Days 8, 9 and 10 FINALLY added! - TwoGoTo Cabana Bay March 2022 – We Spent How Much?!

[twogoto]

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Pre-Trip Report

Day 0 - Pre-Travel Day - Wednesday 16th March 2022

Day 1 - Travel Day - Thursday 17th March 2022

Day 2 - Friday 18th March 2022

Day 3 - Saturday 19th March 2022

Day 4 - Sunday 20th March 2022

Day 5 - Monday 21st March 2022

Day 6 - Tuesday 22nd March 2022

Day 7 - Wednesday 23rd March 2022

Day 8 - Thursday 24th March 2022

Day 9 - Friday 25th March 2022

Day 10 - Friday 26th March 2022

Day 11 - Sunday 27th March 2022

Day 12 - Monday 28th March 2022

Day 13 - Tuesday 29th March 2022

Day 14 - Wednesday 30th March 2022

Day 15 - Thursday 31st March 2022

Day 16 - Travelling Home - Friday 1st April 2022

Day 17 - Still Travelling Home - Saturday 2nd April 2022

Final Thoughts

[twogoto]

Who

The name probably gives it away, but it’s just the two of us! 



Me - 29, will be celebrating my 30th birthday while we’re there… after unluckily spending the last two in lockdowns, I’ll be glad to spend it in my favourite place!

My OH - 33, I think… I always get that wrong (to the point where I write the wrong age in birthday cards every year… it’s all the same once you’re past 30 anyway, right?) 😉

We’ve been together for 12 years and Orlando was our first ‘proper’ holiday, which we agreed on as a compromise as I hated the idea of an ‘active’ holiday and he hated the idea of sunbathing. That first trip was our first ‘once in a lifetime’ trip and now we’re hooked. I laugh now when people use that phrase when talking about heading off to Orlando for a special one-off, never-to-be-repeated trip as we all know it’s never the case!

Our past trips to Orlando have looked something like this...

- 2015: Hotel went up in flames just before we arrived

- 2016: Hurricane Matthew meant our holiday got cut short, we were young, penniless and panicking but managed to get on the last flight out before the airports closed (we were in Miami, and the hotel told us they were closing and that we had to evacuate quickly... I ended up travelling home still slathered in tanning oil! )

- 2019: Thomas Cook went bust three days before travel, but luckily we took the gamble and booked new flights minutes before the price trebled

- 2020 & 2021: We all know what happened here…

As you can see we don’t have the best track record with holidays but love Orlando nonetheless.

We’ve been lucky enough to get away a couple of times in the past few months, to Cyprus in September (where we had a chemical leak in our hotel suite… the kind that makes your eyes stream and makes you dizzy as soon as you step inside - our track record continues!) and to New York in November (where surprisingly, nothing went wrong).

We loved New York but it just wasn’t the America we’ve been missing for all these months, so we still don’t feel like we’ve had our fix of the US.

Where & when

If all goes well, we’ll be jetting off to Orlando on 17th March 2022, and staying at Cabana Bay for 15 nights in a Volcano Bay view room. We stayed here for one night on our 2015 trip but can’t really remember it (that ‘once in a lifetime’ trip was so tiring… I was the only adult who slept through the fireworks display at the Disney dessert party we’d paid an arm and a leg for ).

Not been this time of year before so looking forward to the change and hoping the weather is OK.

We were originally booked to fly from Heathrow with BA, but we’ve just added on the Newcastle -> Heathrow leg and the same on return. It's an early flight so we've booked the Doubletree by Hilton at Newcastle Airport for the night before.

We live up North and went to New York via Heathrow in November, and the return journey took us a whopping 12.5 hours from the plane landing to walking in the door at home (it was just after the big storms, and we crawled along the motorway next to snowploughs as the weather was so bad… doing 4mph is probably more dangerous than doing 70mph when you’re tired after a night flight!). I can never sleep well on flights and don't fancy a repeat of that...

The cost

It’s cost us an extra £558.84 to add those NCL->LHR return flights, which is way more than we wanted to pay, but we think it’s worth it. We could’ve got it for slightly less if we booked separately, but then it wouldn’t all be on one ticket so would be a bit of a faff on, and with our luck, we didn’t want to chance anything!

We’ve paid £2,932 for the rest of the holiday (flights from LHR to MCO and hotel), heading out in economy and coming back in WT+, bringing the total spend with British Airways to £3,690.84 for the two of us. That’s a lot more than we’ve spent previously, but still about £1K cheaper than it looks like it would cost if we booked it today.

We’d hoped to upgrade the outbound leg to WT+ too, but quotes so far have been between £660-£1,500pp, which is way more than we want to pay. Will see if we can get a sneaky airport upgrade for a more reasonable price if we don't manage to get a decent price beforehand (getting through to BA to get one is almost impossible!).

I'm hoping to keep track of the cost of everything and include it in my report on this trip... hopefully I won't regret doing that

Other costs so far include £66.75 for the airport hotel and £93.38 for the airport parking.

The plan

There’ll be no Disney here, sorry! It’s just not for us. We like to keep things relaxed and booking park days and dining reservations so far in advance isn’t really our style. We’re also not Disney fans at all (I’ve never ever seen The Lion King… shoot me!) so spending that kind of money for a couple of half days here and there isn’t worth it for us. We do love Disney Springs, though, and might take a look at Disney’s Boardwalk this trip.

We will be visiting Universal! On our last trip, we didn’t even make it into IOA (this trip was maybe a bit too ‘unplanned’, as I feel like we missed out!) so we’re looking forward to that this time. I’m also keen to spend a day exploring all the Universal resorts!

Our Universal tickets are 'free' as they kindly agreed to give us a 30-day pass to use on our next trip after we were unable to use our annual pass during the pandemic.

We might head to Seaworld for the day for the Food & Drink Festival, but we’ll decide on that nearer the time. We’d also like to explore areas like Celebration as we haven’t ventured there before.

Other than that, expect shopping and lots of eating and drinking!

Speaking of eating/drinking, here are some of the places we’re hoping to head on this trip:

- Toothsome
- Cowfish
- NBC Grill
- The Polite Pig
- Blaze Pizza
- The Boathouse
- Teak Neighbourhood Grill
- Bahama Breeze
- Cheesecake Factory
- Breadbox
- Bend the Bao
- Longhorns
- Fat Tuesday
- Lone Palm Airport
- The Hangry Bison
- First Watch
- Gideon's

Update 17/02/22 – four weeks to go!

I can't believe we're only four weeks away now! After rearranging this so many times, we're getting so excited

COVID tests have been booked and providing we're not that couple who dodge COVID for two years and get it the day before they go on holiday, we'll be almost ready to land in Orlando this time next month! I have my fingers and toes crossed

We've booked a couple of things so far:

- VB Premium Seating for my birthday
- The Flying Fish at Disney's Boardwalk (again, for my birthday )
- An appointment to 'get zapped' by Carla Poma Jewelry at her March pop-up at The Owl's Attic (I've been looking at these for so long, they're 'forever' bracelets that are welded)

But nothing else yet!

We've never booked Universal restaurants before, but I'm reading that it might be busier than we're used to, so maybe we should make a couple of reservations... please let me know if you've needed to book in March before!

Update 18/02/22 – cocktails, cocktails, and more cocktails!

I'm a HUGE fan of cocktails, but fail terribly when we try to make them at home, so like to make the most of them on holiday! Can we do 150 cocktails in 15 nights on this trip? Probably. We'll give it a good go.

I asked you lovely Dibbers for your recommendations of the best cocktails on Universal property and here were the answers (can't wait to make my way through these)...

- The "sharing" strawberry daiquiri at the Hard Rock Hotel
- Tranquil Waters (Margaritaville)
- Bahama Mama (Margaritaville)
- Margarita (Margaritaville... would you guess?)
- Pina Colada (Fat Tuesdays)
- Hurricane (Pat O'Briens)
- Hurricane (Hard Rock Cafe)
- Mules (Cowfish)
- Frozé (Beach Club @ Hard Rock Hotel)
- Cosmopolitan (American Bar @ Portofino Bay Hotel)
- Ocean Attack (Chez Alcatraz)
- Toasted Coconut Pineapple (Volcano Bay)
- Strawberry Ginger Lift (Volcano Bay)
- Kalarita (Volcano Bay)
- Margaritas... any of them (Lone Palm Airport)
- Leaping Lizard (The Watering Hole, Jurrasic Park area)
- Chocolate Cherry Mule (Toothsome)
- Potion of the Gods (Mythos)

I'm a self-confessed 'beige eater', so this might become more of a cocktail report than a food report

[twogoto]

It’s finally here!

As much as we usually struggle to get up through the week, it’s incredible how quickly we can spring out of bed when there’s a travel day on the horizon! Alarms went off at 6:45 and we had one last cuddle with our crazy cockapoo before getting up – our last one for 17 nights and the longest we’ve ever been away from her!

We had our COVID tests booked with Breathe Assured for 8am so hopped on the laptop to do them – this was our second time using Breathe Assured and they were as great as before, making sure we had everything we needed before they ended the call. One new question has been added since last time – “did you injure your nose doing this test?” which gave us a chuckle… It was all very straight forward and easy and we were all done by 8:20am.

I had a nail and eyelash appointment booked in for 9am so we hopped in the car and made our way there, stopping for a quick Costa breakfast on the way (forgot to take a photo… I hope I get better at this!). My OH dropped me off and went to get his hair cut, not wanting to be left out of the obligatory pre-travel day grooming.

All done by 11:30am, so he picked me back up with the dog and all her belongings in the car so we could take the 50 minute drive to OH’s mams, where our pampered pooch will be staying ‘til we get back! Unfortunately COVID has struck their household, so it was a case of dumping everything in the garden and catching up through the conservatory at a distance – felt a lot like lockdown again, but we didn’t want to chance anything after waiting so long for this holiday!

We said our goodbyes and were back on the road in around half an hour and shortly back home to finish packing. Packing is always a big ordeal in our house as I like to bring everything but the kitchen sink, whereas my OH insists we could both manage with one cabin case each for a fortnight. No chance – I wouldn’t even fit my shoes in that!

Eventually we finished packing (all five cases, with one empty one inside another to bring back with us… no travelling light here ) and loaded up the car. After my fifth attempt of resetting VeriFLY I got BA to let us check-in online.

It’s holiday time!

The journey to Newcastle Airport was pretty uneventful, but we did hit rush hour so were stuck in traffic for a little while. Before long we were pulling up at the Doubletree by Hilton to unload our cases, ready for tomorrow’s flight. I pulled up way too far away from the machine that spits the ticket out and opens the barrier so OH got out to press the button for it… cue our first argument of the trip I’m always worried that the barriers have a time limit and will come down and crush the car… so irrational and I’m sure they actually have a sensor for things like that! I thought I’d start driving forward to get past it but as I’m driving OH decided he’d try to jump back in the car while it was moving Luckily I didn’t run him over but he wasn’t happy I didn’t stop! Oops

We checked in and headed up to our room, lugging all the cases behind us – it ended up being the furthest possible room from the lift so I’m already not looking forward to lugging them back down at early doors tomorrow!

Room is fine, very big but odd shaped, lots of faulty sockets, and an incredibly lumpy mattress – we said we’d probably go back to the Premier Inn in future as it’s just as close and those beds are always super comfy!

We had a booking at Miller & Carter just 15 mins away for 7:30pm so headed there for some food – it was very nice and the beef dripping gravy with the steak was divine! Enjoyed the iceberg lettuce wedges too. No room for desserts!

We had a £50 voucher from Christmas so it only cost £29 plus tip. Bargain!

Dropped the car off at the Short Stay 2 carpark on the way back and then walked across to the hotel – now making sure everything is charged and setting up the lock codes on the new cases, ready for an early start tomorrow.

We’ve got our fingers crossed for a paid upgrade at check-in if there are seats available!

[twogoto]

🚶🏻Steps: 5,913
💰Spends (dollars only):$81.14

After a terrible night’s sleep (the bed in the hotel was the worst either of us have ever slept in - the springs were poking out so every time you moved you got one in the ribs or your hip) our alarms went off at 4am and, in usual travel day style, we shot out of bed to get ready! If only I could do this every day at home.

We got ready and packed up our things and walked across to the airport. OH ran (literally) back to the car with our jeans and coats from yesterday while I waited inside - he was knackered as it was further than he thought!

Headed to drop our bags and stood in line for quite a while as there were lots of people checking in who hadn’t done VeriFLY or didn’t know they needed to and only two desks open - the check in agents were printing out attestation forms etc and two older ladies were at one of the two desks for 20 minutes trying to sort everything they needed, so there was really only one desk for all other passengers. And here I was expecting it to be quick at 4:30am!

When it was our turn we showed our green ticks on VeriFLY and check in took all of three minutes. We asked if any paid upgrades were available but the check-in agent said Club was oversold by one - I didn’t think they could oversell Club if there wasn’t a First cabin to upgrade to! Not to worry - we’re finally on our way to Orlando and that’s all that matters!

Through security and walked straight through duty free, thinking we could look in the one at Heathrow if we wanted anything. Realised we’d forgot our travel pillows for the flight so picked some up for £20 for two in one of the shops - they were £22 each in Boots so glad we tried somewhere else!

Grabbed a coffee each (flat white for OH, latte for me) and sat by one of the windows waiting for our gate info. There was booming club music here so we tried to find a quiet spot round a corner - is this what it’s like now I’m approaching 30? 😂

Gate info was announced at 6:15 and we walked straight on the flight. It was a super busy flight with every seat filled! They were handing out masks which caused some confusion - they said though BA had announced dropping masks yesterday this had to be done on an airport by airport basis and was more complicated than they’d thought it would be, and NCL hadn’t been signed off yet. Reminded me we’d forgot to pack any for the next flight too!

Took off around 6:50 and landed way ahead of schedule at 7:40 - originally due in at 8:10. Nice quick flight!

Headed to Boots for a “just ham” sandwich for the flight as mayonnaise is the devil IMO, then off to the lounge - we had access to the Galleries Club lounges as part of a BA promo and chose the south one. Checked here again about upgrades but nothing available - we used ExpertFlyer and spotted that the row we’d booked now had someone sat with us, but one of the rows of two at the back had opened up, so they moved us to these and reissued our boarding passes. Happy days!

We used the QR code in the lounge to order a breakfast sandwich each and I got us a few coffees and waters. Forgot to take pics again! Really nice space to chill before the flight and good selection of drinks and help-yourself spirits (though we didn’t as it was too early for us!). Food was limited but an ok offering.

Headed to our gate once it was announced - the board said it was delayed by half hour but this ended up being well over an hour in the end as they had some issues sorting cleaning and catering. Never mind, at least we’re going!

We eventually boarded at about 1:20pm (I think, it’s all a blur) and had a very uneventful flight - but very long at just under 10 hours. I had about an hour’s sleep - which happened to be while they served the food so nothing to show you there! We did enjoy some nice cups of tea (plane tea is the best), pretzels, and we were awake when they brought out the sad looking half sandwich and KitKat.

I’ll spare you the boring flight details (I feel like I’m already rambling!) but we landed at 7:15 along with a few other international flights and were through immigration and in a Lyft by 9:15pm. The Lyft cost $54.67 to Cabana Bay - we’ve noticed that Lyft vs Uber prices vary greatly, but there’s a handy app called Obi that compares them both. Uber was coming in at over $20 more when we checked.

We got to Cabana Bay where check in took forever. There were only four people Infront of me but it still took almost an hour despite the short queue. We were eventually all checked in at 10:30pm ish and ran up to the room to dump our ridiculous number (as my OH keeps telling me) of cases. The food court was open until 11pm and we were starving so we headed back down and picked up a pizza and fries to share, plus two bottles of water. It came to $26.47 - later realised we'd only been charged for 500ml waters rathen than the 1L ones we'd picked up (which should've been a whopping $7 each! ).

We took them back to the room and ate most before admitting defeat and climbing into bed for 11:30pm. Both asleep by midnight so we were up for a total of 24 hours in the end and it felt like the world's longest travel day! I still think I prefer the indirect flights than driving to Heathrow though as I dread the drive back home!

Will leave you with a photo of the view from our room - were on floor 9 of the Beachside tower and it's amazing.

[twogoto]

🚶🏻Steps: 19,800
💰Spends: $415.86

Will never get tired of waking up to this view! Few things if anyone has been put off by some of the same negative comments I saw about these tower rooms - yes there’s some noise from the music in the morning but it’s not super loud (at least not at Beachside) and even if it does wake you up, it’s nicer than an alarm clock! It also isn’t a really long walk to the lobby - we saw comments saying it would take ten or fifteen minutes but in reality it’s about 4 minutes from the tower exit to lobby entrance (and I’m a slow walker!).

We woke up and unpacked all of our things so we wouldn’t be living out of cases for the two weeks. A delicious breakfast was on the cards for today, and we unanimously decided it had to be First Watch!

We took an Uber there which was free as I had $98 credit from connecting a business bank account to Tide (an offer I’d seen online) but should’ve been $7.99. We were there just before 10am and seated straight away.

We both had an Iced Coffee (they serve the best I’ve ever had!) and OH had an apple juice too. I ordered the classic French Toast and OH ordered the Floridian French Toast that came topped with kiwi and banana. We also got a small side of fruit to share. It was delicious as always!

The cost was $37.85 but I had a BOGOF voucher for my birthday month. This took it down to around $27 but we left $40 to include tip.

There’s a Publix just along the road so we walked along, only took us a couple of minutes. Cue the obligatory walking down every aisle and being amazed at what they have out there. We love a good supermarket trip!

We bought an array of breakfast things, snacks, drinks, toiletries, and - of course - two Publix chicken tender subs from the deli counter. I got mine plain (as I like it - keep your mayo!) with lettuce and onion while OH went all out with mayo, honey mustard, banana peppers, lettuce and other things I can’t remember. These are huge and one sub would easily feed four people!

The cost was noticeably higher than our last trip, I can’t find the receipt now but it was $198 for everything pictured, plus toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner which I thought was quite steep for what we got.

We got an Uber back to Cabana Bay (again, free with our credit but would’ve been $8.52) and stocked the fridge. It was after 12pm now and we were a bit peckish so we sat down to enjoy some of our subs - we could only manage a quarter, there is so much chicken in these! Delicious as remembered!

We got changed and suncreamed up and headed to Volcano Bay, just a few minutes walk away through Cabana Bay’s special entrance - we had to queue at guest services for our annual passes as Universal had kindly agreed to give us a 30-day pass each to use on our next visit after COVID cancelling past plans. This took a while but we were soon on our way in.

It was super busy so we headed to the Dancing Dragons bar for our first cocktails of the trip! We both had a Tiki something or other which was delicious - the queue here was insanely long and moving slowly, but once served we realised people were also queuing pool-side which was much much shorter, so something to remember next time. We also got two bottles of water - total for everything was an eye watering $39.80 which came to $47 with tip. Wow!

We sat here for a bit before heading off to find a sun bed. This wasn’t easy but we managed to find two in one of the smaller seating areas after about ten minutes. The weather was lovely so we sat and enjoyed our drinks before grabbing a locker ($16) and heading off to explore the lazy river, fearless river, and one of the pools.

When we got back to the sun beds to dry off we decided to order two of the waterproof phone/card holders from Amazon which will arrive on Monday to the hotel. We felt this would be better than paying $16 every time we needed a locker for a couple of hours as we expect to take advantage of the proximity of VB a lot!

We got back to the room for around 5:30pm and were both starving so finished off the rest of the first half of our subs.

We lazed around for a couple of hours and got ready to head to Disney Springs at about 9:30pm - our Uber there was again free but should’ve been $16.29.

The drop off point had changed since our last village and was now in the Marketplace area which threw us off a little - it took us a while to get our bearings! We opted for another favourite for a late dinner - Blaze Pizza. We love it here too! If you haven’t been, it’s like the pizza equivalent of Subway.

I had ham and pineapple on mine and OH had a garlic pesto base with chicken and banana peppers. We both got a cup for drinks so we could have the Blood Orange which tastes amazing! We had signed up to the Blaze rewards scheme and they had a ‘Pie Day’ offer where you could get your pizza for $3.14, so we put them through as two separate orders each costing just $7.97 for the pizza and drink. They were as good as we remembered!

Now super full, we went off for a bit of late night shopping - the shops were all open until 11:30pm tonight. I bought some hair serum from Sephora that I’d had my eye on, and got them to correct my birthday so I could get the free birthday gift - I’d previously used September as my birthday as that’s the month we always travelled. Total was $28.92.

OH bought some boots from UGG that were down to $70 from $120.

We had a look in and out of some other shops and then went to find the Uber pick up area - we kept getting lost and walking round in circles! Eventually we got there and hopped in an Uber back to the hotel - free again but should’ve been $18.01. We got back to the hotel just after midnight and went straight to bed with sore feet from walking around VB and then Disney Springs!

[twogoto]

🚶🏻Steps: 17,461
💰Spends: $422.04

We woke up around 8:30am this morning and had a quick breakfast in the room – cereal and strawberries. We’ve been guilty of having cookies for breakfast every morning on past trips so the fruit was a nice change!

Once up and dressed we headed to the International Outlets for some shopping. Uber here should’ve been $8.51 but was free again as we still had credit left. We had a lovely driver who had studied in the UK not far from where we live and was telling us how much he loved UK pubs and Nando’s – to the point that on his graduation, he had Nando’s for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in one day! He was good fun (not like a driver from the previous day who’d spent the whole drive giving us the stats for how many people die on the I4 every year… just what you want to hear when you’re on it in a strangers car!).

We prefer these outlets over the ones at Vineland and were happy to see that there were still quite a few bargains to be had! I had a good mooch around Kate Spade and Michael Kors, taking photos of bags I couldn’t decide between! We also went in what felt like five million trainer shops (OH loves trainers), grabbing the first Strawberry Açai of the trip from Starbucks mid-shop. I love these and I’m so glad we can get them in the UK now! I got a Grande and OH got a Tall, his with lemonade rather than water.

The total was $10.76 and I paid with the Starbucks US app. I’d downloaded this before we flew out and pre-loaded with dollars so we could order ahead. They also currently have a promo where you can play a game on the app every day and win credit or ‘stars’ that you can redeem for freebies, so I’ve been doing that every morning!

We both picked up a few bits in the Nike shop… t-shirt and socks for OH - $19.11 - and t-shirt and leggings for me - $38.28. All items were 50% off + an extra 20% off but then we got another 15% off by showing the Nike app, which was a good saving!

OH bought a pair of jeans in the Levi’s store – $74.02. Full price but he hadn’t seen the same style in the UK and said they were the best fitting jeans he’s ever tried on.

I went back to Michael Kors and picked up one of the bags I’d had my eye on. This was $126.74 including tax which was a bargain compared to the RRP on the tag. I can’t actually remember what it should’ve been but there was 70% off so a great saving!

We were both starving as it was about 2:30pm by now so we picked up some Auntie Anne’s hot dog pretzel bites to share – these were $8.13 with a dip. Forgot to take a pic – they disappeared too quickly!

We headed back to the hotel (Uber was free again but would’ve cost $8.68) and were still feeling hungry so finished off our Publix subs that were in the fridge. Still just as delicious when cold the next day! These are well worth buying if you’re on a budget as they’ll do you for a couple of meals.

At about 4:30pm we went down to use the hotel pool for the first time. We grabbed a couple of sun beds and headed to the Hideaway Bar & Grill to order some drinks. Cocktails here come in a special cup that you can take in the pool with you which definitely appealed to me! They’re $15.50 but only $12 for refills once you have the cup. We got one Florida p Flower and one Aloha Punch. I preferred mine (the Florida Flower) but OH enjoyed his too. Total with tax and tip was $39.02. These on-site cocktails aren’t cheap at all, but they aren’t shy with the pours when they make them – there’s no measuring involved so you definitely get your money’s worth!

The pool was quite busy so I bought a float for the lazy river ($15.98) and we did a good few laps in there. OH hates pool floats so just grabbed one of the life jackets instead (after refusing to believe they’d fit him at first and hanging off my float for the first few laps… not relaxing at all!). It’s a really nice perk of the hotel and I’m glad we were near the pool that has the lazy river. This side seems to have longer pool opening hours too which is nice.

We headed back up to the room at around 6:45pm from memory and got ready to go to City Walk for the first time this trip. I mentioned to OH that I had a bit of a sore throat but was hoping it was nothing and just from the air-con like usual.

The plan was to eat at Toothsome as we’ve really enjoyed this on previous trips. Once we were ready we took the garden path across to Sapphire Falls so we could get the water taxi across. This was a nice walk and didn’t take long at all – it would’ve been much quicker just to cross the road but there’s no crossing and it was quite busy, so the path seemed a safer bet.

Sapphire Falls looks amazing and we’re hoping to pop back another day for a drink and better explore. Such a nice resort! The boat pulled up shortly after we arrived at the dock and we were soon on our way. It felt so exciting to be back at City Walk and nice to see everything from a different perspective!

We walked across to Toothsome and were told it was a 1hr 40 minute wait for a table for two (we couldn’t book ahead as they were fully booked for the next week!). We knew from past experience that you can skip this if you choose to sit at the bar area so asked if this was possible and were told to walk straight upstairs and see for ourselves if there was any availability. Timing was on our side and a couple left just as we arrived so we took their seats. Hooray!

We ordered what we’d ordered on a previous trip – appetizers of Pork Belly Sliders (all for me), Philly Cheesesteak Rolls (for OH), Truffle Fries (to share) and the best bit – the Warm Chocolate Almond Bread (again, to share). OH decided he really fancied the Totchos so we ordered these too. We got some water and OH ordered a Heineken. I ordered the Chocolate Cherry Mule – big regrets here, this was SO sweet and I couldn’t finish it. Not a fan at all!

The food came out pretty quickly and we immediately realised we’d ordered far too much. The original bits we usually order were fine and as expected, but the Totchos were like a meal in themselves – I have never ever seen a starter so big. It wasn’t down as a sharing starter and was a similar price to the others so we weren’t expecting the portion size to be much bigger. OH barely made a dent in them (and said they weren’t very good either – all soggy and stuck together). The server who was dealing with the couple next to us advised them against ordering them as they were so big – I just wish our server had thought to do the same!

I forgot to take pics but hopefully you can see the scale of them here - this is at the end of the meal!

I really wasn’t feeling great at this point so we decided to get the bill and head straight back to the hotel. The total was $90 including tip. We’d left just as the parks were kicking out so the queue for the water taxi was insane and we thought it would be quicker to walk. I timed it and from getting on the garden path at CityWalk to walking back into our room in the Beachside Tower was exactly 30 minutes, so not too bad. I think we went straight to sleep after getting back – I was really hoping I’d feel better when I woke up (spoiler alert: I didn’t!).

[twogoto]

🚶🏻Steps: 3,697
💰Spends: $169.35

Woke up feeling awful this morning. Felt like I'd swallowed razor blades, I've never had a sore throat like it. I’d woken up so many times through the night and had been gulping as my throat felt so dry, so I also had the worst acid reflux ever today too - great!

I was a bit worried it might be the dreaded Covid as we’d escaped it so far. This was also the one holiday where I forgot to bring strepsils and all the other medicines we never have had to use, just typical!

OH went to the hotel shop to try get me some but they were all out of any sort of throat lozenges - tells you something! He did manage to get me some Tylenol and got himself some spray sunscreen. Paid $28.11.

We got ready and went to Walgreens on the corner of International Drive in an Uber - OH wanted to go to the liquor store and we knew there was one here. Free again but would’ve cost us $8.51.

I picked up two packs of what looked like their version of Strepsils and we also picked up some snacks, more suncream, and a pack of Covid tests just in case! Everything pictured plus 12 cans of Diet Pepsi cost us $69.88. Should’ve brought some lateral flows from home!

I opened up the throat lozenges straight away and we headed next door to the Walgreens liquor store. Oh my god, I didn’t realise these said “maximum numbing” on the front. It was like I’d been to the dentist! I couldn’t feel my entire mouth lol, I told OH he’d have to do the talking at the till as I felt like I’d be slavering everywhere if I tried. It was quite funny - medication out here is so much stronger than at home, I even saw paracetamol in the hotel shop sold as one single tablet strong enough to last 12 hours!

We picked up a bottle of OH’s favourite, Bumbu, as well as a bottle of Jim Beam. The Jim Beam was a bargain but Bumbu probably cheaper at home. Total was $55.36.

We got an Uber straight back to the hotel - free but should’ve been $8.38. We’re nearing the end of our free credit now!

I did the Covid test, which was incredibly over complicated and nothing like ours back home. It’s a wonder anyone does these right. You had to stick the stick in the test, twiddle it around, fold it, stick it, all sorts! Thankfully it came back negative- woohoo! It’s so easy to forget sometimes that sore throats etc existed way before covid and automatically assume it must be that, really daft!

I think we had a bite to eat in the room and then slowly got ready to head into Volcano Bay, not wanting to totally waste the day. We just picked a couple of loungers and chilled out for a while - if I didn’t lay super still I got awful acid reflux so it wasnt very fun! On the bright side, the lozenges we’re doing wonders for my throat - probably only because they numbed it so much I couldn’t feel it anymore! I think we managed a dip in the pool and a go round the lazy river after grabbing a locker ($16) but there were no water rides again today. I couldn’t think of anything worse than screaming around the Aqua coaster!

Back in the room and we had a lunchable each for a late lunch/early dinner (such big kids but these are actually quite tasty compared to the uk version!) at 4:30pm and watched something on the TV or iPad.

By 6:30pm I was asleep and didn’t wake up until the next morning! Poor OH just sat in the room all night, I felt bad when I realised!

Sorry this is such a boring day to read!

[twogoto]

🚶🏻Steps: 14,824
💰Spends: $792.44

Woke up at 6:30am – bright an early after 12 hours sleep (oops!). I felt so much better today – considering how bad my throat was yesterday, I was expecting to be feeling bad for the rest of the week! Maybe a combination of the insanely strong US drugs and the long sleep, but apart from a croaky voice I felt fine.

Rang OH’s mum as it was her birthday today, so we FaceTimed for a bit and had an iced coffee in the room. We weren’t in any great rush to go anywhere but fancied heading to the outlets so got ready and ordered an Uber there at about 10am. We went to the Vineland ones this time – the ride should’ve been $13.56 but we only paid $0.10, using the last of our free credit.

We got there in about 15 minutes, only to realise the outlets don’t actually open until 11am! I’m sure that they opened earlier last time we were here (as well as closing later – they all shut at 8pm now). We’d entered at the end where Nike is and luckily there was a Starbucks here so we grabbed a couple of drinks. I got a tall Strawberry Açai, OH had an Iced Green Tea Lemonade, and we got some breakfast items – a chocolate croissant for me and spinach, feta and egg white wrap for OH. Paid with the Starbucks app (pre-loaded), total was $18.64.

We sat in the sun and enjoyed them and soon realised that a huge queue was forming for Nike so we jumped in it – this was trailing right back to the car park by the time 11am came around! When we finally were let in, the staff (and security guard) were all singing some kind of welcome song and clapping which was really fun. I don’t think either of us ended up buying anything here but we had a good browse (OH more than me).

We did a loop around the shops, mainly trainer shops for OH and handbag shops for me! I picked up a bag in Kate Spade that was down to $121.41. I kept getting a strange tickle in my throat that made me cough and not be able to stop, so picked up a bottle of water from one of the stalls for $3.20. I lost count of how many lozenges I ate trying to stop myself from coughing (they worked wonders!)

We walked across to UGG which is in a separate row of shops, still technically part of the outlets but a good stroll away, passing Ford’s. We both picked up some socks here - two pairs for OH for $17.04 and one pair for me for $7.67.

We kept walking a little further as just beyond the outlets there’s a shopping park with Marshalls, Ross, Sephora etc (and an Aldi). OH went in Ross (which he said was full of rubbish) and Marshalls while I went in Sephora – I left $251.34 lighter! This one was quite nice as it was so quiet so could enjoy just browsing and looking at things.

OH picked up two Levi’s t-shirts in Marshalls for $17.02, and when I went in to join him I found one of my favourite Kate Somerville products there for just $26.61 including tax – this was $97 in Sephora so I’m glad I didn’t buy it in there!

We both went in Burlington afterwards but quickly walked back out – it felt like the pound shop from back at home in here and was so messy/full of crap!

We were feeling peckish now so crossed back over the road and walked to The Cheesecake Factory. We’ve been to the Mall at Millenia one before but this one was new to us, I don’t think it was open on our last trip. It was so much calmer than the mall one, that’s for sure! We really enjoyed it.

The bread came out first which was amazing – I don’t know what the darker bread is (please tell me if you know!) but it’s delicious. We polished this off in place of a starter!

We also had a cocktail each - I ordered a passion fruit margarita and OH ordered a passion fruit mojito, but I convinced him to swap as mine was so strong I couldn’t drink it. I’m recognising I need to change the title of this report as I’ve been so bad on the cocktails front - sorry!

I was craving some Florida shrimp so ordered the fried shrimp which came with fries – this was nice but nothing special and in hindsight I wish I’d ordered something else. OH had baja chicken tacos which he said were amazing and one of the best meals he’d had in a long time!

We also ordered a dessert each to finish, though only managed about half each. I got the very cherry chocolate cheesecake which had a ghiradelli brownie base, and OH got the warm apple crisp as he doesn’t like cheesecake. Both were very nice but mine was quite sickly and way too big to finish!

The total was $90.84 plus tip, we wrote $110 on the receipt but I can see they’ve only taken $107.19.

Feeling super full, we walked a little further down the road to Target. I bought a couple of swimming costumes as one of the two I’d bought I’d realised turns my entire body navy blue when it gets wet (not ideal, I look like a Smurf), and we picked up some Crest whitening stuff as well as other toiletries and snacks. We managed to find sugar cookies here too which we weren’t able to get in Publix so that was a win! This was again quite expensive for what we got and came to $191.29.

We got a Lyft back to the hotel as Uber kept rejecting our Revolut payment card for some reason – this was $13.19.

I still wasn’t feeling 100% so don’t think we did much else this night, we were both full from Cheesecake Factory so didn’t feel like we needed anything for dinner – instead we picked up a couple of cereals from the food court and ate them back in the room! We also picked up a chocolate muffin and banana muffin to eat the following day. Total was $17.74.

Lots of shopping today but it was nice to have our first proper sit-down meal of the trip. Have totalled up the spends at the top of the report but this includes all personal shopping too - will split it out into food vs shopping at the end of the trip as it looks quite ridiculous added together. You don’t realise how much you’re spending when it’s across three cards throughout the day!

[twogoto]

🚶🏻Steps: 13,859
💰Spends: $475.99

Started off with breakfast at the Cabana Bay food court today – I had a waffle which came with strawberries and syrup, and added a side of bacon. OH had the breakfast combo which was bacon, sausage, egg, potato and a biscuit. A coffee was included in the cost of OH’s meal and we added a second one on for me – you get the cups and then fill them yourself from the station in the dining area where all the tables/chairs are. To be honest I couldn’t see anything to stop you filling your own cup with it if you’d wanted to (though it didn’t taste great so we wouldn’t bother with it again!).

Breakfast was OK but nothing amazing. Price was $33.77.

We then headed to Volcano Bay – our waterproof phone carrier things had arrived by Amazon by now, so no need for a locker this time. We did spot that they sold these in the park too, but they were almost $30 each before tax, so we definitely saved by ordering via Amazon instead.

We didn’t go on any rides again (though the aqua coaster is on the list before we go home) but enjoyed the lazy and fearless rivers, as well as the pools. We went to the bar to get a couple of drinks but had forgotten our driving licenses and they wouldn’t accept photographs of our passports, so had to have the non-alcoholic versions! Nevermind. So far (I’m writing this just a few days before we come home) this is the one and only time we’ve been asked for ID!

We got a (non alcoholic) strawberry daiquiri type thing and pina colada, as well as a bottle of water. Total was $13.92. They were nice and refreshing and this seemed very cheap considering those bottles of water are $5! Not sure if we were undercharged or what.

We didn’t have any proper lunch but did get a churro each while in VB – price for two was $11.70. No photo as we ate it while walking back to the sun beds to dry off!

Once back in the room and changed, we got a Lyft to the outlets to do an hour of shopping before going for dinner at Longhorns nearby. The Lyft was $12.65. We were having trouble using Uber with Revolut as the payment method (it kept looking as if it was booking the ride, then saying payment failed) but Lyft accepted Revolut as the payment no problem. Something to bare in mind if you’re using a Revolut too!

The outlets were only open until 8pm and we didn’t get there until a few minutes before 7pm, so we split up to get a few bits. I headed to Bath & Body Works where the hand soaps were on offer for just $3.50 each – I’ll take that! They were doing a strange sales-y thing here where you had to queue outside, but not because it was busy inside (it was dead). The sales assistant on the door would give you a bit of a sales pitch, and then let you inside to go to the second sales agent who continued the pitch – there was no way to come inside without listening to both pitches first! All seemed a bit strange and created a queue unnecessarily!

I sent a message to OH with a photo of my basket asking “How many hand soaps is too many hand soaps when it comes to luggage?” But he didn’t reply so I just cracked on – we’ll figure it out later (I’ve since bought even more). There were some decent offers so I got six hand soaps, five sanitisers, and three room sprays – total was $54.30.

I wandered in and out of a couple of other shops, telling myself I did not need any more handbags, but caved at a yellow wristlet-style one in Coach. It was only $60.66 with tax so it felt rude not to. There were some great bargains in here and they have a website you can use in-store to scan items with your phone to tell you the final cost, so you don’t need to walk round doing the maths when they have 60% + 20% off etc. I appreciated this!

Meanwhile OH was still in the shop he’d started in almost an hour ago - Adidas. I went to meet him and said I’d wait outside as he was finally in the queue. It took him forever and everywhere else had closed by the time he came back out, but he got a few bargains he was happy with. He bought a pair of trainers, a hoody and some shorts - total cost $160.

Longhorns was on the agenda for dinner tonight - we’d been to this one near the outlets before so knew it was just a short walk away.

It wasn’t too busy and we were seated straight away. As part of the steak meal you get a salad included or can swap it for an extra side. OH picked the strawberry salad and I said I’d swap mine for the crispy Brussels – not sure why as I don’t even like them but figured they might be better if they’re crispy!

They brought OH’s salad out but there was no sign of the brussels, so I just sat and awkwardly watched him eat his salad looking like we were on some weird kind of date. Oh well, we thought this was maybe how they did it if you didn’t get two salads. He said it was delicious.

We both had a Long Island iced tea to drink - I’m being rubbish with drinks this holiday but they were so strong! I only managed about a third and OH drank the rest of mine as well as his over the course of the meal.

The mains came out and we’d both gone for the Flo’s Fillet with an added lobster tail. I’d chosen a sweet potato with cinnamon sugar for my side and OH picked Mac & cheese for his. We both added a Parmesan crust to the steak but this wasn’t quite what we’d imagined – very cheesy and more of a dollop than a crust. Still no sign of the sprouts!

We did eventually get them but it was so far into the meal that I don’t seem to have taken a photo - sorry! They were OK but not amazing. The steaks and lobster tails were delicious as were the Mac & cheese and sweet potato (I’d had this on a previous trip and was looking forward to it again).

Total cost was $120 including tip. I had a voucher for a free dessert for my birthday so we got some of the mini donuts to go – we were so full that we only managed a couple of these when we got back to the hotel, but they were nice!

We got a Lyft back to Cabana Bay which cost $8.99.

[twogoto]

🚶🏻Steps: 19,344
💰Spends: $295.08

We were up bright and early again today thanks to the Volcano Bay music. I honestly don’t mind it as it’s nicer than an alarm clock as I said before, but the time it starts it a bit confusing. The park doesn’t open until 10am, or 9:30am for early entry, but some mornings the music starts as early as 6:20am which is obviously hours before guests are going to be there. Other mornings it doesn’t start until 8am.

We fancied heading to Disney Springs this morning so ordered a Lyft there (Revolut and Uber still weren’t working together) for $13.99. We got there just a few minutes before 10am which was handy as everything was opening at 10am. We had a little wander in and out of a few of the shops – OH tried a few pairs of jeans on in Levis but they didn’t have the style he wanted, and tried a few hoodies on in Uniqlo but they didn’t have his size. He actually ended up ordering the hoodies online to get delivered back at home for almost half the price, so they’re definitely not always cheaper out here!

We were both feeling a bit peckish but knew we would have an earlier lunch today so headed to Starbucks for something small. We both got an iced coffee and I got a chocolate croissant while OH had another spinach and egg white wrap (repeating our choices from earlier in the trip!). Total was $20.45. We sat outside facing the big balloon.

Bellies now full, we wandered across to have a look in some of the other shops. We picked up a medium ‘fill your own’ bag of Ghiradelli chocolates for $23.27, and I picked up a new pair of Havaiana flip flops for $31.95.

We also went in Sugarboo, a homeware store I hadn’t noticed on past trips, so not sure if it’s new. This had some really nice bits and was so reasonably priced too. We picked up two canvas plant pot bags and two little pinch pots/mini snack bowls for $27.56. Also went in a shop where we saw dresses for dogs! Not for us but I did wind OH’s mum up with a photo.

We couldn’t decide on somewhere for lunch and ended up back at Blaze for another two ‘build your own’ pizzas and blood orange drinks. Delicious as always. Total was $34.58. Much pricier than the $3.14 pizzas we got earlier in the week but worth every cent.

A Lyft back to the hotel cost us $19.78 – as first this was showing as over $25 but it soon dropped again. If you see ridiculously high prices, just wait a few minutes and see if they update – we’ve found they usually do. There can also sometimes be a huge difference between Uber and Lyft as noted on our travel day so it’s well worth checking between the two.

We were back at the hotel at 2pm and after resting our feet we caught the bus to Citywalk to finally go into the parks! We headed into Universal Studios first and picked up one of the food & beverage cards – these cost either $75 for $90 to spend or $120 for $150 to spend and can be used at the food booths and Citywalk restaurants. I’m not sure if you can use them in the in-park dining locations too? We went for the $120 option knowing it would be soon spent!

We got a cocktail each, using the gift card to pay – I can’t remember the exact cost but they were something like $7 each as we opted for the ones without the souvenir cup so we didn’t have to lug them around. We sat and enjoyed them but were baking hot so decided to go on Fast & Furious to cool down as there was no wait. OH wasn’t impressed that this was going to be our first ride of the trip but it actually ended up being better than either of us remembered!

I was really thirsty and went to one of the food booths to get a bottle of water but they said they’d just had them dropped off so they were all warm – we headed to the souvenir shop thing in the Simpsons area instead and got a cold one for $3.50 (they’re $5 at the food booths as it’s the ‘premium’ water).

The weather was suggesting there’d be lots of heavy rain and a storm soon, so after a lap of the park we went into the Horror Make Up Show - a first for us as we’ve not done this on previous trips. Oh we’ve been missing out – this was AMAZING! It was so funny, made even funnier by one of the young kids in the audience who kept shouting things out, so the presenters ended up including him in the script throughout. It was so good.

Once this was over we decided we’d head into CityWalk for some dinner before going into IOA. We went to NBC but their wait for a table for two was around two hours. Knowing we could skip the queue at Bubba Gumps with our Landry’s card, we headed there instead. I’d actually forgotten the card but could show the app no problem and we were told to head straight inside and seated within minutes. Everyone else had a 90 minute wait – I always feel a bit guilty and feel so bad they don’t know about the Landry’s card but don’t want to give away the secret at the same time

We started off with a couple of cocktails – I picked one I’d previously enjoyed in New York, Tropical Breeze. OH had a Rum Forrest Rum. We shared the garlic bread and snack size portion of chicken tenders for a starter which I forgot to take a photo of.

For mains, I had the LT. Dan’s Surf & Turf which was baby back ribs, grilled shrimp, fries and BBQ sauce. OH had the Bourbon St. Mahi Mahi & Shrimp Combo which was charbroiled Cajun spiced Mahi Mahi, grilled shrimp, bourbon sauce, tomatoes, and mashed potatoes – he did ask for the mash to be swapped to fries but it came out wrong. The fries did eventually come too but not til he’d almost finished! Both meals were delicious and the grilled shrimp was particularly tasty (and huge).

We were way too full for dessert and used our Mardi Gras food & beverage card to pay – the total was $99.01 and I think we wrote to take $120 with tip.

There was a huge downpour of rain while we were inside so we were glad to miss that!

After dinner we walked down to IOA – we were excited to head here as we didn’t even get round to going in on our last trip, so hadn’t been to IOA since 2016. It was amazing to see it all in the dark!

We were quite full so weren’t up to any coasters tonight (and the park was closing in an hour) but did do Kong as there was no wait. This was super creepy just us two walking through the empty queue bit inside. It felt almost like horror nights! The ride was much better than we’d remembered and the animatronic at the end was out of this world! Definitely take your glasses off to have a better look at this, it’s fantastic and looks so realistic.

We also caught the HP light show on the castle which was great – I love that they go the extra mile and turn out the street lamps so you can get the full effect (we were stood right behind one and I thought it was going to spoil our view!).

We did head down to take a look at Velocicoaster and try the test seat (the no shoulder restraints scare me but it actually felt ok as the lap bar is still pulled down from over your head) but decided not to ride so shortly after a big meal!

The park was now closing so we completed our lap and headed out, deciding to try getting the bus back this time. I timed it from the point on Citywalk where we’d entered the garden path to walk back last time. That time it took 30 mins exactly from the path entrance to our room at the Beachside tower in Cabana Bay. This time it took 25 minutes from the same point to take the bus back, so there’s not much in it (but the bus definitely saves your feet a bit!). Don’t be put off if you see a big queue for the bus at Citywalk - as soon as one was filled, another one pulled in and so on, so we were on it in no time.

Wish I’d timed it when we got the boat across so we knew which one was the quickest – I think the bus probably wins!