Hi, Linda & Julie! We had such an awesome time in Florida!! I'll share some of the highlights, especially as they relate to my WISH efforts. LOL!
We flew out of Philly on Thursday night and I'd stopped at our favorite sub place -- Primo's Hoagies -- before we went to the airport, so that at least we ate normal food (even if it was high-calorie) instead of airport food. We had drink coupons for our flight, so I also had a rum & diet coke. I can't remember when the last time was I'd had an "adult beverage" and I had two during our vacation.
Our supposedly on-time flight got off the ground nearly 30 minutes late, but wasn’t too late arriving in Orlando. Jenn had an opportunity to work at Cap’n Jack’s restaurant at DTD that evening until 11:30, so we picked her up on our way to Saratoga Springs. We loved our location at SSR, though we were glad to have a car, especially when it was very hot, though I am sure more walking and less driving would have been better for me.
Friday – Andrew and I walked to Artists’ Palette and Jenn and Howard drove over a few minutes later.
We all had breakfast there together (I had the adult mickey waffle and 2 sausages and coffee), shopped a bit (I got my Mickey sink stopper!), and then Jenn went off to work as a lifeguard there, and we got on the road. This was the day we were driving to St. Augustine to see our friends’ (Marie & Jim) new house. They’ll use it as a vacation home for now, but plan to retire there in about 8 years.
For lunch we went to a local favorite, the Conch House, which is located right on the water. I had a spicy conch chowder. We got conch fritters and hot wings to share as appetizers. My lunch was a grilled ahi sandwich (only ate the top part of the roll) with crispy french fries. I had my second (and last) adult beverage of the trip -- a pina colada.
We drove around sightseeing for a while then visited a bit more and then got on the road close to 4 to head back to Orlando. Marie & I will spend a long weekend in St. Augustine in September and I'm looking forward to exploring the area.
Jenn was working until 6:30, so when she arrived at our villa and changed clothes, we went to Capn Jacks for dinner. I had a bowl of New England Clam Chowder and my entree was baked salmon with rice pilaf and green beans. Not a bad choice considering I wanted fried crab cakes and french fries. LOL! No dessert here, either, so I was congratulating myself on my restraint. The restaurant manager was so nice – she stopped by to tell us how wonderful Jenn was and how she wanted to kidnap her for as many shifts as possible, but was glad to get her for 2 shifts this week.
Side story: Jenn’s a lifeguard and sometimes rotates through the marina at DTD where they help with the boats, etc. Apparently, her manager and the CJ manager were talking on Thursday and the CJ manager needed a greeter that night. Jenn’s manager thought she’d be good for it and so, after working her regular shift at the DTD recreation dock, Jenn got a CJ costume and worked the dinner shift as a greeter/seater. Jenn loved it and apparently they loved her, so she is picking up a couple of shifts there this week, too.
So, Friday night dinner was a Capn Jack’s and then we took Jenn to Wal-Mart for grocery shopping. Turns out Andrew wasn’t allowed in Jenn’s complex after 7pm, so he and I sat out at the guard gate while Howard and Jenn took groceries in, labeled them and put them away. Then, we all went back to SSR for bed.
Saturday was another big day. Andrew will turn 16 this weekend and I really wanted to be able to celebrate with Jenn. Andrew LOVES Nightmare Before Christmas, and there is no better place for an NBC cake than Disney, right? I’d arranged for a custom cake from the Grand Floridian Bakery and gave them explicit instructions on style, colors, artwork, flavors, etc. We had an 8:10 ADR at 1900 Park Faire, so we hung around GF waiting for 1900 Park Faire to open. Once we were seated and had drinks, I told our server at around 8:20 that we HAD to do the cake at 8:30 because Jenn had to get to work. We were seated right outside the kitchen and ours was the first table the characters visited.
I did pretty well there -- no sweets except birthday cake. I limited myself to 2 trips to the buffet and took very reasonable portions. I even avoided the chocolate croissants - the first place I'd ever had them was on the Disney Magic, so I've tried to avoid them anyplace other than
DCL, to keep that kind of special (Linda -- Have you had them? Put them on your "MUST-DO" list for the cruise!!
)
Except for the fact that I sent them the artwork for the particular Jack face that I wanted around the sides and it wasn’t on there anywhere at all, the cake looked GREAT.
The taste? Not so impressive. I thought the cake tasted stale and we never got to the bavarian creme and strawberries that morning, even though we cut about 1/4-1/3 across the diameter of the cake. So, we all had ordinary yellow cake with buttercream frosting. (When we ate leftovers very late that night, we finally “found” the bavarian creme and strawberries at the very center of the cake). I was truly peeved that they charged us sales tax AND 18% gratuity on the cake, too. They didn’t even cut it and we never got something other than a butter knife to cut it until it was cut and we were nearly done eating it. So, I was glad Andrew enjoyed the cake, but I’ll never spend that kind of money on a custom cake again.
After breakfast, we drove Jenn to work at Port Orleans Riverside, went back to SSR to put leftover cake in the fridge, and then to MK. We arrived at about 10 a.m. and stayed in MK until 2:00pm and in that time did Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Mickey’s PhilHarmagic, Haunted Mansion, Hall of Presidents, etc. We were very impressed with the new HoP. I was very proud of myself for avoiding SO MANY of our favorite MK treats - the Main Street Bakery, Casey's hot dogs, turkey legs, churros, popcorn, etc. We just skipped lunch all together since we'd had a big breakfast and were looking forward to Boma for dinner.
It was so incredibly, indescribably hot and humid that I was walking around in a tank top, which NEVER happens.
We took the AKL bus to AKL where we visited Kidani Village (I got my favorite WDW treat -- Mickey pretzels -- in the gift shop there, and then felt guilty eating them at the observation patio at the Savannah). We had a lovely time viewing the giraffes and zebras on the savannah, though I was hoping they couldn't smell the pretzels and weren't offended that I wasn't sharing.
Then we walked the very long walk from there to the Jambo House. We relaxed in the lobby where I catnapped on one of the couches. At about 4pm I washed up and changed my top and was ready just when I got a text from my friendTracy saying they were in the bar having a drink. We were so blessed that friends that live in Florida were willing to meet us for dinner at Boma. Dinner was absolutely delicious and the company was beyond compare. I won't even pretend that I was good there. Carrot ginger soup, hummus, ribs, etc. It was so much fun!!! Afterwards, we visited for a while in the lobby until two of our friends had to leave.
Howard, Andrew & one of our friends and I all went in her car to the GF where we parked and took the monorail to MK. We did the Carousel of Progress and then found a spot for the fireworks. The fireworks were phenomenal. You are literally surrounded with the spectacle over and around the castle, plus behind you over the train station and on both sides over the shoppes of Main Street. It was incredible. Beyond incredible was that when we were leaving Tomorrowland to get to MS to find a spot, we were routed behind Tomorrowland, backstage through a HUGE parking lot where delivery trucks were parked, etc. People were camped out on the concrete parking lot to watch the fireworks from BEHIND the shoppes on the right side of Main Street.
We were all appalled that crowds were routed backstage and that people were sitting on the ground of a dirty parking lot by the hundreds, if not a thousand, to watch the fireworks. We knew Walt would be rolling over in his grave to know his guests were in a dirty backstage area.
When we found a spot on Main Street, we were wall to wall people with barely room to raise your arms to point at something. It was so wicked hot that the sweat was rolling down my arms and dripping off my fingertips. I would have been so curious to weigh myself before the fireworks and after, because I'll bet I lost a considerable amount of water weight through my pores. I was literally feeling dehydrated by about half-way through the fireworks. Since it was so hot, we left right after the fireworks ended.
Sunday a.m. we had Lean Cuisine breakfast paninis in the villa while packing. We checked out and hung out at the pool for an hour or so. We left by 12:45 and went and picked up Jenn at her apartment to head to Downtown Disney. We were shopping in World of Disney, waiting to hear from an old HS friend of mine to let us know when he and his wife arrived for us to meet up (we hadn’t seen each other since graduation in June 1981!), when the following conversation happened at the checkout:
Disney Guest: Excuse me, could you please hand me a kleenex for my glasses?
Me: (reaching over the cash register counter to grab a couple of kleenex) “Sure! Here you go.”
Disney Guest: Thanks, Carmella.
Me: Oh my God!! Paul!!!
It was so funny!! I can’t believe he recognized me. He swears I don't look any older than high school (love you, Paul! LOL!) I don’t think I’d ever have recognized him if he hadn’t called me by my given name. It was great to see him.
We all walked over to Ghirardelli’s where we sat and reminisced for a while. Jenn went and got a soda and Howard and Andrew walked to Goofy’s to get the caramel apple Andrew has been craving for the 3+ years he was in braces. Howard knows I have a thing for Disney cupcakes, so he brought me a "holiday cupcake". It had toppled by the time he brought it, but I think it was a blueberry cupcake with red, white & blue frosting. I ate just the cupcake part and gave the kids the frosting. We all visited for a while, but had to leave to run errands before heading to the airport.
Andrew has been dying to try CiCi’s pizza buffet, so we did that for lunch (good in a high-carb, low-budget, "OMG! I should NOT be eating this" kind of way), then took Jenn back to her apartment. We headed to the airport where we shopped a bit (SWATCH) and then went through security. Again, we avoided food at the airport. Our flight landed 22 minutes early. YAY!!
I have NOT been good this week and my personal training session this morning was the first workout I've had since all the walking at WDW. I have to get back into the routine and I am sure my weight watchers WI tomorrow will not be pretty.
That was so sweet of you to order your DS a NBC cake. Did you say he is 16 already?!?!?? Where has the time gone?
All of you are so photogenic! 
Thanks for sharing your photos with us. 
I will be praying for you. 
