Drink It In MAN! One week trip feat. F & G Fest and lots of offsite intrigue

[mexico07]

Loving all your pics and your brunch looks amazing, we were at wrestlemania also but had a breakfast at Perkins before we went as we had a feeling the food offerings would be dire! It was an amazing spectacle wasn't it! We were up in the gods but loved it xxx

[Alien]

California Grill looks great! I will be 40 next year and considering it for my celebration

[dixonsontour]

What a lovely birthday surprise. We loved the brunch. My fave was the shrimp tempura sushi too, I still think about it! It is pricely but so worth it for a special one off.

[Minnie Mum]

Your birthday looked amazing🎂 Enjoying following along.

[Megandllsmum]

Birthday brunch looks amazing...I'm not a fan of scrambled eggs but those with the steak looked fantastic and the cakes too... really enjoying your report... my OH would've thought he'd died and gone to heaven getting a fantastic steak and then the wrestling lol

[Guest]

Omg can't believe I missed this! Love the title!

Ahhh I love Miller's so much!

California Grill Brunch and Wrestlemania is literally my dream day! We're looking into going next year in New Orleans so this was a really interesting read for me.

[Guest]

Cali grill brunch looks fab!

[sheluk]

Would LOVE to do that brunch - for the mimosas alone

Sounds like a fab day!

[LadyDebs86]

Originally Posted by Mermaids

Omg can't believe I missed this! Love the title!

Ahhh I love Miller's so much!

California Grill Brunch and Wrestlemania is literally my dream day! We're looking into going next year in New Orleans so this was a really interesting read for me.

See more...

You definitely should! It really was an amazing experience even though I had reservations in the run up. I know the other three people I was with, who are all super into WWE, absolutely loved it. We even discussed going next year too although circumstances dictate that its not really feasible. If you're planning on doing most of the events I would certainly recommend going for the package, we were trying to do it on the cheap but worked out if we'd just sprung for the package it only would have cost about an extra $200 and we would have had transport everywhere.

[LadyDebs86]

Day 4

We'd had quite a night the evening before which had a rather late conclusion so a significant breakfast was required, along with shedload of coffee for the other three (I don't drink the stuff but that morning I wished I did)! Laura suggested Keke's and I was only too happy to oblige!

We headed over to Dr Phillips Blvd in the car and were greeted with our first wait and pager of the holiday. We were told 15 minutes but we were probably in and seated in less than ten. Juice and coffee was brought promptly and we got to ordering. We all went for the 'Create Your Own Breakfast Combo'. You start with a choice of two eggs any style or home fries, then pick a meat option and then any pancake or waffle.

I must admit I cant quite remember who had what, but I know it was a combination of eggs over easy, bacon, sausage and home fries. Rob had a banana nut waffle, Chris had banana chocolate chip pancakes, Laura had a chocolate chip waffle and I had the Florida pancake (topped with strawberries, bananas and blueberries). Me and Chris also ordered a fruit plate to share, I think Laura got some toast.

It's insane how much food we ended up with.

It was absolutely incredible but I genuinely think we could have shared two combos between the four of us...we didn't need one each! We never learn even after this many trips to Florida!

The food was fantastic and it was very reasonably priced IMO, a little more than the IHOPs and Perkins of this world but far, far cheaper than Disney. Think our meals were around $10 a head plus tax which I think is more than fair.

We spent the rest of the morning at the Premium Outlets on IDrive, seems bargains are a lot harder to come by in these days of rubbish exchange rates but we still made a couple of purchases. No food was eaten but me and Chris did share a strawberry slush from one of the kiosks.

That evening we were heading to another WWE show (Raw) at the Amway Centre in Downtown Orlando, so we got an Uber to a place Chris had found on Trip Advisor called World of Beers, about a ten minute walk from the arena. It was right next to Lake Eola, a really lovely setting. We sat out on the terrace and had a lovely view.

It was happy hour, so a number of things were on special offer, including beers, wine, spirits and food. We decided to order some of the happy hour food, each item was $5 each.

We had two portions of the chicken sliders between the four of us ("Beer-brined chicken breast, fried crisp, southern style with dill pickles & our local IPA sauce served on two toasted brioche buns"):

We also had the margherita flatbread ("Freshly diced tomato & mozzarella over a basil & pine nut pesto, drizzled with a sweet balsamic glaze & topped with fresh arugula")

and some mac and cheese bites ("Pasta shells and spiced pepper jack cheese sauce, coated in bread crumbs and fried crispy. Served with our Sriracha-Lime Aioli & chopped cilantro")

All of this was really, really yummy, perfect food to eat outside in the warm sun over a few drinks

Me and Laura both had cocktails:

I had the strawberry caipiroska ("A twist on Brazil’s national cocktail the Caipirinha, this refreshing drink uses Tito’s Handmade Vodka instead of Cachaça. We sweeten the deal with fresh muddled strawberries and lime")

Laura had the Fresca Margarita ("Our signature margarita is made with Camarena Silver Tequila, strawberries and cucumbers, St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur, agave nectar, and fresh lime juice")

She wasn't too keen as I recall, I think because there was strawberry pulp in it (I'm sure she'll be along at some point and can correct me if I'm wrong!). I tried some and liked it though, so ordered one of my own while she switched to wine.

The boys both had beer flights:

I think they ended up trying a couple of the flights on offer and were very positive about them

We ordered a bit more food later, some hummous with crudites and some buffalo wings:

These were also $5 or less. I had a vodka and orange for the road

At the Amway me and Laura were on cocktails with the boys on beers, I think these were Sex on the Beach...

Drinks were horrifyingly expensive, I think a round for the four of us was the best part of $50, made Disney seem cheap. When I look back and try and work out where all our money went on this trip a huge amount of it went on this night!

All I ate in there was popcorn:

After the event was over we walked back to World of Beers as we knew trying to get an Uber straight from the arena post-show would be a nightmare. We had a drink each, mine was clearly the only one I felt interesting enough for a photo (I think I remember the boys having beers and Laura having a prosecco). I went for a Malibu Mule - "Bringing the island to you, this tropical twist on the mule joins Absolut Vodka with Malibu Coconut Rum, lime juice, pineapple juice, and ginger beer. Hope you brought your sunscreen!"

After a few hijinks, we left the bar at closing time and grabbed an Uber back to the Rosen. Laura and Rob wanted to order Dominos and Chris was on board, however it ended up being a total farce, they took forever to deliver (despite being just down the road) then brought the wrong order and what did arrive was disgusting (Id long fallen asleep by the time it came, I think it was after 2am). I think they ended up getting a refund but basically, never ever use Dominos on I Drive!