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Old 8 Mar 20, 03:11 PM  
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moosha
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A Universal Adventure February 2020: Day 2 - Target, Disney Springs, The Edison and Raglan Road

Day 2 - Sunday 16th February 2020

Mat had set an alarm for 7 am which he later found he’d set for the wrong day so it wouldn’t actually have gone off. We all thought we’d be up super early due to jetlag and wouldn’t need an alarm anyway. I was actually the first to wake up at about 6.20 am and realised it was quite ‘late’ as I could see light through the curtain and there was traffic outside. I think having such a long travel day and the fact we come to America quite a lot means we don’t really get the jet lag anymore.

I went into the bathroom and checked my phone and saw a notification that Caroline Flack had killed herself so I read a bit about that and got upset, it’s just so sad. When I came back Mat and Seren were awake and they wanted to know why I was crying so we had a little chat. While we were talking Freya woke up and then Mat and I got showered.

Freya ate her leftover pizza from last night for breakfast and the girls got ready, then we left just after 8 am. Sapphire Falls is so pretty. There were lots of these little areas along the corridors and this was taken just along from our room:



We took some lobby pictures because I hadn’t done that last night as I was so tired and the lobby had been really crowded (and cold.)













We walked out to the parking garage and drove to Super Target at Millennia.



Mat managed to take a wrong turn which led us to the Universal parking garage so he had to tell the lady at the kiosk that we’d gone wrong. She gave us a receipt and put it on the windscreen wiper and then directed us out again. As we got back onto the road he managed to drive straight through a red light. Great start .





We parked up at Target and jumped out of the car. It was low 20s and felt lovely to be out in the warm sunshine after coming from freezing grey England.





It was weird being in a huge supermarket that’s open at 8 am on a Sunday. We were all really excited about coming to Target as we love it. It was nice and quiet being so early on a Sunday so that was a benefit of going this morning instead of the night before. I expect it would have been really busy on the Saturday night of a holiday weekend.

The girls immediately dived into the clothes section which wasn’t part of the plan. Initially I was like ‘We’re not buying clothes at Target’ but I really liked a ‘The Breakfast Club’ T-shirt for Seren as it was so cute and she loves that film, plus a Michael Scott paper company one as it was perfect for her to wear to dance. Freya wanted a load of baggy Billie Eilish style things and in the end we agreed on a baggy tie dye sweatshirt. The girls popped into the changing rooms to try them on.

Mat went to Starbucks to get a coffee. I had a look at the jewellery and got Seren some cute earrings. When the girls came out they said that everything had fitted fine and Seren had put photos of hers on her WhatsApp status (she can’t try anything on without doing that) so I could see for myself anyway. Freya was stropping because she wanted a Billie Eilish beanie but it was $20 so we refused to buy it for her. In the end we agreed she could get it with her birthday money (that she hadn’t received yet).

Mat and Freya went to pay for the clothes as we wanted to get them on card and the food in cash.

Seren and I went to get some fruit for breakfast. She got a pot of raspberries and I got one of mango and one of pineapple. Mat got a banana. Then we got two boxes of cereal (which was a bit over the top for a week and we ended up leaving half of it behind), liquid soap (hotel bars of soap dry my hands out too much), proper contact lens solution (I use peroxide solution rather than just the ‘normal’ one I got at Aventura the night before), our obligatory bottle of Banana Boat after sun lotion, water, almond milk, paper bowls, plastic spoons, nuts, crisps, cereal bars and snack boxes of raisins. Seren also got some cute lip balms for her friend’s birthday.

That little lot came to $86 (excluding the clothes.) We went back to the car and it was such a lovely temperature and so warm and sunny. As we were getting in the car Freya said ‘Where’s my phone?’ I guessed she must have left it in the changing rooms. Mat went back with her to look and someone had found it and handed it in. Meanwhile Seren ate her raspberries in the car.



Mat couldn’t function any longer without food apparently so he ate his banana and then we drove back to the hotel.

The girls got changed for swimming and we went down to the pool. It was fairly busy when we got down there about 10.10 am. We found a shady table and chairs by the water and the girls went off to swim. There were cute neon rubber rings in the water for guests to use and the girls played with those. Mat went off to New Dutch Trading Co which has started selling Starbucks coffee since last year. The coffee was pretty good here before actually but last year Mat was going across to Aventura instead for Starbucks. He got me a grande Americano which was huge and possibly a vente and a double espresso for himself. He also got me a fork and some napkins for my fruit and a tap water from the dispenser around the pool.



I wrote notes and he did some work for his second job as a music journalist and we drank our coffees and I ate my fruit. My pineapple was delicious but the mango was really hard but tasted good. Mat hoovered it in the end. It was a bit chilly because it was really windy.





A little girl in the pool kind of got stuck in the water and wasn’t getting anywhere so the lifeguard blew her whistle and got in to collect her. She took her back to her parents who were sitting around the pool near where the girl had been in the water, chatting to some other adults. The sign by the pool says children under 12 should be supervised and I think they kind of mean if your child can’t swim well you should be in the water with them but I know lots of people don’t do that.

We decided to go upstairs about 11.30 am and when the girls got out they were really cold. They showered and we got dressed for dinner as we were going to Disney Springs for the rest of the day. We left just before 12.30 pm.



We headed down the I4 to Disney Springs and were surprised to see signs for the Grapefruit parking garage which is new as we’re used to only seeing signs for the Orange and Lime garages and I didn’t even know they were building a third. We parked in Orange as usual.





It was quite busy. We parked on the level that has the bridge to DS but Mat took us down an escalator thinking we weren’t on the right level so we had to go straight back up.

I love Disney Springs and I was so excited that we were spending the best part of two days here this week.

We had decided to go to The Edison for lunch but I had forgotten my coupon for a free appetiser which I’d been sent by Orlando Attractions when I bought the Universal park tickets so that was annoying.







The Edison was new to us but it was a place I really liked the look of. I’d recently read good reviews of the Beyond Burger so I was hoping we’d get a chance to go. We waited a couple of minutes for a table. It was really cool in there, very much our cup of tea.

Our hostess took us downstairs to a table. Our waiter Deontrez was so lovely but not brilliant at keeping on top of things unfortunately. He was saying he loved our accents and asked if people in the UK are the same with American accents. We of course reassured him that they are. I got a gin and tonic. All the gins were English and Scottish apart from one Californian one so I had that as it seemed weird to have a gin from home. Mat had an old fashioned cherry cola which was yum. Seren had a carton of apple juice.













We ordered the Mediterranean dips and tortilla chips appetiser and then two Beyond Burgers between the four of us plus an extra fries.

Sharing the burgers worked really well. Our server had given us extra plates so I shared everything out including the extra fries. The fries were so good, they came seasoned with salt and cayenne pepper.

Our appetiser hadn’t actually arrived so we mentioned it when the burgers arrived. They brought it out and we kind of ate it at the same time as the burgers. It came with three dips: a Kalamata dip like tapenade, red pepper houmous and garlic houmous. It was all really good especially the first two. We asked for more chips as there was so much dip left over. The second portion of chips were warm so I think our original appetiser had been sat waiting to be collected.





I had a second gin and tonic and the girls had dessert. Freya had a vanilla shake, Seren had lemon sherbet which Deontrez ‘believed was vegan.’ It was a massive portion so Mat shared it with her.



The restrooms were also fab and there was a feature communal sink outside them.







I took a few photos around the restaurant before we left.





















Continued below...

Edited at 07:29 PM.
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Old 8 Mar 20, 03:19 PM  
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...Continued

Overall we really enjoyed our lunch at The Edison and we will return for sure. We still spent $150 including the tip so it wasn’t cheap even though we only had two entrees, but there were two desserts and two alcoholic drinks.



























Next we went to Uniqlo as we like to look at the Disney t-shirts in there. They’re really reasonably priced and good quality plus they have some interesting designs. Everyone except me had got a couple in New York last summer and we all have some going back a few years. Today they didn’t actually have many Disney tees except Mickey ones. Mat was looking at the shorts. They were really nice and he was tempted so we agreed to come back on our next visit to Springs on Tuesday.



Next the girls and I went to Superdry while Mat sat outside. They had quite a lot of nice t-shirts and bikinis in the sale.





Someone hijacked my phone and took a load of selfies while I looked at stuff:



I got three T-shirts for the girls which were between $7.95 and $11.95 each. I also got a wallet for me which was $7.95 in the sale but was perfect for a holiday wallet. I had run out of time to get one before we came away and had borrowed one of Freya’s purses for the trip so I could give that back to her now.

Seren had a strop because I wouldn’t buy a $30 T-shirt as a present for her boyfriend so she went and sat outside. Strop:



The guy at the till asked if we had been to the parks. I said we were only doing the Universal parks this time and he said ‘Oh those are the best ones.’ He then said we should go to Busch Gardens but obviously he was talking to the wrong people (Freya and I) as we are wimps.



Then we went to Starbucks and Mat got another double espresso and three tap waters. I love Starbucks tap waters in America. We drank those sitting on the wall outside Co-Op Marketplace and when we’d finished we went inside.





First of all we looked at the phone cases. It was really crowded in that area. I like the Otterbox cases as they don’t have that big hard plastic edge that the other Disney cases have. Sadly they had literally one Otterbox case in an XR and it wasn’t a design I liked.











We carried on looking around the marketplace and I found a sweatshirt I fell in love with. I decided to think about it while we explored the rest of the store. We had a good look at the prints as we love the art stuff here.



Seren's favourite (Stitch) and Freya's favourite (Marie) :



The girls got some artist print postcards for framing in their rooms and then I went back and got the sweatshirt. Excuse the bad picture but you get the idea:



Freya traded pins with the CM behind the counter.



Seren loved these jackets with rides or characters on especially the Space Mountain one:







Next was World Of Disney. The shop looks so much better since the refit but we had come in specifically to look for soft toys so we didn’t wander around the store too much. Seren wanted to get a small soft toy for her boyfriend but they didn’t have a lot of choice. Most of the soft toys were either the huge Pillow Pals, those baby animals wrapped in a blanket or the soft doll Princess ones, none of which were ideal for a 14 year old boy. I told the girls about how when I first started coming to Disney in the late 80s, our first night tradition would be to come to Disney Village and go to Mickey’s Character Shop which had a big display of soft toys in the middle. My sister and I were allowed a soft toy each. I remember it being huge with so many soft toys to choose from but I’ve just googled and found this picture (from waltdatedworld.com).



It wasn’t really that big but it really seemed it when I was 11. Still I think there was more choice then than there was in World of Disney today.

I suggested we try Once Upon A Toy but it was the same story there. It’s a shame they’ve cut this shop in half for the Star Wars experiencethingy they’ve got there now. They used to have those cute Disney Tsum Tsums in the toy shop but I didn’t see them anywhere at Disney Springs this year. As we weren’t going to any Disney parks this trip this was it for Disney shopping for us so it wasn’t ideal that we couldn’t find anything suitable.

Next we went to the pin trading store and Freya traded with another CM. It was really busy in there so Mat and I sat and chilled on a wall outside while the girls were inside.



Then we went to the Spice and Tea Exchange and Seren and I hoovered up some salt blend samples. We loved the Kahuna garlic salt spice blend and the Steakhouse spice blend. I couldn’t be bothered to buy them today so we took photos of the spices and decided to come back the other day we were planning to be at Disney Springs

Next was the Christmas shop. I was annoyed that they didn’t have any shoe decorations which are the ones we collect but I guess they have discontinued them. They also had very few Mickey’s ears hat decorations which are the other ones we have a few of. They didn’t really have anything I liked the look of and in protest at the lack of shoe ornaments I decided not to buy anything. We usually buy a Christmas decoration from every Disney trip so this was a first.



We decided to look at the soft toys in the Rainforest Cafe shop. Mat and Freya spent ages watching the fish in the aquarium while Seren and I wandered around the shop. They have some pretty odd things for sale in there.





While we were browsing, the thunderstorm effects went off and Seren got scared. She was actually clutching onto me in fear and didn’t want to move from the same spot until it was over.



They had a few cute soft toys (and they were much cheaper than the Disney ones) so Seren decided to buy her boyfriend a little soft penguin. I think it was $5.99.

We finished up there about 5.20 pm and we’d been checking the weather so we knew there were actually thunderstorms predicted from 6 pm until 9 pm. I suggested that we hang out in a bar before our dinner reservation at 7 pm rather than end up walking around in the rain. I thought it was a good idea to find somewhere before it started raining because the bars would probably get busier once it did start. We needed to restroom so we went to some in the Marketplace. We wanted a bar that was nearby so it was between the Stargazer bar at Planet Hollywood, Maria and Enzo’s Hideaway and Jock Lindsey’s. It started to rain as we were walking so we went to the Stargazer Bar as we were right by it.



It’s not the nicest bar and didn’t have much of an atmosphere but it was happy hour on house wine, draught beer and ‘well spirits’ which our server Sam basically confirmed were bottom shelf spirits. I got a gin and tonic and Mat got an O’doul’s zero alcohol beer.

My drink just tasted of sparkling water and I sipped it for a bit before my drinks tester Mat realised it was soda water. He spoke to Sam and he said he thought they must have made it with soda instead of tonic. So he got me a new one and it was a lot better.













We were going to have a second drink as we had time but Sam took ages to come back and see if we wanted anything else and by the time he did we were over it so we just got the check. With the tip it was $15.

We then walked up to Raglan Road and checked in at 6.30 pm. There were so many people in the waiting area and the shop waiting for tables. Although to be fair I think that has been the case every time we’ve been to Raglan Road which is at least six times. The lady at the desk said ‘We’ll get you checked in closer to your reservation time’ which was 7 pm. It was so cold in the waiting area that we went into the shop to try and get warm.







The shop attached to the restaurant doesn’t really have very much stuff that would appeal to us so we quickly got bored of looking around. We were just sort of stood there bored and hovering hoping that our table wouldn’t be too long. There were lots of other people doing the same. We all had a good laugh when Mat said loudly ‘The stuff in this shop is rubbish!’ as a staff member approached us from behind him.

Eventually we moved back to the waiting area and it was still so busy that there wasn’t really any room for people to get in and out of the shop. A really sweet lady with an iPad was doing the rounds among the bored waiting guests and she came to see us about 7.05 pm. She asked our name and checked the situation on her iPad. She said they were just seating the last 6.45 pm reservations and would then get started on the 7 pms. It was getting a bit tedious by this point. The girls were getting fed up. At 7.30 pm I heard iPad Lady tell someone they were currently seating 7.15 pms so I asked her if we had been missed. She immediately said ‘No’ but then checked her iPad and said we had been called at 7.27 pm. We hadn’t as our buzzer hadn’t gone off. She went to get our slip of paper sorted and we were taken through in a minute.

We were seated in a walkway towards the back of the main room which was a bit annoying but sitting in the walkway seemed to be a theme of the trip so far. After an hour we were just happy to be seated. And it was warmer inside with a better atmosphere. It does seem that maybe they overbook at Raglan Road because there’s always so many people waiting to be seated and tonight I’d found it quite annoying to wait so long with it being so cold. Raglan Road has always been one of of our favourite Orlando restaurants and our favourite at Disney Springs. But that annoying wait kind of meant we went into it not feeling particularly happy and it ended up being our worst experience there. Our server Danielle was quite slow to come over to us initially and went to the people sat next to us first even though we had been seated before them. When she did come over to see us, she talked to us about the vegan options and took our drinks order. I had a glass of Merlot. Mat had a zero alcohol Heineken beer.

Continued below...
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Old 8 Mar 20, 03:24 PM  
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...continued











After that she took ages to come back. When she did Mat and Seren both ordered the risotto made vegan. I don’t really like risotto and the only other vegan option was the nut roast burger. However they didn’t have any vegan buns as they’d run out so she offered it to me just the burger with the fries and accompaniments. I also got the vegan onion rings (they make them without buttermilk and they can do that as they’re a ‘from scratch’ kitchen. ) Danielle said we couldn’t have any bread because they had run out of the gluten free / vegan bread and the crostini wasn’t vegan. We’d been given Crostini in 2018 as vegans so I was slightly alarmed. She said maybe it had been made vegan from scratch that day. We all love the Guinness reduction and Seren was disappointed that she couldn’t have it with some bread so I asked Danielle if we could have the reduction to dip our chips in and she brought us some. I ordered an extra chips for the table and and we shared a vegetables. Freya had the kids’ fish and chips. Seren was really tired and ate half of her risotto and some of the vegetables but then fell asleep.

Tired:













My burger was ok, it didn’t have the most flavour so it needed a lot of ketchup and it was very crumbly but it had nice pickled onion slices on it. The chips and onion rings were delicious as usual. The vegetables were very good too. It was quite a slow meal and overall it was disappointing. The long wait to be seated, the dodgy table and the fact that they had run out of any bread to give us, plus the not great service meant we might not be rushing back next trip which would be a first for us. I love the onion rings and chips here so they might tempt me especially since most restaurants’ onion rings aren’t vegan and the ones here are probably the nicest onion rings I’ve ever had. Seren had slept through most of the meal and by the time we had paid ($154.96 including tip) it was about 9.15 pm.



It was a bit chilly when we came out but it had stopped raining. The Drey-C and DJ Dance Party sign at Waterside Park had been replaced by Nicholas Marks at 9.30 pm weather permitting. This was sad news for me as one of the things I was really excited about this trip was the dance party so the girls and I could have a dance. Freya and I had had a great night dancing at the dance party in 2017 and 2018.

We went round to Guest Services so Freya could get a birthday badge. The CM asked her how many ears she was going to be and she said 12.





We walked back round and watched Nicholas Marks for five minutes.



He is cheesy and not our thing. It was cold and everyone was tired so we left.





All of us fell asleep on the drive home except the driver obviously and we crashed into bed as soon as we got back.
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Old 8 Mar 20, 03:42 PM  
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Enjoying your report so far, the girls looks so grown up! Sad to hear your visit to Raglan Road wasn’t great. We have it booked on DDP for July and it’s our first visit there. Hopefully it will be ok. Looking forward to reading more. Sapphire Falls looks lovely.
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Old 9 Mar 20, 09:31 PM  
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This sounds like a lovely relaxed day! Are you sure you’re in Orlando

Sapphire Falls is a stunning hotel - really makes me want to stay there!

I do love Disney Springs. It really shows the price of food though in days like today. Such a shame RR was a mixed experience. I’d have been pretty annoyed at no bread! X
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Old 7 Jun 20, 10:59 PM  
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Loving the trip report so far! I can't believe how grown up the girls are!
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Old 21 Jun 20, 10:16 PM  
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Sapphire Falls looks a lovely hotel. I forgot to comment on yesterday's report about your room, which looks really nice.

Relaxing day with some pool time, although it did sound to be a little chilly around the pool. Great afternoon at Disney Springs - food at the Edison looks really good, and such a cool interior too.

I love the shops around Disney Springs, they're so nice and you've shown that you can get some decent bargains too if you look around. It's a shame your evening meal at Raglan Road was a bit disappointing after such good experiences in the past. It's nice to have somewhere you can rely on for good food and a bit sad when that place lets you down. I hope if you do go back again you enjoy it better.
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Old 28 Jun 20, 12:35 PM  
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Great day, shame your experience at Raglan Road wasn't good though
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