We’re back in Orlando now, and I’m quite a bit behind in posting, but we’ve been quite busy since we got back from the Virgin Voyages cruise. In my last post, we were celebrating our last night aboard Virgin Voyage’s Scarlet Lady, and what a wonderful cruise we had! The next and final morning, Steve (DOS) and I had a leisurely morning, and even had time for breakfast in the Gallery before debarking. Thank you Richard Branson! LOL!
Virgin Voyages allows you to stay in your room until 10:30am on debarkation day, which is unheard of on most other cruise lines (which usually want you out of your room by 8 and off the ship by 9:30am), although we headed off the ship around 10am. As this was a four day cruise, most people appeared to carry their own luggage off the ship, although we had checked our luggage the night before and it was waiting for us when we got to the terminal customs area.
The Virgin Terminal uses Face Recognition for immigration (as does Port Canaveral) and it really sped things up upon debarkation. We gathered our luggage and headed across to the parking garage, and while there was a bit of a delay exiting the garage (Miami really should get an EPAS lane installed), it wasn’t too long a wait, and we were soon on our way to Sarasota, waving by to the ship as we drove away.
The drive to Sarasota was about 4 hours with a couple stops. We went across the infamous “Alligator Alley”, although we didn’t see any alligators along the way. There are several parking areas you can stop along the way where you can launch a small boat thru the canals of the Everglades. There is also a large tourism and rest area at one point which is worth a stop as it provides the history and interesting trivia about the Everglades.
We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Sarasota Downtown for my birthday week. We always enjoy staying at this hotel, and the location near the Sarasota Bay and downtown restaurants is perfect. We had a marina-facing suite on the 10th (top floor) overlooking the pool during our stay there.
The weather for the week was very hot, and typical for Florida we had thunderstorms a couple of days. We didn’t do some of the typical things we usually do, such as visiting the Ringling Brother’s Museum (including Circus Museum and Ringing Mansion), or even taking the evening sunset dinner cruise around the Bay as it was too hot. We did walk around the marina area by the hotel, which faces the Ritz Carlton Hotel and adjacent Ritz Residences, along with several other pricey condos, and a couple condos being built. Sarasota is really bustling with high end development and road infrastructure, downtown especially.
We did enjoy doing mostly indoor activities during the day, however, including going to the mall for walking and lunch a couple times. We even browsed for a Tesla Y model in the Tesla showroom in the University mall!
I am planning to buy a Tesla; it’s a matter of when, not if, but I will probably wait until next year as we have a couple major trips booked thru the end of the year, and also there’s rumors Tesla will be updating the 2024 model with enhanced range, and possibly other hardware modifications as well. In any event I don’t want the new car sitting around for a couple months while we’re away and not having the battery charged or run down; not sure if that’s even an issue, but it’s worth waiting for.
We looked at a Tesla Y a few months ago at the Florida Mall in Orlando, and they would even let you test drive it overnight, but so far we have not done so. Still it’s very helpful and no pressure sales going by the Tesla dealers to ask questions and get more information. I like the large amount of cargo space in the Tesla Y, 5 seater model (as opposed to the 7 seater with a 3rd row), as there is lots more usable cargo space when the seats are folded down; perfect for all our luggage for road trips! 😀
Also, I would like to get the Tesla in the RED color shown below (although this is the S model Tesla.) Stay tuned . . .hopefully early next year sometime.
For dinner each night in Sarasota, we went to a different restaurant, although we did repeat Clasico one evening, which features Italian cuisine complete with a piano bar and singer. Clasico, like most of the other nice restaurants, is located in nearby downtown Sarasota, which is a short Uber ride away from the hotel, and much more convenient than driving and finding a place to park. While these and many of the other photos look like huge portions of food (well actually they are!), DOS and I normally split each item, from the appetizer pizza, salad, and even the main course.
which is actually made for one person!
On Tuesday morning, promptly at 12:00 midnight, Steve (DOS) gave me an animated birthday card! 😀 I was still working on the blog from the Virgin cruise and getting ready for bed, but he insisted on giving me the card at the early morning hour. Leave it to DOS to pick out just the perfect birthday card!
You can actually blow out the candles on the animated card!
On my birthday night, we went to Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse, which is an upscale steak restaurant similar to Capital Grille or Ruth Chris. There are a few locations of Hyde Park in the US, with one in Daytona Beach, which we usually go to when visiting there. We had an extra nice and leisurely dinner at Hyde Park, with a complimentary birthday card and dessert on the house.
Some of the other restaurants we went to included Connor’s, another favorite of ours, but a bit further out than downtown Sarasota, still an easy Uber ride away. We even had the same waitress from our visit in May, and she remembered us as well!
Another restaurant we dinned at again on this visit was Mediteranneo Ristorante Italiano, located downtown a short Uber ride from the hotel. This very authentic and family-owned Italian restaurant serves exceptional food with great service as well.
Another restaurant we went to once again was 1592. We’ve been here for both lunch and dinner previously and really enjoyed both meals. Night time at 1592 is much more lively due to the bar and groups of friends meeting up, although this was a weeknight so it wasn’t jam packed like before.
And finally for our last dinner in Sarasota, we went to Amelia Island Oyster Bar, which is like a local Red Lobster, with some casual and local theming. The service there is good and quick, and as it’s located outside the downtown area, it has a more local and (and older) feel to it, unlike the younger and more fashionable crowd at the trendy downtown area restaurants.
So after a wonderful cruise on Virgin Voyages, coupled with the following week’s stay in Sarasota, it was a fantastic summer getaway for us, and a nice birthday celebration trip for me. We checked out of the Hyatt around 1pm on Saturday, and headed back to Orlando, for our 2 1/2hour drive home.
Welcome Home!