Bahamas – Day 4. I don’t want to go home.
We told ourselves that we would get up really early and get to the pool really early so we could maximize the pool time before leaving.
Well, we didn’t set alarms and were quite surprised when we woke up to find that it was already 8:50 AM! We threw open the blinds and found… sun! Blue skies! It was a beautiful day!
Tzvi threw on clothes and was out by 9:00. He went straight to the pool and got us seats. Actually, our seats were already waiting. On one side of the lagoon pool there are about ten lounge beds that are sort of separated from the other seating; you have to walk around the pool and go over a little bridge to get there. We had assumed they were really expensive to book for the day, but when we asked on Saturday how much they were, the attendant told us they were free, just first come first serve, but that she could hold one for us on Sunday if we wanted. Yes please!
So Tzvi got there at 9:00 and found our bed reading and waiting with the beautiful sun beating down on it. I got dressed quickly and made it there a few minutes later. It was such a nice morning. It was so hot and sunny and even the water was warmer. We swam a lot and tried out swimming in the quiet pool as well. We ordered iced coffees and a bowl of fruit with chili spice that was just delicious. We laid in the sun and enjoyed the last few hours of vacation.
There’s very little to write about, but here are lots of pictures of us enjoying the end of vacation:
the hot tub
Around 11:30 we ordered lunch. Tzvi had fish tacos and I had corn croquettes. We also had our fourth local crushed avocado of the trip and we shared a Bahama Mama. It was all delicious. After lunch we took one last dip in the pool and then at 12:20 went back to the room.
We quickly changed, finished packing up, had our bags taken down, and said goodbye to the room. We timed it all to a tee. The Bahamas government recommends you arrive at the airport three hours before your flight. That was crazy and our hotel said two hours was fine. So we got in a cab (a real one this time) at 12:49 and got to the airport at 1:03. Our flight was at 3:00.
Before going on, here are a few parting shots of the hotel. I don’t think we’ve posted these before, but just so you can get a sense of how beautiful this place is:
our room
the lobby
the library
the manor bar
We checked in at the airport, dropped our bags (no line for bag drop), then went through security (short line). So far so good, but we figured passports would be the hold up. Except a magical thing happened when we got through security. We saw a sign for Global Entry! That’s right – passport control is actually U.S. passport control (since come back into a domestic terminal in the U.S., you go through U.S. passport control here). We went right up to the kiosk, got a ticket, went straight to passport control, got stamped, and we were done. And it was only 1:25! Tzvi started to get all upset that we could’ve spent at least another half hour at the pool. He was right, but I told him to try to look on the bright side, that at least we didn’t have a long wait.
Once you go through passport control I think you’re technically back in the U.S. because there’s a sign that says “Welcome to the United States” and they only charge $3.25 for a coffee at Starbucks.
We were supposed to board at 2:25, but that didn’t happen. At about 2:45 they basically made an announcement saying that they needed two people in aisle seats in rows 1-5 (which are the extra-legroom seats) to give up their seats. They said they would credit them back the $50 they spent on the Even More Space seat and then give them $100 JetBlue credit. They would be moved to a window and middle seat. I don’t even understand how that is an incentive. It was truly awful and they basically said that if no one volunteers we would sit here and wait. I don’t even know how they are allowed to do that. We should really write to Jetblue. Everyone on the flight was so angry and things were getting tense. Finally two people volunteered and they started boarding, but people were getting so nuts that the gate agent just stopped everything and started yelling for everyone to back up and said they were stopping boarding until people could calm down. At that point Tzvi had made it through but I hadn’t. It felt very much like a WWII movie where a family gets separated crossing the border while trying to flee, except then they started boarding and I got on the plane.
Once we were finally seated and they closed the doors, they announced that we would be waiting even longer for extra scanning of cargo bags. I don’t even understand what that means. If there were cargo bags why don’t they scan them before they have a planeload of people? It was so frustrating and we took off an hour late. We only landed a half hour late, but we could have been so early. At least the rest of the flight was good, but what a difference from our flight to Nassau. Everyone was so happy and excited on that flight. All I have now is a distant memory of landing in sunny Nassau and seeing people strip off their sweaters. Now passengers, still grumpy from the delays and airport Nazism, did the reverse as we landed in freezing New York.
Anyway, we got off the plane, got our bags fairly quickly and headed home.
It was a great vacation. As always, it was too short, but we’re so lucky we got to have this quick trip away. All of our fears of poor service were for nothing because the hotel was amazing and the service was top notch. Also, Tzvi didn’t go into anaphylactic shock at all, so the epi pen wasn’t needed, and that was a very good thing.
Bahamas – Day 3. Why it’s cloudy today?
We woke up this morning around 9, threw our blinds open and found… cloudy skies. Whomp whomp. As Hallie would say, “Why it’s cloudy today?”
We got up and went for breakfast at Commonwealth again. That’s three out of our last four meals at Commonwealth. Breakfast was the same as the prior day and very good again. More pregnant people. There was a couple we saw walk in who seemed very particular about their table (they had to see three before settling on one). We continued to see them and their particularism throughout the next day and a half as they were shown multiple tables in multiple restaurants around the hotel.
After breakfast we went to pool and lounged. All day. It was cloudy, but just nice to sit. We also spent a lot of time in the hot tub. At some point we walked around to the Grand Hyatt spa, the Espa, but we couldn’t use the facilities because we couldn’t sign the release form. Oh well.
Around 2:30 we went to Costa for lunch and told them to call Chef Sid and see if he was around. We were seated and five minutes later the couple from breakfast were seated near us, changing their table at first. Chef Sid came out and told us he was going to make aguachile and guacamole. The aguachile was basically red snapper that was raw but marinated in citrus and served with cucumber, red onion, shaved radish and all in a coconut-lime water. Tzvi really enjoyed it. We also ordered some other food as well (Mexican street corn and another green salad), and then the manager of the restaurant came over to say that the chef wanted to “invite us for a cocktail” so we both had mango margaritas. When the bill came, the only thing on it was the corn and salad. It was a lovey meal, and so nice of the Chef.
We went back to the pool and sat until about 5:30. We headed upstairs and waited for Shabbat to end at 5:57. We called home and Hallie was still alive so all was well. I went to the gym and Tzvi went back to the Espa for a steam. Then we got ready for dinner.
Tonight’s dinner was at Fi’lia, an Italian restaurant that is also technically part of the SLS but basically in the casino. From the moment we left lobby of our hotel we could tell that many more people were around and that people were more dressed up. I think there were definitely more people at the hotels, but others come from other places as well. Fi’lia is well designed, a stylish modern restaurant. We were seated at a booth for 4, so we sat next to each other in the booth. When we sat down there was a small potted plant on the table. Our server came over to bring bread and pour olive oil out onto a plate – always a good start – and then picked up the potted plant and started to cut fresh oregano from it into the plate. It was so great.
We studied the menu for a while and ultimately decided that, as it was our last night of vacation, we would order everything. Well, almost. We started with a tableside Caesar salad, that wasn’t really made tableside, because the man making it, whose name was Magyver (or something that sounded a lot like Magyver), couldn’t get the cart close enough to our table. Not a problem, I got up and stood watching him make the salad for five minutes. The salad was delicious. The best part was probably the fresh croutons that he also made tableside by spreading garlic on bread nad then grilling it on a small grill on his cart. We also had a charred eggplant dip appetizer that Tzvi liked, and polenta fries with ketchup that were great. For mains Tzvi had mushroom ravioli with cream sauce and breadcrumbs, which he loved and devoured, and I had spaghetti with tomato sauce and broccoli and cauliflower. Mine was delicious but it was one of the biggest plates of pasta I’ve ever seen. I was so full after three bites, but with Tzvi’s help we finished the whole bowl. Nothing wowed us on the dessert menu so we called it after that and headed into the casino.
Tzvi took $60 out of the ATM and I went to work with Roulette. The cheapest table had a $15 minimum bet, so I started with a machine that let you bet $2. I played a bunch of hands and won $8. We cashed out and I was ready to go for the real thing. I put down $1 on 15 different numbers, and would you believe it, I won! That’s $35. I kept going and won 4 hands in a row. Then they changed the table operator, which is where my luck hit a snag. I kept playing a bit after that, and ultimately we came out up $25. It was exhilarating.
After the casino we walked to Bond, which was just opening up for the night. We basically walked in and walked out. The music was so loud, it just made me feel old. I also didn’t really get it, because it seemed like all of the seats were roped off (I guess you need to pay for bottle service if you want to sit). So the only place you can go is the dance floor or the bar? There was a fun photo booth though and we took a bunch of pictures.
After that we looked around for dessert but couldn’t really find anything, so we went back to the Rosewood and took a table at the Manor Bar in the lobby. The bar is really nice with dark wood and all of the waiters wear cool plaid pants. I ordered a khalua and cream and Tzvi ordered a smoked old fashioned. The waiter described the cool process they use and the smoking gun, but we didn’t actually see it happen. While we were sitting the couple who were at Commonwealth the previous night came in, and we watched as the husband read the menu and described it to his wife for about 20 minutes. There was also a group of Grand Hyatt people who looked like they were on a convention. One guy was super loud with a really annoying high pitched voice, and one guy was wearing a white polo shirt, white shorts and white shoes and didn’t speak the whole time. Looked like a fun convention.
We sat for a little while and then went up to the room. Back in the room we found our bill waiting for us under the door. Eek. Tzvi took a look and discovered that our cab ride from the first day was on the bill! $78! Tzvi went down to the desk, told the receptionist what had happened, the man said “one moment, let me take a look,” and then he printed out the bill and handed Tzvi a new bill without the charge. I’ll just say, I don’t know what people on TripAdvisor are complaining about. That’s good service.
Tzvi came back, we lit the menorah, and then we went to bed.
Great day.
Bahamas – Day 2. All guests are equal, but some guests are more equal than others.
We woke up this morning at 8:30, got dressed, and headed to breakfast at Commonwealth, the other restaurant at the Rosewood.
Breakfast was buffet: there were eggs, potatoes, fresh fruit, cheeses, pastries, cereals. Everything was good. Interestingly there was no lox, but there was smoked haddock, which Tzvi put on his bagel. They also didn’t have real syrup for the pancakes – they had like a fake sugar free Aunt Jemimah equivalent that wanst really on par with the rest of the breakfast in terms of quality, so that was kind of odd. One nice touch at breakfast was that they had an avocado toast bar – a woman was making it fresh and you could choose to add a poached egg, tomato and arugula. The coffee cups were also tiny. I don’t quite understand that.
it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day in the neighborhood…
After breakfast we went to pool and got seats. An attendant got us set up with chair covers, towels, sunscreen and a bucket of ice with water bottles in it. There are two pools at the Rosewood – the quiet pool, which is like three pools overflowing into each other, and the lagoon pool that snakes through the pool area with seating around it. It’s really beautiful and set up so it’s not too crowded. Also there’s really only at most two rows of seating (in some parts there was just one row), so you never feel like you’re being seated too far from the pool.
I should mention that the Grand Hyatt and the SLS each have two pools as well, but Baha Mar works on a sort of caste system. If you’re staying the Grand Hyatt, you get a little blue plastic wristband that you’re supposed to wear all the time, and you can only use the Grand Hyatt pools and facilities. If you’re staying at the SLS you get a slightly nicer black wristband (which I’ve heard they charge you $100 for if you lose it), and you can use the SLS and Grand Hyatt pools and facilities. If you’re staying at the Rosewood you don’t get a wristband (that’s right – the wristband is to show where you’re not staying, not where you are), and you can access anything at Baha Mar. At one point on the trip I was speaking to a man who I think is the manager of the pool attendants. The man asked me if I had read Animal Farm, and told me that Baha Mar is kind of like Animal Farm – everyone is equal, but some people are more equal than others. (Yes, even the staff at Baha Mar are highly more educated – this particular attendant had a degree in kinesiology from LIU in Brooklyn and had previously worked at the Atlantis in the Bahamas and Abu Dhabi).
So, dressed in our finest bathing suits and bearing the overwhelming stench of superiority we settled in poolside at the Rosewood pool. We really were surrounded by a bunch of rich people. The people sitting next to us had a bag from another Rosewood hotel and were talking about buying a house (“well he knows we’re more willing to spend than other people”), and a lot of the women had large, fake, expensive looking breasts. There are also a lot of pregnant people here. Because the Bahamas is the only Caribbean destination where they don’t have Zika, it’s pretty much the only place to go for a babymoon in the winter. I think half of all of the women here are pregnant. Rivals our neighborhood.
There’s not much to say about the day. We just sat at the pool the whole day, swam a little (the water isn’t heated but it was still nice), used the hot tub (which is also beautiful and set off in a separate little area with its own seating), drank rum cocktails, and read books and magazines. Around lunch time we went to see what other food options there were. Once you leave the Rosewood property it gets a lot more crowded. Right by the beach there are a few food trucks, but nothing for us to eat (all BBQ and Mexican food). We really didn’t find much else to eat, but we did see a bunch of flamingos and a small aviary where you could pay to feed birds (nice for kids), as well as the other hotel pools. The Grand Hyatt pool is nice and had some cool waterfalls and a place where you could swim next to a giant fish tank, but it was really crowded. Maybe the Rosewood turned us into snobs, but it was unappealingly crowded. Next we saw the SLS, which is known for being more of a south-beach style party hotel. The SLS has a pool called the Privilege Pool, which charges $150 minimum for the day (“but I think I can do it for you for $100” the attendant told us) that goes toward food and drink. There was also a live DJ blasting music so loudly we couldn’t actually hear each other talking. No thank you. The main SLS pool looked nice too, but again, super loud music and so unappealing.
We got back to our hotel as quick as we could and decided to just order from the poolside menu. Once again we ordered the local crushed avocado, I had a green salad with apples and pumpkin seeds and Tzvi had fish and chips. All good. After lunch Tzvi went to check to see if the package with the Epi Pen had arrived yet. It hadn’t, so he checked the tracking number, which is when he found out that the package wouldn’t be arriving until Monday by 6:00 PM. Yes, even though they told my mother it would be there overnight, it turns out FedEx doesn’t actually deliver to the Bahamas overnight. Awesome.
This was a nice touch - a portable charger that they let you use at the pool. If only it didn’t take a half hour for them to bring it to us once we asked for it.
Around 4:30 we went inside, video chatted Hallie and got ready for Shabbos. We lit our menorah on the balcony again, but it had gotten so windy that we couldn’t keep the candles lit. We relit them a couple of times but it just wasn’t working.
Around 5:15 we went down to the Library and ordered tea and scones. The scones came with clotted cream and were good, but a little hard, kind of like hockey pucks, but buttery hockey pucks.
Then a little before 6:00 we went down to the spa where we had booked a 90 minute couples body scrub and massage. The treatment was booked for 6:00, but we had to wait until about 6:15 because the person before us ran over. When he came out he looked like crazy older man and he started talking about how his bar mitzvah was tomorrow. Weird. Anyway, it felt like we were waiting forever. Finally they came to get us and took us back into the treatment room. They invited us to use the shower first for a “five minute shower,” which we did. Then we put on robes and sat in chairs on a ltitle patio, where they did a “foot ritual” which was basically a little foot scrub. Next we went back into the room, got onto the table, and spent about an hour and a half being exfoliated and massaged. It was great and flew by. I think next time I’d rather just have the massage – the exfoliating scrub was nice but just felt like it was breaking up the massage too much – but it was still a great experience.
By the time we got out of there it was almost 8 o’clock and dinner was scheduled for 8:30. We walked across from the spa to Commonwealth, where our dinner would be, to tell them we’d probably be a little late. As we approached the restaurants, still in our bathrobes, the manager said “we do have a dress code here.” He was joking. It was pretty funny.
We then changed and made it back to the restaurant for dinner around 8:45. The restaurant is two rooms and designed very nicely. We sat inside in a corner booth so we could sit next to each other. I wasn’t in the mood for a cocktail so I got a diet coke, but Tzvi got something that had gin and egg whites that was actually pretty tasty. As soon as we told the waiter about Tzvi’s allergy he went to get the chef, and that’s when we met Chef Sid. Chef Sid (short for Siddhartha) is the executive chef for the Rosewood and oversees both of the restaurants, the lounge, the in-room dining and the pool dining. He came back a couple of times during the meal and we spoke to him for a little while, learning how he grew up in India, used to cook in London and then was the executive chef of the Rosewood Abu Dhabi. He told us about a particular dish at Costa that he thinks is really good. It’s a shrimp dish, which we said we don’t eat, so he said if we come for lunch he’ll make it for us with snapper and we can try it on him. Very nice man.
Anyway, the restaurant is called Commonwealth and the menu is themed to all of the different countries that were presently or formerly under British rule. There were Indian dishes, Irish dishes, etc. To start I had an orange- butternut squash soup that was thick but didn’t have cream and was absolutely delicious. Tzvi had an asparagus and mushroom tart that was a cross between a tart and quiche, which he really enjoyed. For the mains we both had salmon, which came simply prepared with veggies and potatoes and was delicious. For dessert we had an apple tart and a coffee-chocolate thing. Both were great.
I think we were the second to last people to be seated, so by the time we were done eating the restaurant was empty except for one other couple at the table next to us. They were southern and probably in their late 30s. First we watched as the man spent about a half hour reading the wine list and telling his wife about it. They both ordered salmon, then their food came, and then he was confused and said “didn’t I order the rack of lamb?” He ended up keeping the salmon.
We walked around a bit looking for the fountain show. There’s supposed to be giant fountain that sprays along with music every hour, like in Vegas, but it didn’t seem to be working. It was also very hard to find. There are a lot of signs here that seem like they don’t point you anywhere, or at least not where they say they do. For example, you can find two signs pointing in opposite directions that both say Grand Hyatt. Anyway, we got a little lost walking around and didn’t really get anywhere. The grounds of the resort are beautiful, but there seems to be a lot of unused space. Maybe over time they’ll develop the property and use more space.
We were tired and there wasn’t really anything we wanted to do, so we just went back to the room and went to sleep.
Great day.
Bahamas – Day 1. Welcome to Rosewood. Welcome to Rosewood.
Thursday morning we woke up and gathered ourselves as quickly as we could. We dropped Hallie off at school earlier than we’ve probably dropped her off all year (sure, when we have to go to work we take our sweet time). We quickly got coffee at Toddys and said bye to Jay (who is still sick after 5 weeks of the same cold; hope he’s not making any bagels), got some cash, dropped Hallie’s stuff off at my parents, drove home, realized I forgot to leave my mom cash that I owed Blanca (cleaning lady), drove back to my parent’s house to drop off the money, drove back home, called the Uber and we were on our way!
The Jet Blue Christmas Tree vs
The Jet Blue Menorah
We checked in with pre check at JFK, so everything was super quick. We got a Jamba Juice, Tzvi made a work call (the first of many), and we waited to board. We had extra legroom so we got on first and got comfortable. God forbid Tzvi doesn’t have ample space above his seat for his belongings. They said it was a full flight, but they closed the aircraft door and the seat next to me was empty! Hurrah! The flight was great. I watched some more Designated survivor. On the flight we tried to do a quick scan/analysis to see who we thought would be going to our hotel. Everyone around us looked so happy to be starting their vacations. All of us like snowbirds heading south for the winter.
Once landed in Nassau we got off the plane quickly, but were met by a massive line for passport control. Lucky enough for us we had a Caribbean band playing local tunes on a steel drum while we waited. As we got on line this one man kind of rushed to get in line in front of us. We got on line behind him, and then watched as the rest of his family cut in front of us to join him. I wouldn’t say anything if it were one or two people, but IT WAS ELEVEN PEOPLE – and then when we got to the front of the line they didn’t even all go to passport agent together. It was like 4 different parties. Tzvi was, to put it lightly, perturbed. I had to hear about it for a while.
We finally made it through and headed to baggage claim. On our way we passed a Menorah sponsored by the local Chabad. Our luggage was already on the belt so we grabbed the bags and headed for the exit.
For this trip we’re staying at Baha Mar, the fairly new resort in the Bahamas (built to rival Atlantis, which is really starting to show its age). The resort is made up of three separate hotels – a Grand Hyatt, an SLS and a Rosewood. We’re staying at the Rosewood, which is the nicest of the three and also the most recent to open – the Hyatt opened about 18 months ago, but the Rosewood has only been open since the summer. We’ve been pretty excited about this trip, but in the last couple of weeks we’ve been looking at TripAdvisor and started seeing really bad reviews of the hotel appearing almost every day. Every review said the same thing: hotel is beautiful, service is terrible. That made Tzvi a little worried, but what are you going to do?
Anyway, just before the exit in the airport is a big sign that says Baha Mar and we stopped at the first desk for the Rosewood. Basically we got to check in for the hotel at the airport. (This was nice, but I don’t really get it, because when you get to the hotel you still have to wait on line to get the keys, but ok.) At the check in counter they had complimentary champagne and juice which was nice to look at, and some snacks. I guess we made it to the desk quicker than everyone else because as we stood there we watched as all of the other people from our flight that we suspected were going to our hotel arrived on line behind us. One of the couples were expecting, one had a ten month old baby at home (I was eavesdropping), and the other two couples were celebrating their fourth anniversary but no kids.
The amazing Shaniqua checked us in (she asked us to call her that). As she told us things she kept saying “Welcome to Rosewood.”
“I’ll be checking you in for your stay. Welcome to Rosewood.”
“Once you get to the hotel you just need to get your keys. Welcome to Rosewood.”
“You are booked in a beautiful resort view room. Welcome to Rosewood.”
“Happy birthday. Welcome to Rosewood.”
“Follow him and he’ll take your luggage to a taxi. Welcome to Rosewood.”
We made it very clear that we had not pre-arranged transportation through the hotel (we didn’t say it was because we knew it was $78 for the 12 minute ride) and asked for a taxi. They said they were taking us to a taxi and led us to a nice Mercedes where a chauffeur put our bags in the car and said everything would be charged to our room. We figured that either they were charging us $78 for this and we could deal with it later, or we were getting a free ride.
The ride was literally 12 minutes. As we pulled up to the large towers of Baha Mar we headed into the trees and the hidden entrance of our hotel. It didn’t feel like we were arriving at a large resort – it was more like a small boutique resort.
Obviously when we got there we were greeted by a nice line to get our keys. Same people in front of and behind us from the airport. We got our keys and were shown to our room by our “butler.” Apparently we had 3 butlers and one was named Jarvis, but we never met him. The butler showed us around the room and told us a little about the property. There was a nice rum cake and a few apples upon arrival.
Menorah in the Rosewood lobby
We unpacked, but it was cloudy and cool so we didn’t go to the pool and decided to walk around and get something to eat instead.
The view from our room
As we were leaving the room, Tzvi asked me if I had an epi pen, which I didn’t. He then went through his bag and realized that he also didn’t have an epi pen. That’s right, he had forgotten to pack an epi pen. The first step was to sit for 15 minutes with the concierge calling every pharmacy on the island to find out that none stocked the epi pen. Next we called my parents who took an epi pen from the house to the shipping store on Central Avenue and tried to ship one to us. When they got there they were told that they needed a prescription pad, so my father went home to get one, but he ended up bringing back a bill instead, so he had to make another trip, but then they wouldn’t let them ship it overnight because it was medication, which begged the question of why did they even tell them it was medication in the first place, and so instead they had to go to the FedEx store on Sunrise Highway (about fifteen minutes away) where they just placed it into a FedEx box and tried again.
In the meantime, we went for lunch at Costa, the Mexican restaurant outside near the pool. We sat outside and it was very nice. The restaurant was set over water – if you looked down you saw fish swimming around. For lunch we had our first of many plates of “local crushed avocado” (read: Guac) of the trip. We also shared an order of veggie tacos and corn croquettes. The food was spicy but delicious.
After lunch we walked around and saw the hotel. The reviews weren’t wrong – the place is stunning. The property is beautiful and every public area is well designed. They literally left no detail overlooked. When we were done walking we went back to the room so I could change for the gym. When we got back we were greeted by a birthday surprise! There was a sign over our bed that said Happy Birthday, rose petals on the bed, my named spelled with yarn, and another cake! It was really nice. It said “Happy Birthday, from your butlers” but really Tzvi arranged it so shouldn’t it have said it was from him? Either way, thank you Jarvis and crew.
It was already 6 by the time we left the room again. I went to the gym and Tzvi went for coffee. For such a nice place it was actually a pretty poor gym. It was small-ish and there were no weights under 10 pounds. Tzvi went to Library (the lobby lounge) and ordered an ice coffee for $11 (everything you order here gets a 12% VAT and 15% service charge added). He did some work and then went back to the room.
We then showered and changed for dinner, which wasn’t until 8:30pm.
On our way down we stopped in the lobby to speak to the concierge. While we were standing there I saw a couple passing by – the man in a long beard and a kippa and the woman in a long skirt. I obviously ran up to do some bageling and found out they were the Chabad Rabbi and Rebbetzin. They are originally from Brooklyn and were here to check the electric menorahs or something. They asked if I had heard of Chabad. Apparently one night they had a Chanukah Party here but we missed it, and there wasn’t a nightly lighting. They also told me there are about 500-600 Jews on the island, none religious. But they do have Shabbat. I asked them for matches, because you aren’t allowed to fly with them and no one in the hotel would give me. Somehow he found some. Thanks Chabad of the Bahamas!
Dinner was at Katsuya, a Japanese restaurant. Technically the restaurant is part of the SLS (I think there is also a Katsuya at the SLS in Miami?) but it’s located inside the casino. The casino basically bridges the three hotels together, so if you want to go to any restaurants, bars or other hotels you need to walk through the casino.
Dinner was very good. We sat outside and watched as every twenty minutes the fountain lit on fire and went up in big flames. It was pretty cool. Tzvi had to take a work call during dinner, but at least I got to watch the fire. Anyway, we started with a Miso soup, which was good but kind of small. Then we had tempura fried vegetables, which were good, and crispy brussells sprouts with a sweet balsamic sauce that were incredible. Tzvi got miso black cod and a double yellowtail roll (yellowtail inside and on top). I ordered a cooked salmon roll with avocado. They first brought it to me with salmon row in it, which I had to send back, because ew, and I told them I didn’t want that. The second one they brought was delicious though. For dessert we had some passion fruit profiterole which was pretty good.
After dinner we walked around a bit and saw the rest of the resort. We did some gambling in the casino. I think we lost $22 dollars on Roulette, but at least it was fun. We saw the lobby bar of the Grand Hyatt where there was live music, but not for us. We also saw the SLS lobby where we found another menorah (there’s one in each of the three hotels), but it was quite loud at the lobby bar there. We also found Bond, the nightclub, but that too was not for us – it was like 10:50 and they weren’t opening until 11, so we left.
It was time to turn in, so we went back to the peacefulness of our hotel, lit our Chanukah candles and went to bed.
Good first day.
Disney World. Day 8. The Last Ride.
We got up this morning, finished packing, and tried to figure out what to do.
We made it out by 1030 and drove over to Disney Springs one last time. Tzvi was all worried about time, but we managed to sit down for brunch at Raglan Road by 11:15. Raglan Road is the Irish themed restaurant that we usually eat at every trip but hadn’t been to yet on this one, so this last day brunch really worked out well.
The first thing they brought was Irish soda bread with a Guinness reduction sauce. Always delicious. We really need to figure out how to make the sauce. It’s basically reduced beer but it kind of tastes like maple syrup. For mains, Hallie had pancakes, which were actually pretty good and she seemed to enjoy (although it’s always hard to tell how much she likes the pancakes and how much she just needs them as a vehicle for the syrup). I had grilled salmon with an Asian sauce, and Tzvi had a dish with waffles, topped with a piece of grilled salmon, topped with a piece of smoked salmon, all topped with a poached egg. Strange combination. He loved it. Of course for dessert we finished with bread pudding, which is basically the whole reason to go to the restaurant in the first place.
Trying to take a photo outside Raglan Road…
After lunch we took Hallie to the carousel, because we had promised she could ride the horsies. She loved it. After that time was getting tight so we decided to leave.
We made it to the airport pretty quickly, checked in and made our way through security. Thank God for pre-check, because the regular line actually had a sign that said it was a more than 30 minute wait for security, and you could only go through if you had a flight in the next 2 hours. Crazy.
That’s pretty much it. The flight home was fine and Hallie was a lot better than on the last flight. She barely came out of her seat and watched lots of TV.
It was a great trip. Hallie will never remember it but hopefully it will help to shape her into a happy well-adjusted person. Or maybe not. At least we had fun.
END
Disney World. Day 7. They said it was for 6:45.
We woke up at 745ish this morning and cuddled for a while, got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast, which was a buffet complete with Mickey shaped waffles and pancakes. Everything was pretty good. It was kind of weird that you had to ask for bread. I guess they’re worried people will steal the bread? At the end of the meal we told them that we couldn’t sign and the waitress didn’t bat an eye. I guess a lot of Jews must come here because it’s the only hotel in Disney that you can use points on.
After breakfast we took a walk over to the Boardwalk. I didn’t realize until we did the walk how close the Swan and Dolphin are to the Boardwalk. We walked all the way around the lake, past the Yacht Club and Beach Club, until we made it back to our hotel.
Back at the hotel we changed into bathing suits and went down to the pool. We swam a bit with Hallie, and then Tzvi put Hallie into the stroller and walked her around for a bit until she fell asleep. After that we just laid at the pool and went in the hot tub a bit. It was sunny and warm and just so relaxing. It was nice to have this time – it really made us feel like we were finishing off the Disney trip with a little vacation.
Around 430 we made our way back to the room, took showers, did a little packing, and got ready to go out.
We got our car from the valet and started heading to Downtown Disney to meet my parents. Well, we hadn’t really thought this one through. As soon as we got there we started to see cars backing up and a sign that said the orange parking lot was full. We kept driving toward the lime parking lot, but that one was even worse. Eventually Tzvi dropped off me and Hallie and then spent another 10 minutes going back to the orange parking lot, where he eventually found a spot.
Next problem. Tzvi had made a reservation for Rainforest Café for 6:45, but when we got there at 6:45, they didn’t have the reservation, so Tzvi checked his phone and found that he had accidentally made the reservation for the Rainforest Café that’s inside Animal Kingdom. Whoops. The restaurant didn’t give me an issue and just said it would be 10-15 minutes, so we waited. And waited. And waited. We actually didn’t get seated until almost 7:45, at which point everyone was pretty unhappy. I don’t think this was because of the mistake in the reservation though, I think it was just so crowded and they were so overloaded. Then they seated us at a table near the bar, which basically defeats the entire purpose of going to Rainforest because there are no animals in the bar. Even once we were seated, dinner took forever. We got Hallie a flatbread pizza with a side of corn. She ate the corn. Tzvi got fish and chips, which were actually pretty good, and I had a Caesar salad with salmon, which was fine. Whatever, dinner was fine, but at the end one of my parents asked why we even come here anymore.
After dinner we made our way to Ghiradelli. As we waited for the ice cream, we didn’t have any paper for Hallie to color on, so we improvised with maps of Disney Springs.
Tzvi: I don’t want to complain and make it seem like this night was a total disaster, but I really don’t understand this one. Before going in Steph asked me what I wanted, so I said coffee ice cream, brownies, hot fudge and whipped cream. Then we got tables and sat and when they eventually brought the food they brought one sundae with everything I asked for, except it had vanilla ice cream instead of coffee, and then a cup of coffee ice cream for Lisa that Steph said I could have some of. I still don’t understand what happened. I thought I made my order pretty clear. Whatever, it was fine. The ice cream was delicious.
Steph: After ice cream we went shopping. We bought a painting we really liked at the Marketplace store as well as dresses for me and Hallie, and then went to the soap store and World of Disney. At some point my father had enough so he just left. Hallie got another Minnie Mouse at World of Disney, because you can never have too many Minnnies.
When we were done we drove my mother back to her hotel. It was so late. We didn’t get back to our hotel until 11:30 and Hallie didn’t go to sleep until almost midnight. Oy.
Disney World. Day 6. The giraffes were really close.
We got up around 7:45, got dressed, and made it out by around 10.
We drove over to Animal Kingdom where we were met by massive lines to get into the park. I don’t get it. it’s November, it’s not supposed to be this crowded, and especially not at Animal Kingdom!
We got into the park and made our way first to Dino-land where we rode the Triceratops Spin (a dinosaur ride that goes up and down and spins, basically like Dumbo). Hallie enjoyed. Next I went on Everest using the single rider line, which had only about a 20 minute wait, while Tzvi and Hallie walked around looking for Starbucks. They saw monkeys and then got coffee. I sat next to a nice grandmother. I met up with Tzvi and Hallie at Starbucks and we started heading to our next ride, but got stopped when Hallie saw a stand selling freshly grilled corn on the cob. She had two. Tzvi had one. We sitting next to a guy while eating the corn and Hallie kept asking “Who’s the man?” (I forgot to mention that when we checked into the Dolphin and the Bellman brought up our bags, Hallie kept saying “HI MAN! HI MAN!”)
Our next ride was the Kilimanjaro Safari. I think Hallie enjoyed it. Who knows. She wasn’t as excited to see the giraffes as I thought she would be, but Tzvi was pretty excited. We got really close. Our guide was also really good, a struggling actor I believe, and talked a little bit about the Disney Conservation Fund, which Tzvi said he wants to support.
After that it was time for lunch so we went to Pizzafari, because God forbid two days should go by without eating pizza here. Same pizza, still tasty.
We watched this man playing the African Harp, which was pretty impressive.
After lunch we headed into Pandora, a new land themed to the movie Avatar. I’m not really sure why they built this. I know Avatar is the highest grossing film of all time and that they’re building more movies, but I just don’t get it.
Basically the land is a giant tree with a waterfall and two rides. One of the rides, Avatar Flight of Passage, is a 3D flying simulator (which wouldn’t have been appropriate for Hallie) that we couldn’t get a fastpass for and had a 160 minute wait. We didn’t wait. The second ride is the Na’vi River Journey, which had a 140 minute wait for, though we did have a fastpass for that one. The ride is a dark ride that takes you on a river journey through the land of Avatar. Disney did a great job on it and it’s beautifully designed. As we went through it though, we kept waiting for something to happen, and nothing ever did. Like it was just a ride on the river. Thank God we didn’t wait 140 minutes for this, because it’s totally not worth that wait.
After the ride we left Pandora and put Hallie in the stroller. She promptly fell asleep and we went shopping, stopping first to pick up some popcorn. At one of the stores Tzvi bought a pin that says Disney Conservation Fund and has 10% of the proceeds go to the fund. That was Tzvi supporting the Disney Conservation Fund. Good job.
We were pretty much done after that but Hallie was sleeping and she really needed the nap, so we sat for a little bit and let her sleep. After a while we walked back to the car and woke her up and got her in the car.
Along with his Shabbos food, my father had ordered a piece of baby chicken for Hallie. The food was supposed to arrive at his hotel by 4, so at 3:45 when we left the park we drove over to his hotel. Of course, when we got there at 4, the food still wasn’t there. We visited with him in his room, saw the pool, and after about a half hour we got back in our car (still without the food) and left, but not before changing an explosive doodie diaper in the trunk of the car.
Back at our hotel we changed for dinner and got ready for Shabbos. Good Shabbos.
We went across the bridge to the Disney World Swan (the Dolphin’s sister hotel) for dinner at Il Mulino. There are Il Mulinos in New York, but we’ve never been. It was only 6:00 (probably our earliest dinner of the trip), but Hallie was already starting to get nuts. From the minute we sat down, dinner was doomed. Hallie started by taking her shoes off, so Tzvi told her that if she didn’t put her shoes back on he was going to take her out of the restaurant. She didn’t, so he did, except he took her to the lobby where she jumped and rolled all over the couches and had the best time, which just frustrated Tzvi more. Eventually he just gave up and brought her back. She wasn’t much better for the rest of the meal, and, partially because “I’m not listening?” and partially because there was nothing on the menu that interested us, we skipped dessert. It didn’t really seem to bother Hallie though, as she just said, “I’ll have my m&ms from grandma.”
Anyway, about the dinner itself. Everything was really great, it was just too stressful to enjoy it. The first thing they brought was a basket of two types of warm bread (sourdough and focaccia) and a plate of eggplant caponata and salami. They promptly took away the salami and brought back a new plate with twice the amount of eggplant, which made Tzvi very happy. It’s funny, because we usually eat Spanish eggplant from Gourmet Glatt on Friday nights, so this fit right in for Shabbos dinner. Tzvi said it was delicious. For appetizers I had a Caesar salad, which was pretty good, and Tzvi had a caprese salad that he liked a lot. For our mains, I had a salmon sautéed in a garlic and olive oil with wild mushroom sauce over broccoli rabe. It was delicious. Tzvi had rigatoni with mushrooms, garlic and truffle oil. His pasta was good (he loved it) but there must have been some hidden cheese in there. At the end of dinner we told the waiter that we couldn’t sign the check because it was the Sabbath. He was a little confused so he got the manager, who totally knew what was up and said of course, no problem.
After dinner we went back to the hotel and gave Hallie a quick bath. It was almost 9:00, which meant it was almost time for fireworks. We waited and at 9:00… nothing happened. We saw some lights in the park, but then nothing. Then we saw one firework. And then nothing. It was weird because upon check-in they gave us a sheet of times that said Hollywood Studios had something at 8. Eventually there were some good fireworks to see, but it didn’t end up finishing until around 8:45. Once that was over we went to put Hallie to bed but then we started hearing the EPCOT fireworks, which unfortunately we couldn’t see.
After she went to bed we drank a small bottle of Moscato that we had bought in the store in our lobby for $14 (it’s a half size bottle, so it was a super rip off) and then fell asleep.
Disney World. Day 5. Check out, check in.
We got up this morning and finished packing. My mother left to go to her next hotel to start her psych conference (which is actually the whole reason we’re down here). Around 10:00 we packed up the car and said goodbye to the hotel.
We drove over to the Four Seasons, which is on Disney World property. No, unfortunately we were not checking in. We are not that fortunate. The hotel, which goes for about $1000 a night, is probably the nicest in Disney World. We walked around and saw the grounds, which are just beautiful – we saw the adult pool, and then next to that, the kids pool and lazy river. Walking around the lobby we saw lots of [wealthy] foreigners and people checking in with their kids and their nannies (the nannies had their own $2000 handbags). What a life.
Anyway, we were at the Four Seasons to have breakfast. The hotel has a character breakfast with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy. We wanted to give it a try instead of the usual Disney character breakfasts, to see if the food is better at the Four Seasons. I’d say it is. The restaurant was pretty small so the characters came over multiple times, and we got lots of good pictures. It was Goofy, Mickey and Minnie. The breakfast was named “Goofy and Pals” and a photographer came around with Goofy to take pictures, which you then got for free. The food was also great – eggs, waffles, pancakes, cereals, juices, pastries, etc. Tzvi also enjoyed the cheeses and bruleed grapefruit.
Hallie started off the breakfast by posing for a nice photo with Mommy.
Then she caught up on the morning’s news. Nothing good.
Time for a little coffee.
Waffle is here, but who’s that coming around the corner?
Oh my gosh!
This is the best day ever.
“I’m never washing this face.”
We were also pretty excited to see some other friends.
Then Goofy came out. We were hesitant at first.
But then we warmed up.
Goofy’s so tall.
After breakfast we drove to the Disney World Dolphin, where we would be staying for the remainder of the trip. The Dolphin is one of the few non-Disney owned hotels that’s centrally located on Disney property (there are a bunch of non-Disney hotels near Disney Springs, but the Swan and Dolphin are right next to Epcot and Disney’s Boardwalk). The hotel is an SPG hotel so we used points for our stay.
We checked in and then took a walk around the property, stopping to sit by the pool for a few minutes while Hallie ate American cheese. I ordered her three slices of American cheese and they thought I was so strange. They are literally at a children’s theme park resort, I don’t think getting sliced cheese is so crazy.
Check-in wasn’t technically until four, but our room was ready by around two. When we checked in they told us we had been upgraded to a balcony room with a view of the Hollywood Studios fireworks. We got a room with two double beds – it was actually fairly spacious considering we were three people and a ton of stuff.
Not a bad view either:
After settling in we got back in the car and drove over to Disney Springs as we didn’t really have anything to do. It was either Disney Springs or the outlets and Tzvi said he wasn’t going to the outlets. We needed Hallie to nap, so as soon as we got there we got her into the stroller and she was asleep within a few minutes. We walked around a bit, got tuna sandwiches at Earle of Sandwich (not bad), did some shopping. It was nice. Relaxing. We went into the fancy bakery where Tzvi wanted to get some really good looking desserts. He asked about nuts and they brought the chef out who said the desserts would be fine and she could get fresh ones from the back for him. After he ordered he said he just wanted to double check that they were vegetarian. “Oh no, we set everything with pig gelatin.” Whoops. Needless to say we left empty handed. Then Tzvi wanted to go back to world of Disney to shop some more.
Before leaving we made a stop at World of Disney where Hallie kept pulling everything off the shelf and saying “I want to buy this.” We ended up buying her a small Minnie Mouse purse, which was the only thing she pulled and literally would not give back. When we were checking out, the cashier wen’t crazy for Hallie and thought she was so cute. First she asked her who her favorite princess was and she pointed to me. [blush] Then she said Rapunzel and the cashier gave her a free Rapunzel pin (those things retail for like $10) that she wore for the rest of the day.
After that it was time to go, so we got back in the car and drove about 20 minutes to Universal City Walk, our only encounter with Universal for the trip. The plan was to go to The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium and Savory Feast Kitchen, a fairly new chocolate restaurant outside the two parks. They don’t take reservations, so the plan was that the three of us would get there early and then my parents would meet us with their psychiatry friends. When we got there at 6:30 they told us the wait was an hour and twenty minutes.
Tzvi: First off, I don’t know what Steph was expecting, It’s a new restaurant, things are crowded, of course it was an hour-plus wait. As soon as we found this out, Steph sort of went into shut down mode, where she doesn’t want to acknowledge how upset she is over the situation, but is clearly very upset. The situation was that we would get Hallie some food and then I would take her back to the hotel to go to bed, because sitting down to dinner at 8:00 was just too late. We started walking and eventually found the kids menu at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company was our best option. I went inside to order Hallie a kids meal to go – fish sticks and French fries – but before I could actually order, Steph called me to say she got a text message that our table was ready.
Steph: That’s right. After only 24 minutes they texted saying the table was ready. I still don’t really know what happened, but it was fine by me. But what I was expecting originally was to leave Disney Springs an hour earlier than we did. Tzvi kept saying he didn’t want to have downtime in City Walk and I wanted to not wait an hour for a table, so that was the expectation. Anyway, we rushed back to the restaurant, basically walking all the way back around the City Walk. Universal City Walk is fine, but it’s really no Disney Springs. Not to be a snob, but Disney is just so superior. I know City Walk is themed more to adults, but it’s just not as nice and doesn’t really have any magic.
Anyway, we met my parents and another psychiatrist and his wife, and got our table. The restaurant is themed like a chocolate factory and pretty well done. Its themed around some story that I didn’t pay attention to but focuses around a girl and some man who resembles the Tin Man and works in a Chocolate factory. I think the girl got lost in the world and her parents would only find her if they followed the smell of chocolate. They actually had the characters walking around the restaurant and they were quite scary. Hallie was not amused.
We got a bunch of appetizers for the table, including warm chocolate almond bread with salted caramel butter (it just tasted like bread), avocado bruschetta which had avocado three ways (avocado crema, fried avocado, and plain avocado), hummus and pita chips, and roasted brussels sprouts.
Between appetizers and entrees Tzvi and I both got milkshakes, I guess as a palette cleanser. I got confetti shake with Vanilla ice cream, confetti cake, vanilla buttercream frosting, rainbow sprinkles, fresh whipped cream, and Tzvi got an espresso buzzzz shake with Coffee ice cream, espresso, chocolate espresso beans and coffee whipped cream (which I think was actually coffee buttercream). Both were very good.
For entrees I had teriyaki salmon with Asian vegetables, jasmine rice and miso broth, and Tzvi had a tuna melt with a fried egg on top that was so messy he had to eat it with a fork. Both were good but Tzvi really enjoyed his sandwich.
For dessert we got chocolate mouse and a brownie sundae. I would say the desserts were good, but not over the top. I guess when you are so used to Serendipity, everything else pales in comparison. Still fun though.
Somehow the dinner still took three hours and we didn’t make it back to the hotel until 10ish. We put Hallie right to bed and then hid in the dark until it was time for us to go to sleep.
