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16 Aug 19, 08:33 PM |
#41
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
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Day 2 - St Pete Beach, Skidders, Twistee Treat, Crabby Bills & Bongo's
Day 2 - St Pete Beach
Day 0 & Day 1 were written/uploaded whilst I was procrastinating... Day 2 has been written during the middle of the night due to jetlag. With no notes and only my photos as a guide, hope it makes some sense! I woke up at silly o’clock with an excited and hungry tummy. In reality, I hadn’t actually eaten that long ago. I regretted not putting my chicken sandwich from last night in the fridge! It was still dark and everyone else was still asleep. I went out onto the balcony, caught up on social media/whatsapp and then watched the sunrise. Bliss. The others started to stir and joined me. I made G & I a coffee. Somehow I obviously didn’t put enough water in the machine as we only had half a cup each! It was still good to taste our first American coffee. With texts sent and knocks from our adjoining room mates, we all set off on the short walk to Skidders for breakfast. Immature giggles had, I think we were some of their first customers. We had been here once before and enjoyed it. Thankfully today we had the same experience. We browsed the menus. I had forgotten how full of flavour & juicy the orange juice was. Breakfast was a selection of pancakes (chocolate & blueberries), waffles, cornbeef hash, eggs, biscuits & gravy and home fries. I remembered to take a photo of the receipt this time. Everyone was keen to return the following morning, which is what we did. Staff were friendly and attentive throughout. An extra $20 had accidentally got stuck behind the money we had paid with. Our server came back and gave it back to us. We were grateful for her honesty. We walked back and popped into the “tat shop” opposite the hotel and a variety of purchases were made. The prices seem to have increased since we were last here! We popped back to our rooms to freshen up and then headed straight out onto the beach. It was already feeling hot hot hot! Spent time cooling off in the sea and reading under the cabana, which is included in the resort fee. Around lunch time we retreated to the pool and a variety of cold drinks were purchased. Soaked up every moment. Perfect. A raspberry & peach sangria. Lovely and refreshing. Non alcoholic daiquiri’s The other drinks must’ve been non photogenic! Showers were had and we appreciated the air con. During the afternoon we all headed out for a drive. No one fancied lunch but we ended up at Twistee Treat, which filled a little gap. My coconut ice cream was lovely. For dinner we all decided to walk next door to Crabby Bills, then head back to Bongo’s for dessert and cocktails. We struggled to make a decision as lots of options to choose from. The food here was delicious and my fish tacos were one of my favourite meals of the holiday. Fish tacos Seafood platter More fishy plates that I can’t remember... All of it was delicious. The weather started to quickly change so we retreated back to our rooms instead of Bongo’s. Unfortunately it got worse and the storm continued for the rest of the evening. Later on, a few of us decided to brave it and go and purchase desserts from Bongo’s and take them back to our rooms. (Our adjoining rooms worked really well - kids were in one and adults in the other). We got rather wet just taking a few steps out of the hotel but the lightening was impressive to watch. It wasn’t the evening we expected or planned, but hey ho. We made the best of it. All the desserts were delicious and we stopped talking whilst we ate! Snickers Key lime pie. I had a very happy husband! Cheesecake Tomorrow - we return to Skidders for breakfast, drive to Orlando, check into Cabana Bay and go to Universal and Volcano Bay. Thanks for reading. M x Edited at 06:04 PM. |
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16 Aug 19, 09:24 PM |
#42
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VIP Dibber
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A great start, shame about the fire alarm going off! St Pete’s looks good. Hope the storms keep off for your drive to Orlando and visit to Volcano Bay-every time we thought about getting anywhere near a swimming pool the heavens decided to open!
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16 Aug 19, 11:32 PM |
#43
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VIP Dibber
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Great start
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17 Aug 19, 10:13 AM |
#44
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
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That's good to hear.
Need to binge read your report asap. Hope the jetlag isn't too bad for you all. Thank you. Unfortunately we didn't get to either. Our plans changed. Sorry. There are photos from Teak in my Christmas food report from a couple of years ago, if that helps. Have a brilliant holiday. Thank you. Ermm... it wasn't just us then! Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it too. That's really good to know. Thanks. Thank you. Hope you are all well. M x
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17 Aug 19, 10:29 AM |
#45
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Imagineer
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Starting at St Pete is a bit different! Shame about that pesky fire alarm on the first night and storm on the second.
We want to return to St Pete Beach next year and I was wondering about how to accommodate 4 - interconnecting doors sounds great - can you remember how much you paid? Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip 😀 |
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17 Aug 19, 10:43 AM |
#46
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VIP Dibber
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Fab start.m.. those desserts look incredible
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17 Aug 19, 11:16 AM |
#47
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
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Yes, due to flying into Tampa and the availability of our villa we had 4 nights to fill at the beginning.
Think we paid £250 for 2 nights. This was the cheapest price we could find at the time and booked via Sunshine.co.uk. We've booked with them before and had no problems. Only required a £1 deposit. Thanks. Thank you. They tasted as good as they looked! M x
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17 Aug 19, 11:20 AM |
#48
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
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Day 3 - Cabana Bay, Universal & Volcano Bay
Day 3 - Cabana Bay, Universal & Volcano Bay
We started the day again in Skidders. The waitress recognised us and sat us at the same table. Our friend R had had food envy yesterday, so the only option for her was the home fries. She still talks about them now and says this was her favourite breakfast of the holiday. More pancakes, French toast, coffee and orange juices were consumed. It was then time to check out of The Grand Plaza, say goodbye to St Pete beach and head to Orlando. It had been lovely to see our friends so happy and watch their reactions as Florida newbies. I was going to miss this view and was a little gutted our evening at Bongo’s hadn’t gone to plan due to the weather. I had my sights set on the Mudslide but it gives us a reason to return. The drive was uneventful and we saw familiar sights on route. It took us approx 1 hour and 45 minutes. We were soon pulling into Cabana Bay. We all LOVED our first time here. Prior to coming, had planned to buy the girls themed t/shirts & head bands etc and put hotel requests in. Work & family life had been so busy I had done zilch. I hadn’t even looked at the different locations which I had read about on the accommodation forum. I had a slight panic and a sense of responsibility before opening the door. I needn’t have worried. The rooms were larger than I imagined, spacious, clean and we really liked the theming. We had the standard/basic room in Bayside, so was expecting a view of the car park. But this was our view. We could see the entrance to Volcano Bay and it took us approx 1 minute to walk there! We were in a great location for the food court and buses too. Once we got ourselves sorted, we got a bus to Universal. The buses were frequent and don’t ever recall waiting long. So happy and excited to be back. We hadn’t got very far into Islands of Adventure and we all needed a boost. Everyone was peckish. We popped into the small cafe on the right hand side, near the Christmas shop. I can’t remember the name or find it on the Universal website at present, but we ate, hydrated ourselves and were raring to go. (G has just proof read and said it was called Croissant Moon) We all loved the attention to detail and immersed ourselves into everything Harry Potter related. We headed back to Cabana Bay to get changed into our swimming attire as everyone was eager to go to Volcano Bay. The last time we were at Universal, it was still being built. And then the weather started to change again... It was still warm and no one was disheartened. We were going to get wet anyway. I look back now and smile about this afternoon & evening. We were arriving as the majority of people were leaving! The men and the girls happily went off and rode the headliners as there were no queues. R & myself started to get a little cold. Unsure if we were sitting in a wind trap or the temperature was starting to dip. We really fancied hot chocolate. Yes I know, in Florida. In August. This was our view if it helps our argument, whilst wrapped in towels & rain coats! Joined to where we were sitting was a quick service cafe - Kohola Reef. The staff looked at us funny when we enquired about hot chocolate! So we opted and enjoyed these milkshakes instead. $3.99 each. Very thick, rich and yummy but struggled with the straws as they quickly started to disintegrate. Messy but very very good. You could choose from vanilla, chocolate or strawberry and/or have a mix. The weather didn’t bother the girls at all and only headed back when the rain really started to intensify. Back in our rooms, showers were had & warmer clothes put on, we all headed to the food court - Bayliner Diner. We discovered we could walk through the corridor of the next building so we didn’t get wet. We all really enjoyed our meals here. I only seem to have one receipt. A shame we didn’t have time to return as would’ve happily done so. We had no problems getting a table for the 7 of us. We headed back up to our room, but not before purchasing cheesecake for me Cheese & crackers for G And grapes for the girls Another lovely yummy day. Tomorrow - we spend the day in Universal & eat at NBC in City Walk. Thanks for reading. M x Edited at 10:39 PM. |
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17 Aug 19, 09:11 PM |
#49
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Very Serious Dibber
Join Date: Nov 10
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Oh I miss Cabana Bay so much! We really surprised ourselves by LOVING the Bayliner Diner. We even had our New Years Eve dinner there, lol!
Shame about the storm derailing your Bongos plans You'll have to go back! Thanks for sharing Jo xx |
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18 Aug 19, 12:10 AM |
#50
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
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We thought of you whilst there and now totally understand. Would happily do the same!
Thanks for reading M x
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