The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

MySmallWorldof4

MySmallWorldof4

Well-Known Member
MinnieM123 said:
Really glad you wrote the above and also the quote below. I can relate to your (food) ideas being (somewhat) in the minority. Many of my meal preferences are also basic and minimum. (And, I never go to WDW for the food either! ;) But, I still enjoy reading about some decent meals that others have had -- and I have to admit, WDW has improved quite a few of their TS restaurants over the past few years, according to testimony of many members here.) Still, I don't do ADRs at all. I'd rather just eat on the fly, and mostly at QS locations. All that is doable when staying on property, if it's only for a short vacation of 4 days or so.

I like restaurants in various price ranges where I live, and might go for an expensive meal once in a great while, only. I don't think it's so much a status thing or keeping up with the Joneses, for those people who don't go to family style restaurants. It may be that people's tastes might actually be evolving toward different food selections, as time moves on.



Each state tends to have it's own area(s) of real poverty. I knew right away that the woman who didn't get her teeth fixed, probably did not have the kind of money to get the help she needed, and that's sad. Many people take a lot for granted in their own lives, and it may be hard to comprehend that a person could not get teeth fixed. I don't think it's anything mean-spirited or judgmental on their part, but just a genuine surprise to some people that this happens.
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I agree about the finances. I think that for a large company like Denny's or Disney for that matter, those companies should have funds set up to help their employees pay for dental care, because we all know that dental insurance pays for cleanings and maybe a root canal or a couple of fillings in a year. So if you have major work to be done and no money, you will never be able to afford it. When we were at Disney a bunch of years ago we saw quite a few cast members that really needed some dental care. I assume with their salaries that many could not afford a copay. I even thought at one point that a large corporation should employ dentists and have an onsite office where employees could get dental work done at no charge. A healthy mouth can be important for maintaining a healthy body. Dental care is also a heck of a lot cheaper than medical care when you catch things early. A cavity is a lot cheaper than a crown or root canal.
 
MySmallWorldof4

MySmallWorldof4

Well-Known Member
Tony the Tigger said:
Well, no matter how I tried, I couldn't rationalize stopping through Orlando on the way home from Tampa to Fort Lauderdale.

Was supposed to leave Tampa yesterday, and our AP's are not good on weekends. Ended up leaving early this morning, but I hear it's packed at WDW for the holiday weekend. Plus I really have to catch up on work.

So, Kylie and I are home.

Plenty of restaurants around here, but few with "good food." New Jersey spoiled me forever with every pizza, Italian, and Chinese place within spitting distance being excellent more often than not. Down here, it's meh at best.

Re: "every day" eating out, we go cheap, BOGO, coupons, points, etc. LOL. Main concern is healthy as much as possible, which can be tricky. So many restaurants load up with sugar and salt. (I'm trying to be the first man on Dad's side of the family to live past my 50's.)

But we have come to love and appreciate our nice meals, mainly stemming from our Disney trips - signature restaurants, wine pairings, etc. They are events in themselves. You can't eat like that regularly, though. They are treats.

And now I want Chinese. Thanks, guys.
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Souplantation/ Sweet Tomatoes is not too bad if you are looking for healthy and cheap. They have great coupons too.
 
donaldtoo

donaldtoo

Well-Known Member
Rista1313 said:
Those look awesome!
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They were, indeed...!!!!! :)
I loooooves me some crawfish...!!!!! :hungry:
Years ago, my youngest bro was a food expediter at a local Cajun place here in Austin called Pearls Oyster Bar.
They had a crawfish fettuccini dish on the menu there that was amazing, and we would always go when my bro was on shift because he would make sure they put a double amount of crawfish tails in it...it was like a mountain of crawfish tails with some noodles and Alfredo sauce...!!!!! :hilarious:
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
Tony the Tigger said:
I am on their mailing list!
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That is another one the closed up recently. I used to love to go to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. I love salad bars, the prices were right and the soups were over the top! It always seemed busy too. I wonder what happened. The head quarters for Golden Corral is in Raleigh, but, our local one in Cary closed around the same time as Sweet Tomatoes. A lot of the closed establishments were in a pretty central area of Cary. No more then about 1 mile apart. Sweet Tomatoes, Golden Corral (which, BTW was packed all the time) Bob Evans, Macaroni Grill, Five Guys, Carrabba's, Perkins and others closed within a year of each other. Some of those, except Sweet Tomatoes and Perkins, are still in the area, just not close enough to be a regular stop. Even Chili's closed in central Cary and moved to the high rent district, still Cary though. Cary covers a lot of area but is still called a "Town".
 
Cesar R M

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
Trip Report Part 7:

Port Miami and First Day at Sea.

We woke up kinda early this day, as we prepared for a checkout. Funnily, a group of young guys were also on the same cruise ( found them later in the Allure.. many times, even we were in most of the same tours lol ) and at first we had no idea.
Anyway, after a quick breakfast (we bought some subs from the local subway), we got ready. Packed everything.. and when reviewing the papers.. thats the day I noticed that the trip was different. It was not going out of Fort Lauderdale but from Port Miami.

So we used our Uber app and onwards we went!



The trip with the uber was uneventful. We managed to see the new terminal construction to allow their biggest ships to arrive to Port Miami.
The Norwegian Gateway, along with 2 carnival and 1 RCCL ships were also in the terminal.
The Allure dwarfed them easily.

I'm still annoyed at the need to add the horrible "scrubbers"(third added funnel) to pollute less when they are near US or EURO territories. It looks awful. But thats how corporations greed do all for the sake of save money in the long run.

Anyway, the terminal was completely utterly packed. The gentlemen on the baggage area gave us extra luggage tags as I had only printed 2 sets. They got our bags lined up, gave them a tip and we went on our way to the third floor via a escalator.

There was a world of people waiting. Some were in the EXPRESS lines, others in the old lines, and others in the PRIORITY ( Diamond and higher ranks) line.

We took around an hour waiting until we finally cleared the line and we got processed... and our cards delivered.
Then we had to line up again for the security check up. This was way faster than an airport. As they had like 6-7 individual lines to get in.

Once sorted, we took a photo with the ship's background and we went to board the ship.
The process was pretty straightforward And it was a delight to get finally inside the ship's Promenade.
I then decided to get everyone a small tour of all the ship amenities.

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Then we went to our room to leave our other bags so we could be a bit more free to roam around.
Then we went to the central park so they seen how pretty it is.. and finally to the top floor so they could enjoy the water stations and the back of the ship.. so they could have a very wide view of all miami and miami beach.

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Panorama of Port Miami and Miami from the back of the Allure of the Seas

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Side view.

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My mom, my niece and my sister looking down at the Aquatheater from the top of the ship (rear area).

What was weird that we ended being the last ship leaving Port Miami.

The first to leave was the Carnival ships, then the Norwegian and finally the Jewel of the Seas.
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The sun was almost out when we finally started to move. flanked by 2 gunships telling idiots to move away (who the hell goes in an almost suicide run against the Oasis class with a damn jetski?? )
Happened more than once and the gunboats had to sound the alarm a few times... Floridans.. I tell you! crazy!

We then went to get some quick snack at the Cafe Promenade while teaching my sister and her daughter and son about how things work. Food stations, what is free and what is not.. etc..etc..

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Unfortunately, the SailAway "show" party was cancelled for mechanical problems (a common recurrence in the aqua theatre for the rest of the trip).

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So no sailway party other than the local DJ in the top center area of the ship doing some songs while guests enjoyed the views AND the pools.
My mom in the other hand, went to make sure we had our show reservations for Mama mia and others.. Which she successfully did

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After getting ready, we proceeded then to Mama Mia show which was pretty good. Albeit simple compared to the megashow that CATS is.

After the show we went to dinner, which was very good. A surprise considered we were mostly disappointed in the food of the Oasis (funny thing, most of the shows on the Oasis were top notch while the food was average.. in the other hand the Allure had amazing food, but the shows were puzzling and weird or had lower quality than the Oasis's) The Waiters we had some were good, some were horrible as NOBODY could understand them. ( we had some indian waiters that.. really.. could not talk in english to save their lives..). The next day we had indians as well but they spoke PERFECT english. So it was a swing hit and miss depending on the day.


TOMORROW: TRIP REPORT 8, SEA DAY 1
 

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