oceanmarina
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2004
Day 5, Chapter 3: Yeah, Let’s Just Drink OutsideWhen we left off, I had a plan, and I had convinced Beth to go along with my plan. So what was the plan? Well, as my plans usually are … it was a boat ride. After a short wait, we were on a boat on our way over to the Polynesian. Behold, a really dark boat selfie:
Saturday, January 9th, 2016 (mostly)
We’re on a boat to the Polynesian Village Resort and we’re both over 21, so I think you guys can guess where we were headed:
Sorry, I don’t know what’s up with my hair or my face in that picture. Or the severe red eye that I felt no need to correct (seriously, I hate Photoshop, and I don’t have Lightroom or anything like that, so more often than not, my pictures stay as they are).
After spending more time than we should have getting that picture, we went in, and the hostess told us that the wait would be 35 minutes. We were also told that if we didn’t want to wait, they serve the full menu outside at the Tiki Terrace.
Part of experience of Trader Sam’s is the atmosphere. Particularly for people like us who are primarily beer drinkers and may not get a fancy specialty drink.
But it was also 10:30 at night and we did not want to wait 35 minutes. So we didn’t get to really see the inside of Trader Sam’s. We chose to drink outside instead.
We sat down and waited for a server to approach us. We actually found the Tiki Terrace to be really nice and peaceful. There was a ukulele player serenading us when we first arrived (he actually left at some point while we were there):
We also took a few pictures of the area (not all right at this moment, but I figured I’d throw them all in together). Tiki statue:
Waterfall:
After a few minutes, a server approached us and gave us menus. Like the good DISer that I am, I tried to take pictures … and failed (again, my bizarre cell phone camera). Beth, however, was very successful at the picture taking (or at least Beth’s phone was … I may have taken these pictures with her phone, I don’t remember).
Front:
Inside:
Inside Close-Ups:
Back Page:
I know that when you go to Trader Sam’s you’re supposed to get a fun specialty drink in a souvenir cup … but I didn’t want to deal with issues that could have arisen for us with ingredients in mixed drinks (way too complicated for me to explain), so we decided to be boring and go beer.
But at least we were a little fun and went with Hawaiian craft beer:
The one on the left is mine – it’s a Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale. I enjoyed it a lot – I’m bad at describing these things, but I thought it had a solid and enjoyable flavor. I would definitely recommend and definitely would get it again.
On the right is Beth’s Kona Longboard Island Lager. She enjoyed it.
For those of you curious about the cost … each beer cost $6.75. And that’s probably a 16-oz cup. So really not too expensive.
We both liked our beers, but realized that we probably should have gotten the beer flight (which contained three different beers from the Kona Brewing Company, two of which are the ones we got). Oh well, next time.
As we were working on our drinks, Beth was working on some postcards to send to her nieces (her best friend’s two daughters). It’s hard, because each girl gets her own postcard, but she has to say vaguely similar things so that they don’t get jealous of each other. Beth was telling me what she was writing, to which my response was … “You write lame postcards.” She disagreed.
I’m hysterical. Beth just doesn’t appreciate me.
While we drank we also snacked on some nuts that I had in my bag … so don’t worry, we weren’t drinking on an empty stomach.
Once we were done and had paid our bill, it was time to head back to the hotel. Since there are no direct buses from the Poly to Pop Century, we decided to take a bus to Disney Springs and then a bus from Disney Springs to Pop. As we made our way through the hotel to the bus stop, I had to make a pit stop (because, well, life). We even made a friend at the end of our pit stop – some cute little kid started a conversation with us about dinosaurs or something. His mom apologized, to which my response was, “That’s okay, we have cousins that age.” I may not like kids very much, but I understand them.
After we finished our pit stop, we looked around the Poly a bit and took some pictures:
Just a note on this picture: I’ve never seen Lilo & Stitch (and don’t have any intense desire to see it), and Beth doesn’t understand why I point at things in pictures.
We made our way out of the hotel, taking one last picture as we were leaving:
As we were wandering around the Poly, making our way to the exit, I realized … I love this place. It’s calm and relaxing, but still has those fun elements of Disney. It’s got some super cute stuff that lets you know that you’re still in the Disney bubble … but it doesn’t scream “Disney,” it whispers. It brings in that island flavor without forcing you to leave the Disney world. It really was the perfect place to spend a Saturday night. I never had any interest in staying at the Poly, but now … I really want to. A few hours relaxing and a few minutes wandering made me fall in love with a hotel that I never would have thought about before.
Beth liked it, but is not quite as in love as I am.
Anyway … back to the story.
We went out to the bus stop and had to wait a bit for a bus. Finally, a bus came that said that it was going to Disney Springs. We got on the bus, and it went to the Grand Floridian, where some people got off, and another person got on. The bus driver told us that Disney Springs was already closed. The other guy on the bus was arguing with the driver, telling him that some things are open until 2 AM (which is true of some of the restaurants). We already knew that most things were closed, but we were just going there to catch a bus to Pop, which is what we told him. He said that he would call his dispatcher to see if he could take us to Pop Century.
We arrived at Disney Springs, where our driver told us that our next stop would be Pop Century – yay, we didn’t have to change buses! The other guy got off the bus, a few new people got on, and we finally we were headed back to Pop. Thankfully, it didn’t take too long, because I needed another pit stop.
This is why I don’t drink. When I drink, I pee.
We made it back to the hotel, made our pit stop, went back to the room, and got ready for bed. No early wakeup call the next morning, thankfully, but we did have somewhere that we wanted to be around 10 AM, so we needed to get some sleep!
Saturday “End of Day” (Starting Approx. 7 PM) Stats:
Steps: 3,883 (not our most active day, clearly)
Miles: 1.62
Flights of Stairs: 4
Coming Next: Disaster Morning
Still following here. Love the updates! I've never been to trader Sam but your menu pictures make me want to have an exotic drink there on a warm summer night. I always loved walking around the Poly at night, it reminded me of Hawaii I hope you stay there your next trip since you really enjoyed it.
I'm loving reading about it all. Now that I have officially done my first 10K I want to do one at Disney some day...don't think it will be next year but who knows.. lol 
