"Guess who`s back"...3 Return for 3 Weeks @ RPR. Parks, KSC with lots of good food and fun...A May 2023 TR

[schumigirl]

Yay I always love your trip reports Carol so I'm so glad to see this one started! How lovely that Kyle is coming with you as well - you must be ecstatic! Can't wait to hear what you all have planned!

back Elsa......i wondered where you were!

I was thinking it might be a little early, but time passes so quickly and it`ll be here before we know it!

We are delighted he`s coming with us again!!

Good to see you again too and hope you enjoy reading along

 

[schumigirl]

Ooh, the various documents to fly sound so complicated! I'm happy you are all set on that front. The king suite will be lovely. Having the lounge to hang out and relax will also be wonderful! I know you are going to be quite happy to flop into bed that first night

It`s something that always makes us nervous filling in the details, as without it you can`t fly, but once it`s all done and approved, we sigh with relief. I can uunderstand why they have such things in place though.

We do like the King Suite, it gives us space we need, especially with three of us.

Yes, I think that will be a very early night for us!!

 

[schumigirl]

Along for the ride!!

What you called creatures of habit on vacation I call family traditions!

RP has a charm that's hard to describe. We fell in love with it the first time we stayed there in 2012 as well.
This past trip we stayed at Portifino and it just doesn't have that feel for us. The room decor has no appeal to us at all. The resort was fine, the staff was fine, food was fine, but we won't be back. We all agreed that staying at RP would have increased our enjoyment overall. The location is much better for us as well to just walk over to Strongwater or Bistro 17.

back saskdw too!!!

I agree, family traditions sound so much better.....we do have a few of those, many include bubbly....lol......

RP has something special for sure. Apart from Sapphire which we do love, the other hotels just never appealed to us to want to stay there. Yes, fine for visiting especially for Sal`s pizza......

Anywhere that is a short walk to Strong Water works for us too......lol.......

Good to see you here again......

 

[schumigirl]

Hi Carole
I’m joining in and excited to hear about your May trip!
My sister and I are heading down in April. I was trying to get my son Jack to join us but it doesn’t work for him. I certainly don’t mind staying in the room with my kids!
We are spending one night at PB at US and my sister is excited to spend time at USO again.
Andi and I have the TSA precheck and I just renewed ours for another five years it is the best money I have ever spent! So worth it.
I’m happy to hear your son is able to travel with you on this trip. I’m sure there will be a lot of Chocolate cake pictures!

back to you too Caroline......

Oh I`m sorry your boy can`t make that trip, but you`ll have a lovely visit with your sister to PB, now I need to go see if I missed a TR from you!! Yes, sharing a room is not an issue for us either, I can`t imagine not wanting to share with family. Although if you have four teenagers....might be different......lol.......

TSA is worth whatever they want to charge, when you see the regular lines sometimes, it can be horrific!

Yep, I think he`s planning on a lot of chocolate desserts this trip!! He took up running over a year ago and is very lean, he has to be to do all the running he does, but I think he`ll make an exception for this trip and indulge more than a few times!

Look forward to seeing you post along the way

 

[Pumpkin1172]

Finally joining in!

It is great that Kyle is joining you this trip!!!! We are the same way - we share a room with out kids. We really don't mind either. We are still the family that eats dinner/supper together every night. It's just who we are.

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[keishashadow]

Guess who’s back, back again, guess who’s back, tell a friend

Love the title…did you take inspiration from Eminem Song? I’ll be humming that the rest of the night now lol

looking forward to another great ride along of a TR

I love trips with the kids (adult ones too) & the close quarters. they dub them the ’goodnight johnboy trips’ in deference to the old Walton’s tv show.

 

[schumigirl]

Finally joining in!

It is great that Kyle is joining you this trip!!!! We are the same way - we share a room with out kids. We really don't mind either. We are still the family that eats dinner/supper together every night. It's just who we are.

Can't wait to hear more!

to you too Pumpkin......

It is lovely to have him come with us again...those of us who travel with adult kids will understand.

Yes, for us eating together for a many meals as possible was and is always a priority, spending that time together eating and conversing is always a joy. It seems most folks I know always enjoy that time too and sharing rooms is not a problem, but when I read folks that can`t do it, I`m always surprised.

Glad to see you and hope you enjoy this one too......

 

[schumigirl]

Guess who’s back, back again, guess who’s back, tell a friend

Love the title…did you take inspiration from Eminem Song? I’ll be humming that the rest of the night now lol

looking forward to another great ride along of a TR

I love trips with the kids (adult ones too) & the close quarters. they dub them the ’goodnight johnboy trips’ in deference to the old Walton’s tv show.

along keisha........

Yep, from the man himself.....the Real Slim Shady........folks are always surprised I like his stuff!!!

lol.....yep, love that ol goodnight johnboy routine......it`s just nice isn`t it being able to be happy in such close quarters together, we certainly do relish that time as I know you do too....

Happy to see you and I hope you love this one too

 

[KathyM2]

He is taking a month of vacation time for this trip which still leaves him plenty of time for other trips he has planned and individual weekends away and so on,

Yay for another TR!! I love how in the UK you get so much vacay that he can take a month off and still have any left!! Here you are lucky if you get four weeks vacay after ten years with a company...I never even got to that while I used to work full time!!

Another 5 years of GE. It is a benefit as we don`t need to stand in the regular immigration line when we get off the plane, we go through with Americans and it also gives us TSA Pre-Check which works well on the way home.

This sounds just like Nexus that we can get here in Canada for US border crossings. Ours for our family expired during covid and we have not started the process to renew them yet. It's a real pain in the **** but like you said well worth it - I must get on that!!

 

[schumigirl]

Yay for another TR!! I love how in the UK you get so much vacay that he can take a month off and still have any left!! Here you are lucky if you get four weeks vacay after ten years with a company...I never even got to that while I used to work full time!!

This sounds just like Nexus that we can get here in Canada for US border crossings. Ours for our family expired during covid and we have not started the process to renew them yet. It's a real pain in the **** but like you said well worth it - I must get on that!!

back Kathy.......it is so good to see you!!

I think I`ve always been amazed how little time folks get for vacations in the US! Our first trip I was wondering why folks were only there for 3 or 4 days and not longer, I was surprised as I had no idea. So Canada is similar too? It`s hard to imagine having to wait all that time to earn vacation time.

Yes, your Nexus is identical I believe, it is so stressful filling in all the details in case you make one tiny mistake!! But I agree, it`s worth it.

How is your boy enjoying his time in London? Hope he`s loving it and making the most of this milder winter we`ve been having.

Glad you`re along for this one too, hope you like it

 

[schumigirl]

 

[schumigirl]

Yep, 8 weeks today we`ll be at the Marriott for our overnight stay!!

I feel as if all of a sudden this trip is getting closer and apart from the hotels and flights we haven`t really thought about anything else so far!!!

Studying menu`s is a big hobby of ours even though I`m sure we know most menu`s off by heart, but we still look all the time.

As most of you know, food is a BIG part of our trips....no surprises there, we do like our food and although we have our regular favourite`s that we continually go back to like Strong Water Bar, Eddie V`s, Longhorn Steakhouse, red Lobster and Orchids Sushi to name but a few, we are always on the lookout for somewhere new.

A few years ago, actually maybe longer, we tried Texas de Brazil at the top of I Drive as it had been suggested we`d like it, so we`d give it a try.

Well......we never got past waiting for a table.

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Like really loud!!!

We don`t mind restaurants that are lively and fun but this was just a rabble and everyone was talking louder than the next one, so we turned around and went to find somewhere else, back then it was probably Red Lobster just down the road a little. But, we`ve never gone back and never will to be honest.

I think we`re all on the same page with restaurants, we just want to be able to sit down to a nice dinner and be able to have a decent conversation with your dining companions without struggling to hear each other.

So I asked around and some folks suggested some other place, and the lovely Raphael from RP who we trust as he also likes good food suggested Rodizio Grill.

The lovely Raphael.......

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Raphael is Brazilian so he knows good Brazilian food, and he also asked his dad where he would recommend and we had actually planned to go last September, but....and don`t laugh......we just didn`t have enough nights!!!

​

We did like the sound of it though and even better he said not a lot of tourists visit, which is something we do like, despite being tourists ourselves.....yes, I do know how contradictory that sounds.

It`s down at Pointe Orlando and there are some nice restaurants down that area like Oceannaire where we haven`t visited for a few years, but we hadn`t heard of Rodizio from anyone else.

Pictures are all from Google.

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The menu looks really good to us, plenty of choices and the salad bar as is in most of these places, top notch, but hard not to fill up on all those glorious salad options.

I think we`ll definitely enjoy the steak options, we all like our steak at the most medium rare, I think I like mine rarer than my two, but as long as it`s juicy and tasty, I can eat medium rare. Raphael did tell us we can ask for meat to be rarer if required. Sounds good.

They also have a wide range of wines and cocktails on offer, so we may take advantage of having a chauffeur on this trip, as Kyle doesn`t drink alcohol (yep, how`d that happen) he is happy to drive us. This will be something new for him as he`s never driven in Orlando before, but he`s looking forward to it. Now we have three folks that will want to drive our rental car!!! First one to the keys wins......

So that`s our first choice of restaurant for this trip, aside from favourites, we ran it by Kyle and he thought it looked like it was somewhere he`d enjoy......it has steak, he`ll love it.



More to come........

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[JaxDad]

Hey Carole! JaxDad checking in!

We went to Rodizio Grill on our Chattanooga trip a few years ago, and it was very good. I love Brazilian steakhouses. The grilled meats are great, plus there are usually some interesting salad bar selections. I also really enjoy caipirinhas. I make them at home in the summer. Good stuff!

I look forward to following along!

 

[schumigirl]

Hey Carole! JaxDad checking in!

We went to Rodizio Grill on our Chattanooga trip a few years ago, and it was very good. I love Brazilian steakhouses. The grilled meats are great, plus there are usually some interesting salad bar selections. I also really enjoy caipirinhas. I make them at home in the summer. Good stuff!

I look forward to following along!

back to you JaxDad......I hoped you`d pop along!!

Good to hear you enjoyed Rodizio, so far it`s all been positive from anyone I`ve asked. Kyle has never been to one before so we hope he likes it, I think he will. We went to one in London a few years back, it was not good!

You know that is a cocktail I`ve never had, Tom just said there had to be one cocktail out there I hadn`t tasted..... cheeky beggar. I will have to rectify that this trip.......

Glad to see you, hope you and the kids are doing well

 

[DisGhost]

Oh we love Brazillian restaurants. We call them the "all you can eat meat on a stick place" and there are several of them near us. Some of them have better sides/buffets than others. I love yucca fritters and that lovely cheese with honey. One place does a delicious grilled pineapple and another has fried plantains. Very interested to hear how it goes at Rodizio, I'm sure it will be great.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Rodizio sounds delicious! Now we are all salivating at the thought of the photos we know will show all the tasty treats!

It is lovely to try some new places. I'm eager to hear about your favorite items

 

[schumigirl]

Oh we love Brazillian restaurants. We call them the "all you can eat meat on a stick place" and there are several of them near us. Some of them have better sides/buffets than others. I love yucca fritters and that lovely cheese with honey. One place does a delicious grilled pineapple and another has fried plantains. Very interested to hear how it goes at Rodizio, I'm sure it will be great.

It does sound lovely and I adore plantains and pineapple, so if they have either, I’ll be happy. I had never tried plantains till Chef Carlos introduced them to me, now…….gimme!!!

I‘ve been told the salad and sides are excellent at Rodizio, so we are looking forward to trying it, yes, I think we’ll enjoy it.

 

[KathyM2]

So Canada is similar too? It`s hard to imagine having to wait all that time to earn vacation time.

I think we are marginally better than the US in that a lot of places start with a whole THREE weeks of vacay per year instead of TWO like some people get in the US...but then it can take many many years of seniority before getting more than three. I think a lot of people prefer to work freelance or on contracts because of this to be able to get more vacay (I am one of those people lol)

How is your boy enjoying his time in London? Hope he`s loving it and making the most of this milder winter we`ve been having.

He is having the time of his life!! He has his GF coming to visit in a week or so, and they are taking the train to Paris for a couple of nights. And then in April he has a longer break and he and some friends are jetting off on cheap-o Ryan air all over the place - Malta, some Greek islands, maybe a stop in Italy and Amsterdam lol they are sharing hotel rooms with 5 kids and eating on the cheap and will have a blast I'm sure!

Yep, 8 weeks today we`ll be at the Marriott for our overnight stay!!

That hotel from your pics looks very quaint...love it!

Studying menu`s is a big hobby of ours even though I`m sure we know most menu`s off by heart, but we still look all the time.

I do this all the time too, it's so much fun and helps with the planning...now it's hard to imagine blindly going to a place without having an idea what's on the menu beforehand lol

We did like the sound of it though and even better he said not a lot of tourists visit, which is something we do like, despite being tourists ourselves.....yes, I do know how contradictory that sounds.

I love those places - I think Fogo de Chao is another similar thing in the US, we have been there and thought it was pretty good. And yes, if you like pineapple...I could eat that grilled pineapple all day.

 

[schumigirl]

Rodizio sounds delicious! Now we are all salivating at the thought of the photos we know will show all the tasty treats!

It is lovely to try some new places. I'm eager to hear about your favorite items

lol…..we’ll do our best, I’ll get my photographer on it when we go!

Yep, although we do love our traditional places we frequent, we love finding new places to try too, we have found some fabulous places over the years outside of the normal tourist options.

Yes, will be delighted to share info…….

 

[schumigirl]

I think we are marginally better than the US in that a lot of places start with a whole THREE weeks of vacay per year instead of TWO like some people get in the US...but then it can take many many years of seniority before getting more than three. I think a lot of people prefer to work freelance or on contracts because of this to be able to get more vacay (I am one of those people lol)

He is having the time of his life!! He has his GF coming to visit in a week or so, and they are taking the train to Paris for a couple of nights. And then in April he has a longer break and he and some friends are jetting off on cheap-o Ryan air all over the place - Malta, some Greek islands, maybe a stop in Italy and Amsterdam lol they are sharing hotel rooms with 5 kids and eating on the cheap and will have a blast I'm sure!

That hotel from your pics looks very quaint...love it!

I do this all the time too, it's so much fun and helps with the planning...now it's hard to imagine blindly going to a place without having an idea what's on the menu beforehand lol

I love those places - I think Fogo de Chao is another similar thing in the US, we have been there and thought it was pretty good. And yes, if you like pineapple...I could eat that grilled pineapple all day.

Oh I’m glad to hear he’s enjoying his time in London. It’s so easy to travel all over Mainland Europe from London, flights are plentiful, sounds like they’ll have a blast on their travels. And I’m happy to hear he’s visiting too.

It seems to be such a good choice to go freelance to get the extra vacation time, holidays are so important and time away from work with family especially so.

Fogo de Chao was somewhere we looked at, but…..I forget who or what put us off the one on I Drive…..but looking forward to this other Brazilian option.

Love grilled pineapple…….I’m definitely a meat and fruit together person, so I can eat pineapple with anything!!