August 15th - Time to Go Home 
Shockingly everyone felt fine the next morning despite the successful monorail adventure. We slept in just a little bit (even though housekeeping started knocking at 9:00 am which always drives me crazy).
For breakfast we had the salted caramel cupcake we'd gotten from Sprinkles on Saturday afternoon:
Sorry I did not take a photo of this out of the box. Here is a better photo I lifted from the internet:
This was really really good even 2 days later and slightly refrigerated. I would get this flavor again next time I go to Sprinkles (which I probably still wouldn't do without a promotion for a free cupcake). The salt flavor was prominent and helped balance the sweetness, but there was a deep buttery caramel flavor in both the frosting and the cake. Winner!
We also enjoyed the remainder of our pastries and dessert from California Grill the previous day. Eventually we finished packing and bid goodbye to our room, making our way toward the resort airline check in. It was mobbed!
There had been a Jamberry conference at Coronado Springs while we were there and I wouldn't have known this had the folks at Pepper Market not told us - the only evidence of the conference was ladies in Jamberry shirts and buttons on the bus here and there. However, the conference must have ended and folks were clearing out at the same time we were because the airline check in line was probably about 30 people deep and not moving AT ALL.
I will vent here for just a minute: after waiting for a while and seeing no movement in the line, we opted to just store our bags since we had plenty of time to check them later at the airport. We had to ask other guests to move just to get to the area where we could drop off our bags for luggage storage, and then wait some more. Finally a CM appeared and asked us if both of our bags were carry ons (my suitcase was too big to carry on) - we were planning to check two bags since they fly free on Southwest, so we politely told him no, we'd just be storing them. Then the CM proceeded to argue with us about why we should be in the resort airline check in line!
I was dumbfounded. He even went so far as to tell us we'd have to wait in line at the airport (for the record, we did NOT wait in line at the counter at the airport to check our bags - there was no line as the Southwest folks there had an incredibly efficient system, unlike Disney at Coronado Springs). I cannot imagine seeing that line of guests and not only not doing anything to help with guest recovery but going so far as to argue with us when we were trying to avoid the line!
It is sort of a shame that this was our parting impression of the CMs at Coronado because otherwise we had a great stay.
We'd bandied about a few ideas for plans for the day, but I wanted to go to Hollywood Studios and since it was my birthday trip R consented to my wishes. We were both still a bit hungry so I checked the app while on the bus and found a 12:15 ADR for Hollywood Brown Derby. I wanted a salad and french fries (random) and R was just ready for some veggies since we eat primarily vegetarian at home.
We were seated around 12:00 at the Hollywood Brown Derby and I elected to start with a strawberry lime cider. ($9.75, 16 oz bottle) This was very good and tasted a little like Kool Aid.
We ordered and were provided with a large basket of white rolls and salted butter.
The rolls are kind of plain, but we were ravenous so we each enjoyed some of the very good salted butter.
We elected to each order a salad for an appetizer and share an entree. This was too much food even sharing!
I had the signature cobb salad, of course. This is one of my very favorite things to eat anywhere in the world and of course I must order the original when presented the opportunity. "Finely Chopped Greens, Turkey Breast, Bacon, Egg, Tomatoes, Crumbled Blue Cheese, Avocado, Chives, and Cobb Dressing" ($11) I had the appetizer portion and I would've been happy just to have this salad and the rolls.
R started with the Local Greens Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette - "Florida Blueberries, Laura Chenel Goat Cheese, Spiced Candied Pecans". As you can see, this one had peaches in addition to blueberries. ($11)
This was excellent and I would highly recommend this salad especially if the Cobb does not appeal to you.
For our entree, we ordered the Grilled Wagyu Beef Burger "Gruyère Cheese, Pastrami, Heirloom Tomato, Avocado, Fried Egg, Toasted Brioche, Cognac-Mustard Aïoli, Hand-cut Steak Fries" ($23)
I removed the egg from my half. This was unbelievably good - the difference between wagyu and standard beef is apparent in this showstopping burger. The melding of the avocado, cheese, and quality beef made this burger have an almost creamy texture - it wasn't squishy or anything but it was just melt-in-your-mouth. The bun was buttery and perfect and the pastrami tasted like it was house made. I wish they offered a pastrami sandwich as I can only imagine how good that would be! It was shaved thin and added a great saltiness to the other creamy elements on the burger. The only complaint I have is that there wasn't enough tomato for the size of the burger.
As you can see the "fries" were thick cut potato spears - more of a potato wedge than a steak fry, but they still hit the spot. I had plenty of food but wish the portion size of the steak fries was a little more generous than 4 sad little potato spears.
Since it was still my birthday (at least in Disney World) we were presented this little gem as a complimentary dessert:
This was a chocolate truffle - I think this may be listed on the menu as "Chocolate Mascarpone Sphere infused with Apricot-Orange Jam" and oh man was it ever good. It was deeply chocolate but not too heavy and the tart fruit filling cut right through the sweetness and added another dimension to the flavor. Had I not been so full I might have considered ordering 3 of these for a full dessert sampler!
With tax, but before tip or TIW discount the total was $58.31.
We really enjoyed our last indulgence at Disney World for the weekend and left feeling satisfied but not grossly full.
It was raining a little when we finished lunch so we took in the sights at Launch Bay - hey - it's C3PO's missing arm!
We took a trip through the history of movies on the Great Movie Ride before redeeming a FP+ for Rock N Roller coaster... it was an interesting experience. Once we were sorted into rows waiting for our coaster train (we got the first row for the first time! WOO HOO!
) the ride went down. It was down for over 10 minutes while we all anxiously danced from foot to foot wondering if we were going to get the boot or whether the ride would come back up. Well, come back up it did and fortunately there were two trains ahead of us or I would have looked even more scared than this
I cannot stop laughing at that picture. We survived and the front row was awesome! For our final attraction we "dropped in" at the Hollywood Tower Hotel.
We hit Sweet Spells for a carrot cake cookie and a piece of fudge (sorry no photos) before we caught Magical Express back to the airport.
Final food pic is decidedly non-disney... we ate dinner at the Villa Italian Kitchen in the Southwest terminal as we wanted to make the most of our last unhealthy meal on vacation. The pizza looked awfully promising and we were tempted at the last minute to order meatballs after spotting someone else getting some.
R's veggie slice was a little better than my pepperoni and the meatballs tasted a little like the ones you get in Spaghetti'O's, but the sauce was light and not too tangy so we really enjoyed them. Total for 2 slices of pizza, a massive portion of side greek salad, side of meatballs (order of 2), and two sodas was less than $18 or approximately the price of my manhattan at citrico's once you figure in tax and tip with that drink
Yep, we were definitely back to reality. Our flight was uneventful and we enjoyed our goodies from Sweet Spells that night back in the comfort of our own bed. It was a great weekend of eating and the best birthday I've had yet!
Thank you all for reading along. Be on the lookout for another report after my upcoming late September trip!
So glad you enjoyed Citricos both times. DH and I had dinner there for the first time in January and I do think it's my 2nd favorite signature, if not my first. The Kalamata olive bread is enough to get me back there, but everything was delicious! Loved the arancini. And I also think the atmosphere was quaint and romantic, even though the views may be better at other signatures.
I think we had the exact same cheese platter though and it was oh so good. Speaking of good your wings at Tambu look divine. Gonna have to get some of those this trip (we're staying at the Poly)
