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

[LadyDebs86]

Hello! I didn't expect to be back with a food report so soon after my last one, however we ended up making the crazy decision to travel to Orlando for a week to attend Wrestlemania XXXIII and the associated festivities with a couple of our friends (including fellow Dibber nolypops83). You may laugh, however its been on my other half's 'bucket list' for most of his life and with it being in Orlando I didn't take much persuading - not to mention I actually really enjoyed it! We got back yesterday and I was very excited to start posting this report.

We had some fantastic food including quite a lot of offsite stuff that I haven't experienced since I was really young. With this being a non-Disney trip with the exception of one day I got to check out some places I've heard a lot about but never done. We did take in a day at the Flower and Garden festival, and we also tried out the brunch at California Grill as it was my birthday whilst we were there and the others arranged a lovely surprise for me, so there's some pics coming up of that if you're curious!

We travelled down to Gatwick the night before the flight and stayed over at the Bloc hotel in the terminal, which I would definitely recommend doing. I'm counting it as the holiday starting from then, because I can!

[LadyDebs86]

Travel Day -1

After getting checked in at Bloc and freshening up following the drive down to Gatwick, we decided to have dinner at Giraffe - located right next door in the terminal. I started with a cocktail...

"Bramble Garden - London-born gin sour. Ours has Beefeater London Dry gin, cucumber, apple, blackberries and elderflower. Soda topped and served long over ice"

Very lovely and fruity.

Now annoyingly I know we ordered starters however I cannot find any pictures of them. We shared an order of gyoza per couple and I think our friends Laura and Rob also shared some squid, but you'll have to take my word on that!

For mains we had:
Laura - Fish and chips
Rob - Chicken burger (I think)
Me - Duck salad
Chris - Chicken Malay Curry

Me and Chris also ordered some fries to share...

The food was all lovely, hot and tasty. I had the duck salad at Manchester airport a few months prior and was glad to see it still there, lots of interesting flavours.

Apologies for the rubbish start, as with my previous reports I do get far better as it goes on!

[MissFortune]

Great start. Can't wait to read more.

We are doing a non Disney trip this year too so will be interesting to see all the offsite places you visited.

[CK's other half]

Cannot wait for this as a I am wrestling nerd (24 yrs) so gonna be good

[lolalolo86]

Looking forward to this. We love WWE and watched wrestlemania on Tuesday gone. Really hope to go one day ourselves.

[mick]

Great start

Joan

[Goldia]

Ooh excited to see where you ate off site as we are staying on I drive this summer. Our first non disney trip

[Rescuer]

Nice to see you back with another food report.
We did our first offsite venture for years last summer and I really enjoyed the food - looking forward to seeing where you went.

[KarenG]

I always love your food reports Lady Deb

[LadyDebs86]

Travel Day

The day had arrived! We had drunk a little bit too much the night before in Gatwick Wetherspoons (oops), so slightly worse for wear we headed down for breakfast , again at Giraffe. As a Bloc hotel guest you get 20% off your breakfast there if you show your receipt from dinner the night before.

I ordered one of their awesome mint lemonades, I love this stuff.

Chris and Rob had Bloody Marys

I think Laura just stuck to coffee.

Foodwise...

Rob: "Morning Po' Boy
Sausage, egg*, baby spinach and red chillies in a soft baked roll with a Louisiana spicy sauce with garlic aioli and homefries."

Chris: "Simpy Morning Breakfast
Smoky bacon, sausage, fried or scrambled egg*, baked beans, roasted tomato and homefries."

Me and Laura just had an order of sourdough toast each. This came with really lovely French butter and either jam or marmalade. For some reason there was a single, solitary baked bean in my butter pot but I didn't let it bother me.

Before the flight we all felt a bit more human so sat and had some fabulous if very pricey cocktails in the London Bar in the terminal. French Martinis for me and Chris, and an espresso martini for Rob. I believe Laura had a glass of prosecco which for some reason I did not designate worthy of a photo. Fail.

We boarded our flight to Tampa on time (for the record I would definitely recommend flying into Tampa, it was cheaper and was an absolute dream getting through immigration), meal service seemed to follow in a flash. We had 'Honey Herbed Chicken'.

This came with a bread roll and butter (no soft cheese, booo), an orzo pasta salad and a Lily O'Brien's chocolate and salted caramel dessert pot.

The main came with sweet potato mash and a mixture of green beans and leeks. This is going to sound insane but this was actually delicious (as far as plane food goes). The sweet potato mash was flavoursome and buttery and the veg wasn't annihilated which is always a joy. I can't comment on the pasta or dessert as I gave them to Chris - he said they were 'nice'. Helpful.

An couple of hours before landing they brought round afternoon tea, this was a coronation chicken sandwich and a little KitKat:

I had read an article in the inflight magazine about how altitude changes your tastes and I think that must be true as I quite enjoyed this (possibly also to do with how hungry I was) when in normal life I wouldn't touch coronation chicken with a bargepole.

After landing and driving into Orlando we checked into the Rosen Inn at Pointe and got freshened up, before wandering over to Millers Ale House which was right over the road. We got seated right away. My photos from this point are pretty awful as I was so knackered but I tried...

I started with a Cherry Limeade Cocktail - "Smirnoff Cherry, fresh lime, simple syrup and lemon lime soda." Laura had the same and the boys had beers. The drink was dangerously good, tasted like it had no alcohol in it at all and cost like it didn't either! Millers is seriously good value.

Laura the coupon wizard had brought a voucher for a free flatbread so we went for the cheeseburger one ("Crispy flatbread topped with our secret sauce, ground beef, applewood smoked bacon, Monterey Jack and cheddar cheese, diced tomatoes and pickles.") - apologies for easily the worst photo I took on the trip:

This was incredibly tasty but we really shouldn't have ordered it as I ended up pretty full after a couple of slices.

I drained my drink in minutes so also ordered a Pineapple Mango Mojito "Made with Captain Morgan Pineapple Rum, mudded pineapple, mango juice, lime juice, and fresh mint topped with lemon lime soda."

This was also ace - fruity, minty and sweet.

Mains - Chris had the seafood combo "Shrimp, scallops, clams and fish fingers fried golden brown and served with cole slaw and choice of side. "

Rob had a half rack of ribs, I think there may be a Long Island Ice Tea there too...

Laura and I both went for the Dibb-famous Zinger Mountain Melt "Garlic Parmesan ZingersŪ piled over crispy fries and smothered with melted Monterey Jack and cheddar cheese, applewood smoked bacon and green onions. Ranch dressing"

When I think back to this I literally weep at how much was wasted and how much I'd love to be eating it right now. It was SO TASTY but the tiredness caught up with us and we gave up very prematurely. Me and Laura could have shared one portion instead of having one each and there still would have been leftovers. One day Mountain Melt, we shall see each other again

We gave up at that point and headed to bed following a quick trip to Walgreens for some room supplies. It had begun!