Splitsville is a large bowling alley that is part of Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney), part of Walt Disney World in Florida. Disney Springs is a large shopping and entertainment district that is currently free to enter and free to park.
Splitsville is a relative newcomer to Disney Springs – there wasn’t any bowling available in Downtown Disney. Like many of the places there, it isn’t a Disney operation, more a concession operating on the Disney property. I can see that Splitsville has seven other US locations, including Miami and Tampa.
Disney Springs is always busy and so I decided to try and book our bowling – after all how difficult could that be? The Splitsville website has a button for booking a lane. My local bowling alley in Europe has an online system, where you can choose a lane, time and duration – with availability shown. So I was disappointed to see this message:
Followed by an online reservation form. Some time later I received an email:
Thank you for your interest in Splitsville! Our Walk-In and Priority Bowling Rates are outlined below. Due to the large amount of reservations we have for this specific evening we cannot book a lane at 7 p.m. as all our lanes have already been purchased. We are more then willing to accomodate you before 4 p.m. on Tuesday the 15th or any other day this week:
WALK-IN RATES:
(Only valid on a first come first served basis.) Bowling time allotted is based upon number in bowling party, 4 people receive an hour and 15 minutes on the lane.
MONDAY-FRIDAY (Pricing includes shoe rental.) OPEN-4PM: $15 per person 4PM-CLOSE: $20 per person
SATURDAY-SUNDAY (Pricing includes shoe rental.) OPEN-CLOSE: $20 per person EARLY BIRD BOWLING (Walk-in only):
EVERY DAY Open-12:30PM: $12 for Adults/$8 for 9 & Under (Pricing includes shoe rental)
PRIORITY BOWLING:
*Priority bowling must be set up a minimum of 24 hours in advance. Additional $10 per person, based on walk in rates and times shown above.
A couple of emails later and I realised that the only way to book was to accept the Priority Bowling rate for an additional $10 per person – making $30 per person. Well what a complete rip off that is! I would probably pay $10 to reserve a lane, but not per person. I’m also still amazed that what purports to be a modern bowling alley doesn’t have a modern reservation system to match.
We decided to just turn up early one evening and see what happened. As it was there wasn’t much of a line and we were allocated Lane 1 pretty quickly.
The seating area was pretty comfortable and our server arrived quickly and took our drink orders. We didn’t order food although there was a full menu service that looked good quality and the area at our lane was suitable for eating. I’m sure Splitsville would like it if you simultaneously bowl and dine – but really why would you do that when you are paying $20 per person for lane time and could easily eat before or after?
A coke was $5.25 with free refills. I can’t remember how much a beer was.
There was an odd sign to remind bowlers not to overdo their ‘victory dance’. I guess they have to protect any kids from inappropriate gestures, but I’m not sure why pregnant women were included in the list:
There were plenty of balls available, all highly greased – so much so that they tended to slide, rather than roll, down the lane. The floor was also slippery from the grease and I nearly fell over on my first bowl. The pins reset really quickly which meant we could have more games.
Lane 1 is probably the worst lane if you don’t like spectators as it’s right by the window. There was usually a few random people watching our play.
Our hour and 15 minutes was almost up and we still had a few frames left. We were given an extra 10 minutes to finish our game which was great. That meant that our party of four played three full games.
So this was a pretty mixed experience. I’m not saying I’d never go again, but I wouldn’t rush back.
Splitsville Luxury Lanes
AT DISNEY SPRINGS™ WEST SIDE
1494 East Buena Vista DriveLake Buena Vista, Florida 32830
Miller’s Ale House is a bar/restaurant chain. The first Miller’s Ale House opened in 1988 in Jupiter, FL and since expanded throughout Florida and beyond. There are now 72 restaurants in over ten states.
The one we visited had a large sports bar area, several pool tables and plenty of restaurant seating. I’m guessing they are all the same.
The place is pretty popular and when we arrived we were looking at a wait of maybe one hour. US restaurants tend not to encourage advance booking and maximise their table utilisation by expecting patrons to wait with electronic pagers.
The good news was that there were pool tables available and so we were able to play (without charge) until the pager called us. We were also able to order drinks, although weren’t able to transfer that cheque to our table.
A 20oz Guinness 20oz was US$5.95 and a bottle of Corona US$4.99.
Like most US chain restaurants, the place was busy and noisy.
The pager called us to our table. The food was pretty good. The aircon was a bit fierce.
An 8 oz Filet Mignon was US$19.99 plus 95c for a loaded baked potato and 95c for a side Caesar salad. A full rack of ribs US$17.99.
This isn’t a fine-dining experience but isn’t a bad place to visit as a group – but be prepared to drink a few beers and play a few games of pool before you eat.
Harry P. Leu Gardens and the historical home were donated to the City of Orlando in 1961 by Mr. Harry P. Leu and his wife, Mary Jane.
The gardens are beautiful and immaculately presented. On our visit, there was an exhibition of giant bug sculptures, by artist David Rogers. Even though the exhibition has finished, I’d still recommend a visit if you find yourself in the Orlando area.
I’ll leave the pictures, which I’ve deliberately left full-size and not set to slideshow, to describe these great gardens.
Leu Gardens is open 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. every day, closed December 25. Last admission is at 4:30 p.m.
Admission is only US$10 but I’d recommend that you purchase a membership for $40 (individual) or $50 (Household) as that gives you entry to American Horticultural Society partners including over 280 gardens, arboreta and conservatories nationwide (full list available at www.ahs.org/rap)
26th September update: I’ve edited the part about the tribute movie as I’ve been informed that this wasn’t produced for nor funded by the WGB team. Also see Video Bob’s comment (click to open top right) clarifying his involvement. Thanks.
My Son and I are huge fans of the Back to the Future movie trilogy and we wanted to do something for the 30th anniversary on October 21st 2015. Fans will know that isn’t the anniversary of the movie release, but the date that Marty McFly arrives in the future in BTTF2.
We’d missed out on a previous celebration in 2010 – organised by a group of fans via the http://www.weregoingback.com/ (WGB) website. So when we discovered they were organising a five-day event for 2015 we decided to book. We signed up for email news and purchased as soon as advance tickets were available. Tickets were expensive $800 per person – and that price went up to $880 after the advance tickets were sold. Individual day tickets were also available at between $200 and £300.
You’re probably wondering why it’s taken almost eight months for me to write about this experience. The main reason? It could have been better and I didn’t want to write about the problems until the emotions of the organisers and attendees had time to settle down. The organisers were pretty stressed out and I believe that they tried to do a good job – but they seemed to have this joint view that their time and energy sacrifice meant that any criticism should be vigorously rejected. Equally, the attending fans tended to worship the organisers and most posts were of the “thank you for the best time of my entire life” format. That’s not to say that we didn’t have a good time – we really did. And it was certainly much better than the Secret Cinema event in London (review here). However, with the number of attendees multiplied by the ticket cost, we are talking a serious amount of money and I think this could have been better spent.
We flew to Los Angeles on Virgin Atlantic (review here). The first two nights we stayed in the Wyndham in Costa Mesa (review here) as we had tickets to see Luke Bryan on October 18th (review here). Then we moved to a great AirBnB in Burbank (review here).
Free coach transport: WGB ticket holders were entitled to free coach transport from one of three nominated hotels to all of the WGB events. We drove as we were in an apartment in Burbank. Those who stayed in the most-expensive of the three hotels (Loews Hotel in Hollywood) did benefit from direct and regular access to the organisers who were staying there.
Wristbands: For each day, we were given a different colour wristband, with three tear-off tags. The tags were for food, an event, such as hoverboarding and maybe something else – it wasn’t clear if we should be expecting anything or not. Wristband distribution was originally only available at the Loews Hotel on Tuesday evening – we couldn’t make that and another WGB ticketholder kindly picked them up for us. Apparently the distribution was a mess that evening with people waiting hours for their bands.
08:00 Wednesday October 21st 2015: Universal Studios
There were crowds of WGB ticketholders – more than we’d imaged and certainly enough to fill a cinema – plenty of Martys and Docs in various costumes. We boarded two sets of Universal tour trams and headed off to the Hill Valley Courthouse filming location (part of the Universal Studios backlot).
There was plenty of time to wander around the Hill Valley square – certainly if you were on the first tram. There was even a wedding on the steps of the Courthouse. Sadly there wasn’t a DeLorean to be seen and that would have been a nice touch. There was the restored ‘A’ DeLorean mounted on a plinth that was visible from the tram – but we weren’t able to stop and view it.
Back on the tour trams, which did the entire Universal tour before we were deposited back at the theme park, with fast-pass front of line tickets and two $12 food vouchers. We were told to meet at a Universal cinema/movie theatre at 16:00.
Apparently there was a Goodyear blimp flying over Universal Studios with a ‘We’re Going Back’ display – but nobody told us to look out for it.
We took our seats in the cinema. There were many people with questions about the forthcoming events as there hadn’t really been much communication. For example, we still expected to be visiting a museum to view the restored ‘A’ DeLorean but that had been cancelled. Some guy called ‘Video Bob’ stood at the front and tried to answer questions, but he clearly wasn’t one of the organisers, just one of their sidekicks who enjoyed the attention.
The first short movie we watched was the premier of a spoof fan BTTF tribute produced by the WGB team. This featured Tyler Dunivan, a Marty McFly impersonator who was also employed as the ‘house Marty’ for the duration of the WGB events. The movie was professionally produced by Ricky Dean Logan (Data in Biff’s BTTF2 gang) and part of it had been filmed on location at Universal Studios. You can watch the movie here:
It’s pretty good isn’t it? I don’t know how it was funded but it apparently wasn’t from the WGB Budget. So thanks to Ricky for premiering the movie to us.
We were then treated to a screening of BTTF2. As we left the theatre the organisers were handing out copies of a limited edition copy of the ‘Gang Jailed’ version of USA Today. There was a bit of scrum, which would have been unnecessary had someone just walked the rows of the theatre handing out copies.
Here are some pictures from Day 1:
There was clearly some value to being a WGB ticketholder; access to the Hill Valley Courthouse, access to Universal studios park with fast-pass tickets, food vouchers, the movie screening and the USA today newspaper.
Thursday October 22nd 2015: Hoverboarding Hill Valley
A town called Filmore, an hour’s drive from Hollywood had been re-created as Hill Valley and a couple of cranes were set up with wires and hoverboards. Many of the shops had been partially set up to look like those from Back to the Future. There were some screen-used vehicles. A DeLorean had been placed on the railway tracks and people could pay for rides. It was a good atmosphere there, with plenty of people in costume. As a regular town, the place was open to all visitors, not just WGB ticketholders.
The cinema was showing a documentary called ‘Back in Time’ which we stood in line for and gave up on after 40 minutes wait. Those who did see the documentary were also given a series of Hill Valley mock-up newspapers. Again there was a scrum and not everyone received a full set – something that could have been managed with the wristband tags. We ended up having to purchase a set on the last day.
Video Bob had a BTTF DeLorean parked on one side of the railway track – we tried to take a picture but he asked for $5. Update to this: It turns out that the $5 collection was organised by Oliver and Terry Hollar who were raising money for TeamFox – Bob didn’t receive any money. We would have been happy to donate $5 had we known.
Lunch and dinner were pretty poor fast-food offerings, with long lines waiting. We tended to just give up and visit a local restaurant.
We discovered that USA Today had printed a ‘Youth Jailed’ version for general sale. So we left Filmore/Hill Valley for a while and did a tour of local gas stations, trying to find copies. This would have been a perfect item that could have been exchanged for a wristband tab.
The lines for hoverboarding were long all day. I waited until late and then had my ride – see the video below.
In the evening a makeshift cinema screen was set up on the lawn in front of the ‘courthouse’ together with rows of foldaway plastic chairs. A repeat of the WGB tribute movie was screened followed by BTTF3. Sadly the picture and sound quality wasn’t very good and so we left before the movie finished.
We enjoyed the day but for us, the only benefit of holding a WGB ticket was the Hoverboarding – everything else (well apart from the food) was available to anyone who happened to be in the town of Filmore. We didn’t feel especially valued or looked after by the WGB team – although the guys running the Hoverboarding were great.
Here are some pictures from Day 2:
Friday October 23rd 2015: Locations Tour
We were given the list of locations that the tour buses would visit. We’d actually toured these a few years before as the locations are publicly available. We basically sped ahead of the WGB buses and arrived at most locations early. The locations visited and WGB itinerary were as follows:
Griffith Park @ 9:00 am (Tunnel & Start Line) – 2700 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA
Gamble House @ 10:30 – 11:30 am – 4 Westmoreland Pl, Pasadena, CA 91103
Bushnell Ave @ 12:00 – 1:00 pm – 1761 Bushnell Ave South Pasadena, CA 91030
Lunch @ Burger King @ 1:30 – 2:30 pm – 545 N Victory Blvd, Burbank, CA 91502
Whittier High @ 4:00 – 5:30 pm – 12417 Philadelphia St, Whittier, CA 90601
McFly Block Party @ 7:00 – 10:00 pm – 9303 Roslyndale Ave Los Angeles, CA 91331
There was some confusion at the first location as the buses weren’t supposed to stop there. Some did, some didn’t. The Gamble House (Doc Brown’s 1955 house) was so much better. The owner of the screen-used Doc Brown car was there with the car – a 1948 Packard Custom Eight Victoria. A few BTTF DeLoreans arrived. There was a scene recreation that was done really well – here’s the video:
And here are some pictures:
Then we moved on to Bushnell Ave, the location for 1955 McFly, Baines, Biff’s garage and “You want your ball? Go get it, Haha.” house. The residents of the street were really friendly. There was some lying in the street, a BTTF DeLorean drive by and plenty of fun with the Doc’s and Marty’s.
Next was lunch at the Burger King – although there had been a kitchen fire and so lunch was actually outside with burgers sent by a nearby Burger King. The burgers didn’t travel too well. The line was pretty long and burger distribution slow. Video Bob escorted the house Marty and Lorraine to the front of the line and then addressed the crowd – we still weren’t sure if he was an official part of WGB.
We drove (maybe an hour) to Whittier High (Hill Valley High) and arrived well ahead of the buses. The school was open and we were able to wander around without anyone asking who we were, although I did ask someone who I thought was a teacher but turned out to Jeffery Wiseman(!) – who portrayed George McFly inBTTFII andBTTFIII, after Crispin Glover refused to return due to salary disputes.
The house Marty and Jennifer arrived and rehearsed a movie re-creation scene, which I was able to video:
And then when the bus crowds arrived, I took a video from inside the school:
Everyone was able to wander the school and grounds – plenty of recognisable locations. Claudia Wells (BTTF1 Jennifer) arrived and was surrounded by Jennifers. Here are some photos:
I think the buses took everyone direct to the McFly block party. We went back to our apartment for a rest and to change.
Roslyndale Ave. had been blocked at both ends for the block party. A replica of the Lyon Estates gates had been set up at one end of the street. There were some more poor fast-food trucks, although the lines didn’t seem so long this time.
We saw Donald Fullilove who played Goldie Wilson in BTTF1. Apparently there was a re-creation of ‘Roads where we’re going we don’t need roads’ but lack of communication meant that we were in line at the food trucks and missed it. A makeshift cinema screen had been resurrected to show BTTF1.
Here are a couple of photos:
Again, we enjoyed the day but, again, the only benefit of holding a WGB ticket was the food – anyone could have visited the locations at the same time and joined the block party.
Saturday October 24th 2015: Enchantment Under the Sea Party
There was a screening of the Outatime documentary and a movie prop auction in the morning but we didn’t bother attending.
The evening event commenced at 6pm, held in the Hollywood United Methodist Church (the original filming location).
A photographer took pictures of arriving guests. Inside, the place looked very much like the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. Several stars from the movie were in attendance; Lea Thompson (Lorraine), Claudia Wells (Jennifer), Jeffery Wiseman (George) and Harry Waters, Jr. (Marvin Berry). If you wanted an autograph or a photo then you had to pay. Lea Thompson was $50, the rest $25.
On stage were the WGB house band ‘The Flux Capacitors’ which was disappointing as they tended to just play 80s music. The place was extremely hot, only a couple of fans were set up by open doors to cool the air. Free bottled water was available – no alcohol as the venue is a church. There wasn’t any information as to what would happen during the evening and when.
The WGB attendees really embraced the experience, re-creating the “Oh, and one more thing, if you guys ever have kids and one of them, when he’s eight years old, accidentally sets fire to the living room rug – go easy on him.” scene. I especially liked a George McFly lookalike who had the voice and dance style exactly right. Below a really short video of him dancing.
Nothing seemed to be happening and so we popped across the road to the Loews for a beer and cool down. Of course, we then missed a Marty impersonator perform the Johnny B Goode scene.
Dinner was a variety of delivery pizzas left on tables in the hall.
A couple took to the stage and the guy proposed. That meant we were lucky enough to see a repeat of Earth Angel performed by Harry Waters, Jr. Here’s a video of that:
Here are some photos from the evening:
The event ended soon after around 10pm.
This event was definitely one where a WGB ticket was required. The single night ticket was $300 so I’d guess the organisers has over $100,000 at their disposal. The biggest expenses were the venue hire, the band, the photographer and the pizza – actors were making their fee from autographs. Imagine if you had over $100k to plan a wedding and contrast that with what was provided and then it doesn’t look like very good value.
Sunday October 25th 2015: Twin Pines Mall
Twin/Lone Pine(s) Mall is actually Puente Hills Mall, 1560 S Azusa Ave, City of Industry, CA 91748. The WGB itinerary was as follows:
Coach Buses Load 8:30 – 9:00 am
Departs Hotels @ 9:00 am
Discussion Panels @ 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Lunch @ Noon – 1:00 pm
Proclamation & Dinner @ 6:30 – 7:30 pm
Flux Capacitors warm up crowd @ 7:30 – 8:00 pm
Screening of Part 1 @ 8:00 – 10:00 pm
The discussion panel schedule was as follows:
10:00 am – Michael Scheffe / Kevin Pike – DeLorean design / build
1:00 pm – Artie Schmidt / Harry Keramidas – Editing
1:45 pm – Rick Carter / John Bell – 2015 – CANCELLED
2:30 pm – David DeVos – The Ride
3:15 pm – Michael Klastorin – Publicity and BTTF Ultimate Visual Guide
4:00 pm – Dennis Sands (scoring mixer), Mike Matessino (soundtrack producer) — Music
4:45 pm – Dean Cundey – Cinematography – PENDING SCHEDULE
The only panel of interest to us was the ‘DeLorean design / build’ but it’s quite a drive from Burbank to Puente Hills Mall and so we decided to skip the daytime activities. I heard from those who attended, that the WGB lunch vouchers weren’t accepted by the mall outlets and everyone had to buy their own lunch.
We arrived early evening to find crowds already in attendance. Most WGB ticketholders had been at the mall all day. A Twin Pines Mall sign was set up in exactly the right position. A replica of Doc Brown’s Truck was there with photo opportunities for both WGB attendees and the general public. Food was the usual food-truck experience.
Here are some photos:
A re-creation of the Libyan chase was staged. It was a pity that they didn’t re-create the iconic DeLorean emerging from the back of the truck scene. There wasn’t any special viewing position for WGB ticketholders.
Chairs were set out ready for a screening of BTTF1 – albeit on the same make-shift movie screen that had been used on previous days. Again, there wasn’t any control over the seating, with anyone able to sit and watch.
There was a really bad attempt at a Skype call to Christopher Lloyd, who was in a hotel room on the East Coast. Connection issues meant that he was barely visible or audible. This despite what seemed like a satellite van parked nearby to provide a connection. I had a 4G connection on my phone and was able to make a Skype video call home without any problems.
Everyone enjoyed the screening of BTTF1 and WGB2015 came to a close.
Obviously it was our choice not to attend the discussion panels, where a WGB wristband was required. For the evening event it made no difference at all if you had a wristband or not.
Conclusion
I’m really glad we chose to attend WGB2015. There were some great moments – many of them provided by the fans who attended. I’m sure there was a lot of work that went into the organisation, but this could have been so much better, particularly communication.
Would I consider it good value? Probably not. The event was always touted as non-profit, ‘by the fans for the fans’ event, with any surplus going to the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. There was a lot of money available from tickets and I’m sure everyone was disappointed that some of this wasn’t spent on a personal appearance by MJF and/or Christopher Lloyd.
I’ve yet to see anything related to a donation to the MFJ Foundation. Ideally, I’d like to see a set of accounts published that show where the money was spent. Please be assured that I’m not accusing the organisers of any dishonesty.
Would I go again? Well yes, but this time I’d only purchase a ticket if there was a guarantee of a personal appearance by MJF and/or Christopher Lloyd. Without that, I might be tempted if there was an event that promised to be well organised and exclusive to ticket holders only – such as a visit to the otherwise inaccessible Twin Pines Ranch. Otherwise, I’d just roll up at the publicly accessible events and join in for free.
A semi-official video of the entire event that I found on YouTube:
Makes you wonder what I’m complaining about when you watch that eh?
We attended this concert, part of the ‘Kick the Dust Up’ tour, on October 18th 2015 but I only just got around to writing this review.
Luke Bryan is an American country music singer and songwriter. Luke was the recipient of the Academy of Country Music Awards and Country Music Association Awards ‘Entertainer of the Year’ award and has sold over 7 million albums and 27 million singles worldwide.
I purchased two ‘I Don’t Want This Night To End’ VIP Packages for this concert. Each package included:
One reserved ticket in the first 20 rows of the Lower Bowl – we were in Section: ORCH 2 Row: V Seats: 208/209 – you’ll be able to see from the video how close this is.
Invitation to exclusive ‘All My Friends’ Lounge with cash bar.
Two song acoustic pre-show performance by Luke Bryan.
One limited edition Luke Bryan poster.
One Exclusive Luke Bryan Merchandise Gift.
One VIP laminate.
On-site concert concierge.
Total including fees from the vendor $461.50. I was disappointed that the ticket didn’t include preferred parking as I’d read stories about lines at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. So I purchased preferred parking separately for $40. The odd part was that the ticket said ‘will call’ and I wondered what would happen with this chicken and egg situation.
We arrived a few hours before the concert and there was already a line of vehicles waiting, plus plenty of people already parked up with lawn chairs and cool boxes. We headed for preferred parking. The guy wasn’t too happy about our printed out email and there was a small discussion about whether we should be allowed in. But the combination of large SUV, English accents and a line behind us meant we were allowed in.
It was only a short walk to the ‘VIP will call’ table – yes it was a table with a plastic gazebo and two people handing out tickets. There was a line for this that took maybe 15 minutes.
Things improved once we had our VIP laminates on lanyards. We were taken by an open-sided cart to a large tent that was set up as the ‘All My Friends’ lounge. There we were given a small cool bag, souvenir cup and a poster.
The ‘lounge’ tent had a small food buffet, free bottles of water and a pay bar. I purchased a large Jack Daniels and I think it was $16.
It was quite a long time before Luke came on stage. But it was a great show with so few people there – you could have got right up to the front of the crowd quite easily. Here are some videos of that show:
and a couple of pictures:
After Luke came off stage the VIP crowd were led to the main amphitheatre. The place is huge and mostly open to the elements – I’m not sure what happens if it rains – well apart from that people get wet!
Our seats were pretty good. I took some more video:
The great thing about the show was that it wasn’t just Luke stepping through his song catalogue – instead he really engaged with audience, chatting, telling stories and hanging out with his pals on stage.
When the concert finished we followed the crowds back to the exit. We hadn’t realised that there were numerous side shows and bars around as we’d been in the VIP tent.
There was a line of cars trying to escape from the parking lot. Getting out of preferred parking took about 15 minutes – the main lot a lot longer I would guess.
We really enjoyed the show and Luke definitely deserves the ‘Entertainer of the Year’ award. I’d recommend VIP tickets and preferred parking if you can afford to do that.
Our visit to the Cheesecake Factory was prompted by the restaurant featuring in the Big Bang Theory TV series. Unsurprisingly, the real thing is nothing like the one on the show – the good news is that it’s much better.
The bad news was that we didn’t make a reservation and there was a 40 minute wait. Like plenty of other places, they gave me a pager and we took a walk around the mall while we waited.
The restaurant was huge and busy. We had a booth for four. Here’s a sample of the prices:
Guinness can US$ 6.50
Chocolate shake US$ 7.50
Steak Diane and salmon combo US$ 21.50
Classic Margarita US$ 10.25
Cheesecake US$ 7.95
Burger and fries US$ 13.95
The food was delicious and the portions were huge. Service was good.
As the place was so different from the Big Bang theory, even the uniforms were different, we wondered if there was actually any real connection or even paid product placement. Google revealed that the Cheesecake Factory has never paid for advertising, nor did they pay to be featured in the Big Bang Theory. Apparently they rely on word of mouth (and these days I imagine, Trip Advisor!) to bring people in.
I’d certainly visit this or another branch on my next visit to the US.
The Cheesecake Factory
The Mall at Millenia
4200 Conroy Road
Orlando, FL 32839
We visited Disney’s Boardwalk (part of the Disneyworld Resort in Florida) in March this year. Disney’s Boardwalk isn’t promoted much by Disney, but is a really good place to visit, with hotels and restaurants, themed in a Florida style, surrounding a lake.
If you aren’t staying in one of the Disney Hotels that surround the lake, you can still park for free. The car park has a manned barrier and they will often tell you that parking is full and only $20 valet available – just say “That’s fine” and then drive in and you’ll find most likely find a space.
It’s a really pleasant walk around the lake with plenty of venues to choose from. There are also free boats that take you to Hollywood Studios and EPCOT. But you can easily walk to EPCOT. One benefit of being so close to EPCOT is that you watch the evening fireworks from just outside the entrance without having to purchase admission.
There were a few mosquitos around, I guess because of the lake, but not so many that it affected our evening.
We stopped for a snack at ‘Tratorria al Forno’ which has a number of outside tables (no view of fireworks). A Mai Tai cocktail was $10 and a Cured meat plate (suitable for sharing) $16. The food and service were good and I’d be happy to return there for a full meal.
There is also a nightclub, with free admission, that opens at 9pm. We had a look inside around 9:30 and it was pretty empty. I’m not sure if it picks up later.
We were staying in a great AirBnB apartment in Burbank. The local area felt pretty safe and it was only a short walk to a small shopping area with a few restaurants and a bar called Sardos.
The entrance is pretty unassuming, just a door from which it wasn’t possible to see what was happening inside. I could hear some music, singing and cheering and decided to have a look.
I found a lively bar, people signing karaoke, sports on TV and really attractive waitresses. I took a seat at the bar – although there were plenty of tables. A large draft beer was $4.
I was amazed at the quality of the karaoke singing. I guess everyone in LA wants to be a star and wants to show off their talent – just in case some producer is watching. But when someone stepped up with an average performance, they still got the cheers and encouragement from the crowd. The girl running the karaoke machine would also join in and beef up the performance where someone was struggling.
The calendar had various nightly options, although karaoke was a nightly feature. Tuesday night was PSK night – which I later found out was ‘Porn Star Karaoke’. It turns out that on PSK night, the songs are performed by members of the adult movie community – it’s actually just like any other night and turns out some of these porn stars can sing!
They had Sambuca, for I think $7 a good size shot. On each night I was there, I had a few beers and a few sambucas. On my last night, the waitress advised that I’d drunk all the Sambuca – I’m pretty sure the bottle wasn’t new when I started. She showed me the empty bottle and I took this picture:
Below is the Sardos commercial:
If you are staying in the Burbank area, I’d recommend a visit.
I’ve never stayed at a Wyndham Hotel before, always choosing to stay where I have loyalty status such as Hilton or Holiday Inn. However, we needed to be near Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre for a Sunday night concert and there was a good deal on Travelzoo for this ‘not-so-far-away-from-the-venue’ hotel.
The hotel has a large car park, with several levels. You need to take a ticket (rates show $22 per day), but your room key opens the exit barrier – we weren’t charged for parking but I think that was part of the special rate.
Check in was professional and friendly. The room was large with two Queen beds, a lovely bathroom and a cartridge-type coffee machine. I did find one mosquito in my room and spent about 20 minutes until I smashed it.
To the rear of the hotel was a quite small pool and a beautifully landscaped lake and surroundings.
The hotel had an upscale feel to it and it was always quiet there. There was always someone on the door of the hotel, welcoming guests and wishing departing guests a good day.
I guess the only downside to the upscale nature was that there wasn’t a breakfast buffet – the only breakfast available was in the hotel table-service restaurant. The menu looked pretty good, but I didn’t try eating there.
For those of you who don’t know already, Airbnb is a peer-to-peer website for people to list, find, and rent lodging. It’s a good alternative to hotel accommodation, particularly in places where hotel prices are high.
Here’s a bit of airbnb history from Wikipedia:
Shortly after moving to San Francisco in October 2007, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia created the initial concept for AirBed & Breakfast during the Industrial Design Conference held by Industrial Designers Society of America. The original site offered short-term living quarters, breakfast, and a unique business networking opportunity for attendees who were unable to book a hotel in the saturated market.
At the time, roommates Chesky and Gebbia could not afford the rent for their loft in San Francisco. They made their living room into a bed and breakfast, accommodating three guests on air mattresses and providing homemade breakfast.
In February 2008, technical architect Nathan Blecharczyk joined as the third co-founder of AirBed & Breakfast. During the company’s initial stages, the founders focused on high-profile events where alternative lodging was scarce. The site Airbedandbreakfast.com officially launched on August 11, 2008.
Airbnb now has over 1,500,000 listings in 34,000 cities and 190 countries and the company is valued at $20 billion.
We wanted to stay in Burbank as it sounded like a nice neighbourhood, that was also a short ride from the movie studios, Hollywood and many of the events arranged for the 30th Anniversary of Back to the Future celebrations.
I found this ad on the airbnb website: Our bright, beautifully furnished 2bd/2bth condo sits on a tree-lined street just mins from Warner Bros, Universal, ABC, NBC & Disney Studios. Underground parking, gym, hot tub, on-site laundry, BBQ grills. Just 10 mins from Burbank Bob Hope Airport.
Price was $147 per night. And that was a good price for two rooms, both en suite, a living room and parking. Hotels in the area were charging more than that for a standard room, plus parking.
I booked ten nights. I suppose my only concern was what if the place became unavailable, perhaps due to a change in the owner’s circumstances or some damage caused by a previous renter – it isn’t like a hotel, where they can just offer another room. As it was, everything was fine well except the dishwasher, which Nikki had advised in advance was broken.
The owner, Nikki, was really friendly and helpful in our communications. Closer to the date, Nikki sent a detailed self-check in document that provided lots of information. Nikki also offered to have someone meet us when we arrived, but we decided we’d be okay.
The apartment was clean and tidy, with plenty of provisions in the kitchen and bathrooms. The Wi-Fi was fast and easy to connect. Nikki had also written a longer guide about the apartment with plenty of tips about bars, restaurants and shops in the surrounding area. It was great to have shops, bars and restaurants within walking distance.
Nikki and I used WhatsApp to communicate with each other and she was always quick to respond to any questions or issues I had.
We got a bit carried away with our Avis rental and took a giant Ford Expedition SUV. This was too high to fit in the underground car park and so we parked in the street. Not knowing all the US/Burbank rules resulted in three separate $48 parking fines; too close to a fire hydrant, parked facing the wrong direction and just when we though we knew the rules – parked on the day when there was street cleaning. So bring a smaller vehicle!
This was a good experience from Airbnb and I’d certainly book Nikki’s place again if I was visiting LA.
