was an industry we had never been involved with, so feels alien to us. Places we worked when we did go to work in the dim and distant past, you tended to work with the same people for years unless you moved departments, but this was different.

Walking down to the car we loved this heat and Kyle said this was one of the reason he was here, that heat, I think he is a bit of a lizard too!! We headed to Publix to speak to the pharmacist and we picked up some medication for Kyle that would hopefully work, I got some cough medicine but my description of the cough confused him slightly so I wasn`t confident on our purchase, but we`d try them.

Next up we headed to The Florida Mall, not our favourite mall by far, but they have a Yankee Candle there and it isn`t that bad to wander round now since they revamped it. It`s only a 15 minute drive away for us and since it was early parking was easy and close to the entrance. At night I`m not sure I`d visit there due to several incidents we`d heard about, but during the day it`s fine.

Our first stop was the Tesla display. Of course.

Tom and Kyle both like them, they`re not for me as I have no interest whatsoever having an electric or even a hybrid.....but it`s always nice to look!

We do enjoy a wander round here although not so many stores to interest us, we do have a wander into Macy`s and this store never looks as good as the one in the Millenia Mall. However Kyle ended up buying a beautiful tie as a gift to himself that somehow ended up a gift from us as he had come out without his wallet lol......we joked with him that was convenient!!! He deserves it. He has some beautiful suits and ties he wears to work, so he always looks incredibly smart in them. This one would be a nice addition to his collection of ties, it was a very deep blue and would look lovely with his various suits.

One store we always have a good giggle outside of is a jewllery store that was owned by different people way back when. Kyle was looking for a Tag Heuer watch and when he was looking he went into this place and the woman tried to pass off a reconditioned one as new, dodgy as heck......then the man joined in the sales pitch and they were like a tag team.....nah, we left quickly with the woman shouting he`d regret not buying from them as they had the best price. Crazy woman. He did end up getting one from the Tag store in Mall at Milenia, we knew it was genuine and brand new buying it from them. So that jewellery store became known as dodgy watch guy from then on, so we always walked past and had a good snigger about them.

We made a couple of purchases from YC and had a wander through the food court, but we didn`t plan to eat here today.

We put our purchases in the back and set off down to the Orlando Eye area where we were going to have lunch and then go up on the Eye as we wanted to see the changes that had been made with Epic Universe since last year. We had been kept up to date with what they had done, but the eye is a perfect place to get a wonderful view of the whole area.

But first lunch and we wanted to go back to Sloppy Joe`s which we had enjoyed twice before and thought Kyle would like it too. There are several places to choose from down here, but for us, this is the one we`d choose everytime.

Yard House would probably be our second choice, but there is something for everyone here including a Gordon Ramsay fish and chip place.....no thanks!!

It isn`t too busy, but at night this place is buzzing according to friends who have been, I think we`re more the quieter time of day people. We get seated and our waiter was so much friendlier than the last one who was a little dour, but efficient all the same.

I think Kyle was trying to make the most of everything but he still looked so pale, that out of sorts feeling but not completely horrible.

I think they seated anyone who came up in this side today, seems they only had the one waiter at this point of the day, it`s a very nice place and they have a live camera from Key West and a countdown screen with a timer till Sunset.

My two both got a strawberry type smoothie, whereas of course I went with their Rum Runner which is beautiful.

This is such a lovely menu, many options to choose from and we were all torn as what to order.....it took some time and our waiter was very patient but eventually he came back and we had decided.

Tom surprised me and went for a Sloppy Dog with fries, Kyle went for the Cheeseburger and I went back to my last dish which was a Luau Salad and absolutely delicious.

Our waiter Luke asked if he could use our camera, he enjoyed photography and much preferred a real camera to phones, couldn`t agree more!!

I don`t eat hot dogs at all, can`t abide them as I tend to wonder what they are made from, but Tom loved it and said it was very good, I also hate chili so it looked even worse to me!! Because I don`t eat Hot Dogs he never gets one as we do like to share, but he really wanted this meal so I gave my pretend blessing and he got one finally!!

Kyle`s burger was beyond perfect!! He loved it and we were glad to see he was still eating ok despite not being 100%, but he ate most of it and left very little....I think I helped with a few fries as he just couldn`t finish his lunch.

My salad was also gorgeous, very fresh and full of flavour, chicken, lots of fresh pineapple, mango and strawberries, lots of fresh salad leaves, red peppers all tossed in a mandarin vinaigrette and island peanut dressing, it was gorgeous!

I had asked them to leave out the macadamia nuts which they did and I really enjoyed this dish and our lunch today.

We were all full, no stopping off for ice cream today when we left here for a change. We paid the bill and they have excellent prices here for the portions.

Once outside we headed round towards the Eye, there are some lovely pictures ops here, but it is so hot, we just want to get inside as soon as we can, but some pics we have to get.

There are several attractions in Icon Park, the Star Flyer is one of the obvious ones, no way would we be going on that one.....the seats and tiny little harness that`s really just a chain looking at it and it looks so flimsy, nope that`s a pass for us, it does look good all lit up at night though, but not for us. It was good to see they had completely destroyed the drop ride that had sadly killed a young boy last year, it was horrible seeing it standing tall there. We don`t know how these rides are looked after and maintained, where I trusted Universal with safety, so we won`t be trying them out.

But the Star Flyer is a lovely attraction and impressive to see at night with all the lights changing colour.

Within the attraction building as well as the eye they have a Madame Tussauds and a Sealife Centre, none of them appeal to us, when you`ve seen one Madame Tussauds you`ve seen them all and fish, not really unless they`re on my plate ...there are several other local attractions including a 7D Dark ride.

One of things we noticed when I went online to check opening hours was that they had changed quite a bit, they used to open the Eye or Wheel as it`s now called at 10am, now it doesn`t open till 1pm which suited us time wise, but I was glad we hadn`t turned up at 10 expecting to get on it.

The other change is they now don`t accept cash anywhere. Tom went to hand over money to pay and she drew back in horror like he had tried to hand her the plague itself!!! No problems we just paid by card but a few folks behind us asked us if they had heard correctly and we said yes, no cash. They left the line so I guess they didn`t have a card with them shame as they had kids who I assume were looking forward to going up the Wheel. She did however try to sell us a Combo ticket to include the other attractions which we weren`t interested in, we just wanted to do the Wheel. I do wonder if they get a commission as her smile dropped at that point.

More to come...

 

[disneyseniors]

Carole, that salad looked just fabulous! That's the kind of salad I like with pineapple and strawberries, Yum!
The Sky Wheel looks intimidating to me, as I am a chicken!!! But I bet the views are great, IF you can open your eyes to look at them, LOL. That's what I would do

I hope Kyle gets better as the days go on. I know how difficult it is to try to do things when you are not feeling just quite right. Awaiting your Sky Wheel pictures.

Oh, only taking credit cards is strange to me. Usually it's the other way around, at least around here. CC's add a % to each purchase which the business has to pay. I don't know why they don't accept cash, but???

 

[schumigirl]

Carole, that salad looked just fabulous! That's the kind of salad I like with pineapple and strawberries, Yum!
The Sky Wheel looks intimidating to me, as I am a chicken!!! But I bet the views are great, IF you can open your eyes to look at them, LOL. That's what I would do

I hope Kyle gets better as the days go on. I know how difficult it is to try to do things when you are not feeling just quite right. Awaiting your Sky Wheel pictures.

Oh, only taking credit cards is strange to me. Usually it's the other way around, at least around here. CC's add a % to each purchase which the business has to pay. I don't know why they don't accept cash, but???

That salad was beautiful, fresh and fruity and very filling. They also have a gorgeous dish that has crab, shrimp and avocado I had the first visit, it was gorgeous too, I was torn between the two!

The Wheel is very slow but as someone who doesn`t like heights, it`s hard for me to go on it. Last year I did have a mini panic attack up there, but I wanted to go back up again, especially with Kyle being there and not panic. I was fine, well, fine as long as I was clinging to the middle pole!! The pictures Tom and Kyle got were good though!

It seems more and more places are not taking cash, most blame covid which is ridiculous. There are some restaurants here that don`t take cash as payments, we have a few, but the staff are happy to take their tips in cash.....lol....

 

[jump00]

Hi Carole!
Wonderful trip report so far! We are off to Sapphire Falls (leaving for the airport soon) and can’t wait to try Strong Water Tavern.
Spending a week at Universal but doing a day at Disney - my dh got me the Keys to Kingdom tour for my birthday and then spending the rest of the day perfecting Genie+ and ILL . Thank you for all the amazing tips…..I’ve taken notes.
Brenda

 

[schumigirl]

Hi Carole!
Wonderful trip report so far! We are off to Sapphire Falls (leaving for the airport soon) and can’t wait to try Strong Water Tavern.
Spending a week at Universal but doing a day at Disney - my dh got me the Keys to Kingdom tour for my birthday and then spending the rest of the day perfecting Genie+ and ILL . Thank you for all the amazing tips…..I’ve taken notes.
Brenda

Brenda!!!

You leave today......I do hope you have the BEST time.....enjoy Strong Water bar and have a cocktail for me!!!! An another for Tom.....lol......

KTTK tour is a lovely birthday treat, good luck with the rest of the park, I wish you well there, I`ll bet you have a blast.

I hope you come back telling us you had a wonderful trip and enjoyed both Sapphire and Strong Water bar.......have fun

 

[schumigirl]

We head through and say no thank you on getting our picture taken, they do try to sell you the "ride" picture before you get on. We wander through we see they have added a bar where you can buy drinks before you get on the Wheel or have a drink added to a package, we didn`t buy anything but would remember it for another visit.

Anytime we have gone on the Wheel before we have always had a pod to ourselves, it`s always fairly quiet and today is no different, we get one with just us which is how we like it.

It is incredibly slow moving, they can stop it if someone needs extra time or there is a wheelchair going on, but for most folks, it`s slow enough to get on without any issue.

I`m still not fond of it though despite it moving very slow. If you hate heights, that never changes.

I sit in the middle with my arms wrapped around the centre pole as if my life depended on it while they snap away and I occasionally glance around and although it`s no Vegas, there are some nice things to see. You can see to MCO and over to Disney, on a clearer day you can see much further.

The Convention Centre is massive and in front of that is Top Golf and Andretti Driving experience building we do enjoy, but we haven`t done Top Golf yet, even though we don`t play golf we had been told we`d still enjoy it, not sure about that!!

It wasn`t the clearest of days, but you can see the Contemporary and Space Mountain today going towards Disney.

And of course our favourite direction showing RPR, a little of HRH, RRR and you can see the vivid turquoise colour that was now covering one of the walls hosting TF, all to blend in with the new Minion area.

And of course the new Epic Universe park known as the South Campus, which is moving on ahead of schedule which is fabulous to hear. Universal don`t hang around when they decide to build something. Originally scheduled to open 2023, the worldwide pandemic halted any building work but is now fixed to open Summer of 2025 at the latest. It will be the second largest theme park in the world and will double the footprint of Universal Orlando Resort.

The yellow coaster imaged below is rumoured to be named StarFall Racers, similar in design to Duelling Dragons....it does sound as though it will be a lot of fun.

The budget hotel is up, the large grey building in the centre of the image below and they were putting in the glass when we passed on our last day, I`m sure it`ll look prettier once they paint it, but as of then, it looked rather large and not pretty.

I think we would stay at the nicer hotel going up for one or two nights, it sounds beautiful.

The whole campus is mahoosive!!! I think until you see it from above it`s hard to imagine just how large it is and it genuinely amazed us how fast they are progressing with it.

There are loads of pics and info online about all the different areas and themes with pictures from amazing sites like Bioreconstruct who show every update I believe.

I`m not sure I`d be happy living in the apartments around this park to be honest, they were built several years before this park was confirmed, might be ideal if you wanted to live close to work I guess!

Although technically the address is Sand Lake Rd, it will be on Universal Blvd too, this was always the quietest of roads with not a lot of traffic, it`s much busier now and by the time this park opens it`s going to be as busy as every other road around here.

Turkey Lake Road used to be practically deserted way back, we used to be almost the only ones on it coming back to Universal, now they`ve built a whole new town there with a hospital, apartments, homes and so many restaurants. It`s good to see progress, but so very different.

As we got lower down, I managed to prise my butt off the seat and get a picture with Tom, Kyle was like, come on mum....picture time and don`t look terrified......there were a couple I won`t post as I look completely traumatised!!!

Public smile........

This is the real me up there!!!

I do move a little, as long as I can hold on I`m good.....and it is very pretty and you do see a lot from the pods. Over to the left in this picture is the land where the drop ride was razed to the ground. There were still people leaving floral tributes when we were there too for that young boy.

This had been a lovely way to spend a relaxing couple of hours, lunch then the Wheel which takes around 30 minutes to do one revolution and it`s not too expensive. I forget the cost but you can find out online I`m sure.

Heading out of course, I had to get a picture of my friend D`s favourite guy.....Mr Depp himself who looks fabulous here!

Back home we saw the baby turtle try to hop back up on to the stones, it took a while but it did it. They have been there for many years and hope they never leave......they`re like me when it cools down I disappear inside!!

Tonight we were meeting the lovely Alex over at Strong Water Bar with her daughter who is the most gorgeous and well behaved little girl you`ll ever meet, Gia who was leaving for PA, Daniel who we adored from last year in the Club lounge and Justin another who had left and was bringing his new bride to be, they were getting married soon. It was to be a little reunion of sorts and Daniel and Justin had no idea we were going to be there.

Kyle however did not feel like doing anything other than sleep right now, so we left him and went down to the Lounge for an hour or so and had a glass of wine, he really was shattered and looked pale again. We told him we would head over to Strong Water and to join us later if he felt like it and txt me if he wasn`t coming as we had planned to do some mini golf later if he felt like it.

Walking over is always a nice little walk. I think Alex had booked the table for 6pm so we headed over a little early, I had sent Fernando a txt to let him know we`d be over but we were at the table Alex had booked, he replied saying he was working and would make sure to say hello.

The Ballroom area is impressive....yes, it`s huge, but when you look in and see the main room with no seperation walls up, it is stunning just how large that one room is.

This is an area that is being revamped too, shame as we really like this area, I think it`s been done really well.

The bridge that joins RPR to Sapphire Falls....you feel as though you are changing to a different time when you leave one for another.

More to come.....

 

[disneyseniors]

That salad was beautiful, fresh and fruity and very filling. They also have a gorgeous dish that has crab, shrimp and avocado I had the first visit, it was gorgeous too, I was torn between the two!

The Wheel is very slow but as someone who doesn`t like heights, it`s hard for me to go on it. Last year I did have a mini panic attack up there, but I wanted to go back up again, especially with Kyle being there and not panic. I was fine, well, fine as long as I was clinging to the middle pole!! The pictures Tom and Kyle got were good though!

It seems more and more places are not taking cash, most blame covid which is ridiculous. There are some restaurants here that don`t take cash as payments, we have a few, but the staff are happy to take their tips in cash.....lol....

OMGosh, your photos of being on the Wheel look absolutely terrifying to a chicken like me. If I rode on it, I would hang onto the pole too and also close my eyes! You are a good sport!

 

[schumigirl]

OMGosh, your photos of being on the Wheel look absolutely terrifying to a chicken like me. If I rode on it, I would hang onto the pole too and also close my eyes! You are a good sport!

lol.....I will send you a picture Tom took of me last year when I had a "moment" up there....he knew I was actually fine, but I do like a bit of drama apparently.......

I was not looking forward to it, but with Kyle being there, well, I had to go up!

I think you`d like it......honest........

 

[DisGhost]

Most touristy places in the US - amusement parks, water parks, stadiums, etc - don't take cash anymore. My daughter attends a "travel" summer camp - they go on field trips every day - and basically every brief says the place is cashless, though there is always a kiosk where you can put in cash and get a Visa gift card (which can also be used in other places). This started during Covid and has continued ever since.

We only recently started going to Top Golf - the closest one is about 45 minutes away but there is one near my in-laws in Florida. I do not golf at all (and I hate mini golf - anything requiring accuracy is right out for me), husband is a natural but does not play, and of course the kids are terrible. But we all love it. Drinks for the adults, food for all, and you just whack the ball haphazardly and hope it goes in. It's a ton of fun and you don't need any skill. Their flat breads are surprisingly good as are the wings. The mixed drinks could be stronger though.

 

[margareton27]

Caught up….again lol

Oh Uber drivers. Our son says the same about us - we get the strangest ones. The conspiracy theorist in New Orleans, the hippy in the peeling Prius in Vegas, then my Colorado hippy in another Prius who was going the wrong way out of the entrance to the hotel. As I was alone in Colorado the conclusion is that it is me.

Hoping you both started feeling better soon in your journey!

 

[schumigirl]

Most touristy places in the US - amusement parks, water parks, stadiums, etc - don't take cash anymore. My daughter attends a "travel" summer camp - they go on field trips every day - and basically every brief says the place is cashless, though there is always a kiosk where you can put in cash and get a Visa gift card (which can also be used in other places). This started during Covid and has continued ever since.

We only recently started going to Top Golf - the closest one is about 45 minutes away but there is one near my in-laws in Florida. I do not golf at all (and I hate mini golf - anything requiring accuracy is right out for me), husband is a natural but does not play, and of course the kids are terrible. But we all love it. Drinks for the adults, food for all, and you just whack the ball haphazardly and hope it goes in. It's a ton of fun and you don't need any skill. Their flat breads are surprisingly good as are the wings. The mixed drinks could be stronger though.

I think it`s becoming more and more common even over here now. Even places like car parks, the machines don`t accept cash, only cards or Apps. Which is fine but there are so many older folks that don`t use either. Easy excuse to blame covid now.

lol.....anywhere that doesn`t serve a decent drink is not ok!!! I have heard the food is good though, but it does sound like fun and it sounds as if your family really enjoys it too. Might give it a go at some point.

 

[schumigirl]

Caught up….again lol

Oh Uber drivers. Our son says the same about us - we get the strangest ones. The conspiracy theorist in New Orleans, the hippy in the peeling Prius in Vegas, then my Colorado hippy in another Prius who was going the wrong way out of the entrance to the hotel. As I was alone in Colorado the conclusion is that it is me.

Hoping you both started feeling better soon in your journey!

Glad you`re all caught up again!

lol....I`m always glad it`s not just us!! I had to read that twice.....I read it as a hippy peeing in a Prius..... although I do love a conspiracy theorist, they`re always interesting!!!

 

[schumigirl]

We absolutely love walking into Strong Water Bar........

​

This is what Strong Water is like, they welcome everyone with the same enthusiasm and consideration, nothing is too much trouble for the staff. They have managed to put together an amazing team who are simply the best, it is by far the friendliest bar on property and the best overall on property too. All of which is down to the staff themselves and Fernando who absolutely values everyone so highly. It`s quite rare to find a place that`s just perfect.

We see him as soon as we go in and he comes over to give us a big hug and welcome, he seats at the table Alex had booked and of course ordered a drink, no surprises what I ordered but Tom tried the other new drink Caribbean Sunset, but he prefers mine I was glad to say!!

We waited and we waited......Alex txt to say they were on their way but had been delayed so much so, Alex, Gia and her daughter had ended up almost running to get here. They were all staying at Portofino for a few days, they can`t stay in the hotel they work in, so to come from there without a boat was a fairly long walk!!! They were boiled when they finally came in bless them. She was telling us she tried to hurry the others, but the boys were taking so long to get ready and she didn`t want to tell them we were waiting and ruin the surprise, bless her.

They got sat down and Alex and Gia both ordered Carole`s Punch and a coke for the little one. I introduced them to Fernando, he had heard so much about our Alex I think he felt as though he already knew her, she is just adorable though.

Once we all had a drink I turned to see Daniel appear looking for Alex, I popped up and the look on his face when he saw us was just awesome!!! He had no idea and we got the bigest hugs from this lovely young man who once told me I was one of the funniest people he`d ever met and cracked him up so much.....definitely a compliment!!! He is so lovely, and then Justin too, that look of surprise followed by a huge smile is priceless!!! It was so good to see these lovely young folks we had spent so much time with last May in the Club Lounge. They really were the best group we had ever seen in the lounge in all the years we had been visiting.

Tom`s Caribbean Sunset

One of our favourite people below and her beautiful daughter. So well mannered and an absolute joy to be around, she has clearly been very well brought up and it shows, with a mamma like Alex behind her, she`ll do so well in life.

And with the lovely Gia who has now halfway through her time in PA doing an internship, I do hope she enjoyed it.

Weirdly I don`t have a picture with Daniel or Justin which is a shame, I do have some with Daniel from last May but none with Justin I don`t think.

Poor Alex was herding them all to order food and eventually we managed to get an order in to poor Demi who had been very patient with us, I think once again we were chatting too much!

I can`t remember who ordered this, Oh I do it was Tom (oops) it was Choripan and was similar or based on the older Choripapa dish from a few years ago, grilled sausage in a smoked tomato sauce, swiss cheese and chimichurri all served with extra bread to mop up the extra sauce. He really enjoyed it, for me there was too much cheese, it was nice, but incredibly filling.

Alex ordered the Pork Belly Tacos which did look nice, little one got some tenders with fruit and fries which she adored!!

Fernando, Chef Carlos heck everyone in there knows we both hate cilantro, so when I saw the new Jerk Shrimp dish on the menu, I asked if it had any and they said they didn`t think so, so I ordered it, a few minutes later Fernando came out full of apologies, the pineapple sauce did have some in it, but it was part of the dish unless I wanted it without the sauce, but I said, I`ll give it a try as the shrimp sounded so good!!

The pineapple sauce was indeed full of cilantro, so I only tried a tiny piece of that but the shrimp was beautiful, very succulent, tender and full of flavour, not too spicy if you don`t like a lot of heat but the mango salsa that came with it was lovely. This was a new favourite dish!!!

We had just finished when Fernando asked if we had tried the ribs yet, it was a special tonight and he was full of praise for it and disappeared before we could say anything, to return a few minutes later with the rib special in his hand telling us we would enjoy it!!! I didn`t doubt it for a second.

There are ribs, and then, there are ribs.

These were unbelievably good!!! They didn`t just fall off the bone, they practically evaporated, but so full of flavour!! I enjoyed the avocado crema too, especially as it had NO cilantro in it!! My goodness, we`d order them again in a heartbeat!! Now we were full!!

We had just finished eating when Kyle appeared, looking quite refreshed and not as tired and it was lovely introducing him to Daniel and Justin as they had only heard a lot about our boy and were so keen to meet him. Daniel commented later he is so much like me which he is of course, but he favours his dad more I think. He does look like me when he is sleeping, well, he did a long time ago!!! He does have my sense of humour and his dad`s patience, my English skills and thankfully for someone who is in Finance, he has his dad`s math skills!!! They liked him instantly, I was sorry he hadn`t felt like joining us earlier, but I`d prefer he got some sleep although his nose was still so awful.

We were all getting ready to leave, but we were all taking the boat to Citywalk then to PBH, the young uns were going back for pool time and Kyle wanted a pizza from Sal`s.

Fernando came over to see what we thought of the ribs, which he knew we`d love of course and he was glad to see Kyle too. He heard me cough and gave me a medicine to try next time we were in the pharmacy, I`d give it a go as this one wasn`t doing much. We then said our goodnights and set off with the "kids" for the boats, laughing all the way.

The boat dock here is beautiful and one of the prettiest of all the hotels, at night as you pull into Sapphire by boat, it is just stunning.

The wait for the boat tonight was awful, it wasn`t till the 3rd boat arrived we go on one, we weren`t in a rush of course, but the kids wanted back to enjoy the pool, it was too long to wait for a boat, but Capt Rob had told us a few days before they were very short staffed and it certainly looked it as there were always plenty of them around and many of them had been there a long time too. You may know Capt Rob, he`s the one who tells the awful dad jokes....since at least 2016!!! Nicest man though.

More to come

 

[angryduck71]

THURSDAY MAY 11TH​

Thankfully for my husband and son`s sanity, I didn`t cough as much last night and managed to get a decent sleep which meant, they got a good sleep too.

We planned to do some park time today and it was the Studios where we would help fulfil the plan to ride every ride in the parks.....and that included doing Jimmy Fallon and F&F.......

​

But, a deal is a deal and we said we`d do it, so we will.

The lounge was fairly busy this morning so we didn`t hang around for long, but we always spend some time chatting as always and there were some guests from the UK that we had been chatting with so we passed some time, but not too long as we did want to get to the park, so hot footed it down to our room and got our sunscreen on, we just made it before the housekeeper arrived.

Housekeeping has always been wonderful here, our rooms have always been done very early which suits us as we don`t really do full days in the park and like to come back before lunch some days to get showered and changed again. Some days we`ve come back from breakfast and it`s already been done. We don`t leave a mess so there`s not a lot to do for us, but we do like fresh towels every day. Our rooms have always been immaculate and this lady we have now has worked at Royal for years.

As it was The Studios, we got the boat.....but Kyle prefers to walk as it is usually quicker, so we meet him on the bridge outside the Studios, but this morning we got on the boat and it left straight away so we knew we`d pass him on the pathway, and we did!

But, of course Kyle couldn`t have us get to Citywalk ahead of him, oh no, Mr Competitive immediately took to running as he saw us on the boat waving like crazy......

And of course he was waiting for us on the bridge and hadn`t even broke a sweat!

It felt really hot this morning, but gorgeous, we were loving this heat and it would reach 93F today, it kinda felt like it already.

There are times Tom`s fingerprint hasn`t worked, but since he changed to using his thumb it works every time until today, but a quick check of his ID and he was through. It was very busy at the entrance this morning but we picked the right line to go into as there were no delays

We wanted a good look at the new minion building this morning, it was coming along nicely as was the new Cafe that has now opened of course. There are a few things on the menu we`d like to try that sound quite nice.

I must admit, we do like Minions, but this new attraction doesn`t sound overly interesting to us, we`ll do it, but it sounds like a one and done for us, the cafe however we will have a look at, something not banana flavoured for me.....bleurgh....hate anything banana flavoured.

We walked on to Minions today, no lengthy EP line this time and it`s always a fun ride although not as good as when it was 3D. Tom and Kyle went on RRR which was a walk on with EP, I wandered around while they rode it and then when they came off, one of the rides we were not looking forward to, Jimmy Fallon.

None of us get him at all, don`t find him funny and I am somewhat irritated just by his face for no particular reason which is not something I tend to do normally, but this guy just annoys me generally.

So we wanted this one over and done with as quick as possible.

This was slightly different to how I remembered lining up on our previous visit, but we stood to the left of the building before you climb the stairs and the regular line was on the other side, both lines were fairly long and we stood for ages for some unknown reason.

And then we stood some more.

At this point we were all kind of annoyed at nobody moving, I think everyone around was wondering why we weren`t moving.

Eventually we did move and went upstairs, no Panda today which would have been nice, but we all moved to the entrance area and then we waited some more.....and waited some more........

Then we waited some more, shuffled a few feet forward and stopped again.

This was excrutiatingly painful, everyone was grumbling, there was no word that there had been a delay of any kind so I have no idea why it took forever to get in, but we eventually made it and got seated, it had been 50 minutes since we had come into the building.

Tom and Kyle were fine, but grumpy here was seriously annoyed, I won`t even wait in line for a ride I love, but to wait in line for something I absolutely didn`t like was really making my teeth itch!!

The show itself is not too bad, it`s not good, but it`s not dreadful, but I won`t do it again, although to be fair, neither will Tom or Kyle, but we did it.

My mood improved as soon as we were out, I did stop muttering under my breath like a crazy lady which highly amused my two for some reason.....lol

We did The Mummy which was thankfully much shorter to get on, from walking in to leaving it was around 10 minutes and it put a huge smile on all of our faces, but it didn`t last.

We thought since we had suffered on JF this morning, we might as well prolong the misery and get F&F out of the way too.....maybe it wasn`t as bad as we remembered??

Spoilers.....it was as bad as we remembered it.

The line isn`t too bad on this one, if you like cars I suppose, which we do, but this is not the worst line and it did move ok today, I was surprised there was a line at all as this seems to be the most complained about ride in the park.

We got into the first room and the TM doing his part in the show couldn`t have been more apathetic if he tried. He repeated his lines with an alarming degree of indifference and lethargy, he seemed totally detached of any feeling while imparting his lines. This was a man who had the aura of someone who had just about lost the will to do anything and certainly lost any enthusiasm he may have once had for this job.

We endured the first room only to face another room and this is the room where sugary fake words went to die. The words "you`re family" is sounded with complete insincerity and they really do pound that one to the point of frustration.

You can tell we were going to love this ride!

It was dreadful.

We were put in line with someone who had very questionable personal hygiene, so I had to leave the line, the smell was disgusting, the TM was brilliant and moved us to a different row, which helped, but my goodness nothing could make this ride better than it is.

​

All of us agreed it is the worst. If we had to do either JF or this ride again we`d choose JF as it`s just not as dreadful, but how did they get this one so wrong!! Disaster which was the ride this one replaced was corny and simple, but it had something about it. This one we would never ride again.

We all decided this was the worst morning we ever had....ever!!! In the parks anyway, but we laughed so much at how bad those rides had been and laughed some more knowing we`d never have to endure them again.

Yes, very dramatic I know, but hey, I am drama apparently

The day did get better.

I am sure I've said this before... but Davy loves JF. The ride. Not the talk show. I'm not sure why.... BUT, we both HATE HATE HATE F&F. We rode it once just to say we had and so we could complain with knowledge -- but I have to say, we had the BEST time making fun of it during and after. That can't really replicate itself though, so probably never step foot on it again. Davy recently watched the first movie.... he was going to do the whole franchise, but seems one was enough. Anyway, he constantly says those movies are about speed and they could have EASILY done some sort of speedy track or rollercoaster out of it instead of the silliness it is.

 

[schumigirl]

I am sure I've said this before... but Davy loves JF. The ride. Not the talk show. I'm not sure why.... BUT, we both HATE HATE HATE F&F. We rode it once just to say we had and so we could complain with knowledge -- but I have to say, we had the BEST time making fun of it during and after. That can't really replicate itself though, so probably never step foot on it again. Davy recently watched the first movie.... he was going to do the whole franchise, but seems one was enough. Anyway, he constantly says those movies are about speed and they could have EASILY done some sort of speedy track or rollercoaster out of it instead of the silliness it is.

I do remember he likes the ride......there are a few folks that do!!!

We weren`t fans of the movies and gave up very early, not our thing at all.

Universal Hollywood has announced a F&F rollercoaster, will be interesting to see how that turns out, can`t be any worse than the so called ride in Orlando!!!

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

I reckon you and Tom must be among Strong Water’s top customers. It really does sound like Cheers when you two arrive and I have to say your trip report is a great advertisement for it. Your food and drink photos are gorgeous and now I’m craving ribs and it’s only 7am!

 

[schumigirl]

I reckon you and Tom must be among Strong Water’s top customers. It really does sound like Cheers when you two arrive and I have to say your trip report is a great advertisement for it. Your food and drink photos are gorgeous and now I’m craving ribs and it’s only 7am!

lol...well technically you may be able to class pork ribs as bacon, so not too much of a stretch for breakfast..........technically, maybe....or maybe not!!

If we lived closer we absolutely would be their best customers and maybe have a poorly liver!! There was one new TM we didn`t know this past trip he was new, but yes, everyone else we knew. I`m always happy to talk about how amazing a place it is, because it really is that good!!

 

[schumigirl]

We got off in Citywalk and again, waited a long time for a boat to PB. It felt like forever and it was boiling hot plus Kyle was now starving!! I think we waited about 15 minutes before one arrived and we all ploughed on the one boat to get to PB.

PB as you arrive on the boat is beautiful, seeing the resort lit up, it does look stunning and so pretty and at night it is nice to see there are actually people around as during the day it sometimes looks as though the apocalypse has taken place as it is a ghost town.

We said goodnight to all the kids, we`d see Alex in the next few days of course when she was back at work but Justin we probably wouldn`t see again.

Sadly since we came home Alex has left Loews, she will be missed for sure by staff and guests alike as she is an absolute star, we still keep in touch as she is so very special to us and I`m happy to say she is doing well!!

We went straight to Sal`s as Kyle was now more than ready to eat, we of course were full from everything we had eaten in Strong Water. It`s usually fairly quiet, but tonight it was busy so we didn`t get the booths, but we sat in the main room of the restaurant.

We ordered him a plain cheese pizza with bbq sauce base......every time I order this I do hear the minds of my Italian relatives spin in sheer horror!!! They just don`t understand lol.

It didn`t take too long till the buzzer went to let us know it was ready, Tom went up to get it and I have to say it wasn`t the best looking pizza we`ve ever had from here and we generally hold their pizzas in high esteem, but this one was poor as it had very little sauce on it compared to others. However, he ate some of it declaring it a 4/10 effort, Tom and I shared a slice too, it wasn`t the best and for the first time he left two slices untouched.

When he had finished we headed back out for the boat, we grabbed some pictures and did get one of Bice, somewhere we should go back and try again one time. It has been a few years since we have visited, but we weren`t impressed they couldn`t omit ingredients from their sauce for us, well me. But, I had been told that wasn`t the case now and it should be fine, so maybe......Italian food is not my favourite, but they have more than pasta on the menu so we should be fine.

Up next was mini golf, but first we stopped off at Fat Tuesdays for a cocktail. They are very nice and quite strong, no worrying about poor pours there!!

Then mini golf. We didn`t do both courses, we much prefer the haunted side anyway, and it is a lot of fun, but not for me tonight.....I wandered round with my cocktail in hand and camera in the other.....there may have been more than a few blurry pictures!!!

It is well designed and the tombstones are quite humorous on the way round, lighting is good and each hole is very well done.

I always forget how competitive these two are with each other, Tom especially likes to win.....Kyle is just too good though.....lol.....but they watch each other taking every shot and contest if one thinks the other has even slightly veered from playing to the rules!!!

By this point, I was ready to go home, but they enjoy this so much and I did enjoy taking pictures, especially this house, it was pretty and at Christmas they decorate it so it looks very festive. Citywalk in general isn`t usually highly decorated but it is nice to see what they do in smaller areas.

There was a family in front of us and the younger child was petrified of this wall as the ghosts move around and it is quite cute, but this kid was screaming blue murder and wouldn`t go through the doors so they had to go back around to leave although the dad and the elder child shrugged their shoulders and carried on playing, then she came back carrying the screaming three year old and started yelling at them they were every kind of expletive for not leaving with her. Oops. Eventually she did leave again with the younger child and everyone around was looking at each other all thinking that hotel room was not going to be fun later!!

Last hole and yep, Kyle won.....but to be fair not by much. They had enjoyed the game though and it passes an hour or so.

Citywalk is so nice at night, it`s busy, bustling and vibrant. In all the times we`ve been visiting, we`ve never once seen any trouble with guests, it is very family friendly and a wonderful place to spend some time with a good choice of restaurants for everyone, we really like it here.

I did like their new signage with a new font as you enter Citywalk from the parking garage.......

Kyle was not looking his best, so instead of going to Margaritaville we hightailed it to the walking path to get back home, he had done well this evening despite again, not being his usual self, he looked done in.

It was around 11pm so we were ready for bed too.....back home Kyle got his bed out and we freshened up before hitting our bed too, we all really needed a good sleep!!

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

You did well as a tipsy photographer at the minigolf