The drive home was uneventful and traffic wasn`t too bad, even around Orlando again but it was only early afternoon, we turn off at The Mall at Millenia exit and come in through Kirkman which is always busy and we often wonder how many minutes a day we are stopped at those lights, if you just miss the green light, you feel as though you sit forever waiting for them to change.
We parked and headed in, M had asked us to txt her when we were almost home which we did and she was waiting for us in the lobby and she took us along to the room which is the Sapphire Suite and we absolutely love this one!!
M is just lovely, she is the nicest, kindest person and has a fabulous sense of humour which we love, we get on very well with her having known her for many years. We chat for ages in the suite and have a really good catch up again and time passes so quickly, we always worry we take up so much time chatting with staff, but they are so very generous with their time, it`s always a pleasure spending time with them.
The suite is just lovely, it is incredibly spacious, light and airy and we honestly feel so much at home here and always enjoy spending some down time chilling in the room as there is so much space. It is always immaculately clean and smells so fresh.
Having a second bathroom is ideal and this ends up being for Tom`s sole use which works well although he can shower in what is known as "my" bathroom, aren`t I kind......
But it works well for us and it is a nice sized space and plenty of storage for all his toiletries.
The sitting area is lovely, the sofa is surprisingly comfortable considering the amount of people who must sit on it throughout a year and both of us have been known to have a very relaxing nap at one time or another, so it definitely passes our snooze test.
The little kitchen is fine for us, it has some storage space for any treats and goodies we buy and the fridge is larger than the ones in regular rooms which is handy for drinks and anything you want chilled, usually white wine or prosecco for us.
We never use the coffee machine in any room, preferring to go get something from Dutch Trading if we want anything, we do bring tea bags from the Club Lounge and get some large cups of boiling water from them and make tea that way, tea bags are never our first choice, but it works just fine for us here if we fancy a cuppa.
We love our bedroom here, the bed is nice, large and very, very comfy, we always sleep really well here and like the King Suite at RP, once you close that bedroom door you rarely if ever hear any sound that may come from the hallways which I`m told can be an issue in regular rooms.
The rooms are beautifully decorated and just feel nice to be in, it has a warm and cosy feeling especially with the low lighting on in the evenings.
As well as hanging space for clothes, the unit under the tv holds 4 large drawers as well as cabinet space too, so despite us (me) having a lot of clothes, we never struggle for storage space here.
I do bring my own coathangers as although the ones from the hotels are fine, but they are bulky so I`d never be able to fit all my clothes in if I asked for extra hotel hangers.
And my bathroom!!
It is huge and very spacious, it also has the very divisive barn style door from the bedroom that some folks don`t like, it doesn`t bother us at all and the separate toilet with a full door is in there too. But, for the regular rooms I can see why some folks don`t like that style of door for privacy reasons, no worries like that for us after almost 35 years together, there are no surprises anymore 
I am a little selfish here, I love having the double sink all to myself, we have a double sink in our master bathroom at home although they are further apart than these and I don`t mind sharing that back home, but here, I do like the space I have as I have straighteners and the space the hairdryer takes up as well as all of my toiletries, make up and hair products, so it is a little selfish, but works well for us.
There are two showers in this suite, one is a walk in with a nice glass door and the other is over the bathtub. The walk in one is a good size with it`s own little shelf or seat depending on who you are, but I was disappointed to see Sapphire along with RP and PB have joined in on the communal shower gel/shampoo and conditioners which we absolutely loathe.
To be fair they have kept the same products in the bottles and it is still the Julian Farrel range which is nice enough, I think the only time I ever used it prevously is on the first night before we go shopping for my preferred products. It adds too much weight to bring things like that from home for us, so that first day shop is when we stock up on things like that.
You do still get a bar of soap if you still use them and a body lotion along with a shower cap, does anyone wear those anymore? I`m always surprised to see them in hotels today, but maybe someone will be happy to see one.
Having the second shower must be ideal if you have a family in here and can have both showers going at the same time. For us, we have never used the shower over the tub, no reason to but also....I hate shower curtains and will always have a screen in our bathrooms at home, even though I hate cleaning them, but one of those jobs you have to do, although being honest, Tom does that job on ours and a very good job he does too!!
You also get a plethora of towels in this suite which is nice as we do shower at least twice a day and like fresh towels every time.
The lagoon view is definitely a preference of ours, not only is it quieter than a pool view, but you get to see the most beautiful sunrises over RP which I love to see most mornings, while sleeping beauty prefers to continue sleeping over a sunrise! Fair enough, he does like to sleep later than me in the mornings and with him now being retired more than 7 years he does enjoy a late sleep, can`t say I blame him.
Once we had taken our usual pictures our thoughts turned to unpacking, it really doesn`t take long, I keep all my clothes on their hangers for ease of transfer so it doesn`t take long to get everything in place for the rest of our stay.
Before we did though, we were tempted to indulge a little in the beautiful amenity M had arranged for us, so very thoughtful of her as always and I was immediately drawn to the strawberries and fruit so we did pull up a chair and enjoyed some of the lovely treats before we unpacked. Cheese and fruit with a glass of wine is a hard combination to beat!
I admit to eating all of the pineapple slice coated in coconut, it is beautiful, but everything was so fresh and we did enjoy what we had of it just now. The strawberries, I think we ate a couple of them and put the rest in the fridge for later along with the cheese and fruit leftover. We didn`t plan on going over to the Club Lounge tonight so it was nice and relaxing, nibbling while we unpacked was very pleasant.
We headed down to Strong Water (of course) for a quick snack really, once we knew from the other night they still had the Vegan Hotpot on their separate vegetarian menu, we knew we wanted a bowl each of it, so we deliberately didn`t eat too many of the treats as this dish is very filling indeed, but gorgeous!!
It is always lovely to walk in and everyone smiles and waves, it is the friendliest place around and yes it does feel a little like a certain tv show at times as everyone knows us.....
We sat down at our table and Maggie/Demi had taken our drinks order and I spotted a man heading towards us waving and smiling, it was the lovely Mr Beiderman who wanted to come say hello, we hadn`t seen him so far this trip so it was lovely and very kind of him to take the time to come see us. I did joke we were quite predictable and easy to find at times!!!
He sat down and joined us for a while and it`s always a real pleasure to see him, he is just the nicest man and we are always appreciative of the time he finds for us while we are here on each visit. Catching up of course is lovely and the F&B manager also pops over, Mark we have only known a couple of years but we love seeing him and he has a wicked sense of humour too, it is nice to bump into him throughout our trip too.
He only stays a few minutes so we can chat more to Mr Beiderman and he then asks what we are doing our last Friday night of our stay, we can honestly say we have nothing planned, so he invites to come to Jake`s Beer Festival as his guests and we say we`d be absolutely delighted to attend it, we had heard many good things about it and this year they had upped it to include a VIP area and we would be in that group which was so kind of him, we were excited to attend this event, without wishing the end of our trip of course!!
He headed off at that point, we thanked him again and Chef Carlos came over to say hello and we told him we were having the hotpot, he thinks it hilarious we enjoy it so much despite not usually eating vegan dishes, but this is one dish we`d happily eat anytime. And I know he is very proud of this dish, especially as we enjoy it so much which I think he took as a personal challenge to, not convert us, but to appreciate what vegan food can be and it worked! I do tease him it would be nice with some lamb or beef in it....always with a twinkle of course, he knows I tease him!
I forget if I already posted Strong Water`s separate vegetarian/vegan menu, but here it is in case I haven`t.
It is very green which puts some people off apparently, but this is one of the nicest dishes we have ever tasted.
I had a glass of wine and Tom ordered the Fountain of Youth which is one of his favourite drinks, Fernando brought over one of their own drinks he makes up, a Pumpkin Rum which was absolutely gorgeous, again not a flavour I usually enjoy, he said I`d like it a couple of years ago and he was right, it`s nice to sip with some ice or enjoyed within one of their seasonal cocktails.
We always enjoy our time in Strong Water, food, drinks and the company are always wonderful, we sit with Fernando and chat to several members of staff for a time before heading off.
Tonight we were heading into IOA for some evening park time.
along KatieCharlotte
