Saturday, October 10th continued
After the boat entered the area where they turn to approach the dock I looked over at Sapphire Falls. The Resort is closed right now. It is a beautiful Caribbean themed resort. Like RPR they have the nicest people that work there. The Amitista Cookhouse Restaurant at SF has delicious food and the Strong Water Tavern has wonderful rum, bourbon, cocktails and small plates.
I have added a few days there for the last few years when I make my trips to Orlando. I was sad to hear they had closed. Hopefully things will settle down with Covid and they can open back up.
RPR has put into place great Covid precaution measures. The parks have put into place wonderful precaution measures. People want to get out of their homes and travel. I can see the Resort’s and the parks getting busier. Hopefully the Sapphire Falls will reopen soon.
Once the boat docked I was ready to get to my room. I passed the pool on my way and there were lots of folks enjoying the sun and water.
As soon as I opened the door to walk to the elevator I felt the nice air conditioning. It felt so nice on this hot day.
After I reached my room I put my purchases in the closet. They do have very nice large closets. I had already repacked things in some nice bags with handles I purchased earlier in the week.
I pulled the curtain and went and had a nice shower. I was tired and laid down for a quick nap.
I had early dinner reservations with my older sister D who lives in what I call a suburb of Orlando.
I had been looking online at local steak houses when I saw Eddie V’s and remembered Schumigirl giving it a nice review in one of her trip reports.
When I tried to make reservations online the day before I was not having any luck. I called and was able to get an early reservation. That worked fine as I needed to be in bed early to leave Sunday.
My sister and I met up in the parking lot and went inside and there were already a number of people checking in for their reservations at the desk.
We were seated promptly and our waiter came over and gave us the drink menu. I looked at the cocktails. I had originally decided to order the 24 Karat cocktail. I don’t usually drink vodka, but all the other ingredients sounded very nice.
Well I changed my mind and my sister and I ordered the Red Dragon. The waiter said it was one of their most popular cocktails.
It was supposed to have Bacardi Dragon Berry Rum, fresh muddled strawberries, mint and lime.
It was not what we expected at all. It tasted like water and rum. Granted there was plenty of rum, but at the bottom of the glass were a few thin pieces of mint, strawberry and the tiniest sliver of lime.
We should have sent them back, but like the polite southern ladies we are we drank them. This drink would have been a lot better with some strawberry purée, more mint and lime.
As we were talking another table not far from us ordered the same drinks and took one drink and pushed them away. Ok we were not the only ones.....LOL
Well we were ready to enjoy our dinner. We decided on the lobster bisque for our appetizer.
The 8 ounce Filet and the truffle Mac and Cheese as a shared side.
We were served some nice warm bread and butter. It was very good.
When the lobster bisque arrived it smelled really fishy. It had some nice pieces of lobster in it, but the smell was a bit off putting. It tasted fishy too.
So far it was strike 2 on this meal. I felt bad as this had been my idea.
Then the steaks arrived. They were cooked to perfection and were delicious. The Truffle Mac and Cheese was sublime. It was creamy, cheesy with a mildly crunchy topping and plenty of shaved Truffles on top.
We were enjoying the meal so much I forgot to take pictures of the steaks and Mac & Cheese.
Our waiter was fantastic. This was a very laid back meal time wise. The server had impeccable timing. He was very attentive without being overly intrusive.
The restaurant is elegant, but not stuffy.
After our meal we decided on the Bananas Foster Butter Cake. It was Flambéed table side. Nice dessert theater. The waiter did a very nice job.
It was very tasty. I was pretty full so after sampling the dessert I was done. The waiter asked if we wanted to go boxes. Yes, on the Mac & Cheese no on anything else.
The only disappointment with the meal was the drink and the appetizer. Will I come back again. I will give it another try for sure. This is a lovely, elegant restaurant with impressive steaks and impeccable service.
On the subject of reviewing restaurants. I never want to ever be overly critical of a restaurant.
We live in the age of social media were people do their research on restaurants sometimes before eating there. You want to make sure the food is good, the service Is good and your are getting good value for your money.
I enjoyed my meal. I was sad this was the last day of my vacation and sad to say goodbye to my sister. We are getting older and it has hit home to me how important it is to treasure time spent together with family.
After our goodbyes I loaded 3 wreaths from her SUV to mine that she had made for our younger sister.
I went back to RPR packed up, showered and sat back to reflect on my vacation. Looking at the pictures brought a big smile to my face. This had been a wonderful, relaxing, fun vacation.
I fell asleep pretty quick. My bed and pillows had been so comfy.
I woke up very early as I wanted to get the SUV loaded and get on the road. So I dressed and went down for a luggage trolley.
I had arrived with one large suitcase and a smaller bag...... and I was leaving with a luggage trolley filled to the top. I had done some Christmas shopping and some shopping for my younger sister.
It was about 3:30 am and the tile floors were being mopped and I didn’t want to track on the clean wet floors with the trolley wheels or my shoes, but I didn’t have a way not to.
I looked at the floor closer to the front door and someone had already tracked up her nice clean floor with dirty shoes and she was going to have to mop that area again.
I pulled my SUV up to the front and loaded things up so I could easily get to my sisters bags to deliver them to her.
I returned the trolley to its room. Checked out and was on my way.
Some final thoughts and pictures coming up.
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Mac.......hope all is well in you in your neck of the woods. Good to see you post dear lady.
