Orlando - Disney World & Universal Studios

After the stopover in New Orleans we drove on to Orlando, Florida. Disney World and Universal Studios were the places we booked. On the way there we saw some warships:

As well as seeing that Raven would be with us everywhere :)

 Magic Kingdom!!

Simone with her pass, in the shuttle from the carpark to the entrance.

The monorail that transports people between parks and also between resorts. One of them actually goes through a hotel lobby, pretty cool.

In the "Sea World" which contained several smaller tanks as well as a giant tank with heaps of fish, turtles and a dolphin. When we went around, we saw divers in the tank trying to catch a small stingray with nets. A futile attempt it seemed, given the size of the tank and the speed of the fish....

They also had a tank for manatees, where two rescued manatees were kept. Both had been victims of boat strike.

In Epcot, displays made from chocolate.

Simone had to try some drinking chocolate - it was rich!!!

We stopped at the German Village and got lunch, German buffet.

More chocolate in the German Village.

The Tower of Terror. After riding it, Simone wasn't sure if she was too afraid to ride again. In the end she decided she could do it again :)

A little competition on the street for an unlimited "Fast Pass". It allows you to go to the front of the line for every ride, as many times as you want.

The motor stunt show. This was really cool, sample video below.

We stumbled upon a street parade on our way to the Indiana Jones stunt show.

Unfortunately it started raining really heavily and thunder & lightning as well, so they had to cut the show short and could only show the first of 5 acts :(

After two days, we had a day off to relax and then we had Universal Studios for another two days.

The Rock N Roller or Rockit - as you can see from the photo it's an intense ride that transports you up at a 90 degree angle before dropping you down and starting the ride.

At the start of the Despicable Me 3D ride, going through Gru's house.

At the end you're greeted by dancing minions!

At the second Universal park - Islands of Adventure. This contains the Hulk Rollercoaster as well as the Wizarding World of Harry Potter amongst other things.

The Hulk was probably my favourite coaster along with the Rockit. Video below!

The Dragon Challenge RollerCoaster. They only had one operating instead of both (the premise is a "challenge" between two dragons (rides)). Awesome ride, lots of loops and turns.

We had a lot of fun in Orlando, and we agree that Universal Studios is the more "adult" place, offering a few more mature thrill options. We had luck with the weather in that it was dry during the day, and only started pouring down during the evening/late afternoon. Our time allocation was also spot on, having 2.5 days for Disney and 2 days for Universal. You can actually do both Universal parks in one day if you're really organised.  

Driving on to Miami, where we stayed at the New Yorker Boutique Hotel, just down the road from the Seven Seas Motel where a scene from Dexter was filmed in season 1.

 Being Miami, I wanted to try some Cuban cuisine. On the first night we ended up at a restaurant fairly close to our hotel. The appetizer was a mix plate with pork chunks, chicken chunks, plantain fritters, fried yucca. The sauces were really nice too.

I had a fried snapper, with rice and beans and plantains. Unfortunately my fish was overcooked :(

Simone had a steak with chimichurri sauce. The cause was awesome and so was the steak, really tender despite being quite thin.

New Orleans

After Houston we made our way to New Orleans, Louisiana via a roughly 6.5 hour drive. You could already feel the climate changing from hot and sticky to more sticky. I'm not a fan of humidity, especially when combined with 30C+ heat. Thankfully the car's aircon is working nicely.

After arriving at the St James Hotel, we checked in. A process that usually takes a few minutes, here took much much longer than that. One person at reception, other guests with queries, nobody available to help with luggage, car parked outside waiting for valet (no self parking). After I would say about 30-45 minutes we were in our room, with the car still waiting for valet. That took another 20 minutes. Not a good first impression here...though the room looked nice. No flatscreen TV though, so no connecting the laptop. No fridge either. Aircon controls so weird I had to call them to show me how to turn it on...turns out you have to press two buttons at the same time. Of course that fact is not shown anywhere on the controls.

Once the aircon was working we had water dripping from the bathroom ceiling. A slow drip, so only a minor annoyance. Hotel problems aside, we took a walk through the French Quarters and found somewhere to have a snack, I had picked out Vacherie. Unfortunately being a sunday, the menu was very limited and we only chose to have appetizers. Those were great though! We both had the crab gratin in a skillet. Very flavourful! I also noted that they had a dish with boudin, which is a Cajun sausage and which is very popular in the Louisiana area. We had seen it advertised along the way on several pub/restaurant ads. I asked if I could just have a try of the sausage instead of the whole dish, and the chef was very accommodating and gave me a sample for free. It was really tasty, with a nice spice to it and not oily despite being a bit fattier.

The next day we checked out more of the area, and had some beignets at Cafe Du Monde.

This is what they look like. I don't know why they put a ton of icing sugar on top, it's not necessary.

 In the evening we went to K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen, another restaurant I had chosen for its reputation of Cajun/Creole cuisine. It was a bit pricier, but my god was the food good! My appetizer reminded me of German food, with a bit more spice. It was a rabbit/pork sausage on greens.

Simone had the crab legs. The sauce for the legs was very tasty, like a thousand island dressing on steroids.

Of course I had to try the gumbo. Chef Paul makes his with chicken and andouille and once again this was a winner. Such a deep and rich flavour I could have had a huge bowl of it.

My entree was a "Blackened  Stuffed Pork Chop Marchand de Vin"
Tender Pork Chops Stuffed with Ricotta, Asiago, Mozzarella & Caciocavello Cheese & Fresh Basil, then Seasoned and Blackened in a Cast Iron Skillet and Served with a Marchand de Vin Sauce of Prosciutto Ham, Red Wine and Mushrooms. Served with a Stuffed Potato and Veggies 

Oh Em Gee this was delicious! The baked potato was the best I have ever had. Seriously. I ate the entire thing, the skin was so crispy and thin there was no point leaving it. The middle had been scraped out and tossed in some kind of cheese sauce and then put back. Potato has never tasted this good. The beans were nice and slightly crunchy and the chop tender. The sauce on the chop was killer. For a "meat (pork) and veggie" dish, I don't think I've had better than this.
 

Simone had a combination of two of their dishes, turning it into a surf and turf. Blackened Louisiana drum (fish) and blackened fillet of beef, with their signature "debris" sauce. This sauce takes three days to make we were informed by our waiter. Again, excellent food. We thoroughly enjoyed this dinner.

On our final day we spent the morning checking out the Lafayette No 1 cemetery. This turned out to be really interesting when you take your time and pay attention to some of the details.

A tomb with the Freemason sign on it.

A look inside an empty tomb.

Bent stone plate - freaky.

A lot of tombs had German writing on them. In fact by the amount of German names in this cemetery, you'd think Louisiana was a German colony.

Nature reclaiming a tomb.

This tomb had a whole poem in German written on it.

I enjoyed the cemetery trip, something different and great photo opportunities. Afterwards we left to drive to Tallahassee, our road stop before Orlando.