Day 7)
Checked out of Portifino stopped in a couple of store then headed over to LBV area. We had a brunch at Jungle Jims, Jana and I had a burger each Gus had Macncheese
and we all shared some nachos to start. Don't think any beer involved ( it was early !!! ) and it came to $33 (inc tip) JJ's isn't anything fancy, but if you've had a couple of expensive days and want to keep the cost down it's reasonable food at a damn good price. On a Sunday they often have animals come to the restaurant to showntell/amuse the kids. Today they had a selection of tiger cubs coming which would have been most exciting as tigers are Jana's favourite animals, but the time for this event is 2.00 and we'd finished eating by 12.30 and had things to do. We tried to kill a little time by grocery shopping in Goodings next door int he hope the tigers would turn up early, but it wasn't too be 
. Went to OKW where our room wasn't ready so we decided to lounge around the pool until the room was done. Unfortunately relaxing by the pool wasn't possible due to some very loud DJ insisting on playing appalling records on her poor quality sound system at a deafening level while shrieking into her mike. A fuller report is on http://disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=393704 but do take into consideration I'm not some shrinking violet who listens to classic FM, my favourite music at the moment is Eminem and the Red hot Chilli peppers AND I LIKE THEM LOUD !!!.
Eventually got into our room and although we were on the top floor ( as I wanted a view) the trees were so high ( and almost into the balcony) all you could see were trees . This was a shame because had at least a few of the trees been trimmed back I think it would have been a nice view over a lake and some of the golf course . Other than that the room was in a very good order. That evening we went to Planet Hollywood at Jana's request. I was a little wary as it hadn't been too good on my last visit, it hadn't changed IMHO. Food was OK, but it's too loud to be able to talk across the table and the service was no better than average. I had some pork chops, can't remember Jana's, Gus had Macncheese ( his comment " I've had better" LOL This boy knows his macncheese !!!!)
Day 8) We went to AK. Started by getting a FP for the safari and going to see the gorillas and bird garden while the safari came up. Nice ride, probably my favourite on Disney. Took the train to the conservation station, IMHO they could do a lot more here without too much expense or effort, and probably need to. It's an area that can be dropped if you're pressed for time IMHO. Went to see the tigers and Asia area, then into the dino playground for Gus and into the Chester and Hester "fairgroundy" type place. Went on Primaevil whirl, where Gus screamed like a girl because of the "fiece drop" . I did point out he goes down steeper drops on his bike on his grandparents driveway. Anyway he gave Jana and I some odd looks for the next 30 minutes convinced we were planing to abduct him and strap him onto the front of the Dueling Dragons coaster ( the fact this is about 30 miles away seemed to have escaped him) . He calmed down after being allowed to leap about the play area and dig up some dino bones ( I think it was evading his mom for 30 minutes when she was looking for him that cheered him up the most LOL). About now the heavens were getting VERY DARK and we decided that rain was coming SOOOON . We dived for the rainforest cafe and managed to get in before the deluge. Service here was a little off the mark, but the food was OK, it's a fun place to eat and it's not too expensive. Came to $70 for a shared started and a main each ( I'm not certain but Gus may have had a pizza here).
Day 9) Up not too early and we went off to Walmart for some essentials, then on to Boggy Creek Airboat ride. Took me a little longer than I'd anticipated. Mostly because I went East on the 192, not west and ended up at the original Boggy Creek ( a good deal further away than the one just off the 192) A slightly beaten up area it has to be said, but everything seemed clean and after a short wait we were off on out airboat. We saw a lot of birds, herons, egrets, storks, hawks and a bald Eagle. Sadly no gators. Gus decided it was nice and cooling to dip his hand into the lake, until I told him what gators ( and fish) do in water ( trying to scare him saying he'd get eaten wouldn't work, but the thought of getting gator poop on his hands grossed him out sufficiently to keep his hands inside the boat for the rest of the trip). Apparantly if you go at that time of year, you need to do a night trip if you want to be sure of seeing gators. It's too hot and the lurk under all the weeds etc. That evening we went back to the Outback restaurant in the Wyndham Palace. We split a starter and Jana and I both had REALLY good 12 oz filet mignon steaks and a couple of beers each, Gus had macncheese. Bill was $100, IMHO worth the money as it was QUALITY food.
Day 10) We lounged around OKW pool for 3-4 hours. Much excitement when a decent sized Indigo snake slithered across the path just behind our loungers and came through the bushes to within a couple of feet of where Jana and I were lying watching him. A beautiful animal, although Jana wasn't so keen, he hung about for a couple of minutes before climbing up over a bush and off into the undergrowth. Then as it was getting ready to pour down AGAIN we decided to leg it to DTD and take in X-Men II at the cinema and a little shopping around DTD. The evening we went to Boma's where Jana and I did some MAJOR damage to the excellent buffet there, Gus managed a couple of platefuls of macncheese ( declaring it a superior offering to most he had recently had) Bill came to $90 with a couple of cocktails thrown in. We wandered out onto the "Savannah " area and watched the Zebra amble about for 15 minutes or so. Very restful, IMHO and I'd love to stay in the AKL some day and spend a relaxing evening watching the animals at sunset while slurping a bottle of merlot or two.
Day 11) Checked out of OKW, dropped Jana+Gus at Orlando airport after I went to DTD to buy a bronze frog in the art shop there
. I'm onto froggy number 2 in my collection now as I really like wildlife art. Tim (the frogman ) Cotterill is this guys name and here's a link to show some of his work http://www.tryart.com/art/artists/f...cotterill-web_page-frogman_tim_cotterill.html . If I win the lottery I'll get a couple of Wyland original paintings to keep the froggies company ( Dream on LOL ) . After that I had to make my way down the Turnpike to Miami where I found my hotel fairly easily ( The Double Tree on Collins Ave in the South Beach area) and checked in. As this was booked through hotwire I was a little miffed to find they charge $18 a day for valet parking ( no parking lots that are easy to find nearby, but if I had stayed longer I'd have damn well found one LOL) , they charge $11 per day for the pool and beach facilities ( that includes loungers etc on the beach) Can't complain too much on this one as it looked pretty decent facilities, I just didn't get the chance to use them. They also tried the PBH trick of the "We provide this water as a service to our guest" ( ps it's $5 a bottle in tiny letters trick) but I'd wised up to that now. I went for a wander along South Beach. I wanted to go to an art shop Jana and I had visited in Xmas as I wished I'd bought a painting there, unfortunately they didn't have any I liked this trip . Had a couple of beers ina bar ( as it was DAMN HOT) and stopped at a restaurant ( called " A fish called Avalon ") along the road by South Beach. Had some GREAT fish there and a couple of glasses of chardoney bill came to $64. A little pricey for one, but it was REALLY GOOD food.
Next day returned the car ( blighters don't have any blasted gas stations near the car return so I got "done" for a tank of gas at the rental agents prices ) and got to the airport. I was a little concerned as there were some VERY angry looking clouds and some pretty tasty rain falling, but we managed to take off pretty close to on time and made up the loss ( decent tail winds apparantly, NO KIDDING !!!!) . Flew to Pittsbugh for my connection to the UK. Again this was US Airways and I believe they use some of their older flying stock on this particular route ( again NO KIDDING !!!) still the plane got me safely to blightly, the crew were very nice and the food was adiquate.
This was a pretty low key visit, didn't do much in the parks and just chilled with Jana a lot of the time. When you don't see each other for long stretches, you don't need a lot of external entertainment. Gus doesn't do the "thrill rides" yet and seems to prefer pools, climbing frames and slides to a lot of the rides in the parks so I find it hard justifying paying for park tickets everyday. Jana and I had a few longish conversations on our future plans and upside down on the RnR is probably not the easiest place to have those LOL.
The good.
OKW continues to be a great resort although I do think that some of the units with "woodlands views" like our first could really be "livened up" if they placed bird boxes on the trees. You get NO views in those units ( other than traffic on the road outside DVC) but a little wildlife action would compensate a little and maybe for some keen birdwatches this would actually be an attracton for those units. PBH was outstanding and the FOTL access at Universal is a great perk. Tchoup Chop, Boma's and The Outback restaurant were both outstanding ( Tchoup Chop getting the #1 ranking).
The bad .
PBH penny pinching ( or misguided service) , Planet Hollywood, OKW's needs just a little more work on reducing the foliage, particularly in clearing out some type of view for the units. Olivia's continues to dissapoint me, it continues to have an identity crisis caught between a coffee shop type place and a decent restaurant and ends up as the worst of both and the best of neither.
The Ugly, only one. That AWFUL DJ playing round OKW on Saturdays and Sundays. PLEASE !!! The themeing is meant to be a relaxing Keys/Caribbean feel to it, if we must have "entertainment" can it at least be decent quality and in a manner that reflects the resort?
I don't like to end on a downer so I'll cheer myself up with a link to the actual froggy I bought http://www.tryart.com/art/artists/f...gman_tim_cotterill-web_page-bf34_stretch.html and a fine creature he is as well
Checked out of Portifino stopped in a couple of store then headed over to LBV area. We had a brunch at Jungle Jims, Jana and I had a burger each Gus had Macncheese
and we all shared some nachos to start. Don't think any beer involved ( it was early !!! ) and it came to $33 (inc tip) JJ's isn't anything fancy, but if you've had a couple of expensive days and want to keep the cost down it's reasonable food at a damn good price. On a Sunday they often have animals come to the restaurant to showntell/amuse the kids. Today they had a selection of tiger cubs coming which would have been most exciting as tigers are Jana's favourite animals, but the time for this event is 2.00 and we'd finished eating by 12.30 and had things to do. We tried to kill a little time by grocery shopping in Goodings next door int he hope the tigers would turn up early, but it wasn't too be . Went to OKW where our room wasn't ready so we decided to lounge around the pool until the room was done. Unfortunately relaxing by the pool wasn't possible due to some very loud DJ insisting on playing appalling records on her poor quality sound system at a deafening level while shrieking into her mike. A fuller report is on http://disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=393704 but do take into consideration I'm not some shrinking violet who listens to classic FM, my favourite music at the moment is Eminem and the Red hot Chilli peppers AND I LIKE THEM LOUD !!!. Eventually got into our room and although we were on the top floor ( as I wanted a view) the trees were so high ( and almost into the balcony) all you could see were trees
. This was a shame because had at least a few of the trees been trimmed back I think it would have been a nice view over a lake and some of the golf course . Other than that the room was in a very good order. That evening we went to Planet Hollywood at Jana's request. I was a little wary as it hadn't been too good on my last visit, it hadn't changed IMHO. Food was OK, but it's too loud to be able to talk across the table and the service was no better than average. I had some pork chops, can't remember Jana's, Gus had Macncheese ( his comment " I've had better" LOL This boy knows his macncheese !!!!) Day 8) We went to AK. Started by getting a FP for the safari and going to see the gorillas and bird garden while the safari came up. Nice ride, probably my favourite on Disney. Took the train to the conservation station, IMHO they could do a lot more here without too much expense or effort, and probably need to. It's an area that can be dropped if you're pressed for time IMHO. Went to see the tigers and Asia area, then into the dino playground for Gus and into the Chester and Hester "fairgroundy" type place. Went on Primaevil whirl, where Gus screamed like a girl because of the "fiece drop"
. I did point out he goes down steeper drops on his bike on his grandparents driveway. Anyway he gave Jana and I some odd looks for the next 30 minutes convinced we were planing to abduct him and strap him onto the front of the Dueling Dragons coaster ( the fact this is about 30 miles away seemed to have escaped him) . He calmed down after being allowed to leap about the play area and dig up some dino bones ( I think it was evading his mom for 30 minutes when she was looking for him that cheered him up the most LOL). About now the heavens were getting VERY DARK and we decided that rain was coming SOOOON . We dived for the rainforest cafe and managed to get in before the deluge. Service here was a little off the mark, but the food was OK, it's a fun place to eat and it's not too expensive. Came to $70 for a shared started and a main each ( I'm not certain but Gus may have had a pizza here). Day 9) Up not too early and we went off to Walmart for some essentials, then on to Boggy Creek Airboat ride. Took me a little longer than I'd anticipated. Mostly because I went East on the 192, not west and ended up at the original Boggy Creek ( a good deal further away than the one just off the 192) A slightly beaten up area it has to be said, but everything seemed clean and after a short wait we were off on out airboat. We saw a lot of birds, herons, egrets, storks, hawks and a bald Eagle. Sadly no gators. Gus decided it was nice and cooling to dip his hand into the lake, until I told him what gators ( and fish) do in water ( trying to scare him saying he'd get eaten wouldn't work, but the thought of getting gator poop on his hands grossed him out sufficiently to keep his hands inside the boat for the rest of the trip). Apparantly if you go at that time of year, you need to do a night trip if you want to be sure of seeing gators. It's too hot and the lurk under all the weeds etc. That evening we went back to the Outback restaurant in the Wyndham Palace. We split a starter and Jana and I both had REALLY good 12 oz filet mignon steaks and a couple of beers each, Gus had macncheese. Bill was $100, IMHO worth the money as it was QUALITY food.
Day 10) We lounged around OKW pool for 3-4 hours. Much excitement when a decent sized Indigo snake slithered across the path just behind our loungers and came through the bushes to within a couple of feet of where Jana and I were lying watching him. A beautiful animal, although Jana wasn't so keen, he hung about for a couple of minutes before climbing up over a bush and off into the undergrowth. Then as it was getting ready to pour down AGAIN we decided to leg it to DTD and take in X-Men II at the cinema and a little shopping around DTD. The evening we went to Boma's where Jana and I did some MAJOR damage to the excellent buffet there, Gus managed a couple of platefuls of macncheese ( declaring it a superior offering to most he had recently had) Bill came to $90 with a couple of cocktails thrown in. We wandered out onto the "Savannah " area and watched the Zebra amble about for 15 minutes or so. Very restful, IMHO and I'd love to stay in the AKL some day and spend a relaxing evening watching the animals at sunset while slurping a bottle of merlot or two.
Day 11) Checked out of OKW, dropped Jana+Gus at Orlando airport after I went to DTD to buy a bronze frog in the art shop there
. I'm onto froggy number 2 in my collection now as I really like wildlife art. Tim (the frogman ) Cotterill is this guys name and here's a link to show some of his work http://www.tryart.com/art/artists/f...cotterill-web_page-frogman_tim_cotterill.html . If I win the lottery I'll get a couple of Wyland original paintings to keep the froggies company ( Dream on LOL ) . After that I had to make my way down the Turnpike to Miami where I found my hotel fairly easily ( The Double Tree on Collins Ave in the South Beach area) and checked in. As this was booked through hotwire I was a little miffed to find they charge $18 a day for valet parking ( no parking lots that are easy to find nearby, but if I had stayed longer I'd have damn well found one LOL) , they charge $11 per day for the pool and beach facilities ( that includes loungers etc on the beach) Can't complain too much on this one as it looked pretty decent facilities, I just didn't get the chance to use them. They also tried the PBH trick of the "We provide this water as a service to our guest" ( ps it's $5 a bottle in tiny letters trick) but I'd wised up to that now. I went for a wander along South Beach. I wanted to go to an art shop Jana and I had visited in Xmas as I wished I'd bought a painting there, unfortunately they didn't have any I liked this trip . Had a couple of beers ina bar ( as it was DAMN HOT) and stopped at a restaurant ( called " A fish called Avalon ") along the road by South Beach. Had some GREAT fish there and a couple of glasses of chardoney bill came to $64. A little pricey for one, but it was REALLY GOOD food. Next day returned the car ( blighters don't have any blasted gas stations near the car return so I got "done" for a tank of gas at the rental agents prices
) and got to the airport. I was a little concerned as there were some VERY angry looking clouds and some pretty tasty rain falling, but we managed to take off pretty close to on time and made up the loss ( decent tail winds apparantly, NO KIDDING !!!!) . Flew to Pittsbugh for my connection to the UK. Again this was US Airways and I believe they use some of their older flying stock on this particular route ( again NO KIDDING !!!) still the plane got me safely to blightly, the crew were very nice and the food was adiquate.This was a pretty low key visit, didn't do much in the parks and just chilled with Jana a lot of the time. When you don't see each other for long stretches, you don't need a lot of external entertainment. Gus doesn't do the "thrill rides" yet and seems to prefer pools, climbing frames and slides to a lot of the rides in the parks so I find it hard justifying paying for park tickets everyday. Jana and I had a few longish conversations on our future plans and upside down on the RnR is probably not the easiest place to have those LOL.
The good.
OKW continues to be a great resort although I do think that some of the units with "woodlands views" like our first could really be "livened up" if they placed bird boxes on the trees. You get NO views in those units ( other than traffic on the road outside DVC) but a little wildlife action would compensate a little and maybe for some keen birdwatches this would actually be an attracton for those units. PBH was outstanding and the FOTL access at Universal is a great perk. Tchoup Chop, Boma's and The Outback restaurant were both outstanding ( Tchoup Chop getting the #1 ranking).
The bad .
PBH penny pinching ( or misguided service) , Planet Hollywood, OKW's needs just a little more work on reducing the foliage, particularly in clearing out some type of view for the units. Olivia's continues to dissapoint me, it continues to have an identity crisis caught between a coffee shop type place and a decent restaurant and ends up as the worst of both and the best of neither.
The Ugly, only one. That AWFUL DJ playing round OKW on Saturdays and Sundays. PLEASE !!! The themeing is meant to be a relaxing Keys/Caribbean feel to it, if we must have "entertainment" can it at least be decent quality and in a manner that reflects the resort?
I don't like to end on a downer so I'll cheer myself up with a link to the actual froggy I bought http://www.tryart.com/art/artists/f...gman_tim_cotterill-web_page-bf34_stretch.html and a fine creature he is as well
. DVC members get to have a free rental of Pal Mickey. Since we checked in to OKW twice I got to get him twice 
). I had booked Tchoup Chop on line and they gave a space to let the staff know of anything important. I put in that it was our ann. and at the end of the meal they brought us a bowl of sherbert with a candle and 2 spoons 
