I woke up long before the sun rose to get ready for my 8:30 a.m. flight to Orlando. My friend Carol offered to drive me to the airport. She told me she would pick me up at 6:30, and she knows that I get a bit nervous about getting to the airport late, so she promised she wouldn't oversleep or be late. She texted me in the morning to let me know she was ready to go, but at 6:32, she wasn't there, so I texted her to give her a hard time about being two minutes late, because that's what I do--I give people a hard time. She called me up and apologized for being late, but I told her I was only kidding.
Carol arrived a couple of minutes later. I loaded my stuff in her car, and we were on our way to Logan Airport. I was at the airport shortly after 7:00, and I made my way to the bag drop. It was a good thing I got to the airport early because the bag drop was huge! I guess JetBlue was trying to do me a favor by getting me used to waiting in line. It took nearly a half hour to check my bag.
I made my way to security. I was surprised to see that the security line in terminal C was combined into one line for both sides of the terminal. The set up made the security line move quicker, and allowed access to the restaurants and shops on both sides of the terminal. I liked the new set up.
When I made it through security, I grabbed a quick breakfast, and was soon on the plane to Orlando! We arrived at Orlando about ten minutes late. While we were taxiing, I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket, and discovered that it was broken! I had it in my pocket, and the screen got crushed against the arm rest. I could not make or receive phone calls or texts! I had no way to contact my driver, or Krista!
Once the plane was at the gate, I got off the plane. My first stop was the arrival board to see if Krista’s plane had landed yet. Krista’s plane was supposed to arrive about 15 minutes after mine, but the board said that here flight would now be almost an hour late! So, I was going to have some time to kill before Krista arrived.
I made my way to baggage claim, and found a pay phone so I could call Sprint to see if there was anything to do about my phone. We had a horrible connection on the pay phone, but it didn’t matter, as it sounded like my phone was not under warranty anymore. And since I didn’t buy the insurance on the phone, I was going to be out of luck. But she put me on hold, and eventually our call was disconnected. I called back again, and basically found out there would be nothing I could do since we didn’t have a car to go to the Sprint store. I didn’t really want to take time out of my vacation to do that anyways.
With my bag now in hand, I made my way over to the escalators so I could watch for Krista to arrive at baggage claim. When I saw Krista on the escalator, I waved to get her attention. I think she was relieved to see me because she had been unable to reach me on my broken phone. She had already heard from our driver Ed, and found out that he was going to be sending his colleague Gene to pick us up since Krista’s flight was so late. Gene told Krista to have me call Ed, who I have used for transportation many times. He was a bit concerned about me because it’s not like me not to have my phone on. I gave Ed a quick call to assure him that I was fine, and thank him for making arrangements to send Gene to get us.
When Krista had her bag, we met Gene, and he took us to his SUV. His SUV was clean and comfortable. Gene was very kind and personable. He even offered to take us to the Sprint store to deal with my phone, but I declined. I knew that the issue wasn’t going to be something that could be fixed quickly, and even getting a new phone up and running would take time I didn’t really want to take out of my vacation. So, off to Portofino Bay we went!
We arrived at Portofino Bay just before 1:00, and we were met in the lobby by my friend Michael. I hadn’t seen Michael in a while, so I was glad that he was able to arrange to swing over to the Portofino Bay for a quick hello. Like everyone else, Michael had tried to reach me on my broken phone, and of course, couldn’t reach me. So, he was relieved as well when he saw us walk into the lobby. Michael is truly a sweetheart, and kindly offered to lend me his cell phone for the trip, or run out and get a pay as you go phone for me. He even checked in the hotel gift shop to see if they had them.
After chatting with Michael for a while, we checked into the Portofino Bay. Our room was a standard view room on the third floor of the east wing. Our room overlooked a wooded area and had a small balcony. There was a folding chair in the closet that we could use if we wanted to sit out on the balcony. After fussing with the lock for a few minutes, we weren’t able to get the door open, so it didn’t look like we would be spending any time on our balcony. I was able to mess with it a bit more and get it open the next day, though.
Our room was very nice. It was very roomy, clean, and comfortable. The bathroom was so big that the tub and toilet were in different zip codes. There was also enough room to fit a large decorative shelving unit in the corner. I wish that the room had been designed differently so that the sink was outside of the main bathroom area.
With this stay at the Portofino Bay, I have now stayed at all three of the Universal resorts. I enjoyed all three resorts, but I don’t think I would spend the extra money to stay at the Portofino Bay on a short trip again. It just isn’t worth the extra cost if you aren’t planning on spending a lot of time at the resort. It’s a beautiful resort with lots of picturesque and quiet spots to relax, and the pool was very nice. But for the amount of time we spent at the resort, I do not think it’s worth an extra $70 a night over what we could have paid for the Royal Pacific or the extra $30 over the price at the Hard Rock. Out of the three, I prefer the Hard Rock for its closeness to the parks, and I love the music artifacts and photos throughout the resort, and the photographs in the rooms.
After freshening up, we started to walk to Universal Studios. We exited the east wing via the stairs near the quiet pool, and followed the signs along to the theme parks. We must have missed a sign at some point because we wound up at an intersection leading to the Hard Rock Hotel. We opted to cross the street, and cut through the Hard Rock. Going this way probably saved us close to a quarter mile of walking from our east wing room. I’m not sure it would save you any steps if you were staying in another part of the resort, though.
When we arrived at Universal Studios, our first stop was Mel’s Diner to grab some lunch. We both wound up getting the chicken nuggets and fries. Krista also got a chocolate shake, which she said had the consistency of a Wendy’s Frosty. The first chicken nugget I took from the container was excellent--it was thick and juicy. The rest were just OK. Some of them were very thin and tough. It wasn’t the best meal of the trip, but it was enough to tide me over until our dinner at Tchoup Chop that evening.
After lunch, we went to see the Horror Makeup Show, which was scheduled to start just a few minutes later. We showed our room key so we could access the Express Pass queue, and were seated in the front row as soon as we got in line. The show itself was typical Universal--very hokey with lots of corny jokes. The two hosts who ran the show were great, and they were very entertaining, but I thought the show was 75% corny jokes and only 25% makeup and special effects. One of the hosts went into the audience to pick out someone to volunteer to be in the show, and wound up choosing a woman from Nicaragua who could not speak English. She tried to decline participating because she couldn’t speak English, but the host insisted she volunteer. I have to say that choosing someone who didn’t speak English made the show a bit less enjoyable--the hosts were having a hard time communicating with her, and she wasn’t always sure what she should be doing.
After the show, we headed over to ET. I have the worst luck with this attraction. Every time I go to ride it for the first time, it seems to be broken down, and I have to head back there later to try to ride it. Well, this time was a different story! It was working when we arrived! We were on the ride pretty quickly using our Express Pass. This ride is a bit dated, but it’s still fun. As we rode our bikes over the city, I felt like we were flying over London in our boat on Peter Pan.
We then headed over to the Simpsons ride. We had a bit of a wait in the hot sun when we used our express pass, but we were soon in the holding area. I love watching the movies with Apu, and janitor Willy that they show in the holding area. I really think they did a fantastic job on the theming of the ride, and the holding area and pre-show movies. The ride itself is a lot of fun. I love the way that they poke fun at the other Orlando area theme parks in the film.
We then headed over to Men In Black to fight the aliens and save the world! Once again, we got on the ride pretty quickly using our express pass (unlimited express pass is a great benefit of staying at a Universal resort). When we were seated in our ride vehicle, and waiting for it to leave the loading area, I pointed my gun in the direction of the guy who was sending the vehicles out, and asked another team member if we got bonus points for shooting that guy. The team member obviously had no sense of humor, as he looked at me with a confused look on his face and said, “It won’t really do anything yet. The guns aren’t on.”
After successfully killing all the aliens, we had bigger fish to fry--a large shark named Jaws, to be exact. We boarded a boat at Amityville, and were soon cruising the ocean as Jaws tried to attack us and tip our boat. But thanks to our trusty captain, we were successfully made it through our cruise and were safely back on dry land.
We made our way over to Disaster to see what time the next show was, and it was going to be about 20 minutes, so we decided to head over to the Mummy. This is a great fast moving coaster. There aren’t really any big drops, but there are some neat stops, starts, twists, and turns that keep you guessing. It’s a short ride, but they did a fantastic job on it considering the space they had available to make this coaster.
After the Mummy, we headed back over to Disaster. This was one show that I told Krista was a must see on the trip. Big time director Frank Kincaid casted us, and the rest of the people in the theatre to be extras in his new movie “Mutha Nature.” We met with Mr. Kincaid, and watched some scenes being filmed before filming a couple of scenes ourselves. This show is worth checking out just to see Frank Kincaid with your own eyes. He’s really amazing to see.
It was close to park closing time, and we had hit all of our main attractions in less than four hours. I was hoping to get a ride on the Rickety Rackety Ripoff, er, I mean Rip Ride Rockit, but the line was long and I didn’t feel like waiting in it, so that would have to wait for tomorrow.
Krista and I then walked over to Walgreens, which was about a mile from the front gate of Universal Studios. Since Krista’s flight was late, we had to forgo our grocery stop, so we wanted to get some water, and I wanted to look at the pay as you go cell phones. We picked up some water, and muffins, but I decided to skip the pay as you go cell phone.
We then called a cab, and had the driver drop us off at the Royal Pacific, where we would be having dinner at Tchoup Chop. We were a bit early for our reservation, but we were seated right away. I really love the atmosphere in this restaurant. The soft lighting makes the restaurant so soothing, and I love the open kitchen. The bar is very eye catching as well with a large array of colorful bottles.
September is Magical Dining Month in Orlando, and Tchoup Chop had a three course meal for $30. Krista and I both decided to take advantage of this deal as it was just too good to pass up. We both started off with the Crispy Kalua Chicken Egg Rolls with orange-chile dipping sauce. I first had these egg rolls when I went to Tchoup Chop back in December, and as my friend Diane realized that night, these are the egg rolls that Jesus would love. They are crispy, and delicious. The dipping sauce is tangy with a slight kick. They are the best egg rolls I’ve ever had in my life.
For my main course, I ordered Herb Broiled Free Range Chicken in a sake mustard reduction sauce, which was served with kimchee fried rice. The chicken was delicious. It was very tender and juicy. The fried rice had a lot of flavor, and was very light. I would definitely order this dish again.
Krista ordered the Beer Braised Short Ribs with veal au jus, which was served with onion mashed potatoes. I tried a piece of the short ribs, and it was very tender. You could definitely taste the beer in the meat.
The dessert of the day was a flourless chocolate cake, which was served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. There were two small individual chocolate cake pieces. The cake was very rich and had the consistency of a piece of fudge. Although it was very tasty, it was a bit too rich for me, and I was so full from my meal that I could only eat a couple of bites of it. The vanilla ice cream was the best vanilla ice cream I’ve ever had, very smooth and creamy.
After dinner, we took the boat to the City Walk, and then walked back to the Portofino Bay from there. This time, we followed the path all the way to the resort. It was about a mile from the security check point just outside of City Walk to the Portofino boat dock. It was a pleasant walk, and much needed after our delicious dinner.
We had both been up since about 5:00 a.m. so we were pretty tired by the time we got back to the resort, so we got ready for bed. We had only been in Orlando about 9 hours, and we had already had a full day. And we still had six more days of fun ahead of us.
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