Wednesday, October 8th - We Wants It ... We Needs It ... We Must Have It ... The WDW Florist Enables Our Inner Gollum!
Somewhere between the decision to cancel our dinner reservation at Victoria & Albert's and the complete and total meltdown of the American economy, I decided that we deserved some kind of special something to mark the beginning of our WDW trip. I'm a big dork in many ways, but perhaps no more so than with my childish delight of surprises left in WDW rooms - I'm still waiting to actually be surprised ... it's hard to feign wide-eyed astonishment when you're the person placing the order with the deliverer of prepaid gifties.
I spent many hours at my desk pretending to work while I painstakingly scoured the WDW Florist's website. I have to admit to a wee bit of disappointment ... they don't have nearly the variety of items for DINKS that they had even 18 months ago, but eventually I hit upon two things that I thought would be both fun and tasty. I called the florist from the office about a month before the trip, placed the order, and then proceeded to tease Jay for weeks about a zipzapgrabulous overpriced vacation surprise!
Now, here's the thing to remember about any order you may place with the WDW Florist. They will not deliver items to your resort so that you can be really surprised when you first walk into your room ... I assume that's because they don't want things getting misplaced in case guests end up in a different room at the last minute.
Fair enough. We actually think this is a pretty good policy, especially after returning to our studio early that evening to find a whole bunch of luggage waiting for us from Disney's Magical Express. This was disturbing on many levels ... we were already checked in and unpacked; we didn't use Magical Express; and our surname (at last check) wasn't @&#^%*
(name changed for privacy). Those folks should be glad that Jay and I are honest injuns and that we called bell services immediately ... but something tells me that they never knew about the the little side trip their luggage took at Saratoga Springs Resort.
Anyway ... what I mean to say is that I think the resorts are slackerish about delivering those items in a timely fashion and what I have learned over the years is that you have to call the front desk and inquire whether or not they have an item or items in your name. And when the CM responds in the affirmative you must then request that said items be delivered to your room because for some reason the cognitive connection between the key words guest ... order ... item ... deliver ... doesn't seem to get made without some outside encouragement.
I will say this, however; the folks at SSR were actually pretty prompt with the delivery once I made the phone call. I think they showed up about half-an-hour after I contacted them, which isn't bad considering the size of the resort.
So ya wanna see the goodies ... finally?
To begin with, I chose something Halloweenie (tee hee) because we were skipping Mickey's Halloween party again this year - troughing wins out over a costume party every time! I selected something the florist calls
A Tricky Treat. It's described as follows: this frightfully fun apple is dipped in caramel and fudge and then drizzled with a white chocolate web. You will scream with delight when you find a sneaky spider atop a festive orange rose trying to take a bite of your delicious apple!
This first picture is the front, with the florist card and the fun little sign at the top of the package which read: Trick or Treat, friend or foe, take a bite and then you'll know!
Take a look!
It's Festive!
This second picture gives a much better view of the apple itself. It was huge and really heavy ... later in the week we actually ate a portion of it for breakfast one morning. Someone gave this apple a mega-bath, first in caramel and then in chocolate - I mean it was coated in sugar-laden, tooth-decaying goodness. Truthfully, it really was too sweet and it was too much for us to finish in one sitting, which means that half of it spoiled before our trip was over. But it was still tasty and fun ... I loved the orange rose which was spinkled with gold glitter and stayed fresh and pretty for an entire week.
Your teeth will never be the same.
The other item that I ordered was actually more appropriate for us and something we enjoyed throughout the length of our stay. This is called
Treasured Treats and is described as follows: Truly a treasure of wonderful treats to give as a gift or enjoy all for yourself. Four small liquors, cheese, crackers, pretzels and more inside a chest you'll want to keep for your treasures at home as well.
That's right ... this giftie included booze! How could I pass it up?
Trunk o' Treats!
Free the Treats!
So what do we have?
Four bottles perfect for air travel: Cognac, Irish Cream, Vodka, and Rum; chocolate coins; mixed nuts; dipping pretzels; mustard; cheese spread; and overly seeded crackers. The trunk actually was pretty cool, too - it's like a miniature steamer trunk and we packed some of our breakables in it on the way home and it was perfect!
We enjoyed the Bailey's one night mixed with some milk ... added the vodka to cranberry juice one afternoon ... gave the cognac to BriarRosie ... and sucked down the rum on our return flight. We didn't finish all the snacks but those that we had were quite tasty, especially the pretzels and mustard. The chocolate coins actually came in handy on the flight home as we somehow managed to end up seated in front of the only screaming toddler on the whole damn plane. At one point I was inspired to offer some to her parents as a potential distraction.
Score one for the childless cranky crohn! Shiny things are great ... shiny, sweet things are even better ... that kid was quiet in no time flat.
And there you have it! Stay tuned for a real review sometime this weekend ... food and booze galore at Raglan Road, which we still highly recommend!
Thanks for reading!
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