The Traveling Steve's

After a week of travel in Minnesota, and flight delays coming back last night, it was nice to sleep in a bit on Saturday morning.  As always, when returning from any trip, there are errands to run, chores to do, and unpacking  and repacking clothes for the next trip.  This Saturday was no exception, except for  packing for 3 different trips, plus an overnight  ‘stay-cation’ for tonight.

This weekend would be the first of our ‘Generous Pour’ stay-cations at the Orlando Hyatt.  We started that last summer, and had such a good time we are planning to return three times this year!  

More of that in a moment, but back to the not so fun packing chores.  Next Monday I will be traveling for the work-week to Long Island, returning to Orlando on Friday late afternoon, and then after meeting DOS at the airport, flying to Roanoke for the weekend.  Returning on Sunday night, we are staying at the Orlando Airport Hyatt as we both have flights on Monday morning; his for fun to Las Vegas, and mine for work to Minnesota.  It’s 3 distinct trips, and I’m packing 3 different suitcases, toiletry kits, spare contacts, work clothes etc for each.  I also have to pack my medications for two weeks of trips as well.  It takes awhile packing for 3 trips (after first washing clothes from the last trip), but it feels good to get everything out of the way before ‘traveling’ on to our overnight stay-cation.

Around 3pm, we headed down to the Orlando Hyatt Regency Convention Center, a short 30 minute drive from the house.  Once there, our room wasn’t ready, so we were invited to wait in the 26th floor Concierge lounge, and they would text us when the room was done. Shortly later, the Front Desk agent actually brought us our keys, and we then proceeded to play a game of ‘musical rooms’.  The first room 21101 we didn’t care (or at least DOS didn’t care) as it faced the back of the hotel and Sea World.  We had reserved a Metropolitan Suite with balcony which we got, but we like the ones facing the pool and Disney World on a high floor, and we got one facing the rear of the property, which overlooks the older Peabody (now Hyatt tower 1) hotel, and Sea World.  (Not a huge deal for one night, but we did specify the pool view, not that it’s guaranteed.) Here is a view of the pool from the Concierge Lounge; the same view we requested for our room.

We then went back to the Front Desk and requested another room which another agent obliged, however it wasn’t ready, so we went back to the Concierge Lounge to wait.  A little while later we got keys to the room, and it was the same view, but on a lower floor.  It overlooked the pool, but it was the pool at the other hotel, not what we wanted.  We were very specific in what we asked for and were willing to wait for a room, but I think there was a shortage of clean Metropolitan Suites that were clean, so we got the next one available.

So back to the Concierge Lounge to wait for our next room! At this point we were getting quite a collection of room keys!  It was really getting a bit embarrassing (at least for me) but we finally got a Regency Suite room on the 29th floor, that did not have balcony, but did have a magnificent view and unlike the Metropolitan Suite with separate bedroom, was one large open room with some 900 square feet and large living and dining area- very nice.  We decided to forgo the balcony for the night and enjoyed the 29th floor suite.  (Orlando has a building code that prohibits balconies over the 24th floor.)  Here are a few photos of our room:

We settled in the room and had a couple hours to relax before our 7:30pm dinner.  I enjoyed the jacuzzi tub, which unlike most spas had dozens of tiny bubble holes, with various speed levels allowing for a gentle to more rigorous spa experience.  Adding some bubble bath, it was a luxurious and relaxing way to end a busy work week!

They even had a built-in TV in the bathroom mirror!

Around 6:45pm we went back down to the 26th floor Concierge Lounge for some quick snacks and drinks before heading to dinner.  We just had a couple cubes of cheese, cherry tomatoes and some mixed nuts, skipping the hot hor dourves in favor of appetizers to come at Capital Grille.  I had a brewski courtesy of Hyatt (complimentary beer and wine from 5:30 – 7:30pm) before heading out to dinner.

We walked from the Hyatt to The Capital Grille around 7:15, which is a short block away from the hotel in the Pointe Orlando area of International Drive.   We were seated in a nice booth toward the back of the restaurant, which was quite spacious for the two of us.  We had a wonderful and very efficient wait staff led by our waiter Marco.  Before ordering appetizers, we requested the Generous Pour, which is a promotion Capital Grille has from mid July to early September, and offers unlimited wine from 7 different vintages for $28 a person with the meal – an incredible bargain!  The vintages change each year, and this year’s is a good mix of whites and reds, ranging from a Sauvignon Blanc to a full bodied Stags Leap Cabernet.  We had a sample of the Sauvignon Blanc while we studied the menu; quite classy!

The Capital Grille offers ‘generous pours’ of these wines – they really don’t skimp, and you can have as much as you like over the course of your meal.  One minor issue we had was with the red wine glasses, which were served in the same size as the smaller white wine glasses.  We like the larger wine glasses for the reds, not to fill it up more, but to be able to swirl and aeriate the wine.  We had a nice chat with the manager and he was happy to oblige our request, as we requested Marco for our next couple upcoming Capital Grille visits.

Here are a few photos of our Capital Grille meal:

After a fun and full evening of dining, neither DOS nor I could finish our bone-in ribeye, so we asked for it to be packaged to go, which we took with us, having a fridge in our hotel suite.

We stopped by the adjacent Rosen Plaza hotel for a nightcap brewskis (for me, water for DOS) at the poolside bar, which we did last year as well during the Generous Pour event.

Later heading back to the Hyatt, we stumbled, I mean rode the elevator up to the 29th floor and headed to bed.  ‘Twas a fun-filled night of our first Generous Pour of 2016!