Home for the Holidays-Wizards-Grinches and Sparkles. 14 nights @Royal Pacific Resort, Nov/Dec 2021

Hooray! You made it! Glad to hear of a smooth flight. I know you will have a fabulous day. Happy Thanksgiving to all🍁

Thanks so much Andrea…….it is wonderful being back and celebrating yesterday was lovely too……..think we ate our body weight in seafood and turkey……apparently there isn’t such a thing as too many oysters…..lol…..

Hope you had a lovely day too……..
 
Thanks so much Andrea…….it is wonderful being back and celebrating yesterday was lovely too……..think we ate our body weight in seafood and turkey……apparently there isn’t such a thing as too many oysters…..lol…..
You know...I never cared for oysters...my parents loved them but I never cared for them.

Glad you had a great dinner last night!
 


You know...I never cared for oysters...my parents loved them but I never cared for them.

Glad you had a great dinner last night!

Tom isn’t a fan at all of oysters, weirdly he loves everything else like mussels and clams and any other kind of shellfish/seafood there is…..it’s one of those things you either like or you don’t.

Hope you’re feeling better today Todd……we have been having some glorious weather here since we arrived, yesterday morning was much hotter than it claimed to be. We loved it!! Today looks so bright and sunny too…..perfect weather although I’m sure there are some doom and gloom folks somewhere saying oh the weather isn’t that good in Orlando…….lol……it’s blooming gorgeous!

Back home are having snow and gale force winds so this is a massive improvement for us anyway……. :wave2:
 
Is Strong Water Tavern back to opening every night? The website is a little confusing.

Yes, it is open every night again, just from 5pm till midnight though. They do need the IT department to update the websites for sure. Orchids sushi is still showing as selected nights, but it’s open every night too.

We‘ve ended up in Strong Water every night so far lol…….

Hope your escaped some of that dreadful weather I was just reading about, my goodness it’s awful in some places! Kyle said they had 70mph winds all last night but no snow thankfully.
 


Yes, it is open every night again, just from 5pm till midnight though. They do need the IT department to update the websites for sure. Orchids sushi is still showing as selected nights, but it’s open every night too.

We‘ve ended up in Strong Water every night so far lol…….

Hope your escaped some of that dreadful weather I was just reading about, my goodness it’s awful in some places! Kyle said they had 70mph winds all last night but no snow thankfully.
A wooden arch covered is jasmine is leaning precariously! Enjoy the sunshine.
 
Tom isn’t a fan at all of oysters, weirdly he loves everything else like mussels and clams and any other kind of shellfish/seafood there is…..it’s one of those things you either like or you don’t.

Hope you’re feeling better today Todd……we have been having some glorious weather here since we arrived, yesterday morning was much hotter than it claimed to be. We loved it!! Today looks so bright and sunny too…..perfect weather although I’m sure there are some doom and gloom folks somewhere saying oh the weather isn’t that good in Orlando…….lol……it’s blooming gorgeous!

Back home are having snow and gale force winds so this is a massive improvement for us anyway……. :wave2:
Glad you are loving the weather I ordered up for your visit. ;)

Definitely sounds you are having much better weather than back home...snow and winds...yikes!

I feel much better now...I might have been worn out from Thursday.

Tom and I will never fight over mussels I can assure you....not a fan of those either.

Enjoy the day! :)
 
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Yep, all of a sudden we`re down to 2 weeks till we hopefully fly on the 24th.

This week has been full of ups and downs with sorting out the Antigen tests we need before we fly. We had ordered and paid for them, but when the confirmation came through, it mentioned the results weren`t within the hour completely disregarding the info on the test we ordered, it claimed it could be up till Midnight. Not what we ordered.

Called the number of the original firm after a looooooong wait.....only for her to tell me we technically weren`t booked with them as it was a clinic location so the booking was with the other firm now, despite us having to go through their site to book it......the lady was incredibly dismissive and eventually after a long and not very friendly discussion she did actually tell me to me to have a nice day.........




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:rotfl:




Yes, I will cut my nose off to spite my face at times!!!

Roll on almost 7 hours over 3 days trying to get through to the other crowd on the phone, many, many emails that have been ignored and I`m left with a general annoyance at how time consuming it has been.

Meanwhile we have ordered another 2 Antigen tests from a company that will supervise you doing the test over a zoom meeting and you definitely get the result and fit to fly certificate (if negative of course) within 15 minutes. They have been excellent in communication and the kits we ordered arrived as promised today.


Meanwhile we have alerted the credit card company we were sold something that wasn`t as advertised and basically.......go get em.........might not be any use, but they will certainly look into it. It`s only £100 ($135) not exactly a lot of money, but it`s the principle of it.

In other news, we have added a dining reservation.......can`t quite believe we now have 3 reservations when we don`t usually have any. But our first full day is Thanksgiving, so we decided to book the Thanksgiving Buffet at Sapphire Falls for the afternoon.

We did look at Islands Dining Room Thanksgiving offerings, but there were a few additions in Sapphire`s offerings we just liked the sound of more. So, reservation made. We loved the Mothers Day Brunch in 2019 in Sapphire, so if it`s half as good as that one, I`m sure we`ll love it, the menu looks lovely and both menu`s were excellent to be fair, but we are so looking forward to enjoying our first Thanksgiving Dinner in the USA.

As we never plan, so far we haven`t even thought about any lunch reservations in the park as we have no clue what we`ll be doing on any given day. So, as always, we`ll wake up and decide what we`re doing and if we can book a lunch somewhere, we`ll do that....if nothing is available we`ll go offsite for lunch, there are a million places to eat close by.

One place we do like over and above any other park restaurant is Confisco Grille. It`s one place we always enjoy several times on trips and it never disappoints with food or service.


We`ve enjoyed many meals with friends here too, it`s ideal as it never gets too loud

They changed their menu in 2019 and added several dishes that we now consider our old favourites.......





Sweet and sour Sticky wings with goats cheese polenta




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Chicken and shrimp Pad Thai



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Pork Belly BanhMi sandwich



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Caesar Salad with chicken



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Trader Wings



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Classic Burger with fries



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So this is a place we do enjoy and will make sure we eat here at least once every trip, if we need to book, then we`ll try and work round that......although not convinced I want to plan that much.

One of the many things we love about Universal Orlando resort is the lack of planning necessary to have a lot of fun and to be able to eat what you like, when you like. So, I`m hoping this planning lark won`t last too long....I understand staffing issues and so on, but I do yearn for an easy time on vacation.

I`m sure it`ll be fine and we won`t starve.





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Confisco is one of my favs thanks to you! I walked past it a hundred times and finally gave it a chance due to you raving about it :love: I'm so glad that you had a good flight - I can't wait to read what you think of Velocicoaster. Have an awesome trip!
 
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Glad you are loving the weather I ordered up for your visit. ;)

Definitely sounds you are having much better weather than back home...snow and winds...yikes!

I feel much better now...I might have been worn out from Thursday.

Tom and I will never fight over mussels I can assure you....not a fan of those either.

Enjoy the day! :)

lol…..yes, the more folks that don’t like oysters the better…..means I don’t have to share……

And again, glad you’re doing better…….
 
lol…..yes, the more folks that don’t like oysters the better…..means I don’t have to share……

And again, glad you’re doing better…….
You won’t get my oysters! I’ve always loved this passage by Ernest Hemingway:

“As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.”

I hope you guys are having a great time!
 
Confisco is one of my favs thanks to you! I walked past it a hundred times and finally gave it a chance due to you raving about it :love: I'm so glad that you had a good flight - I can't wait to read what you think of Velocicoaster. Have an awesome trip!

I’m so glad to hear that!! It felt like a little secret gem of a place for so many years as hardly anyone went to it……now, it’s busy most of the time and never disappoints. But I’m so glad you enjoy it.

And thanks so much…….:)
 
You won’t get my oysters! I’ve always loved this passage by Ernest Hemingway:

“As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.”

I hope you guys are having a great time!

I’ve never read that before, I love it!

Is it bad I want oysters and white wine at 7.30 on a Sunday morning now…..lol…….but, what a lovely description.

Thank you :)……we are having such a blast and haven’t really done that much yet, but loving every second we’re here……

Hope you’re having a lovely weekend…….:wave2:
 

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