Rain, Rain, Go Away
Friday at work was the longest 9 hours of the week! I had a countdown going on until it was time to leave. Somehow, for the first time in forever, I had a completely clean inbox with no outstanding tasks that had to be done & I was able to walk out the door at 3:00PM. I drove straight home & my husband had already packed up the car so that all we had to do was walk the dogs & then head to the kennel prior to heading up I-75 to get to Saratoga Springs & Downtown Disney for the evening.
As we were driving to the kennel, it was beginning to rain and thunder and lightning pretty bad. Have you ever tried to drive with two dogs that had thunder fears? Luckily, it wasnt storming too bad when we got to the kennel & we were able to quickly check them in & get back on the road.
As we headed back onto I-75, here was the sky:
For the most part, the drive until I-75 wasnt too bad. A little bit of traffic by Sarasota, but thats normal for us; however, once we hit I-4, it was another story. The first 14 miles were stop and go slowly & it didnt help that with all the stop and go, I wasnt sure I would have enough gas to get through to Disney so we ended up pulling off in Lakeland to refill. Once we got back on the road after that pit stop, it was smooth sailing until we got to Disney property & headed to Saratoga Springs.
As it was starting to rain once we got into the parking lot, I headed to the check in desk as Shaun went to use the restroom. Check in took some time as I didnt do On-Line Check In for this trip so it wasnt associated with my
MDE account and we ended up having to take the basic gray bands they had waiting for us rather than the bands we brought from home.
Our room was in Grandstand in the building nearest the Carriage House so we could get the quickest walk to DTD using the bridge through the golf course to make our Fultons reservation as there were no rooms available in Congress Park.
We headed to the room & got our luggage inside so we wouldnt have to deal with it after dinner. We were on the first floor with a direct view of the parking lot and the patio was next to the walkway into the building. I love the details in SSR rooms.
By the time we got finished with this, the rain was coming down worse. Luckily, I had a poncho in my car from one of my other trips to Disney so I wore that while my husband took the Mary Poppins Umbrella that I had from my purchase in July.
We had 20 minutes to make it to Fultons before we would be late to our ADR. I hate being late to things so we quickly walked as safely as I could in the rain (thus, we wouldnt run) We made it right on time & were immediately seated upstairs. We noticed the menu had changed from our time there 6 weeks ago & Im pretty sure its because Free Dining was starting as some options felt dumbed down along with certain things becoming Add On only.
Our server quickly visited our table & took our drink order.
Orange Blossom Pilsner
My choice which I had back in July. Its a nice choice to go with what I was ordering for dinner.
Angry Orchard
My husbands go to beer.
Crab Dip & Crackers
Beef Skewers - Chimichurri Sauce & Pickled Onions
My choice for appetizer. It was a great selection as the meat was really tender.
Clam Chowder
My husbands selection which is what he always goes for.
Ribs w/ St. Louis BBQ, French Fries & Coleslaw
This is where I feel Free Dining sucks. Back in July, this was an Asian Style Dry Rub w/ a nice light refreshing slaw. I craved those ribs since July and was well disappointed. I felt this was a very lazy version of the ribs this time around. They were tender at least and tasted good but not great. I didnt eat any of the fries or coleslaw.
Chicken w/ Gnocchi in a Lemon Caper Sauce
My husbands selection. He loved it! The chicken was tender with enough seasoning to balance out the lemon in the sauce. The gnocchi was well made.
Side of Hashbrowns
We didnt eat much of the hashbrowns as they were good but I wanted to save it for breakfast the next day.
We skipped on breakfast & decided to walk back to Saratoga Springs looking at the stores over in West Side. Shaun ended up buying a hat at the surf store while I picked up some Sport Beans & Gus at Fit2Run as I figured we may need them for the
Castaway Cay 5k to balance out the food & drink we were going to enjoy while still needing the energy for the race.
We got back to the room shortly before 10PM & our clothes were soaked to the bone. I didnt really want to go through the cruise with clothes that were that wet in our luggage or sitting in my car. Luckily, DVC has free laundry & I was able to do a quick load with everything we were wearing this evening.
After that was finished, it was time for bed as we needed to get to the port in the morning!
) 
