Oh, The Places We’ll Go! From the “stars” to the “sea”: Universal, SeaWorld & beyond - Spring 2016

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

LOL - had the same thought.

My kids High School teams are the Cougars. As DD ages, she is going to have to stop wearing any of her high school apparel with "Cougar" emblazoned across it! (Especially the track pants with the logo across the butt.)

You guys are so bad!! Men.....sheesh .

(Just kidding, of course )

 

[bankr63]

Wow.....that does bear an uncanny resemblance! Have you ever toured the inside?

Been inside several times for Dinner, both in the main dining room and in the snug little pub in the basement. This is one of the nearest options for dining at A+'s dad's cottage. Well as of a couple of years ago, former cottage, but her brother also lives nearby. It is also the main marina on Lake Rosseau, so I was over there often enough gassing up the SeaDoo (which is a frighteningly expensive thing to do!) Anyway, it is as grand and elegant inside as out. And looking online at the room prices, it probably gives the Grand Floridian a run for their money, with lake view rooms in summer season running about C$300/nt (that's about US$25.00 - kidding, about US$230/nt).

Once upon a time, access was by lake paddlewheeler, but the roads are (a bit) better now. Actually Muskoka 4 and Windermere Road could lead one to believe they are riding Big Thunder Mountain, so perhaps it has a bit of an amusement park aspect to it too!

 

[Lynne G]

We always had a good meal at Margaritaville. I like the burgers and fries, so easy and enjoy the scenery. We made a ressie for Christmas night, and man, was that restaurant jumping, but even then, we had a great waitress, and she even took my AP discount off. In October, I did the golf meal, and agree, not a bad deal, since even with a discounted golf game, the meal and drink and tip made it just a bit cheaper, and well, for me, every penny counts.

We also found getting from the parking garages wasn't bad either. And so glad only had to show my AP and ID. We'll probably enjoy a CityWalk meal at Christmas too. Maybe the new chocolate place, it looks awesome.

 

[wiscbugs]

Those food pictures at Margaritaville are making me so hungry. We'll have to stop there sometime!

 

[pigletto]

So many updates! I haven't had much time to respond but I am happily reading along.
Those CityWalk pics helped me decide I am definitely doing the golf and meal deal on this trip again. I agree, it's a great deal. I can not wait until this October!!

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

The deal does sound good but for us we would have to factor in the parking fee too.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Margaritaville is often our first stop for a meal after checking into our hotel. My personal favorite is the margarita flight -- four sampler size portions of Who's to Blame, Last Mango in Paris, Blueberry Pomegranate and I believe Watermelon. So good! And nothing says the vacation has started like these four tasty drinks and an order of Volcano Nachos!

Maria

 

[Raeven]

yum I agree Margaritaville is delicious! We did the mini golf deal last time too and thought it was a good value.

 

[ArwenMarie]

You guys look nice and rested

So did you let your Universal passes expire? I forget where you were with that.

 

[pixieprincessmom]

Sitting on the balcony at Vistana now as the rain finishes. Looks like baby girl will get in a swim tonight. So glad I read your trip reports! I felt a bit more prepared for Universal and am glad we chose Vistana (had stayed here once before, but wasn't sure about the drive to Universal). Has been a great trip so far. Miller's Ale House was a hit with the whole family.

 

[got4boys]

Love your trip reports.

 

[Callie]

I bet you are going to go to the twiste treat place! I bet I totally butchered the name.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Been inside several times for Dinner, both in the main dining room and in the snug little pub in the basement. This is one of the nearest options for dining at A+'s dad's cottage. Well as of a couple of years ago, former cottage, but her brother also lives nearby. It is also the main marina on Lake Rosseau, so I was over there often enough gassing up the SeaDoo (which is a frighteningly expensive thing to do!) Anyway, it is as grand and elegant inside as out. And looking online at the room prices, it probably gives the Grand Floridian a run for their money, with lake view rooms in summer season running about C$300/nt (that's about US$25.00 - kidding, about US$230/nt).

Once upon a time, access was by lake paddlewheeler, but the roads are (a bit) better now. Actually Muskoka 4 and Windermere Road could lead one to believe they are riding Big Thunder Mountain, so perhaps it has a bit of an amusement park aspect to it too!

We haven't been "up north" for a while now.....I'm generally not one for pine trees and hiking trails, but someplace that elegant might make me change my mind. For $300 a night, though, it would want to be mighty nice!

We always had a good meal at Margaritaville. I like the burgers and fries, so easy and enjoy the scenery. We made a ressie for Christmas night, and man, was that restaurant jumping, but even then, we had a great waitress, and she even took my AP discount off. In October, I did the golf meal, and agree, not a bad deal, since even with a discounted golf game, the meal and drink and tip made it just a bit cheaper, and well, for me, every penny counts.

We also found getting from the parking garages wasn't bad either. And so glad only had to show my AP and ID. We'll probably enjoy a CityWalk meal at Christmas too. Maybe the new chocolate place, it looks awesome.

OMG, YES!! I can't wait to experience the new chocolate restaurant either. I doubt it will be open for our October trip, but it certainly should be by our 2017 vacation.

Those food pictures at Margaritaville are making me so hungry. We'll have to stop there sometime!

Its a really awesome place.....absolutely worth a stop . Definitely not quiet.....a volcano erupts several times an hour, and the music is played pretty loudly......but the food is great and the vibe is so fun!

So many updates! I haven't had much time to respond but I am happily reading along.
Those CityWalk pics helped me decide I am definitely doing the golf and meal deal on this trip again. I agree, it's a great deal. I can not wait until this October!!

I am trying to keep the updates comin' a little more regularly so all my wonderful readers don't give up on me completely. After being so lazy over the weekend, I owe you all at least that much!

After I posted that last entry, I realized that the meal and mini golf package has gone up in price since our tickets were purchased (from $22.58 to $23.99). It's still a great deal, though....especially for those already willing to shell out $15 each for golf!

The deal does sound good but for us we would have to factor in the parking fee too.

The fact we didn't need to pay for parking absolutely makes a huge difference to the value . If we had to add another $20 to the cost, it definitely isn't as attractive an offer.

Margaritaville is often our first stop for a meal after checking into our hotel. My personal favorite is the margarita flight -- four sampler size portions of Who's to Blame, Last Mango in Paris, Blueberry Pomegranate and I believe Watermelon. So good! And nothing says the vacation has started like these four tasty drinks and an order of Volcano Nachos!

Maria

Jake caught sight of those volcano nachos and his eyes almost fell out of his head. Someday we're going to go when we are all ravenous so we can eat more than we were capable of that night!

yum I agree Margaritaville is delicious! We did the mini golf deal last time too and thought it was a good value.

Most of the restaurants that are now part of the meal and mini golf offer don't appeal, so thankfully Margaritaville is still among them . Nascar and NBA City were our go-to restaurants for the mini golf package before they closed.

You guys look nice and rested

So did you let your Universal passes expire? I forget where you were with that.

We did decide to let them expire......May 1st was their last day. With the increase in AP renewal costs and our crappy Canadian dollar (still ) it just didn't make sense to renew right now. We still have our Seaworld AP's, and instead of doing Universal in October, we have added two days at Discovery Cove at a wonderful passmember discount. And also two MNSSHP's, thanks to the kindness of our vacation angel .

Sitting on the balcony at Vistana now as the rain finishes. Looks like baby girl will get in a swim tonight. So glad I read your trip reports! I felt a bit more prepared for Universal and am glad we chose Vistana (had stayed here once before, but wasn't sure about the drive to Universal). Has been a great trip so far. Miller's Ale House was a hit with the whole family.

So happy to hear you are having a great stay at SVR, and that you enjoyed Millers Ale House too! Fingers crossed the rain clears and you are back to sunny skies soon. Which section of the resort is your villa in?

Love your trip reports.

Aw, thank you for the kind compliment! Thanks for reading along, its much more fun when I have friends keeping me company .

I bet you are going to go to the twiste treat place! I bet I totally butchered the name.

You know me so well!!! Twistee Treat was indeed on the night's agenda . Wait until you see the photos....it was ice cream perfection!

 

[afan]

Excited to see how the mini golf is. We're thinking about adding the dine & golf but will wait until we are there to make sure we want to do the mini golf. Also still waiting for the eat to the beat concert lineup for the week we are there so an extra few hours at epcot after a day at universal may be done. Margaritaville looks fun, and will be our choice for dinner too.

 

[tortilla24]

Okay the $250 giant minion... Who even spends that kind of money on such a thing?

I am debating if we should do the dine and golf. It already seems like a great deal. I think my crew will be too dang exhausted for mini golf with such a busy trip though

 

[ArwenMarie]

Well sounds like you have amazing plans set up even without the Uni passes. Ours expire in June, we had them for two years but I think we are going to let them go now. It's always hard to let that renewal rate go though!

 

[dancin Disney style]

I'm back!!!!! and you don't even want to know how far behind I am. Being awakened at stupid o'clock this morning and working from home for most of today I've got my cup of tea and getting caught up.

Along the lines of the wheelchair ramming stories, I've got a good one for you. No wheelchairs involved just elbows to the back of the head. We were at a baseball game a couple of weeks ago(me, and both my DD's) which was a corporate function for my oldest DD. There were about 100 staff from her store plus heaven only knows how many from other locations. Shortly after the game started these 4 girls, and couple of guys, from my DD's store sit down behind us and I could instantly smell alcohol. Then the squealing started. So already we are thinking what the.... Then the noisiest one of them starts elbowing Grumpy Cat in the back of the head as she constantly is turning around in her seat trying to engage others in her little party. After the third elbow I turn around and grab her arm and ask her nicely to stop hitting GC. It stopped for all of 3 minutes but I guess her effort to contain the elbow resulted in more volume from her mouth. I them ask my oldest if these girls are even old enough to be drinking because at this point it's 100% clear that they are hammered. DD says she doesn't know but thinks that they are still in high school so not old enough to drink. Then the elbow to the head starts again. Well, GC totally lost it. She turns around and says to this girls "Look, I realize you're having fun but I'm recovering from a concussion and your screaming and elbowing my head is causing me to relapse". I then start laughing because the concussion part is true but a relapse, really. Her sister then realizes that she's a manager and this is a work function so the behaviour is unacceptable, she has to take action. She goes and gets the front end manager who hauls these girls out to speak to them. They came back 15 minutes later crying and continued to cry for over an hour. A couple of days later another manager, who wasn't even there, said something to DD at work about 'ratting them out'. Her answer was 'either I handled it or the cops handled it, they should be grateful that it was me'.

I'm totally proud of my girls. I'm starting to see that I have actually taught them some good stuff. GC will defend herself and others(whole other storey on the 'defending others') and my oldest defended her sister and showed that she can adult when needed. Until recently I could count the number of times that I shed a tiny tear and had that moment where you see that your kids get it. Lately, more moments and I'm losing count.

Back to your regularly scheduled program.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Steak N Shake Kenny......love him. He has been our server all but one time. I'm starting to worry that he will recognize me. The last couple of times there our bill ended up being around $13 so I leave $20 because I just can't tip the guy $2, it just feels wrong. I think they bring all the shakes in take out cups because in the past I know I've seen people ask for one any way. I have every time. Last visit there we were ordering right before 5pm which is still happy hour and Kenny told us that our shakes would be approx. 20 minutes and most likely we would have your food first. That totally suits us because a shake kind of feels like dessert anyway. EVERY single time we have eaten there someone has dropped a tray full of dirty dishes. I'm starting to think it's the entertainment.

BTW, I'm surprised that you can remember 8 tracks. You would have been a very young child when they disappeared. When I was around 5 my dad bought a Lincoln Continental, navy blue with the gold coloured vinyl top, that my mom knew nothing about. He just showed up at home with it one day. Needless to say that didn't go over very well. Anyway, it had a very high tech 8 track player. He also had come home with the latest Elvis 8 track playing in it.


While I LOVE the Grand Floridian it's not high on my list of places to stay. However, if the opportunity came my way you could bank on the fact that I'd be staying there. My dream resort is the Beach Club. Basically, I'm just too cheap to pay upwards of $400/ night for a hotel so I'm probably never staying there or any deluxe for that matter.

I'm glad you enjoyed Park Fare. I agree that the food is great but I've come too a point where if I'm paying $100 for a meal it better be served to me. I think my Disney buffet days are done. I'm fairly certain that they now only have one character that takes time and interacts with the diners while the other characters just sort of breeze by for pics and autographs. At Park Fare breakfast it's always the Mad Hatter. Your MH looked a little long in the tooth. I've never seen a wrinkly one before. We had the same one twice and he was a hoot. I have a really cute picture with Tigger...I stole a kiss.

 

[Joanna71985]

Now I really want to add 1900 Park Faire breakfast to my list (I've done dinner, but I love the characters out at breakfast). I've made a list of so many items thanks to you!

And I also have my Universal AP expiring soon I've had it for 6 years, but I'm having slight financial issues at the moment (and I can't afford to renew). Hopefully I'll get one again soon. Luckily I still have my SeaWorld AP, so I don't mind as much

 

[toystoryduo]

I'm so glad you guys had a great time at 1900 Park Fare! Love the character pictures!

Margaritaville looks awesome as well! Looking forward to seeing the mini golf!