April 2013 - Our last hurrah!

[BurleyGirl]

Wow! What a terrific TR!! I've thoroughly enjoyed taking this virtual trip with you!!

So sorry to read of your husband's job misfortunes, and I admire you both for pushing through it! I do hope all ends well. My DH lost his job one week before our departure for our last scheduled trip this past March, and as we'd never been through that in our whole 27 years of marriage and were completely scared, we decided it best to cancel the trip, only losing our airfare. It was a huge disappointment, on top of the already horrible news...

We have a trip planned for November 2014 , and will be doing both Disney and Universal as you did. We've done this before, but not since HP & Transformers have opened, so we're really looking forward to it!

I must say that you have the cutest figure! I had read a snippet about the new 5:2 diet craze coming from Britain, so it's interesting to read of someone who actually did it. And, I must comment that your little dresses are adorable, and glad to see that you wore them to the parks/rides with no issues, as I would really like to do the same!

(Your curtsy episode was too funny!)

And, I'm really enjoying the jargon you use, as my DS14 is very into anything British (he wishes he had the accent to go with it!), so I am looking up some of your words so I can pass them on to him to broaden his vocabulary! The Union Jack shirt we picked up for him from our one-day visit to Windsor last year has become his favorite thing to wear! We hope to get him over there someday...maybe even some college studies abroad (we can dream!).

I've already made some notes of foods I want to try based upon your TR, and also helpful hints (about the shortcut for HP) for our upcoming trip. Thanks for all the details!!

Looking forward to reading more of your brilliant (I learned that's our equivalent of great) TR!

 

[Hannikins]

You fitted tons in today, I felt tired just reading it.

thanks

Yay !!! looking forward to it.... I only stumbled across your trippie by accident as it wasn't in the UKDIS trip reports section.
I started primarily because you stayed at SSR, where we are staying next year

Tony

Thanks for reading! I know, I did start a pretrippy in the UK section but started on the main trippie here by mistake, I just decided to roll with it

Wow! What a terrific TR!! I've thoroughly enjoyed taking this virtual trip with you!!

So sorry to read of your husband's job misfortunes, and I admire you both for pushing through it! I do hope all ends well. My DH lost his job one week before our departure for our last scheduled trip this past March, and as we'd never been through that in our whole 27 years of marriage and were completely scared, we decided it best to cancel the trip, only losing our airfare. It was a huge disappointment, on top of the already horrible news...

We have a trip planned for November 2014 , and will be doing both Disney and Universal as you did. We've done this before, but not since HP & Transformers have opened, so we're really looking forward to it!

I must say that you have the cutest figure! I had read a snippet about the new 5:2 diet craze coming from Britain, so it's interesting to read of someone who actually did it. And, I must comment that your little dresses are adorable, and glad to see that you wore them to the parks/rides with no issues, as I would really like to do the same!

(Your curtsy episode was too funny!)

And, I'm really enjoying the jargon you use, as my DS14 is very into anything British (he wishes he had the accent to go with it!), so I am looking up some of your words so I can pass them on to him to broaden his vocabulary! The Union Jack shirt we picked up for him from our one-day visit to Windsor last year has become his favorite thing to wear! We hope to get him over there someday...maybe even some college studies abroad (we can dream!).

I've already made some notes of foods I want to try based upon your TR, and also helpful hints (about the shortcut for HP) for our upcoming trip. Thanks for all the details!!

Looking forward to reading more of your brilliant (I learned that's our equivalent of great) TR!

hehe I never thought about the jargon, I guess there's a fair few things I don't realise! I'm from the North of England so some of my 'jargon' isn't even the queen's english, I must try harder

I hope your son makes it over here again soon!

 

[Hannikins]

April 2013 - Our last hurrah! - Day 10

Ok so I promise you this last week and didn’t get round to it, with Sicily on the cards in 2 days time I’ve decided to complete that day as promised as it will be nearly two weeks until the next one!... just managing expectations and all ;P

The 5.45am wake up of yesterday was a tab excessive even for us so we decided to sleep in a little… until 6.15, I know I know, gluttons for punishment I hear you cry! It’s so difficult not getting sucked into the routine of needing to squeeze absolutely everything into each and every day for us, and as we’d paid a lot for this extra hour, we were damn well going to use it!

Knowing we weren’t going to see huge queues waiting to get in we took our time and I indulged Adam with a spot of photo taking.

We treated the morning in exactly the same way as we had the day before, heading straight for HP first, only this time we tried the short cut and I really do think it makes a difference, it’s marginal but at busy times I bet it cuts a few people out of the queue.

We visited Hogwarts a few times first, as it started to get busy we switched to the single rider queue and used that instead. Like with rock and roller coaster the single rider queue works particularly well on this ride, rarely was there a queue and we sometimes got on the same bench and if not, almost always the next one, and as a complete walk on, it was brilliant!

Dueling dragons was closed for some reason and having already experienced the wand shop we decided to explore a bit more and take some photos

I love all the layers of detail, I think you could visit here hundreds of times and always see something different

Eventually dragons opened and we squeezed in a few rides, still sticking with our favourite one.

At the exit I noticed this

and realized we were yet to try butterbeer! Considering it was on my snack list I’m surprised we hadn’t had one yesterday, although I think then we were in too much of a panic to try and get things done!

I suggested we shared one in case we didn’t like it but with Adam wanting a plain and me wanting a frozen one that wasn’t really an option!

I’m glad we got one of each, considering it’s the same thing they tasted different! It wasn’t as sweet as I was expecting, not for me anyway! It was like liquid frozen butterscotch with a hint of ‘something else’, which Adam thought was Liquorice
?

See, he’s the Oz Clarke of the wizarding world my husband!

Anyway we both finished them off so they weren’t wasted!

Done with harry potter for the day we headed in the direction of spiderman. On the way we felt sorry for the cast member trying to usher people into cat in the hat and gave it a go. I hate and love this ride in equal measure, the spinning makes my legs hurt when I try and steady myself, but it’s so much FUN!

Anyway we finally made it to spiderman and then hulk. Hulk made my head spin so I sat it out.

Adam spotted some bad guys outside spiderman so we went to get some photos.

It was starting to heat up a little now so we headed to Jurassic Park

We figured it would provide a light shower, except it didn’t, we got completely DRENCHED!

As we were now soaking we decided now would be as good a time as any to get truly wet and headed towards the barges.

I love this ride and I usually spend the whole time giggling away, especially when you get people who have never been on before in your barge. I don’t think anyone believes they soak you as much as they do!

Next we headed to the olive to dry off. Having taken a soaking we thought it only fair we give something back to our fellow riders.

I’m always amazed how few people come up here, who wouldn’t want to spend time soaking other guests without having to pay for the privilege!

We were there for a good 30 minutes, meanies that we are! It did start spitting with rain though so we decided to make a move, stopping to watch the heros arrive as we did.

Not wanting to repeat yesterday’s lunch disaster we decided to see if Universal Studios could offer up anything better.

 

[Hannikins]

I had heard mel’s diner was decent so we headed straight over and grabbed a table outside.

We ordered a burger and a milkshake each

Well all I can say is HURRAH! My faith in non Disney food is restored, both the burger and shake were epic!

We were now stuffed so we headed towards san fransciso to get a signal to check our emails and let our tummies ‘settle’.

Afterwards I noticed a show about to start, which I had never heard of before, ‘Fear Factor’. I’d not seen it mentioned in many trippies but still feeling full we thought it worth a shot.

What a fab show! I can’t remember what was here last time back in 2009 but I don’t think it was this, definitely worth a look!

We filed out onto the waterfront and did MIB and then the Simpsons, or at least we tried to, it broke down so we were waiting for ages!

The wait had slowed us down somewhat so I was starting to flag a little, we decided to get a few more rides in and then head for the pool.

First we rode the mummy, again this is another that you skip a lot of the queue for with express pass. Although on this occasion there was a hold up as a woman and family in front of us were going NUTS because they had already used their pass once and couldn’t use it again, she had not been told this when forking out for them! I expect this happens a lot, I think a lot of people assume the passes you buy do the same as the hotel passes… which of course they don’t!

Thankfully we managed to sneak through trying not to look to smug with our ‘proper’ passes

For our final ride we chose rip ride and rocket. This particular ride was hilarious! The woman behind us was hysterical from start to finish, I’m surprised they let her on! Now I know this sounds cruel but on leaving the ride we did the only thing we could do in that situation… we went to watch her onride video, and it was a keeper, definitely worth a purchase, her face was a PICTURE, I know, cruel… but darn good viewing ;P

It was getting on for 3pm so we decided to head out for some relaxation, I knew if we didn’t we’d crash and burn by 9pm like we did the night before!

A quick trip to the room and we were ready to rock!

I left Adam on a sun lounger so he could ‘big himself up’ a little, seriously the guy is more conscious of bearing the flesh than I am!

Anyway I braved it alone and after some gentle coaxing I managed to get him in.

We swam for a while and listened to the dj and listen to the guitar player for a bit before finding an area next to the slide to sit and chill. It was warm but unfortunately a little over cast now, just like all our pool encounters this holiday really!

Adam went to explore the ‘adults’ only bit, still no idea what it is, I think he got his hopes up for a topless beach but was sadly disappointed ;P

Anyway I did convince him to try the slide a few times. No way was I going on it though, even small water slides scare me! I’m so glad I didn’t , a group of girls came down and they all had burn marks on their bums afterwards, they looked red raw!

Adam had had enough so he headed back to the sun lounger, I did a bit more drifting before joining him. I wrapped myself in some towels and then..zzzzz

Yep I fell asleep, it must have been for a while, Adam only woke me up again because I was snoring!

Groggily we made it back to the room and feeling refreshed after my nap decided to get dressed up for our night at portofino bay.

 

[Hannikins]

I know you can get the boat over but it was such a lovely night we took the walkway instead, I’m glad we did, it was a lovely walk.

We’d loved this resort on our last trip, looking back I’m not sure why we didn’t stay here! I think it would have suited us much better than HRH, I doubt you get rowdy guests and eau de weed here!

We looked first at mama della’s, the wait here was only 45 minutes but Adam wanted to sit outside but you couldn’t unless eating at the tratorria next door… which I wasn’t keen on. After a bit of umming and ahhing we thought sod it and went to check out BiCE instead! We’d wanted to try here, but with a few expensive meals under our belts now I’d taken it off the plan on getting Adam’s bad news, however now I was more in a ‘sod it’ frame of mind. Unfortunately we were informed the wait would be 1.15 minutes! Yikes! However we decided to go with it since we had to eat somewhere and would have a wait wherever we ended up!

With time to kill we headed to the bar downstairs.

We both order peroni’s, which came with more bar snacks, a god send as we were both peckish!

Not long after sitting down a band set up and starting playing. Looking back it was a highlight of the holiday for me, so relaxing… or at least it was until I sneeze while eating a wasarbi pea, then all hell broke loose as I coughed and sneezed my way through the bands next set and completely ruined the relaxing atmosphere ;P It’s not advised ladies and gents.

A few peroni’s later we were very ‘relaxed’ to say the least and we decided to make a move back up to BiCE. We were 10 minutes early for our reservation but we were seated in no time, my this place was ‘swish’!
I didn’t get chance to take a photo but here it is.

we were seated in the middle of the dining room and our server arrived with a florish as if from nowhere. His name was Robert and he was like the don draper of the serving world, seriously this guy was smoooooth! I’ve tried finding a photo but despite getting lots of mentions on trip advisor I can find nothing! Robert had a sales pitch so perfect it was a pleasure to listen to even though it was a little cringy!

Robert took our drinks order before heading off to bring us the bread service.

We had a rough idea of what we wanted but for entertainment value we decided to ask Robert what he’d recommend. Well, off he went gushing about his ‘favourite’ dishes, by the end of it I don’t think there was a single thing he didn’t say he wouldn’t “eat everyday” or was “to die for”. Adam wasn’t sure about which pasta dish he wanted so Robert suggested he order a half portion of each! (I was a little worried, I thought this a cunning plot to charge us more, it wasn’t, on inspecting the bill everything was exactly half, good on Robert!). This sounded fun so I did the same choosing the dish I had wanted in the first place and one that Robert thought I might like.

When the dishes arrived I was gobsmack, HALF portions, I dread to think what a FULL portion looked like, they were huge!

Adam had:

Linguine with Clams, flavored with Parsley and fresh Tomato Concasse’

and

Potato Gnocchi with a Fresh Diced Tomato Sauce, Mozzarella Cheese and Basil Leaves

I had:

Little Purses stuffed with Pear and Gorgonzola in four Cheese fondue with Sundried Tomatoes

and

Spinach and Ricotta Filled pasta served in a Butter and Sage Sauce with Parmesan Cheese Shavings

Robert had been concerned that my first chosen dish might be a little heavy and so recommended the lighter second dish. He was sooo right, this guy might be cheesy beyond belief but boy did he know his stuff. In the end I managed a few pieces of the pear purses and finished all of the spinach and ricotta ones they were just so yummy!

Adam faired a little better, he managed 50% of each of his dishes and thought both were amazing.

Although we were stuffed Robert said we should try some dessert, we thought it would be rude not to since we didn’t have apps, and we always have room for dessert! Thinking it might be smaller and manageable than some of the options we went for the Sicilian style Cannoli with Sweet Ricotta and Chocolate Chips served with Pistacchio Ice Cream.

How wrong we were! You got FOUR Cannoli!

We managed one each, rubbish as we are. After dessert Robert came over for a ‘chat’, I say a chat, I think he just came over to deliver the bill but Adam had 5 peroni’s worth of ‘chat’ in him so I don’t think he had a choice! It became clear during the chat that although Robert had a clean and polished performance when dealing with the usual questions and requirements of diners, he wasn’t quite so polished when going ‘off plan’. They had a great little conversation about the size of the servings, the long and short of it, Robert thought, being that guests wanted to feel they got value and that the chef hadn’t got a clue! He went from the Don Draper of servers to a *****y queen in seconds, very entertaining. I started to feel sorry for Robert and eventually managed to get the bill paid, with hefty tip for the wonderful Robert, and dragged Adam away.

We had a merry stroll (stagger really!) back along the river bank to our hotel, thankfully we get a bit of a lie in tomorrow, we’ll certainly need it!

SPENDS RECAP

Snacks – 2 Butterbeers - $8.50
Lunch – 2 burgers and 2 milkshakes - $22.33
Dinner – BiCE – lost the receipt! But the food came to $65
NOTE: lost the receipts for all the peroni and drinks at BiCE but I know the drinks at the bar were cheaper than I was expecting.

NOM OF THE DAY

Has to be the butterbeer! YUM!

 

[BurleyGirl]

Loved this updated!! Especially your description of your dinner at Bice and Robert!!

 

[Chilly]

Half portions what a great idea

 

[Hannikins]

Loved this updated!! Especially your description of your dinner at Bice and Robert!!

thanks!

Half portions what a great idea

yes it was a great idea, I don't think we'd have been happy with a full bowl of our first choices!

 

[Disney Lvr of Old]

I am completely in LOVE with your TR!! I found you while searching DLP reports. (I'm trying to plan a trip there next year!)

Can't wait to hear the rest!

 

[EJ4Disney]

Please, please finish your trip report. I have loved reading it - I want to see how it all ends. Pretty please!!!!

 

[Tony Bush]

I second that Ellen,
I'm not sure what the etiquette is for nudging someone to finish their trip report ! But pleeeease Hannikins......
Tony