After a night of not much sleep, it was DISNEY DAY! I was awake for good by about 3:15 even though I didn’t plan to be on a shuttle to the airport until 5:15. This will be a long day!
I facebooked and stuff until it was time to get ready. Thankfully Nick woke up as I was getting ready, so I was able to turn some lights on. Seems the master light for the room also allowed the bathroom lights to be turned on. We definitely didn’t have that issue in the room we stayed at at this same hotel in April. I did a pretty good job getting ready by cell phone flashlight but it was nice to shed some real light on the situation.
We packed up, ate our Everyday Cafe doughnuts (maple frosted, made with real maple syrup for me, chocolate frosted for Nick), and I ran our boots and winter clothes from the previous day down to the car. Ok…I shoe skated across the ice to the car. Then we headed down to the lobby where I had hoped to be early for the 5:15 shuttle, but not quite this early. By that I mean the dude at the desk radioed the driver of the 5:00 van to open the shuttle door back up and shooed us out the door.
From 4 am to noon, the shuttle runs every 15 minutes from the hotel. You just show up a few minutes before the shuttle you want and it’s off to the airport. Our driver was entertaining, and a very effective Massachusetts driver. She had us practically crying we were laughing so hard at her commentary, and her take no prisoners driving style. She’s the type of driver we would totally be swearing at on NH highways. But, riding on her bus was just fine.
We were dropped off at the JetBlue terminal pretty soon after departing the hotel. We had no problem finding an open kiosk despite the masses of humanity standing around cluelessly and pretty soon our bags were tagged, and we were in the shorter of the check in lines. We checked our bags to Orlando and found our way to the TSA Precheck line. The line only had about 5 people in it, which was a huge difference from the regular line. Seriously…best $85 (x2) I’ve ever spent.
We were through security less than half an hour after stepping onto the shuttle at the hotel. Our flight wasn’t until 7:20 so we had some time to kill. We facebooked, marveled at the Dunkins lines, watched the TUGs try to maneuver with chains on their tires for traction (not pretty) and watched the sun come up over the frozen tundra we call New England.
Eventually it was boarding time. With all of the weather cancellations Friday and Saturday, and of course, revenge travel, it was a completely full flight, so this was a process. So, selfie time, because vacation!
Eventually we were on the plane! I was THIS close to crying tears of joy because holy crap, it’s actually happening! We’re going to Disney!!!
I kept waiting for a last minute shoe to drop, but, the plane was fully boarded and pushed back early! We taxied all over Boston, and I waved goodbye to the snow!
And then we were airborne! Eventually they got the wifi working and I spent the flight facebooking, texting, and listening to music, because what attention span? Nick napped a bit and I marveled at how unhappy Goodie Girl seemed to be to be associated with a 100 calorie pack of approximately 6 little gluten free (but surprisingly tasty) cookies.
Eventually (but not nearly soon enough!) we were making our descent into Orlando. They brought us in FAST! We dropped more than 10,000 feet in 6 minutes. Woah. Needless to say, we landed half an hour early and were at a gate shortly after. Woohoo! Extra vacation time!
Deplaning was pretty quick, and pretty soon we were joining the mob by the tram (sorry…APM?), staring at the lovely 50th decor. Unfortunately (fortunately?) there was no time for picture taking because our driver from Tiffany Town Car called me to find out what our luggage status was, and to let us know how to find him once we got our luggage. Really…who calls these days? But anyway…I did get one picture!
We headed for baggage claim 5, where we waited and waited and waited. Our driver (I never did catch his name…) called again to make sure everything was ok. Eventually we had our luggage, and I called him back as we headed outside to zone 3, where he pulled up in a Suburban a few minutes later. I only paid for a sedan, so that was an upgrade.
Our luggage was loaded quickly and we were off! To the grocery store… Tiffany Towncar will include a 20 minute grocery stop if you let them know in advance (when you book). I took advantage pretty much strictly for some bottled water. We picked up some bottled water, some Power Water for Nick, and a couple of snacks, and marveled at how well stocked the store is. Seriously…they have cream cheese! We hadn’t seen that in our grocery store in a month!
We were back out at the car in approximately 10 minutes, with the driver chuckling at how motivated we were to get to Disney. He said some people shop like they’re staying for months. Definitely not us!
We hit a bit of traffic on I-4, obviously, but pretty soon we were seeing those pearly gates. By then it had been established that I was a Disney nerd, so our driver said “welcome home”. Bonus points!
He dropped us off at French Quarter, where I snagged my shorts out of my carry on, which seemed to surprise Nick and ran off to change. Then we stored our luggage, and headed out to the boat dock. The captain held the loading boat for us and we were off to Disney Springs for lunch! It was a sunny, warm, beautiful day!
We had to yield to every boat in a 10 mile radius, but we made it to Springs eventually where Nick was introduced to the new Disney security system, which obviously as a former security guy he had comments about, and then we ducked and wove through the crowds over to Polite Pig, where we found a 15 minute wait to order lunch.
Now perhaps Polite Pig wasn’t the best choice given our dinner plans, but today was the only day that it made sense to eat here, and I felt Nick had to eat here. Spoiler alert, I was right.
We ordered the butcher board to split, which involved chicken, brisket, sausage, pork (we ordered the sliced pork), slaw (didn’t eat that), cornbread, and two sides of our choice. We went with the waffle fries and the seasonal bbq au gratin. I ordered a Polite Punch to drink and Nick ordered the Texas Tea. Our new friend at the cash register was kind enough to hand us water cups so we could “rehydrate as we dehydrate”, and let me know there was a Disney Visa discount there. Thanks “friend”!
We found a high top and our drinks and food appeared quickly. It was all amazing and that bbq au gratin needs to be a year round food, not just a seasonal offering! So good! Nick loved the meal and was very glad I dragged him across half of Disney Springs when he was starving (he didn't eat his 6 cookies on the plane) past other food places, to go to Polite Pig!
After we had sufficiently fueled up, it was over to Gideon’s to see what the virtual queue looked like. 3 ½ hours. No thanks. So I popped over to the Basket at Wine Bar George (the window next to the restaurant) and got a frozcato, because dole whip and alcohol.
Then it was time for shopping. We really didn’t buy much at all, but we killed off a couple of hours. And I’ll say it again, it was a beautiful day!
Shortly before 3 we were DONE. The crowds were unsurprisingly heavy and Nick was wearing jeans. We still hadn’t gotten our room ready text, but we headed back to the boat dock, figuring we’d get the text on our way. Shortly before the exit from Disney Springs, we ran into Lindsay, so we chatted for a few minutes. A Moose I hadn’t met before! Then we continued onto the boat dock.
We got back to French Quarter about 3:15 and still hadn’t gotten our room ready text. We decided to check with the front desk about the status of our room so we could make a plan for the afternoon. Vivy at the front desk was great and quickly offered to see if there was a different ready room she could get us moved to. There was, so after playing with our magic bands for a few minutes, we were assigned to room 7331, over in the farthest building from the main lobby. I wasn’t worried about it though. This resort is SMALL. We made a quick stop at the food court to buy refillable mugs. They had the freestyle machines here, which, at such a small resort, works! Then we headed off to our room.
Sure enough, building 7 was only about a 4 minute walk from the lobby and wow is it quiet over here. Win! We found our room on the 3rd floor and found that the refurb since we were last here made it really serene. Because obviously we couldn’t love this resort any more! Seriously, they did a nice job with these rooms! And the view outside our room was pretty nice too.
We relaxed for a bit and then headed for the bus stop. Time to try something new for dinner! We eventually hopped on a bus to Hollywood Studios and circled through Riverside, and then we actually got to Hollywood Studios. From there it was a quick walk to the Skyliner, and a quick trip to Caribbean Beach.
Once at Caribbean Beach it was almost a 10 minute walk, but we figured out where we were going somehow and made it to Sebastian’s shortly before our reservation time. We checked in at the podium for the only time this trip, and then enjoyed a few minutes of beautiful weather before dinner.
This was our first time at Sebastian’s. It’s been on my radar since reopening because it’s been getting such good reviews and the price point is really decent as far as Disney goes. Our meal here was fantastic. Service was great, all of the staff were really friendly and pleasant, and the food and drinks were amazing. Dinner currently is served family style, so they bring out a plate of rolls with guava butter (amazing) and onion jam, a salad (that we told them they didn’t need to bring us), a platter of meat and sauces (chicken, pork and steak with mango sambal and mojito relish) and a platter of rice and beans, curried vegetables and broccolini. We both had fruity rum drinks, and the meal was completed with a large serving of pineapple coconut bread pudding with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. Also…the meat platter came with more meat on it than is pictured. We started serving ourselves before I took a picture. It’s an unreal amount of food.
The meats were all cooked perfectly. The flavor of the chicken was a little boring compared to the steak and pork, but seriously, it was all delicious. I’d been a little concerned that the meats might be too spicy, but that was not the case at all. Flavorful, yes, spicy no. The sides were great (thankfully the cilantro rice and beans is not very cilantroey) and those rolls with guava butter, oh my! And the bread pudding was outstanding! We wouldn’t hesitate to come back here. Oh…they give a Disney Visa discount here. 10% off food. The meal is $29 per adult for all that food before the discount. Really, a good price for Disney.
Having successfully gotten ourselves in a food coma (and we didn’t even eat remotely close to all of the food they gave us) and really turned off from walking back to the skyliner or to the bus when we got back to Studios, I requested a Lyft. Jose picked us up in his Corolla that reeked of Strawberry air fresheners about 10 minutes later, and thankfully, less than 10 minutes after that, we were back at our hotel. We filled up our refillable mugs that I’d stashed in my backpack, and headed back to the room to crash. It had been a long but good day, and tomorrow was going to be our first park day!
Having successfully gotten ourselves in a food coma (and we didn’t even eat remotely close to all of the food they gave us) and really turned off from walking back to the skyliner or to the bus when we got back to Studios, I requested a Lyft. Jose picked us up in his Corolla that reeked of Strawberry air fresheners about 10 minutes later, and thankfully, less than 10 minutes after that, we were back at our hotel. We filled up our refillable mugs that I’d stashed in my backpack, and headed back to the room to crash. It had been a long but good day, and tomorrow was going to be our first park day!
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