March?! How’d that happen?! That means this trip is almost over. NOOOO!
I slept in this morning…until like 6 am. Turns out this hotel is surprisingly quiet.
I perused social media while lying in bed for quite awhile and then eventually I started getting ready for the day, about the same time Nick woke up.
About halfway through getting ready for the day (you know…mid tooth brushing, half dressed, bedhead barely finger combed), the fire alarm went off. We cursed, threw on the rest of the necessary clothes, I spit out the toothpaste, grabbed the necessities, and we headed for the door.
Pro tip that I’ve been practicing for the last 10 years since this happened to us in Colorado…always keep the wallet, room key, rental car keys, and if in Disney, the Magic Band, in one spot. I was able to easily snag the wallet (with room key inside) and rental car key as we headed for the door. I know…it’s everything we tell the kids not to do at school, but…real world here. You can replace the rest, but you’re going to want those things if it’s real, or if it takes them hours to clear you to return to your room.
The stairs were very close to our room, and by the time we landed on the first floor, the alarm was already turned off. We could smell burnt food, and people started coming back in from outside, saying everyone was clear to return to their rooms. Food had been burned at breakfast.
Since we were dressed enough and already on the first floor, Nick decided we should head to breakfast to get some food to hold us over until our big breakfast in an hour and a half. So…we did. Sorry to all who had to see my finger combed bed head ponytail.
While it was no Drury free breakfast, the offerings were solid for a hotel free breakfast and more than solid for a first breakfast. I had a muffin and a yogurt. Nick probably had something similar plus some breakfast meat. We found out an English muffin had gotten stuck in the toaster causing the fire alarm. And, I found out that the hotel’s “breakfast ambassadors” are giving away the touring secrets.
First breakfast consumed, we headed back to our room to really finish getting ready for the day. Once ready, it was off to the Boardwalk. The drive over was easy, and pretty soon we had parked, walked down to the Boardwalk, checked in for breakfast in the app, and were enjoying watching the boats on a gorgeous morning.
I got the table is ready alert after a few minutes and we headed inside Trattoria Al Forno. We were seated immediately. This has quickly become one of my favorite Disney World breakfast spots, and, once again, it did not disappoint. Service was excellent, and the food was delicious. Nick had the tiramisu bread pudding and I had the Al Forno eggs.
After a great breakfast to start the morning, we poked around the store on the boardwalk. Nick, who is not usually an eagle eye, spotted a “my happy place” Disney Pandora charm and insisted on getting it for me. He’s a keeper!
Once we’d finished poking around the Boardwalk, we headed back to the rental car and drove over to Disney Springs. This was also an easy drive, and we parked in the orange garage. This was Nick’s first time parking at Disney Springs and he was quite impressed by the empty spot light system in the garage. It is the best!
Security was…a nuisance. Nick set off the scanner, and the line for wanding was LONG. Does anybody NOT travel with 50 different bags in their strollers these days?! Are those strollers actually carrying children or just stuff?!
Once Nick had cleared security, we headed for the stores. We browsed in a few and found a friend of his from work in Ron Jon. We chatted with Matt and his daughter Addi for a bit, and then we all continued on our way. Nick and I browsed several stores, but World of Disney was most enjoyable and it had nothing to do with finding desirable merchandise (although that happened too). Soon after walking in, we came across the Starbucks tumblers. Nick’s immediate reaction was “that’s terrible; it looks like a meat grinder”. As we wandered the store, finding these in multiple other colors, we decided they could double as meat tenderizers in addition to their apparent intended use as drink containers.
After cruising through the stores in the old Marketplace side of the Springs, Nick noticed Dockside Margaritas. That conversation went something like this: “hey, did you know they have a margarita stand here?!”
“Yeah, I celebrated margarita day there in 2020; they’re decent”
“Uh then it’s day drinking time”.
Nick got the lime special or something like that. I got the sunset margarita. It was excellent. Nick liked his too and commented that it was “legit” a review I agree with. Sitting in the shade overlooking the water was nice too.
As we were starting to get ready to move on, I heard a friendly familiar voice behind me. Eric was on his way back to the office, having grabbed lunch in Disney Springs, and knowing where we were, had stopped to say hi. We chatted for a few minutes and then he headed back to work. It was good to see him.
We cleaned up and continued through the Springs, running into Matt and Addi again, who were on their way to meet Matt’s mom and stepdad at the Boathouse for lunch. We chatted for a few more minutes about travel, which shifted to Nick and my odds of actually flying home on Saturday, and then we headed for the hat store for Nick (where we ran into Matt’s mom and stepdad) and Matt and Addi headed for lunch. Nick found a hat he liked, that also fit his slightly oversized head, and we headed for the bus stop. Time for more day drinking!
Once at the bus stop we had to wait about 10 minutes for a bus to the Polynesian. But, soon enough we were on our way!
When we got to the Polynesian, I went straight to the line for the Trader Sam’s virtual queue. We were a bit later than I had hoped, so I put our name on the list about 2:20. I was quoted an estimated callback time of about 4:30. No worries, we are not in a rush.
From here we poked through the Boutiki and then found some comfortable chairs in the lobby. While Nick parked himself in the lobby, I headed outside to the Pineapple Lanai (or Pineapple Florida Room, if you remember last year’s report) for some dole whip. A cup of swirl for him, a float with vanilla for me. Obviously, the dole whip was delicious.
We sat and relaxed for a bit. At 3:43, I got a text from Trader Sam’s that they’d be paging me sooner than anticipated and was I still interested. I responded yes, and almost immediately had a text that space was available. We headed straight there, and after a few minutes we were inside, and even got seats at a table for 4. Woah!
We were joined pretty soon by the girls who had been in front of us in the virtual queue sign up line. They were friends from upstate NY, on a girls trip that included both WDW and a cruise on the Disney Wish. They’d arrived that day, a day ahead of schedule because of the incoming storms. This was their first time at Trader Sam’s and would be their first Disney Cruise. Needless to say, we had a good time chatting with them.
Our time at Trader Sam’s was enjoyable. Nick and I each had two drinks, and at some point we got the pot stickers too. It was all great. Nick got the Pearl and (after hearing one of the girls we were sharing the table with refer to the show that went with some of the drinks as “so embarrassing”) the Uh-Oha, just for her sake. Both drinks were good, but the Pearl was better. I got the Hippopotamaitai and the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Rhum. We had a lot of fun.
Drinks consumed, we eventually left Trader Sam’s and headed upstairs to the Tambu Lounge. We knew we could get ‘Ohana noodles there, and that was by far the best part of the ‘Ohana dinner last year. Add in the need for some solid carbs to absorb the liquid ones and…Tambu it is. We joined a mother daughter team from upstate NY where everyone ordered noodles and drinks. Nick got the Backscratcher without the backscratcher, and I went with the Keiki’s Lemonade mocktail because I was going to have to drive at some point this evening. It was a very tasty mocktail, and obviously the noodles were great. The folks we were seated with were totally our type of Disney people, so we had fun chatting with them.
Solids consumed, we headed for the bus stop. It was a beautiful evening!
A bus came along eventually and soon enough we were back at Disney Springs. We went back to World of Disney where I picked up the 100 years shirt and ornament I’d been looking at earlier and we got a Toy Story stuffed character for our nephew.
Purchases made, we headed for the car. It was a fairly quick and completely uneventful trip back to the hotel, where I showered and crashed, until the heartburn from too many citrus based drinks hit.
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