Happy Anni-birth-aversary...A 33 night Celebration & HHN too.....SF & RPR September 2022 TR

[schumigirl]

It appears you have found the hidden gem that is Howl o Scream! What a wonderful experience, and I’m so glad you enjoyed it more than HHN, which seems to have been more stress than scares.

The Cheddars looks like a total miss. No need to repeat that debacle.

And by the way, your punch was absolutely delicious!! I highly recommend it

Howl o Scream was phenomenal!! Yes, smaller, yes, not as polished, but it was so much fun.......and of course the company we were with helped too!

Yep, not going back to Cheddars. Our lunch companion had the misfortune of being invited to go again a few days ago, he went deciding he`d go for a salad or something simple......nope, he`ll not be back either, such a shame as it`s got a very good menu.

I love you loved Carole`s Punch!!! And we really enjoyed your live photo`s from your trip!!! Glad you had such a lovely time and hope it`s not too cold for you now

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Thank you. I have no idea how her family even begin to get over this.

I can’t begin to imagine. So so sad

Hope you’re doing good…..haven’t seen you post for a while

I’m grand (or at least heading that way). Life keeps getting in the way of my Dis time . My cousin’s son was over from Australia and we spent a bit of time taking home around and showing him where his Granda and Granny were from. I last met him as a 4week old in 1984. Lovely lad.
I’ve had a killer cold that is in its fourth week but I did manage a wee trip to Glasgow with my daughter, grandkids and sister to visit my two nieces

 

[schumigirl]

I can’t begin to imagine. So so sad

I’m grand (or at least heading that way). Life keeps getting in the way of my Dis time . My cousin’s son was over from Australia and we spent a bit of time taking home around and showing him where his Granda and Granny were from. I last met him as a 4week old in 1984. Lovely lad.
I’ve had a killer cold that is in its fourth week but I did manage a wee trip to Glasgow with my daughter, grandkids and sister to visit my two nieces

What a lovely visit for your cousin`s son! Glad you had such a lovely time with him, I`m sure he loved seeing where his family are from and I`m sure he appreciated you taking the time for him.

I haven`t been to Glasgow for such a long time, I really should try.....and hope your cold clears up, everyone seems to have something right now and it`s lasting weeks instead of days. Fingers crossed you`ll be 100% for Christmas.......

And thank you again......

 

[schumigirl]

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 27TH



​

Today was a day of stress early on and then a much better evening for us, very odd day as really this should have been our last full day, we should have been flying tomorrow but it wasn`t looking likely right now.

Virgin hadn`t told us anything was cancelled, weirdly they were still saying the flight was going ahead, but we had been told by several folks the airport would be closed tomorrow.....but nothing official yet. So, we had decided to take the bull by the horns and call Virgin to change our flights, I did worry we should have done this a few days ago, but well....you know what it`s like and we had also decided to take the car back to the airport after we had altered our flights, we figured tomorrow would be crazy at the airport and today might be less busy.

Breakfast first, we didn`t hang around this morning and we also spoke to the folks who had asked about us needing a room change, we told them we`d be staying longer but didn`t know how long right now, we didn`t like to be as vague, but until we knew when we could get a flight out, we had to be. They were brilliant though.

We found the number we could call VA from the States and we did try from our room, but it wouldn`t connect for some reason.....and I must admit to being a little stressed right now, I hate uncertainty and this was all up in the air right now. So, we went down to the Concierge desk where Jen and Sophia were just amazing, Jen called the number and knew it would be a while on hold so we stood while waiting to connect. Samuel who is rooms controller and a very good friend too came out and said he had provisionally set us up with another King Suite as someone had booked the specific one we were in, he hoped that was ok....of course it was, we were just grateful they were doing all this for us. I said as soon as we knew about flights we`d get back to him, poor guy he was so busy sorting this drama out as so many were in the same boat and of course finding rooms for all the staff who needed rooms for them and their families too if that was the case. Nightmare for them.

We finally got through to VA and the lovely lady was still insistent our flight was taking off tomorrow.....we told her MCO was going to be closed and no one would be taking off.....but they have to follow their instructions I suppose. I explained we needed to alter our flights and asked when the first flight was available to fly us home........there was a long silence as she typed away and sighed, then typed some more....finally she came back to us and said the first available flight was next Tuesday, October 4th!!!! A week away.......holy moly......then she said we would be charged as VA only offered free change of flights for their hurricane policy up to the 3rd and we would be flying on the 4th.

You have got to be kidding. I said it wasn`t our fault they didn`t have a flight for us and we shouldn`t be charged, but this was going nowhere as she was sticking to the regulation script.....so for the nice little amount of $450 we got moved onto another flight on Oct 4th.

We said we would contact VA when we got home and try to get the money back as it did seem so unfair for one day. But, we`d think about that later. Upside was, we had another week in Orlando....once the hurricane had passed.....we had some more park days!!!!

​

I thanked Jen for all her help with the phones this morning, she had been a life saver. Before we left another couple were beside us trying to get through to VA about their flight to Gatwick and she said she couldn`t get through....I asked what number she was calling and she showed me, it was the wrong number, so I gave her the number we had called and wished them all the best with their changes.

We found Samuel and told him we`d be staying till next Tuesday and that we were so grateful for all the help they had given us with all of this. We really didn`t mind moving to another suite as these really were difficult times trying to find space for everyone, they really were the best!!

Now, we set off to the airport to drop the car off. And again before we left Rob who knows everything about everything told us the airport would be closed tomorrow, we said we were setting off now to drop the car off rather than tomorrow, he said it was a wise decision.

The drive to the airport was fine, until we hit the rental car drop off area......never in our life have we had to line up outside to get in. It was bedlam!!! And when we finally got in we were so far over to where we usually drop the car off, everyone seemed to be leaving Orlando. But, we got our receipt to show we owed zero for returning it and then we headed over to the airport to call our Uber. It was even crazier over there.....we couldn`t get through the crowds at one point, we had never seen the airport so busy before.

We asked a lady what level we could pick up our Uber, she told us and we merrily set off as our Uber was 5 minutes away......yes, of course she told us the wrong level. Our Uber driver was telling us he was here....we couldn`t see him, probably as we were on the wrong level!!! He was brilliant though and waited for us as we made our way down through those throngs of folks. This was a little stressful I have to say. But, we finally got our Uber and made it back home in no time at all.

We met Rob and told him yes, the airport had been crazy, he said we`d be glad to not be there tomorrow.

Neither of us were very hungry so we grabbed a sandwich to share out of Tuk Tuk, we took it up to the lounge and ate it there. We needed to chill a little.

I did some laundry and the afternoon passed fairly quitely.....we were going to Strong Water tonight so we didn`t have a lot of anything, but we still had some fun in the lounge with Matt and Rob and at one point I heard Tom laugh over the other side of the room with two ladies and one lady was pointing towards me. They looked like a fun pair of pals......

Joelle and Lynne were two Canadian friends vacationing together, and they knew us from the Trip Reports on here which was lovely!!! I`m always amazed when folks know us from these and it`s always lovely to meet folks. They were a lot of fun and we had a lovely chat, I think they were heading back to the parks that night and the conversation of what I got for our anniversary came around....I did say I would let them see it before they left......and we`d get a picture too another day. They were really nice and it was lovely to meet them both.

We sat with Matt and Rob for a while between me going up and down with the laundry, and soon we set off for the walk over to Strong Water discussing all the way over which dishes we were going to order between us. This of course should have been our last night, now we`d be telling Fernando we`d see him again for the next week.

It wasn`t too busy when we went in and I could see Fernando up the far end of the bar, we`d see him in a minute or so I was sure, they had made sure we`d be over tonight as they knew they were our choice of restaurant on our last night. We told the young lady at the entrance we had booked and she smiled and said oh come this way and we seemed to be heading to the very back table which was our favoured table in here......but we were then completely shocked and taken aback at what we saw as we approached the table.

I thought there had been a mistake till I saw the menu up close......this was all for us.

At this point we were both a little stunned, we had said we`d be over of course but had no idea they had this whole celebration planned for us tonight!! No idea at all. I filled up with tears as this was such an amazing things for them to do for us.....

At this point, Fernando appeared and I couldn`t speak as I was blubbing a little, I did give him a hug and so did Tom and he explained that they wanted to do something special for us for our anniversary, although it was earlier in the month this was as good a time as any. We had gone to Eddie V`s that night, but this was so much more meaningful already. We were both completely overwhelmed that they had done this for us.

Fernando explained Chef Carlos had been working on the menu for almost a week now, perfecting and altering it along the way. And his final draft was just about perfect for us.

There was a slight backstory to the Chateaubriand being on this very special menu for us tonight. It was something we had mentioned way before lockdown and we had said it was our favourite dish to share whenever restaurants had it on their menu, and Chef Carlos had always remembered that conversation from back then and had wanted to do something special for us, this was perfect. He is amazing.

Maggie was taking care of us tonight and brought us over a Carole`s Punch and Tom ordered a Fountain of Youth, we got hugs from Maggie and exclaimed our surprise at the lengths everyone had gone to for us.....I said we would have got more dressed up if we`d known it was going to be such a special occasion, we just thought we were having a normal evening there. She smiled and said she knew we`d love it as were dressed just fine!! Maggie is a gem and we adore her too.

I love that punch!!!

We were so excited for this meal....the menu was beautiful and we were so hungry by now, I was so thankful we hadn`t eaten much today!!

Fernando had another surprise for us. A rather delightful one too.

One of our favourite wines that Fernando introduced us to several years ago was called The Count and it is beautiful. He had twice given us a bottle to take home with us and we kept it for a special occasion both times, this trip we had asked and he had said it was all gone, it was a limited batch and it was done.

What he didn`t tell us was, he had kept one bottle of this beautiful wine for tonight just for us........

When maggie appeared and presented it to us, I was again so overwhelmed Fernando would keep it as a special treat for us tonight. Maggie knew we`d love it too and she knew what it meant to us to see it.

I think every member of staff came out tonight to speak to us which was so lovely.....and we were delighted to see Anthony was in tonight, the creator of the cocktail bearing my name, he is a joy to be around and so funny too, lovely guy.

At that Fernando came back to the table and we again thanked him for all of what they had done tonight and he was thrilled we had been surprised with the wine too....he knew how much we loved it and said he had deliberately kept it back for us.

Chef Carlos came out too at this point, he is so laid back and has an amazing sense of humour, we tried to tell him how special this was but he said oh it was nothing, when it really was something special, wonderful man.

Fernando said he had put out four glasses as they wanted to toast us too....so he poured the four of us some and made a lovely little toast to Tom and I for which I was again filling with emotion as he spoke so kindly. These guys mean the world to us and to hear his kind words just tugged at the heart.

We were so grateful, and had a lovely toast with Fernando and Chef Carlos. Then Chef headed back to bring us out our first course and said we`d love it!!! We both knew we would.

I think we were still a little stunned by the effort they had gone to just for us!!

Fernando himself brought out our soup which was completely and utterly gorgeous. I swear I`ve never had a soup in my life with so many flavours I loved in it.....the coconut which I love in anything, wasn`t overpowering but it completely enhanced the sweet potato and the addition of the smoked bacon was perfection. This soup was beautiful.

Ever wanted to lick the plate!!!

We had a lovely break between courses and we got to chat to Fernando and Julissa and Maggie too as the night went on, Maggie wasn`t too busy so she had plenty of time to pass some time with us which was lovely. We were feeling very pampered and spoiled tonight, more than usual as they do treat everyone like family here.

Our first course came out next and all of the ingredients sounded amazing together. Goats Cheese is something I`m sometimes not sure about, I`ve had some very good ones and the odd one I couldn`t eat.....but this one......wow!!!

It was so delicate and mild and yes, with the other ingredients that mixed so well together, this was another dish we wanted to lick the plates! The lemongrass apples and honey were pure perfection and the baby beets were a complete delight together. Even Tom who is not the biggest fan of lemongrass thought it was gorgeous.

And with another lovely gap we were soon delighted to see Chef Carlos push out a trolley filled with our Chateaubriand and our plates filled with some delightful sides.....

I wish we had taken a picture of Chef as he carved the delectable and perfectly cooked meat. It was so fabulous to see him expertly carve this succulent Chateaubriand and place it on our plates along side the vanilla rosemary scented carrots, chateau potatoes and a beautiful wild mushroom confit. The sauce that came with it was also rosemary scented and it was divine.

This was a dish fit for a King and his Queen too.....and we definitely felt like it tonight.

Oh My Goodness.

This dish was perfection on a plate. Exquisite doesn`t do it justice, the meat was like butter, you didn`t need a knife to cut it and it was full of flavour, usually Tom doesn`t have a sauce or anything with any kind of steak, but he loved the sauce Chef Carlos had created to go with this dish. The potatoes were a delight, the mushrooms were perfect and the carrots were the nicest carrots I`ve ever eaten in my life. Stunning dish and prepared just for us which completely and utterly blew us away as we thought of it many times over the evening. We felt so special.

Have you ever eaten a dish you never wanted it to end?? That was both of us with this beautiful dish that had been lovingly served to us tonight. Again, it was a want to lick your plate moment!!

I don`t think Fernando and Maggie had to ask if we enjoyed it as there was nothing left on the plate apart from the pattern!!! That beef and every other component of the dish had been stunning and we couldn`t stop saying thank you to them each time they appeared.

I must admit, we were quite full up now, so we had a good break between our entree and dessert. I think almost all of our conversation tonight when it was just us was all about how completely amazing this evening had been, we had been blown away by it all.

A few weeks ago we had been asked to try a dessert in here that had chocolate, raspberries and chambord in it, and I did wonder why Fernando asked me several questions about it and how much I liked it ......well, our dessert tonight was the reason why.

I had said I really enjoyed it, the chocolate had been light but the raspberries and chambord had worked beautifully together, he had smiled a knowing smile at the time....now I knew why.

How exquisite was this cake!!!

Chef Carlos had someone, I forget his name I`m sorry to say, but he is their pastry chef, to create this just for us...it was certainly something special and it looked amazing!!

The cake was as light as a feather, it truly was like air but had a richness of flavour too and the raspberries were all filled with a jellied chambord......the perfect mix. And raspberries are one of Tom`s favourite fruits, especially chambord filled ones.

I did have a slice and loved it. Tom thought it was the best cake he`d ever eaten which is quite an accolade as he does love a good chocolate cake.

We also took away a slice each, Fernando did say as it was our cake we could take it all away, but we said no, share it among the team so they could enjoy a slice too and I believe it was demolished in about 5 seconds......lol......we were happy they enjoyed it.

We did of course share with them the news we weren`t leaving tomorrow instead it would be next Tuesday, they weren`t surprised and were of course delighted we`d see more of them.

This whole evening had been a complete and utter surprise for us, we truly only thought they expected us over to enjoy our last evening with them, but it turned into so much more. When someone makes you feel so special, it is very special indeed. And tonight Fernando, Chef Carlos, Maggie, Julissa and all the team certainly made us feel that way. They also had a card for us and the whole team had signed it which was lovely too, something to keep along with the menu which we will keep in our treasure box too.

To know they had conceptualised this and planned the perfect evening with beautiful food is something we`ll never forget.

Eventually it was time to say goodnight, and we made sure to thank each and every one of them, especially Fernando, Chef Carlos, Anthony and Maggie......we would make sure we got something for Chef and Fernando for making this whole anniversary so special and we knew something they`d both love and we`d pick them up after this hurricane had blown over.

So after a long set of goodnight`s we finally headed off to walk back home and marvelled at the lovely evening......we were just about to pass the Universal Store when someone came after us, it was the lovely Luke of Luke and Neil, the couple we had met last year in Strong Water too!!! We hadn`t even noticed them in the bar and we knew they were here about now as we keep in touch through email too. It was lovely to see them and soon Neil came round too and we had a catch up about all things HHN and Howl o Scream......it was so good to see them and we said we`d be back over before they left and have a proper catch up with them, they are so lovely.

We were back over in no time at all and we did have a sneaky bite of our cakes, but decided we`d try and keep some for tomorrow.

And tomorrow we had to pack up to move rooms, which wasn`t so bad as we could be flying home!!! It doesn`t take us long to pack up so we`d do it all in the morning.

We put the tv on although it was very late, and we just went over the evening again, it`ll certainly be a very special 30th Anniversary we`ll never forget thanks to the wonderful team at Strong Water Bar.

​

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Your anniversary celebration at Strong Water was practically perfect in every way!! Wow, just wow!! They went all out for you with that fabulous bespoke dining experience Everything looks amazing, and the cake — you can tell by looking at it, sheer perfection!

I’m glad you returned the car when you did. You just know some people waited and had a horrible experience. And I’m so glad they had another room for you! Not hard to move within the same hotel at all!

A wonderful end to a frustrating day, I am sure. It sounds like VA didn’t quite have their policy fully together. They shouldn’t charge you when their first flight was after their arbitrary internal deadline. But I’m sure the CS person was also without options.

An extra week! What an unexpected gift

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

What an absolutely amazing celebration! I have a feeling you bring as much joy to the staff at Strong Water as they bring to you. You and Tom were certainly celebrating in style this night. Such a wonderfully thoughtful evening.

 

[disneyAndi14]

I’m very sorry to hear about the untimely passing of your beautiful young friend! Very sad, she was Andi’s age, so young!

Seaworld Howl and Scream sounded like a really good time. Thanks for the review of it!

How stressful with the hurricane looming over everything. I’m glad you were able to get things changed and added without too much pain.

Your special anniversary dinner looks wonderful! How lovely for the two of you!

 

[saskdw]

We just got back from a fantastic evening at Strong Water Tavern. This place genuinely has a great vibe to it. Everyone just seems happy o there. All the customers and the staff were having a great time.

As promised when they came to take our order I said “I’m here to have the world famous Carole’s Punch!!” The young man who was taking our order throught it was hilarious!

He said Tom and Carole our awesome people, we love them. I didn’t catch his name. It was shift change and he turned us over to a lovely young lady named Shannon. She also knew the famous Tom and Carole.

The punch was very good. My son who is a big rum drinker said it was very good and he would order it again.

I didn’t want to leave Tom out of the action, so on his honour I ordered the chocolate cake. It was very good as well.

Another lady that looked like a manger came over to say hi and check how our evening was going. Really just a fantastic place. Very well run and very well staffed. They obviously only hire the best here.

Picture below of me enjoying my Carole’s Punch!

 

[schumigirl]

Your anniversary celebration at Strong Water was practically perfect in every way!! Wow, just wow!! They went all out for you with that fabulous bespoke dining experience Everything looks amazing, and the cake — you can tell by looking at it, sheer perfection!

I’m glad you returned the car when you did. You just know some people waited and had a horrible experience. And I’m so glad they had another room for you! Not hard to move within the same hotel at all!

A wonderful end to a frustrating day, I am sure. It sounds like VA didn’t quite have their policy fully together. They shouldn’t charge you when their first flight was after their arbitrary internal deadline. But I’m sure the CS person was also without options.

An extra week! What an unexpected gift

They really did make it perfect for us, and as I said a complete and utter surprise, and yes, that cake was wonderful.

We did hear some horror stories from the airport next day, but I was shocked just how crazy it was in that short visit we had. Yes, I think they just read from a script which was frustrating, but not her fault, she was perfectly pleasant though and we never get grumpy with them, not their fault.

Oh that extra week was a gift for sure!!!

 

[schumigirl]

What an absolutely amazing celebration! I have a feeling you bring as much joy to the staff at Strong Water as they bring to you. You and Tom were certainly celebrating in style this night. Such a wonderfully thoughtful evening.

Thank you, we were spoiled for sure. They really are the best in there, we enjoy every second we are in there and chatting to the folks there is always so much fun.

 

[schumigirl]

I’m very sorry to hear about the untimely passing of your beautiful young friend! Very sad, she was Andi’s age, so young!

Seaworld Howl and Scream sounded like a really good time. Thanks for the review of it!

How stressful with the hurricane looming over everything. I’m glad you were able to get things changed and added without too much pain.

Your special anniversary dinner looks wonderful! How lovely for the two of you!

Thank you, yes it is tragically young and yes, she was such a beautiful girl who will be missed by everyone who knew her.

We did enjoy HoS so much, and we were impressed with the level of intensity from what was only their second year doing the event there. Their SA were top notch......i think you`d enjoy it.

The hurricane added to the stress for sure, but I think being proactive certainly helped as folks who left it didn`t fare so good.

It was perfect Caroline. They do know how to look after everyone in there.

Good to see you Caroline.......

 

[schumigirl]

We just got back from a fantastic evening at Strong Water Tavern. This place genuinely has a great vibe to it. Everyone just seems happy o there. All the customers and the staff were having a great time.

As promised when they came to take our order I said “I’m here to have the world famous Carole’s Punch!!” The young man who was taking our order throught it was hilarious!

He said Tom and Carole our awesome people, we love them. I didn’t catch his name. It was shift change and he turned us over to a lovely young lady named Shannon. She also knew the famous Tom and Carole.

The punch was very good. My son who is a big rum drinker said it was very good and he would order it again.

I didn’t want to leave Tom out of the action, so on his honour I ordered the chocolate cake. It was very good as well.

Another lady that looked like a manger came over to say hi and check how our evening was going. Really just a fantastic place. Very well run and very well staffed. They obviously only hire the best here.

Picture below of me enjoying my Carole’s Punch!
View attachment 726382

Oh I love the picture!!!!! Thank you for posting that!!!!

And I love how you asked for the drink......lol......that`s so funny, but I`m so glad you and your son enjoyed it, and praise indeed from your son, Anthony will be pleased to hear that, he created a lovely drink.

And yes, the atmosphere in Strong Water is always amazing, I`d agree they have the best of the best working there and they genuinely care their guests are having fun and everything is good for you.

lol......chocolate cake is another good option, I`ll tell Tom you got it in his honour....he`ll like that!!

Thank you again for posting the picture.....love it!!!!! And glad you`re having such a good time there

 

[Minnie17]

What a lovely dinner. I can’t even imagine the crowds at the MCO Uber pick up area during hurricane weather. It was a mess for us on a “normal” day. Thank you so much for sharing your trips with us.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

What a lovely surprise! (And also relieved to hear you had an excellent mea after some not so excellent ones!)

I can’t believe Virgin Atlantic wasn’t more accommodating. Especially with as you said their rescheduling.

Can’t wait to hear about the hurricane and how universal handled it as we very rarely hear about it (minus Derek Burgan of touring plans)

 

[schumigirl]

What a lovely dinner. I can’t even imagine the crowds at the MCO Uber pick up area during hurricane weather. It was a mess for us on a “normal” day. Thank you so much for sharing your trips with us.

You‘re so welcome! Thank you for saying that, I appreciate it.

It was a beautiful dinner, something we’ll never forget.

Yes, the airport was a nightmare, but it was worse the next day as we heard from several folks, glad we didn’t wait.

 

[schumigirl]

What a lovely surprise! (And also relieved to hear you had an excellent mea after some not so excellent ones!)

I can’t believe Virgin Atlantic wasn’t more accommodating. Especially with as you said their rescheduling.

Can’t wait to hear about the hurricane and how universal handled it as we very rarely hear about it (minus Derek Burgan of touring plans)

Yes, that meal alone made up for all the poorer meals we had, and it really wasn’t many in the grand scale of things.

Well, a little spoiler, we did get that money back once we got home. We emailed them that we found it unfair, someone called us about a week later and said they had reviewed it and agreed it was unfair as we had been proactive, so, we`re happy with that. We thought we’d get it back as we’ve always found VA to be fair and very helpful.

Yep, couple of hurricane days ahead!

 

[margareton27]

What an amazing surprise evening they planned for the two of you! So special and speaks to the relationships you have built with the team.

 

[schumigirl]

What an amazing surprise evening they planned for the two of you! So special and speaks to the relationships you have built with the team.

It really was amazing, thank you and completely unexpected.

We do love the relationship we have with everyone in there, some we have known since day one as they have kept a lot of their original staff which is a credit to Fernando for being so wonderful to his TM.

 

[schumigirl]

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 28TH​

This was a very weird feeling today for us as we really should have been flying home, but instead we would be getting packed up and moving to another King Suite and it was in T2 which was a tower we had never been in before. Have to say neither of us like this tower, but we were just grateful we had a room and that it was a King Suite too.

But, first and foremost we headed down for breakfast after we had showered and dressed and the boys were already there, well Rob was, but Matt wasn`t too far behind him. Bless him he had been suffering throughout this trip with a really nasty cold and it came in varying degrees, some days he was worse than other days, but he powered through regardless. So we were glad to see him come into the lounge and join us...our fearless fouresome!!!

Alex was a star this morning again, she looked after everyone superbly and it was busy as most folks weren`t going to be doing much for the next couple of days and we did enjoy a few glasses of bubbly and laughed so much......but Tom kept reminding me we had to go pack and move to the other suite.

There was no rush for us to check out, but we wanted the room to be empty for housekeeping to have it ready for the next folks checking in, and it wouldn`t take us long to pack up to be fair.

I think we eventually moved, but we did so enjoy chatting to Matt and Rob and Alex is always adorable, I do forget who else was working this morning, it was probably Daniel who worked a lot with Alex, they worked so well together and he was a superstar too. Very genuine young man who made us laugh so much, he was another who had a very expressionful face and couldn`t hide what he was feeling which was usually a very happy look.

A couple of the team weren`t going to be here for the hurricane, the lovely Caitlyn wasn`t able to stay so we`d miss her over the next few days, then she was heading to the Keys I think so we`d have to pop up when we knew she was working before she left.

Back in our suite, I think it took about 10 minutes to get everything packed up, we weren`t being fussy as it was only going to be hanging back up as soon as we had our new room and we`d wander to the laundry if needed again.

We checked the room to make sure we hadn`t left anything lying around then took our cases down to Bell Services and we were greeted by Rob who told us Milton was on some days off but we should see him when he came back before we left, I hoped so as we really like Milton and would hate to miss him. We stood and chatted to Rob for a while as he wasn`t too busy, he`s such a nice guy and he has worked at RP forever, and he knows everything there is to know going on around the hotel.

We decided to head down to Jake`s for lunch, it was busy, busier than we had seen it but we did manage to get a table. They told us we might have a wait for our food today and we said that was ok.....what else were we going to do!!

I don`t have pictures of our lunch for some reason but Tom had tomato soup and we shared a bbq chicken flatbread which I honestly have no memory of even having, but according to our receipts, that`s what we had.

We went back to the Club Lounge to pass some time and made ourselves a cup of tea and coffee and just chilled out with Matt and Rob for a while. While we were chatting we decided we were going to eat dinner together tonight and we were going to go to Orchids for Sushi, and we looked forward to that a lot.

We had said we were in no rush to get our room, but someone came up to the lounge to let us know our room was ready and our luggage had already been taken up for us, he gave us our keys and we thanked him and said we`d head over soon.

And this was our first experience of T2.

The suite was immaculately clean and had a lovely fresh smell as we walked in, not the best view as we were on the 5th floor I think, yes, it`s awful I don`t remember which floor we were on!!

There wasn`t a great view out of the windows but we weren`t fussed about that, it was quite nice seeing the trees beginning to sway with the rising winds.

We`re not much for hanging around the room, so we headed for the Club Lounge but first had a wander down to the ballroom area where the hotel had a load of activities arranged for guests. They had movies and a variety of games and crafts for kids and adults alike, they really had made a huge effort in the hotels to make sure there were things for everyone to do if they so desired. I know we heard a couple of folks say they planned to just sleep.....lol.......

You could see the hurricane plan go into effect with the pool chairs all being cleared and put away out of the way of causing any damage. It is weird to see the place so deserted and dark looking. You could really feel the ominous gloom heading our way.

The lounge was a lively place this afternoon and into the evening but the lounge staff did a fabulous job of taking care of everyone and there was a very good atmosphere among folks that were here. We were very much all in the same boat.

As we reminisced about past exploits we were reminded of how many times we`d dealt with something on our trips. We`d been stuck in New York an extra two days in 2017, we were delayed going out too due to the hurricane and in 2019 we had been here when our airline went bust, yes, they actually declared bankruptcy as we were a week or so away from flying home......lol....being repatriated by a company called Atlas Air had been an experience for sure.

Then we had the change of rules mid trip for getting back into the UK which meant we had 2 days to get Covid tests organised before we could fly home, that one was a nightmare and I think was the worst of all our incidents as if we had tested negative, we`d be completely stuck.

But considering how many trips we had made over the years, a couple of inconveniences didn`t seem too bad overall.

The afternoon passed so quickly, and come 5pm we had a few sherberts and we were all amazed just how fast the afternoon had gone and having Matt and Rob for company certainly helped too. We were all watching the I-4 which was almost completely deserted, something incredibly unusual to see and a little disconcerting to be truthful, it was a constant on all our trips, that excessively busy road was something we were used to seeing.

We all four wandered down around 7ish, I think they were running with a first come first served operation tonight so we knew we might have a wait, but we weren`t too bothered if we did, although I think Rob and I were both ready to eat the table by now!! We sat on the sofas to the side and ordered a couple of drinks and expected a wait, but it was only about 10 minutes before she said we had a table, nice.

Shellonda was taking care of us tonight and she is lovely, we were all kind of taking our time choosing but we did pick in the end and I forget who ordered what, I do know I had the cocktail glass with the tuna and avocado again, it is gorgeous.

But, we all started with their lovely Miso Soup....I swear you feel the health benefits of this as you eat it. It was much warmer tonight which is how we prefer it. Hot food should be sizzling and cold food should be ice cold.

I love this picture of the three of us here......I think they both had to give me a shove to get back up, the old knees weren`t so keen!!!

The food was all beautiful....every single thing that came out was perfection I`m glad to say and we all loved everything.



Tuna Tartare

Martini glass spicy ahi tuna

Spicy Tuna Roll

Volcano Roll

Chef`s Special

Another Volcano Roll

I`m not sure if I was the only one to get a dessert, but there`s only one picture so maybe I was...

It was only coconut ice cream from downstairs, but it is gorgeous.

This had been amazing tonight, and all the while we could see the trees being thrown further around than usual outside as soon we could hear the thunder rumbling around us which I hate to say it, as someone who loves storm watching, this was quite exciting. I know there will be people who will say we shouldn`t be so excited to see and hear something that caused so much suffering and pain, but we don`t see this kind of weather and I think every British person we spoke to all said the same thing. Doesn`t mean we didn`t have tremendous sympathy for those who suffered damage.

Shellonda maybe wasn`t as good at taking pictures as it is a little blurry but it was nice of her to offer.

I did think it was quite hilarious that Matt was also desperate to get back upstairs as he was also a storm watcher and loved to see a good storm, it wasn`t that we weren`t enjoying each others company, but we were missing it being in here as you couldn`t see much......I know that sounds terrible but it was funny at the same time. I think Tom and Rob thought it funny too that Matt and I wanted to storm watch.

One of the young ladies who had introduced herself to me when they arrived as she knew us from the Trip Reports was in tonight too with her husband. Becky I think was leaving in a couple of days and it had been nice chatting to her including tonight.

We didn`t sit too much longer and soon we said goodnight to Matt and Rob and went to our separate towers now...but we`d meet for breakfast in the morning.

We headed up to our first night in our new room and hoped the bed was as comfy as the previous ones had been.

We put on low lighting, the tv and had a glass of wine as we watched both the weather channels, the trees and lightning outside of our windows. It did occur to us that the trees were ominously close to the windows unlike on the higher floors we usually stay in, but we put that out of our head.

At this point, where we were it didn`t seem as dreadful as some areas were getting it, although the I-4 which was 5 minutes away was completely flooded in some parts.

It was only around 11pm, but both of us were surprisingly tired, I guess it can be exhausting doing nothing sometimes. So we climbed into that bed which was comfy after all and we fell asleep listening to that howling wind with the occasional rumble of thunder and wondered what tomorrow would bring.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 28TH​

This was a very weird feeling today for us as we really should have been flying home, but instead we would be getting packed up and moving to another King Suite and it was in T2 which was a tower we had never been in before. Have to say neither of us like this tower, but we were just grateful we had a room and that it was a King Suite too.

But, first and foremost we headed down for breakfast after we had showered and dressed and the boys were already there, well Rob was, but Matt wasn`t too far behind him. Bless him he had been suffering throughout this trip with a really nasty cold and it came in varying degrees, some days he was worse than other days, but he powered through regardless. So we were glad to see him come into the lounge and join us...our fearless fouresome!!!

Alex was a star this morning again, she looked after everyone superbly and it was busy as most folks weren`t going to be doing much for the next couple of days and we did enjoy a few glasses of bubbly and laughed so much......but Tom kept reminding me we had to go pack and move to the other suite.

There was no rush for us to check out, but we wanted the room to be empty for housekeeping to have it ready for the next folks checking in, and it wouldn`t take us long to pack up to be fair.

I think we eventually moved, but we did so enjoy chatting to Matt and Rob and Alex is always adorable, I do forget who else was working this morning, it was probably Daniel who worked a lot with Alex, they worked so well together and he was a superstar too. Very genuine young man who made us laugh so much, he was another who had a very expressionful face and couldn`t hide what he was feeling which was usually a very happy look.

A couple of the team weren`t going to be here for the hurricane, the lovely Caitlyn wasn`t able to stay so we`d miss her over the next few days, then she was heading to the Keys I think so we`d have to pop up when we knew she was working before she left.

Back in our suite, I think it took about 10 minutes to get everything packed up, we weren`t being fussy as it was only going to be hanging back up as soon as we had our new room and we`d wander to the laundry if needed again.

We checked the room to make sure we hadn`t left anything lying around then took our cases down to Bell Services and we were greeted by Rob who told us Milton was on some days off but we should see him when he came back before we left, I hoped so as we really like Milton and would hate to miss him. We stood and chatted to Rob for a while as he wasn`t too busy, he`s such a nice guy and he has worked at RP forever, and he knows everything there is to know going on around the hotel.

We decided to head down to Jake`s for lunch, it was busy, busier than we had seen it but we did manage to get a table. They told us we might have a wait for our food today and we said that was ok.....what else were we going to do!!

I don`t have pictures of our lunch for some reason but Tom had tomato soup and we shared a bbq chicken flatbread which I honestly have no memory of even having, but according to our receipts, that`s what we had.

We went back to the Club Lounge to pass some time and made ourselves a cup of tea and coffee and just chilled out with Matt and Rob for a while. While we were chatting we decided we were going to eat dinner together tonight and we were going to go to Orchids for Sushi, and we looked forward to that a lot.

We had said we were in no rush to get our room, but someone came up to the lounge to let us know our room was ready and our luggage had already been taken up for us, he gave us our keys and we thanked him and said we`d head over soon.

And this was our first experience of T2.

The suite was immaculately clean and had a lovely fresh smell as we walked in, not the best view as we were on the 5th floor I think, yes, it`s awful I don`t remember which floor we were on!!

There wasn`t a great view out of the windows but we weren`t fussed about that, it was quite nice seeing the trees beginning to sway with the rising winds.

We`re not much for hanging around the room, so we headed for the Club Lounge but first had a wander down to the ballroom area where the hotel had a load of activities arranged for guests. They had movies and a variety of games and crafts for kids and adults alike, they really had made a huge effort in the hotels to make sure there were things for everyone to do if they so desired. I know we heard a couple of folks say they planned to just sleep.....lol.......

You could see the hurricane plan go into effect with the pool chairs all being cleared and put away out of the way of causing any damage. It is weird to see the place so deserted and dark looking. You could really feel the ominous gloom heading our way.

The lounge was a lively place this afternoon and into the evening but the lounge staff did a fabulous job of taking care of everyone and there was a very good atmosphere among folks that were here. We were very much all in the same boat.

As we reminisced about past exploits we were reminded of how many times we`d dealt with something on our trips. We`d been stuck in New York an extra two days in 2017, we were delayed going out too due to the hurricane and in 2019 we had been here when our airline went bust, yes, they actually declared bankruptcy as we were a week or so away from flying home......lol....being repatriated by a company called Atlas Air had been an experience for sure.

Then we had the change of rules mid trip for getting back into the UK which meant we had 2 days to get Covid tests organised before we could fly home, that one was a nightmare and I think was the worst of all our incidents as if we had tested negative, we`d be completely stuck.

But considering how many trips we had made over the years, a couple of inconveniences didn`t seem too bad overall.

The afternoon passed so quickly, and come 5pm we had a few sherberts and we were all amazed just how fast the afternoon had gone and having Matt and Rob for company certainly helped too. We were all watching the I-4 which was almost completely deserted, something incredibly unusual to see and a little disconcerting to be truthful, it was a constant on all our trips, that excessively busy road was something we were used to seeing.

We all four wandered down around 7ish, I think they were running with a first come first served operation tonight so we knew we might have a wait, but we weren`t too bothered if we did, although I think Rob and I were both ready to eat the table by now!! We sat on the sofas to the side and ordered a couple of drinks and expected a wait, but it was only about 10 minutes before she said we had a table, nice.

Shellonda was taking care of us tonight and she is lovely, we were all kind of taking our time choosing but we did pick in the end and I forget who ordered what, I do know I had the cocktail glass with the tuna and avocado again, it is gorgeous.

But, we all started with their lovely Miso Soup....I swear you feel the health benefits of this as you eat it. It was much warmer tonight which is how we prefer it. Hot food should be sizzling and cold food should be ice cold.

I love this picture of the three of us here......I think they both had to give me a shove to get back up, the old knees weren`t so keen!!!

The food was all beautiful....every single thing that came out was perfection I`m glad to say and we all loved everything.



Tuna Tartare

Martini glass spicy ahi tuna

Spicy Tuna Roll

Volcano Roll

Chef`s Special

Another Volcano Roll

I`m not sure if I was the only one to get a dessert, but there`s only one picture so maybe I was...

It was only coconut ice cream from downstairs, but it is gorgeous.

This had been amazing tonight, and all the while we could see the trees being thrown further around than usual outside as soon we could hear the thunder rumbling around us which I hate to say it, as someone who loves storm watching, this was quite exciting. I know there will be people who will say we shouldn`t be so excited to see and hear something that caused so much suffering and pain, but we don`t see this kind of weather and I think every British person we spoke to all said the same thing. Doesn`t mean we didn`t have tremendous sympathy for those who suffered damage.

Shellonda maybe wasn`t as good at taking pictures as it is a little blurry but it was nice of her to offer.

I did think it was quite hilarious that Matt was also desperate to get back upstairs as he was also a storm watcher and loved to see a good storm, it wasn`t that we weren`t enjoying each others company, but we were missing it being in here as you couldn`t see much......I know that sounds terrible but it was funny at the same time. I think Tom and Rob thought it funny too that Matt and I wanted to storm watch.

One of the young ladies who had introduced herself to me when they arrived as she knew us from the Trip Reports was in tonight too with her husband. Becky I think was leaving in a couple of days and it had been nice chatting to her including tonight.

We didn`t sit too much longer and soon we said goodnight to Matt and Rob and went to our separate towers now...but we`d meet for breakfast in the morning.

We headed up to our first night in our new room and hoped the bed was as comfy as the previous ones had been.

We put on low lighting, the tv and had a glass of wine as we watched both the weather channels, the trees and lightning outside of our windows. It did occur to us that the trees were ominously close to the windows unlike on the higher floors we usually stay in, but we put that out of our head.

At this point, where we were it didn`t seem as dreadful as some areas were getting it, although the I-4 which was 5 minutes away was completely flooded in some parts.

It was only around 11pm, but both of us were surprisingly tired, I guess it can be exhausting doing nothing sometimes. So we climbed into that bed which was comfy after all and we fell asleep listening to that howling wind with the occasional rumble of thunder and wondered what tomorrow would bring.

I’m not a storm watcher when it’s happening unless it’s snow due to shoveling but I think I would totally be immersed as you were!

Isn’t it funny when you forget what you had even when there is proof