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Old 23 Nov 16, 04:21 PM  
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Chilli-pepper
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I have enjoyed reading many food reports over the past few months and thought I would give one a go, not sure how I will get on as we are not the biggest of eaters, but as our daughter predominantly eats vegetarian it may help others see what’s available both to eat out and from the supermarkets. We also like occasional meals at the villa in a more chillaxed way rather than always going to a restaurant, sometimes with leftovers from a restaurant visit, sometimes a takeaway or a ‘to go’ meal, but will see how we go and where our days take us.


We have never stayed on site at either Disney or Universal, and never experienced character meals or signature restaurants nor any dining plans therefore all food, drinks and snacks will be out of pocket, I plan on taking as many pictures as possible and keeping receipts to show costs for restaurants, takeaways and supermarket shopping to give an all-round view of prices bearing in mind the not so great £ to $ at the moment, hopefully this will give an idea of costs at the moment for anyone’s budget requirements.

We prefer to be in the space and privacy of a villa and over the past few years have moved away from full on park holidays as we are in a good position to be able to go every year, in fact last year we only went to Universal and IOA not bothering at all with Disney, and this year will only be visiting MK for one specific event MVMCP to celebrate my birthday, but no IOA or Universal, we did think about Universal for the new Kong ride and updated Hulk ride but would only be going for those so doesn’t seem worth it, you never know though we may change our mind and just buy a day ticket while we are there.


Background for this years trip.


Normally we go to Florida the last week of August first week of September; this is due to DH birthday being end of August and likes to be away for this. This year is slightly different and due to a couple of reasons, we are going last week in November first week in December. The first reason was due to not knowing what our DD was going to be doing once she had finished her degree this year, so delayed the holiday in case she was going to be attending interviews or starting work, as it happens she has now started an internship. (She is not ready to give up her free holidays yet and still wants to come with us, she also lives at home and did so throughout her degree so not experienced the living away yet) The second reason is due to DH bugging the life out of me asking what I wanted to do for my 50th (End November), I am not too bothered if I’m honest and couldn’t think of anything ‘special’ at home, therefore we decided to delay the holiday and go for my 50th. I am not really a meal out kind of gal and going for ‘a nice meal’ for my birthday would not really float my boat, so thought one trip to the park would solve what to do on my birthday and also give DH and DD their ride fix, luckily the MVMCP is scheduled to be on my birthday so felt it was fate and have booked to go.


The travel plans

We love Miami and try to get there at some point during a holiday if we can so after looking at various options decided that this year we would fly to Miami on the 9.25am from Heathrow, Upper class courtesy of Virgin Air Miles. A recent change from Virgin has seen the move from the usual Airbus to the 787 Dreamliner, must admit to being a bit excited at that as it will be our first experience of the Dreamliner, as yet it is still the Airbus on the way back and I am not sure if the change to the Dreamliner is permanent move or just a one off.

We will spend the afternoon/evening in Miami as we land approx. 2:30pm, stay the night at the airport hotel then pick up the car the following morning and drive up to Orlando stopping off at the Everglades National Park on the way up. We will then be staying at ‘’our villa’’ in Tuscan Hills for 11 nights, (it’s not really our villa but we have been so many times now and book direct through the owner we class it as our second home). We are planning a trip to Clearwater and an overnight stay at some point, then we will drive back to Miami and stay for 3 days flying out of Miami, again Upper courtesy of Virgin Air Miles on the 6pm flight, and it will be all over for another year

We will be winging it a bit more this year as we want a more relaxing holiday so no set plans, just a few ideas of what we want to do, we plan to visit more local attractions e.g. the manatees at the Tampa power station, the everglades national park, Clearwater and shingle creek national park.

Equally we have no fixed plans for meals/restaurants just a few ideas of where we may go, but no doubt Olive Garden will be on our list and we will look to try Giordano’s as we have never been there before, a trip to Florida Mall to visit Carlos Bakery is in order as is possibly the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium at Universal CityWalk, and then one evening will be spent visiting the local food trucks.
On the way back down to Miami we will stop off at Grampas Bakery - we tried Grampas Bakery a couple of years ago so will take the opportunity to go again, last time were we were there we sat next to a couple who had a pram at the side of their table and when I looked in – just to be nosey, I saw a little dog, now even for me who is a dog lover and have two of my own, that was weird!

We are fans of triple D, and MVF so like to try places that they go to if we can, there will be a couple of restaurants in Miami, probably the 11th Street Diner as we love going there and will see what else is on offer, I’m sure there will be a good few snacks along the way too.

Anyhoo on to us

Me: 49 (will turn 50 while away) a small eater who can really take or leave food, and mostly live on homemade veg soup for lunch and marmite on toast for tea, I eat because I have to rather than particularly enjoying anything and will quite often chose a meal that can easily be split in half to take away with me ‘a la doggy bag’, as I simply can’t face big meals. Will hopefully have my Ben and Jerry’s Pistachio Pistachio fix while I am away, I have only ever been able to get in the US, I don’t ever drink any alcohol but quite partial to Mountain Dew.

DH: 48, Loves his food and generally will eat anything as long as it’s not too milky/creamy, keeps to low carbs the rest of the year and eats what he wants when on holiday.

DD 22: Mainly vegetarian (very occasionally will eat fish if there is absolutely no other option), and a fussy one at that, nothing with gelatine so we always have to scrutinise packaging and menu’s if it does not specifically say suitable for veggies, you would be amazed at what foods have gelatine in the most oddest things. Likes very plain food, nothing covered in sauces, and does not like cooked tomato, onions or mushrooms.

The day/night before the trip

DH & DD will be dropping off the dogs and cat at the kennels while I do all the last minute panicking at home, I have absolute faith in the kennels and no problems ever leaving them there, the owners are lovely people and really care for your pets, equally the dogs love it there with all the freedom to run around as much as they want, but I just can’t take them, happy to pick them up afterwards though.
We then drive down and check into the Crown Plaza at Heathrow airport, we will be meeting up with MIL and her husband for a meal in the evening as it is MIL birthday that day, I may not be able to do a report for this as they may think it’s a bit weird ha ha, but will start at the Heathrow lounge on travel day, we plan on starting the day with breakfast in the lounge, well it would be rude not to take advantage and try to do as full a report as I can in upper particularly as it will be the Virgin Dreamliner . I may well do a separate and more thorough report of Virgin Upper for anyone that is interested, including the Heathrow Lounge.

So that’s a very long intro to my food report, hopefully the next entry will be the all-important food piccies. Roll on Friday


Edited at 04:23 PM.
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Old 23 Nov 16, 08:10 PM  
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Goldia
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I always love reading food reports. Hope you have a brilliant holiday, your plan sounds really relaxing. What a great way to spend your birthday.
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Old 24 Nov 16, 12:20 AM  
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Have a great upper class flight. Looking forward to your reports.
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Old 24 Nov 16, 06:54 AM  
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Chilli-pepper
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Originally Posted by Goldia View Post
I always love reading food reports. Hope you have a brilliant holiday, your plan sounds really relaxing. What a great way to spend your birthday.
Originally Posted by saratogajan View Post
Have a great upper class flight. Looking forward to your reports.
Thanks for your comments, I agree the choice was be at home in the cold or be in Florida for my birthday - tough call
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Old 24 Nov 16, 07:13 AM  
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Bootrip2
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Have a great trip, look forward to report. DH only likes small meals too!
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Old 24 Nov 16, 09:47 AM  
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Looking forward to reading this, love offside reports
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Old 24 Nov 16, 02:35 PM  
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Looking forward to your report, hope you have a lovely time
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Old 25 Nov 16, 12:42 PM  
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Really looking forward to reading this!
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Old 28 Nov 16, 01:21 PM  
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Looking forward to this
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Old 28 Nov 16, 06:29 PM  
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Looking forward to reading along

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