Instead of doing a massive trippy I am going to post highlights, tips, highs and lows.
Date: June 2019
Accommodation: Wyndham Garden Hotel, AoA and Dibb Villa
We did the following:
- 1 day MK, 1 day AK on base passes. Bought with Musement, 10% off. Whatsapp was the quickest and most convenient way to reach their customer service. I bought these less than a week to go and they were quite slow to send them out, a few friendly prompts on Whatsapp sorted it out very quickly. They also refunded me the 10% discount when it didn't go through. Would use again.
- 3 Park Explorer- again used Musement, 10% discount.
- Floridatix- KSC tickets for adults. Excellent customer service. Best price I could find
- ATD: KSC kids tickets. Pain in the rear payment system if not booking online, which required me to use a VPN to pay as I was already in the US, bit of a faff. this was via UK customer service line.
ATD: special offer link from Dibb for 3 in 1 Icon, Tussauds and Sealife ticket. Well worth it for that price. Paid over the phone for this one in Ireland and it was far easier.
- Booking.com: Booked Wyndham and it was cheapest including the resort fee and so on. They (booking dot com) sent me on links to their activities and it gave me a great price of $10 pp for Starflyer so DS and I did that (not really worth it and glad I didn't pay more, 2 mins ride max)
- Priceline for AoA- it was the mystery hotel and it was a bit of a gamble but with great help from a Dibber, got a great price of $75 per night.
- Villa- fab as always.
- Car: Alamo. No problems at all and free upgrade from full size SUV to luxury SUV.
Lots of hassle with this trip that I am not going to go into again, but it panned out at the 11th hour. It meant a lot of work for last minute planning, FP+ booking and paperwork, which was nervewracking but it can be done and it was still fun to plan.
Flights: Outbound: Virgin. Inbound: Thomas Cook.
I had booked initially on the glitch from Belfast with Virgin but had to ditch the return flights. Virgin was fantastic. We flew in the bubble and I absolutely loved it. Service was excellent. Food was ok.
Thomas Cook: Customer service in the airport (by 3rd party agents, presumably) was excellent. Onboard was rather lacking. Very little drinks, water, hardly any movies (we slept so not a big issue), food was better actually, but cabin crew were clearly paying for the earphones and water out of their own pocket...
Restaurants Highs and Lows and So Sos
Highs:
Kobe: Fantastic night. Chef was very funny, great "show" and food was excellent. No issue prepping GF food for me.
Chick FilA: I know this isnt a restaurant with service as such, but the food quality is always very good, prices too, and the customer service behind the till is very good, free refills too.
Cold Stone: Love it, (geddit? ) and the staff are very patient. Often they leave off a topping as well at the till. I am fairly sure they used to have a tip jar but it's gone, so it isn't for that reason.
Outback: excellent meal here this time even if server was a little absent. Cocktail was passable.
Satuli canteen , AK: Got the mix bowl as recommended on DFB and was excellent quality. Tasty, healthy and delicious, reasonable cost for a theme park and real tableware/ cutlery. (In contrast see Lows)
Bahama Breeze: hadn't been to impressed here on previous visits but had a good attentive server, good food. Cocktail was ok.
SoSos:
Cici's: I actually think Cicis is ok. It's cheap and plentiful even if the surroundings can sometimes be a bit grotty. My younger kids adore it and would go here every single night if they could. The issue for me is that I can't eat there- but TBF to them they never make me pay at the till or anything. The drinks machines often had several drinks not available/ working and the toilets are a bit grim.
Unos: A good meal, nice choices now inc for vegans and coeliacs. the so so comes from the fact that it was freezing and we asked them several times to turn it down but they didn't. The server kept running by and we had to rugby tackle for more drinks. Cocktail was meh.
Hurricane Wild Wings: Sad that this is going into my so so and I think I am being overly critical - but just felt standard had slipped. it wasn't bad by any means- it was still delicious, but just wasn't feeling it as per previous visits. Cocktail was ok.
Teak: Again I am being critical here. Our server was amazing. She was flying it on the drinks refills and we never wanted for anything , really friendly, as was everyone we met in there. Food was good but not great. TBH I think that about most food in Orlando, so I am not writing these places off by any means- we will visit again on subsequent trips, just not stand out like the "highs".
Hash House a go go: we loved it here last time we visited it so was expecting amazing things. A bit like Hurricane, I felt it had slipped a bit, food was ok/ good. Server was ok. he said I could have a salad as an Appetizer and then brought something totally different.. when I asked for the salad I had requested, he said it was only available as a entrée- so I ended up with 2 main courses which was far too much food. We got the voucher from travelzoo ($29 for $50 of food and we used 2 on the one visit which made it excellent value)
Lows:
Sugar Factory: While the burger here was the best I had tasted all trip(when I finally got it), and DS agreed burgers were fab, the service here was extremely lacking. I left a tip but it killed me to do it.
For starters, the place was arctically cold. Glacial. Kids had to go outside at one stage to warm up.
They have no kids menu at all, which shows what sort of clientele they are aiming at but ironically there were loads of families.
It is all fur coat and no knickers-all these photos of celebs, sod all food and tonnes of booze. It is also unbelievably loud. Style over substance.
Clearly they are aiming at the selfie / Insta generation; there was plenty of (presumably) famous young women sucking lollipops on the walls.
Server was a total doze. I asked her if she could do the burger with a GF bun. She came back and said all the buns were GF. I was a bit dubious, but as this was a faddy "cool" (har har) place I thought it might be the case.
When the food came out, I just had a funny feeling about it. I asked a server who was passing by about it and he went to check. he came back very apologetic but said that it wasn't GF. Thank goodness I hadn't bitten into it.
He said he would get the manager over and my server. She came over after a few minutes- no apology but just would I like a salad instead.
I asked for the burger on a bed of salad/ lettuce. By the time this came out, the kids had finished their food and were penguins so I had to scoff it.
I went up to the manager as he had never come down. he was apologetic but fairly nonplussed that his staff had nearly caused me a day in bed. He had already authorised the server to take the burger off the bill, which I felt was rather ungenerous given the state of affairs.
The food was very good quality however, and the cocktail was phenomenal.
Blaze: We went one the first night and the place was a freaking zoo. It was like a chimps tea party, food, people, buzzers everywhere. OMG. I got a GF pizza and am shocked I wasn't poisoned tbh with the level of cross contamination. Kids loved it and pizzas are nice for the price.
Harambe market: some of us opted for the chicken or ribs bowls here. Absolutely terrible in comparison to Satuli. Very bland, boring and small portions. Did Mobile Order as did with SAtuli (speedy mobile order there; great) and the food took 35 minutes to come out. It is outside seating so no relief from the heat, and (yes I appreciate it is nature and they are everywhere) but DD saw a rat in the food area.
We got a dole whip from Tamu TAmu afterwards and felt very ripped off- easily half the size of the one we got in Marketplace Snacks in DS for the same price.