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Showing content with the highest reputation on 09/10/2024 in all areas
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Six years ago I had the opportunity to sail with Disney Cruise Line on an incredible transatlantic adventure--one that we loved so much that when the opportunity to plan another European vacation came around, we knew we wanted it to be built around another Disney Cruise! Our entire trip would consist of a day and a half in London, an eleven night cruise on the Diseny Dream with stops in Chania, Athens, Santorini, Mykonos, Valetta and Palma de Mallorca and ending with two days in Barcelona. We started our trip off with a day and a half in London, revisiting some of our favorites while enjoying a few new things as well... Norse does the job for cheap direct flights from Orlando to Gatwick... Just make sure you clearly understand their pricing structures and baggage policies because that's where the extra charges can add up. In our prior trip to London, we were supposed to dine at Michelin-starred Indian restaurant Amaya, but due to a transportation delay we missed our chance. This was the first thing we confirmed this time around when the European trip was officially happening. The white sweet potato with tamarind and yogurt was an amazing start to the meal. My first time having oysters at an Indian restaurant and they turned out to be some of the best oysters I've ever consumed! I still dream of this incredible raita. Did you even eat at an Indian restaurant if didn't get some kind of tikka masala? As if I didn't need any more reason to love walking around Piccadilly... One of our favorites! We called an audible and booked day-of tickets for Back to the Future: The Musical at the Adelphi Theatre. The last time we were here we saw the final run of Kinky Boots, which was incredible. And I love that Six is right next door! The lobby of the theatre has been slightly touched up to evoke the feeling of Hill Valley, California in 1985. Of course, there are plenty of merchandise options to choose from. I'll shamelessly admit that I started tearing up the moment the show started. The finale is something special... Do yourself a favor and see it for yourself without spoiling the moment. The final 10 minutes of the show are my favorite and there was one moment that, as a major Back to the Future fan absolutely blew my mind. Opium is our favorite speakeasy hidden in Chinatown not far from Piccadilly. The drinks are over the top and delicious... Not to mention strong! Plus you can order fresh dim sum to go with your drinks! This is one of our favorite places to hang out and I highly recommend it. Reservations are basically required if you intend to get in. I've been to a number of Chinatowns around the world and London's is among my favorites. Last time we were in London, Big Ben was hidden behind scaffolding for a major refurbishment. It isn't a trip to London without at visit to Fortnum & Mason. You had me at marzipan. The Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon may not seem like it would be everyone's cup of tea, but I can assure you this is the place to come for an absolutely incredible meal. As you'd imagine, they serve tea here. But you also can choose from a menu of high tea combinations ranging from savory to sweet. My wife went the route of sweet while I revisit my favorite savory options including this unreal lobster omelette with truffles. All of the finger foods that are served with the tea are all-you-care-to-enjoy, so if you want more, you need only tell your server which ones and how many more. I wish I could have more of these right now. After our incredible meal, we did some damage in the store... For a $25 flat fee, we were able to ship everything home to Florida, so it was an easy choice to make. I was majorly tempted, but knowing we'd be ending our trip in Barcelona, I figured it was best to wait on trying the Iberico ham until we were in Spain. I've traditionally tried at least one new Coca-Cola product with each trip I take... This one was neither delicious nor refreshing. I've long been fascinated with the history of the London Trocadero and Sega World. I wish I could have experienced it firsthand but even passing by the old building feels like being able to embrace a little bit of the history. I've also been interested in The Crystal Maze (because of TPR) for years. If we had had more time on this trip, we definitely would have done it. After years of seeing them at A Celebration of Harry Potter at the Universal Orlando Resort, we finally had a chance to stop by the House of MinaLima. These are the artists who defined the look and feel of most collateral, art and stylings found in the Harry Potter and Wizarding World franchises... Cirque Arcanus is referenced in the second Fantastic Beasts film and will actually be a show/attraction in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Ministry of Magic land in Universal's Epic Universe. After our brief stint in London it was time to fly to Rome... But not before we had a chance to finally try Nando's for ourselves! Worth the hype. It amazes me that Nando's hasn't made its way to more of the US, especially not Florida yet. Everything was so ridiculously tasty! Knowing that we had four days in Greece ahead of us, it felt appropriate to finally get around to watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3... This was a mistake.1 point
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When the new Potterland was jsut rumored I was pretty skeptical about anything related to Fantastic Beasts just because of how poorly received those films seem to be, but this announcement video has me a little bit more optomistic about the land. I'm not a Potter fan at all, I've seen the original movies, never seen Fantastic Beasts, never read the books, not really a fan of the franchise but enjoy the theme park lands. The land looks nice, as long as the ride is good and the show is fun then it should be mostly fine? I guess my one criticism is maybe that the two existing Potter lands are a little bit more "iconic" and recognizable from the films? Even if you never seen the movies Diagon Alley is a pretty funky space visually, and Hogsmeads is kind of the same thing with the towering gables and twisted chimneys. The new Paris section in Epic looks nice but also just kind of looks like some normal ass city streets, not as much fun and whimsy to it I suppose, but that's a pretty minimum criticism. One thing I do find to be interesting with Epic is the shows they're offering. The Potter show, the How to Train Your Dragon show, the roaming live entertainment in Monsters land that ha been advertised, whatever they do with the night time entertainment and the fountain show. I've heard great things about the new Bourne stunt show, but before that I feel like live entertainment maybe has never been Universal's strength? I mean there is an empty theatre in each park as we speak. I guess the new nighttime show at Studios is getting pretty good reviews but that's also after several versions in the past that were not great. So it's interesting that live entertainment seems like it's going to be a fairly significant aspect of the opening day offerings when again their past in that area has maybe not been the best (and when other parks around the world are cutting those offerings like crazy).1 point
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Think this might just be one of the hardest to accept.... as a Star Wars/Lion King/Coming to America geek it's hard to take. He had a long life but still!0 points
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