Tag: travel

The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour 2023 – Day Twelve Friday 24th November

by mkingdon, posted in The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour

The weather continued to take the piss, frankly. Having extended our trip to take advantage of the improved conditions, today, again, we had a forecast of cooler temperatures, not suitable for sitting by a pool.

You can appreciate the very average nature of the weather by looking at the view from our new room.

We had breakfast in the hotel as usual (I wonder how much we “saved” over the trip by not having to buy breakfast?)

Our plan today involved a drive to the Grand Floridian to have a look around now that the gingerbread house was up.

It didn’t take long to get there, but initially, we were politely denied access by the security guard. Only guests and those with ADRs were allowed in. So we turned around, parked just outside the entrance, and booked an ADR for lunch at the Grand Floridian Cafe. We drove back to the same guard, told him we had an ADR and he let us in without even checking. Weird.

The car park was very busy to be fair, so best he keeps the off-site scum out 🙂

It had been a good few years since we were last here, and we had forgotten the majesty and beauty of the place, especially with it all dressed for Christmas.

We took our time strolling around the lobby.

We browsed the shops and from the upstairs balcony, we Facetimed my Mum and gave her a virtual tour.

It was an enjoyable morning and we enjoyed just spending some time in such a lovely spot.

We checked in for our ADR at 12.30 at a very busy podium. As there were crowds of folks waiting to be seated we had a wander around outside for a bit.

It was a bit grey and drizzly but the place looked lovely.

We went back inside and were eventually called and seated around 1pm.

Our server was great, but overall the service was pretty slow. We were in no rush though so it didn’t affect our experience.

I had an iced coffee and Louise had a wine.

No starters, and Lousie ordered the Burger. It was declared the best burger she had ever eaten. I doubt my photo does it justice.

I had the Reuben sandwich.

We were not finished until 2.15 but we enjoyed it and were glad we had eaten somewhere we would never have thought of trying. The bill was $85.

We made our way back to the car and drove over to a very, very busy Disney Springs. So busy in fact that most car parks were full and those that weren’t had huge queues. Thanks, Thanksgiving!

So we went back to the hotel instead. I had a shower and put on some extreme-weather long pants before ordering a Lyft back to Springs. We arrived around 3pm.

We were hoping to get into the next showing of the Napoleon film at the AMC but it was sold out, so we booked in for the 4.30 showing instead and went to have a stroll. We ended up in the House Of Blues.

After a walk around the shop, we sat in the outside seating and had a Margarita. This was not one of my favourite drinks of the trip and I struggled to finish it.

It filled enough time until we headed back to the AMC though. Napoleon was an enjoyable film despite following the current trend of needing to be longer than it should have been at two and a half hours and apparently being historically inaccurate.

Once we were done we walked over the bridge to Wine Bar George for another Espresso Martini. I had two, Louise had one, and then a glass of wine.

Our bill was higher than it was for lunch at the Grand Floz!

We then walked across to The Boathouse for our ADR and our second visit of the trip. We were immediately seated on the outside deck which is lovely and for us preferable to being inside.

We had chips and dips to start along with the sticky bread service.

We both ordered the Sliders.

The food was just good on this visit. Nothing spectacular.

I opted for another….

Which again, was not quite as excellent as on our first meal here. It goes to show how much things can vary at the same restaurant.

Unlike our last visit, the bill was a much more tolerable $90.00 including tip.

It was spitting with rain as we left and we made our way back to the Lyft pick-up through horrendous crowds. We spent a few minutes browsing the Disney art shop before we were dropped off at the hotel and fell into bed by 11. A lovely day despite the weather’s best attempts to upset us.

Till the next time…..

The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour 2023 – Day Eleven Thursday 23rd November

by mkingdon, posted in The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour

Thankful to be feeling better after last night’s weirdness, we lay in a bit, and breakfast could not tempt Louise out of bed so I went down alone today, of course at around 9.55am. The staff continued to love me for doing that.

Bagels with PB and J, accompanied by a tiny bowl of cereal won’t be winning any culinary awards but they did the trick to get my day started once again.

Alas, the weather forecast for today was not stellar so we had made plans that did not rely upon warmth and sunshine. We also had to pack up to move to our new room today, which was a bit of a pain but not as much as packing to go home would have been. Louise had made a start by the time I got back from breakfast and we took our cases out to the car until we could “check in” later.

It was around 10.40 when we set off towards Fantasia mini golf. We parked up and found a spot to wait out the thirty minutes or so we’d been told it would be before we could start.

Yep, the weather looked fine after all didn’t it.

We were called after about twenty minutes and the whooping of all whoopings that I inflicted on Louise could begin.

It took a while to get around as were we behind a couple of families with very small kids. There were tantrums and sulking when the ball wouldn’t go in the hole and the kids in the party in front of us weren’t much better either. We weren’t in any rush so we just took a seat and watched them until it was our turn.

It wasn’t even close despite Louise fluking a hole-in-one on the 8th.

Note how I was pleasingly under par. What do you mean I am overly competitive?

After the game, we took the chance to have a wander around the Swan Reserve which is in the car park for the golf or vice versa. It is a lovely place with a very intimate feel for a Disney resort. It feels very boutique-y.

It has a very adult feel and by that, I don’t mean saucy films are being made there.

We set off back to the hotel, stopping off briefly at Disney Springs to spend over $100 on a pair of sunglasses for Louise despite just having a few days left on this trip.

The Sunglasses place was rammed with other idiots spending too much but we did get 30% off with it being Black Friday week. Yep, I know that doesn’t make sense, but we’d just blown $100 on some glasses that were probably made in a sweatshop for £2.50, so making sense was not the order of today.

You will have noticed that the weather was glorious so we headed back to the pool to make the most of the incorrectness of the forecast we had believed.

We managed about three glorious hours in perfect conditions.

Once 4pm rolled around I took a break from the sunbed to get the cases from the car and check into our new room. We were put in room 503 in the Cypress Tower. It was much the same as the other one but without a balcony which we could tolerate for a few nights!

After showers and stuff, we got a Lyft to Disney Springs around 6.30. There was a different band on tonight so we watched them for a while.

We then walked through a very busy Springs to find a drink. We managed to get the last two available stools at the bar in Wine Bar George, ignored the huge choice of wine, and ordered two “Wake Up Calls” which were Espresso Martinis. These were the best yet and remained our favourites of the trip.

We had a semi-serious conversation about buying one of those coffee drip/distillery things you can see in the background so we could make these at home.

I think we had two rounds and left after paying the $85 including the tip bill.

Tonight we had a new place to try for dinner. Because by rights we should have been flying home right now I had been forced to make some emergency plans and with it being Thanksgiving availability was scarce.

I had secured us a table at Terralina and even with that, we had a fifteen-minute wait to be seated. Whilst we waited walk-ups were being quoted a ninety-minute wait.

I had stuffed rice balls, which was probably something I picked up in the pool.

Louise had Bruschetta.

I followed up with Chicken Parm…

Louise had Lasagne.

It was all very delicious and I was glad we tried somewhere I would never normally have tried to book.

After our very strenuous sporting day, we were of course very tired as soon as the food hit our expanding bellies and we immediately walked back to the Lyft area to get taken home to bed.

It was an impressive 10.30 by the time we went to sleep.

Till the next time……

The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour 2023 – Day Ten Wednesday 22nd November

by mkingdon, posted in The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour

It’s only when you write these trips up that you start to realise what dreadfully predictable creatures of habit we are. Trying to find an original way to say we woke up and went to breakfast just before ten is proving too much for my limited writing skills. Anyway. that’s what we did.

Having laid out a load of cash to stay a few extra days to enjoy some of the lovely weather we were denied on our first few days, we were a little perturbed to see the forecast predicting a little more shit weather today.

We went to the pool anyway, as if to defy the weather Gods and we Facetimed Rebecca and the boys. Today we watched a man cut some grass. Who says you need to go to the theme parks in Florida to enjoy yourself?

The weather turned around 1pm and we retreated to the covered area and had some chips and dips for a rare proper lunch.

There was no sign of the weather getting better so I drove to a Target on the 192 to collect that doll for Louise’s friend that I told you about some time ago. I finally worked out how to get the Target website to take a payment method registered in the UK but could only seem to do so if I collected. So I drove for over an hour to get a doll I knew nothing of before this trip for the child of someone I did not know.

The traffic was bobbins, matching the weather, with the rain tipping down for the whole journey. Still, apparently, I made some little girl’s Christmas so I’ll count this as my good deed for this lifetime.

Once back at the hotel, I watched more Two and a Half Men whilst Louise got ready. We made it out around 6.30 and got a Lyft to Disney Springs. It was a mercifully short journey, as when the driver set off from our hotel, she made the sign of the cross and kissed her crucifix, which was mildly concerning for a journey that would take about four minutes.

We arrived in one piece and made our way to the stage outside World of Disney, got a cocktail from one of the little drinks places nearby, and watched a band for a bit. It was now not raining.

It was no espresso Martini but it was OK.

We then made our way over to The Edison for our reservation.

The Spings were very busy tonight but we were seated immediately upstairs. There was a very cool retro three-piece band on the stage below us.

We of course ordered the bacon thing to start and in all the excitement it escaped a photo.

I ordered the Edison Burger.

Louise, the Soup and Grilled Cheese.

Louise had wine and I had of course….

We shared a Lemon meringue for dessert.

Overall, we were not blown away by The Edison. The theming is fantastic and the live music a real bonus, but the service was a little slow and whilst all the food was good, nothing blew our socks off enough to have us wanting to go back any time soon.

My mood may have been tainted by my health at this point. I was completely full of snot. I don’t know what the bill was, but I remember it of course being fairly pricey for what was nothing fancy. As we walked back to catch our Lyft home, I was feeling dreadful. I was short of breath, dizzy and really felt out of it.

Once home I went straight to sleep. I did wonder if that first cocktail we had as we watched the band had something in it that I had a reaction to. It was a very “fruity” cocktail and I may be way off the mark, but I can’t think what else it was, as I was right as rain the next morning.

On the plus side, had we not extended our stay we would have been flying home in the morning. Sadly, for you, that means a few more of these rinse-and-repeat blogs!!

Till the next time……

The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour 2023 – Day Nine Tuesday 21st November

by mkingdon, posted in The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour

There was no change to our routine this morning. Awake early and yet down to breakfast with just a few minutes to spare as ever.

Louise took up our position by the pool whilst I nipped out to Walgreens for another book. It’s amazing how much I can read when I don’t have to do unpleasant things like work for a living.

I also got some more sun cream and deodorant (there had been complaints!)

Things were looking lovely back at the pool.

We did undertake a fair amount of judgemental eye-rolling throughout the morning as we heard the names of some of the kids playing….

Jagger, Maverick, Ace and Landry were having fun though.

I spent a silly amount of time watching these big birds hunting for fish by the lake next to the hotel.

The weather was glorious today, and after another lunch of Lays, we were really feeling a little hard done by with the weather for the first few days after we arrived. With this being a shorter trip anyway, our over-privileged arses were feeling very sorry for themselves.

With our flight home just a couple of days away now, we both felt that we were only just getting going and I jokingly mentioned that we should stay a few more days. To cut a not-very-long story a little shorter, we had an opportunity to move our flight by a few days…..so I sprang into action on getting a room at the hotel…..and extending our car hire….and adjusting our airport parking….and making sure Emily back home could manage a bit longer….and talking to work, who were very understanding.

I’m pretty good at all this trip-related stuff, so with about half an hour or so on the phone and a few quid spent, we were now going to do the full two weeks and not go home until next Monday. We felt a mixture of luck, relief, and guilt.

I spoke to reception in the hotel about extending our stay but they gave me a price about 25% higher than what I could see online so I opted for the latter.

It turned out that the hardest element to amend was the airport parking due to the Holiday Extras app being a doom loop of not being able to amend anything or contact anybody. In the end, I just made a new booking for the extra days and crossed my fingers.

As the afternoon ended we went back to the room and I watched some Two and A Half Men whilst Louise got ready. I did pop down to the laundry to wash some clothes as we were now here for a few more days.

We set off up the gnarly I4 at 6.30 heading for Universal. We parked up around 7pm.

I took this to find the car later but I’ll share it anyway.

We walked through City Walk, picking up some gifts and having a drink from one of the kiosks not far from Voodoo Doughnuts.

We made our way to Antojitos for our 8.15 reservation and were seated after five minutes.

There is something just lovely about Florida of an evening.

We were brought the usual mountain of chips and salsa whilst we browsed the menu.

Of course, there were Nachos to start. These are a contender for the best we’ve ever had.

Louise had Fajitas.

I had something called The Trio. I didn’t really know from the menu what it included but it was very nice with a snot-inducing spicy kick in a couple of mouthfuls.

We walked up to Pat O’Briens as we had heard it had a dueling piano bar. I think we stayed for all of thirty seconds due to a mixture of not being able to find a clean table and the two piano players being woeful. I don’t seem to have recorded the cost of this meal but whatever it was, it was worth it.

We set the car in the direction of Jellyrolls and all was well with the world again.

We got there at 10.30 and once we had secured a table I nipped out to the ATM near The Boardwalk Inn so we could make some requests. We got three songs played tonight, this being one of our favourite songs, played by our favourite Jellyroller.

The other two were Pinball Wizard and If I Had A Million Dollars by Bare Naked Ladies.

It was quieter tonight being mid-week but we stayed till 1.20 before driving home and falling into bed at 2am.

A good day!

Till the next time……

The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour 2023 – Day Eight Monday 20th November

by mkingdon, posted in The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour

Welcome to the next installment of us doing nothing all day and then going out to eat. There are worse ways to spend your time I suppose. I mean us doing it, not you reading about it of course. That sounds awful.

Louise was suffering from a life-threatening hangover this morning. So once awake I let her sleep and made my way out to the balcony (see, the extra few dollars for it was worth it) and wrote up some notes for yesterday in my stupidly expensive note-taking book, acquired on the Disney Wish!

Having left it as late as possible before risking not having breakfast, I left Louise in bed and endeared myself to the hotel staff once again by arriving at 9.56 for breakfast. I had my buffet routine down to an art now. I had largely shunned the hot options for fear that I may eat myself to death before making it home, so each morning I had a bagel and some cereal. The bagel had to have peanut butter and jelly on it too. I was truly living La Vida Loca!

I took up a spot by the pool in the glorious sunshine and didn’t really move for many hours. I spoke with Rebecca back home for a bit and Louise eventually joined me before lunch.

Things looked like this.

The weather today was the best we’d seen, which wasn’t hard I know, but we enjoyed it. We did nothing of any note all afternoon. There may have been swimming. No formal lunch again, just more Lays.

We left the pool around 4.30 and got ourselves ready for dinner. Because we had managed to slot The Cheesecake Factory in on a rainy day at the mall, it had freed up an evening dining slot on the plan and to confirm how highly we thought of Sickies, we made a second trip there tonight.

As is very often the case, a second trip often struggles to recapture the magic of the first but the food was still glorious. Our server had some serial killer vibes going on, but after arriving at six and being seated immediately at a high table which tested our agility, we of course ordered those pickles again.

I spent an age studying the extensive menu only to order the same thing I had last time. The Chowzilla with tots.

Louise chose the Mozzarella Burger.

Mine was fabulous again, Louise rated hers just OK. To make up for it, Louise decided to have a dessert and asked our server for a menu and some sign of a personality. Neither arrived, instead, the server just reeled off some desserts in a way that somehow made no sense whatsoever. Louise heard the word cheesecake and stopped our server there to put us all out of our misery.

It was nothing to write home about or indeed photograph it seems.

The bill was $115ish and frankly, we may have paid that just for the pickles. We had started the evening with every intention of going back to Jellyrolls, but as we clambered back into the car a brief conversation saw us decide to head straight to bed like the crazy cats we are.

Nothing wrong with a 10.30 bedtime! I bet you can’t wait for another exciting installment next week?

Till the next time……

The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour 2023 – Day Seven Sunday 19th November

by mkingdon, posted in The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour

I’m sure you’ll agree that as nice as it has been thus far to be away and in Orlando, this trip has a feeling of taking a while to get going, certainly as far as actually doing what we came here to do. You can’t control the weather I guess. Similarly, as day seven arrives, I can finally start to make some sense of the title of this trip report for you. That is what is called a teaser. Well, I have to do something to encourage you to read this guff.

We awoke around 9am following our wild late night last night! We made it to breakfast before it closed and were heartened to see the weather looking very good. It was noticeable that breakfast and the hotel in general were much busier on a weekend. It wasn’t unpleasant in any way, just noticeable.

After breakfast, we needed to nip out to Target as I needed a new book to read. Now, nobody just “nips” to Target of course, and it was lunchtime by the time we got back to the pool.

Feast your eyes on this….

You will understand that we did not move from our sun beds, appreciating the weather and reading.

In an attempt to stay out beyond 10pm tonight, the plan was to skip lunch and eat an early dinner so we did not immediately crave bed as soon as the food hit our stomachs. We aren’t animals so I went to the shop and got us some snacks to keep us going.

Louise, as she would now for pretty much the rest of the trip had a packet of Lays for lunch. I know the reveal wasn’t worth the build-up, but when I thought back on this trip when dreaming up a title, I didn’t want to use one that bemoaned the crap weather and the other thing which stuck in my mind was our crisp-based lunches by the pool.

Having enjoyed an afternoon of cloudless skies and temperatures in the mid-70s, we retired to our room at around 4.30pm to get ready for our early dinner. We still didn’t leave the room till 6 after the usual sixty minutes of hair dryer use by Louise.

Tonight’s dining choice was Romano’s Macaroni Grill. A stalwart of our trips over the years and often one not known about by many. This proved to be tragically true as we drove up to it. All the lights and signage were off and it looked as if it had shut down for good. We were genuinely gutted.

We assessed the nearby options and opted for Bahama Breeze, not least because it was five minutes away.

We were seated immediately with it being 6.20pm and started with a Spinach and Artichoke Dip, a Bud Light, and a red wine.

I don’t drink much/often so tonight’s beer had to be recorded. There would be a good many more to follow as our plans for later involved Jellyrolls if we could stay awake.

Louise, as ever had the Jerk Chicken Pasta…

and I, after much consideration, opted for the ribs, despite the fact that the calorific value was pretty much the highest of any item on the menu.

Both were tremendous.

We declined dessert, paid the $100 bill, including the tip, and drove back to the hotel. A Lyft was summoned and I nipped up to the room to get some actual cash for the requesting of songs at Jellyrolls.

We were soon dropped off at the Boardwalk and got into Jellyrolls around 8.30pm.

At that time there were still a few empty tables, so we claimed one, ordered some drinks, and received our bottomless popcorn.

We had four excellent performers and felt lucky to have been able to watch them. Our fave was Michael, and here he is performing a classic….

We had a few requests played, trying to not request the stuff everyone else does like Billy Joel, Elton John and the like. We went for One Week by Bare Naked Ladies and That Thing You Do.

We sent a few videos to Emily who was up at 4am UK time due to a snoring boyfriend and dog and she was enjoying it all with us, despite being 4,000 miles away.

We stayed for a long time and drank too much. The place really filled up as it got later (those two videos were taken within half an hour of us arriving) and much of the crowd tonight seemed to be young cast members. Many Disney songs were requested and played and when Circle Of Life was playing it became obvious that many of the CMs were from the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom as we got a performance of the dance routine!

With things now being very crowded and rowdy as drunk youngsters were constantly dancing about three centimetres from our table, we left at around 1am.

I don’t know how much we had to drink if I am honest, but it could have funded another holiday. But, we had a really good night and we would return.

We made our way back to the Boardwalk and waited about ten minutes for our Lyft to arrive. Our driver was called Gaston, from Chile. He was an engineer by trade, working for Lyft at night to raise the funds to get his family over.

I don’t remember everything he said but Chile sounds like a scary place to live and no place for his two young kids.

We tipped him well and fell into bed just before 2am like the wild crazy kids we are.

Till the next time…..

The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour 2023 – Day Six Saturday 18th November

by mkingdon, posted in The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour

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……

The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour 2023 – Day Four Thursday 16th November

by mkingdon, posted in The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour

We awoke full of expectations of more crap weather, and a few minutes of watching the TV confirmed this to be the case. Bugger.

We slowly got ourselves ready and headed down for some breakfast. With no real clue what to do today, I booked an ADR for Beaches & Cream at 2.30, thinking we may do some resort hopping if all else fails.

The view from the restaurant was not a pleasing one.

It became clear to us during breakfast, based on what could be seen through that window and what the weather apps were telling us, that it would probably be too wet to be doing any sort of “hopping” or generally just being outside at all, so we changed plans and decided to head to Mall at Millenia to be indoors as much as possible. Crucially it also had a Cheesecake Factory.

We left the hotel at 10.45 and undertook a slow, wet, and frankly slightly dangerous drive up the I4. We parked up, got wet on the walk-in, and wandered a few shops before deciding that was more than enough shopping for now and it was time to eat. You know where we went.

It will not shock you to hear that we ordered Nachos.

Having had breakfast not that long ago that was the extent of our efforts. We are not animals.

We resumed the wandering of shops and Louise had pinched my hoody as she was a bit chilly. So we went to American Eagle and I bought myself a new one for $75. This frivolous spending can only happen when on holiday.

With enough dollars spent now, we walked back to the car and drove to Disney Springs, headed for the cinema.

The rain at this point was biblical.

I take these photos so I can find the car when we return, but I share them anyway.

There was not a great deal of choice, film-wise, but in the end, we opted for the new Di Caprio film, Killers Of The Flower Moon. I knew little about it other than it was three and a half hours long. We were pretty full but I did manage to fit in a bag of choccy snacks……three and half hours is a long time!

The film was good but could have been a fair bit shorter and easier on the ass.

We emerged at 6.30 and guess what, it was pouring down still. We drove back to the hotel and got ready for our evening with Yeeha Bob at Port Orleans.

We were picked up by a Lyft at 7.45 knowing this was already too late to secure a good seat. We arrived ten minutes later and found that to be true. We had to loiter for a while until a couple vacated a couch just outside the main bar area. They knew we were waiting for their seat and the arse husband therefore spent about ten minutes examining his bill, for what who knows, before, slowly and finally getting up. I really dislike people sometimes.

We had one drink in this location before someone left a table in the main area and Louise pounced whilst I settled up.

That was an Espresso Martini, but probably the least impressive of the trip.

This was much better.

I had moved on to Chocolate Martinis as I am not a real man and cannot drink proper alcohol.

After a good few drinks we were peckish so ordered some bar food. I think it was some sort of Spinach dip and Tots.

At some point towards the end of the evening, just after a round of drinks had arrived, I put some of my not inconsiderable weight on my end of the table and it tipped up, launching Louise’s full glass of red wine all over me.

Many napkins were needed and I now had pink trainers and a soggy hoody…you know the one I spent $75 on earlier. Our server replaced the drink for free of course, despite my clumsy ineptitude. Maybe their tables are known to be faulty?

Anyway, we left at midnight in another Lyft, and hey, it was still raining.

Till the next time…..

The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour 2023 – Day Three Wednesday 15th November

by mkingdon, posted in The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour

We do seem to have been cursed with some very average weather on recent trips. Our stay at Daytona in May and now these first few days on this trip have all been very unFloridian. If anyone knows where I can submit my compensation claims that would be handy.

Trying not to sulk too much after waking at 6am and suspecting that once again the weather would not be conducive to the pool we had some breakfast. Like the proper Brits we are we did take up positions by the pool for a little while, of course being the only folks out there as it was very grey and drizzly.

We admitted defeat and headed back to the room and made other plans. Those plans involved food, drink, and ten-pin bowling.

It had been many minutes since breakfast so first, we planned to get some lunch at Disney Springs. We caught our first of very many Lyfts over to the Spings as I was planning to have a drink or two. These things were amazingly efficient, abundant, and affordable. They were a great success for all of our trip.

We were deposited at the Lyft drop-off place near the Earl of Sandwich and we walked in the general direction of Splitsville looking for somewhere suitable for food.

Another tree…

On a whim, we decided upon Wolfgang Puck’s mainly as were walking past it.

It was pretty quiet so we were seated immediately. Keeping it light, as we had dinner plans, I just had a sandwich!!

and Louise a salad…

Louise had a wine and I had a draft beer.

Our server was excellent earning himself a good tip, taking the bill to $95 in total.

It was raining hard as we left so we made our way to Splitsville via as many shops as possible. Yes of course we had forgotten to bring the umbrella we acquired at great expense yesterday.

We booked in and were told there would be a 20-minute wait. At first, we thought the entire place had just these lanes….

But we soon realised most lanes were upstairs and this was a private party area. It was currently hosting some corporate do so it was all chinos, false smiles, and male bravado.

After about ten minutes we were taken upstairs to our lane and we ordered more wine for Louise and I had a beer flight.

This activity was all about fun, in the absence of the sun, but it is still important to record the fact that I won by a country mile despite not having played for over a decade.

Once were done we made our way back to the Lyft area and went back to the hotel. We had a drink in the hotel bar, noticing that it was still raining really hard, but not caring as much as we did before we started drinking.

I spent about twenty minutes trying to order this Ily Stitch doll for Louise’s friend online, but the Target website refused my every attempt as I was a bloody foreigner.

We went up to the room for showers. I read whilst Louise used the hair dryer for an inexplicable amount of time.

At 7.45 we were in another Lyft heading back to the Springs. The Drury Plaza is very close so I would say on average a Lyft there cost us about $10 with a tip.

We walked to The Boathouse, our eatery for tonight and it was, yep, you guessed it, raining hard still. This time we had the brolly though. The Boathouse was very busy so we had a wait for around 20 minutes after checking in. We sheltered in the shop next door until we were called, shortly after I went back to the podium to check, as I never trust these text messages to UK numbers in the US.

We were seated on a high table, which was just about fine for two fifty-somethings who had been afternoon drinking and after only a few minutes we ascended the stools and looked at the menu.

We declined an appetiser and instead enjoyed the bread rolls.

We then pushed the boat out (pun intended) on two Filet Mignons at silly expense. We added Truffle Fries and Asparagus as our sides.

I had, and this is going to be a theme throughout this trip, an Espresso Martini.

I think I had at least two and Louise had a similar amount of wine. We had a bottle of water (not your tap nonsense) and I had a diet Coke as well.

All of this is to prepare you (I was not prepared, probably due to the drink) for the size of the bill at $295. The steaks at $67 each plus the drinks were mainly to blame but it still hurt a bit and this would be by some distance our most expensive meal of the trip.

Regardless, we thoroughly enjoyed the food and the experience.

As we emerged, the rain had almost gone and things were a bit quieter.

We strolled back to the Lyft area and summoned a driver who arrived within what was to be the customary 2-3 minutes and we were back at the hotel for 11. Sleep was not hard to find.

Till the next time…..