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Old 6 Mar 20, 10:42 PM  
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Mardi Gras Madness - A week at Universal - Feb 2020 - Day 3 - The pretend rest day

Mardi Gras Madness - A week at Universal - Feb 2020 - Day 3 - The pretend rest day 11.2.20

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Spoiler – no park day. Skip if you want!

Another long lie this morning. We had toyed with the idea of Kekes or Ihop for breakfast but opted for a slow start instead. Had we been at Disney we would have had more of a plan but we’d already discussed the need this time to balance the parks and chilled time. So, what were we going to do to be chilling out today I hear you ask…

Shopping at the outlets. Uber again.

Feel free to skip by if shopping is not your thing.

The Disney outlet was first, it was ok. There were no expensive bags or Cherry Tree Lane dresses. Lot’s of ears. We picked up a lovely double layer fleece blanket for our wee dog, a top for me and ds and some tea towels for my Mother-in-Law, so nothing particularly exciting.


We spotted Panera Bread next, why have I never been here before? Wow the pastries here looked amazing and they didn’t disappoint.

We had the bear claw, the pecan braid and the apple and cinnamon scone.

I had an almond latte, Ds had a san pelligrino and Dh had an orange juice.

Lovely breakfast.


DS was armed with his map as always with all the places I wanted to visit marked on it and he was in charge of the route. It’s nice as he has got older that there are places, he actually wants to shop in. I don’t remember the order of where we went.

Fossil was one of my choices and they had a reasonable choice of stuff at good prices, I had my eye on a pair of sunglasses and a bag but I didn’t buy anything as I kept thinking I’d see something better.

The Children’s Place was also one of my choices but for Ds, he’s not interested in the practical stuff. I like the sports shorts in here for gym and his holidays so I picked up a couple of pairs for him.

Journeys was somewhere ds and I wanted to look but we were not impressed with what they had and there were no offers.

Adidas was on the list for the 3 of us, I really liked hoodie but wanted to check what Nike had first but when I went back it was closed and the rumour was that it had been robbed. There was a fair amount of police milling about and we overheard one chatting to staff in Nike. There had also been a shooting at the outlets the night before – scary stuff.

Converse was on the list for Ds. They were doing buy one get 50% off on loads of stock. Ds found some trainers he liked which were made by Nike and Converse. Dh ended up with a pair as well. All the staff had them on and all claimed they were super comfy, ds agreed.


Nike didn’t have many offers but Ds got a nice black school trainers and dh got a top.


I wanted to have a look in Vans to see if they had any Nightmare Before Christmas stuff, no shoes but they had one of the backpacks and all bags were buy one get one free, absolute bargain, I got one for myself and one as a present.


Bath and body works was necessary as I’d only taken a very small shower gel and Aventura only did soap so I picked one up to use there and a couple of other things, I had a $10 off voucher.
Don't worry about my lack of purchases in bath and body works as I'd already done an internet order to Angelbabe.

I normally always pick Chinese at the food court but as we’d just had a Panda Express the day before we went for five guys. I’ve only ever eaten there once before.

We all had bacon cheeseburgers, they were so good probably about a million calories each. We also ordered one large fries, a Diet Coke and a strawberry shake. Probably a bit too much food to be honest but none of it went to waste.


Timberland, ds discovered this brand last year when he bought himself a really nice bag for starting high school. He had got some money from his granny for Christmas and thought he might like to buy something from here, he liked a jacket and a hoodie but decided the jacket was too expensive. We left him to make his own decision as we were not contributing.


I really wanted to go to North face, I’ve been looking for a proper winter coat the last few times we have been but I’ve never really seen anything that I really wanted at a price I was happy with. This time though they had lots of things I liked. I settled for a really nice ¾ length grey coat. I love it and have worn it pretty much everyday since we’ve been back.


I also wanted a look in Kate spade and treated myself to a lovely bag. I nearly put it back though as I had to wait ages in the line to pay even though it wasn’t actually all that busy. waited ages


We were done and got an Uber back about 5pm.

The wee robot was wandering about and had been filled with Starbucks snacks but he was empty.


Bar 17 was open tonight so the plan was to have a drink up there before heading across to the Palm at the Hard rock.

We had never been up here before. The views and set up are pretty impressive.
Just drinks.

I don’t think the menu is particularly varied but the setting is gorgeous and lots of comfy seats.


We had a glass of wine, a beer and a Fanta.


We’d not left a massive amount of time so we walked over to Sapphire Falls for the boat, the dock was heaving. The park closed early tonight and there was some sort of private event on so I think it was lots of the conference people heading to that. There was a new captain being trained on the boat and he counted wrong taking people on the boat which meant there wasn’t enough seats. I think the trainer felt bad so said they wouldn’t ask anyone to get off again so we stood on the boat.


Once we were off we did a quick walk to the HRH. Can’t believe we have stayed there a few times but had no idea where the Palm was.

We decided to pick one really nice to have this trip. It was DHs birthday a few weeks ago and it ended up fairly overlooked due to loads of stuff going on so this was a belated birthday dinner.

It’s a really distinctive setting and you don’t feel like you are in the Hard Rock at all.

Our server was really friendly and great.

I had a Palm Mule which was lovely. DH had a beer and Ds had a Diet Coke. We also had sparkling water.

The starter choices looked brilliant but we decided just to go with mains.

First came the bread, a very nice selection.

I ordered the 12 ounce fillet Mignon with brandy peppercorn sauce. This was like food heaven, perfectly cooked and absolutely delicious. So much eating in this as well.

Dh had the salmon. This came with butternut squash, cranberries and feta. He really enjoyed this.

Ds had the lamb chops. They were really good and quite chunky.

For the sides we had the half and half which was fried onions and cottage chips - this was awesome.

We also had the 3 cheese potato gratin, cheese heaven. Very rich but absolutely delicious. I normally avoid things like this and I ended just to taste this but it was so good I had a few spoonfuls.

We didn’t finish the sides.

Ds wanted to try a pudding so he had the New York cheesecake. The portion was an absolute slab and we all had a taste. We all thought it was really nice.

We were discussing what this was like compared to Disney signatures and I think we all thought it was better. We have Cali Grill booked for summer and would be paying oop but I think we will shelve that and go back to the Palm instead.

Pricey and not an everyday meal but amazing.


Is it sad that I think the toilets are great at Hard Rock? They match the atmosphere of the Palm well I think, I love the big sofa area.


We walked back to Citywalk and caught the boat to Sapphire Falls. The boat captain was great, they had 70s music playing and Rock the Bot came on and everyone was singing away and every time it hit the chorus the captain did indeed rock the boat, it was hilarious. A less crazy version of the night bus after a night out.

Crazy that we never entered a park all day when we were that close but we still a great day.
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Old 7 Mar 20, 09:36 AM  
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Your dinner looks so tasty. Interesting that you think it's better than Cali and are planning to shelve that ADR.

Looks like you had great fun at the outlets, your coat looks gorgeous, it's a fab photo of you with your shades on.
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Old 7 Mar 20, 09:59 AM  
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A good shopping day and your meal looks and sounds lovely


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Old 7 Mar 20, 12:35 PM  
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Originally Posted by Goldia View Post
Your dinner looks so tasty. Interesting that you think it's better than Cali and are planning to shelve that ADR.

Looks like you had great fun at the outlets, your coat looks gorgeous, it's a fab photo of you with your shades on.
It was great, the food was amazing. We are staying at Disney the first 2 nights in the summer but have no tickets. Currently we have Cali Grill booked for night 2 but we'd be paying oop so its that, somewhere else on site (Ds has asked for the Yachtsman, I was maybe thinking Toppolinos or somewhere at Disney Springs) or the Palm for our 1 fancy meal. Or maybe even After Hours but I'm worried we'd struggle to stay up on night 2.

I looked bonnie in the coat with sunglasses and shorts.


Originally Posted by mick View Post
A good shopping day and your meal looks and sounds lovely


Joan
Thanks it was a really nice day and the food was fab!
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