 |
 |
|
 |
|
||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
||||
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|---|
|
|
Walt Disney World / Universal Orlando Trip Report: March 1-8, 2003Part Three (Conclusion)
Wednesday, March 5A Magic Kingdom day. Beautiful weather to go with it too. What more could we want? Well, spending it by ourselves was my suggestion, but that was vetoed and we spent the day with the New Orleans side of our clan instead.
The seven kids we had in tow had been ingesting large quantities of sugary products and were accordingly bouncing off the walls, trash cans and slow moving people. The older girls were doing an admirable job of minding the younger ones while the adults talked and ignored their antics. We tried to do the same, but since we don't have children, we're not inured to the sight of our youngest boy walking along the top of the fence lining the queue to Big Thunder Mountain. Watching the kids was often more breathtaking than the rides. We all settled on lunch at Pecos Bill's in Frontierland, mainly because we were standing beside it when we decided to stop for lunch. It was pretty typical counter service fare. Most of the kids selected chili cheese fries for their meal, a choice I envied, but Mary gave me the Glare so I settled on a balanced meal. Well, it was balanced insofar as there was lettuce on the cheeseburger. Mary pointed out that it was not what she thought of as balanced, and I countered that as Pecos Bill's didn't serve beer, it was as balanced as I was going to get. [Note from Mary: Pecos Bill's is actually quite a good buy, especially because of the extensive toppings bar for the burgers. We paid only $11.26 for the two of us. This is a huge counter-service restaurant and lines can be long, though.] After lunch we made a quick stop at Haunted Mansion and then we took the oldest girls, Caroline & Leigh, back to the hotel to get their stuff. Then it was off to the airport to send them back to New Orleans and the loving arms of their father. Mardi Gras was over, so I'm sure he probably missed them by that point. [Note from Mary: For those who are not from New Orleans, you should be aware that children in that city usually get part or all of Mardi Gras week off from school. Unfortunately, the older girls had to be back in school at the end of the week, which is why they went home early.] After dropping the girls at the airport, we took a quick shower and changed for the highlight of the trip - the Hoop-Dee-Doo-Revue. This was not my idea - actually it's the complete opposite of my idea, which would have involved a nice quiet bar somewhere with frosty cold brewed beverage goodness and salty snacks. But the combined clan wanted to try this and Mary convinced me that sometimes the greater good requires the sacrifice of the one. I made that up, as long as I'm going to have to go to this thing I'm going to use corny Star Trek dialogue to deal with it. Mary just told me to quit whining and whacked me on the head with a rolled up paper. So we drive over to the Fort Wilderness campgrounds. I hadn't actually been over there before, other than a bike ride over to the Outpost once from Wilderness Lodge. We finally figured out where to park (would it be so hard to put up a big sign that says - Park Here for Buses to Hoop-Dee-Doo-Revue?). Our bus driver was quite chatty. He regaled us with tales of wives leaving their husbands and handing him $200 tips and warned me several times to be careful to treat my wife well or she'd be leaving me too. And possibly handing him large wads of cash for causing her to see that she'd settled when she married me and that she could have done much better. All of which is true of course, but she didn't need encouragement. Every time I tried to get a word in edgewise I got an elbow in the ribs, so obviously Mary was eating it up. [Note from Mary: I plead the Fifth. Actually, we learned an interesting thing from our bus driver. All of the buses from the parking lot go to Pioneer Hall, where the Hoop-Dee-Doo is held, so just hop on the first one you see.] We managed to make it to Pioneer Hall without Mary deciding to leave me, so I seem to have dodged the bullet on that one. This was our second comedian bus driver of the trip. One of the Downtown Disney hotel bus drivers a couple of days earlier was doing this whole stream-of-consciousness thing that was either amusing or scary, depending on your point of view. I was of the opinion that he was trying out some new material before the next Open Mic night at the local Comedy Store. It was better than the alternative possibility, which is that someone gave one of those guys who stand on street corners and talk to themselves a shower and a commercial bus license. What to say about the Revue? Well, I was pleasantly surprised. We had reservations for the 7:15 show, so if memory serves we went in around 7:00 pm. Got my beer right off the bat and this smoothed the remainder of the evening. The food, while nothing special, was plentiful and fairly tasty. It started with a mixed salad with vinaigrette served in a bucket. Now this is something I think we should see more of. I've always thought that food served in buckets was a culinary trend whose time has come. Mary disagrees with me of course; I think it's a guy thing. The main course was all the barbequed chicken and ribs you could eat and eat I did. The dessert was strawberry shortcake, which I had to loosen a few belt notches to fit in. The show was corny as hell, but the performers were enthusiastic and energetic. The kids liked it a lot and they got washboards to bang on to accompany the music partway through the show. Nothing enhances a show for kids more than audience participation, especially when it's something they can bang. There was a little bit of ageism on display as I didn't get anything to bang on and my tablemates were loathe to share their cool washboards. All in all I'd say it was a fun experience. I question the cost a bit and think it would be a decent deal at $30-35 a head but at $49 or so it's a bit steep. Now that I've done it I can safely skate out of any repeat performances in the future. Thursday, March 6We said adieu to Hotel Royal Plaza. We had enjoyed our stay quite a bit, but now it was time to move on to Universal Orlando and the Portofino Bay Hotel. We were pleasantly surprised to find that our room was already available at 10:00 am, so we were able to unpack before we headed out to the parks.
It seemed to us that something was lacking insofar as the ambiance was concerned and it finally occurred to us the last day. They'd spent a good bit of time and money to make it look like an Italian seaside village but it was lifeless. The whole time we were there we saw only a few people wandering around the large lakeside plaza that the hotel is built around. I think it might look less lonely if they'd put a small bar and tables with awnings right next to the water. As it is, most of the people at the hotel tended to skirt around this huge open area so they could stay in the shade. The hotel has an impressive number of eateries - always a plus for yours truly. There's a very upscale restaurant, Delfino Riviera, that we didn't try; a mid-range dinner place called Mama Della's; a coffee shop type of restaurant, the Trattoria del Porto, which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner; and a deli for sandwiches. There is also a pizzeria next to the biggest pool and an ice cream shop (gelateria) that Mary kept inexplicably veering towards every time we walked close to it. Mary's theory was that there was some sort of local variation in the gravitational field nearby. My theory is that Mary is a human dowsing rod who can find ice cream in the middle of a desert. The rooms were comfortable and roughly the same size as say, the Wilderness Lodge. Most rooms have some sort of view from the looks of it, either of the lake that the hotel surrounds or of one of the pools. Usual amenities in the rooms and the mini-bar did stock Peroni beer, which I like a lot, at a very reasonable price. I immediately popped one, settled myself on the bed and let Mary check out the rest of the room on her own. [Note from Mary: Actually, I thought our room at Portofino Bay was considerably larger than those at the Wilderness Lodge. The furnishings were very attractive, including cushy duvets on the beds, and the bathroom was huge, lavishly-equipped with attractive tile and European-designed accessories, and had lovely upscale toiletries and spa robes. Our "bay view" was slightly obscured by hedges, but pleasant. Mike is correct about the Peroni beer, however.]
We met up with Suzi, Bill and their kids and did some shows like Twister and Terminator 2. Then we hit Mel's Diner for lunch and I took the opportunity to finally get those chili cheese fries that I'd missed a day earlier. Mary's back was turned when I ordered and by the time she realized what I'd done, it was too late. I cackled and ran over and crouched in a corner and gobbled it all up. It was the usual counter service food at the usual prices ($14.77 for the two of us), but the 50's theming was nicely done. I got a chance to talk at length with Bill, my brother-in-law, which was pretty much the only time that I got to talk to an adult male during the entire trip. Not counting Mary's brother Don, of course, but normally he and Mary would be talking about 3D cameras or such and I'd be left out of the conversation 'cause my geek credentials just didn't measure up. Yes, Mary is much more knowledgeable about cameras, computers and home electronics then I am, as I decided at an early age to devote myself to the study of beer. And fried foods. I'm very knowledgeable about fried foods. I ought to go on Jeopardy. Afterwards we hit some more attractions including Men in Black: Alien Attack (lots of fun - kind of a more elaborate version of Buzz Lightyear at Disney), Back to the Future (similar to Star Tours, but with different theming, obviously) and the Make-up Effects show, which we'd skipped in the past 'cause it sounded lame. It turned out to be a really fun show. I would do this one again in a minute. Don't miss it - it's quite funny. [Note from Mary: I had added Suzi's kids' names to our hotel room reservation, so we had 4 room keys. This was really nice because that way we were able to use the unlimited Universal Express "front of the line" feature offered to Universal's hotel guests. We had figured two of the adults would take the kids to an attraction while the other two adults had a chance to sit around and talk, and we did that on some of the attractions. However, there was a lot of inconsistency in how the room keys were handled. When we arrived at Terminator 2, I was the first through the entrance and the attendant noticed my room key hanging from a lanyard around my neck. He told me to take all 6 people in through the Universal Express queue even though I told him only 4 of us had a room key. At some other attractions they made a big show of looking at all of the room keys, yet in every case where we had more people than room keys, we were waved through to the Universal Express line. I really don't know what the official policy is. It wasn't a terribly busy day, which may be why they were sort of unconcerned.] In the late afternoon we repaired back to the hotel since I needed to check out how well the bed functioned for mid-afternoon naps. The pace was demanding but I was able to bear up under the load. As was the bed. For dinner we drove back to Disney and went to one of our favorite restaurants in the Greater Orlando area - Artist Point in the Wilderness Lodge. We have always had wonderful meals here, so we took my Dad with us to partake in the culinary wonders that this venue has to offer. And I was mildly disappointed. It wasn't that the food was poor and neither was the service. It just seemed that we were there on an off night and the cuisine just wasn't up to par. We still enjoyed it though I missed that little special spark of something we've always experienced before. As usual Mary had the smoked wild mushroom bisque. [Note from Mary: it is quite possibly the best soup I've ever eaten in my life.] I chose this also, which is unusual. We usually try to get different things so we can taste more stuff. Not when we can have this soup, though, and it was up to the usual high standards. We also both got the buffalo steak and mine was a little dry and somewhat tough. Still better than fully 90% of the beef steaks I've had in restaurants, but not quite up to standard. All in all, a visit to the Wilderness Lodge is always welcome, so we didn't come away disappointed. Mary's opinion was different and she thought it was as wonderful as always, so maybe it was just me having a bad night. [Note from Mary: it was just him.] Now for my little rant. While we were eating we noticed a couple with two small children seated close to us. After enjoying their delicious repast, Mr. and Mrs. Oblivious dawdled over their coffee and dessert while their little bundles of joy ran frantically through the length and breadth of the restaurant, narrowly missing crashing full tilt into servers carrying heavy trays several times. This lasted for a good 20 minutes with nary a sign of care on the part of the parents. Helloo, McFly! If a server trips and drops a tray loaded with heavy crockery on little Timmy's head, it won't be their fault - it'll be yours. If you bring small children to a table service restaurant, why not do the staff and your fellow diners a favor and lasso your little Satan spawn to the seats till it's time to leave? We'll thank you and I'm pretty sure the staff will thank you. Rant over. Friday, March 7The buffet breakfast at the Trattoria del Porto was pretty good - and it should be, for what they charge per person. I'm not much of a breakfast person myself, but I enjoyed this one. I usually like to spend mornings with an IV of coffee and don't like having food sponge up any of the precious, precious caffeine. Anyway, the buffet had all kinds of pastries, omelets to order, every kind of hot meat and potato dish one would expect, etc. Coffee was included -- juice (which we ordered) was not. Our total bill was nearly $43 for two. Ouch.
Since Mary was having lunch with her meeting companions I had to fend for myself. Fortunately there was at least one eatery I hadn't tried that looked promising. I grabbed myself a good pannini ($10.95) from the deli along with a couple of Peroni beers. Have I mentioned that I like Peroni beer? It's quite nice. So anyhow, I was able to hold up against the feelings of abandonment and managed to make it through the day. For dinner we hit Mama Della's, mainly because at this point I was on a roll and wanted to experience eating in three different restaurants in the same hotel on the same day. I am happy to report that my mission was completed successfully with no ill effects other than a feeling of pressure around the waistline. Loosening the belt to its last notch soon relieved the discomfort. I'd love to tell you what we had for dinner but unfortunately my notes have disappeared. Probably something with pasta, I'm guessing. I do remember thinking it was fairly good, and a lot less expensive ($58 for the two of us, including tax and tip) than the upscale restaurant that we gave a pass on. [Note from Mary: I thought the food at Mama Della's was very good, but darned if I can remember exactly what we had, either. I know we had a good mixed salad and breadsticks before the pasta. It's possible my pasta might have had artichoke hearts in it. Other than that, I'm drawing a blank, probably because I was starting to get sick that night. I know I enjoyed the restaurant quite a lot even though I was getting a sore throat and sniffling. There is someone in the restaurant who plays "Mama" but she didn't visit our table -- maybe she sensed that I was infectious! Also, they have live Italian music, but the musicians were in the next room. We didn't mind either of those things because we were in the mood for a quiet meal, but if you want to be where the action is, you might mention it to the hostess.] After dinner we walked around the hotel a little and as we were passing the ice cream place Mary succumbed to the draw of the gravitational anomaly located there. We found that the only way we could escape was to buy some gelato for Mary (I abstained and made every attempt to gather to myself the praise that someone with my willpower was due). She said it was good. I pointed out that I was good. She gave me the Glare and I subsided, sinking slowly into the lake, silently. Saturday, March 8We had a late afternoon flight scheduled, so we contemplated spending the morning in Islands of Adventure. However, Mary was feeling pretty under the weather and I was pretty theme parked out by this point, so instead we wandered around to the other hotels to check them out instead. I liked the Hard Rock Hotel all right, though it wasn't really my taste. [Note from Mary: this may be because we're from Southern California and the Hard Rock is like many trendy hotels in Los Angeles. Attitude-y staff in black and rock 'n roll memorabilia. There's nothing very distinctive about it for us.] I liked the South Pacific-themed Royal Pacific Resort quite a bit more. I'm not a huge fan of Disney's Polynesian, but I found that I liked this hotel well enough to consider staying there next time we travel to Orlando and hit Universal. [Note from Mary: I also think the Asian-retro décor of the Royal Pacific is very attractive. I especially like the garden atrium in the center of the enormous lobby. The bars and restaurants, which include Emeril's new Tchoup Chop, also look appealing and the pool theming has a very 1930's feel. I think the Royal Pacific is sort of a "new millennium" version of what the Polynesian must have been when it was built.] Lunch was taken at Emeril's in Citywalk. Man, I cannot describe how very disappointing this was. And I'll admit that since it's a theme restaurant with his name on it I wasn't really expecting anywhere near the same quality of food that I might expect from his place in New Orleans. What we had didn't even measure up to our average visit to Chili's. [Note from Mary: I started my meal with a Bloody Mary ($6.50). Compared with Bloody Marys in New Orleans -- or for that matter, most of the known universe -- it was puny. Really, really small. I actually laughed when they set it down, wondering if it was a joke. It wasn't very good, either - watery and surprisingly tasteless. Mike had lemonade. You thought it would be beer, didn't you? Gotcha! We each had a soup - one had the soup of the day ($6.00) and one had the gumbo of the day ($6.50). They were both only average and portions were small.] I had a beef filet with a Worchestershire sauce and sweet potato cake and green beans ($24.00). The beef was badly overcooked and I had it taken back. The second order was cooked correctly but the beef was very tough and the sauce was insipid and off-putting. The sweet potato cake was a gelatinous mess and the only flavor that came through was sweet. The green beans were probably the worst part of the meal. I'm all for light steaming of vegetables and like them crisp and crunchy. These had obviously been waved over the steam from a teakettle. They were almost completely raw, and extremely tough. Mary's dish, the daily chef's special ($16), was just as awful. It was an Asian-inspired spinach salad with ahi tuna steaks -- except the "steaks" were two tiny medallions about two inches in diameter and not terribly thick. Although they were prepared fairly well and rare enough in the center, the portion size was way too small for the price. [Note from Mary: I also absolutely hated the salad dressing, which had a curdled texture and tasted very strongly of fish sauce, an Asian ingredient with a strong fermented fish base that should be used with great care and discretion. I like fish sauce in small quantities, but every time I think about that dressing I want to gag. I ate the two little pieces of fish, toyed with the salad - which by the way also looked extremely unappetizing -- and gave up. I should have sent it back, but since Mike had already sent his absolutely awful steak back, I felt kind of embarrassed about doing so. In hindsight, it's Emeril's that should have been embarrassed to serve such a horrible meal. I will add that I tasted all of Mike's food and I totally agree with him that it stunk.] One final complaint: the servers perform this choreographed bit where they bring all the dishes for a course to a table and then all of them place them in front of the diners and remove the cover with a flourish at the same time. It's silly and it's lame. [Note from Mary: I didn't mind this little bit of showmanship, but it certainly couldn't make up for the terrible food.] Needless to say this was quite a disappointment for Mary, as she enjoys Emeril's cooking show a lot. If the guy is going to put his name on a restaurant he ought to make sure that the cooking is up to par. As it stands any current theme restaurant could do as well or most of the time better than the meal we ate. At least Bennigan's and Chili's don't have any pretensions and the food is better at half the price. I would recommend that people avoid wasting their money and skip this place. So that was it. Although our trip ended on a bit of a sour note, we managed to gather ourselves together and pop off to the airport for the trip home. Our dog was eagerly awaiting our return and I was pretty sure I'd remembered to leave a few brews in the fridge for a post-trip refreshment. ConclusionsMary has posted elsewhere about having large group gatherings at WDW. I'll second her recommendations. It's probably easiest if everyone decides on what they want to do and goes their separate ways, and then arranges to meet up for meals or other events. We found cell phones made this much easier than it would have been in the past. Trying to herd 20+ people anywhere is just a nightmare waiting to happen, especially if there are lots of children involved. We found that the more children together in one spot, the more unruly the individual child became. [Note from Mary: I'm sure this insight comes as no surprise to those of you with kids!] Smaller groups were much calmer and less stressful. Hotel Royal Plaza was a damn good value. I'm undecided about Portofino Bay at this point. I liked it, but am not sure of the cost effectiveness of the choice. Next time we go I would like to check out the less expensive Royal Pacific Resort and see what it's like. From what we could see, I think we would enjoy it, and the slightly lower cost might make this a better option. We experienced a little backsliding in the quality of the food in some restaurants. It's difficult to make a determination if this is systematic or just an off day. Hopefully it's the latter. We still enjoyed most of the meals we had and would certainly patronize many of the restaurants mentioned herein again. Now, time to go and see if there are any crisp, cold refreshments in the fridge. I've done my part and it's time to go back to my slothful ways. I wonder what's on TV? Coming soon…"Skating through
Scandinavia and Prancing through Paris"
|
|---|
We
hit most of the cool rides in Frontierland and Adventureland. Mary
got her Pirates of the Caribbean fix in, so she's good for another
couple of months. [Note from Mary: little did he suspect that I
would make him go on Pirates again at Disneyland Paris about a month
later.] 
The
hotel was pretty impressive overall - easily up to the standard of
the deluxe Disney resort hotels. It's designed to resemble a coastal
village in Italy and is full of little details like Fiats and Vespas
parked around the lakefront and such. 
Now
refreshed, we were off to Universal Studios to meet up with several
of the New Orleans denizens again. Most of them had hit Universal
the first day they were in Florida, since they arrived a day early,
so this day was aimed at hitting stuff they'd missed the first day.
On our way to meet them we ran across Spongebob Squarepants and I
whined until Mary took my picture with him. I was the only adult in
line and I think the character's escort thought I was a poser, because
he asked me how I liked Patrick. Silly boy, I knew who Patrick was,
and easily evaded his attempts to show me up.
I
spent most of the day writing up notes and exploring the rest of the
hotel while Mary was off attending some meetings. It was quite relaxing;
my only disappointment was that there is a great looking bar (Bar
American) in the main building off the lobby that was unaccountably
closed till 4:00 pm. I was saddened and dismayed and disappointed
and dejected and kinda thirsty.