had a great trip as usual to orlando the 5 days before thgiving day. crowds were not too bad at uo, but were surprisingly heavy at sw. did dc w/ dolphin swim, and while it was great, my opinion is that dc is best experienced in warmer times of the year below are some of the things we did, places we ate, hotels, etc and our personal opinions. as always, thanks to all for the great ideas, info that you can get from these boards.
hotels: hrh 5nts, crowne plaza 2nts--thought the hrh was great, we had stayed at rpr before and liked hrh a little better--seemed less laid back. after uo part of trip moved to cr plaza for sw/dc part of trip. what a nice hotel(only 59/nt on hotwire)
***i think staying onsite at uo is so much better than off with fotl, resort feel, location, citiwalk, etc---but, if you couldn't swing onsite, the crowne plaza rooms are extremely nice and quite comfortable--more of a business hotel feel than resort though
EATS: Mythos--tried for the first time after all the great reviews--while we thought it had great ambience and was better than okay especially for a park restaurant, we didn't think it could compare to some of the restaurants outside of the parks
texas de brazil--meat eaters paradise, well prepared, incredible variety of meats to eat yourself into oblivion. great salad bar as well(but who wants to waste that space on grazing!) **sign up texas de brazil website to get coupons for the meal as it is very pricey(45pp)
dixie crossroads--seafood right across street from texas de brazil, very good fried seafood, very good broiled rock shrimp(which taste a lot like lobster)--but ate there a 2nd time and got everything broiled and it was not very good except for the rock shrimp. so if you get fried seafood or broiled rock shrimp, it's great
black angus steakhouse--had an early bird special of filet and shrimp for 12.99 and thought the steak was just as good as texas de brazil and the shrimp may have been better than dixie crossroads. we stumbled onto this restaurant down by downtown disney before a cirque performance--but i think there is one on i-drive as well. the ambience might not be so hot, but the food was surprisingly good and how can you beat the price.
pastamore?--the place across the walk from cinnabon in citiwalk had a pretty good bfast pizza w/ drink for $5. it was enough really for 2 people and was the only place to get something for bfast that wasn't a roll, sweet, etc and not have to sit at a restaurant or go offsite to mcd's
cracker barrel--i put this in here because it's 1/2mi or less from uo, and we walked right in on thsgiving day at 4:30 for a traditional meal w/ dessert for $9--i know its not a special place but it was predictably good and our only other choice was probably at one of the onsite hotels for 3-4x the cost and probably would have been no better--if we could get in
the kitchen at hrh--my wife had the worst chicken caesar she said she has ever had. said the dressing had so much horseradish that it was inedible. i got the mac n cheese which was okay but not as good as the mac n cheese at cracker barrel--so for the price, we thought the kitchen was a bust! our 12yr old got a kid's meal steak and it was good.
flippers pizza--ordered for delivery our first nite. it was really good as a lot of folks here have said
THINGS WE DID--ioa/us--this was our 3rd time here in 7yrs(i know some of you come every year or more) and while it was great, we think the harry potter world will really be great for ioa. with ripsaw closed there is hardly anything in toon world, and w/o young kids jurassic park really doesn't offer much either--so we feel ioa is ready for some new stuff--but we still love spiderman!! us is really not a thrill ride park, mummy is it--but that's okay. i just think us has to stay current with their 3d adventures, etc
gatorland--we did this for the first time and thought it was a great half day. very different from the big parks, really interesting if you want to see big alligators, well worth the money in our opinion
seaworld--was really busy on tues, wed before thgiving, surprisingly busy
disc cove--commented above
blue man group/cirque de solei--did both of these and enjoyed both. i don't think you have to worry about where to sit--especially at cirque. of the 2, we enjoyed cirque more, thought it was fabulous. 12yr old really got in to bmg
st. augustine--drove thru on way home, what a neat place, we will be visiting there on our next florida trip
final thoughts--having a car really opens up a lot more choices(duh!)--the only disadvantage is the parking fee at the uo hotels
i don't know if i should obsess so much about where to stay if it is offsite--there are just so many good choices.
we've always been fortunate to go during slower times, and i suspect there is no comparison to how much easier the vacation is because of that
i don't know if that was quick, but that's the highlight
hotels: hrh 5nts, crowne plaza 2nts--thought the hrh was great, we had stayed at rpr before and liked hrh a little better--seemed less laid back. after uo part of trip moved to cr plaza for sw/dc part of trip. what a nice hotel(only 59/nt on hotwire)
***i think staying onsite at uo is so much better than off with fotl, resort feel, location, citiwalk, etc---but, if you couldn't swing onsite, the crowne plaza rooms are extremely nice and quite comfortable--more of a business hotel feel than resort though
EATS: Mythos--tried for the first time after all the great reviews--while we thought it had great ambience and was better than okay especially for a park restaurant, we didn't think it could compare to some of the restaurants outside of the parks
texas de brazil--meat eaters paradise, well prepared, incredible variety of meats to eat yourself into oblivion. great salad bar as well(but who wants to waste that space on grazing!) **sign up texas de brazil website to get coupons for the meal as it is very pricey(45pp)
dixie crossroads--seafood right across street from texas de brazil, very good fried seafood, very good broiled rock shrimp(which taste a lot like lobster)--but ate there a 2nd time and got everything broiled and it was not very good except for the rock shrimp. so if you get fried seafood or broiled rock shrimp, it's great
black angus steakhouse--had an early bird special of filet and shrimp for 12.99 and thought the steak was just as good as texas de brazil and the shrimp may have been better than dixie crossroads. we stumbled onto this restaurant down by downtown disney before a cirque performance--but i think there is one on i-drive as well. the ambience might not be so hot, but the food was surprisingly good and how can you beat the price.
pastamore?--the place across the walk from cinnabon in citiwalk had a pretty good bfast pizza w/ drink for $5. it was enough really for 2 people and was the only place to get something for bfast that wasn't a roll, sweet, etc and not have to sit at a restaurant or go offsite to mcd's
cracker barrel--i put this in here because it's 1/2mi or less from uo, and we walked right in on thsgiving day at 4:30 for a traditional meal w/ dessert for $9--i know its not a special place but it was predictably good and our only other choice was probably at one of the onsite hotels for 3-4x the cost and probably would have been no better--if we could get in
the kitchen at hrh--my wife had the worst chicken caesar she said she has ever had. said the dressing had so much horseradish that it was inedible. i got the mac n cheese which was okay but not as good as the mac n cheese at cracker barrel--so for the price, we thought the kitchen was a bust! our 12yr old got a kid's meal steak and it was good.
flippers pizza--ordered for delivery our first nite. it was really good as a lot of folks here have said
THINGS WE DID--ioa/us--this was our 3rd time here in 7yrs(i know some of you come every year or more) and while it was great, we think the harry potter world will really be great for ioa. with ripsaw closed there is hardly anything in toon world, and w/o young kids jurassic park really doesn't offer much either--so we feel ioa is ready for some new stuff--but we still love spiderman!! us is really not a thrill ride park, mummy is it--but that's okay. i just think us has to stay current with their 3d adventures, etc
gatorland--we did this for the first time and thought it was a great half day. very different from the big parks, really interesting if you want to see big alligators, well worth the money in our opinion
seaworld--was really busy on tues, wed before thgiving, surprisingly busy
disc cove--commented above
blue man group/cirque de solei--did both of these and enjoyed both. i don't think you have to worry about where to sit--especially at cirque. of the 2, we enjoyed cirque more, thought it was fabulous. 12yr old really got in to bmg
st. augustine--drove thru on way home, what a neat place, we will be visiting there on our next florida trip
final thoughts--having a car really opens up a lot more choices(duh!)--the only disadvantage is the parking fee at the uo hotels
i don't know if i should obsess so much about where to stay if it is offsite--there are just so many good choices.
we've always been fortunate to go during slower times, and i suspect there is no comparison to how much easier the vacation is because of that
i don't know if that was quick, but that's the highlight
