NYC? WDW? UNI? Why choose, let’s do (or eat!) them all SEPT18 DAY 7 added

[disjunkie]

After last year’s 19 night trip (dining review is here https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1050528) Neil wanted to do something a different this year.

We booked a med cruise in May but our gorgeous dog Holly was diagnosed with Renal failure and we didn’t feel comfortable leaving her ( as it happens we lost her back in April so cancelling that trip was for the best).

The urge to go back to Florida was strong (with me!), so we compromised and agreed on a twin centre holiday in September.
We looked at lots of options before settling on New York. A plan was made and eventually reward flights were found. Our other dog wasn’t coping well without Holly so we got a lab puppy in June and ummed and ahhed about whether to shorten the trip or cancel altogether.

So cute!

Luckily my parents agreed to have the dogs for a week and we found a good home boarder for the other week, we decided we were unlikely to permanently scar her so would go ahead.

The Final plan looked like this:

9th-14th September – New York

14th September – fly to Orlando, stay at Hilton Garden Inn Seaworld for one night, visiting Seaworld the following day.

15th-18th September – Polynesian. We only have 4 days at Disney so wanted to take advantage of the club level fast pass purchase to make the most of such a short time.

19th -23rd September – Aventura Hotel – We wanted these last few days be more chilled out so focussed on Halloween Horror nights rather than the Universal parks during the day.

So onto the food! There were so many places I wanted to eat at in New York it was hard to narrow it down. We had no DDP for the Disney stay so took advantage of the club lounge offerings and have table service lunches. At Universal we focussed on trying the new options at Aventura.

Index

New York
Panera Bread
Shake Shack
Dominque Ansel
Aijeson
Fig & Olive
&Pizza
Piccolino
Greenwich Village Food tour
Maison Kayser
Hyatt House Chelsea H Bar

Orlando
Hilton Garden Inn Breakfast
Seito Sushi
Seaworld
Polynesian Club lounge
Artist Point
Tiffins
Liberty Tree Tavern
Hollywood Brown Derby
Le Cellier
Mel’s Drive In
Urban Pantry
Amatista Cookhouse
Voodoo Donuts
The Whiskey
AMC Dine In

[disjunkie]

We wanted to leave the dogs for the minimum time possible so didn’t bother with our usual overnight stay and travelled down the day of the flight. Therefore as there’s no pre travel day dinner, here’s a bonus cocktail picture from the Botanist where we went for lunch pre-travel day for my dads birthday.

Traffic was light so we stopped at the services half way down and had a Costa for breakfast. I had a ham and cheese toastie and a Bonfire latte (ok but no pumpkin spice!), Neil had a flat white as he’d ate breakfast before leaving.

We arrived at the airport around 11:30, it was very quiet but security took ages as both pieces of hand luggage were pulled aside for extra checks. Once we finally made it through we only had an hour before boarding was due to start so went to the Aspire lounge using free entry with our Amex card. The lounge wasn’t too busy but it’s not that big and filled up while we were in there. I had a glass of wine and a scone, Neil had some macaroni cheese for an early lunch.

Our flight was soon boarding and the flight time was only 6 hours, 50 minutes. We were in Premium Economy so had a welcome drink of sparkling wine.

We both had mushroom risotto for lunch, it was actually very nice but most of my butternut squash was undercooked and a bit hard.

Afternoon tea was served about 90 minutes prior to landing, chicken Caesar salad sandwiches which were nice and the mini cakes were both surprisingly good.

As the flight arrived early we waited ages for a gate but once we got off the plane we were through immigration quickly. We then had to wait 30 minutes for a cab, driving in New York is crazy! It kind of reminded me of Panama City with cars cutting in lanes from all directions, but we safely made it to the Hyatt House around 6:30.

The weather was miserable but we had a cracking view from the 23rd floor.

Once unpacked we went for a bit of an explore and decided on Panera Bread for a quick tea.
I had brocolli cheddar soup which was gorgeous, thick, flavourful, big chunks of broccoli and warming on a rainy miserable night.

Neil had half caprese panini which he said was really good.

You could add a dessert for $1 to any entree so I chose a brownie and Neil a cookie, which we took back to room with us. The cookie was good but the brownie was lovely with rich chocolate frosting on top, both were nibbled on over the next couple of days.

[wilma-bride]

Great start, I loved the food in new York, so intrigued to see more reviews

[Minnie Mum]

Looking forward to reading along. Off to ny in feb and beginning to make plans

[theCMG]

thanks for sharing, looking forward to the NYC part especially

[Goldia]

Great travel day. Looking forward to the rest.

[disjunkie]

Originally Posted by wilma-bride

Great start, I loved the food in new York, so intrigued to see more reviews

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Thanks. We loved New York, so much to see and do it was hard to fit in even the highlights in 4 days

Originally Posted by Minnie Mum

Looking forward to reading along. Off to ny in feb and beginning to make plans

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Jealous that you’ll be there in Feb! Hope the review is helpful

Originally Posted by theCMG

thanks for sharing, looking forward to the NYC part especially

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Thanks for joining in

Originally Posted by Goldia

Great travel day. Looking forward to the rest.

See more...

Thank you

[disjunkie]

Today was an early start with jet lag and we were both awake at 5am. A breakfast buffet was included in the hotel price, and it had a good selection of hot and cold choices, including an omelet bar where they were made to order. I had scrambled egg, hash browns and shared some French toast - all good.

Neil had a caprese omelet and walnut banana bread.

The rain was relentless today so we had a wet morning seeing grand central, library and Central Park. The only good thing about the rain was it meant Central Park was very quiet!

We originally were going to visit the Natural History Museum but half of New York had the same idea (queue was insane!) so decided to give it a miss and go back to the hotel to dry out for a little while. We got a coffee from the attached shop while drying off.

We headed downtown and visited the 9/11 memorial pools which I found very sad and moving. As it was the day before the anniversary there was extra flowers present in the some of the names which I assumed were placed there by family members.

I definitely wanted to visit a Shake Shack while in New York so decided to eat at the Fulton Street branch. It was packed but we managed to find two seats looking out into the mall and it didn’t take too long to get our food. I had the normal shack burger which was ok but nothing special, the veggie burger was a Portobello mushroom stuffed with cheese and then deep fried and was excellent, Neil said it was one of the best veggie burgers he’s ever eaten! We shared cheesy fries which were really tasty and had milkshakes to drink, mine was a black and white, Neil’s coffee, both very good and so thick.

Next we had a Cronut preorder to pick up so we headed up to Dominque Ansel in Soho. The shop wasn’t too busy and there were lots of lovely looking things in the pastry case but we just stuck with the Cronuts. This is a bakery that takes their products seriously, don’t think I’ve ever been given instructions on how to store/eat a cake before!

We didn’t eat this until the evening (but within the 6 hours they recommend!) and it was amazing. I’ve had the croissant doughnuts in Epcot before and loved them but this was another level. September’s flavour was fig jam and streusel ganache, the cronut itself was sweet with the icing and the jam adding to this, but the ganache had a slight sour quality which balanced it all out. So good and well worth the $6!

When it came to dinner I wasn’t feeling too hungry but we’d spotted a little ramen place near the hotel called Ajisen Ramen that got good reviews on yelp so popped in there. I just had a sprite to drink while Neil went for a sake called Funaguchi. I don’t normally like sake but the menu said this was sweeter than usual due to higher alcohol % (it was 19%abv) and this was actually really good, I had a few sips and it tasted like an apple martini!

Neil had the Veggie ramen which was good, and a huge portion.

I had the Shrimp Tempura sushi which was very good. The food came out really quickly so I thought the sushi may have been premade but the tempura were still warm so it was obviously fresh.

The bill came to $46, and we headed back to the hotel after this for an early night.

[Minnie Mum]

Yum. The sushi and crocnut look great. 😊

[wilma-bride]

I love Shake Shack - those crinkle fries are so good!

Dominique Ansel's was so amazing, we went twice. I had the Kouign Aman both times, which was good (although not as good as ones we had in San Francisco). the specialty cronut when we went was pumpkin (October last year) and my friend said it was really tasty.

I don't generally like sushi but that does look good - I love shrimp tempura!