The Dark Side and more, dodging hurricanes and raccoons, surprises...An Aug 25-Sep 2 TR

You have made my day!!!!!

Especially with this comment - "

We stopped by the club lounge before leaving for Citywalk and I grabbed a glass of wine to go and DH a beer, just had them pour it into a plastic cup instead."

We had a less than magical trip (the parents, DS had a great time) to Disney last year and our son is so excited to go to Universal this November.

I was debating about where to stay (on or off) and then club level or not at Portofino. I just booked CL this morning and your report is making me very happy about my choice.

I just have a great feeling about this Universal trip. I can't put my finger on why but I think its going to be much more our type of place.

Looking forward to the rest of your report!

You will love it! It's just so gorgeous. Onsite is so worth it, especially the Express Pass and convenience of being RIGHT there. It's a much more relaxed trip than Disney just because of having to plan a lot less. I was so nervous our first trip last year, straying from Disney and what we knew was a good time for our family. But we ended up coming home all saying we enjoyed the Universal part better than the Disney part (Disney was still great) and when thinking about the next trip we all agreed we wanted to do Universal again, but maybe take a break from Disney for a year. So I planned other stuff.
 
Wednesday August 31
Gator Spotting


So today is another first time adventure. I went on an air boat ride through the Everglades when I was a kid, but I just remember vague snippets of it. It was a big boat, a lot of people, didn't see much I don't think. Pretty sure I was terrified. My brothers wanted to do it. Well now here we are, this was something I thought the boys would really enjoy although they are pretty much past watching Gator Boys and those shows they still love animals of any kind.

Our ride was scheduled for 10:30am and according to the GPS it was 25 minutes away in Kissimmee. It was a dreary morning though, raining at Disney World at least. We'd been watching the tropical storm coverage on the weather channel and they were now predicting landfall north of Tampa and that it would become a hurricane before or when it made landfall. Predicting it would be hitting Florida Friday. Awesome, Friday is the day we are supposed to fly out. Not gonna worry about it though, if we get stuck here, oh well. Worse places to be stuck. LOL

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We had no idea what to expect though with the air boat ride and the rain so I called and was told they were monitoring the weather and so far they should be fine to run the morning tours, afternoon was looking iffy. So we went. Driving in Florida seems to always take longer than what you think it will. There was no traffic to speak of, but we kept hitting red lights and it ended up taking us 40 minutes to get there. Still made it 15 minutes early as we were told to do. As we pulled into the address given to us, we were pulling into a public park. There was a playground and a dock, bathrooms...and a house with the address we were given. But, the house also had a sign saying private residence. What??? Saw another sign by the path to the dock saying to check in for your air boat ride at the dock. It was a little confusing at first, I was expecting there to be some sort of little check in building with bathrooms, something. They use the house address to get your there and it worked. We checked in at the dock and then used the park bathrooms quickly while our Captain put the canopy up on the boat since it was sprinkling a bit.

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We booked the 1 hour tour and took off with Captain Lynne down the canal leading to the lake. She gave us safety instructions and information about the lake on the way out. The boat has headsets that everyone wears and that way we can all hear what the Captain is saying and we could talk without having to press anything and she could hear us as well. The boat is very loud so you need to wear them while it's running. But what was great, it was just us. Four people guarantees a private ride, but the boat only seats 6 anyways so always a nice small group.

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Once out there, we sped around the lake, through the grass, it was cool. This boat can go over anything, she said it could even drive on land if they had to. She also noted that the lake was mostly only 3-4 feet deep so if you fall in, just stand up. Haha! She took us to several spots where mother gators had nests with hatchlings. The babies are really hard to see, they are so tiny, only about 6 inches. We came across one spot where we could see a lot of babies, but the mother was nowhere to be seen. Captain Lynne said she hadn't see her in a few days and was afraid she had been caught and killed. It was hunting season. This just seems wrong to us, that they allow hunting of mothers leaving those babies to die without their mother. She didn't think they would last too long on their own. We saw lots of birds and our Captain pointed out what they were. She stopped for pictures a lot and was very informative and funny. It was over all too soon and we were stopping for our group picture before heading back into the canal to the dock.

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We really enjoyed this experience. I wasn't sure if I would like it, I expected the boys to like it, but we all really enjoyed it and I would highly recommend this as a non-park excursions. I would do this again in a heartbeat. We bid farewell to our Captain and headed back to the car and back towards Disney. It was faster getting back and the GPS sent us a different way.

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It was about noon by the time we were getting back to Disney area so we decided to stop at Disney Springs and check it out and have lunch. We parked in Lime Garage. Boys wanted Rainforest Cafe so we went there. No wait. We were entertained by a silly fish that was trying to swim up into the filter and kept getting pushed back by the water sprouting out. He did it the entire time we were eating. After a nice meal here, we wandered around a bit and went into World of Disney. We didn't stay too long and on our way out it was starting to rain again. Back to the hotel and to the pool. Checked in with SIL, but they were at Magic Kingdom, they had dinner at 1900 Park Fare that evening. It sprinkled on and off, but eventually it started raining hard so back to the villa we went.

Up next...what will we do for dinner, it's raining and we don't want to go anywhere!
 


did you like Portofino bay better or beach club?

Wow, hard to say. Obviously the space of the Villa was fabulous, but I may have to say Portofino for overall hotel feel. I just love the pool there so much. The lounge chairs are comfy, bar is easier to get to than at Stormalong Bay. It's relaxing and has a sense of privacy. I feel more on display at Stormalong Bay as it's open viewing to anyone walking by.
 
Wednesday August 31, continued...
Ditching the kid for a date night...

So last we left off it was raining again. After spending some time under the gazebo (where there was never anybody and what a great place to take cover from the rain with your Sunken Treasure!) at Stormalong Bay and hiding under the bridges in the lazy river while it poured...we went back to the villa. Dried off and tried to decide where to go for dinner.

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We had some leftovers for the kids, so I made the call. I went and got Eric something from the marketplace and Matthew ate his leftovers from various meals of the past 2 days. They played their devices and watched the Disney channel on repeat and we WENT OUT! Alone. Date night! So nice that the kids are now old enough to be left alone for an hour. We didn't go far, just over to the Yacht Club and Captain's Grille and texted them several times to check in. We figured there would be no wait there, it's never busy, and we were right. It should be busier, it's very good. Another under-rated restaurant.

We were able to make our way over to Yacht Club without going out in the rain. We were seated immediately and had a lovely waitress who was very informative on the menu, specials and with recommendations. We ordered appetizers and I had a glass of wine and hubby a beer. Hubby had the New England Clam Chowder - creamy chowder with clams, potatoes, and vegetables $8 and I had House-made Potato-Cheese Gnocchi - toasted walnut breadcrumbs, julienne pears and truffle butter $9. So good. Gnocchi are easy to mess up, hard to make perfect, but these were excellent. A little on the firm side, but not overly so and that is better than mushy. I am used to homemade gnocchi, made by my father now, used to be my mother before he retired and started doing more of the cooking. It's not easy, use the wrong potatoes and forget it.

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Next came the entrees. Hubby was in a seafood mood and so he went with the crab legs. He was warned they were great, but a lot of work. They were both those things. The braised short ribs came highly recommended, but the damp rainy night had me craving some pasta so next best thing according to the waitress was the pasta with the short ribs, they use the same ones. Perfect. This was so so good. Hard to see in the picture, but there are lots of short ribs under the pasta.

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Snow Crab Legs - New Potatoes and Corn on the Cob $31

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Tagliatelle Pasta - braised short ribs, fennel, cipollini onions, veal jus, shaved parmesan, and seasoned greens $23
We passed on dessert because I had my favorite treat back in the room I was going to have later. We went back to the kids and they were ready to go when we arrived. We headed down to the pool in the on and off rain. Texted SIL who joined us since they were just back from their dinner. We hung out up in the gazebo while the kids played in the rain. We brought our own beverages since the bar was already closed. Our one peeve about the Disney pool bars, they close so early. At Portofino the bar was open as late as the pool was. Soon it was time to call it a night.


Up next...last day, a resort day.
 
I just found your TR. Love your pictures!
Sounds like a nice trip other than the kid on the plane and the crazy raccoon. We travel with little ones but try everything to keep them from disturbing other travelers. And that raccoon! Glad your husband scared it away.
The ticket ID troubles sound annoying. My mom is going with us next week and she has weird eczema on her hands and she is worries the finger print scanning won't work for her, note to self: always have ID.
 



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