What Are Your Latest Off Property Excursions?

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Kristen K.'s picture
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What Are Your Latest Off Property Excursions?

What have you all been doing off property lately? Anything?

Can anyone suggest a great Orlando restaurant of must see tourist spot that's totally worth the cost of admission?

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Probably not all that exciting but lately we've been staying in Celebration so we've been exploring that area. It's a nice place to visit and a great place to walk around with the dogs.

And now that I discovered the Walmart on 192 I find all kinds of excuses to drag Joe there. They have a rather ginormous selection of Disney merch! Great place for non-park souveniers.

Joe and I are thinking about a Universal excursion this fall. We've still never seen any of the Harry Potter stuff.

Have you ever checked out the ICON Orlando giant ferris wheel thing? It's on my list but would love to know if anyone has done it.

https://iconorlando.com

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JeffC wrote:
Probably not all that exciting but lately we've been staying in Celebration so we've been exploring that area. It's a nice place to visit and a great place to walk around with the dogs.

And now that I discovered the Walmart on 192 I find all kinds of excuses to drag Joe there. They have a rather ginormous selection of Disney merch! Great place for non-park souveniers.

Joe and I are thinking about a Universal excursion this fall. We've still never seen any of the Harry Potter stuff.

Have you ever checked out the ICON Orlando giant ferris wheel thing? It's on my list but would love to know if anyone has done it.

https://iconorlando.com

Celebration is really nice, but like I said before, A little "Stepford Wife Like". Jeff, did you ever eat at the Market Street Cafe? We had a great breakfast there once with CM friends.

That Wal-Mart is awesome! They have a ton of Disney merchandise, just not the quality of the real Disney stuff. But for souvenirs for kids, no contest!

We haven't seen Harry Potter yet either, but Scrappy checked out pricing and holy crap it high for 1 day.

That Ferris wheel looks crazy. You can see that from the Contemporary or up at Cali Grill and I think from the bridge between Contemporary & BLT.

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Haha - every time we go now that's all I think about MrHub.

We haven't eaten at the Market Street Cafe yet but we've heard really good things. I can't make it past the cookie dough shop. yeah

I was shocked when I went looking at prices nowadays for Universal. I struggle clicking "purchase tickets" every time I go to the site....I keep waiting for some amazing special but so far nothing.

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Off property? I don't understand.

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JeffC wrote:

Joe and I are thinking about a Universal excursion this fall. We've still never seen any of the Harry Potter stuff.

Have you ever checked out the ICON Orlando giant ferris wheel thing? It's on my list but would love to know if anyone has done it.

https://iconorlando.com

1) Dude, you are in for a treat.

2)We were a bit underwhelmed with the ferris wheel, not worth the cost IMO.

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MrHub wrote:
JeffC wrote:
Probably not all that exciting but lately we've been staying in Celebration so we've been exploring that area. It's a nice place to visit and a great place to walk around with the dogs.

And now that I discovered the Walmart on 192 I find all kinds of excuses to drag Joe there. They have a rather ginormous selection of Disney merch! Great place for non-park souveniers.

Joe and I are thinking about a Universal excursion this fall. We've still never seen any of the Harry Potter stuff.

Have you ever checked out the ICON Orlando giant ferris wheel thing? It's on my list but would love to know if anyone has done it.

https://iconorlando.com

Celebration is really nice, but like I said before, A little "Stepford Wife Like". Jeff, did you ever eat at the Market Street Cafe? We had a great breakfast there once with CM friends.

That Wal-Mart is awesome! They have a ton of Disney merchandise, just not the quality of the real Disney stuff. But for souvenirs for kids, no contest!

We haven't seen Harry Potter yet either, but Scrappy checked out pricing and holy crap it high for 1 day.

That Ferris wheel looks crazy. You can see that from the Contemporary or up at Cali Grill and I think from the bridge between Contemporary & BLT.

I agree with the Stepford Wife thing. We ate at the Tavern on Front Street. I can't think of the name right now, has a Boston thing going on, the Lazy Lobster Casserole was ah-mazing and yes, we got cookie dough too!

I can't get past the prices for Universal either. I guess DIsney would be the same if we didn't have APs but WOW it's high.

You can also see the ferris wheel from Everest along with the new Starflyer now!!!

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I agree with JoAnn. What is off property? Actually we do venture out to a grocery store for water and sodas for the room. We did go to one of the outlets within the last few years. And we went to Walmart within the last few years. But our lastventure out to go to another park or to really dine, was in 2004.

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The Starflyer - who is in the "I'd do it!!" camp? I'm firmly in the "Oh Hell No Not Ever Never" camp. I don't care how safe they claim and secure the chains, I would never ever ever swing from 450 feet. Or even 200 feet:

Soar on the tallest StarFlyer in the world.

Come feel the wind in your hair and the breeze on your face! You'll be seated in a double seat next to your friend, family or partner and secured in your seats with seat belts and an in-between-the-legs harness that can only be unlocked by the ride operator.

Orlando StarFlyer is not your typical set of swings " it clocks in at 450 feet tall, and rotates 360 degrees at speed up to 45 mph. We like to call it "SWINGS ON STEROIDS!" Sit back, relax, and enjoy some adult beverages at the Star Bar before or after your ride!

https://iconorlando.com/venues/attractions/starflyer/

JoAnn C's picture
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I did venture out to Universal last year for a day. I would go again but not every trip. I bought my ticket from Tickets At Work. Not a huge discount but better than no discount at all.

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I am not even sure that I qualify to be in the Hell No camp. Anyone who really knows me would not even ask me. Heck I struggle with being higher than the 3rd floor in a building. Although I have gone up in the ballon in Disney Springs several times. I was beyond scared the first time but calmed down once we got up there. Enough so, that I did it again on another trip. But then, I pushed it and agreed to go up at night. That one did me in. I did not relax the whole time we were up there. All I wanted was for it to be over. I made it through lol but Odds are I am not going to go up again.

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scrappy wrote:
= Although I have gone up in the ballon in Disney Springs several times.

Nope, can't do it. I can't do gondola rides either so if you ever see me talk about actually riding the Skyliner you will know that it was only for the sake of the blog. And - I probably cried the whole time.

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wdwizbest wrote:
JeffC wrote:

Joe and I are thinking about a Universal excursion this fall. We've still never seen any of the Harry Potter stuff.

Have you ever checked out the ICON Orlando giant ferris wheel thing? It's on my list but would love to know if anyone has done it.

https://iconorlando.com

1) Dude, you are in for a treat.

2)We were a bit underwhelmed with the ferris wheel, not worth the cost IMO.

That's my fear about the ferris wheel, wdwizbest. And I don't know for sure if Joe and I would get a unit all to ourselves or if we would share with others. I see you can buy a romantic package but man that's pricey.

Thanks so much for the feedback!!

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That's my fear about the ferris wheel, wdwizbest. And I don't know for sure if Joe and I would get a unit all to ourselves or if we would share with others. I see you can buy a romantic package but man that's pricey.

Thanks so much for the feedback!!

We did this last December, the "Champagne" package. It amounts to 1 glass of cheap champagne each and a trip around the wheel. We had the car to ourselves, but virtually no one else was riding it anyway. I think it was $75.00-100.00 for both of us, it was worth about half that.

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scrappy wrote:
I am not even sure that I qualify to be in the Hell No camp. Anyone who really knows me would not even ask me. Heck I struggle with being higher than the 3rd floor in a building. Although I have gone up in the ballon in Disney Springs several times. I was beyond scared the first time but calmed down once we got up there. Enough so, that I did it again on another trip. But then, I pushed it and agreed to go up at night. That one did me in. I did not relax the whole time we were up there. All I wanted was for it to be over. I made it through lol but Odds are I am not going to go up again.

I remember that. wink

I agree it's very different at night. We tried to go up in it this trip, but it was either lined up or tied down due to high winds.