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Orlando, FL


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Just got back from our MLK Jr weekend at Disney.  We stayed at the Polynesian, which had large rooms and multiple transportation choices (monorail, boat, bus) to the Magic Kingdom.  You go thru security before boarding the monorail and then you just use your magic band to enter the park, super convenient especially if you go early. 

We had dinner at the Poly on our first night, the Spirit of Aloha show.  The food was mediocre and the show was unexciting until the very ending fire dance.  Lunches were had at Magic Kingdom, Liberty Tavern and Cinderella's Table.  The food didn't suck and they served booze, which is all I can ask for.  We had dinner one night at Tony's Town Square, which actually had decent fried calamari.  We had dinner another night at Citricos, a signature restaurant in the Grand Floridian.  That food was pretty good but the service was hasty, which is fine with 2 small kids.

From the Poly you can see fireworks from Magic Kingdom.  The waterslide ain't too bad either. 

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Spent a few days at Disney (Beach Club) for Spring break.  The meals at Morimoto Asia, Crown & Rose, and Monsieur Paul were all pretty forgettable.  For my daughter's birthday, we went to Il Mulino.  I've been to the ones in Atlantic City and Vegas, but not the one in NYC (even though I lived a block away for 4 years).  The branch  in the Swan Hotel was surprisingly good (much better than their casino brethren).  We had clams in white wine and garlic, tortellini in cream sauce, veal parmigiana, and rapini sautéed with sausage.  But for a screaming toddler (who arrived as we were deciding on dessert - we opted to go elsewhere), it was a wonderful dining experience.

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On 4/9/2018 at 12:43 PM, Ericandblueboy said:

Spent a few days at Disney (Beach Club) for Spring break.  The meals at Morimoto Asia, Crown & Rose, and Monsieur Paul were all pretty forgettable.  For my daughter's birthday, we went to Il Mulino.  I've been to the ones in Atlantic City and Vegas, but not the one in NYC (even though I lived a block away for 4 years).  The branch  in the Swan Hotel was surprisingly good (much better than their casino brethren).  We had clams in white wine and garlic, tortellini in cream sauce, veal parmigiana, and rapini sautéed with sausage.  But for a screaming toddler (who arrived as we were deciding on dessert - we opted to go elsewhere), it was a wonderful dining experience.

I had a wonderful meal at the Il Mulino in the Swan a few years back as well and forgot to ever mention it here. The Swan/Dolphin is the hotel with the highest floor of all the WDW properties. I've been to all their fine dining restaurants at this point, every one was certainly pretty good, and I've never had a bad meal at any of them. Very few WDW locations can make that claim.

Still makes me chuckle that one of the few competent Todd English restaurants in the country would be in a theme park hotel, but credit to where it's due - Bluezoo and Il Mulino are easily two of the best meals I've had on the properties in my last few trips.

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In Orlando, again,  this time for our annual partners retreat.  Staying at the Hilton Bonnet Creek, which smells of burning hay for no reason.  Yesterday I went to the Air France lounge at iad and started on champagne at 11 a.m.  A beer on the flight.  Then we knocked back some red wine while discussing how to promote ourselves at the hotel bar.  So I wasn’t very intererested in going to Cuba Libre for dinner at 7 pm.  Instead, I ate at La Luce in the hotel for the 2nd time.  Their fritto misto is awesome - a heaping plate of tender rock shrimp, calamari and veggies with a light but crunchy breading for $16.  The warm cauliflower, beans and arugula salad is similarly awesome.  The spaghetti alla vongole wasn’t as awesome - some sand in the clams, al dente pasta, too much salt.

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After collecting our car in Sanford, we drove to Winter Garden for brunch.  First meal was at Orlando Meats.  It's a butcher/restaurant, which I saw on one of Andrew Zimmern's shows.  We had some pretty awesome country fried steak, something I can't get in the DC area.  It wasn't made from cubed steak though.

After visiting Leu Gardens (a nice little garden), we went to the Ritz for Knife and Spoon, where valet parking is complimentary.  Knife and Spoon is a spin-off of John Tesar's Knife in Dallas.  Its claim to fame is the 240 days aged steak.  They also offer angus and wagyu (akaushi).  With respect to the akaushi ribeye, our server recommended 45 days aged, so that's what we went with.  Our server also recommended King Crab Scampi, served with garlic froth.  The crab meat was so tender, I would guess it was alive shortly before our arrival.  If you like crab, get multiple orders.  The other app we got was Diver Scallop with mushroom dashi and shaved black truffle.  It was impeccable.  To be honest, the steak was just good compared to the great seafood.  We asked for the steak medium rare.  I think it came out more rare than medium rare.  It was well seasoned and very tender.  We also had a side of mac 'n cheese but it was way too much food.  If we go back, I would order more seafood.  I highly recommend this place.

Day 2 was at Discovery Cove, where mediocre food and drinks were included.  That evening, we went to Bice at Portofino Bay Hotel.  Self parking was $28 :(

The food was authentic but not creative.  We had some crispy fritto misto, some al dente linguine alle vongole, and some tender rack of lamb.  The atmosphere is pretty casual, with lots of kids.  While the piazza is pretty, there's not much in terms of shopping.  With the high price and parking charge, probably not worth going back.

Day 3 was spent at Mount Dora.  It's a quaint little town with lots of little shops and restaurants.  We took a canal tour to see gators and other wild life.  On our way back, we went to check out Universal Citywalk.  What I didn't realize is that Citywalk is connected to the theme parks and costs $26 just to park.  And there's really nothing interesting in Citywalk (lots of crappy fast food restaurant).  So a big waste of time and money.

That evening we went to Dragonfly.  The maitake mushrooms fritters (maitake tempura) was pretty awesome (but the tempura batter can still be lighter).  The didn't screw up the miso black cod and gyoza either.  In fact, everything was pretty good, just nothing unique.  They also have happy hour prices on some stuff until 7, so pretty cheap compared to our other meals.

ETA:  We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Orlando.  No one cleaned our room while we were there.  Self-parking is $28 per day and the garage is about a block away from the hotel.  I also hate paying $40 per day for "resort fees" when we didn't use the pool at all and the "free" wi-fi was about 10 Mbps.

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