daannzzz
OMG...Theres my favorite scrambled
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2001
- Messages
- 5,401
Hi all. My trip to Central Florida was wonderful though it did run a bit hot. The temperature was in the low to mid 90s most of the time. The last three days it lowered to the high 80s. I was not sure if it was really humid or not. I assumed it was somewhat but checked the weather channel and the humidity was fairly high. The mornings and evenings were beautiful though and I love it there.
I arrived on Saturday the 3d at 6:20 and after a slightly frustrating event with the rental car company I drove over to the Gaylord palms hotel that I had gotten via Priceline for $94. This was a very nice place with 3 large atriums. My room was in the Everglades section and looked down into the atrium where there was some bayou like shacks that were the hotels Steakhouse. There was another atrium in the Key West section that had a sailing ship moored on a bay. This was the seafood restaurant. The Main atrium was huge and had some shops, restaurants, waterfalls, walkways, creeks and such.
The next morning I got up and headed over to Sarasota. This was about a two-hour drive and was mostly on freeways. There was not a lot to look at, as most of Florida seems to look the same. I went directly to the Ringling museum. This is the Ringling of the Circus. He had an estate there in Sarasota that is the winter home of the circus. The large Italian style home is there to tour and has been partially renovated to the tune of 12 million dollars. The will be doing another 21 million dollars of work. It was very impressive with much of the original furnishings and paintings still there. One painting alone was worth 15 million dollars. The house is set on the edge of the bay and has a large tiled patio. It really feels as if you are in an Italian Villa.
Next was the circus museum that was down the walkway from the house. This was not really large but had costumes, wood work, props and wagons. The best was a miniature of the 3-ring circus set up.
At the front of the property was the Ringling museum of art. This was a large U shaped building filled with paintings, sculptures and jewelry from the 1400s to the 1800s. Much of it was oriented around the Christian religion and there were a lot of paintings of Christ, Mary and many Saints. I spent about four hours total on the property. If you are near Sarasota this is one of the best $15 you can spend.
I next went across the street to the Sarasota Classic Car museum. This was okay though not spectacular. There were some rare cars though I was not familiar with them. The owner of this collection is British and he had a lot of British and European cars. Still there was also a section with old games from arcades that I hadnt seen in a long time. I mean OLD. These were from the 50s!
I next drove over to Longboat Key toward my hotel. I went through Lido Beach, which looked charming, interesting and crowded. I found Longboat Key to be quite beautiful. It is filled with hotels; Condos and timeshares with much nicely landscaped grounds. My hotel, The Turtle Crawl Inn, was much older looking than in the pictures. You could tell that it was built in the 60s and 70s and had been remodeled. The interior however was recently redone. The place had a tile floor through out the bedroom, living area, kitchen and bathroom. The bathroom was a bit dated but very clean. The kitchen and living area were modern and clean and had a full wall of floor to ceiling windows / slider that looked out on the beach and sparkling blue ocean. However in the heat and facing west the balcony was not a pleasant spot until after the sun went down. But the view was still good from the air condition living area. I did go down and walk along the beach and looked at the birds and shells. Dinner was another matter. There were not a lot of restaurants in the area I was in. I ended up at the restaurant at the Holiday in about a mile down the road. It was decent food. I spent most of the evening on the balcony!
The next morning I drove back to the Orlando area and headed to Downtown Disney which is a large shopping area with a theater complex, Cirque d Soleil theater and nightclub section. I did some looking around in the shops to see what souvenirs were available but didnt buy anything at the time. I checked into my hotel (the Renaissance Worldgate) that I had gotten through Hotwire. I had stayed there in 2000 for three nights and knew it was fine though Renaissance has let some of the upkeep go. That evening I cruised around Kissimee looking for a place to eat and could not find something special so I went to a Bob Evans which is a chain we dont have on the west coast. It is like a Dennys crossed with a Cracker Barrel and has a slight colonial theme. It was good. Just like home cooked food!
The next morning I got up and drove over to check into the Portofino Bay Hotel located on the Universal property and run by Loews hotels. This is a replica of the Bay City of Portofino in Italy. A room was ready for me and though it was way down at the end of the wing, and my Bay view was of the bay but not much of the hotel I did have some nice landscaping and flowers out side my window. Being at the end of the wing also means less traffic. The room was nice size and the all marble and tile bathroom was huge. To get to the Universal parks I took a boat down the canal past the Hard Rock Hotel to the Citywalk dock. My stay here was ver nice and I had a great dinner at Mama Dellas.
I had been to Islands of Adventure in 2000 but had never, in all my trips to Orlando, gone to Universal Studios. I have been to Universal Hollywood a few times and while I enjoy that as a real Hollywood studio it is not a great theme park. Lately the Hollywood Park has not been as good of a studio tour either. I found Universal Studios in Orlando to be a wonderful; park, full of great backlot sets, particularly the New York Section. Each individual attraction was good to very good and the food and service at Lombards Landing and Finnegans was great. I spent 1 day and a half at the studios and ¾ of a day at Islands of Adventure.
I then moved over to Disneys Port Orleans Riverside. I was assigned a room in the Mansion home section, which really made me feel, like I was staying at a southern estate home in the 1800s. I could see the landscaped courtyard; fountain and river with boats cruising buy, from the chair in my room. I spent a lot of time here and enjoyed it immensely. During this time I went to Epcot, The Animal Kingdom, and The Magic Kingdom. I had a great time at the parks and had some good meals at Nine Dragons in Epcot and the Liberty Tree Tavern lunch at the Magic Kingdom. I had my most expensive meal for dinner at the Animal Kingdom Lodges full service restaurant Jiko. It has an interesting menu of new age food with an African influence. My salad had flowers in it and a wonderful dressing. The main course was a Filet Minion over macaroni and cheese. The four cheeses though were richer and sharp than any other I had had on macaroni. It was served with a mushroom ragout and field greens (weeds) with flowers on them.
For my Birthday May 13 I did laundry and swam at Port Orleans Riverside and then I went to a park called Splendid China in Kissimee which when it first opened was probably very beautiful. It has not done well in the competitive Orlando market and the landscaping and upkeep have suffered. It is a 76-acre park full of miniatures of Chinese palaces, buildings and villages. Even in its unkempt state it was fairly spectacular and I do hope they get an infusion of money to help. When I arrived at 12:00 there were only about 15 cars in the parking lot. It is real sad to see such a wonderful place be abandoned by the public and unable to maintain their facilities.
For my birthday dinner I went to my favorite Walt Disney World Restaurant Ohana. It was great and the food was wonderful as usual.
On Wednesday I moved over to Disneys Wilderness lodge and got a room overlooking the some wilderness area, large trees full of hanging moss and the lake beyond. I forgot how much I enjoyed the rooms at the lodge. My room had a granite balcony that was fairly well enclosed so if you sat on the chair you could not see out over the wall. I could see the trees though. You had to stand and lean against the balcony wall to see out at anything. It was pretty hot anyway so I didnt spend a lot of time out there.
I went to the Disney MGM studios, and a second day at Epcot and the Magic Kingdom. I had a great lunch at Restaurant Akershus the buffet in the Norway pavilion at Epcot. I also had an okay lunch at Tonys Town Square in the Magic Kingdom. It is a pretty Italian restaurant and the food was fine but nothing spectacular.
I didnt want to write a hugely long report, which would have been easy. I know I didnt tell about a lot of the things I did but then every one would be even more bored with this letter.
All in all I had a great trip even if it was a bit too hot. I really didnt want to return home.
I arrived on Saturday the 3d at 6:20 and after a slightly frustrating event with the rental car company I drove over to the Gaylord palms hotel that I had gotten via Priceline for $94. This was a very nice place with 3 large atriums. My room was in the Everglades section and looked down into the atrium where there was some bayou like shacks that were the hotels Steakhouse. There was another atrium in the Key West section that had a sailing ship moored on a bay. This was the seafood restaurant. The Main atrium was huge and had some shops, restaurants, waterfalls, walkways, creeks and such.
The next morning I got up and headed over to Sarasota. This was about a two-hour drive and was mostly on freeways. There was not a lot to look at, as most of Florida seems to look the same. I went directly to the Ringling museum. This is the Ringling of the Circus. He had an estate there in Sarasota that is the winter home of the circus. The large Italian style home is there to tour and has been partially renovated to the tune of 12 million dollars. The will be doing another 21 million dollars of work. It was very impressive with much of the original furnishings and paintings still there. One painting alone was worth 15 million dollars. The house is set on the edge of the bay and has a large tiled patio. It really feels as if you are in an Italian Villa.
Next was the circus museum that was down the walkway from the house. This was not really large but had costumes, wood work, props and wagons. The best was a miniature of the 3-ring circus set up.
At the front of the property was the Ringling museum of art. This was a large U shaped building filled with paintings, sculptures and jewelry from the 1400s to the 1800s. Much of it was oriented around the Christian religion and there were a lot of paintings of Christ, Mary and many Saints. I spent about four hours total on the property. If you are near Sarasota this is one of the best $15 you can spend.
I next went across the street to the Sarasota Classic Car museum. This was okay though not spectacular. There were some rare cars though I was not familiar with them. The owner of this collection is British and he had a lot of British and European cars. Still there was also a section with old games from arcades that I hadnt seen in a long time. I mean OLD. These were from the 50s!
I next drove over to Longboat Key toward my hotel. I went through Lido Beach, which looked charming, interesting and crowded. I found Longboat Key to be quite beautiful. It is filled with hotels; Condos and timeshares with much nicely landscaped grounds. My hotel, The Turtle Crawl Inn, was much older looking than in the pictures. You could tell that it was built in the 60s and 70s and had been remodeled. The interior however was recently redone. The place had a tile floor through out the bedroom, living area, kitchen and bathroom. The bathroom was a bit dated but very clean. The kitchen and living area were modern and clean and had a full wall of floor to ceiling windows / slider that looked out on the beach and sparkling blue ocean. However in the heat and facing west the balcony was not a pleasant spot until after the sun went down. But the view was still good from the air condition living area. I did go down and walk along the beach and looked at the birds and shells. Dinner was another matter. There were not a lot of restaurants in the area I was in. I ended up at the restaurant at the Holiday in about a mile down the road. It was decent food. I spent most of the evening on the balcony!
The next morning I drove back to the Orlando area and headed to Downtown Disney which is a large shopping area with a theater complex, Cirque d Soleil theater and nightclub section. I did some looking around in the shops to see what souvenirs were available but didnt buy anything at the time. I checked into my hotel (the Renaissance Worldgate) that I had gotten through Hotwire. I had stayed there in 2000 for three nights and knew it was fine though Renaissance has let some of the upkeep go. That evening I cruised around Kissimee looking for a place to eat and could not find something special so I went to a Bob Evans which is a chain we dont have on the west coast. It is like a Dennys crossed with a Cracker Barrel and has a slight colonial theme. It was good. Just like home cooked food!
The next morning I got up and drove over to check into the Portofino Bay Hotel located on the Universal property and run by Loews hotels. This is a replica of the Bay City of Portofino in Italy. A room was ready for me and though it was way down at the end of the wing, and my Bay view was of the bay but not much of the hotel I did have some nice landscaping and flowers out side my window. Being at the end of the wing also means less traffic. The room was nice size and the all marble and tile bathroom was huge. To get to the Universal parks I took a boat down the canal past the Hard Rock Hotel to the Citywalk dock. My stay here was ver nice and I had a great dinner at Mama Dellas.
I had been to Islands of Adventure in 2000 but had never, in all my trips to Orlando, gone to Universal Studios. I have been to Universal Hollywood a few times and while I enjoy that as a real Hollywood studio it is not a great theme park. Lately the Hollywood Park has not been as good of a studio tour either. I found Universal Studios in Orlando to be a wonderful; park, full of great backlot sets, particularly the New York Section. Each individual attraction was good to very good and the food and service at Lombards Landing and Finnegans was great. I spent 1 day and a half at the studios and ¾ of a day at Islands of Adventure.
I then moved over to Disneys Port Orleans Riverside. I was assigned a room in the Mansion home section, which really made me feel, like I was staying at a southern estate home in the 1800s. I could see the landscaped courtyard; fountain and river with boats cruising buy, from the chair in my room. I spent a lot of time here and enjoyed it immensely. During this time I went to Epcot, The Animal Kingdom, and The Magic Kingdom. I had a great time at the parks and had some good meals at Nine Dragons in Epcot and the Liberty Tree Tavern lunch at the Magic Kingdom. I had my most expensive meal for dinner at the Animal Kingdom Lodges full service restaurant Jiko. It has an interesting menu of new age food with an African influence. My salad had flowers in it and a wonderful dressing. The main course was a Filet Minion over macaroni and cheese. The four cheeses though were richer and sharp than any other I had had on macaroni. It was served with a mushroom ragout and field greens (weeds) with flowers on them.
For my Birthday May 13 I did laundry and swam at Port Orleans Riverside and then I went to a park called Splendid China in Kissimee which when it first opened was probably very beautiful. It has not done well in the competitive Orlando market and the landscaping and upkeep have suffered. It is a 76-acre park full of miniatures of Chinese palaces, buildings and villages. Even in its unkempt state it was fairly spectacular and I do hope they get an infusion of money to help. When I arrived at 12:00 there were only about 15 cars in the parking lot. It is real sad to see such a wonderful place be abandoned by the public and unable to maintain their facilities.
For my birthday dinner I went to my favorite Walt Disney World Restaurant Ohana. It was great and the food was wonderful as usual.
On Wednesday I moved over to Disneys Wilderness lodge and got a room overlooking the some wilderness area, large trees full of hanging moss and the lake beyond. I forgot how much I enjoyed the rooms at the lodge. My room had a granite balcony that was fairly well enclosed so if you sat on the chair you could not see out over the wall. I could see the trees though. You had to stand and lean against the balcony wall to see out at anything. It was pretty hot anyway so I didnt spend a lot of time out there.
I went to the Disney MGM studios, and a second day at Epcot and the Magic Kingdom. I had a great lunch at Restaurant Akershus the buffet in the Norway pavilion at Epcot. I also had an okay lunch at Tonys Town Square in the Magic Kingdom. It is a pretty Italian restaurant and the food was fine but nothing spectacular.
I didnt want to write a hugely long report, which would have been easy. I know I didnt tell about a lot of the things I did but then every one would be even more bored with this letter.
All in all I had a great trip even if it was a bit too hot. I really didnt want to return home.
Mine is the 14th. Sounds like you had a wonderful place to stay. I would love to see Splendid China. Its a shame to hear that nobody is going there any more.
