Thursday, June 9, 2016

6.9.16 RIU Palace Antilles

We headed over to the Orlando Airport early this morning. It was a good thing because it took us 30 minutes of the Southwest counter to get a boarding pass. TSA security was a breeze. We learn that Southwest doesn't set up PreCheck for international flights so that's a bummer moving forward. We had time to get a little breakfast and upgrade your boarding position. We got emergency exit row seats and had the middle seat open which is a huge win. The flight was uneventful.

We landed in Aruba and customs and immigration was a breeze. It took less than 10 minutes. We had gotten a free shared shuttle so we took it. We got on the bus at 2:03 p.m. and we're at our Resort at 2:53 p.m. We did stop at a couple other resorts.

Our first impression of the Riu Palace antillas was good. Check in with easy. Our room is fine. I was surprised we had real liquor in our room and addition to beer and sodas and water. We have a nice balcony with a good view overlooking the pool in the ocean.

We headed down and grabbed a snack at the buffet near the pool. We spent a little time at the pool bar. The one thing about Aruba is that it is really windy and that means that everyone's around you get pelted with sand at the pool bar.

Tonight we are headed to kitchen table by white for dinner because Riu has this crazy policy where you can only make same day or the next day dinner reservations between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. So we decided on this trip we would make hotel reservations outside the resort even though it doesn't all inclusive to try some of the amazing restaurants we've heard about in Aruba.

Dinner at Kitchen Table by White was fantastic. The restaurant has 16 seats and one seating per night. You start with a glass of champagne on the terrace to watch the sunset. Then you move downstairs. It's set up like a U shaped counter so you can watch the chefs plate. It's a six course meal and we opted to include the wine pairing.

The theme was Dutch Caribbean. The menu was inventive. We found most of fish to be overcooked to our taste, but the sauces were amazing! We liked how we got a little break after the first 3 courses to head outside with a little lemon sorbet and prosecco. Glenn's favorite dish was the lamb. I loved this amazing pea sauce. The tuna appetizer and the dessert were both complex, interesting dishes. We first looked at them lokr "what the heck?", but then as we dug in - it was delicious. wonderful night!!

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