It's The Greatest Hits Tour August 2018 - Day 3: Sapphire Falls, CityWalk Golf, Blaze and Bob Marley

[moosha]

Day 3 - Monday 13th August 2018


Apologies for the delay in getting this report done, I'm so embarrassed that this trip was over a year ago and I'm still only on day three, and that we've had another trip since then (even that was a whole seven months ago, so that trippie will also be in the works after this one.) And now that the girls are back at school I have made it my mission to complete both in the next couple of months. Just uploading and adding in the photos for today has taken the best part of a day though so thanks for bearing with me but I will get it all posted as soon as possible.

The alarm was set for 6 am. I had woken up a couple of times in the night so wasn’t exactly fully ready to get up and at ‘em at 6, but this is what we do on these trips right? The girls woke up naturally at 6.30 ish and I wrote in my notes that jet lag is a myth which it clearly isn’t (I was still feeling it when I wrote this a couple of weeks after getting back from our last trip).

We weren’t actually in a particular rush to get out this morning. Luckily Seren was feeling 100% better after last night’s anaphylaxis episode. The plan was to have a slow start and I spent some time trying on all of my new Hot Topic Disney tops. I was really happy with them all. The plan was to have breakfast in the room but not long after waking up, Freya asked if we could go to Cabana Bay for breakfast because she loves their pancakes. The Starbucks at that hotel made this idea appealing to Mat and I so we agreed. Mat had some cereal, Freya did some work and then we all took the lovely Garden Walk over to Cabana Bay at about 7.30.

Despite this sign we've seen quite a few people legging it across the road here. It's only a few extra minutes following the designated walking path and as I've already said, it's a pretty little walk:



When we got there, Bayliner Diner and Starbucks were quite busy. Mat went to Starbucks to get the coffees and I took the girls into the food court. Freya lined up at the pancakes station to order her pancakes, Seren was faffing around trying to decide what to have (honestly that girl is the most indecisive person I know) and I thought the fruit salad bar looked so good it had to be done. Seren meanwhile had decided to get a chocolate croissant from the bakery cabinet. When she came back with it and saw me loading up on the fruit salad she was so jealous she asked if she could have some too. So we both got a pot of fruit although mine was much bigger because it was my only breakfast. We both got mango, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and a fruit salad with melon, grapes and pineapple. We took everything to the tills and I was obviously over the moon when I saw the fruit total was $18.14 for both pots. Still the fruit was really good and you have to stock up on the healthy stuff when you can, amiright?

We found a table and met up with Mat who had got himself a banana in Starbucks. So we all ate our lovely breakfasts and Mat and I enjoyed our coffees.

Freya's pancakes:



Seren's complete breakfast:



My fruit (I don't know why there are two pots, maybe this is before a reshuffle with Seren's pot) :





Love the table pattern:



When we were all ready to leave, we popped into the Cabana Bay Store which is small but always seems to have a nice selection of Universal merchandise. We also really like the Cabana Bay branded stuff. On our first trip I bought a Cabana Bay mug and we also got some cute shot glasses. On that trip, which was 2014, Mat got his blue Cabana Bay cap from this shop which he has worn throughout all of our trips since then. It was starting to look just a little worse for wear and they had some nice beige coloured ones with the same design. I suggested he replace his but he wouldn’t, saying it had loads of life left it in yet. Men eh? If he ever said to me that I needed to get something new I would be all over it like a rash. But he pretty much hates buying anything for himself (unless it’s vinyl records but that’s another story.)



So we left the store empty-handed and walked back to Sapphire Falls.





This morning was a pool morning and we arrived about 8.45. It was really quiet, there were only about two people already there. I do like it when pools open nice and early in the morning though. One downside of the likes of Stormalong Bay is the 10 am open which means even if you go early and don’t stay too long, it’s already getting pretty hot at that point and it really eats into the rest of the day. I’m not a fan of pool time, so a quick early swim and then a mid-morning exit makes me happy.



Despite there being approximately four people in the pool (including the girls), there were still about six lifeguards in the section I could see of the pool. I love watching them repeat their drill where they walk a certain number of steps one way, look in both directions and then walk back the other way.



I popped to the lovely pool restrooms while we were there and they were very nice. The pool bar / quick service wasn’t open at that point but the seating area for that also looked lovely.









The whole of the pool area is stunning and Mat and I both took turns to have a little wander. The water wheel / water fall at the back of the pool area where it meets the lagoon / boat dock is so pretty.

















I caught up on notes at my lounger and read for a bit and Mat went to get coffees from the quick service (New Dutch Trading Co.) They’re not quite as good as the Starbucks ones at Cabana Bay / Hard Rock (I actually prefer American Starbucks coffees to Starbucks at home, they taste slightly different to me) but the ones from the hotel were still very nice. While he was there, Mat also picked up a packet of spicy snack mix which were so good. We tried to find them in Target later in the trip but couldn’t and never managed to get back to New Dutch Trading Co. to get any more. Sad times.



Lizard picture for no good reason:



Mat went in the water for a bit too which is a rarity, and then about 10.30 the girls were ready to get out (which almost never happens, we usually have to drag them out kicking and screaming. Maybe they were hungry again.) We went back upstairs and they got showered and then we headed out in the car to Disney Springs.



We parked in the Orange Garage which is our favourite...







...and we were pleased that Springs was pretty quiet, it being early and a week day. We love Disney Springs so much. I could quite happily spend several days of any trip here just wandering around, popping into some of the shops and eating and drinking. We were only here for lunch today though, and we took the walk round to Blaze Pizza which had been a real favourite of ours the year before. I was so happy when I found out they offer vegan pizza and so Mat and I would be able to eat here again this year.

Because it was still pretty early, Blaze wasn’t busy. Mat ordered the girls’ pizza (build your own with half pineapple for Seren and half mushrooms for Freya) and I sorted out the vegan one. When you order a vegan pizza here, they ask if you’d like a glove and cutter change which is nice. I ordered ours with spicy sauce (I love their spicy tomato sauce), vegan cheese (obviously), red onion, mushrooms, red pepper, Kalamata olives and pineapple. Mat and I got a blood orange San Pellegrino each (love those things) and the whole process didn’t take too long at all.







We sat outside as we always do and scoffed our pizzas really quick.

Girls':



Ours:



It was so good I think we need another photo from another angle:



We all said we could have eaten a whole one each but as we had dinner booked later we decided to just stick with the half and head out. We left Disney Springs again straight away as we had other plans for the rest of the day, but knew we’d be back again properly soon.





We couldn't resist taking photos with this cute Christopher Robin backdrop on the way out:







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[moosha]

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We like the cute art on the way back to the car park so Mat took what I thought was a few photos:













Still going..





Seriously (and this isn't even all of them) :





Ooh here's our lovely car:





We drove back to Sapphire Falls and bumped into our lovely housekeeper Janeth on the way back to the room who said we were her favourite family, bless her. I’m pretty sure it was just because Seren was leaving her sweet notes every day as I guess not many guests do that.

We quickly freshened up and then took the boat from Sapphire Falls to City Walk.











While we were waiting we saw a turtle in the water:







This afternoon we were testing out one of Universal’s mini golf courses. It was pretty dead and the Team Member at the desk seemed pretty bored when we arrived.



He offered us a special deal on playing both courses within a couple of days or something but we knew we only had time to play one course. The girls chose the Haunted course.







This is one of those moments in a trip where my overriding memory was of just how flipping hot it was. I mean it was hot, and at the beginning we were kind of saying, ‘oh it’s hot’ and just getting on with it, enjoying the novelty of a new course to us (we’ve done the Disney mini golfs quite a few times but never Universal’s.) Then after a little while it was that feeling of ‘it’s too hot, why am I doing this?’ None of us are great in very hot weather, hence our decision after this trip to probably avoid returning to Florida in the summer holidays like, ever. But I am probably the least moany family member when it comes to extreme weather so I tried to just keep the mood up and crack on as well as I could in the hope that everyone else would just stop whinging and get on with it.











The course was really quiet, we had no one at all in front of us and it wasn’t until towards the very end that a couple of parties nearly caught us up. So we were able to take our time and spend a good few seconds under the spray fans whenever we encountered one which wasn’t really often enough, we probably could have done with one at each hole tbh.



We were particularly grateful for the shaded part of the course which goes under the walkway between the parking lot and CityWalk, and is also right next to the road. It looks a bit :/ but my goodness it was great to get into the shade for a good few minutes.





















Freya had pretty much lost interest in the game by about halfway through. She doesn’t like mini golf as much as the rest of us and although sometimes she’ll get into it and enjoy it, most of the time she just tolerates it. With the extreme heat today she just cba. She asked if she could have a bottle of Fanta from the vending machine down in the shady part of the course so I sent her over with some cash. Unfortunately the machine only took cards so I had to go over with her and pay for the drink. I never did check how much it ended up costing when the money came out of the bank...I think I decided I didn’t really want to know.



















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[moosha]

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I have in my notes that Freya also cheated at mini golf which I don’t exactly remember, I think she was lying about the number of attempts each shot was taking. She lost anyway due to her half hearted attitude and by the end I think we were all just keen to wrap up the game in order to get away from the heat. I did of course make a note that I won though. Oh and here's the scorecard:



We decided to pop to Voodoo Donuts and were grateful the line was short.















The store is so cute, we loved it and I like the glass case in the line showing you the donuts before you get to the counter.



It meant that everyone knew what they wanted when we got there which meant a much less stressful ordering process than we usually have in bakeries or ice cream shops ‘What do you want again?’ ‘What...you’ve changed your mind?’ ‘No it’s too late now!’ (Just us? Ok.) Freya got a Dirt, Mat got a vegan ODB and Seren got a vegan Apple Fritter.





We took them outside and found a bench overlooking the water. I had some of Seren’s and it was really good. We used to love the apple fritters at the Simpsons place a few years ago (before we were vegan) but the last time we had one (I think April 2017) it was pretty disappointing and dry, stale and without much flavour. This one was lovely and fresh and moist and tasted so good.









When we’d finished our donuts we wandered down to the boat dock and arrived to a closed gate and a boat about to depart. When the guy saw us arrive he very kindly reopened the gate so we could jump on the boat rather than waiting for the next one. What a babe.

As I said already, it was so hot. When we got back to Sapphire Falls we chilled for a bit in the room and the girls did their journals for a bit. We all got showered and then went down to Strong Water Tavern for a drink at about 5.30 pm. There were lots of conventioneers in there filling the entire area around the bar. It was really noisy which was a bit annoying. I’m not a huge fan of conventions in hotels when we’re on holiday, it kind of feels too much like real life. It was one of the things I didn’t like when we stayed at the Hilton Bonnet Creek a few years ago. The lobby was constantly full of conventioneers and I wasn’t a fan. We’ve seen it a bit at the Yacht Club too but not on that scale. I did know Sapphire Falls was a convention hotel when I booked it so I shouldn’t have been surprised but they were all congregating around the bar entrance and it was quite full on.

We found a table a little way away from the bar but there weren’t many free tables either. The whole bar was pretty busy tonight and it had such a different atmosphere to our previous visit when it was quieter and more relaxed. I had a Last Typhoon and Mat had a Mai Tai and we scoffed the spicy nut mix again as it’s just so good.





While we were drinking our cocktails it started to rain a bit and there was some lightning but it was pretty short lived. We had a dinner reservation at CityWalk so we only stayed for one drink.

Not sure why the photo I have of Mat's drink is of an empty glass... maybe he drank it super fast and I didn't get a picture quickly:





We squeezed our way through the convention crowds to get out of the bar. There were so many of them and they were pretty much blocking the entrance.

The others thought it was amusing that my dress was almost the same pattern as the wall outside New Dutch Trading Co.



We had a quick look in the hotel’s Universal shop before we left for CityWalk as we hadn’t been in there yet. We had decided to walk the Garden Walk over to CityWalk rather than take the boat as we fancied a stroll and we love all the walking paths around the resort hotels.

A quick snap of Aventura three days before it opened:

[

It only took about 15 minutes, maybe a little less. During the walk we spied a raccoon on a tree but by the time I got my phone out he had scarpered. We all saw him (or her) briefly though, and we were all excited because we’d never seen one before. He / she was so cute.





When we arrived at CityWalk we headed towards Bob Marley - A Tribute To Freedom which was our dinner destination of choice. We didn’t exactly know where it was having never been off the beaten track that far in CityWalk but we found it after a few minutes. Now, Bob Marley isn’t a restaurant I think I have ever seen anyone visit in a trip report I have read on here. I pretty much thought no one actually went there. But when I’d been looking at vegan options at CityWalk this one came up a couple of times, on the Universal Orlando Vegan Wiki for example. I liked the look of the things we could eat there, and they had plantain which is Seren’s absolute favourite food so we were sold.







We checked in a couple of minutes early and were taken through to the dining area which was a bit of a surprise. I had researched the menu but not looked at any restaurant photos. It’s definitely different. The restaurant is a replica of Bob Marley’s home so there’s an under cover bit which is the indoors and then a courtyard area with a little stage. We were given a table on the edge of the courtyard under the awning and in the end I was glad as I preferred looking at the pretty courtyard and being on the edge of everything, right next to the empty courtyard. The undercover part of the dining area was busier and a little dark so I was happy we weren’t sitting there. There was a fan blowing on Seren and I the whole time so it was a bit blustery but it wasn’t too hot or cold, just breezy and we got used to it.



I had a glass of Cab Sav as the wine was only $6 - $8 per glass. Mat had a Dark and Stormy. Seren had a mango juice and Freya just stuck with tap water.









Freya didn’t like the look of anything on the menu at all so she was a bit stroppy but agreed to have the kids’ veggie patties with white rice and grapes. Seren chose the kids’ Jamaica mac and cheese with a side of grapes. The children’s menu said it was for under 9s but our server didn’t question both of them ordering it. Seren also ordered a side of her beloved plantain from the adults’ menu.

We asked our server Alldayne (according to the receipt) but ‘Allday’ (according to his uniform badge) what we could have as vegans. I had looked it up online already so I had a pretty good idea, and he basically confirmed the options I already knew about. The menu didn’t have any vegan appetisers which was fine with us. The vegan entree was stuffed peppers which we both liked the sound of so we each ordered these. There were also some vegan sides; sweet plantain and yucca fries. We ordered one of each of those sides to share.

Alldayne’s personality was super friendly and chatty and like he couldn’t do enough for us. He tried to start a conversation with us about football and couldn’t believe it when we said we don’t like football at all. He also talked about a friend or family member who lived somewhere near London. It was a nice chat and all was good. Despite thinking the place was a little ‘different‘ and feeling somewhat out of sorts about it initially, we started to settle in at this point.

A few minutes later Alldayne returned to the table and said ‘Bad news guys...we’ve run out of peppers.’ He was extremely apologetic and seemed genuinely concerned that they didn’t have our chosen main course available as it was the only vegan option. We said ‘Is there anything else you can do?’ to which he replied ‘Leave it with me, I’ll work it out for you guys. I’ll talk to the Head Chef.’ At that point said Head Chef crossed the courtyard coming back from somewhere and heading to the kitchen. Alldayne pounced on him and they had a chat and then he came back and said ‘It’s all good, he’s going to make it happen.’ So we got the peppers. Mat rather cynically felt the whole thing was a set up and they had the peppers all along but the whole ‘act’ of apology / concern / fixing it was designed to ensure a good tip. Who knows, but it was all a bit weird.

The peppers were pretty good, nothing amazing but nice to get something a bit different and fairly healthy. They look pretty grim in this picture too.









I didn’t like the texture of the yucca fries, they were pretty dry but Freya amazingly really liked them. The ketchup they came with was really tasty. The sweet plantains were pretty good. I randomly wrote in my notes that they were better than the ones at Las Iguanas. They were a bit spicy which meant that Seren wasn’t as crazy about them but she ate most of them anyway. While we were eating, the courtyard stage was being set up for the live band but by the time we were all done they still hadn’t started. We settled up and left just after 8 pm. We had a fairly good time there, it was ‘different’ but we wouldn’t necessarily recommend the place or return.





We headed back into CityWalk where the atmosphere was really good. Ugh I just want to be back there now. Look how pretty.





‘There’s Nothing Holding Me Back’ by Shawn Mendes was playing which made Seren really happy because he’s her favourite singer. We popped into the Universal store and for some reason Seren took a mugshot of Mat and Freya. Teenagers.



We made a decision to walk to Royal Pacific to have a quick nose and also because we knew the bar there was called ‘Jake’s Bar’ and Seren’s boyfriend at the time was called Jake so she wanted to take a photo to show him.

It was quite a winding path although it obviously wasn’t a long walk. However Freya and I had uncomfortable shoes on so it felt quite far. When I saw the sign for RPR I followed it off the main path, and Mat (who was behind me) said ‘Where are you going?’ I replied (possibly quite snarkily) ‘To Royal Pacific’. The guy pulled up on a rickshaw beside us waiting for business thought it was hilarious that I had shut him down like that so we all had a good laugh.





We went inside RPR and I must say it didn’t really appeal to me as much as most of the other Universal hotels. Not sure why. We’ve popped back again since on our last trip and I still felt the same. It was definitely very smart but I felt it was a bit dark and soulless. I know lots of Dibbers love it though.



We popped down the stairs to Jake’s Bar and took some photos outside but didn’t fancy stopping for a drink. It seemed pretty busy down there though.





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[moosha]

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At that point the plan was to walk back to CityWalk and get a drink instead. We took the walk back and Freya was randomly freaking out about the possibly of alligators in the dark waterways beside the walking path so that was a fun walk.

When we got back to CityWalk, I mentioned getting a drink and I was really up for staying out and enjoying the atmosphere for a bit but everyone was moaning about being tired and stuff so instead we got the boat back to Sapphire Falls. They do look pretty tired here to be honest:







Nice and quiet in the lobby lounge when we passed through:







From the lobby we generally took the stairs down one flight to our room rather than bothering with the elevators:



The three lightweights went to bed when we got back (around 9.20 pm) and I packed for our first hotel move the following day. I went to bed about 11 pm.

[snowdrop100]

love reading your trip reports (Florida and NY).

looking forward to reading more from this trip

[collybird]

We played mini golf at one of the Pirates’ Cove courses a few years ago and my overriding memory of that is also how damn hot it was and now whenever OH suggests mini golf I remind him of that day.

I didn’t even know Bob Marley’s existed, it made me laugh that Mat was so cynical that he thought no peppers was a rouse.

[nothingless]

I've been binge reading all your trippies - started with 2012 last week and am on this one now, so I've been 'seeing' the girls grow up super fast and my overriding thought was:

FREYA NOW DRINKS FANTA?

What happened to the adorable little kid who only drinks tap water and milk?! They grow up too fast lol!