schumigirl
It's a bit of a roodie doodie word for lady parts
- Joined
- May 15, 2007
As usual, as soon as the seatbelt sign went off, everyone unbuckled with haste and we brought our hand luggage down and expected to stand a while.......it is nice to stand after sitting on our butts for so long and today we were lucky as the airbridge was attached immediately and we were getting off before knew it. With Premium you are among some of the first ones off the plane and we walked out with Tim and Val the couple we had met in the Executive Lounge the night before. They had been sitting near us but we hadn`t chatted as she hadn`t looked well, turns out she had reacted badly to flying after such a long time not flying, poor thing she looked dreadful, but we wished them a lovely trip and hoped she felt better soon.
You can feel that glorious heat through the glass as we walk past our lovely plane that has got us here safely and we got a wave from the pilot this afternoon.......not often that happens.
Takes only a few moments to walk down to the Immigration hall and we very happily turn left instead of right where there is no line whatsoever for us. Global Entry we thank you for being so marvellous!! When we first started using GE, we used to have to put our passports in to the machine, fingerprints and fill in about 8 questions on the screen before being issued with your little "good to go" ticket. Now, you look in a camera and that`s about it........facial recognition is so much easier. We then head to a very quick chat with the IO and this time again, we had a lovely lady who was friendly, checked our passports and asked if we were bringing in any food......told her we had chocolate, candy and Scottish rum and they were all gifts, she then waved us through and wished us a wonderful trip. Took less than 4 minutes from walking to the machine.
Meanwhile the line of folks that had come off of planes was getting longer.......
I headed to the bathroom, had a quick freshen up while I was there, well, as much as you can do and went back out to discover our luggage was coming off, that was fast today!!
We then headed up the escalator and got on the mini train to take us to the main terminal........one of the best little journey`s of the day....seeing those blue skies and sunshine is just the best feeling. It takes seconds to get there and wandering into the main terminal is also fabulous, I try not to look at the droves of tourists heading back through security for the return journey....that`s never fun and will be us soon enough.....but not today!!
Our rental car had been booked a little different this year. We had booked through a man who does work for a firm, but he offers better rates offline. Someone had suggested we try him when I mentioned we were getting quotes of $4,000 some months back. We usually booked direct with Alamo, so we were a little concerned everything would be straightforward. And it was completely fine and not too bad at just under $2,000 in the end for the 23 nights.
No trying to upgrade us saying we needed a bigger car or a more economical car.....yeah right, look at UK gas prices......the USA is still a bargain to us for fuel, but she was nice and it was one the easiest rentals we have gone through. He had mentioned in an email to just check the balance was zero.....and it was. But, always better to check. Our next step was to go pick up the Visitor Toll Pass which we had never used before and of course it was way over in the opposite side of the airport that we were in. So, we had to bimble over to the other area......not ideal as unsurprisingly......it was hot!! Had they switched the A/C off in the airport today????
This was so easy to pick up........Tom had set up the account before we left, so we picked up the card that sits on the rear view mirror and charges us every time we go through a toll, and it was as easy a process as we had been told. All we had to do was remember to use it and remember to hand it back before we left!
Then over to the garage where the staff were among the most disinterested we had ever seen.....we chose a car, best of a mediocre bunch, loaded the car up and set off on our way home. I did think although the car looked clean, there was a stale aroma when we had been in it for 5 minutes or so.....wasn`t happy with that at all, but we`d think about it later.
We love just how familiar the roads are here to us.....and we did remember there had been a change to our usual route around the airport this time and then we were rumbling along and turned off for Universal Boulevard.....and headed up toward UOR. We were almost there when the steering wheel started vibrating rather violently, that`s never good, but it got us to where we wanted to go.
Driving past RP is always odd as that feels more like home than anywhere else here, but we did pull into the Sapphire parking lot and with it being a Monday, it wasn`t busy and we were very close to the elevators. And the heat again........love it!!!
There is something very special about walking into either RP or Sapphire Falls lobbies.....I often talk about feeling like coming home when we are here and it`s true, as soon as we walk in the doors.....yep, it does feel like we`re walking into our own hallway....albeit a much larger hallway than our own!!!
We were lucky we had missed the huge lines and walked straight to someone who was free and began the check in process. He called our friend to let him know we had arrived, but he was over at RP so one of the managers came out to welcome us, she knew us, but we had never met her before and it was lovely to meet her. Check in didn`t take long and we headed along the corridor to our lovely suite that was very conveniently on the same floor as the lobby......that feeling of happiness being here is just the best feeling....we take in the lobby and glance over to Strong Water knowing we`ll be there later.......lol......priorities!!
Tom is well versed on putting the luggage somewhere discreet while I take pictures of the rooms we go into.......and today is no different!
We love this suite!!! The Sapphire Suite is one of the nicest ones we have enjoyed, other one was the Hospitality Suite with the balcony a couple of years back, but this one is perfect for us and of course we love the view of the lagoon over a pool view everytime. I do like a pool view at RP, but here the lagoon is much nicer for us for several reasons and one is to watch the sunrise over RP on a morning is just beautiful.
Incredibly happy right now.
The lobby area is large and spacious and adds to the light airy feel of the suite, and immediately the smaller bathroom of the two which tends to become Tom`s.......we do like our own bathroom, although I often say after more than 30 years together there are no surprises anymore.......lol.......
It is spacious suite and we love the dining room table which is huge.....and our lovely friend who is always so thoughful had sent us a fruit and cheese plate to nibble on when we get in along with some water......always so welcome and very refreshing after a flight!
I forgot to take a picture of the view which is so pretty and when the sun shines as it is today, it`s beautiful.
The full size fridge is lovely and will get well used over our stay, having the kitchen facilities is ideal although I still never use the coffee makers in the room. But, the little sink, some cabinet storage space are both convenient for a longer stay, yes, we love this suite a lot.
The bedroom is a good size and the bed is very large, similar to the size we have at home, so we do sleep well here as the beds are always so comfortable....well, the ones we have had certainly have been.
And again, we have plenty of storage for our clothes and items during our stay with the cabinet in the bedroom, it has general space and drawer space too.
And......."my bathroom"
well, for the most part anyway. I love this bathoom, it has huge amounts of space, two showers to choose from and the double sink which I seem to need for some reason with all my products around. I have to admit, we never use the shower over the bathtub, we always use the walk in one and thankfully it has plenty of power, so the water pressure is fabulous.
More storage and I have to say we just about fitted our clothes hanging up in there and I`m always happy to see the ironing board....yes I`m weird like that! After our clothes have been stuck in suitcases for goodness knows how many hours, yes, I need an iron!
The safe is small, but will hold most folks documents, but they are not huge. We always take a security box behind the front desk for most of our valuables like passports and so on, so we don`t keep much in the room safe at all.
The security boxes are ideal. You have a key and they keep a key and you fill in a card they keep with authorised folks registered on it, every time you go into the box, you have to have the second key and fill in the form and also have ID. It`s something we always do on our stays at either hotel.
The room phone rang and it was our friend called us to say he had missed us by a few moments at check in, he had come over from RP but we had just gone........so we chatted and had a good old catch up before he set off home for the evening. It`s always a joy to talk to him, we keep in touch by email but always look forward to seeing him in person when we are here.
Once I finished chatting, I immediately jumped into this lovely shower.......travel always makes us feel like we want to shower.......and I was glad I did as I felt so much better when I got changed into fresh clothes too as we would soon be heading down to Strong Water Bar for a catch up and food!!!
But, first we did get everything unpacked.....I hate doing that for some reason......not as bad as packing to leave of course, but just a chore that takes up time.
Walking down to Strong Water was lovely......we half expected Fernando to be off as was usual on a Monday, but as we walked in we saw him down the far end. Our first hug was from the lovely Lenny who we did miss of course and then I wandered down to surprise Fernando and he was surprised, always lovely to see him and what a welcome we got!
SW really does have a family atmosphere, we`ve known most of them for so long so it`s always a delight to catch up. Maggie wasn`t working tonight so as our best bud Lenny was on, we sat at the bar so we could catch up properly.......we certainly felt at home as usual with everyone we knew around us and they all stopped by to say hi at some point.
Our first drink was our usual Rum Revival and Anthony asked us to try one of his latest creations which was a lemonade based drink and is now on the menu, so of course we had to try......it wasn`t for me, but as always had been carefully created to enhance the rum. Tom liked it.
We chatted for so long as it felt like we all had a lot to catch up with, but eventually we ordered some food......Camarones, Tuna Tiradito and the seafood tostado which for us the Tuna was a new dish so we looked forward to tasting that one, but the other two are classics that we love.....and Lenny always remembers we don`t like cilantro....so anything cilantro on these dishes is always omitted.
I have to say, the Tuna Tiradito is one of my new favourite dishes in there.....Fernando did say he thought I`d love it and although Chef Carlos was off tonight, he`d be pleased we enjoyed it. But those Camarones are gorgeous and the sauce with the bread is heavenly.
Anthony`s lovely creation, the Rum Lore.........
But we just sat for the most part and caught up with Fernando, Lenny and the others too. Fernando told us he had two new assistant managers, and said we might recognise one of them.......and oh my, we did know him......Mike used to be a barman here a few years back, and it was so good to see him back again as assistant manager! We would meet the other one another night.
Anthony as is usual for him.......he`s a character and a half, always grabs our camera and takes a load of snaps around us, some I don`t know about till we upload them when we get home and tonight was no different........lol......
Meet Mike......
Meet Anthony
He also captured Fernando bringing us a little treat..........
I was amazed Fernando had remembered I loved anything Dulce de Lech, so when he brought me out a bowl of gelato with that flavour, I was very surprised.......
And of course the biggest slice of Tres Leche cake ever for Tom......well, we did share of course and even we had trouble finishing these tonight.
The Tres Leche cake is light and fluffy and the meringue on top is heavenly.......then add in the almost condensed milk like sauce, you have the perfect dessert!!
They were both delicious.....even for gelato, you could taste the rich flavours coming through.
We at this point were wondering why we weren`t asleep yet, when you hit that wall nothing can keep you awake, but we were doing just fine tonight.....I can credit the good company we were in for that I think.
Then Fernando brought us out a dish Chef Carlos had come up with.....but we had to eat them while they were hot........they were Truffle Pecarino dough balls......and although admittedly we were full up.......we had to try them.
They were beautiful......I`m not fond of truffle flavours, but this was gorgeous and very decadent. Not too heavy despite them being dough, so we managed to eat one each, but my goodness now we were full!!!
We had one last drink and then thought we should really think about heading to bed.....but it was still a little early even for us as it was only around 8pm. We do try to stay awake till around 10pm if we can, and that almost resets the time difference for some reason.
Anthony still had our camera.......and I have to thank him as he did capture some good pics we wouldn`t have been able to capture........
And just after that.......I hit that wall of needing sleep.
We waited for Lenny to come back from his break and found Fernando and the others too and said our goodnights and how good it was to be back, they said they hoped to see us often during our stay.....well, they know us so well, of course they`d see us plenty!!!
Walked to the suite and poured some water and put the tv on for half an hour......I was determined to stay awake till 10pm.
Nope.......I lasted till 9.15 before I practically crawled into bed hoping we`d sleep till around 6ish and not wake up bright as a button around 2am!
Felt good though to be back..........
along shh.....good to see you here!!
Brenda
