Adult Spring Break: Flower & Garden (& Food.. & Drink) and Universal updated 4/19

[pepperandchips]

Day 2, 4/2, continued:

My mom opted for a nap while D, R, and I headed out to Disney Springs – I’d bought some Twenty Eight & Main t-shirts over my last trip that didn’t fit exactly like we wanted them to so we needed to exchange them. We love the way Disney Springs is coming together and really think it’s going to be a nice addition when it’s complete, whenever that may be.

We hit the Gooding’s grocery store at the Crossroads for a few refrigerated items I hadn’t been able to pack, and I really didn’t think this grocery store was as bad as I feared. It was perfect to grab the stuff I needed and we were in and out quickly.

Everyone was still pretty tired when we got done with our adventure, so we all headed back to the resort where we each zonked out to our respective corners for a small rest. I was too excited (HEY I WAS AT DISNEY WORLD) so I used the down time to prepare some of the meals and snacks I had planned for later in the week.

I think we also cracked open some cold beers and just relaxed. I spent some time on the patio, since the rain conveniently left the area when we left Disney Springs…

After our rest, we were thinking of dinner but no one was starving yet… so we decided to hit one of our favorite new shopping destinations – the Disney Character Warehouse at the I Drive premium outlets. D and I had gotten some good deals last visit, and we were eager to show R and my mom the bounty. Well… it was kind of a bust. My mom picked up a calendar for $0.99 but no one else purchased anything.

I did, however, "unlock the magic"... Floofy hair courtesy of the day's rain earlier.

GIANT OLAF (photo doesn't do him justice)

R stopped in a couple of shoe stores (just browsing really) but we ultimately left the outlets mostly unscathed. And boy had we worked up an appetite!

We knew from previous visits that there is one wonderful place to go when you are looking for a LARGE delicious meal and you are already on International Drive… Hash House a Go Go! This place is really incredible. An unassuming, farm-themed, diner-esque establishment with incredibly hearty portions, great prices, and a good bar. Check check check. It didn’t take much convincing to get everyone on board. We arrived later in the evening so we didn’t have to wait and we were seated at a high top table near the bar. We had a good, efficient server who also appeared to be the last bartender on staff that evening.

First things first… we ordered up some adult beverages.

My mom ordered the above meal in a glass… okay really it’s just their BLT bloody mary but Jeepers this thing was massive – it came with the obvious bacon, lettuce, tomato, as well as mayonnaise packets and a piece of toast! It was $11.50, and yes, that bread is full sized so you can use it for scale.

R and I opted for these more sensible (but still very large) beers. $5.95 each – I want to say they were 22 oz but not totally sure. I had the Sea Dog Sunfish and R had a Bold City Brewery Duke’s Ale. I like the Sunfish and would definitely order it again (in fact, I had the same beer during our January trip to Universal).

We ordered the Fried Green Tomato Stack as an appetizer. Fortunately for us, the server forgot to put in the order as we would have been completely unable to eat more than 1/10 of our meals had we had appetizers. She did realize her mistake and apologized profusely later, but this was truly a blessing in disguise. Instead we were each served up a fluffy signature Hash House biscuit. In keeping with a theme, these things were giant! I didn’t snap a photo of the biscuit in its own glory but you can probably spot a few hiding here and there in the below food pics.

Hash House is famous for its Fried Chicken Benedict which appeared on Man Versus Food (not as the challenge, but as a featured item at the beginning of the show). Although this thing could’ve been one of the challenges! I’d had this before on our first visit, so I was ruling it out. That didn’t stop me from trying another massive entrée though…

The #5 Burger: Hardwood smoked bacon, avocado & cheddar with fries for $13.79. Holy cow was this thing delicious! And everyone ate some, but we still took half of it back to the resort.

R had the famous (infamous?) fried chicken benny – “Sage Fried Chicken Benedict with fresh spinach, hardwood smoked bacon, market tomato, griddled mozzarella, chipotle cream and scrambled eggs. A Man V Food Favorite.” $16.99. I believe this thing would have easily fed four of us. The chipotle cream sauce on here is absolutely decadent. Strangely, the description doesn't mention the fact that this whole bad boy is served over one of those giant biscuits all atop a bed of griddled bacon mashed potatoes. This is truly a feast.

My mom was having a hard time choosing, so she inquired with the server about the Kokomo sandwich. We believe the server was trying to dissuade my mom from getting this by describing it as a meatball sandwich. No dice – that sounded perfect to L who interrupted the server to order it. At $14.50, this was described as “Griddled HH famous meatloaf made with our blend of fresh ground beef, sausage and bacon all trimmed with roasted tomato & griddled smoked mozzarella cheese on milk bread” and came with more of those delicious French fries. Everyone tried this and we all really liked it. My mom said it hit the spot.

And then there is what my skinny little sister ordered… “Sage Fried Chicken Penne Pasta - Two sage fried chicken breasts on penne all tossed in a porcini mushroom cream with fresh tomato, green beans & parmesan” This was the most expensive dish we ordered at $18.99 as well as the tallest. We found out about halfway through the dish that the height of this towering pasta pile was maintained by a half of a green apple… I must say it was odd but I have to give them props for ingenuity. This dish was delicious but very rich. We all had some and there was still a huge portion to take with us.

Overall we all really enjoyed our experience at Hash House. It was a great first dinner together in Orlando and we certainly did not leave hungry! The total with tax before tip on this one was $93.37. I think it was an exceptional value considering the leftovers we took with us… this was at least two full meals worth of food!

Up next: R and I have a beach day, complete with more food pics (from a delicious seafood dinner at the beach!)

 

[lpizzuro123]

Thanks, so glad I found this TR. We just booked a last minute trip to Bonnet Creek. We have never stayed there before so I am really enjoying your TR. Of course we are heading down for the F&G Festival. We plan on getting AP's this year as we will also be heading down in October and maybe next March. Looking forward to reading more and some great photos.

 

[pepperandchips]

Thanks, so glad I found this TR. We just booked a last minute trip to Bonnet Creek. We have never stayed there before so I am really enjoying your TR. Of course we are heading down for the F&G Festival. We plan on getting AP's this year as we will also be heading down in October and maybe next March. Looking forward to reading more and some great photos.

Thank you and welcome! Glad you found my report. I can't say enough good things about Bonnet Creek - we have stayed at the Wyndham timeshare resort twice now and I also stayed at the Hilton Bonnet Creek and I have nothing negative to say about either one. Amazing deals can be had at these properties and the location is so convenient! Flower and Garden with a home base at Bonnet Creek is exceptionally convenient especially with APs since we like to drive a car to the parks even if we stay onsite. The free parking included with the AP makes Bonnet Creek my top choice for value these days. I hope you will enjoy the trip report and thank you for saying hi!!!

 

[pigletto]

I'll be reading along with both trip reports!! We too are staying at Bonnet Creek in 2 weeks (first time) and I'm loving your pictures! It's nice to put a face to your posts. You are every bit as cheerful and lovely in your pictures as on Gina's thread where I've gotten to know you. I'm glad it sounds like you had such a good time!

 

[DisneyJo]

Loving your report

Wow those portions are huge. Your meal looks delicious

 

[pepperandchips]

I'll be reading along with both trip reports!! We too are staying at Bonnet Creek in 2 weeks (first time) and I'm loving your pictures! It's nice to put a face to your posts. You are every bit as cheerful and lovely in your pictures as on Gina's thread where I've gotten to know you. I'm glad it sounds like you had such a good time!

Thank you for the kind words @pigletto We did have a WONDERFUL time! At the risk of sounding like a Bonnet Creek spokesperson (and broken record) you're going to love it there! Glad to have you following along.

Loving your report

Wow those portions are huge. Your meal looks delicious

Oh it was! I wish I had some of that signature fried chicken now... alas, I am back on the "healthy eating" wagon at home Thank you for following along!

 

[pepperandchips]

Day 3: April 3 – Beach Day!

If you followed along with my pre-trip plans or read the entries at the beginning of this report, you’ll know that R is a good sport about our Orlando trips but would prefer to spend the week at the beach. I like the beach but I like theme parks more… and I was the one planning the trip so I picked Orlando. Fortunately R graciously agreed to accompany me to Disney and Universal if I would schedule a beach day and a resort/pool day during our travels. Sold! Once we started making firm plans, he reached out to his family (who live in south Florida – though in different parts) and we scheduled a mutually convenient time and place to meet up. The most convenient and central location for all parties ended up being Fort Pierce, Florida.

We woke up somewhat early and gathered our beach things, loaded a cooler, and set off down the turnpike blasting the Beach Boys and other oldies. The sun was shining and we were ready to watch the waves roll in! One small snag… Once we got to the beach what should have been blue skies looked like this:

Okay, okay, a little cloud cover never killed anybody. We gathered our belongings and made our way out on to the sand.

There really is something undeniably magical about the beach. The waves rolling in, the sun streaming down – immediate calm. Until the wind picked up!

We did enjoy our day at the beach but we had to move our chairs all the way down to the “wet sand” to avoid being sandblasted in a most uncomfortable way. I started a book (“The Aviator’s Wife” – very good, I highly recommend it so far) enjoyed the sunshine, and kept my sweater on! It was completely deserted so we had the whole beach to ourselves, save the occasional jogger or couple out with a dog. R’s family joined us mid-morning and before long we were all hungry. We packed up our things and headed out in search of sustenance, which took us here:

The Fort Pierce Original Tiki Bar! Okay, so this wasn’t my idea of an authentic tiki bar – there was nary a mai tai nor souvenir glass to be found. However, the food looked good, there were locals all over the place, and there was a nice place to wait for our table…

I opted for the fish tacos ($14) while R selected the catch of the day sandwich, which was wahoo and I want to say his was close to $20. While my portion was huge:

R’s was pretty skimpy, especially for the price

We had several appetizers to share at the table (sorry, I didn’t take pictures) so I only needed one of the two fish tacos, and gave one to R. He probably needed that taco to supplement his sad little sandwich or he would have been hungry before dinner. The tacos were surprisingly full of mahi-mahi and they were quite tasty but were pretty pedestrian. The rice and beans on the side were just “meh”. Overall, I would call this place average, but it was nice to sit out near the water and everyone liked their food. R’s mom and stepfather treated us, so I really shouldn’t complain about the price, but I wouldn’t go back.

After lunch we headed to a more populated beach near another group of restaurants and shops.

There was a steep drop down to the water, so no one even put a toe in. As the afternoon passed, the wind picked up again and around 5:30 or so we were all ready to move someplace less breezy. It hadn’t been too long since our lunch, so we stopped at another local restaurant with a large indoor/outdoor bar and had one drink each and terrible service. I am not going to even look for the name of the restaurant, but once our server found out we weren’t ordering dinner, he basically never came back to the table. Our fortunes were about to change, however!

We’d heard from family friends that a nearby restaurant called 12 A Buoy was a hole in the wall but an absolute gem. We arrived later in the dinner hour, so there was a table available without a wait for our party of 6. R and I started with “Jack’s Miami Vice” – a bowl split down the middle with a half portion each of New England Clam Chowder and Conch Chowder ($7). This is one of their signature items and it was outstanding. The tangy tomato broth from the conch chowder cut some of the heaviness of the delectable clam chowder.

I had a salad with balsamic dressing, which came with my meal and was fairly standard.

R had a Caesar salad (not pictured on its own but you can see it below, it looked and tasted like a plain ol’ Caesar salad) and the lobster mac n cheese ($13) baked in a personal sized skillet as his entrée, which oddly enough came from the appetizer menu and was giant. Unfortunately, our table ordered two of these mac n cheese dishes and both were ice cold in the middle. Once they were properly heated, it seemed like all flavor had been removed, save for an odd smoky flavor, and this ended up being just ok. The lobster flavor was markedly absent. This was the only misstep though, as everything else at our table was heavily “oooh”ed and “aaah”ed over.

I had a hard time deciding but ultimately went with the “gluttony” pasta which was pan seared grouper topped with sautéed shrimp, roasted red peppers, spinach, and shredded parmesan in a Cajun cream sauce served over linguine ($21, and included salad and bread).

The pasta was outstanding! It doesn’t look it in the photo but this was a fairly large portion and had four massive fresh shrimp – I gave two to R but I think I ate all the fish. Which is saying something! I’m not normally a fish fan but I love seafood when you are actually near the ocean. This was very very good and it was a fair price for the quality and portion size. If you are ever in the area – go find 12 A Buoy! It’s about 40 minutes from Disney’s Vero Beach resort if anyone is ever looking for an excursion from there.

After dinner, we parted ways and headed back up the turnpike, full and fighting sleep the whole way back. We later learned that my mom and sister had visited the Wyndham pools, hung out at the resort, and tried Miller’s Ale House for the first time before heading to Hollywood Studios.

Up next: Back to the Disney portion of the trip! We visit MK, Epcot, and FOUR deluxe resorts in one day!

 

[pepperandchips]

Day 4 - 4/4 – Part One: Magic Kingdom and Two Deluxe Resorts

Monday dawned with sunshine streaming through the clouds, lending a multicolored cotton candy sunrise to the view from our patio.

This morning we were going to try to make it to Magic Kingdom for rope drop – R had never seen the opening show at MK and it was something we were interested in seeing. Magic Kingdom’s official opening was set for 9 so I did my best to have everyone out the door by 8:00. Well, suffice it to say I was unsuccessful in that endeavor. At 8:28 we were treated to this line of cars at the parking kiosks:

We were trying to keep our spirits up despite knowing we’d almost certainly miss those blissful earliest moments in the park.

Now, as a bit of a back story, we’re pretty well-traveled with regard to the Orlando Disney parks in the last couple of years. Our trips have been over a variety of times throughout the year: in May including Memorial Day weekend, in early August, in mid-September, early October, November near Thanksgiving, early and mid-December up to the days leading up to Christmas, and at the height of college Spring Break season in March… never have I seen the crowds that we experienced during this most recent trip. Monday, April 4th was predicted for a 7 out of 10 by touring plans and was observed as a 10 out of 10 for crowds.

It took us almost exactly an hour to travel from the point where we scanned our magic bands at the parking kiosk until we reached the tapstiles to scan magic bands at the MK entry point. Just the bag check line was probably 30 minutes of this endeavor.

Nevertheless, we knew this would likely be the least crowded the park would be that day, so we hustled on over to Space Mountain. The wait was marked at 30 minutes at 9:30 when we got into the park. Okay, we can wait 30 minutes, no problem. We enjoyed our ride and the wait really didn’t seem that bad – perhaps because I was engrossed in checking wait times and making notes on my phone?

We were trying to make it to an 11:00 dining reservation at Kona, so we knew we didn’t have much time to wait in the swelling queues for many of the other attractions in the area. We ultimately decided to take a quiet and carefree highway in the sky tour of Tomorrowland on my absolute favorite ride – the TTA Peoplemover! I love the views from this attraction.

While I do love the green aliens (“the claw! the claaawww”), check out the giant line for Buzz Lightyear behind the green alien kiosk.

After the grand circle tour of Tomorrowland, we knew we needed to boogey over to the Polynesian.

Unfortunately, the location of the exit coupled with the sea of human beings exiting the ferry and queued up for bag check prevented us from getting to the resort water launches. I am not kidding – I have never seen so many people crammed into one area of sidewalk – okay, maybe I have after Wishes when folks are jamming into every inch of mainstreet. But no one was moving in this case, it was pure chaos with people cramming every available space so we knew there was no pushing through to enjoy a quiet scenic boat trip across seven seas lagoon. I honestly feel bad for the people that were waiting in that bag check “line”. I don’t know what Disney could do to improve this but something needed to be done. Needless to say I will never be trying to enter the park at 11:00 am on a spring break morning. I did not take any photos of the mayhem.

Our alternate route ended up being a short, calm walk to the Contemporary, where we’d just hop on the monorail for a couple of stops’ worth of ride to the Poly. On the way, we took a look at the Easter egg display that the Contemporary Resort.

Not an Easter egg but I would love to have this as my birthday cake! Wow, simply amazing.

The Mary Blair murals here are some of my favorite pieces of artwork in Walt Disney World.

While aboard the monorail at the TTC station, we were told that the cast members needed to reboot the monorail computer and that we could expect a “momentary delay”. Uh huh. This was putting us WAY BEHIND our reservation time! I was nervous only because we were already at the end of the breakfast hour, and while I like Kona’s lunch offerings, I had something specific in mind for breakfast. After a few minutes, the monorail was back underway.

Finally we made it to Kona - - “just in time” as the hostess said. We were seated near the windows at the front of the resort, tucked in a little corner at a round table for four. We were pretty hungry at this point so my photo-taking was limited to a cursory shot of the dishes we ordered. We’re creatures of habit here – the Samoan ($11) and the Tonga Toast ($14) are our favorites, and we usually share, so we ordered two of each. As you might be able to see in the background here, R was able to substitute fried eggs for the meat option that usually comes with Tonga Toast.

And my personal favorite dish, the Samoan:

As you can see, there wasn’t much of the “salad” portion on top of my Samoan, which is one of my favorite parts as it really brings all the flavors together. The press pot was also off this day – our server had to load up the pot at the nearby Kona Island sushi bar and there wasn’t enough coffee in the press pot so it was a bit weak. We split one press pot between my mom, R, and me and it was okay. Our service was outstanding and the food was good as usual. My mom picked up the tab for this meal so I’m not sure of the final cost. I definitely give Kona two thumbs up and it continues to be our favorite breakfast at Walt Disney World.

With full (but not too full!) tummies and smiles on our faces, we opted to walk back over to the TTC to connect with the Epcot monorail for our afternoon plans. It was nice and relaxing walking through the Polynesian grounds without the construction that has marred its usually serene ambiance over the last couple of years. My mom remarked that she’d like to stay there sometime, so I will have to file that information away for future use. Before long, we were back at the TTC and ready for the next part of our day!

Up next: Epcot! and more gorgeous Florida weather

 

[pepperandchips]

Day 4 - 4/4 - Part Two - LOTS of photos at Epcot!


Back at the TTC, we boarded a monorail to Epcot and enjoyed the ride across property and the birds eye view of Epcot on the way in.

We had fastpasses for Test Track, so that was the first item on the agenda. Once again, we were assigned the last spots in the line for the pre-show car designing, so we were able to spread out once more and fill in the empty design stations. I went eco-friendly again:

I think this may have been my mom's car:

We took our time in the Test Track exit exhibits this time, where they've set up photo ops with your test cars. I grabbed this one from my phone of my sister with her piece de resistance:

While R and I took advantage of the "email it to me" photos... Unfortunately we were not standing in the correct lighting for this to turn out well but I thought it was entertaining, bad as it turned out:

This is a fun addition in my opinion and allows for some good photos - free emailed to you courtesy of Chevrolet.

Back out in Future World, we enjoyed seeing empty sidewalk as a contrast to our experience in the Magic Kingdom that morning.

And how great was the weather compared to Saturday's nasty constant drizzle?

We took some time to enjoy and photograph the topiaries

KA-CHOW

We enjoyed seeing the gardening cast members caring for the gorgeous flower displays. Can you spot them, above and below? We did wonder why they were watering at the height of the day's heat, but hey, they're the professionals!

We spotted a few more familiar faces - looking a little green

We spent some time on the bridge between Future World and World Showcase watching this little guy:

This turtle was fun to watch swimming around in the lagoon. He may not be an "attraction" but this was part of the fun we had that day - taking things slow and enjoying just being in Florida.

(the above photo is for contrast to Saturday's showers and grey overcast)

At this point, it was time to immerse ourselves in World Showcase!

Or drink...

We started at the Canada beer cart, a perpetual favorite, with Fin du Monde drafts. Note Duffy the lush back there eyeballing my beverage. You gotta watch Duffy the Disney bear. He drinks on the sly.

The Bambi topiaries in Canada are really cute

And I like that they used color on these.

We were all starting to get grumpy and D was fading fast (tummy troubles tend to plague her, so we try to keep her happy with a couple of adult beverages, which tend to ease her woes) so we decided to head toward a reputable place to procure strong boozy remedies:

The Mexico Pavilion can always be trusted for a drink and some entertainment, so we decided to head in to La Cava and then take in the Gran Fiesta Tour!

I caught a Disney bear trying to steal my drink. I told you, you gotta watch Duffy.

He's not just a beer guy though:

D opted for the Pineapple margarita again. This one is one of her favorites.

We took some silly selfies and relaxed in the air conditioned Mexico pavilion. I love the theming here - it really does feel like you've left Epcot and been transported elsewhere.

I also took this photo of my cute ear hat shoes I grabbed from Target before we left on our trip:

The boards are cutting me off here... so you'll just have to stay tuned for more photos in the next update!

 

[disnut1149]

Really enjoying your trip review!!Epcot looks beautiful. What beach did you go to and how far is it from DW? Thanks!

 

[pepperandchips]

Really enjoying your trip review!!Epcot looks beautiful. What beach did you go to and how far is it from DW? Thanks!

Thank you! So glad to have you here reading along. Epcot (and Orlando in general) was gorgeous the week we were there. Early spring is a wonderful time to visit! We went to the beach at Fort Pierce, between Vero Beach and Port St. Lucie. It was about an hour and forty five minutes from Disney World - I am really more of a fan of the gulf beaches than Atlantic ones like this, but we were meeting up with my partner's family and that was the most central place for everyone to meet (coming from Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Myers, and Orlando). If I was not meeting up with his family, I would probably not go out of my way to visit Fort Pierce again but it was a good place to meet between those various cities.

 

[Kiren]

Cute! I'm so excited to check out the F&G Festival! It was completely unplanned that we would end up going right at the end!

 

[pepperandchips]

Cute! I'm so excited to check out the F&G Festival! It was completely unplanned that we would end up going right at the end!

Oh that will be PERFECT for your honeymoon! You can take advantage of the gorgeous Epcot flower and topiary displays to get some perfect pictures to remember the trip by. And don't even get me started about the yummy outdoor kitchens!

 

[disnut1149]

Thank you! So glad to have you here reading along. Epcot (and Orlando in general) was gorgeous the week we were there. Early spring is a wonderful time to visit! We went to the beach at Fort Pierce, between Vero Beach and Port St. Lucie. It was about an hour and forty five minutes from Disney World - I am really more of a fan of the gulf beaches than Atlantic ones like this, but we were meeting up with my partner's family and that was the most central place for everyone to meet (coming from Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Myers, and Orlando). If I was not meeting up with his family, I would probably not go out of my way to visit Fort Pierce again but it was a good place to meet between those various cities.

Thanks! I like the gulf beaches better also.

 

[pepperandchips]

Thanks! I like the gulf beaches better also.

We were interested in Siesta Key if we were just meeting R's sister, who'd be coming up from Ft. Myer's. It looks to have pristine white sand and gorgeous teal blue water. Way more my speed

 

[pepperandchips]

Working on my next update but crafting got in the way had to make ears for the next trip!