if you see a banana, take a banana
I was fooling myself thinking I could get this written yesterday, considering how much work I had to do just catching up on my inbox. Thank god it's Friday now.
And here is the epic recap of the
girlinthetrilby survived cancer cruise 2k15!
I was worried about the cab company not coming early enough but they did in fact arrive half an hour early (a theme of the day). Luckily, I was ready, and we breezed over the Triboro to LaGuardia. I also used them for the ride home last night, and despite some confusion about where the driver was waiting for me, we found each other pretty quickly and I was home by 7:15. So I definitely recommend Go Green Ride as a car service in NYC - it was a $32 flat fare to LGA, plus toll and tip, so it turned out to be $46 total, which I thought was absolutely reasonable and competitive. And since they use a fleet of Priuses, not their own cars, I felt like it was safer than Uber or Lyft.
The flight was also ready early and we landed in Ft. Lauderdale almost a full hour earlier than scheduled. I found a Starbucks (there aren't any in LGA anymore! Quelle horror! The whole food situation past security is pretty dire) and my bag was the first one on the carousel! Flying first class/sky priority is clearly the way to go. Then I sat and waited for the others to arrive.
We had a good dinner at Tap 42 in Ft. Lauderdale, though for some reason they waited half an hour to seat us even though there were plenty of tables available. I had a nice blueberry beer and an excellent burger. (This post is going to be a lot about food.)
On Sunday,
chickletgirl and I waited at Port Everglades while
girlinthetrilby and
devildoll returned the rental car, and then we were loaded on the ship. Since our rooms weren't ready yet, we went to Giovanni's Table for lunch. It was excellent (pics). I had the spaghetti and meatballs, and the only thing I regret is not getting back there to have another meal. The food was good and the waiter was charming, and with a 20% discount, it only cost us $12 + tip, so it was super reasonable too. (Obviously, some people don't like paying for food over and above what the cruise gives you in the dining room, but it turns out I am not one of those people! Especially given how much better the food at the specialty restaurants turned out to be.)
Also on Sunday, I managed to get bitten by mystery insects - the bites swelled up as mosquito bites are wont to do, but looked much worse for much, much longer. Luckily, I don't appear to have any weird diseases (and we were still in Florida when it happened), but it just goes to show that my real superpower is getting bit by insects even when there appear to be no insects present.
I wore my new expensive sandals all day Sunday - the ones I had to youtube how to fix the straps - but they rubbed blisters along my instep despite my putting cushy insoles in (I think the boundary between the cushy insole and the actual footbed is where the rubbing happened), so that was a bust. But my flipflops and water shoes (from Speedo) were more than good enough for all but the most dressy occasions (and for those I had my ballerina flats).
Our cabin was AMAZING. We had an Aqua Theatre suite, which meant we had a balcony that overlooked the Aqua Theatre, where some of the shows were put on and OMG we were in for a surprise on that first night (I think?), because they put on a show called "Ocean Aria" with a lot of diving and flips and shit, which featured delightfully muscular men in skimpy costumes (there was even a Dick Grayson analogue! FUCK YOU HE'S AN ACROBAT.), the pinnacle of which were the hand balancers. I haven't seen anything so homoerotic in a while. (And it's not like they didn't know - the images on the big jumbotrons while the show is going on are all of naked men, mostly from ancient Greek art, though the hand balancing interlude (which is much too short!) is heralded by an image of Vitruvian Man. Needless to say, we sat up on our balcony and shrieked like fangirls over all of it. There may even be pictures at some point (I didn't take any, but the others did; I still have to sort through the ton of pictures on my phone to see if any are worth keeping).
On the other hand, we did go see the stage show on Thursday night (or maybe it was Friday?) and it was agonizingly AWFUL. SO SHOCKINGLY TERRIBLE I CAN'T EVEN. It was called "Blue Earth" and it was the most ludicrously tone-deaf revue I've ever seen. The singers can certainly belt out a tune, but the songs chosen, the costuming, the choreography, the minimal acrobatics (the lack of hand balancers), and the racism all made it the most torturous hour I spent on the ship, and that's including the terrible rich assholes on Saturday night and also the schlepping our luggage around on Sunday morning. Each thing that happened made me boggle more at how terrible it was.
The other thing I boggled at - in a better way, kind of - was the amount of sanitizing that went on on that ship. Before we left, there was an email about how on the previous cruise, some people had gotten sick, and we brought our own Howard Hughes-ish stash of cleaning products to sanitize the room, but everywhere you looked, there were crew members wiping down railings and seatbacks, and before and after every meal, there were crew stationed outside dining areas with big bottles of Purell. There was even a three minute video about how important washing your hands after using the facilities is. I did not think anyone over the age of 6 would need such a video, but apparently people who take cruises do. *hands* I admit, it was weird walking out of a restaurant in Florida after we got back without having someone in the parking lot offering to Purell our hands. No one got sick on our cruise (as far as we know, anyway).
Anyway!
We made port in Nassau early Monday morning, but it was kind of a bust, tourist-wise. I would not go back.
We were invited up to the helipad on Monday afternoon when we cast off of Nassau, and they gave us free champagne (or fruit punch), a soundtrack of seventies hits on steel drums, and the crew gave speeches and came around and glad-handed everyone in a perfunctory manner. (Or maybe it was just that we did not look like the type who would spent thousands on diamonds?) It was windy up there, though, and when she was in danger of losing her hat,
devildoll managed to spill a glass of fruit punch ON HER FACE (and in her hair, and on her - thankfully black - t-shirt). It was pretty hilarious.
Tuesday, we were at sea all day, and so we went to the pool, which was packed. The beach pool - complete with waves - is a lot of fun, though I can't understand why they used such slippery material to surround it. I get that they probably can't pour concrete like you would on land, and wood probably rots too quickly and is too expensive, but the decking they used was slippery when wet - even barefoot! - which is completely the opposite of what you want in a pool area.
We also learned that the concierge lounge - available to guests in suites (and others in similarly pricy accommodations) - has a happy hour at which delicious meatballs and cocktails are served. I believe we will be remembered on that boat, because in addition to trying a new fruity cocktail every night (after the first night of having boring regular drinks like gin and tonic or vodka tonic), we also ordered Shirley Temples, as pink and pretty as they could make them! This seemed to amuse the wait staff considerably. But come on! Who would pass up the opportunity to drink a delicious Shirley Temple after having a lovely peach or lemon drop martini? No one I want to know!
We mostly ate breakfast in the buffet, and one of the days we had lunch there, and they had this amazing dessert that we discovered was passionfruit mousse (when we asked, they told us it was vanilla, but
devildoll and I were convinced it was passionfruit AND WE WERE RIGHT). The lunch was otherwise forgettable.
We also had really nice sangria at the tapas place Vintages, which had two-for-one sangria night two of the nights of our trip, and also good tapas. And it was empty. I don't know why it was so underutilized, but we liked it a lot - it had comfy couches and chairs to lounge in, reasonably priced sangria and tasty dishes.
The first night we went there, we also had reservations at Samba, the Brazilian BBQ place, and OH MY GOD, THE MEAT. I think that was the best filet mignon I've ever had. So tender and juicy and delicious. They're supposed to bring you nine different meats, but we opted out of the lamb, so it was going to be eight, and I think we tapped out at 6. But it was all delicious. And then for dessert, we had PASSIONFRUIT mousse - correctly identified this time, and amazingly good.
Wednesday we were in St. Thomas, which is just as gorgeous as I remembered from my trip there in 1996, though we had a cab driver who did not slow down on any hairpin turns or bumpy roads, which was kind of terrifying. We went to Sapphire Beach, where I was able to post by phone, because St. Thomas is a US territory and Sprint actually has coverage there, which is one of the few times ever it's been better to be a Sprint customer than a Verizon one. That evening we did in fact have fruity drinks - frozen strawberry daiquiris from the Trellis Bar, which were excellent. I could have drunk a million of them. (on Friday I also got some kind of mango slushy which had a lot of Myers Rum in it and was most excellent, right up until some kind of bug died in it - no doubt from alcohol poisoning - and I couldn't drink the rest.)
On Thursday, we took a tour of St. Maarten with an excellent tour guide, who will remember us because DD told her the horrifying true story of how monkeys[1] will eat off your face and hands, like that woman in Connecticut and that guy in Texas. St. Maarten is beautiful too - I think we all liked the Dutch side better than the French side - it seemed more interesting - though we did see a beautiful beach on the French side that I can no longer remember the name of. (I dipped my toes into the water on the Dutch side.) We drove past the bar where the people wait to see the planes land, but nothing was flying in while we were there so we didn't hang around. She also pointed us towards a good place for lunch, and I had some kind of grilled chicken (the others all had seafood, which I can't eat), and a super delicious passionfruit smoothie.
[1] Actually it was chimpanzees, not monkeys.
Friday morning, I had a pedicure, which was nice and relaxing, and they didn't try to upsell me or anything, which I appreciated. My toenails are Vinylux Purple Purple now. I had been thinking of a hot stone massage but holy crap, the prices!
On Friday night, we had dinner at Chops Grille, which was good, though the filet at Samba was actually better. We were excited about the tater tots with gruyere, though we only put in one order for them at first because the waiter said they - and all apps except the baked potato - were served family style. Well, the tater tots with gruyere were certainly delicious, but they came only four to an order. I don't know in what universe that counts as family size? But not in mine. So he brought us another order. We also had some kind of bacon that was also a standout of that meal. The desserts were good. I think the red velvet cake was the best we had on the ship (the cupcakes from the cupcake shop were so disappointing, and most of the cake on offer was pretty mediocre), and I feel like they had another good dessert, but I can't remember what it was.
Saturday night was the night of our special Chef's Table tasting dinner. The food was wonderful - if you had told me a carrot soup could ever be so delicious, I'd have called you a liar - but the company was, well, mostly the kind of rich assholes you don't think are actually for real until you encounter them. Luckily, aside from the four of us, there was a charming Canadian couple seated next to me who also was not having with the rich assholes at the other end of the table, so we made our own fun. In addition to the carrot soup (there was also an asparagus consomme, which I found super salty and also, well, not that flavorful - it just tasted green to me, but then, I don't like most vegetables so...), I had a chicken thigh wrapped in bacon and stuffed with ricotta (everyone else had branzino), and then we had a wonderfully cooked beef tenderloin as the main meat dish. And for dessert, we had a spectacular pistachio cherry financier that I would love to have the recipe for.
Our suite attendant was the sweetest guy. We were the first group of all ladies he'd had in the suite, and he couldn't believe that we were friends from the internet ("I would like to have such good friends on the internet! How did you do it!?" he asked. We didn't have the heart to tell him to go back in time to 2000 and join a mailing list dedicated to Wolverine and Rogue.) and he also couldn't believe we weren't married ("No husbands at home? And such nice ladies?!"). We left him a nice tip.
On Sunday, we went for the express disembarking, and so did hundreds of other people! But it moved surprisingly quickly, and we rolled right on through customs in about five minutes. And then got stuck at the Ft. Lauderdale airport 1. waiting for a rental car to appear, and then 2. stuck in traffic that was never explained (there were road closures because of construction? an accident? who knows? there was a definitely a train that stopped everything as it rolled forward and then backward on the tracks) so it took us about 45 minutes to get on the road proper. And then there was no Starbucks at all! HOW ARE THERE NO STARBUCKS IN FORT LAUDERDALE? We eventually had to stop at Target so I could have coffee.
We had brunch with
girlinthetrilby's cousin, which was lovely (she made us these breakfast pizzas that were delicious and filling, covered with eggs and cheese and chicken sausage and bacon and then baked), and then kept trekking north to Kissimee, where we were renting a condo for three days (my room was the one decorated with a Finding Nemo theme). That evening, we went looking for a Waffle House, because I had never eaten at one, and the GPS seemed to think none existed despite the internet telling us they did, but we eventually found it in its own pocket Waffle House universe, so I guess we were deemed worthy by the waffle gods. I had the chocolate chip waffle, which was good, and the hashbrowns with onions. Also good. It seemed like there was nothing but chain restaurants in that area. I guess because it's mostly a place for tourists who aren't staying at one of the parks? But so many chains!
We went into the hot tub early on Monday, because rain was predicted, and then out for BBQ for lunch, which was excellent (and I got to have my sweet tea, and also taste Cheerwine, which I had never had before), and then it started to pour. So we went back to the condo and I'm pretty sure I napped for like two hours. For dinner we ate snacks and watched "Behind the Candelabra," which I had never seen and which was well-acted and meticulously costumed, and also hilariously camp and very, very gay. But I found the twink wig they gave Matt Damon made him resemble season 1 Sam Winchester way too much - it was very distracting!
On Tuesday, we went to Universal so we could go to Harry Potter World, which was also meticulously put together and actually fabulous. I got my picture taken in front of 12 Grimmauld Place! Which seems fitting, given how much of my fic is set there. *g* Plus, BUTTERBEER. SO MUCH BETTER THAN I EXPECTED. I guess starting with a good cream soda and having a light hand with the butterscotch syrup is key. The food at the Leaky Cauldron was overall much better than we expected or even hoped for. I definitely recommend it. And I might have got a little choked up on seeing Weasleys Wizard Wheezes. Sigh.
Oh! We also spent some time in Springfield, taking pictures of various Simpsonian things, and having a pink frosted LARD LAD donut. (I am sure pictures of this will follow at some point.)
After Hogsmeade (HONEYDUKES) and Hogwarts (I really liked how they did the Hogwarts Express, but none of us went on any actual rides), we walked through Jurassic Park - the puns are unparalleled! - and then to superhero island. Where Spider-Man has HIS OWN STORE. I WAS VERY EXCITED, given that I only heard the news that morning about him being the MCU (you are all fired! Unlike when Winter Soldier was announced, my phone did not blow up with the Spider-Man news). I was tempted by a lot of merch, and I ended up buying a Spider-Man mask knit cap (which wound up being useful for identifying me to the driver at the airport, though I will likely never wear it again), a pin of Captain America's shield, and then a set of four tiny Hogwarts House crest pins. I put back the "Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain" t-shirt and the shield t-shirt. Sigh. If they made the hooded bath towels in adult sizes, I might have bought a Cap one - WINGS FOR EARS - but they don't so I didn't. There was not a lot of merchandise with Black Widow on it - almost nothing, in fact, which was sad, especially since Punisher was featured regularly. PUNISHER WTF. HAS HE EVEN EVER BEEN AN AVENGER? No Carol or Jess or Jan either. *grumps*
Then we went to Chuy's for dinner, which was excellent - the fresh chips were SO GOOD (and she kept refilling the basket!) and the quesadillas were good too - and then we went into the hot tub one last time on Tuesday night and discussed how Princess Leia is the most awesome don't even front I will fight you.
We had to be out of the condo by 10 am sharp on Wednesday morning (where I left my extra cash stash, sigh), and headed to the Market Street Cafe for brunch, which was AMAZING. I mean, the town itself is totally creepy in a Pleasantville sort of way, but the food at that place was excellent. I had the French toast with maple butter and brown sugar and fruit compote, the latter of which was totally gilding the lily.
Then we headed to the airport, where a Delta staff person complimented my Captain America/Winter Soldier tote/beach bag. And then we parted ways and came home.
Now it's 8°F with a -5°F wind chill. Wah. I think I will be hermiting up this weekend to catch up on all the TV I missed.
*
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/727004.html.
people have commented there.
And here is the epic recap of the
girlinthetrilby survived cancer cruise 2k15!
I was worried about the cab company not coming early enough but they did in fact arrive half an hour early (a theme of the day). Luckily, I was ready, and we breezed over the Triboro to LaGuardia. I also used them for the ride home last night, and despite some confusion about where the driver was waiting for me, we found each other pretty quickly and I was home by 7:15. So I definitely recommend Go Green Ride as a car service in NYC - it was a $32 flat fare to LGA, plus toll and tip, so it turned out to be $46 total, which I thought was absolutely reasonable and competitive. And since they use a fleet of Priuses, not their own cars, I felt like it was safer than Uber or Lyft.
The flight was also ready early and we landed in Ft. Lauderdale almost a full hour earlier than scheduled. I found a Starbucks (there aren't any in LGA anymore! Quelle horror! The whole food situation past security is pretty dire) and my bag was the first one on the carousel! Flying first class/sky priority is clearly the way to go. Then I sat and waited for the others to arrive.
We had a good dinner at Tap 42 in Ft. Lauderdale, though for some reason they waited half an hour to seat us even though there were plenty of tables available. I had a nice blueberry beer and an excellent burger. (This post is going to be a lot about food.)
On Sunday,
chickletgirl and I waited at Port Everglades while
girlinthetrilby and
devildoll returned the rental car, and then we were loaded on the ship. Since our rooms weren't ready yet, we went to Giovanni's Table for lunch. It was excellent (pics). I had the spaghetti and meatballs, and the only thing I regret is not getting back there to have another meal. The food was good and the waiter was charming, and with a 20% discount, it only cost us $12 + tip, so it was super reasonable too. (Obviously, some people don't like paying for food over and above what the cruise gives you in the dining room, but it turns out I am not one of those people! Especially given how much better the food at the specialty restaurants turned out to be.)
Also on Sunday, I managed to get bitten by mystery insects - the bites swelled up as mosquito bites are wont to do, but looked much worse for much, much longer. Luckily, I don't appear to have any weird diseases (and we were still in Florida when it happened), but it just goes to show that my real superpower is getting bit by insects even when there appear to be no insects present.
I wore my new expensive sandals all day Sunday - the ones I had to youtube how to fix the straps - but they rubbed blisters along my instep despite my putting cushy insoles in (I think the boundary between the cushy insole and the actual footbed is where the rubbing happened), so that was a bust. But my flipflops and water shoes (from Speedo) were more than good enough for all but the most dressy occasions (and for those I had my ballerina flats).
Our cabin was AMAZING. We had an Aqua Theatre suite, which meant we had a balcony that overlooked the Aqua Theatre, where some of the shows were put on and OMG we were in for a surprise on that first night (I think?), because they put on a show called "Ocean Aria" with a lot of diving and flips and shit, which featured delightfully muscular men in skimpy costumes (there was even a Dick Grayson analogue! FUCK YOU HE'S AN ACROBAT.), the pinnacle of which were the hand balancers. I haven't seen anything so homoerotic in a while. (And it's not like they didn't know - the images on the big jumbotrons while the show is going on are all of naked men, mostly from ancient Greek art, though the hand balancing interlude (which is much too short!) is heralded by an image of Vitruvian Man. Needless to say, we sat up on our balcony and shrieked like fangirls over all of it. There may even be pictures at some point (I didn't take any, but the others did; I still have to sort through the ton of pictures on my phone to see if any are worth keeping).
On the other hand, we did go see the stage show on Thursday night (or maybe it was Friday?) and it was agonizingly AWFUL. SO SHOCKINGLY TERRIBLE I CAN'T EVEN. It was called "Blue Earth" and it was the most ludicrously tone-deaf revue I've ever seen. The singers can certainly belt out a tune, but the songs chosen, the costuming, the choreography, the minimal acrobatics (the lack of hand balancers), and the racism all made it the most torturous hour I spent on the ship, and that's including the terrible rich assholes on Saturday night and also the schlepping our luggage around on Sunday morning. Each thing that happened made me boggle more at how terrible it was.
The other thing I boggled at - in a better way, kind of - was the amount of sanitizing that went on on that ship. Before we left, there was an email about how on the previous cruise, some people had gotten sick, and we brought our own Howard Hughes-ish stash of cleaning products to sanitize the room, but everywhere you looked, there were crew members wiping down railings and seatbacks, and before and after every meal, there were crew stationed outside dining areas with big bottles of Purell. There was even a three minute video about how important washing your hands after using the facilities is. I did not think anyone over the age of 6 would need such a video, but apparently people who take cruises do. *hands* I admit, it was weird walking out of a restaurant in Florida after we got back without having someone in the parking lot offering to Purell our hands. No one got sick on our cruise (as far as we know, anyway).
Anyway!
We made port in Nassau early Monday morning, but it was kind of a bust, tourist-wise. I would not go back.
We were invited up to the helipad on Monday afternoon when we cast off of Nassau, and they gave us free champagne (or fruit punch), a soundtrack of seventies hits on steel drums, and the crew gave speeches and came around and glad-handed everyone in a perfunctory manner. (Or maybe it was just that we did not look like the type who would spent thousands on diamonds?) It was windy up there, though, and when she was in danger of losing her hat,
devildoll managed to spill a glass of fruit punch ON HER FACE (and in her hair, and on her - thankfully black - t-shirt). It was pretty hilarious.
Tuesday, we were at sea all day, and so we went to the pool, which was packed. The beach pool - complete with waves - is a lot of fun, though I can't understand why they used such slippery material to surround it. I get that they probably can't pour concrete like you would on land, and wood probably rots too quickly and is too expensive, but the decking they used was slippery when wet - even barefoot! - which is completely the opposite of what you want in a pool area.
We also learned that the concierge lounge - available to guests in suites (and others in similarly pricy accommodations) - has a happy hour at which delicious meatballs and cocktails are served. I believe we will be remembered on that boat, because in addition to trying a new fruity cocktail every night (after the first night of having boring regular drinks like gin and tonic or vodka tonic), we also ordered Shirley Temples, as pink and pretty as they could make them! This seemed to amuse the wait staff considerably. But come on! Who would pass up the opportunity to drink a delicious Shirley Temple after having a lovely peach or lemon drop martini? No one I want to know!
We mostly ate breakfast in the buffet, and one of the days we had lunch there, and they had this amazing dessert that we discovered was passionfruit mousse (when we asked, they told us it was vanilla, but
devildoll and I were convinced it was passionfruit AND WE WERE RIGHT). The lunch was otherwise forgettable.
We also had really nice sangria at the tapas place Vintages, which had two-for-one sangria night two of the nights of our trip, and also good tapas. And it was empty. I don't know why it was so underutilized, but we liked it a lot - it had comfy couches and chairs to lounge in, reasonably priced sangria and tasty dishes.
The first night we went there, we also had reservations at Samba, the Brazilian BBQ place, and OH MY GOD, THE MEAT. I think that was the best filet mignon I've ever had. So tender and juicy and delicious. They're supposed to bring you nine different meats, but we opted out of the lamb, so it was going to be eight, and I think we tapped out at 6. But it was all delicious. And then for dessert, we had PASSIONFRUIT mousse - correctly identified this time, and amazingly good.
Wednesday we were in St. Thomas, which is just as gorgeous as I remembered from my trip there in 1996, though we had a cab driver who did not slow down on any hairpin turns or bumpy roads, which was kind of terrifying. We went to Sapphire Beach, where I was able to post by phone, because St. Thomas is a US territory and Sprint actually has coverage there, which is one of the few times ever it's been better to be a Sprint customer than a Verizon one. That evening we did in fact have fruity drinks - frozen strawberry daiquiris from the Trellis Bar, which were excellent. I could have drunk a million of them. (on Friday I also got some kind of mango slushy which had a lot of Myers Rum in it and was most excellent, right up until some kind of bug died in it - no doubt from alcohol poisoning - and I couldn't drink the rest.)
On Thursday, we took a tour of St. Maarten with an excellent tour guide, who will remember us because DD told her the horrifying true story of how monkeys[1] will eat off your face and hands, like that woman in Connecticut and that guy in Texas. St. Maarten is beautiful too - I think we all liked the Dutch side better than the French side - it seemed more interesting - though we did see a beautiful beach on the French side that I can no longer remember the name of. (I dipped my toes into the water on the Dutch side.) We drove past the bar where the people wait to see the planes land, but nothing was flying in while we were there so we didn't hang around. She also pointed us towards a good place for lunch, and I had some kind of grilled chicken (the others all had seafood, which I can't eat), and a super delicious passionfruit smoothie.
[1] Actually it was chimpanzees, not monkeys.
Friday morning, I had a pedicure, which was nice and relaxing, and they didn't try to upsell me or anything, which I appreciated. My toenails are Vinylux Purple Purple now. I had been thinking of a hot stone massage but holy crap, the prices!
On Friday night, we had dinner at Chops Grille, which was good, though the filet at Samba was actually better. We were excited about the tater tots with gruyere, though we only put in one order for them at first because the waiter said they - and all apps except the baked potato - were served family style. Well, the tater tots with gruyere were certainly delicious, but they came only four to an order. I don't know in what universe that counts as family size? But not in mine. So he brought us another order. We also had some kind of bacon that was also a standout of that meal. The desserts were good. I think the red velvet cake was the best we had on the ship (the cupcakes from the cupcake shop were so disappointing, and most of the cake on offer was pretty mediocre), and I feel like they had another good dessert, but I can't remember what it was.
Saturday night was the night of our special Chef's Table tasting dinner. The food was wonderful - if you had told me a carrot soup could ever be so delicious, I'd have called you a liar - but the company was, well, mostly the kind of rich assholes you don't think are actually for real until you encounter them. Luckily, aside from the four of us, there was a charming Canadian couple seated next to me who also was not having with the rich assholes at the other end of the table, so we made our own fun. In addition to the carrot soup (there was also an asparagus consomme, which I found super salty and also, well, not that flavorful - it just tasted green to me, but then, I don't like most vegetables so...), I had a chicken thigh wrapped in bacon and stuffed with ricotta (everyone else had branzino), and then we had a wonderfully cooked beef tenderloin as the main meat dish. And for dessert, we had a spectacular pistachio cherry financier that I would love to have the recipe for.
Our suite attendant was the sweetest guy. We were the first group of all ladies he'd had in the suite, and he couldn't believe that we were friends from the internet ("I would like to have such good friends on the internet! How did you do it!?" he asked. We didn't have the heart to tell him to go back in time to 2000 and join a mailing list dedicated to Wolverine and Rogue.) and he also couldn't believe we weren't married ("No husbands at home? And such nice ladies?!"). We left him a nice tip.
On Sunday, we went for the express disembarking, and so did hundreds of other people! But it moved surprisingly quickly, and we rolled right on through customs in about five minutes. And then got stuck at the Ft. Lauderdale airport 1. waiting for a rental car to appear, and then 2. stuck in traffic that was never explained (there were road closures because of construction? an accident? who knows? there was a definitely a train that stopped everything as it rolled forward and then backward on the tracks) so it took us about 45 minutes to get on the road proper. And then there was no Starbucks at all! HOW ARE THERE NO STARBUCKS IN FORT LAUDERDALE? We eventually had to stop at Target so I could have coffee.
We had brunch with
girlinthetrilby's cousin, which was lovely (she made us these breakfast pizzas that were delicious and filling, covered with eggs and cheese and chicken sausage and bacon and then baked), and then kept trekking north to Kissimee, where we were renting a condo for three days (my room was the one decorated with a Finding Nemo theme). That evening, we went looking for a Waffle House, because I had never eaten at one, and the GPS seemed to think none existed despite the internet telling us they did, but we eventually found it in its own pocket Waffle House universe, so I guess we were deemed worthy by the waffle gods. I had the chocolate chip waffle, which was good, and the hashbrowns with onions. Also good. It seemed like there was nothing but chain restaurants in that area. I guess because it's mostly a place for tourists who aren't staying at one of the parks? But so many chains!
We went into the hot tub early on Monday, because rain was predicted, and then out for BBQ for lunch, which was excellent (and I got to have my sweet tea, and also taste Cheerwine, which I had never had before), and then it started to pour. So we went back to the condo and I'm pretty sure I napped for like two hours. For dinner we ate snacks and watched "Behind the Candelabra," which I had never seen and which was well-acted and meticulously costumed, and also hilariously camp and very, very gay. But I found the twink wig they gave Matt Damon made him resemble season 1 Sam Winchester way too much - it was very distracting!
On Tuesday, we went to Universal so we could go to Harry Potter World, which was also meticulously put together and actually fabulous. I got my picture taken in front of 12 Grimmauld Place! Which seems fitting, given how much of my fic is set there. *g* Plus, BUTTERBEER. SO MUCH BETTER THAN I EXPECTED. I guess starting with a good cream soda and having a light hand with the butterscotch syrup is key. The food at the Leaky Cauldron was overall much better than we expected or even hoped for. I definitely recommend it. And I might have got a little choked up on seeing Weasleys Wizard Wheezes. Sigh.
Oh! We also spent some time in Springfield, taking pictures of various Simpsonian things, and having a pink frosted LARD LAD donut. (I am sure pictures of this will follow at some point.)
After Hogsmeade (HONEYDUKES) and Hogwarts (I really liked how they did the Hogwarts Express, but none of us went on any actual rides), we walked through Jurassic Park - the puns are unparalleled! - and then to superhero island. Where Spider-Man has HIS OWN STORE. I WAS VERY EXCITED, given that I only heard the news that morning about him being the MCU (you are all fired! Unlike when Winter Soldier was announced, my phone did not blow up with the Spider-Man news). I was tempted by a lot of merch, and I ended up buying a Spider-Man mask knit cap (which wound up being useful for identifying me to the driver at the airport, though I will likely never wear it again), a pin of Captain America's shield, and then a set of four tiny Hogwarts House crest pins. I put back the "Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain" t-shirt and the shield t-shirt. Sigh. If they made the hooded bath towels in adult sizes, I might have bought a Cap one - WINGS FOR EARS - but they don't so I didn't. There was not a lot of merchandise with Black Widow on it - almost nothing, in fact, which was sad, especially since Punisher was featured regularly. PUNISHER WTF. HAS HE EVEN EVER BEEN AN AVENGER? No Carol or Jess or Jan either. *grumps*
Then we went to Chuy's for dinner, which was excellent - the fresh chips were SO GOOD (and she kept refilling the basket!) and the quesadillas were good too - and then we went into the hot tub one last time on Tuesday night and discussed how Princess Leia is the most awesome don't even front I will fight you.
We had to be out of the condo by 10 am sharp on Wednesday morning (where I left my extra cash stash, sigh), and headed to the Market Street Cafe for brunch, which was AMAZING. I mean, the town itself is totally creepy in a Pleasantville sort of way, but the food at that place was excellent. I had the French toast with maple butter and brown sugar and fruit compote, the latter of which was totally gilding the lily.
Then we headed to the airport, where a Delta staff person complimented my Captain America/Winter Soldier tote/beach bag. And then we parted ways and came home.
Now it's 8°F with a -5°F wind chill. Wah. I think I will be hermiting up this weekend to catch up on all the TV I missed.
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