Mabel67
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2010
Hi, all! We just returned from a 2 week stay in Orlando. I’d like to offer a brief report of each of the three distinct legs of our trip. We are a husband/wife couple mid to late 50’s in age. Home is north-western Canada, from which it takes us two flights and about 12 hours to get to Orlando.
LEG ONE: The first week we stayed at Disney’s Old Key West Resort. It was a beautiful Resort, and we really enjoyed our relaxing time there. We had a standard studio room, which we booked through David’s DVC rental. This went wonderfully, and I can’t praise them enough for their service during the shut-down of 2020.
PROS: Internal transportation (ferry to DS, buses to parks, on-site golf carts). Laundry facilities. Pools. Room was awesome, with a nice balcony overlooking a pond with fountain and one of the golf course holes. Proximity to Disney Springs. Grounds were kept immaculately. All staff were wonderful!
CONS: On-site dining was lacking. We found Olivia’s to not meet our dining expectations for selection, quality and service. As well, the inside dining area was loud and plainly themed. For this reason, we would choose a different resort in the future.
Disney parks attended: Magic Kingdom and EPCOT. Both were fun days with low crowds. We enjoyed early entry at Magic Kingdom, and the extended evening hours (11pm – 1am) were wonderful and not crowded. We are Disneyland OGs, so WDW, especially MK, is a bit disorienting as some things are similar, but not quite the same.
LEG TWO: We then rented a car at Sapphire Falls on Saturday morning. This was chosen, as that would be the resort we would be staying at when we returned the car, so wanted to be able to just drop and go when we returned. Rental was through Costco. There was a bit of a mix-up on the pricing, but the excellent and friendly Avis staff at SF resolved it quickly and efficiently.
We drove to St. Augustine for the September long weekend. We stayed at a B&B booked through Expedia. It was a lovely little place, well-situated near the historic district. One staff member was a bit sour, which was a low-light. Highlight was touring Castillo de San Marcos National Monument. The preservation of the structure and the history provided was well-enjoyed. The surrounding historic area features a lot of original, old buildings which are being utilized as shops and restaurants/pubs. Treasury Street was another interesting little place to see and imagine past activities that occurred there. Ate at A1A and Prohibition Kitchen, which were both decent to good. Enjoyed a pint at Bull & Crown Publick house outside on the patio, where we had a wonderful server – didn’t catch his name but he was very friendly and efficient. We will not likely return to this area, as we found it quite dirty, packed with people (recognizing it was the long weekend), and just a little to touristy for what we prefer, similar to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. We aren’t interested in t-shirts and coffee mugs, no matter how interesting the outside façade of the area. Glad we went, though, as the Castillo was definitely worthwhile.
LEG THREE: Monday we returned the rental car and checked into Sapphire Falls. Our room was not yet ready, so we had a lovely breakfast at Amatista. We ordered off the menu, as we never eat enough to justify the buffet. Food was fabulous, service was average under the conditions of the now new-normal for customer service. Enjoyed every moment of Sapphire (shout out to Sattina and Emilio at Strong Water).
We have 2-Park Premier Annual Passes, of which we made good use for the remainder of our stay. We took a very laid back approach this time, as we had just been in April and will be returning in January. We did go to HHN on the Wednesday evening. Thoroughly enjoyed the quality of the elaborate sets, the Scare Actor performances and the general ambiance created. Did not find it at all scary, though, as jump scares are heavily relied upon. Only once in Dead Man’s Pier was I startled (not scared). However, we really enjoyed the evening and as mentioned, marveled at the wonderful, imaginative sets created.
Dining - overall we didn't eat much each day. A small breakfast, salad-type lunches and a shared appetizer or dessert in the evening with a pint. Portion sizes at restaurants are ridiculously huge! I can't imagine eating all of one meal, let alone having multiple courses at a time. Places of note which we enjoyed: Lombards (was much better in April, won't likely return), Strong Water (tapas style meals suit our dining style!), Jake's (Crawfish chowder has been better in previous visits), Hard Rock Cafe (awesome smash burgers!!), Amatista (had two smaller breakfasts there, first and last mornings), Leaky Cauldron. FROZEN BUTTER BEER - can't say enough about this! Pumpkin juice not so much! Maybe if it was diluted about 5-fold, but I found it too thick and too strong for the flavour profile.
Overall, we had a fabulous time. Much prefer the Winter, though, as the heat and more-so humidity were tiring over the two weeks. We are accustomed to the heat (several days were warmer at home than in Orlando), but the more direct rays of the sun combined with the oppressing humidity took its toll. We are definitely shorts and hoodie folks, as we find in the winter months!
Other than the weekend with the rental car, and internal resort transportation at both Disney and Universal, we used Uber for our transportation needs. I had booked Tony Hinds, but the lack of communication lead me to feel uncomfortable about his reliability.
So there you have it – our three mini vacations rolled into one!
Disney – always great. Staff always asked before we paid for anything if we had any eligible discounts (annual passes, etc.)
St. Augustine – happy to have been but one-and-done
Universal – can’t wait to return. One thing to note, though. Not once were we asked if we had any discounts available, so it was always on us to remember to provide our AP. We were about 50/50 on this, so definitely appreciated the reminders the Disney staff provided and would recommend Universal train their staff to do likewise.
Looking forward to the week we have now booked at Club Level Portofino for January!
LEG ONE: The first week we stayed at Disney’s Old Key West Resort. It was a beautiful Resort, and we really enjoyed our relaxing time there. We had a standard studio room, which we booked through David’s DVC rental. This went wonderfully, and I can’t praise them enough for their service during the shut-down of 2020.
PROS: Internal transportation (ferry to DS, buses to parks, on-site golf carts). Laundry facilities. Pools. Room was awesome, with a nice balcony overlooking a pond with fountain and one of the golf course holes. Proximity to Disney Springs. Grounds were kept immaculately. All staff were wonderful!
CONS: On-site dining was lacking. We found Olivia’s to not meet our dining expectations for selection, quality and service. As well, the inside dining area was loud and plainly themed. For this reason, we would choose a different resort in the future.
Disney parks attended: Magic Kingdom and EPCOT. Both were fun days with low crowds. We enjoyed early entry at Magic Kingdom, and the extended evening hours (11pm – 1am) were wonderful and not crowded. We are Disneyland OGs, so WDW, especially MK, is a bit disorienting as some things are similar, but not quite the same.
LEG TWO: We then rented a car at Sapphire Falls on Saturday morning. This was chosen, as that would be the resort we would be staying at when we returned the car, so wanted to be able to just drop and go when we returned. Rental was through Costco. There was a bit of a mix-up on the pricing, but the excellent and friendly Avis staff at SF resolved it quickly and efficiently.
We drove to St. Augustine for the September long weekend. We stayed at a B&B booked through Expedia. It was a lovely little place, well-situated near the historic district. One staff member was a bit sour, which was a low-light. Highlight was touring Castillo de San Marcos National Monument. The preservation of the structure and the history provided was well-enjoyed. The surrounding historic area features a lot of original, old buildings which are being utilized as shops and restaurants/pubs. Treasury Street was another interesting little place to see and imagine past activities that occurred there. Ate at A1A and Prohibition Kitchen, which were both decent to good. Enjoyed a pint at Bull & Crown Publick house outside on the patio, where we had a wonderful server – didn’t catch his name but he was very friendly and efficient. We will not likely return to this area, as we found it quite dirty, packed with people (recognizing it was the long weekend), and just a little to touristy for what we prefer, similar to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. We aren’t interested in t-shirts and coffee mugs, no matter how interesting the outside façade of the area. Glad we went, though, as the Castillo was definitely worthwhile.
LEG THREE: Monday we returned the rental car and checked into Sapphire Falls. Our room was not yet ready, so we had a lovely breakfast at Amatista. We ordered off the menu, as we never eat enough to justify the buffet. Food was fabulous, service was average under the conditions of the now new-normal for customer service. Enjoyed every moment of Sapphire (shout out to Sattina and Emilio at Strong Water).
We have 2-Park Premier Annual Passes, of which we made good use for the remainder of our stay. We took a very laid back approach this time, as we had just been in April and will be returning in January. We did go to HHN on the Wednesday evening. Thoroughly enjoyed the quality of the elaborate sets, the Scare Actor performances and the general ambiance created. Did not find it at all scary, though, as jump scares are heavily relied upon. Only once in Dead Man’s Pier was I startled (not scared). However, we really enjoyed the evening and as mentioned, marveled at the wonderful, imaginative sets created.
Dining - overall we didn't eat much each day. A small breakfast, salad-type lunches and a shared appetizer or dessert in the evening with a pint. Portion sizes at restaurants are ridiculously huge! I can't imagine eating all of one meal, let alone having multiple courses at a time. Places of note which we enjoyed: Lombards (was much better in April, won't likely return), Strong Water (tapas style meals suit our dining style!), Jake's (Crawfish chowder has been better in previous visits), Hard Rock Cafe (awesome smash burgers!!), Amatista (had two smaller breakfasts there, first and last mornings), Leaky Cauldron. FROZEN BUTTER BEER - can't say enough about this! Pumpkin juice not so much! Maybe if it was diluted about 5-fold, but I found it too thick and too strong for the flavour profile.
Overall, we had a fabulous time. Much prefer the Winter, though, as the heat and more-so humidity were tiring over the two weeks. We are accustomed to the heat (several days were warmer at home than in Orlando), but the more direct rays of the sun combined with the oppressing humidity took its toll. We are definitely shorts and hoodie folks, as we find in the winter months!
Other than the weekend with the rental car, and internal resort transportation at both Disney and Universal, we used Uber for our transportation needs. I had booked Tony Hinds, but the lack of communication lead me to feel uncomfortable about his reliability.
So there you have it – our three mini vacations rolled into one!
Disney – always great. Staff always asked before we paid for anything if we had any eligible discounts (annual passes, etc.)
St. Augustine – happy to have been but one-and-done
Universal – can’t wait to return. One thing to note, though. Not once were we asked if we had any discounts available, so it was always on us to remember to provide our AP. We were about 50/50 on this, so definitely appreciated the reminders the Disney staff provided and would recommend Universal train their staff to do likewise.
Looking forward to the week we have now booked at Club Level Portofino for January!
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