COMPLETE: LIVE Triple Florida! November/December 2021

[orlandoamber]

Originally Posted by Pez01

That’s not bad. I’m considering doing similar but never driven in the US and as it’s me and the teen I’d have to do the driving …. But seeing the fab report you’ve done I’m now considering it even if we just ditch the car on arrival in Orlando x

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That’s exactly what we’re doing, the car is going straight back to Avis in the Hard Rock Hotel this afternoon. We picked it up from the W Hotel on Fort Lauderdale Beach which was right next to our hotel x

[Pez01]

I’ve no idea why I’m so afraid of driving there - I’ve held my uk licence for like 30 years 😅😅😅😅😅😅😅

[orlandoamber]

Originally Posted by Pez01

I’ve no idea why I’m so afraid of driving there - I’ve held my uk licence for like 30 years 😅😅😅😅😅😅😅

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I am sure you would be absolutely fine 💜 I find it scary too though and this trip wouldn’t be possible without W volunteering to do the driving!

Let me know if you book anything and need any tips

[orlandoamber]

So this morning, we checked out of The Westin and then went to Tinta for breakfast. This is based in the hotel in the same location as Lona, but is operated essentially as a different restaurant. It is incredibly high rated on tripadvisor, has amazing views and a great breakfast menu with a Mexican twist.

To drink, I got an orange juice and W got a cranberry juice.

Our food all looked fantastic:

I ordered the Yucatan Omelette which is lump crab, bacon, cream cheese, chipotle bechamel, cotija, pickled onion and cilantro. It also came with potatoes.

This was really nice and something totally different to what I’ve had before. I really enjoyed it, however it wasn’t the star of the show…

That title goes to W’s meal which was the Carnitas Hash made with slow cooked pork shoulder, potato, onion, bell peppers, poached eggs, chipotle hollandaise and cilantro.

It was incredible! The pork shoulder fell apart and to be honest I felt like stealing the meal from him. It was so good

We also ordered a chorizo, egg and cheese breakfast taco to try between us.

This was so good too! Again, something really different but really good.

The food here was a total winner. We did however have some questionable service on this occasion but this wouldn’t stop us coming back at all, especially as the Lona service was brilliant in the same location.

The total came to just over $40 so it’s a really great option on Fort Lauderdale beach if you’re ever in the area, made even more convenient for us staying at The Westin!

We then walked over to the W Hotel which was next door to ours to pick up the car from Avis for the drive to Orlando.

[orlandoamber]

After a pretty simple drive from Fort Lauderdale, we arrived at the Hard Rock Hotel Orlando just after 15.30, dropped off the car keys at the Avis desk (they didn’t even need my name to check the car back in which I thought was weird, just the car keys and the bay it was parked in!) and checked in. We’ve been allocated a lovely big room.

After unpacking, we went into Universal Studios - wow, it was packed! There’s a lot of families still here on their thanksgiving break so I think it’s likely to calm down tomorrow/Monday. Regardless, we got on a few rides with our express passes pretty easily; Gringotts was 90mins but we got on in around 25mins, Transformers was 45mins and we got on in around 20mins.

We also got a Rocky Road from Sugarplum’s in Diagon Alley:

This was just under $6; expensive but very good! Really rich and good to share.

We then decided to leave the park and try to find a light dinner in CityWalk. We didn’t want anything too heavy as we’d been pretty full all day after that amazing Tinta breakfast!

We settled on Panda Express for me and Moe’s for W. If anyone is unfamiliar with the upstairs CityWalk food court, Panda Express and Moe’s are actually next to one another so it’s quite easy to split up and get food from both at the same time.

I ordered a kids box at Panda Express as the portion sizes are always huge. This included 1 entree and 1 side; I chose orange chicken and chow mein. It also included a drink, so I got a Diet Coke. It was also meant to include a cookie but they gave me some apple chips, which I didn’t eat!

This was lovely and just what I fancied! If you don’t have a large appetite or aren’t particularly hungry, I’d definitely recommend getting the kids box.

I also ordered a portion of veggie spring rolls with sweet and sour sauce. Pro tip: they give you loads of sauce compared to the spring rolls, so pour the remains on your chow mein

This all came to $9.48.

From Moe’s, W ordered the chicken club quesadilla and a cup of queso which comes with (a huge portion of) free tortilla chips. It was $14.89.

The queso here is soooo good. I may have shared some of those chips dipped into it

W really enjoyed all of this and declared it much better than Taco Bell, even though he enjoyed that too.

We then went into Islands of Adventure and rode Spider-Man which was a posted time of 45mins but we were on in around 15mins, and Kong which was walk on with express pass. We also decided to wait for Velocicoaster when it was posted as 50mins at the end of the night; about 5 mins after getting in the queue it suspended for around 20mins though with a fault! Luckily it restarted and we actually only waited a total of approx. 40mins including the delay. It was AMAZING. We loved it and will be getting up for early entry tomorrow to try and ride it again.

We then picked up a couple of drinks from Emack and Bolio’s for $9.86 😳

A great first evening back in Orlando.

[sheluk]

All caught up once again - the crispy chicken, lobster roll, pancakes all stand out from Miami! You’ve seriously introduced me to some amazing food spots. We last did Miami in 2017 and feel like we missed so much potential 😂

Glad the drive went ok!

Room looks lovely at Hard Rock - reallllly interested what you make of crowd levels once Thanksgiving is done. Have a brill time xx

[ClaireNJ]

Originally Posted by orlandoamber

After a pretty simple drive from Fort Lauderdale, we arrived at the Hard Rock Hotel Orlando just after 15.30, dropped off the car keys at the Avis desk (they didn’t even need my name to check the car back in which I thought was weird, just the car keys and the bay it was parked in!) and checked in. We’ve been allocated a lovely big room.

After unpacking, we went into Universal Studios - wow, it was packed! There’s a lot of families still here on their thanksgiving break so I think it’s likely to calm down tomorrow/Monday. Regardless, we got on a few rides with our express passes pretty easily; Gringotts was 90mins but we got on in around 25mins, Transformers was 45mins and we got on in around 20mins.

We also got a Rocky Road from Sugarplum’s in Diagon Alley:

This was just under $6; expensive but very good! Really rich and good to share.

We then decided to leave the park and try to find a light dinner in CityWalk. We didn’t want anything too heavy as we’d been pretty full all day after that amazing Tinta breakfast!

We settled on Panda Express for me and Moe’s for W. If anyone is unfamiliar with the upstairs CityWalk food court, Panda Express and Moe’s are actually next to one another so it’s quite easy to split up and get food from both at the same time.

I ordered a kids box at Panda Express as the portion sizes are always huge. This included 1 entree and 1 side; I chose orange chicken and chow mein. It also included a drink, so I got a Diet Coke. It was also meant to include a cookie but they gave me some apple chips, which I didn’t eat!

This was lovely and just what I fancied! If you don’t have a large appetite or aren’t particularly hungry, I’d definitely recommend getting the kids box.

I also ordered a portion of veggie spring rolls with sweet and sour sauce. Pro tip: they give you loads of sauce compared to the spring rolls, so pour the remains on your chow mein

This all came to $9.48.

From Moe’s, W ordered the chicken club quesadilla and a cup of queso which comes with (a huge portion of) free tortilla chips. It was $14.89.

The queso here is soooo good. I may have shared some of those chips dipped into it

W really enjoyed all of this and declared it much better than Taco Bell, even though he enjoyed that too.

We then went into Islands of Adventure and rode Spider-Man which was a posted time of 45mins but we were on in around 15mins, and Kong which was walk on with express pass. We also decided to wait for Velocicoaster when it was posted as 50mins at the end of the night; about 5 mins after getting in the queue it suspended for around 20mins though with a fault! Luckily it restarted and we actually only waited a total of approx. 40mins including the delay. It was AMAZING. We loved it and will be getting up for early entry tomorrow to try and ride it again.

We then picked up a couple of drinks from Emack and Bolio’s for $9.86 😳

A great first evening back in Orlando.

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Fab pics as usual especially that Rocky Road
Enjoy Universal, your room looks great

[flossy_h]

Looks amazing. We are staying in Fort Lauderdale in February by Sawgrass Mills. Will add the Cookie place to our list.

[gjdjud]

Looking forward to the rest

Panda Express is great. We will probably pop out of the parks for lunch at Citywalk a couple of times. Panda Express of course and have you tried Breadbox? That’s a great place.

[WIGGYSMUM]

Originally Posted by orlandoamber

Thanks again everyone for reading

Today has been a jam packed day seeing as much of Fort Lauderdale as possible! We decided to do this via the water taxi so we got a tour and method of transport all in one. The water taxi is $28pp for a day pass.

We started off the day by walking to Hugh Taylor Birch State Park which was about 20 minutes from our hotel. This is a beautiful park ($2pp entry fee) and I think we could’ve spent all day there however we knew we had a packed schedule and so got on the water taxi after about 30 mins (there’s a stop inside the park), taking us down to the transfer point for Hollywood Beach.

The water taxis have excellent crew members with really specific knowledge about the different houses etc. we rode past. There were some beautiful views to be had (and yachts to see!).

The direct taxi to Hollywood Beach was about 45 minutes. Hollywood seemed lovely although the beach was super busy compared to what we’d seen both at Fort Lauderdale and Miami!

We decided to eat at Margaritaville within the Margaritaville Hotel (which is beautiful). We haven’t got this planned for the Orlando part of our trip and so thought it was a good time to squeeze it in.

I had a frozen strawberry daiquiri to drink and W had a watermelon margarita. Both were lovely!

I then ordered the Seafood Mac & Cheese which included shrimp and lump crab meat with pasta in a Boursin cream sauce. Now until I just re-read the menu to write this up, I had forgotten there was supposed to be crab in it; I’m pretty sure it wasn’t in there. The dish was nice but I remember commenting how many shrimp there were and leaving some for W so it now makes me think they perhaps gave me double shrimp and no crab! Regardless, it was nice.

W ordered an appetiser of buffalo chicken wings. As always with Margaritaville, the starter portion was huge and way bigger than an ordinary starter for one! He was happy with this as it was his main meal and he just had some of my Mac & Cheese as a bit of a side. He loved the wings and thought they were as good as buffalo wings get. I tried them and couldn’t believe how spicy they were however I don’t usually like buffalo sauce so that was expected!

The total was as follows, plus tip.

We then hopped on a water taxi back to Fort Lauderdale and walked to a cookie shop called Batch. I’d seen good things about this when researching and so had to give it a go.

We ordered one Chip & Twix and one Chocolate Chip for a total of $9.

They were so good. When we ordered they asked if we’d like them warmed up which was obviously, yes! They were so warm and the chocolate, especially in the middle of the chocolate chip, was so gooey and lovely. The chip&twix had caramel on too which was so good. I think I enjoyed them more than W just because I like this type of cookie more, but we both thought they were really well made. We compared the chocolate chip one to Jack’s Cookie Num Num!

We then walked back onto Las Olas and had a wander around for a while taking in the atmosphere.

We then caught a water taxi to the Galleria Mall to see if there were any Black Friday deals to be had! Unfortunately nothing caught our eye though. I specifically wanted the Macy’s branded Christmas bauble but I think they’d all been taken.

We then got one final water taxi (a double decker this time!) back to the beach stop closest to our hotel.

After the meals at Margaritaville and cookies at Batch, we weren’t particularly hungry tonight. W decided he fancied Taco Bell which was a short walk from the hotel, so we ventured down and he ordered a crunch wrap supreme with beef, salad, sour cream and nacho cheese sauce. He also ordered a single crunchy taco of beef, lettuce and cheese. I just got a side of cheesy fiesta potatoes which were a bit like patatas bravas with nacho cheese sauce and low fat sour cream.

Excuse the quality of the photos, we ate them on the beach wall

W loves Taco Bell and so his couple of items were perfect for him. I can’t remember ever eating Taco Bell before however my potatoes were very tasty, albeit absolutely tiny (although I didn’t need any more tonight)!

We also went to CVS for a couple of bits and picked up a diet Mountain Dew which we can never seem to find in the UK, and a white chocolate kitkat.

A fab day and I’m so glad we got to visit/see so much of Fort Lauderdale in such a short space of time. It’s really beautiful here with some amazing homes and yachts.

Tomorrow we have breakfast at Tinta and then pick up the car to drive to Orlando where we will be checking into the Hard Rock Hotel Universal.

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Great day !
Love a white chocolate Kit Kat 😋