The weather seemed to be behaving itself now. We awoke to much more acceptable fare, or at least the promise of it and we celebrated by getting down to breakfast with more than three minutes to spare before they closed.
After another very acceptable free brekkie we were out by the pool at 10am and here, captured by my excellent photography skills was the very moment we first saw the sun on this trip. It was quite emotional.
I know that modest glow actually being the sun is debatable but after the last few days, we were getting desperate. Yes, it was cloudy, but crucially it was dry and warm. We embraced this opportunity and did little else but read and relax until a break for another average poolside lunch at 1pm.
Louise had a Quesadilla and I had Tacos. They did not justify a photo.
More resting and reading followed lunch and even what had previously been an unthinkable dip in the pool happened.
We were back up in our room at 4.30 for showers and general readying for our trip out for tea. I couldn’t help but capture the unusually glorious weather a few times. I had forgotten what shadows were!
We were seeing things from the balcony that had been up until now concealed.
No Lyft was summoned tonight as we were headed to Universal, so I was driving.
This was the view from the window by the lifts on our way down to the car. Florida can be pretty when it’s not pissing down with rain.
It took about 20 minutes to travel up the I4 and park at City Walk. We arrived at the car park at 5.55 to see a load of cars pulled over to the side and not going through the payment booth things. We soon realised why, as parking became free at 6pm.
It was about 5.58 when we were next in line to pay the $30 when we saw the team member in the booth get on the phone and then immediately close up. What joyous luck hath been bestowed upon us? We were the first “free” car through and that $30 saving made all the difference in our overall budget for this trip.
We parked in ET and took the long walk into City Walk itself.
We browsed a shop or two, perpetually on the lookout for suitable gifts for those at home. Then we took up a table at the Palm Lounge (near the plane) for a pre-dinner drinkie. It was waitress service…literally, there was one waitress on, so after a little wait we had a beer and a wine.
We then made our way round to the Hard Rock for our reservation.
We were seated immediately and in the decade or two since we last visited we had forgotten how noisy it was in here.
Of course, we shared Nachos to start.
I followed that with a very large piece of meat, which was just OK, to be honest.
Louise ordered Fajitas and the “fixings” arrived about five minutes ahead of the sizzling platter of meat so she had to ask for new fixings as her tortillas were now cold and hard.
I had ordered a milkshake about twenty minutes ago and it now arrived.
Overall, the experience was just about acceptable. The service was patchy and the food was just OK. It may be another decade or two before we return.
As we made our way out Louise did wonder why they had a painting of David Baddiel hanging at the top of the stairs.
The bill was a slightly painful $155 all things considered.
You may guess that at this point, all we wanted was sleep, so was walked back to the car, drove home and let all that food add to our fat collections nicely as we immediately slept.
Till the next time……
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