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Christmas 2000: 8 Day Tour!
It's too cold up north in december, so this year for christmas we decided to head south to florida and catch some sun.
official schedule of events
thurs | fri | sat | sun | mon | tues | wed | thurs2 | fri2
thurs. night, december 21
We departed philadelphia, arrived in orlando, and checked in at the disney caribbean beach resort. The hotel is built around five villages, each named for a different island. For the price, the rooms were just okay, but the design of the village buildings was a nice touch. Plus the hotel has a big pool and beach area, although it was a little too cold for swimming.We were hungry, so it was off to downtown disney westside and the wolfgang puck cafe. Very, very good food, and a great atmosphere. We also stopped in next door at bongos cuban cafe, which is gloria estafan's place. I had a mojito, one of my favorite rum drinks.
fri. december 22
We planned our theme park schedule based on which parks had early openings for disney guests. We started out with epcot, which has the new test track ride. It's fun, but the fast part of the ride is a little too short. Then we were off to the world showcase. (See my disney pics.) We checked out canada, and saw an interesting movie called "o canada!" in circle vision (360 degrees) that showed all the canadian sites. There was also a new area with about 20 countries just for the millenium, but it was kind of chintzy. Lunch was great at the rose and crown, a british style pub. I had fish and chips, of course, and we had a lot of fun with our british waiter.After lunch we headed over to disney's mgm studios, and got into the tower of terror with about a five minute wait. If you've ever been on this ride in past years, you remember that it drops a little, brings you back up, and then drops you to the ground. Well, now it drops you about six times. A big surprise! The lines were too long for the new aerosmith rock n roller coaster, so we headed over to the special christmas event, which was a village lit up with thousands of lights. It was pretty cool to be there when they turned the lights on. There was also a snow making- machine blowing snow around. Pretty neat! (See my disney pics.)
For dinner we were off to the wilderness lodge's artist point restaurant, which features cuisine from the northwest. I had the cedar plank salmon (the house specialty) and it was excellent. I also sampled some buffalo meat. For dessert we had mixed berries in a cream sauce. A top restaurant!
sat. december 23
We had an early entrance to the magic kingdom, and practically ran to space mountain (still our favorite). We rode it twice in about ten minutes, went into the alien encounter (which has since closed), and then crisscrossed the park over to pirates of the caribbean (revised and now "politically correct), splash mountain and the big thunder mountain railroad. We took a mike fink keel boat around tom sawyer island, and then rode through the haunted mansion. This was an unbelievable ride when it first opened, but now seems a bit dated. Lunch was hamburgers and fries at pinocchio village haus, a fast food joint. We even went on "it's a small world" which is also showing its age, but is still nice. We stayed for the big disney christmas parade: mickey and santa and every other imaginable disney and christmas character.For dinner we headed out of disney and up the road to bahama breeze, and new concept from the darden restaurant group (the same group that runs the olive garden and red lobster). They have a nice setup, and the menu was intriguing. I had something called fish in a bag (mahi mahi), but it was just okay, along with another mojito. This one was excellent! I finished off the meal with some jamaican blue mountain coffee.
sun. december 24
As a change of pace, we started off sunday with golf at oak trail, which is a nine hole course. (I think I won by one stroke.) We stopped afterwards for breakfast and some incredible kona coffee at the kona cafe at the nearby polynesian resort. I even bought a 12 oz. bag (for $40!). Kona is perhaps the best coffee on earth.
After breakfast we headed north to universal studios new park, islands of adventure. It's next door to their existing park, which I like but we didn't have time to visit this year. The new park is a blast! We started with the spiderman ride, which is a virtual reality ride in a moving car, with sensory effects like heat and water coming at you! You also wear 3-D glasses. This is best new ride in all of florida! We next went on the incredible hulk rollercoaster, which is listed as one of the best in florida. It's fast, with a few loops. Once was enough for me! There was another upside down roller coaster called dueling dragons, which had two coasters travelling different paths and coming at each other. This was the kind where the coaster is attached to the track above and your feet hang off into space. Another attraction in the medieval area is poseidon's fury. You mostly stand and watch the show, but there's some impressive fire and water shooting around in this show! Islands of adventure also has a couple of good water rides: the popeye bilge rat barges raft ride (where people get to shoot water at you as you pass by) and the dudley do right's ripsaw falls (it's a log flume ride with the greatest two part plunge I have ever experienced on a flume ride). There was also a cool jurassic park dinosaur river adventure and a kids' area (suess landing) that featured a fun the cat in the hat ride, and, believe it or not, the green eggs and ham cafe!
We headed to dinner at shula's steak house which is in the dolphin hotel (where else would it be?). Don shula has a very successful chain in florida and a few other places. The food was excellent (if a little overpiced).
mon. december 25
Christmas morning! We were treated to a stocking filled with candy on our hotel door. Our final day in orlando started out at the new disney's animal kingdom. We rode in jeeps on the kilimanjaro safari and saw quite a few animals in the natural habitat. There was also the kali river rapids raft ride (wet again!) and a walk through the maharajah jungle trek that featured giant fruit bats! Pretty cool. There was also a bumpy and fun dinosaur ride in the dark. Overall, the park is good, but there's not enough attractions yet to warrant a return visit.We headed to epcot for their special christmas show, but missed out on it. We took a quick tour of the world showcase at night, and then headed back up toward universal and their new city walk area for dinner (restaurants and nightlife designed to compete with disney's pleasure island and westside). We had reservations for one of our favorites: emerils. We also made a brief stop at pleasure island, but we were a little too tired for much action.
tues. december 26
We stopped in for breakfast at a waffle house before heading out of town. We also made a stop at disney's own city, celebration. It looks new but classic and is a planned community with a main street, downtown area, etc. We took a quick stop at the barnies coffee shop (an instant favorite!). We then drove a couple of hours south to miami beach, and checked in at the fountainebleau hotel. This was my second stay at this hotel, and it's become one of my favorites. This is where they filmed the opening scenes of the james bond film goldfinger.
After a quick dip in the pool it was off to dinner at another one of my favorites: joe's stone crab restaurant, near the southern tip of south beach. Unfortunately, we got there around 7:00 (prime time) and ended up with a three hour wait for a table! We waited at the bar where I had a cosmopolitan or two. It would have been faster if we greased a few palms, but that's not our style. Anyway, the wait was worth it. Stone crabs are very delicious! (See my miami pics.)
wed. december 27
We started off wednesday with a cab ride over to wolfies for breakfast. This coffee shop was the place where all the movie stars met back in the glory days of miami beach, or at least that's the impression they give you. They have an excellent breakfast with lots of rolls and cakes, which is a meal in itself! (Note: Unfortunately, wolfie's has since closed. Read the miami herald article.) After breakfast, we walked a few blocks around the area to check out the deco architecture (see my art deco pics).We spent the afternoon lounging at the beach or by the pool, and headed into downtown miami at night for dinner (a restaurant whose name I don't remember at the bayside mall overlooking the marina) followed by a miami heat vs. indiana pacers game (see my pacers and heat pics). We sat next to some girls who were big pacer fans, and then the security guard came over and told them they couldn't take photos of the game and confiscated their camera for the rest of the game! And I was sitting right next to them, still taking photos!
thurs. december 28
I think we had breakfast at the hotel, followed by more beach and the pool. The pool is big, with a waterfall off some rocks, and a bar and ice cream stand on the other side of the rocks. There are also some outdoor jacuzzis, but that's not really for me. We had a late lunch next door at jimmy johnson's three rings bar & grill. Service was poor and the food was mediocre. If they don't improve, this place will be out of business within a year. (Note: It has since been renamed aquatica.) We even got in a set of tennis at the hotel's courts before the rains came (the only day it rained on the whole trip). Oh yeah, there was also a fire alarm in the hotel — twice! — which meant we had to walk down eight flights of stairs. Turned out to be a false alarm.
In the evening, we went to the dogs — greyhounds that is! We went to hollywood greyhound track, which was my first experience with dog racing. It was fun, but we kept referring to our picks as "horses". I think I ended up ahead by about $20, betting mostly quinellas. (Yes, I know the lingo!) For a late night meal, we headed to fort lauderdale to a place I'd been before called mangos. Not a bad place at all, downtown right on los olas boulevard.
fri. december 29
Before we left florida, I had to have breakfast at another old reliable: the news cafe on ocean drive in the heart of south beach. Like almost everywhere we went on this trip, the place wasn't crowded. I had the breakfast special. We walked up ocean drive, and got back over to our hotel for one last dip in the pool before we headed to the miami intl airport and back north.
