Snacking on sunshine… Disney, Universal, F&W Festival, Buc-Ees & More. 25 Days Aug/Sept 24 COMPLETE

[Disney Planning]

Mmm the Minions Cafe doesn’t sound that good, the green soup 🤔
I’m hoping your dinner was better 😋

[orlandoamber]

Your last post made me laugh re. the freeze pops (which we also enjoyed in April). Will does not use the dibb but whenever we're in Orlando and want to order two of the same thing, he always says 'but what about the food report?!' - well it's not your report and the dibb won't mind if we have two of the same lol! I honestly think he orders more than he needs to sometimes and uses 'for the report' as an excuse!

Your grinch candy apple looked great but wow, it was expensive! A shame it wasn't sour as you expected too. You more than got your sweet fill with the delicious Menchie's order though (and Gideon's, obviously!).

[Claudette]

Minion Cafe looks dreadful. Shame as I had wanted to try it out, we went to the one in LA a couple of years ago and thought it was quite nice.

[sbchannel]

Originally Posted by Disney Planning

Mmm the Minions Cafe doesn’t sound that good, the green soup 🤔
I’m hoping your dinner was better 😋

See more...

The colour wasn’t the issue for me although they said it was green tomato soup that colouring did not come from green tomatos! It just just virtually cold, should have sent it back. Dinner was better!

[sbchannel]

Originally Posted by orlandoamber

Your last post made me laugh re. the freeze pops (which we also enjoyed in April). Will does not use the dibb but whenever we're in Orlando and want to order two of the same thing, he always says 'but what about the food report?!' - well it's not your report and the dibb won't mind if we have two of the same lol! I honestly think he orders more than he needs to sometimes and uses 'for the report' as an excuse!

Your grinch candy apple looked great but wow, it was expensive! A shame it wasn't sour as you expected too. You more than got your sweet fill with the delicious Menchie's order though (and Gideon's, obviously!).

See more...

Hahaha aren’t the other halves weird?! He’s never read The Dibb ever

The Menchies and Gideon’s are just sooooo good!

[sbchannel]

Originally Posted by Claudette

Minion Cafe looks dreadful. Shame as I had wanted to try it out, we went to the one in LA a couple of years ago and thought it was quite nice.

See more...

My review is a bit scathing but I am in the minority really. I’ve heard such good thing about it I think they were just having an off day… but I wouldn’t give them another chance!

[sbchannel]

We left the park around2:30pm to get some downtime before HHN.

We shared the final Gideon’s which was Pistachio Toffee

Now don’t get me wrong this was a good cookie but it wasn’t a patch on the others. I had a lot of whole pistachios but not much toffee. We enjoyed it though!

I also had a Ghost Hydration in Lemon Lime. I don’t really like the hydration ones like I do the energy drinks.

We didn’t have any other food until the evening because I was waiting for the food at our HHN RIP Tour! I had seen in previous years the food looked pretty good, so why would a buy some and fill myself up when free food was on the horizon!

Now I was a bit nervous about the RIP Tour. It was one of the biggest expenses of the trip and I hoped it lived up the the hype!

We got to the gates at around 5:30pm. I didn’t expect there were would be a holding area - that was fine.

When we were let in we directed to Cafe La Bamba, but when we actually got there, at just after 6pm we were told we couldn’t come in until 6:20pm as our tour didn’t start until 6:30pm.

Now, I was confused, if this started at 6:30pm why on earth could we not come in now and eat beforehand?! Anyway, they called us in around 6:10pm and was greeted with the food….

There was:

Forbidden Falaffel
(Crispy falafel with tomato cucumber salad with tzatziki and warm pita)

Street Corn Riblets
(Corn rib, jalapeño mayo, cotija cheese, tajin and micro cilantro)

Bloody Goodie Bag
(Crispy chicken chunk with fries, pepper onion mix, and a bloody good sauce)

Pizza Fries
(French fries with marinara sauce, melted cheese, pepperoni and sausage)

Seasoned crackers, cliegine mozzarella cheese, queso fresco

Noir blue cheese, Harrison’s Hummus

Vegetable charcuterie

Fruit platter (mango, melon and pineapple)

Flour tortilla

Pork Carniceria

Cilantro lime rice, black beans

Cilantro, lemon salsa, pineapple salsa, salsa verde

Caesar salad

Funfetti Cupcake

Mary’s Macron

Ghost Cookies

Vegan Churros

The selection I thought was really decent, and I enjoyed the food we ate! Except the pizza fries. They were dry!

There were also soft drinks in iced buckets (coke, water and sprite).

We gobbled this down so quick to be ready for 6:30 only to find that there is no specific 6:30pm tour. Once you are, you join one of the tours which are starting off all the time during the night! With we knew that before.

The RIP Tour was fantastic. The being taken to the front of the line for the houses and having them explained was fabulous. We did have several breaks as well at venues that had bars (not included).

At the second stop we bought some drinks:

I had the Dead Meridian (Cuervo Tradicional Silver Tequila, chipotle pineapple syrup, basil essence and Fonto® Orange, garnished with a pineapple)

This was ok. There was no pineapple garnish and I think this cost around $18.50 and for that price little things like that frustrate me, I would absolutely eat the pineapple.

Jonathan had Creepy Cola
(Jack Daniels Old No. 7 whiskey, Coco-Cola™ Classic, black cherry purée, stone fruit syrup and gummy creepy crawlers).

There were also no gummy creepy crawlers!

I didn’t care for my drink much, the syrup was all at the bottom it seemed. Way overpriced.

We also were able to go back to La Bamba and get more food and drinks - same selection!

The tour was a wrap by 10:40pm.
So we watched the show and explore ourselves. I tried to find the Stay Puft Smore but couldn’t find him!

Was a great evening, I highly recommend RIP Tour but it is so tiring!

[C4rla]

That's a pity about Minion Cafe. We've been meaning to go there for a couple of visits, but never quite made it. Those tots look good, but over $1 each...

Looks like you had a great time at HHN though, glad you enjoyed RIP 🙂

[sbchannel]

So after not getting to sleep until well after 3am because of the absolute agony of the throbbing in my feel about walking a billion steps yesterday, we actually didn’t want up until 10:40am! We lost like half a day by sleeping! Worth it though!

Virgin thoroughly depressed me by sending me an email saying only 5 days until your flight. Erm, Virgin don’t come at me with this negativity…. You know I flew out with you, why would you think I am excited to fly to Manchester?

We got ready and headed to City Walk for brunch but wanted something quick so went to Moe’s Southwestern Grill.

Now we have an amazing local burrito chain in Newcastle and Durham called Zapatista and I where really is better than it, so this had to be exceptional to please us.

Jonathan went for the Homewrecker Burrito (Where guac isn't extra. Our biggest and baddest burrito-served with your choice of protein and guac) with chicken $12.49

Jonathan liked this but I am sure he did not love it! It was no Zaps.

I had the Homewrecker Bowl (Not feeling the tortilla? Go big and go Homewrecker bowl - with your choice of protein and guac.) With steak $13.49

This was ok but the steak was so salty. It was huge and I didn’t finish it.

With all entrees you get chips and salsa.

This was a lot of chips and the salsa pots were small but didn’t taste overly fresh.

After this I HAD to go to Menchies!

They have added a new flavour combo:

Yumm Bubblegum / Captain Crunch Golden Cereal / swirl of both

I mostly went for original tart with toasted marshmallow and dulce de leche. I did try the bubblegum and it was more sorbet that frozen yoghurt. Same toppings as before and mine was 17oz!

Jonathan also mostly went tart and marshmallow with dulce de leche. He went for candy toppings. His was way smaller than mine!

Both of them together was $22.64 which is pretty hefty but I can’t control myself and I ate every last drop!

In the parks we immediately went on RRR twice and could have stayed on for a 3rd time but Jonathan declined. He blamed it on the food but I don’t think he liked the ride. I felt it was way better than Hulk where my head was thrown around a lot!

We found ourselves in Dreamworks Land and I wanted something cold. We each got a Frozen Ogre which is Sour Apple flavour. These were $6.99 each and I got an AP discount of $1.40

What an absolute nightmare these things are to get out of the packaging. Taking the plastic film off was chore 1 and then actually getting the lolly out was equally quite the task. Even with instructions this was too much effort for a lolly that wasn’t all that!

We have been so thirsty today, and had to buy bottled water at $3.75 per bottle and when he threw the empties away I could have murdered him with no guilt, I wanted to refill them!

Instead we went to Starbucks.

I got the Venti Strawberry Açai lemonade $6.69

This was just ok. I needed the liquid, but I like a more tart lemonade.

Jonathan got a venti mango dragonfruit drink $6.69

His was better. We also got the Starbucks mug which is the old series not the new Discovery Series Disney have, we also found in Florida Mall the Orlando and Florida ones which are also Discovery series. So they don’t match. I prefer the You Are Here series tbh. They were cheaper than Disney (Disney mug was $24.99 with the ornament $19.99 …. Universal are $19.99 and $15.99)

More to come….

[sbchannel]

Universal closed early tonight as it was another HHN so we decided to have a nice little date night.

I booked us a table at The Melting Pot which is less than 2 miles away. It’s on ‘Restaurant Row’ or so our Uber driver told us and there are supposedly some phenomenal restaurants here.

When you book your table is asks why you are booking. Thursdays have a special ‘Thursdate’ menu which means they seat you first come first serve at the very private Lover Lane and put rose petals on the table with a candle.

It’s really intomate, like a really private booth and perfect for dates, you don’t have people around you to either have hearing your conversation or you hearing theirs. I loved it.

The Thursdate menu is $59pp and has 4 courses:
- Cheese fondue (any from the menu)
- Salad (any from the menu)
- Meat foodie (set but can chose your cooking style)
- Chocolate fondue (any from the menu but they also have a Thursdate special)

If you are not interested in cooking your own food, this is not the place for you!

We ordered drinks first.

I had Strawberry Basil Lemonade
(Smirnoff Strawberry Vodka Muddled Fresh Basil and Strawberries Lemonade) $14

Jonathan had Modern Old Fashioned Old Fashioned
(Knob Creek Rye WhiskeyBrown Sugar Cube, 18.21 Earl Grey Bitters, Orange Peel, Filthy Cherry) $15

Both drinks were good but I would have preferred mine be a little more tart, it was quite sweet.

For our cheese fondue we went for ‘Fiesta’ (Aged Cheddar, Emmenthaler, Sam Adams Boston Lager, Housemade Salsa, Jalapeño)

This is made in front of you, each part of the dish is put into the pot for melting and you. So beer first, the. The salsa, then the cheese and it’s all melted together into a delicious fondue.

For dipping there was French baguette, apple, celery, carrot and pretzel bread.

This was absolutely delicious. I loved all of it, I wanted more of it and I’m definitely making this at home - we love a good cheese bake at home but this was way better and we’re making it.

Next we had the salad course. We both went for California
(California Mixed Greens, Candied Pecans, Gorgonzola, Tomatoes, Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette). We both had without the Gorgonzola.

This also was delicious fresh, crisp and the vinaigrette was my favourite so far this trip.

Next we moved onto the main event.

The Thursdate menu comes with the set meat options (Shrimp, Memphis-Style Dry Rub Pork, Teriyaki-Marinated Steak, Garlic Pepper Steak, Herb-Crusted Chicken Breast).

But you chose your cooking style which does include an iron grill if you would prefer that to essentially boiling your food!

We went for the Coq Au Vin
(Burgundy Wine, Mushrooms, Scallions, Garlic)

This was put on the hob shortly after the starter, and it was smelled amazing cooking!

The meats came out with some broccoli, potato and mushrooms along with a set of dipping sauces.

You get a card to show you how long to cook things for.

And the off you cook! This was really tasty. It looks like a small amount of food but it’s very protein heavy so you fill up fast!

I also had another cocktail. Mangolicious (Voli Light Vodka, Pineapple Juice, Mango Syrup, Luccio Moscato d'Asti) $12.

Then it was time for the chocolate fondue. We went for the Flaming Turtle which was flaming!
(The creamy flavor of milk chocolate is melted with caramel flambéedand topped with candied pecans)

The fondue had strawberries, pound cake, cookie, brownie, banana, waffle, cookies and cream marshmallow, marshmallow and Krispy treats and it was absolutely delicious. It was a great ending to be a fabulous meal.

The total bill was $189.58 and tipped 20% so not cheap but we did have 4 cocktails as well as the meal, and we also had a lovely time. This won’t be for everyone, but if you are looking for something different and a bit of experience, but also something that tastes good, this would be a good choice!

Next up: Volcano Bay and meeting a new old friend!