February 2025: A Central Florida Winter Vacation: Day 5

Day 5: Wednesday February 26, 2025

I woke up pretty early, with mixed feelings. We had good plans for today, but today also marked the halfway point of the trip, and I would be returning home to the funeral stuff for one of the most important people in my life, so the halfway mark was a bit more painful than usual. But, let’s try to enjoy today for today.

I got up and got ready and then nagged Nick until he was up and moving. We had breakfast plans today!

I think we made it into the car about 7:15. It ended up being about a 20 minute ride over to the Polynesian so our timing was pretty perfect. Security found us on their list of reservations and we found parking easily enough…right next to a Masshole. Feels like home!

We headed inside, and I did check in through the app as we climbed the stairs. About a minute later I had a text that our table was ready, so we headed over to ‘Ohana, where a couple of cast members all but fought over who was going to seat us. They were like “We just want to get you seated so you can see Mickey!”

We were seated closer to the windows, and pretty soon breakfast started. We were given pineapple bread when we were seated, and our server appeared a few minutes later to pour POG juice and offer coffee. And then the skillet was brought out a few minutes after that.

Breakfast here was good, but honestly, in the world of family style character breakfasts, Garden Grill was better. The food at Garden Grill was better and so was the pacing of the characters. We were finished eating at ‘Ohana long before any characters made it to our table. They definitely have a system for seating and character appearances here and the characters were very…true to character, but…it just didn’t quite work. So, while Garden Grill is one I’d consider returning to, ‘Ohana is probably not. We enjoyed it and we were glad we did it, but…we’re glad we did it once.

Once we’d eaten and visited with the characters, we headed back to the car. From here, it was an easy enough drive over to Disney Springs, where we parked in the Lime garage. We’d removed Nick’s sunglass case from my bag and…today security was a breeze.

We beelined straight for Gideon’s, me expecting to find a really big crowd, because it was 9:30 at this point and the parking garages had been open now for half an hour. Fortunately, we joined a line with less than 10 people in front of us and even had a perfect ledge to sit on to wait for opening at 10. While waiting we decided that those who had control over their schedules had probably decided to make today a park day in place of Monday, since today’s weather was absolutely perfect.

Gideon’s opened at 10, and we were sent inside in the first group. This was Nick’s first Gideon’s experience and he was definitely surprised. We didn’t go too crazy; we’d gone in with a goal. We got two coffee cake cookies, two of the special for the second half of February: key lime chocolate chip, and Nick got a cookies and cream cold brew. Nick said the cold brew was pure sugar and basically just tasted like chocolate.

From Gideon’s we went to Chapel Hats for Nick. Him leaving his hat at home is a Disney vacation tradition (we found it on his dining room table bench, right next to where his luggage had been when we got home), and as a result, so is buying a new hat at Chapel. He was successful in finding a new hat, and he joked with the store owner that he’ll see him in November.

Then we headed over to World of Disney so that I could buy the shirt I’d spotted on Monday. Then we headed back to the car and drove back to the resort. Nick stayed in the car while I ran up to the room to drop off our purchases. We didn’t want those cookies sitting in the heat in the car all day!

Once the cookies had been dropped off, we headed back to Disney. Now, I’ve made no secret about Nick being the passenger prince. He actually made the comment that he’s “been spoiled by staying onsite and not having to get in the car to go everywhere”. Uh huh honey. I’ve been spoiled by not driving onsite…

It was an easy enough drive to our next destination, Winter Summerland. Parking was a bit harder to find…as in there was one spot left even though it was not even 11 am yet, because this is a really tiny lot, but we got said spot, parked, and it was off to play some mini golf!

Nick is pretty anti Christmas music, but even he thoroughly enjoyed this course. He got 5 holes in one (hole in ones?) somehow. We laughed a lot and generally had a good time. The theming is great, and we always have a good time playing mini golf. Obviously, he won, but I actually managed to stay pretty close to par, which is quite the accomplishment for me.

 

Once Nick had sufficiently beaten me at mini golf, we hopped back in the car. After a detour to the Speedway by the Boardwalk for fuel, we once again parked in the lime garage at Disney Springs. It had gotten busy so I think this is when we had to park on not level 2, but we found parking and cruised right through security. It was the sunglasses case.

Where to next? Something new…preferably with some beverages. I led the way over to Jock Lindsay’s Hangar Bar, unsure of what kind of wait we would encounter. When we got to the entrance, they told us to go right in and pick any seat. We walked in to…a near empty bar. Woah! I’m liking these crowd levels.

This one was a first for both of us. It had been on my list for awhile because I’d heard great things, but we hadn’t made it here yet. We both enjoyed. The theming was great, service was solid, and the drinks (an old fashioned for Nick and the Cool Headed Monkey for me) were both excellent. Personally I think the food menu looks decent too, but neither one of us needed actual food at this point, so we didn’t try any appetizers here. Would we come here again? Quite possibly.

The drinks were surprisingly strong for Disney, so our next destination was one for frozen treats: Swirls on the Water! We both were excited about the seasonal cones, so I got the strawberry dole whip and chocolate swirl in a pink white chocolate cone and Nick got the raspberry and lime dole whip swirl in the dark chocolate cone. We both agreed that the cones were pretty boring. We also both agreed that while both swirl combos were fantastic, that lime and raspberry one should be an all the time thing. So good!

From here we wandered through a bunch of Disney Springs stores, all the way over to the far West Side. Once we’d sufficiently explored the stores and worked up an appetite, we headed to another new to us spot.

STK happy hour recently made it on my radar. STK is generally not on my radar because it is SO expensive. But their happy hour deals are pretty fantastic. All the signature cocktails are $9. Apps fall into 3 categories: $3, $6 and $9. And you can sit anywhere at the bar or in the lounge. So we decided to try it out.

We easily got seats at the nearly empty bar around 3:00. Over the course of about an hour we enjoyed an old fashioned (Nick) a mojito (me), the happy hour steak frites (this was delicious but was not the greatest bargain, but the rest of the apps were), the tots, the wagyu meatballs and the wagyu tacos. All of the food and beverages were excellent. The meatballs were the standout bargain. The tots were my personal favorite. Nick had a spiritual experience biting into the tacos. And at that hour, the atmosphere was quiet and very laid back. I would do happy hour here again.

 
After happy hour it was…time for another frozen treat, so we headed for Salt and Straw. Nick had…I have no idea…2 different scoops of something and something. I had a kiddie sized portion of the guava cheese doughnut ice cream. Mine was SO good. And Nick enjoyed his.

Ice cream consumed, we decided it was time to head back to the resort for the evening. Once there, I read, Nick watched something he was streaming, and we crashed early in preparation for the next day.

February 2025: A Central Florida Winter Vacation: Day 4

Day 4: Tuesday February 25, 2025

I actually slept until 5:00 this morning! Progress!

Eventually I got up and had a granola bar and then I started getting ready for the day while Nick woke up. We were both excited for today!

I think we were on the road somewhere between 7:30 and 8. Slightly later than I’d hoped, but not too bad. Thankfully the drive was pretty uneventful, even with the time of day, and thanks to I-4 Express Lanes, we reached our first destination just about an hour after leaving the resort.

So what was our first destination of the day? Blue Spring State Park. The winter home of the manatees. Blue Spring is a natural spring, that stays a consistent temperature year round. It connects to the Saint John River, which experiences temperature fluctuations. When the river cools below a certain temperature, it’s too cold for the manatees that call the river home. So they make their way into the spring for the warmer water. My mom and I came here in 2012, on a day with about 65 manatees in the spring, and it was an incredible experience.

The week before our vacation (aka Masshole vacation week) had been quite warm, so there had only been a couple manatees in the spring each day. But the weekend had been cool, so the river temperature had dropped, and on Sunday they had counted hundreds of manatees in the spring. So we were optimistic that we’d see some today, in light of the rain and cool temperatures the day before.

Sure enough, when we arrived at the entrance booth, the A-frame said they’d counted 149 manatees in the spring today! Sweet! We paid, and drove into the park, excited for this experience.

We were early enough that we easily found parking. Once parked, we hopped out of the car and headed for the very first overlook. And we saw manatees!!

We stayed here for quite awhile, watching the manatees and listening to a park employee explain their movement and all about them in general. We both were fascinated. It really is awesome to observe these gentle giants in their natural environment.

Eventually we continued on along the pathway. We had some other views of the manatees, but the best views were definitely at the first overlook today. We got some good views of the spring itself, poked around the gift shop, and worked our way back to the car eventually, by way of some additional manatee views. Blue Spring was absolutely worth the visit! And pro-tip, they update their facebook page about every afternoon in the winter with the manatee count, so you can see how things are trending if you’re trying to decide whether to go or not.

 
The park filled in quickly, so it definitely paid to get there early (I think we were there within about an hour of the park opening). By the time we left, people entering were being directed to a secondary parking lot.

Once back in the car, we headed for our next destination. It was about a 30 minute drive over to DeLeon Springs State Park. When we got here, we debated for about 30 seconds when we saw that the restaurant wait time was posted as being over an hour, but then we paid the entrance fee, knowing we were at a park and could walk around to kill time.

Once parked, we headed straight to the Old Spanish Sugar Mill to get on the waitlist. It took awhile to be added to the waitlist, but the hostess said she thought we would be seated in 10-15 minutes since we were only a party of 2. Apparently a tour bus had shown up, and that’s why the wait was so long for most people.

When we were finally on the list, we wandered a bit. Of course it started raining while we were wandering, so we ended up spending some of the wait just hanging under a big tree to lessen the rain we were getting hit with, but…at least it’s not snow?

We got the phone call and text that a table was ready within about 15 minutes of getting added to the list, so we headed straight inside. Once inside the hostess flagged us down and directed us to our table.

So why were we here? Well, on that same manatee viewing day in 2012, my mom and I came here, on advice from one of the people I worked with. The Old Spanish Sugar Mill is a unique restaurant. They serve food that they cook for you, but the big draw is the cook your own pancakes. Every table has a built in griddle, and you can order from a few different batter types, with different pancake mix-ins. They bring the batter and mix-ins to the table, and you cook your own pancakes. This used to be VERY inexpensive (like $5 a person). The price has…just about doubled since I was last there, but it still is pretty inexpensive in the world of eating out, and it’s a unique concept. Also, I remembered the pancakes were pretty good, and Nick has wanted to experience this since I came home talking about it. So it was time!

Nick ordered the monthly special of raspberry chocolate chip pancakes and I got their multigrain pancakes with strawberries to mix in. Nick also got an order of their corn beef hash. The batter and hash arrived pretty quickly, and we got to work making pancakes. It was fun and everything was delicious!

When we finished brunch, it was still raining, so we headed for the car. 

Once in the car we had decisions to make. I ruled out going to the other spring that had been on my list for today, because I had dressed for the forecast, not the reality, so I was kinda cold, and I was done with rain without a raincoat. So, the question was…head straight back to Orlando, or detour about 40 minutes over to Daytona Beach for our first Buc-ees experience.

Nick’s response? “Wait, there’s a Buc-ees around here?! BUC-EES!!”

Yeah, that’s what I figured. Buc-ees had actually been on the original plan for this trip, when I’d been planning an overnight in Saint Augustine, before I added extra theme parks to the trip. So…it had been on the radar. We’ve been trying to get to a Buc-ees for awhile while traveling. So…it’s time.

The drive over to Daytona was easy, and Buc-ees certainly was easy to find. WOW that place is huge!!

Buc-ees really was an experience. We were blown away by all the stuff (and food variety) that they sell, and also how clean the place is. I understand why Buc-ees is so popular. We left with lots of different snacks and seasonings to try.

Once done exploring Buc-ees, we headed back to Orlando. At this point in the day, the drive wasn’t bad, with the exception, obviously, of the area around the theme parks. So, it was an uneventful drive back to the condo. As an added bonus the sun had finally come out!

Back at the condo, we decided to explore the resort. We really hadn’t wandered at all yet. It was a beautiful resort!

Part way through our wandering, we used the pedestrian gate access to get over to the Vineland outlets to check those out. We went into the Character Warehouse, Columbia and some candy store. Unique Peeps for my Peeps-obsessed MIL were the only purchases made, and pretty soon we were completing our tour of the resort.

When we made it over to the main pool, we grabbed seats at the pool bar and got drinks. Nick got a Lushy Lemonade, and I got a mango hurricane I think. Both drinks were great, and we enjoyed just sitting outside having a beverage. We also looked over the food menu and agreed that we needed to eat here at some point during the week.

Drinks consumed, we headed back to our condo, where we settled in for an evening of reading, watching TV, snacking on Buc-ees beaver nuggets, and eating some leftover pizza. And then I crashed early, because I’m old or something.