Wow on your dining experience at the knife! That's insane, I would not want to return there either, but makes me wonder if you were a full price paying customer if they would treat ya better?? Of course their service seems bad enough the only way they can get people through the door is through a groupon/similar site! Oy!
We are heading down in a little less than 3 weeks now, we have 3 park days and the rest at our resort, but are thinking of a beach day too. I was thinking maybe Ft. Desoto seems close-ish to the area.
So glad you decided to ridge Gringotts! My fam is huge HP fans, so we are very much looking forward to the WWoHP in all it's glory
I honestly didn't get the feeling that the Groupon was the issue....but of course, I could be wrong!
3 weeks away.....you will be leaving before you know it. I love the last few weeks before departure, the anticipation is so much fun!
Now that I have finally caught up, looking forward to hearing about your Big Pink Donut!
We visited Clearwater during Christmas week last year and had a fab time. I loved Clearwater Marine Aquarium - especially since we had watched the movies. It was so wonderful to see how they cared for injured animals. Not a fancy place but so sweet. And seeing Winter in real life was amazing.
Then we followed it up with a dolphin cruise on Little Toot. One of the most exhilarating, incredible experiences of my life to be on a little boat with pod of wild dolphins playing in our wake for a good 5 minutes. Then we found a 2nd pod. We could practically reach out and touch them.Best of all, price was very reasonable...like $30ish pp. It was just long enough as we returned to shore just before we started getting seasick.
Unfortunately, it drizzled and rained much of our trip so the beach was out
A dolphin cruise is on my bucket list. I would love to have a similar experience to yours!
Yay Gina.........way to go on Gringotts
Glad you made and enjoyed it too.........we thought it was an amazing ride.....but if I was being picky.......it needed more thrills.......lol.......but we love drops!!
Definitely consider Clearwater......although we have been to other places on the Gulf Coast, prettier places I suppose we still really like it.......and it has Crabby Bills and Frenchy's Rockaway Grill which are worth the journey alone......
Thinking of Anna Maria Island this year for a visit.
What a lovely day though.......waiting for more Gina.......
lol, you and Steve would get along nicely. While I was bemoaning the initial plunge, he was secretly wishing there were a few more of those!
Very proud of you for braving Gringotts. Way to take one for the team
That pink donut looks like it could feed a small country.
A small country or one hungry man (and his wife.....I helped
).
I actually feel sorry for the people at The Knife. I suspect it may be family-run, and the restaurant business is SO hard. My neighbors own a restaurant, and I see the hours and effort they have to put into it. It seems like The Knife may be failing. They are using all the sites with coupons to draw customers (but then are a little disappointed when they show up and are not full-paying), plus they are pulling out all the stops on what they think will attract tourists with the singing and the balloon lady. We had a balloon guy come to our table at Chevy's in Orlando--a more appropriate venue--and it was a blast! Still, when it is all said and done, you have to put good food on the plate and make the customers comfortable. Not everyone who wants to run a restaurant should run one.
We visit a local family-owned Brazilian steakhouse, and it is awesome when they bring round after round of skewered meats to the table! I hope you all will get another chance to experience it soon.
I think Steve would like to give Fogo de Chao a try at some point. And I agree with you....not everyone with the desire to operate a restauant has the skill set to do so successfully
.
Quick question.. via the forums, I guess they are cracking down on things in your pockets (i.e. camera's, phones, loose change..) but what about getting pictures in the queue's?? When we visit, will I not be able to take pictures in the lines at Gringott's? That certainly seems unfortunate.
I'm not sure, really. We stowed all of our stuff (cameras included) and just opted for the in-queue pic with our Photoconnect card. Hopefully someone else will be able to chip in with whether or not they will allow you to bring a camera on board the ride.
Note to self: don't go to the Knife!
Congrats on going on Gringotts! I finally went on it myself back in March (the line was always super long but we managed to get an Express Pass from a friend). I prefer Forbidden Journey, but Gringotts was fun! I <3 Bill Weasley.
I'm with Steve: spinning rides make me so sick. I can't even go on a carousel. I can do roller coasters, but not like I used to.
Oh, carousels I love! (yes, I rode the Caro-Suess-el at IOA....who says I have to act like an adult
?) Forbidden Journey, I'm sure I would die on.
I am so glad you liked gringotts! I hesitated to read about t bc I didn't want too much to give it away but you posted great- just builds excitement. We did try to ride it in October, in line for nearly 3 hours as it went down and back running over and over then we finally gave up. Horrible! We got to see everything down to the 3 D glasses area! I have some very patient kids to wait that long and not complain when they didn't ride.
Lucky me thought, as of last night we decided we are going to do universal, just one day next month! Skipping Kennedy.
Woohoo, a Universal day! Less driving, and lots of fun! I hope you have a wonderful time there
, and that it makes your "no parks" vacation a little easier to bear.
Yay for going on Gringotts! I haven't done that one yet. I am trying to psych myself up for our upcoming trip this August. Does it compare to Spiderman or is it scarier?
Mmm, pink donut....
I didn't do Spiderman (though I was sorely tempted)....however the first thing out of Steve's mouth as we exited the ride was "if you can do Gringotts, you can do Spiderman".
Perhaps I will give it a try in October.
Now that you ve done Gringotts I will tell you my friend experience. She took her 9 year old ride weenie on it. While there were on it, it broke down for 1/2 hour. Where were they? They had just gone over to top of the dip so they hung there for 1/2 hour in the dark. They won't go back on it.
Went to IHOP once in Niagara Falls. Went to the one on Lundys lane thinking it would have falls mark up. Our meal for two (water only) was $50 for breakfast. The classic eggs, bacon dish was $17. Not going back there!
I do hope we can go to Orlando that first week of Sept. just started chemo and Dr said she'd be able to give me the okay at next months appointment
So happy to hear the positive news about your treatments and your trip! Best wishes for good health in the months ahead.
Eating at any US chains in Niagara is ridiculous. We paid over $100 for four burger meals with fries and soft drinks five years ago at Perkins.....never, never again. We love the Falls but getting good food for reasonable prices is always a challenge.
Your poor friends on Gringotts.....I swear to God I would have had a heart attack under similar conditions!!!
Wahoo Gina!! See, you can ride Gringotts! I am not a coaster fan either, but I can do small coasters like Mummy and Space Mountain. I just am glad when over. I happily watch kids go on the bigger coasters.
I don't like the spinning on MIB that much either. I try to look at a point, so not to get as dizzy. I only go 2 times in a row, then let the kids go on more times, as they usually do.
The pink donut was a hit for us! We totally enjoy sugary treats!
Yes, I was super proud of myself!
I was so glad we got the photo in the queue as proof I actually did it!
They have cracked down but it's fine at Gringotts. I had no issues with my phone in my pocket. First time I was a bit nervous so I put it in the locker. Then saw a ton of people with their phones. So brought it in with me after that. No bags, but secured items are okay. I did have a running belt with a 3 prong clasp - but was never checked. One time I had stuffed my phone into the pouch off my lanyard and a TM asked me to put it into a locker. I had no problems when I moved the phone into my pocket. We rode Gringott's 4 times - AMAZING!!
Our 2nd time on Gringotts (first thing in the morning shortly after 8:30am on a Monday morning), the ride had "technical difficulties". First, we got stopped just after we got strapped into the ride vehicles. Waited about 10 mins. Then, when we got to the drop, we were in the EXACT SAME position as your friend - suspended facing downwards (basically hanging there) just after the top of the drop for about 5 or so minutes. We were in the front row so it was extra crazy looking at a whole bunch of nothing in front of us. Then, they announced the ride was going to start "immediately". Still expecting a little more notice, we were completely shocked when the brakes were suddenly released, dropping us screaming down the tracks!
Thankfully, my kids thought it was a ton of fun and were not scared (was worried about my DD, who gets scared of everything). They now consider us to be very "lucky" to have experienced it. When we got off, they handed everyone in our car an Express Pass.
It was fabulous to walk past the 45-60 min line in the middle of the afternoon with our awesome Express Passes. They didn't end up taking our Express Passes from us or scanning them or anything. Odd. After we left, we had these Express Passes in hand that could still be used and we decided we didn't have the time to go on another round (we had already ridden 4 times!). Unfortunately, we completely forgot to look for a group when we exited. This was near the very end of our trip and we only had time for one more attraction and chose Disaster. Standing in line at Disaster, we looked around for a likely group of 4. No one in front or behind us looked suitable. Then in the next row, hubby heard a lady in a group of adults mention that she would like to ride Gringotts. It was hard to get their attention, but eventually he was able to lean over and ask if they wanted 4 Express Passes to Gringotts. She looked up, grabbed those Express passes out of hand so fast it made my head spin and within seconds they had left the line and were zooming off to Gringotts! As they left, we were still trying to figure out if they were a group of 4 or 5 LOL! We breathed a sigh of relief when we saw 4 adults leaving. It was so funny that they asked no questions and didn't even look at the passes before they were off. I don't even remember a thanks unless it flew by...she must have been sooooo excited! I was just glad they were going to be used by someone who obviously really wanted it.
I thought Escape from Gringotts was ok....I think Universal is relying way too heavily on motion simulation. Almost every ride there has some sort of simulation so it makes everything seem the same. I am not a Harry Potter fan but I really enjoyed the rest of Diagon Alley...very cool.
Wow, four times! My limit was two.....but perhaps I'll be able to up my tolerance by the time we visit again in October.
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