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Old 17 Dec 18, 10:36 AM  
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#11
Dutchdisneyfan
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looks lovely!
Nice to see some more options.
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Old 17 Dec 18, 09:03 PM  
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#12
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Day 11 - Denny’s, Harry Potter and Bubba Gump Shrimp

On our last trip in 2016 we went to Denny’s a few times, but had somehow missed it out until now on this holiday! We both went for the Grand Slamwich for breakfast, with a side of pancakes. This is such a good dish and so affordable as always with Denny’s - it is essentially all of your usual breakfast items on toasted bread with lots of cheese and the standard American hash browns.







Next up we fancied having a mooch around Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. We are not crazy Harry Potter fans so have never really paid too much attention to the details before, but we really did this day and thought it was all amazing. We are going to try and watch more of the films before we go next time so that we ‘get’ everything a bit more. Here, we picked up a butter beer fudge and a cauldron cake which I had to get after seeing on a YouTube video earlier in the year. The fudge was the OH’s choice - it was nice but a little sickly. The cake, however, was a really good chocolate cake and there was so much icing! We also love that you can keep the cauldron afterwards and there is a recipe on the back of the box, so we’ve actually made it since we’ve been home! 😊 Not quite as good, but close!





After a lovely day exploring, we headed to Bubba Gump Shrimp in CityWalk for dinner. We have seen queues out of the door many times here, so we were pleased to be able to just walk in. First, the OH ordered a very fancy looking coronita and I had the closest thing they had to a strawberry daiquiri. They were really big:





For starter, you guessed it, the OH had a mac n cheese! He said that this was the best one of the holiday and ate it all. I also had some great onion rings.





By this time, we were already pretty full and it is a shame because we didn’t really enjoy our mains. The OH had another chicken burger (there is definitely a theme to his menu choices this holiday!) but this time with guacamole on top. He said it was his least favourite chicken burger of the holiday and didn’t eat even half of what was on the plate. I had a platter of different seafood and I think there was some chicken in there too. It was nice but just massive and I felt like I’d barely touched it by the time the server took it away.





I feel like this was a little unfortunate as I think we’d have enjoyed the food more if all of the portions were just a bit smaller! If I’m honest, I’m not sure if we will come back as the OH doesn’t have good memories of it, but writing this report has reminded me how good that mac n cheese was, so perhaps I can convince him to try it again and just have some starters for lunch one day next year! 😊

Edited at 12:22 AM.
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Old 18 Dec 18, 08:02 PM  
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Some delicious choices! The Big Squeal from Cowfish is my favourite, the Hoisin one is good too. I want to try the cauldron cake next time so it’s good to hear it actually tastes nice!
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Old 18 Dec 18, 08:32 PM  
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Originally Posted by Unexpectedpenny View Post
Some delicious choices! The Big Squeal from Cowfish is my favourite, the Hoisin one is good too. I want to try the cauldron cake next time so it’s good to hear it actually tastes nice!
I’ll be putting hoisin on my list for next year! Sounds really good.
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Old 18 Dec 18, 09:03 PM  
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Day 12 - Universal, Panda Express and NBC Sports Grill & Bar

Although we had loved Panda Express in CityWalk on our last visit, we somehow missed it out this time until pretty late in the holiday, so we decided that we HAD to go on this day. However, the build up was clearly too much and the OH decided he didn’t fancy Chinese for lunch! While he went and got the Moe’s nachos again, I went ahead and ordered chow mein style noodles with sweet and sour chicken. I also got a side of vegetable spring rolls (which the OH kept stealing!). Both choices were excellent as I had remembered. The sauce with the spring rolls was especially good!





After a few too many rides on Rip Rocket (does this ride make anyone else feel like they’ve been thrown from side to side in the washing machine?!), we made our way to NBC Sports Grill & Bar in CityWalk for dinner. We had always kind of avoided here as I thought it was just for watching sport and would be more bar snacks than actual meals, but we checked out the menu and thought it actually looked pretty good. We got seated by one of the many screens (I’m not sure you could avoid them to be honest!) and watched a basketball game while ordering.

For starters, we shared the black and blue kettle chips, along with some Wisconsin fried cheese bites. Both of these were great and a total cheese overload (we LOVE cheese). Would highly recommend.





We both fancied burgers for our mains. I had the lamb burger which came with red onion, tzaziki and feta cheese on top. I love Greek food so this was a big hit with me! It was delicious. It also came with some tater tots which were nice and crunchy.





The OH ordered the smoked pork which I think came under the sandwich section but it was basically just a pulled pork burger on a brioche bun. He really liked this, and of course along with his fries he got a side of mac n cheese too (which in a turn up for the books was his least favourite of the holiday, despite the high standard of food here generally).





Overall we were super impressed with NBC and knew we wouldn’t stay away from this place for long...

Edited at 12:24 AM.
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Old 19 Dec 18, 12:56 PM  
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Just binge read your whole report, some great food so far! I also wish the American portions were smaller so we could try more things- I can never fit in more than a main! Never dare to order a starter as I know it will fill me up like you lol.
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Old 19 Dec 18, 09:37 PM  
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Originally Posted by SquishTheWhale View Post
Just binge read your whole report, some great food so far! I also wish the American portions were smaller so we could try more things- I can never fit in more than a main! Never dare to order a starter as I know it will fill me up like you lol.
I love binge reading food reports, I wish there were more of them!

Next instalment coming tomorrow
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Old 20 Dec 18, 11:09 PM  
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Day 13 - Aquatica, Seaworld and Hard Rock Cafe

On our last trip in 2016 we loved Aquatica, but weren’t too keen on the food - it really was standard theme park food which you could get in the UK, which is not what I associate with the Orlando parks as there are usually so many excellent options. For this reason, this time we planned to get a late breakfast somewhere close to Aquatica on I Drive before heading in so that we wouldn’t have to buy any food.

In the end - we just fancied a good old McDonalds’ breakfast! But I have to say, we were so impressed with the McDonalds’ at the end of I Drive close to Seaworld, the iHop and Red Lobster. We ordered at the counter and a lovely lady brought our food to us at our table! The OH ordered a steak (yes, steak!), egg and cheese biscuit, whilst I had a sausage, egg and cheese McGriddle. The OH’s was so good that we both (I had to have some!) devoured it before we could get a photograph..! So I only have a photograph of my McGriddle which was also excellent; it tasted a bit like an English breakfast in between two American pancakes!



I also got an orange juice which I only took a photo of at the end, but this tasted so fresh and I loved the cup it came in which made it super easy to take with us as we walked to Aquatica:



We did enjoy Aquatica but not as much as we did in 2016. If I’m honest I think it’s because Volcano Bay blew us away and was so convenient with us having the private Cabana Bay entrance. We instantly compared Aquatica’s crazy river which we LOVED in 2016 to the one at VB and the Aquatica version wasn’t as good as we remembered 😞 This was a shame as it was a highlight of our 2016 trip and something we couldn’t wait to experience again, but I think this just shows how well VB has been done as there is definitely nothing wrong with Aquatica, it’s just not quite ‘there’ for us anymore. Saying that though, we will go back in 2019 as we want to give it another chance and to experience Ray Rush, the new attraction.

We then hopped over the road to Seaworld for the afternoon and had a few more rides on Manta and Mako. We also fed the stringrays which is one of my favourite things to do 😃 Before leaving, we got ourselves some Dippin’ Dots - I had cookie dough (pictured) which has always been my favourite flavour and the OH had ‘birthday cake’ flavour which was nice too (not pictured).



We then headed back to Cabana Bay and got ready to go to CityWalk and the Hard Rock Cafe where we had made a reservation. I instantly ordered a frozen strawberry daiquiri in a souvenir cup which although wasn’t on the menu, the server had no problem with taking my order of. She was very accommodating.



For our meal, we decided to just share some starters and sides. We’ve eaten at a few Hard Rock Cafe’s around the world and we always tend to do this as the portions are huge and it means we get to try more things! One thing we always order though is the Margherita Flatbread:



We then went for the nachos, which we do usually have too, some truffle fries and, you guessed it, a mac n cheese!







This was all really good and I’m glad we finally decided to cave in and get one of the souvenir glasses to take home with us!

We did try to go to Toothsome’s after this to get another chocolate shot but they had closed the shop off for the night by the time we were finished.

Edited at 11:29 PM.
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Old 22 Dec 18, 11:16 AM  
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Goldia
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Goldia's Reviews
Hotel Reviews: 5
Restaurant Reviews: 43
This sounds like it was a fab trip. Some great food, I'm feeling really hungry now! You can't beat a big pink for breakfast!
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2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
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Old 22 Dec 18, 07:03 PM  
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Originally Posted by Goldia View Post
This sounds like it was a fab trip. Some great food, I'm feeling really hungry now! You can't beat a big pink for breakfast!
It was! I can’t believe we only got one big pink this trip - can’t wait to have another one next year. 😊
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