25 Drinks of Christmas – Day 23: ALMOST SANGRIA at Bar 17 Bistro

The Christmas season is our absolute favorite time of the year. Growing up, one of the little things I loved most was getting an Advent calendar and counting down the days until Santa would be coming down the chimney. As I grew older, I had to leave Advent calendars in the rear view mirror,* but I still miss that daily countdown building anticipation to the big day. So, we’re going to start a virtual Advent calendar here at TouringPlans. For 2022, we are going to countdown our favorite drinks at Walt Disney World and the Universal Orlando Resort.

Criteria: Drinks can be alcoholic or nonalcoholic. Drinks can come from any venue on the property. Bonus points are awarded for the atmosphere where the drink is served. Any drink with glow cubes is immediately disqualified. Ready? Let’s go!

The Drink – Almost Sangria
Location – Bar 17 Bistro at Universal’s Aventura Hotel

ALMOST SANGRIA – Ingredients: Rosé, peach liqueur, thyme, dry vermouth, thyme, and strawberry.

One thing that we wanted to highlight with this year’s “25 Drinks” list was to visit places that didn’t exist in years past when we have done a countdown. Aventura Hotel opened in 2018 and one of our favorite parts of the resort is the rooftop Bar 17 Bistro. In the lobby area of Aventura the elevator banks have one “Express” elevator that will bring you straight up to the 17th floor.

Bar 17 Bistro has bar seating along with many tables on the rooftop area.

You can get some pretty amazing views of Orlando area from Bar 17 Bistro, including a bird’s eye view of the nearby Cabana Bay Beach Resort and Volcano Bay.

Which of course leads to some natural opportunities for taking some great photos for your social media.

Nighttime views at Bar 17 Bistro can also be impressive with the amount of lighting features used by the Universal Orlando Resort along with their neighbors nearby off International Drive.

From day one, the food options at Bar 17 Bistro have always been unique and tasty. One of our favorites from the current menu are the warm marinated olives.

25 Drinks of Christmas TouringPlans Brought to Me…

• Day 1 – Duck Duck Razz at THE BOATHOUSE
• Day 2 – Grown-Ups Lemonade at Woody’s Boathouse
• Day 3 – Yub Nub at Oga’s Cantina
• Day 4 – Isla Nubar in Jurassic Park
• Day 5 – Bam’s Barnstormer at Jock Lindsey’s Hangar Bar
• Day 6 – Santa’s Cookies & Milkshake at Toothsome Chocolate Emporium
• Day 7 – Lost on Safari at Dawa Bar
• Day 8 – SKYLINER SERIES Category 5 at Hurricane Hannah’s
• Day 9 – SKYLINER SERIES Almande Grog at Bar Riva
• Day 10 – SKYLINER SERIES Banana Cabana at Banana Cabana
• Day 11 – SKYLINER SERIES Boubon Breeze at PetalsDay
• Day 12 – Disco H2O at Endless Summer
• Day 13 – Lost Lanes Lager at Splitsville
• Day 14 – Grinch Hot Cocoa at Seuss Landing
• Day 15 – Blue Milk at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
• Day 16 – Hawkes’ Grog Ale at Pandora the World of Avatar
• Day 17 – Mai Tai at Strong Water Tavern
• Day 18 – Swizzle Rum Punch at Swizzle Lounge
• Day 19 – Enchanted Orange Dream at Skipper Canteen
• Day 20 – Snow Leopard Salvation at Nomad Lounge
• Day 21 – Old Fashioned at Hollywood Brown Derby
• Day 22 – Classic Milkshake at Shakes Malt Shoppe
• Day 23 – Almost Sangria at Bar 17

See you tomorrow for the next entry into the 25 Drinks of Christmas Countdown, where we are going to head over to the Wizarding World. If you had fun, be sure to check out any of our other fun series including Theme Park Hills to Die On, the adventures of David & Derek (theme park’s Goofus & Gallant,) or the famous (infamous?) Theme Park Turkeys of the Year awards. for your listening pleasure, check out the Parkscope Podcast. Your humble author can also be seen producing typos at an inhuman rate on Twitter: @derekburgan

The 25 Drinks of Christmas series couldn’t be done without an All Star team behind us including world class photographers Michael Carelli, Brandon Glover, Scott Sanders, and Hedghehog’s Corner. The drink listing came from a double-secret blue ribbon panel comprised of SAT SIX Fun Squaders including: Megan Stump, Nitro230,The Man Formerly Known as @DrunkAtDisney, Bethany Vinton, Parkscope Joe and Parkscope Nick. As always, Digital Maestro Scott Walker was the cherry on top of the sundae.

*That is an absolute lie. I still buy an advent calendar every year with chocolates in it, and I also buy an annual box of Christmas Crunch, but we’ll keep that between us.