That's a snack credit! - November 2019 DDP- Day nine and ten added

[Kat11]

👏 👏👏

Kat

[dragsapphire]

Evening all. Today went pretty smoothly for a pre flight day. We hardly slept last night, all feeling the nerves and excitement. We travelled in by train to Gatwick with zero hiccups.

Check in at Sofitel was easy although a triple room is actually a bed and a sofa bed and not two beds which it doesn’t really make clear.
Once we unpacked, first stop was la terrasse for a drink to wind down. This is inside the Sofitel hotel.
Dad had two coors light

Andrew had a single malt old fashioned

I had a pink panther signature cocktail

All very nice but a bill of £40 was a bit painful.

We then went onto Parsons Pig at Crawley. FYI. Do not Uber here. Uber wanted 23 and local taxi was 11.

Parsons pig was absolutely incredible. We couldn’t fault a single thing.
Starters were: Sheek Kebab

Texas chicken wings

And nawar paneer tikka

All excellent and Andrew said it was the best wings he had ever had in the UK. Loads of meat on them and so tender.

Mains were:
Lamb Shank

Salmon curry with rice

Ultimate burger (how huge is this thing)

We also had some poppadoms and pickles for the table.
Everything was tender and just fell apart. Again Andrew declares this the best burger ever and I have to admit the beef patty was so dense and yet moist and flavourful.

This place is just amazing. The total was £95 but we didn’t regret a single penny. A nice tip was left as the service was also fantastic.

We then went back to the hotel, did twilight check in, Extra security for me tomorrow 😭, and are now having a couple more drinks before calling it a night.

Tomorrow: Virgin flight and, possibly, the last night of food and wine festival

[dragsapphire]

Ps help. How do I rotate pics lol.

[Tassiriki]

Afraid I don’t know how to rotate pics but I enjoyed the start of your report!
Apart from the price of those drinks- ouch. Hope travel day went well and you are settling in. Looking forward to the rest of the report xx

[Goldia]

A great pre travel day meal.

I always rotate my photos on my PC before I upload them to the report. For me it's a case of right clicking the photo and then a menu pops up where I can rotate clockwise or anti clockwise.

[dragsapphire]

Thanks both. I uploaded on my phone last night but will probably be laptop once we’ve landed. Yes the drink were quite pricey and they add an automatic 12.5% service charge

[saratogajan]

Have a good flight. You’ve booked lots of my fave restaurants so looking forward to this x

[disneypars]

Have a great flight. Food and drinks look amazing. Good preparation for Florida.

[dragsapphire]

Good Morning All. It's 04:50 and pitch black as I am hiding out on the balcony trying not to wake the others. We finally got to bed at 12am US last night so the extra rest might be needed.

Travel started with a trip to Club Aspire. I used a revolut free pass and bought two more for the others. It was quiet when we hit at 07:05 but very quickly built up.

Andrew and Dad had one or two of these

And I had one of these (pretty self explanatory)

Beer was free so whilst me and Andrew had some juice. Dad indulged and had a couple of these

Check in a departure desk was pretty smooth. i knew I was going for extra security so it wasnt stressful. The plane was delayed by 30 mins on the take off strip but we still made it to Orlando on time.

After reading a trippie about VA food and advising to go for the vegan option, thats exactly what I did. This is spinach meatballs and potato

Dad and Andrew both had the chicken in mushroom sauce

They gave us some skittles in between and afternoon tea was served just before descent. Ive only added mine because it is still the awful mozarella and pesto sandwiches for most and neither Dad nor andrew wanted to eat it.
This is a hummus and vegetable flat bread

The food was ok. Not awful but nothing to write home about either. Well, except to you guys anyway. There was alot of turbulence through the flight so the seatbelt sign stayed on mot the time. making it an uncomfortable 9 hours. Immigration only took 30 mins even with the manchester flight landing at the same time, we were impressed.

Magical express spotted. we were off to AKL. Check in was smooth, though I sadly didnt get the room I requested, not even close. Furthest away in Jambo you can get. But, we do have a view of animals in a standard room so that makes me happy.

We dropped our luggage, grabbed our refillable mugs and were off to the last night of food and wine festival. Bearing in mind it as very dark and it had been a long time since we had been to epcot, we ended up going in circles at the start just a little bit.

First stop was coastal eats for the scallop and shrimp bake (1 SC)

This had some much flavor and plenty of seafood so I has happy.

Next up was the loaded mac and cheese from active eats (1 SC)

Andrew really enjoyed this one but I didnt think it was all that

Third was the blended burger from flavors from fire. (1 SC)

This one rolled arounf a bit, hence Andrew holding it in line for its close up. The burger really packed a punch. Loads of flavour and we could have gotten another.

Dad hadnt picked anything at the point, so we pushed him in the direction of canada for the beef filet mignon. (1SC). It was at this point we found that Dads magic band wasnt accepting the pin that all of us had been using so Im waiting for check in to open up so I can go ask about that.

Again this was very tasty but difficult to eat with plastic cutlery.

Ireland was the next stop on this whirlwind tour for the Guinness and baileys shakes ($11)

Dad really enjoyed this and I loved how it was almost slushy it texture but it isnt mine and Andrew's cup of tea.

Brazil for the crispy belly pork next (1SC)

It was ok. The most forgettable thing we had. IE I literally almost forgot to add it until I saw the pic.

The final stop of the night was deemed to be Japan. I dont know if it was the long day or just weak stomachs but we were fooded out at this point.
We bought all three items, steamed bun, frothy ramen and spicy tuna roll (1 QS)

Now I know I have warned Andrew countless times that this ramen is cold. He loves ramen. I have never seen him look so insulted by a food item . I thought it was ok, definitely different and very sweet. Not what you would expect at all. The bun was beautiful and soft and the chicken was lovely. The spicy tuna roll disappointed me. It tasted like tuna from a tin rather than actual sushi tuna and it made me a little sad.

At this point we jumped on our only FP of the evening for frozen ever after and then settled our bums for the epcot forever fireworks. I've seen this on videos but it doesnt compare to being there.

The last purchase of the night was a bottle of sprite (1SC). No pic as, well, its a bottle of sprite.

At this point, I thought we had made a serious dent in our credits and were discussing what to do if we run out. Um, no. Apparently not.

Totals for the day:
3 refillable mugs
1 QS credit
6 SC

Ah well. Todays another day. Dennys and Buffalo wild wings today as we go shopping at the outlets

[dragsapphire]

Today changed slightly as I ended up with a blister on my foot last night from Epcot which then proceeded to burst in the morning after the uber driver dropped us off a mile away from our destination and we had a bit of a trek. It was so sore, most of the shopping was called off in favour of trying to let it heal up a bit.

The morning started in Hollywood studios for EMH. Even though we only arrived at 07:20, we managed to get ToT and RnR done as walk ons. We then walked across to Toy story land and stopped at Woodys Lunchbox so Andrew could have a pre-breakfast breakfast. He ordered the breakfast bowl and gave his coffee to Dad. 1QS

We left here at 9am and went to Dennys on the I-Drive for second breakfasts

Andrew had the All American Slam with a coke.

Dad had a build your own slam with two eggs, two sausages, two bacon and toast with a coffee

I had the double berry banana pancakes with poached egg and a peanut butter banana milkshake

I cheated and gave my bacon to Andrew and still only managed half my pancakes. They were lovely though, soft as a cloud.

The total came to $40.33 plus tip ($10). The service and food were great. I dont think you can go much wrong with a Dennys.

We grabbed the trolley to the international outlets at this point. First stop was the disney warehouse. At 12pm there was still a queue outside. But, after watching all the videos on great merch, it was a bit of a bust. One top and a bag was all we bought. Im hoping Vineland is better and we are trying again then.

We bought some skechers and at this point, the hobbling has got too much. We decide to get to Target for 'essentials' before it becomes unbearable and then head back to the resort.

After a rest and second breathe, we headed to Disney Springs to pick up our gift card and grab a QS. FYI to pick up the gift card, you need to go all the way to the back of the pixar section and there is a tiny little desk against the window there. Some of the cast members in the shop didnt know where this was. You will need ID and your booking number.

Polite Pig was the only option for food and was at the top of my QS to do list.
Me and Dad shared the butcher board (2 QS) and he requested the ribs add on for an extra $6. We had the cauliflower and mac 'n' cheese for sides. He had two alcoholic drinks here whilst me and Andrew shared a soda refill.

Andrew had the BBQ sausage with a mac 'n' cheese side (1 QS) and I also bought him an extra side of waffle fries as he couldn't decide.

Cornbread is a definite marmite thing I think. We all tried it, but it was too cakey and all were left. Apart from that, the food here was incredible. I felt rather smug after all my research when the guys were in awe of how great it was.
Another FYI, they did ask if I wanted to add a gratuity when I ordered and I said I would do it after and they were fine with that. The servers do tend to be quite attentive so I do see it as almost a hybrid. Not quite a QS type of service.
The extras here were $10.65 so not quite full charge for an extra side.

We had a wander around Disney Springs, I finally got a light up balloon and called it Burt , and then it was a bit too cold and neither men had brought jackets so we headed back.
Me and Dad went into Victoria Falls for a drink.
We had a tuskers and a smoky turkey (bourbon and cherry with lemonade). The Turkey was a bit too strong for me so got left. Total was $25.83

We called it a night and pretty much crashed. Disney beds are soo comfortable.

Total credits used
4 QS