What? No ADR’s Universal Only Trip

[OB1LukeLucas]

Looking forward to following along. Your Nando’s looks nice I might need to try it!

[3disneykids]

Looking forward to following ...Have a great time

[collybird]

Have you found not planning stressful? I know that sounds ridiculous, but I wouldn’t be able to help myself.

Have a lovely time!

[Goldia]

Looking forward to seeing all your non Disney food. Plus of course the breakfast at Trattoria al forno, what a lovely idea.

[LLamb]

Originally Posted by jools1302

Hi,

Will be following too! We also have a non Disney trip this year so looking forward to trying different restaurants and not being so ‘regimented ‘ still have a spreadsheet of plans though... OBVIOUSLY haha
Have an amazing time and thanks for taking the time to do this

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Thanks for reading

Originally Posted by Wismgari

Love a live food report so I am following along Your trip sounds great, have fun!

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Thanks for reading

Originally Posted by SquishTheWhale

Following along! Nothing like a cheeky Nandos to get the holiday started!

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Thanks for reading, I’m sure I stole the idea from you, didn’t you post about stopping at Cobham in the May group

Originally Posted by buddy23

Following! Love a food report especially as this is focused on Universal!

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Thanks for reading

Originally Posted by florida_2012

Your lodgings are similar to ours 😀 1 week homewood suites idrive (stayed here last year and thought it was great - loved the breakfast, evening reception and restaurants close by), 1 night RPR, then 7 nights in a townhouse at Windsor hills.
Looking forward to reading along

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Thanks for reading, now we are here i think I may spend a lot of time in and out of suitcases!

Originally Posted by theCMG

Following, great list of restaurants

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Thanks for reading, spoiler went with your idea of the safe pasta dish on the plane.

Originally Posted by OB1LukeLucas

Looking forward to following along. Your Nando’s looks nice I might need to try it!

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Thanks for reading, yes the fino pita is lovely.

Originally Posted by 3disneykids

Looking forward to following ...Have a great time

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Thanks for reading

Originally Posted by collybird

Have you found not planning stressful? I know that sounds ridiculous, but I wouldn’t be able to help myself.
Have a lovely time!

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Thanks for reading. Yes totally, so much so I’m already planning next years holiday so I can plan something. Which will probably involve Disney even though we aren’t meant to be going until 2021!

Originally Posted by Goldia

Looking forward to seeing all your non Disney food. Plus of course the breakfast at Trattoria al forno, what a lovely idea.

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Thanks for reading, yes you ask A what she wants for her birthday. Princesses

[LLamb]

Travel Day

I brought some Costco Danish pastries with us to have early until we got into the airport. Sorry no photo.

Left the Premier Inn at 7.45, security was fairly quick except we had to wait for one bag to go through extra security.

Breakfast-The Grain Store
We were seated straight away. P order a full English with toast and the kids both had pancakes. I was still too full from the danish so just had tea. I also ordered a pain au raisin to go.
Total was £32 but I used out lounge pass and just paid the £2.

Everybody enjoyed the food and would definitely try here again.

BA Plane Food

About an hour into the flight they came around with drinks and then another 30 min later the food. We were in row 38 and they were running out of food by the time they got to us. I think I was the last person who got a choice.
I had cheese and tomato pesto pasta. This was actually quite nice.

P got chicken and mashed potato, he said it was alright. The kids were down for children’s meals but they never got offered them just regular meals. No choice at this point and neither of them ate the chicken.

The little mango pot was nice, salad awful and bread roll hard as usual.

Tea and coffee about 10 min later which we declined. I never drink the water from the tanks as I think it used to make me feel ill once off the plane.

We also got boots meal deals and plain ham and cheese sandwiches for the kids. So they didn’t starve. Plus I took banana, grapes, crackers a sweets. D basically spend the whole flight eating everything.

About 3 hrs before landing we were given a mini magnum. Plus the crew came around with water and soft drinks a few times.

An hour before landing was sandwich time. Smoked salmon and a flapjack. I gave mine to the man sat next to me and got the last cheese sandwich for A. Which she then refused.

Fort Lauderdale airport was great, easy immigration and free trolleys. Shame BA have stopped this route and our plane was pretty much full. I left P with the kids and cases and took the bus to the car rental place. Then drove back around to get them. Was really easy.

We just stopped at Publix and got milk and cookies. Nobody was hungry so didn’t get any food this evening.

We had a walk over to the beach now the kids are fast asleep. Hopefully going to watch the sunrise in the morning as I’m sure we will be awake early.

Thanks for all your lovely comments.

[theCMG]

Glad the safe pasta option didn't let you down keep it coming!

[SquishTheWhale]

We flew the BA FLL route in December for a cruise and agree it was lovely! However our plane was less than 50% full both ways so I imagine they've been struggling to fill them.

The food on board doesn't look good at all. I always think Virgin food is a little better than BA. Regarding drinking the tea or coffee made on the plane, as ex cabin crew I know a little. Yes you are right to be wary of the water from the tanks on board. It's taken on in any country so can be a nice mixing pot in there. However the hot water comes out of a tap that is scalding hot so it shouldn't have any nasties in it! As crew we were fussy about things like that (because we knew what was gross or not) and we happily used the hot water.
But of course if it made you sick once I can understand your wariness of it!

[LLamb]

Originally Posted by SquishTheWhale

We flew the BA FLL route in December for a cruise and agree it was lovely! However our plane was less than 50% full both ways so I imagine they've been struggling to fill them.

The food on board doesn't look good at all. I always think Virgin food is a little better than BA. Regarding drinking the tea or coffee made on the plane, as ex cabin crew I know a little. Yes you are right to be wary of the water from the tanks on board. It's taken on in any country so can be a nice mixing pot in there. However the hot water comes out of a tap that is scalding hot so it shouldn't have any nasties in it! As crew we were fussy about things like that (because we knew what was gross or not) and we happily used the hot water.
But of course if it made you sick once I can understand your wariness of it!

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I’m sure it’s perfectly safe but fell better after flights by not having it

[LLamb]

Day 1 -Fort Lauderdale

After watching the sunrise on the beach we headed out for breakfast.

IHOP
It was a fairly old building but nice enough inside.
I had the double blueberry pancake stack- Double up on the blueberries! You’ll get a stack of four fluffy pancakes filled with blueberries, then topped with sweet, warm blueberry compote and creamy whipped topping.

This was very nice pancake were light and fluffy and the blueberry compote wasn’t too sweet but I got really full towards the end.

P in his usual style had one of the most expensive breakfast items (oh ddp I miss you already!)
Have it all BreakFEAST- Two triangles of French toast & 2 fluffy buttermilk pancakes, plus 2 strips of hickory-smoked bacon, 2 pork sausage links, 2 pieces of thick-cut ham, 2 eggs* your way & crispy hash browns.

He really enjoyed this but gave one of the pancakes to A as she didn’t like hers.

D&A both had the kids create a face chocolate chip pancakes but the pancake batter itself was chocolate. D loved this A preferred the plain.

Server was ok but a bit slow, we waited a while to order and then got drink the same time as the food.

I had a voucher for a free stack of pancakes but it needed to be printed. She wouldn’t except it and said I hadn’t ordered the right pancakes.

Total was £39.20

We didn’t have any lunch as still too stuffed from breakfast. Of course the kids were hungry so they had snacks I had brought with us.

We headed over to Sawgrass Mills this afternoon and had an early dinner at around 4pm. Wow this place is huge.

California Pizza Kitchen
If you sign up to there rewards scheme you can get a free small plate but you need to do it more than 24hrs in advance if going. Which I forgot to do so might use that later in the holiday.

The server brought out bread with oil and herbs. This was lovely and could of just had a massive plate of this.

I ordered my favourite Chicken Tequila Fettuccine- Our creamy jalapeño lime sauce with spinach fettuccine, red onions, bell peppers and fresh cilantro.

This was delicious, the spicing is quite mild and not overpowering and the cream sauce is nice a light.

P- Kung Pao Spaghetti- Our twist on a Chinese classic with garlic, scallions, peanuts and hot red chilies.

He enjoyed this but said it was quite spicy.
The portions don’t look very big in the photos but it was a decent size.

D-Traditional Cheese- Cheese and Tomato pizza. He ate all of this and enjoyed.

A- Curly Mac n Cheese- fusilli pasta with creamy cheese sauce. This was a massive portion. She enjoyed it but only ate about half. P ate the rest.

P had two lemonades and the kids and I had water.

Total was £49.75

After this we drove over to Walmart for some sandwich supplies to take with us tomorrow. We also got some donuts for dessert. Sorry everybody ate them before I could get a photo!

Alligators at the state park tomorrow before we drive up to Orlando.