Tag: trip report

The Doing Diddly In Delray Tour 2024 – Day Three Thursday 30th May

by mkingdon, posted in The Doing Diddly In Delray Tour 2024

A good night’s sleep was ended around 6.30am. Rebecca phoned us around 7am to let us know Dougie and Tom had spent the night in A&E, as Dougie was having some serious breathing issues. At the risk of getting political, they left after five hours still not having seen a doctor and there was no realistic chance they would at any point. Go vote on July 4th! Someone else needs a go now.

We got up and had breakfast in our room and then I made the seven-step journey to the pool to “secure” some beds.

Being the only person at the pool, that was not too hard.

We spent most of the day in the shade due to being burned to a crisp from yesterday on the beach. We moved to different beds three times throughout the day to follow the shade!

We spent a good amount of time in the pool, cooling off and chatting. At some point, I made the long seven-step journey back to the room to get our sandwiches and crisps for lunch.

Mid-afternoon, I captured my impressive exercise stats for the day so far.

You know it’s hot when the locals can’t place all their feet on the hot floor.

At around 3.30 we decided to go for a drive to nowhere in particular. We were hot and if I’m honest I just fancied taking our lovely car out for a spin.

We got dressed and pointed the Jeep south on the A1A. Within a minute or so, as we left the area around Atlantic Avenue we started to see some of the most incredible houses we had ever laid eyes on. Louise, frankly, did a poor job of capturing them.

Delray has some proper wealth in and around it for sure. We drove south for about an hour, just soaking in the sights and at that point made the decision to drive on down to Hollywood, outside of Miami. Why?

Well, back in 1980 when all this Florida madness started for me, we stayed in Hollywood. As most of you will know, the story is that we went to AT Mays Travel Agents in Bolton, as we usually did to book our Spanish holiday and due to a dollar rate of around $2.20 to the pound, they told us we could go to Miami for less money than Spain. The rest is, as they say, history.

It felt silly to be staying so close this time without going to have a look, not that I had any real memories of the trip, which was now 43 years ago! But having lost my Dad recently, I felt the need to go and see where it all started I suppose.

With only 25 miles left on the Sat Nav to get to Hollywood, I wondered why it said we wouldn’t be there for 50 minutes. Well, the bobbins traffic in and around Fort Lauderdale soon explained that. It took all of those 50 minutes, but we were definitely in the “we’ve come too far to not complete this” territory now.

I had no clue where we stayed in 1980, and earlier in the pool when talking to Louise about it, from nowhere the name The Diplomat came to me. I was very spooked when I later looked at Google maps before setting off to see a hotel with that name in Hollywood literally be the first thing I saw when I zoomed in. This was weird.

Now, as we were finally driving along the “front” looking at all the hotels, not too surprisingly nothing really rang a bell. We did go past The Diplomat but it looked huge and it didn’t feel like the place we were at, but in 43 years they could have rebuilt the whole town of course.

When I messaged my Mum and Brother later that evening he seemed to think it was called Hotel Miami and there was one called that too, but it was closed now.

Louise needed the loo before we set off for home, so we stopped off at the nearest place likely to have one so that she could release her very own Whopper.

Whilst she did that I got us both an iced coffee to go and as I sat and waited my phone buzzed with a news alert that Donald Trump had been found guilty in his trial. This was also a bit weird as when we walked back to the car we saw that we were directly across from this.

Today felt a bit surreal all round.

We set the Sat Nav for home, this time using the I-95 rather than the A1A so the time was roughly halved. We found CNN on Sirius Radio and listened to the fallout from the Trump trial as we drove back. Again, the I-95 was busy and stressful.

Thankfully we eventually pulled off it onto the A1A again and tried to snap some more fancy houses on the way back into Delray.

We showered and got ready with a Lyft picking us up at around 9pm

and we headed for Vic & Angelos, an Italian.

We ordered a bottle of Montepulciano and some starters.

Mine was an Eggplant Lasagne thing.

Louise’s Meatball obsession continued.

We both had the same Entree. Nonna’s Sunday Gravy.

You may notice it involved another huge Meatball.

We were defeated and could not finish as of course we had also devoured the bread service.

As we were eating outside on the pavement, we were entertained by a lady pulling up and then reversing straight into a very fancy Range Rover parked behind her. She jumped out and we both thought she’d been drinking. A passerby took some photos of her and her car and they exchanged some strong words. She ended up not leaving a note and driving away. I don’t think there was any damage to be fair.

I didn’t note the price of the meal but I’d wager at $150ish due to the wine.

We strolled up Atlantic Avenue looking for somewhere to get a drink. At our age we want somewhere with something going on, but that’s not too busy and noisy. It’s tragic I know.

Right at the far end of Atlantic Avenue is the Yacht Club, a small bar that tonight had some Karaoke on. As there were no more bars if we walked any further, we decided to go in and to be fair it was good fun.

We had a couple of drinks and watched some “mixed” performances. These included an out-of-time Elvis, a crooner who may have been over 100 years old and a yacht rock guy.

We left at 12 and took a Lyft home where bed was immediate.

Till the next time…..

The Doing Diddly In Delray Tour 2024 – Day Two Wednesday 29th May

by mkingdon, posted in The Doing Diddly In Delray Tour 2024

Sure, I’d been awake for 22 hours, but that didn’t prevent my body from waking me up at 3am. Rather than wet the bed I got up for a wee and then thankfully returned to sleep until around 5.30am.

Louise slept on a bit so I spent that time dealing with some work stuff (hey, you don’t get to be paid millions a year and then have a holiday without doing work stuff…and the same applies when you get paid buttons too it seems).

When Louise was up we finished the unpacking, I made a coffee and whilst Louise got ready I wrote up my notes for the long travel day yesterday, narrowly avoiding PTSD when it came to the drive from the airport.

We were still ready and out of the door by 8am and we strolled down towards the beach and decided upon Luna Rosa for some breakfast.

We both ordered the same thing: Iced coffee and eggs Benedict on avocado and toast. I have never been so hipster in my life!

This was the view from our table.

I think it’s a sign of having had a good holiday when looking back at photos like these causes you physical pain and a deep longing to be back there.

Yes, it was delicious.

After leaving $70 including tip we crossed the road to the beach.

It was still pretty empty at this time and we had our pick of beds.

We oiled up and lay down. We both ventured into the sea for a bit. It was not cold and very calm and clear, and you had to go a long way out to get out of your depth. It was lovely.

Knowing a chap would be coming by soon to collect payment for the bed and brolly hire I feared that I may need some cash, so I had a wander to find an ATM machine. This turned into quite the hike as the nearest one was a fifteen-minute “stroll” up Atlantic Avenue. By Jingo it was hot.

As gruelling as that walk was, it was good to have a look around and get our bearings for where eateries and bars were located.

On the walk back to the beach I called into our room for a tactical wee and to pick up some water. We got a very sad message from an upset Emily that one of her rats, Jim had sadly passed. He was old in rat terms so it wasn’t unexpected but they mean the world to Emily and losing a pet is always tough.

Back at the beach, the bed man came and I need not have worried about payment. He had a card machine linked to his phone and we negotiated a discounted rate for buying multiple days.

We read, dozed and rested for a while longer before needing some lunch around 12.30. Today was to be a big food day it seems!

We wandered up Atlantic Avenue and chose Boheme Bistro based almost entirely on its proximity to the beach.

Louise had a Chicken Caesar Salad.

I had a Turkey Baguette.

Diet cokes and a wine and it cost us $80 including tip.

Louise nipped back to the room which was just around the corner for a loo stop and I went back to the beach.

On the beds next to us (at the beach, not in our room!) were two young college girls. Their conversation was loud enough to hear in Orlando and it was a terrifying “Mean Girls” experience that made me very glad I was old.

We rested some more and then Facetimed my Mum for a bit.

We left the beach at 5.30 after a hard day. A five-minute walk saw us back at the hotel, where we jumped into the jeep and found the local Publix to do some stocking up. Cereal, milk, some sandwiches for lunch tomorrow, (this eating out three times a day was not sustainable) natural yoghurt for Louise who had of course burned herself in the sun today and some water. A terrifying $90.

Back “home”, we showered and I booked us a table at The Office for 9.30. We ordered a Lyft at 9pm and we were picked up moments later.

I had a Giant Pretzel, but I’m not one to brag.

Louise had meatballs adorned with some green crap.

Our entrees were….

A Short Rib Sandwich for me. It was awesome. That white dip is melted marshmallow!

Louise had The Office Burger

With wines for Louise and an Espresso Martini for me, all this came to $145 including a healthy tip.

We were knackered and full so a Lyft was ordered to take us to bed. I jumped in the back seat with Louise a step or two behind me on the other side of the car and he started to set off with her only half in. There was much shouting of “woah, stop, hang on etc” and thankfully no harm was done. I think he apologised for every second of the short journey home.

We were home and in bed by 10.45, deep in a food coma.

Till the next time…..

The Doing Diddly In Delray Tour 2024 – Day One Tuesday 28th May

by mkingdon, posted in The Doing Diddly In Delray Tour 2024

Things did not get off to a great start. The night before our flight I received a message from Tui saying that our In-Flight Entertainment would not be working, but fear not, we could claim £30 compensation…EACH….if we wished.

Louise was less than pleased. As a nervous flyer, this distraction is key to her surviving a flight. Trying very hard not to let this darken our mood we pressed on with final preparations and went to bed around 11.30.

I set my alarm for 4.30am, but Louise was up and about well before that ensuring that I was too. I had not had the greatest of sleeps. I found myself anxiously pondering all the things I had not done, feeling massively underprepared for this trip for some reason.

With the broken IFE thing on my mind I put my ear bud things on to charge for an hour before we left just in case I might need them. I had discovered late last night that inexplicably, despite owning about 723 of them, I could not find any UK to US power adapters. This had also kept me awake and with my last search now also fruitless I was resigned to buying a couple at the airport at vast expense. We had a 4 way extension each packed in the luggage so two would be enough.

There was a sweat-inducing fifteen minutes of weighing cases and redistributing weight (TUI only give you 20kg each and I was trying to get both cases around that figure) and Ryan had to step up and take three pairs of Louise’s shoes to get us under 40kg combined.

We said our goodbyes to Emily and Mikey, inflicted the dogs upon them and left the house our customary fifteen minutes behind schedule at 6.15. It took fifty minutes to get to Manchester airport which wasn’t too bad considering it was mid-week rush hour around the M60.

Upon arrival at the airport we parked in our customary T2 West, having to drive all the way up to level 7 to find a spot my car might fit into. Once at TUI’s desks there were kiosks to use to avoid the (small) queue but they involved having a boarding card already. I had checked in online and I know I downloaded/saved them somewhere, but could I find them now? Nope. So we trudged over to the desks and after a few minutes we were checked in by a surly young chap who’s attitude was inexplicable. Despite me entering our US address on the TUI website, he still insisted on not only entering it again, but he would not trust me to read it to him, no, he had to see it himself on my phone, having googled it. Weird.

Security was a “walk on” to use theme park parlance. I don’t know if they have new equipment and/or processes but nothing needed to come out of bags and we retained our shoes. We walked through the scanner and we were done in under two minutes. Such an improvement on recent trips.

We were drawn automatically to our usual breakfast joint of San Carlos and again it was really quiet. Ever since Covid we have had to queue here for quite some time to get a table, but today it was half full and we were seated immediately by the window.

What a view.

As I fired my camera up for these first pictures I discovered some pictures taken by Freddie last Christmas. I had handed him my camera and told him to capture the day. There were some belters.

We had a good chuckle over those whilst we looked at the menu. As we waited for our food (and you may not believe this), we saw a few small flurries of snow outside the window…in May. Honest!

We were so distracted (and out of practice) that I only remembered to take food photos after we’d started eating. I had the Bacon and Egg on Sourdough….

and Louise a full English of sorts…

We both had tea and Louise added a Mimosa. It was £43.

We wandered the duty-free spraying ourselves with every sample on offer. How lovely we must have smelled. Tragically, Louise could not find the one she felt compelled to buy.

I got a US adapter from Boots and then a few minutes later I got another from WH Smith.

For those of you paying attention, towards the end of our last trip in November, with about two days to go Louise spent almost $200 on a new pair of sunglasses. Yeah, I know.

Still, with us having two trips booked for this year, they would get some use.

She had lost them. So now we found ourselves shopping for some more. Safe to say they did not cost almost $200 this time.

We moved on to the book shop where Louise bought one she wouldn’t touch for the entire trip and then we had a coffee, waiting for the gate info to appear. We moved to the gate at 10.30 and waited for everyone else to queue up to board before we did so last.

We Facetimed Rebecca whilst boarding happened and I squoze in (or is it out?) a last minute pre-flight wee.

A couple of weeks ago, I had changed our seats to row 10 as I noticed that of the three seats in that row, none were taken, whereas our selected seats had us and someone else in them. My plan worked and it turned out that we had that row of three just to us and along with them being extra leg room we also had extra width too, which despite my pre-holiday diet was very welcome.

Much to our delight, and the cabin crew’s surprise, the IFE was working. We pushed back bang on time and took off at 11.50 through some pretty bumpy clouds.

Drinks were served and I watched three episodes of Two and A Half Men that I had only watched a few hundred times before.

The food was perfectly edible and not as blurry as it looks when it came.

That’s better. I devoured everything and anything else put in front of me. For some reason, I am always inexplicably ravenous on a flight.

We tinkered with the very cool dimmable windows for a bit.

I read for a bit and stared at the map too.

Louise bought some Back Opium (the perfume, not narcotics) and some Pringles. I was more pleased with one of those as you can imagine.

I watched two episodes of The Middle and some Big Bang Theory. By this point we were ninety minutes out and for the rest of the flight we listened to the family behind us argue constantly until landing.

Landing at Melbourne is a test of nerve for a nervy flyer like Louise as it is all sea until almost the last minute but the pilot managed and we landed on time. After the Premium elite de-planed we were the first of the plebs off, being in row 10. It’s just a short walk to the one and only baggage carousel and we had a bit of a wait for our cases being one of the last into immigration. The wait was only ten minutes though.

Another few steps to the car hire desks and with most Tui folks I guess being on packages, the majority went out to the coaches leaving the car hire queue non-existent and I was served immediately. I was just about to be handed the keys to some SUV when a manager walked behind my server and said “We have a Jeep Wrangler, if Sir would prefer?”

Well “Sir” did prefer and we walked over to the car park to be delighted by it. Here it is a short time in the future at our hotel.

We were delighted to be hit by that Florida heat as we left the building. It felt nice to be home.

Very pleased with the car and the ease of which we had got from the plane to it (Melbourne is very straightforward and easy compared to MCO), we spent a few minutes getting sorted in the car, connecting my phone to Car Play and setting the sat nav off and then we were away. The estimated journey time was two hours, which seemed odd as when I’d looked at it back home it had been ninety minutes but we would soon discover why.

For now, the mood was glorious and as I connected to one of my Spotify playlists, Happiness by McFly came on, and full of the “just arrived” joy, a lovely car and excellent weather we drove along on a cloud of loveliness and indeed Happiness.

It took a little while to make it out of Melbourne and onto the I95 (this road is horrible and makes the I4 look like a dream) and begin our long journey down south. The sat nav said go straight on for 120 miles, so we did.

The first hour was without incident and we were making good progress. Then, quickly, the rain came. We could see the other side of the I95 backed up coming towards us and above that queue a horrible grey hazy mess of stuff that did not look good.

What followed was one of the most stressful and unenjoyable forty minutes of my life, and I’ve had an office job since I was 17! These were some of the worst conditions I have ever driven in, and I’ve been through a good few Flordia downpours in a car.

This was literally the calm before the storm.

Once the rain started, I didn’t blink for forty minutes. My nails were dug deep into the steering wheel and if Louise spoke to me I could not afford the loss of concentration to even listen. I was glued to the two red dots in front of me that I hoped were a vehicle.

It felt endless and every time I thought it couldn’t get worse, it did. The wipers were just spreading water around the windscreen and we did not go above 20mph for a long time. What a storm!

We finally got some respite with about twenty miles to go and I could exhale at last. When we finally did arrive at our hotel it felt like every minute of the more than two hours it took us to get there.

We checked in around 7.20pm and after a little bit of unpacking and organising we were out looking for food.

This was the huge church right across from the hotel entrance.

We stood here waiting for our recently ordered Lyft. I had fired up the map and simply chosen the closest eatery to our hotel.

This was a huge source of shame when our driver turned up, circled the block and dropped us off at the Delray Hideaway about 17 seconds later. Look, we had no idea of the geography and we were tired! I tipped well enough to make it an apology.

Delray Hideaway was, it seems, the locals place, that not many tourists seemed to get to, judging by the stares as we entered. It was very “basic” but the food was decent, quickly delivered and the service was good. We declined to play the bingo that was just about to start.

We had some Mozzarella sticks to start.

I had the Chicken Sandwich

and Louise the French Dip.

With a couple of wines and beers it was $90 including tip.

Despite having been awake for far too long by now we had a short stroll around the place to get our bearings.

Even down to the beach which was a five minute stroll from our hotel.

On our way back, we spotted some lovely local homes.

Back at the hotel we found the second pool…..

and the whole place looked lovely in the dark.

Sadly we did not take photos of the room before we messed it up with some of our stuff but here you go….

Lounge

Dining Area (we did not use this)

Kitchen

Bathroom

For some reason, probably due to the mess we’d already made, I did not photograph the bedroom.

We fell into bed at 9.30 pm US time, 2.30am Uk time, having now been awake for 22 hours. The joys of travel day.

Sleep came quickly.

Till the next time…….

No Sleep Till Delray.

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

As predicted it’s been a busy old week, with work scaling new heights in ways to keep me occupied for more hours than it should. Battered, bruised and breathless I fell over the finishing line on Friday. My task now is to try and come down from the adrenaline and stress of work life so that I can actually relax and enjoy not working for a bit. Look, I know I’m not pulling babies from burning buildings but it has its moments.

As a parting gift, the UK graced us with 48 hours of continuous pouring rain, just to confirm that our decision to go somewhere else for a bit was correct. Also, how cold has it been? It’s ridiculous for late May.

Having eliminated the pouring water inside the house last week, this week it was (mainly) outside. The biggest challenge has been convincing the dogs to actually step foot outside to do their business. Hey and guess what? We have another leak. Whilst Emily was showering on Friday I could hear a dripping noise and yep water was coming down through the kitchen ceiling and probably has been for a while from time to time as there is a faint brown patch around that area. This house hates me. Well, that can wait till we get back and Emily can use our shower until then and the plumber can return, no doubt to cut more holes into this money pit.

Louise finished on Thursday and has been in prep mode since then. There will not be a shop unvisited before departure and somewhere in between all that and me doing two Pink gigs this weekend, we’ll leave the house at some point early on Tuesday with a couple of cases full of what we need, purely down to Louise getting us all packed on Saturday. The bank holiday Monday is well-timed.

Today I have to break my golden rule of never going to the tip at weekend as needs must so we do not leave Emily with a house full of rubbish that has somehow appeared asa result of holiday prep. No I don’t understand that either.

I should probably report in with you all on the weight loss front. It’s been a fairly strict and well-behaved four weeks and depending on what mood the scales are in of a morning it looks like I have shed something like 8 to 10 pounds. It sounds like a good effort but the injustice of that small number compared to the huge effort and time taken is heartbreaking. It also brings home how horrendous I must have looked at my heaviest as even in my new svelte form I will still be scaring folks on the beach.

Let’s see how the calorie sponge that is my body responds to ten days of holiday eating and you can all make your own bets as to whether all of that goes back on.

So we leave on Tuesday morning, so you can expect the usual “I’m at the airport” post on Facebook just to make you all feel happy for me. Right?

Anyway, we have a busy day ahead so I must leave you. As ever, feel free to follow the trip “live-ish” on the Mkingdon Facebook page and you can all look forward to another trip report about sitting in the sun most days followed by what we had for tea (dinner). You lucky, lucky folks.

Till the next time…..

I Predict A Diet

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

When it comes to Disney, especially with a trip on the cards, there is little I like to do more than to think about scenarios that may or may not happen that will have hardly any impact on my life in the long term. Things like not getting specific ADRs or the parks being too busy or that those FOMO perks that Disney gives to on-site guests will make our off-site trip a disaster. It’s all part of the fun. For example, it seems off-site scum can only start to book their Genie+ Lightning Lanes from park opening, not 7am like the honoured on-site types. A bit petty Disney if you ask me. If you’re going to do this, then you need to come up with some affordable accommodation options for larger parties.

The only thing I enjoy more is whinging about Genie+ but I guess I’m not alone there.

Another fun part of this countdown process is to make completely unsubstantiated guesses based on zero knowledge about what Disney may or may not do in the future.

Take for example….

Soon, in Summer 2024, the new version of Splash Mountain will open. Tiana’s ride (not the official title) will be welcome for a couple of reasons.

  1. Having such a major ride down for so long just means there are fewer things to spread the people around and all the other attractions get busier. (This is the entire issue with Hollywood Studios right now. Not enough things for too many people to do, but that’s a whole other blog post.)
  2. It may draw some folks away from the likes of Seven Dwarves at rope drop and give other folks a fairer chance to ride it without paying extra or waiting for 90 minutes.

Emily and I were pondering if Tiana’s ride would be added to the list of individual lightning lane attractions in Magic Kingdom. There is much to think about.

It seems that MK is currently the only park with more than one such attraction…

Epcot – Guardians

Hollywood Studios – Rise of the Resistance

Animal Kingdom – Flights of Passage

Magic Kingdom – Tron and Seven Dwarves

So adding a third would be bordering on a piss take in my view. The options seem to be to take that piss and add a third which would be punitive and very unpopular, leave Tiana’s ride as Splash was, as part of the (still paid for and shite) Genie+ service, or add it to the Individual LL list and drop one of the others.

Personally, I think they will leave Tiana as Splash was. If they were to make it one of the two, then which of the existing ones would they drop?

Tron is too new surely and Seven Dwarves is one of the most popular and slowest loading rides on property, so that could just be carnage.

As ever, this thought process will be a complete waste of time because the last time I correctly predicted what Disney would do next I had a fringe.

I’d be interested in your views of course.

Speaking of change and new rides. Due to some clickbait-style headline writing by some other Disney-related blog (not that you read any others of course), there were a couple of minutes late last week when it seemed like Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin was going to be replaced by a Wreck-It Ralph attraction. A quick scan of the article once they had my very valuable click, confirmed that this was in Tokyo. Let’s hope that nonsense idea never darkens Florida’s door.

The other thing I have done in the last few days is begin to firm up some dining plans. We are months from ADR booking but I did try out the new system where you can put in a range of dates for a restaurant and see all the ADRs available. That is excellent!

My strategy for our eating on this trip is to focus on off-site places as much as possible with just a smattering of on-site ADRs. Sure, cost is a consideration. Feeding six folks multiple times a day on property is a pricey hobby, but we also love a lot of off-site places.

So I am adding an eatery of choice for each day and if it so happens that on one of those days we don’t want to leave the parks or that doesn’t fit with our plans, we will just try to find somewhere there and then via the app. We do want to try and get ADRs for a few such as Garden Grill, Rodeo Roundup, Space 220 (yeah right) and probably one character meal.

On that note, has anyone done BR77 Steakhouse on the 192. It’s a Brazillian Steakhouse type place it seems and I was thinking of giving it a try. Other than that, our list is the usual suspects.

All of this theme park talk ignores the fact that we are now just four weeks away from our absolutely no theme park trip at the end of May, to Delray Beach. When we called in to see my Mum last week she asked if we had the cases out yet. Even for me, five weeks out was a bit early, but it won’t be long.

The only prep required now for that one is to get some bloody weight off. My “Fat Elvis” period has been dragging on for a while now and it seems these days the only thing that can motivate me to get some lard off is a trip overseas. Let’s see how that goes over the coming weeks. The hardest part for me is starting. Once I begin to see any sort of result, I can stick at it, but as the years go by, it just becomes harder and harder to get the ball rolling.

If only everything in life were as easy as getting fat.

Till the next time…..

Weather To Plan

by mkingdon, posted in Walt Disney World

If ever there was a week to undermine any activity from the UK Tourist Board, then this must have been it. I don’t know about your neck of the woods, but the weather here was beyond atrocious and only increased my desire and anticipation to be somewhere warm. Insult was added to injury as we supposed to entering the time of year when you may feel justified in believing that the worst of the bleak winter is over.

What feels like 412th named storm of recent times battered us with sideways rain and annoyingly strong winds meaning that I was outside at the back of the house on multiple occasions, tethering down garden furniture that we’ve had for three years and hardly used because the weather here is always so shit.

There is a part of me that is beginning to think I have personally angered the weather gods, as even when we have managed to escape to Florida in recent times, we have enjoyed less than stellar conditions there too.

I am sure that is all about to change when we land in Melbourne at the end of May. It’s been some time since we were in Florida in their summer time, so I am very much up for a bit of sunburn and moaning about it being too hot.

Having had that whinge, as I write this I am sat with the conservatory door open with dry conditions outside. However, this is very much the exception.

You might point out that we have moved to the edge of the Lancashire moors and we need to expect biblical weather more often than not, but I don’t think we are alone in experiencing this nonsense. Speaking of which it is now over three years since we moved to this house. I’m sure for anyone who cares and/or remembers, it feels like time has whizzed by since my weekly posts were mainly moaning about solicitors and the snail-like progress of our move.

Anyway, the UK’s insistence on having bobbins weather is certainly increasing our desire not to be here and it is heightening our anticipation for our sun, sea and sand holiday in about six weeks time.

Looking ahead to that next trip in May, you may sympathise that it feels odd not to have anything of note to plan. What sort of holiday is that right? The uplifting effect of having a holiday booked is increased when there is pleasant stuff to plan and arrange. I think we all know that.

Well, with some determination, some planning activities can be found. I don’t know if anyone else uses this feature or whether I am just the last person on the planet to do so, but I’ve been using the Want To Go thing on Google maps to identify potential eateries (what else) around Delray Beach.

Highlighted on the below is our accommodation, and all the little red pins are restaurants that look of interest that I have added to my “want to go” list.

We probably won’t get to them all but it doesn’t hurt to have options right?

I am very encouraged that many of those places on this eatery-filled boulevard have great reviews and for foodies (fatties) like us, this is a utopian situation. Selecting our restaurant of choice shall be the main activity of our inactive days on the beach or by the pool.

I have invested in a small Amazon Fire tablet to feed my holiday time need to read. In November, we had to do several shopping trips as I kept running out of reading material, so now with my little electronic friend, I shall have an endless supply of holiday page-turners.

Before we do leave I think I’ll also have a look for some places of interest within driving distance, mainly as I don’t want to have paid for a hire car to not use it! The area is new to use so it would be good to explore the likes of West Palm Beach and maybe even as far afield as Miami could be worth a day trip. I quite fancy going to visit Hollywood (not the one in California) as that is where we stayed on our very first trip to the States in 1980. I haven’t changed a bit since then so I am sure it hasn’t either.

See, no planning to be done at all.

Till the next time….

The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour 2023 – Day Fifteen Monday 27th November

by mkingdon, posted in The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour

As Shania Twain once said, looks like we made it.

The end of this trip, an extended trip at that and one besmirched by shite weather for the majority of it. That’s all relative of course as we would not have been lying outside in our shorts back home at this time, but you go to Florida so you can.

Anyway, this last day started like most of the others with an awakening around 7am. For some reason I noted that I frequented the “bathroom” a good few times this morning. Maybe a delayed reaction to the gallons of Espresso Martinis on this holiday?

We did the dreaded packing and were out of the room by 10.40 with the car pointed at Disney Springs for one last visit. We parked in Lime and left all the bags in the car, in which was the camera, so I only have a few phone shots for you today.

Despite thinking we had finished gift shopping we were still looking for ways to spoil the grandkids, so we found ourselves in the Harley Davidson shop debating whether to spend a silly amount of money on a leather jacket for Freddie. In the end, we decided against it as he would grow out of it in about six minutes.

We wandered into World of Disney, still desperate to hand over more dollars and having done that we needed some lunch. Today would be the day we finally tried the Polite Pig.

It was only 11.30 but packing had meant no breakfast and hey, we were still on holiday.

We got a platter for two and it was absolutely delicious. As you can see it wasn’t a huge amount of food for two people but maybe that is just us fat knackers. It was $55ish. I hadn’t realised this was a counter service place rather than being served at your table so I share that in case you didn’t either.

With that devoured, we headed over to Starbucks and got a couple of coffees and something sweet in the form of a cookie and a blueberry scone. We found a bench to eat them on whilst “enjoying” what seemed to be a school band on the stage.

You can enjoy them too….

I think the term, “bless them” covers that sufficiently. As a very average musician myself I tip my hat to these youngsters and their abilities that already outstrip mine.

Once they were finished we found a little wall to sit on and people watch for a few minutes soaking up the last bits of warmth before making the final walk back to the car. We filled it up at the Gas station opposite the Springs for $28 and set off towards MCO. Terminal C still has the feeling of not quite being open. Everything feels empty, which is no bad thing.

We were too early to check in, so after a painless car drop-off and standing in the queue for too long, it finally opened at 2pm. Security also was a bit shit but we finally made it through and made our way to Gate 238 by 3pm.

As ever my notes dry up here. I did note that we were sat in the extra legroom seats, near the emergency exit and therefore had one of the flight crew sitting opposite us for take-off and at times during the flight. She was lovely and really helped Louise who as you may know is a nervous flyer. She explained every noise, bump and wobble and was generally just excellent.

As is customary on a return to the UK, you have to be reminded what a mess things are by waiting over 90 (yes, 90) minutes to have the cases appear on the carousel. Every time!

We finally got our luggage, walked to the car and made our way back to reality.

So it’s time to sum up this one. In summary, here are my takes if anyone cares.

I know I’ve moaned about the weather throughout this trip and I have been justified in doing so. It did not ruin the holiday for us but it certainly affected it. It made us extend the trip if nothing else.

Aer Lingus took us there and back and were absolutely fine. There were no issues, edible food and despite being in economy, albeit with extra legroom on the way back, comfortable enough. We find their entertainment choice a bit dated/limited, but in the scheme of things, you just need that big tube thing with wings to get you there and back safely and economically and they do the job very well.

The Drury Plaza Hotel is excellent. It is new so all the facilities are just that. The rooms are large and spacious and most with nice views. It has so many extra perks compared to other hotels and if you can get the free parking offer (I think via Travel Republic, if it still exists) that will save you a lot too. Free breakfast, the early evening kickback (which we never used) free coffee in the lobby, buses to the parks, early entry and a superb location make it a no-brainer. We will definitely consider it when we want to do a similar trip in the future.

Recently, we seem to have created a new kind of Florida trip. New for us anyway. This adults only, no parks, doing what would be a holiday to the Med but in Florida thing, and it really works for us.

We’ve loved this trip and similar previous ones and we will do it again. It gives us all the familiar Florida stuff we love –

  • Guaranteed quality of food and accommodation
  • Endless options for dining and drinks at Disney Springs and the resorts
  • Not having to figure out a new place with only a precious few days to spend there.
  • None of the stress, planning and crowds involved with going to the parks

I know for many, that endless discovery of new places is exactly what is sought but with holiday time being so precious (and expensive) this works for us. I would thoroughly recommend it. We did not miss the parks at all; honestly, it was as if they did not exist.

I should say, there is no falling out of love with the parks. We will be back soon enough for a full-on theme park commando dawn till dusk ride fest. It was just not on the agenda for this trip.

We thought going to Florida would guarantee the weather too but we’ve just had some really crappy luck there. Our stay at Daytona last May was badly affected by unusually terrible weather so if and when we ever return we surely are due some proper old-school Florida sun.

Don’t get me wrong we adore going to Florida with as many family members as we can muster and we will definitely do that again ASAP, but the freedom of being just the two of us makes it what we hoped and that is a stress-free relaxing break. I think I have had more alcohol on this trip than in the last ten years, but variety is the spice of life as they say and a little bit of excess in moderation doesn’t hurt.

Thanks again for enduring, especially this one which was literally us sitting by a pool or moaning that we couldn’t, followed by an evening meal and maybe some drinks. For those who did endure, thank you.

Till the next time……

The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour 2023 – Day Fourteen Sunday 26th November

by mkingdon, posted in The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour

Dig in folks, we are now at the “last full day”. Once we get this one out of the way there’s just the brief and sulky travel day to endure and then we can all move on with our lives.

After a late and boozy night, there was no rush at all to get up this morning. My dislike of the weather continued as it looked to be cloudy AF (I am down with kids) again.

It was a solo breakfast once more this morning but I did take a hungover Louise some coffee and sweet things on my return.

With no sun to speak of, we jumped in the car and headed up the I4 to City Walk to do some final gift shopping. We parked up and headed on in.

We initially stopped off in the gift shop at Bubba Gump’s. Louise bought too much stuff. It wasn’t a financial concern, well it was a bit, but I was very worried about our lack of luggage space for the return leg. We were pretty much at our limit on the way out and we had already accumulated many gifts to return with.

We strolled on and did a full loop around the water.

We stopped in most of the shops along the way and did manage to get everyone who merited one, a present.

Having spent a handful of calories walking, the sensible thing to do would be to nip into Toothsome for a Freak Shake, so we did.

I had the Red Velvet and Louise the Espresso Buzz. They were glorious of course and being stupid we kept the plastic cup things and somehow managed to bring them back across the Atlantic so they could sit in our cupboard never to be used again.

We completed our loop, stopping in more shops and Bubba Gumps again to use their restroom on our way back to the car. The forecast said there may be some sun to come so we were headed back to the pool all full of hope and expectation.

Naturally, pretty much as soon as we lay down by the pool the drizzle started.

You can have that footshot for free.

We moved under cover on the patio area and hoped to wait out the fleeting shower. It did not fleet and just got worse so we eventually gave up and returned to the room. We read and rested for a bit before getting ready to go out for dinner (tea).

Our destination was Olive Garden just around the corner and we got there around 8pm. We were seated immediately.

You will know what happened first.

We both opted for the Tour Of Italy…

We both had Diet Coke too, having had enough of alcohol last night.

The bill was a very reasonable $70 including a good tip and after what had been some rocky ground here since Covid this felt like a return to form for Olive Garden and I was glad we hadn’t given up on it.

We went straight back to the hotel, having neither the desire nor stamina to do any drinking or revelling this evening. We watched The Hunger Games in bed and went to sleep around 11pm. Hardly a glorious finale to our trip but it’s what we felt like doing and isn’t that what holidays are all about?

Till the next time……

The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour 2023 – Day Thirteen Saturday 25th November

by mkingdon, posted in The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour

Fear not faithful readers, we are approaching the end of this seemingly endless Groundhog Day trip and then you will surely be spared any further trip reportage from me for some time. Right?

I was awake at 6.30am. This was intentional as there was a football match back in the UK that I wanted to watch. Not too surprisingly the TV in our room did not carry the required channels to watch it, so I had to resort to watching it on my phone instead. Having watched an acceptable draw, I ventured down to breakfast alone at 9.45. Louise could not muster the enthusiasm to do so this morning, so after eating I brought her a muffin and a coffee because I am a model husband.

With days fast running out, we went to the pool despite the cloudy weather. It was warm enough and certainly warmer than it would be when we would get home in a few short days so we endured.

I think I must have nodded off at one point because when I opened my eyes Louise’s sunbed was empty and I eventually saw her on the other side of the pool, chasing the intermittent sun.

We got our customary snacks and Lays for lunch again and continued to do nothing until around 4pm.

For reasons I now cannot remember I had decided that this evening we would be eating at Saltgrass Steakhouse at Lake Buena Vista, so after showers, we drove the short distance.

After enjoying them so much at Sickies once we saw the Pickles and Peppers on the menu they were bound to be our appetiser.

They were large and very nice, as, increasingly was I. We also had a bread service and a salad before our mains arrived.

I figured, if you are coming to a steak house then it would be silly not to so I ordered, possibly the largest steak I had ever eaten.

It was a 22oz Porterhouse and it was awesome.

Louise had a Chicken Sandwich. After all these years, even Louise forgets to not go near her food until the photo has been taken!

I didn’t make a note of the bill, but I think it was decent value all things considered. This being our first time here, I would say it is worth a try. It is a no-frills affair and seemingly very popular with locals which is usually a good sign.

We left around 7.45 and dropped the car off back at the hotel. A Lyft took five minutes to arrive and it transported us to The Boardwalk. It took an age. The traffic past Disney Springs was ridiculous. What should have been a sub-ten-minute journey took over twenty.

I feared that Jellyrolls, our destination, would be full by now, but we managed to snag the last table and it was right by the stage. This can be a worry if you are not a fan of audience participation but we were not troubled tonight.

As ever the performers were great despite not being any of our favourites. We had a couple of requests played, Teenage Dirtbag and That Thing You Do (again).

We had a few rounds of drinks. You know you’ve been to Jellyrolls a lot when the waitress comes to your table and says “the usual?”. I think we probably funded her mortgage for the month during this trip.

I think we left around 12.30 and ordered our Lyft home. We were picked up by “Flash”. I may be cynical but that was probably not his real name. Regardless he was a superstar. We had a lovely chat all the way home about his home of Jamaica and all sorts of random things. What a lovely man.

We said goodbye and I probably over-tipped him before falling into bed around 1am.

Till the next time…..

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 Five Friday 17th November

by mkingdon, posted in The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour, Uncategorized

Much to our disgust there was still no sign of the sun. So we had a lie-in until 9.30, showered, and were that annoying couple who arrive for breakfast at 9.59 when it closes at 10.

As we ate, I consulted various weather apps and they were promising better stuff around 10.30, so we finished our food and headed out to the pool, ready to absorb all this good weather.

It was still shite. We didn’t even bother getting sunbeds, for fear of triggering the Trades Descriptions Act. Instead, we sat on the lanai, undercover and did some reading.

We Facetimed folks back home for a while and when it was time we ordered some lunch from the bar side snack bar. It was once again fairly average.

The drizzly grey stuff continued throughout.

We abandoned all hope of seeing any sun, well even any dryness at around 2.30 and went back to the room. We did some more reading and relaxing before getting ready to go out around 4.30pm. (I bet you wish we’d done some theme parks on this trip?).

We ordered a Lyft around 5.30pm and one turned up within a couple of minutes. We were dropped off at The Boardwalk about fifteen minutes later.

We headed to the new (to us) Abracadabar for a couple of pre-dinner drinks.

I had a Negroni and of course an Espresso Martini.

Louise had a wine and then an Espresso. It’s a nice place. Not huge so I suspect it will get full quickly at busier times.

We wandered over to The Swan at 7.30.

We had an ADR at Il Mulino. This would be our fourth visit of recent times, the third and now the fourth trying to recapture the excellent experience we had on our first two.

The bread service here is excellent and the higher prices get you a lot of attention and lovely iced water served by a team of about 14 staff per table.

I had rice balls….but I suspect it was all this damp weather.

They are one of my favourite dishes of all time but be warned they do pack a spicy punch. There was snot and tears, but all of it worthwhile.

Louise started with Meatballs.

Her main course was Ravioli…

and mine Gnocchi…

Whilst both our starters were superb, the mains were just OK and I think we’ll give this one a rest for a while now. We clearly stumbled into some kind of magical experience the first couple of times that we don’t seem to be able to replicate. None of it was bad, and we enjoyed it, but for the price, we should probably try elsewhere.

The bill was $155 including tip.

All full up now, and clearly exhausted from our very busy day (!?) we decided against Jellyrolls and walked through to the main entrance of The Swan to summon a Lyft.

We waited all of six minutes before it arrived and we were back at the hotel and in bed by 10pm. We are the very definition of rock and roll I know!

I am not one to use spoliers, but tomorrow there may well be a blue sky and some sun!

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…..

The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour 2023 – Day Two Tuesday 14th November

by mkingdon, posted in The Getting Layed In Orlando Tour

If you’ve ever wondered what to do in Orlando when your plans to sunbathe are torpedoed by UK-style weather, stick around!

We both slept OK but were of course awake around 5am. A quick look at some weather apps and out of the window confirmed that the weather today was going to be crap, so the plan was to go to Disney Springs and hopefully get all the gift shopping we always leave to the last minute done nice and early.

Once the hour was more reasonable we headed down to the free breakfast buffet. It is very decent for a freebie and served us well all holiday.

It was proper grim outside.

It was better than this looked. The buffet included breads, bagels, cereals, fruit, a waffle station and a full hot buffet.

We finished around 8am and by 8.30 we were headed for Disney Springs where of course bugger all would be open yet. Indeed Lime Garage, our usual choice, was not open and we had to park in Orange. We then had to hang around for a bit at security until 9am until we were let in, but only after Louise got pulled by security. In front of us was a wedding party, planning to get wed somewhere at Disney Springs and the security checks they were going through may have lasted longer than their marriage. They had boxes of all sorts of stuff that had to be gone through one by one.

Once inside, it was understandably quiet at this time.

We wandered down to House of Blues….

and around the back of it, along the waterfront.

It was lovely just to be here and wander about having the place pretty much to ourselves. I don’t think we had ever walked down this bit of the Springs by the water and we just soaked up the view for quite a while. We slowly made our way down to the other end of the Springs to kill time until most of the stores opened at 10am.

We were sending the girls endless photos, whether they wanted them or not!

We timed it perfectly to arrive at World of Disney at 9.59 and the doors opened literally as we arrived.

As we did all the CMs were lined up clapping us in.

We bought a gift for Emily and a pen for Louise’s job (honestly!). It was an extra wide, chubby pen as clearly she is very used to how that sort of thing feels in her hand.

We continued to wander all the usual stores, such as Trend D and the Coop, dodging the now heavy rain. We invested in a brolly. I’d been asked by a blog reader to look out for a specific calendar and on this, our first try of many, it was sold out!

We were also on a mission to find an Ily Stitch doll for a friend of Louise’s (no, I’d never heard of them either) and World of Disney didn’t have any of those either! Not the most fruitful shopping expedition.

We had a sit down in the covered bit near Chicken George and Facetimed Rebecca for a bit.

Having not much else to do, we drove to Target to see if they had one of these dolls, but of course, they did not. We picked up some bits and that may sound like a quick thing to do, but as you may know, any trip to Target is measured in days. With that done we headed back to the hotel as I had a call of nature to attend to.

It was mid-afternoon by now and we were both knackered so decided to have a nap and relax for a bit. This inevitably turned into a good few hours of not doing a lot and we were so tired that we decided just to grab a Pizza Hut pizza from the shop in the hotel for tea and watch some telly. The weather was still very grim and was not encouraging us to go out anywhere.

Bedtime was embarrassingly early.

We do better than today from here on in, I promise.

Till the next time…..