dining, whining, and dreaming of silver linings: a 2020 TR Updated 9/1/20 POST PANDEMIC trip

[CruellaNY]

SO happy you've revived this I know and understand why you let it go the last few months but I was so excited when you started it and sad when you went away

We moved our planned Spring Break Disneyland trip to July, and watched that disappear too - we moved it again to Thanksgiving but I am not optimistic about that.

Yeah.....trying to stay positive and hoping we know sooner rather than later.

First, she tried to serve me a non-alcoholic lava flow,

WHAT? Nope

EE HAVEN BAY FRIED GREEN TOMATOES: Shaved ham, remoulade sauce and dressed local greens.

Ah YES! Had these the one time we ate at Homecomin' and what I'd absolutely get if we went back!

 

[tundra1]

I saw pictures of you with your DisBuddies in their reports. Looks like a great time was had by all! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Hi Melinda! So happy to see you back on the Boards and can't wait to see you in a few weeks. Love ya!!!!

 

[pepperandchips]

SO happy you've revived this I know and understand why you let it go the last few months but I was so excited when you started it and sad when you went away

Only a true friend would talk to me as much as we do on other channels and still want to read my TRs. Haha! Grateful for you!

I saw pictures of you with your DisBuddies in their reports. Looks like a great time was had by all! Thanks for sharing!

Yes, I am incredibly fortunate to have made wonderful real life friends from interacting here! Thank you for joining in and reading along!!!

Hi Melinda! So happy to see you back on the Boards and can't wait to see you in a few weeks. Love ya!!!!

I CANNOT WAIT!!!!

 

[pepperandchips]

Thursday, July 2, 2020

The next morning brought with it a familiar sound, but one I'd not heard in many months... the ferries were running for testing!

Disney always amazes me with the small details that can create a feeling. The smells of hotel lobbies, the well of inspiration when you lay eyes on the castle or Spaceship Earth... and in this case, it was the sound of the ferry horns that just made me so emotional! Truly wonderful to feel a little normal.

My first task of the day was calling to book an Oasis Pool Patio. These are sort of like cabanas located at the Poly quiet (Oasis) pool, but all you get is the shade structure - no fridge, snacks, tv, or other amenities that are offered with the "true" cabanas. At the time because of the limited reopening, you could only reserve these shade structures by calling the day of. Ordinarily you can make reservations well in advance, and I definitely recommend reserving in advance now. We have often seen them booked full! We did them once as a treat and I created a monster in R as he LOVED having this home base and so now he wants to do it every time. No problem, if that is the price of you indulging me with these crazy trips, we can do as many pool patio rentals as you like, honey!!! Ours was $74.55 for the day, and the cast member we spoke with confirmed that she was about to go set it up and we could arrive as early as we liked. We had picked it for this day as I wasn't sure when our Riviera room would be ready, and this gave us a place to hang out and not be "homeless" between check out time from the Poly and check in time at Riviera.

This is what you get:

(Photo above is from a prior trip, hence the lounge chairs not being physically distanced behind the pool patio)

We had noticed on the previous day that one of the three patios had two of the plushy brown padded chaise lounges so we asked for and were assigned that one.

We had a great day poolside and didn't do a whole lot of anything. As I mentioned, it was our move day from Poly to Riviera, so a little before 11:00 we went up and transferred our luggage to the car. We brought some snacks and drinks down to the patio with us and just chilled out. I think I did some work on my laptop, argh. (However the availability of an electrical outlet at these patios is awesome if you need to work poolside!)

Eventually lunch time arrived, and I wanted nachos from Captain Cook's but at the time, they were not available. We did decide to have Captain Cook's for lunch but a rainstorm hit just as I grabbed our mobile order, so in the mad dash to cover I neglected to get pictures. R had a sandwich of some kind (maybe a burger?) and I had the kid's chicken nuggets. I love Disney chicken nuggets but picked these as a last resort because the other options were not appealing at the time and the menu was super limited.

It was sort of surreal being in a totally quiet Captain Cook's. At first our order was missing some fries but a helpful CM noticed that I'd circled back around and quickly brought me a large container of them when I explained what had happened. We ate our lunch under the shade structure of the Oasis Bar and Grill, which was not open. We were not allowed to remain under the pool patio and everyone was swept from the pool deck to under that covering during the storm. We enjoyed chatting with the recreation CM who was assigned to that area and eventually befriended the family sitting at the next table over. Eventually the lighting moved on (apparently it must be at least 6 miles away) and we were allowed to return to the pool area.

During the storm we set under this big triangular roof:

As you can see, crowding at the pool was not a problem for us on this stay. We had been told by one of the recreation cast members that we could stay at the pool patio for as long as we liked but that the recreation staff would be leaving around 7. We used the pool bathrooms to get changed and cleaned up a little and decided to walk over to the Grand Floridian to check out what was open. Here are a few snaps from the outing:

And because when are you ever going to be the only people in the Grand Floridian lobby ever again?

We were starting to think of dinner and went to check out what Gasparilla's had to offer. The menu was again limited (are we sensing a theme here?) and nothing really appealed. However, we were starting to get a little hangry and R was getting irritated because he didn't realize that the whole point of going over to the GF was just to wander around and he was getting a blister. Oops.

We headed back to the Poly, grabbed our stuff, and headed to the car. We decided that we really wanted a pizza and a salad for dinner, and I checked a few menus on DisneySprings.com and we decided that we'd try Terralina Italian since we hadn't been there before. I follow them on social media and the food always looks great, so I was looking forward to trying it. Yay! Something new!

Well, by the time we drove over, parked, got our temperatures checked in the parking garage, and found Terralina (how do I STILL get lost in Disney Springs after all this time?), they'd stopped seating for dinner. It was about 8:01 pm, which is frankly on the early side for dinner for us as even at home we're often eating at 8:30 or 9. And I had apparently misread the hours on DisneySprings.com as I thought it said they were open until 9:00. So by that point, we were VERY hangry and ended up going to have the next best thing...

Our tried and true Blaze!

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Blaze, but we have one at home only about 10-15 minutes from our house so it's not as novel as it was when it first came to Disney Springs. However, they do have great pizza so we shared the Green Stripe (Pesto Drizzle, Chicken, Garlic, Red Peppers, Mozzarella, Arugula) and a salad with goat cheese, berries, and balsamic dressing.

The person making our salad went a little wild with the dressing so it was a little soggy and overly tangy in spots, but it had huge yummy chunks of goat cheese and the pizza hit the spot!
So by this point we were in a little bit of a weird mood. I was recovering from grumpiness over the Terralina misunderstanding and R's foot was still bothering him, and I was not *entirely* enthused to be checking out of the perfect Polynesian Village and into Riviera.

Hear me out - I didn't hate the idea of Riviera before we stayed there, but I thought it was kinda dumb that they tore down a big chunk of Caribbean Beach to put a giant DVC resort there when there are lots of other areas to develop on property. I also thought that Riviera looked a bit like a giant hospital or prison. While I did like the look of the room interiors, I thought that the prices that Disney was charging per night (as well as the DVC point values) was absolutely insane.

Anyway, all that said, we roll into Riviera and I wanted to stop at the front desk to see if they could apply the room balance due (on a cash room only reservation) to my gift cards instead of charging it to my Visa. So the front desk CM was AMAZING. Truly, the best. And we had a couple of hiccups applying the gift cards (mostly me being a dinkus, but she had a couple of snags too), and she chatted to us about Mary Poppins, and she was just all around lovely. So I decided to push my luck and mentioned how disappointed we were to have lost our King room at Gran Destino and while we were very sure that there was not, was there any way she could check to see if there was a room with a King bed available at Riviera?

And to my surprise, she was like "let me check with my supervisor" and upgraded us to a one bedroom!!!

You could have knocked me over with a feather. After all of that, I picked my chin up off the floor and we went to go scope out the room. Looking from the entry into the main living and kitchen areas:

And back from the other way, near the window:

The murphy bed

I wanted to buy this Peter Pan artwork but it was not available in the store

Bedroom and bath tour... our lovely, comfy, KING BED with crisp clean sheets. Ahhhhh, the feel of a hotel bed....

Look at that soaking tub!

The mirror did NOT have a tv in it

I will not debase us all by posting the close up photo I took, but like they do at the GF, the toilet paper had been neatly folded and embossed with a Riviera logo. How regal for your visit to the throne! The villa was absolutely huge and I could not believe that we had been upgraded!

I cracked open a bottle of sparkling wine that we'd brought and spent the remaining waking hours out on the balcony enjoying the view of the quiet pool. Shortly after our check in, we were off to dreamland in that amazing KING BED!!!

 

[pepperandchips]

Thoughts/Riviera Resort Review
After the room tour seems as good a place as any to put my thoughts about the Riviera Resort following our stay there and comparing it with a recent stay at SSR. So, upon that reflection and comparison, here are my thoughts about Riviera.

A couple of huge perks - Disney is clearly looking at this DVC property as one of its premier resorts. The cast was absolutely top notch - nearly every interaction we had was extremely positive and I can't think of one negative thing to say about all those who were working there.

We loved le Petit Cafe - I will post a couple of snack pics later in this report, but it was great having a little place off the lobby that you could actually walk into and look at pastry/dessert options to order. The mobile order requirements at the QS restaurants right now make it pretty difficult to scope out the cupcakes or other bakery items before deciding to order.

Bar Riva - this is such a treat. I love their menu and the food is definitely a step above QS, but it's pretty much as easy to access right now as QS. I'm a big fan! We'll get to a meal there later. But I love this offering. My only complaint is that they need to take Tables in Wonderland!

Pools: I didn't notice much of a difference between the main pool and the Beau Soleil quiet pool aside from the water slide. We walked through the main pool area to see what we were missing but didn't find much to draw us away from the quieter atmosphere over at the Beau Soleil (which was also easier to access from our room location). Likely due to the pandemic, there was no poolside food and beverage service. During storms, both pool decks were cleared and magic band access suspended. Based on the resort occupancy at the time, there seemed to be plenty of chairs always available at the quiet pool and most of the time at the main pool as well. Disney has removed the casabella type lounger beds with the half-moon shades - likely for spacing reasons. I will note that they are still available at the GF especially on the beach (or were the last time we visited). The water play area looks great for smaller kids - but for us, this was just not a unique pool set up. Not that there was anything wrong at all with the pool, it was just your basic pool in a basic shape with views of the hulking resort looming up around you.

The room itself - I am a sucker, but I love these new interactive TVs. I loved that they got our last names right (I didn't change mine when I married R and usually we are just the "B" family which is still hilarious to me when they address R as "Mr. B"). Of course by the end of our stay I hated the music that played when you turn on the tv but that has an easy remedy. Stacey was available on demand. We could cast Disney+ to the tv and enjoy our own programming.

You can see my roku in the above picture - it did not work to connect it to the tv so we just used the cast to tv feature instead.

I know this sounds silly but I was so happy to have an ice maker in the freezer of the full size refrigerator - both of those spoiled me and now I am finding myself reluctant to return to studio villas. We recently stayed at Saratoga in a one bedroom and while the renovation was wonderful, there is not an ice maker in those freezers, just ice cube trays. We really liked having an in-room ice maker.

The balcony was heavenly and I loved that you could access it both from the bedroom and the living room. It was a good size, and we spent a lot of time out there either watching the skyliner amble along or checking weather, seeing if the pools were open, eating breakfast, or just chilling out. I really really enjoyed that and noticed lots of other guests on their balconies as well. (Well, lots is relative, the resort didn't seem that busy most of the time we were there).

I still don't like the theming. I don't know if it's just not my preferred theme/style or if it is truly lacking theming and not as immersive as other resorts, which is how I feel if I'm honest. I think about sitting out on the balcony at the Polynesian, Animal Kingdom Lodge, or Wilderness Lodge - heck even the Grand Floridian to compare apples and apples - and there's just more Disney magic for me in those spaces. So while I certainly would return to Riviera, it's not at the top of my list for ambiance.

Overall, I would compare this resort to the Villas at the GF and the new refurbished Saratoga Springs rooms. However, despite being comparable (or possibly a bit higher? need to check on that) points-wise with VGF, it's missing some of the touches that I love at the Grand Floridian that just put it over the top for me. I prefer the shape of the kitchen in VGF one bedrooms and while they are impractical, the mirror tvs at the Grand are just undeniably cool. The VGF lobby with the penguin fountain beats the Riviera lobby for me too. And for convenience and value, SSR knocks Riviera out for me. I can see how this would not be true for everyone, especially skyliner fans, but at $800+ per night in dollar money or 53 and 63 points per night for weekdays and weekends respectively in DVC points, I'm not likely to return to the Riviera. However, all things considered, I am very grateful that we were upgraded to the Riviera and even more grateful that we were upgraded to this GORGEOUS one bedroom villa. At $263.90 per night before tax, this was a huge win.

Next up: lounging around the resort and progressive dinner!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

, I thought that the prices that Disney was charging per night (as well as the DVC point values) was absolutely insane.

We felt this way too.

A couple of huge perks - Disney is clearly looking at this DVC property as one of its premier resorts. The cast was absolutely top notch - nearly every interaction we had was extremely positive and I can't think of one negative thing to say about all those who were working there.

Yes! every CM we interacted with was stellar.

Bar Riva - this is such a treat. I love their menu and the food is definitely a step above QS, but it's pretty much as easy to access right now as QS. I'm a big fan! We'll get to a meal there later. But I love this offering. My only complaint is that they need to take Tables in Wonderland!

OMG! This is our new fav!!! We absolutely loved it here.

 

[CruellaNY]

Disney always amazes me with the small details that can create a feeling. The smells of hotel lobbies, the well of inspiration when you lay eyes on the castle or Spaceship Earth... and in this case, it was the sound of the ferry horns that just made me so emotional! Truly wonderful to feel a little normal.

I absolutely love this "quote" and it is 100% true. After all that's happened this year it was still wonderful to go "home".

Ours was $74.55 for the day,

Ooh that's a good price! This is one thing I'm not familiar with; was that with a DVC or AP discount?

(Photo above is from a prior trip, hence the lounge chairs not being physically distanced behind the pool patio)

Yeah but FYI it's a great picture and I may be stealing it.....................

We were not allowed to remain under the pool patio and everyone was swept from the pool deck to under that covering during the storm.

Same when we were at the BCV quiet pool last month. It hadn't started raining yet but lightning was within 6 miles so everyone had to get out of the pool and leave the pool patio.

And because when are you ever going to be the only people in the Grand Floridian lobby ever again?

It's neat but kind of eerie! We stopped in the GF last month and were walking around the shops on the upper level. There were literally 2 other women walking around and NOBODY down below in the lobby. Cool but I have to say I'd like it to be just a tad busier.

but like they do at the GF, the toilet paper had been neatly folded and embossed with a Riviera logo. How regal for your visit to the throne!

LOL I love this at the GF!

I also love your room at Riviera and was happy to hear they upgraded you, but I still have no desire to stay there. At some point we probably will, even just for a night or 2, because I want to stay at all resorts. But nothing other than maybe the food options appeals to me.

 

[pepperandchips]

We felt this way too.


Yes! every CM we interacted with was stellar.


OMG! This is our new fav!!! We absolutely loved it here.

I am so behind on everyone's TR's. I will be looking forward to reading your review

Ooh that's a good price! This is one thing I'm not familiar with; was that with a DVC or AP discount?

I don't think so... I'm not sure if they offer a discount but I definitely did not remember to ask since it was before coffee when I called There was no need for me to call that early that day, but these do book up fast during the normal times so I wanted to do it very first thing in the morning!

Yeah but FYI it's a great picture and I may be stealing it.....................

What's mine is yours!!!

It's neat but kind of eerie! We stopped in the GF last month and were walking around the shops on the upper level. There were literally 2 other women walking around and NOBODY down below in the lobby. Cool but I have to say I'd like it to be just a tad busier.

Yeah, R didn't come in with me (he was more skittish then than now) but I went in the shop where my Dooney came from downstairs and I was the only one in there and I think there were like four CMs working. I was like ooookay this is officially odd We didn't really go upstairs at all because that was during that weird period where Enchanted Rose was temporarily closed.

 

[Lilias]

Oh man, that Animal Kingdom picture from January...O_O

I look forward to reading moree!~

 

[pepperandchips]

Oh man, that Animal Kingdom picture from January...O_O

I look forward to reading moree!~

I know, right? Earlier when I was reminiscing, I came across this one from almost exactly a year ago... I was like THE SEA OF HUMANITY



Spoiler for the next trip I’ll write about: not having people all over the place was a nice highlight! I’ll definitely have another post up soon!

 

[kastoney]

Well I had no idea this was happening in March so good thing you abandoned it so I didn't have to catch up on too much

 

[pepperandchips]

Well I had no idea this was happening in March so good thing you abandoned it so I didn't have to catch up on too much

So glad to have you here! I know I'm not in our usual forum. I am kicking myself for that a bit now...

 

[pepperandchips]

Happy weekend everyone! What are you up to? I am just finishing up my weekend by catching up on some work projects, and scheming up my next trip plan.

July 3:

We left off with your host and her husband enjoying the spoils of a freebie upgrade to a gorgeous one bedroom Riviera room. The morning of July 3 just confirmed how wonderful it was to be back at Disney, even for a resort stay. We watched the Skyliner testing runs and noticed a familiar favorite landmark in the distance.

We made some breakfast from the groceries we'd brought and enjoyed our coffee and bagels with that view of the Hollywood Tower Hotel. Properly fueled, we headed down to the pool for about thirty minutes before lightning once again necessitated the pool deck being cleared of guests. We went back up to our room to wait out the short storm, and upon our return to the pool around 11:30 am we were the only ones there!

As we swam around there were several cast members passing through who joked with us about our exclusive pool. That is so rare that we were soaking up every minute, despite the clouds.

It was short-lived, but a nice treat. Around 1, we noticed clouds gathering again and that low roar wasn't thunder in the distance, but our stomachs rumbling. I had wanted to return to Bar Riva anyway after having had a splendid lunch there in January (backwards spoiler for the trip report I interrupted with this one), so we headed over there and grabbed a table. Bar Riva is a unique indoor/outdoor option so we were protected from the storm but still comfortable dining there with the social distancing protocols in place.

We started with drinks of course - I had the Coco di Paradiso and R surprised me by ordering a Peroni.

My drink (Coco di Paradiso) was described as Plantation Pineapple Rum, Aperol, ZICO® Coconut Water, Pineapple, Lime ($13). Our server confirmed with me that I had enjoyed Aperol before as this drink did have the signature Aperol bitter zip to it. I liked this drink but it was not as refreshing as I had imagined. I don't think I would get it again, as if I want the Aperol flavor I would rather have an Aperol spritz.

As usual, my husband and I decided to share a couple of dishes. We had previously enjoyed the Italian sandwich, so we went for that again, this time with fruit:

Spicy Italian Sandwich: Sliced Capicola, Salami, Ham, Provolone, Vegetable Giardiniera and served with choice of Soup, Romano & Herb Fries, Side Salad, or Fresh Fruit ($12.49) The fruit was definitely better in January - we'd been served lots of berries last time and this bowl was heavy on apple and orange, none of it too ripe. The sandwich was once again delicious and I enjoy that it's served on something different than the usual Disney sandwich options. The Ciabatta was chewy and fresh and the sandwich hit the savory spot.

We also ordered the Roasted Garlic and Lemon-Herb Butter Sauce Wings ($13.99). They also came with a big pile of shaved carrot strips.

The carrots might have been weird but OMG THESE WINGS. They were subtly smoky, like grilled perfection, and lightly dressed with just a hint of lemon - enough to make the flavors pop but not too much. They were topped with crunchy garlic bits to give the same effect of having crispy skin, which is hard to achieve with grilled wings. I loved these so much I was sure we'd come back for them again (spoiler: we didn't). I HIGHLY recommend them!

While we watched the rain, I ordered a second drink: Almande Grog, Courvoisier VS Cognac, Appleton Estate Reserve Blend Rum, Disaronno Originale, Apricot, Honey, Lemon, Soda Water ($14). I am a big fan of tiki drinks and anything almond, and this one was definitely more in that camp. I enjoyed it a lot but still am not sure I've found "my" drink yet at Bar Riva. This one was fine though.

We enjoyed our lunch, but definitely wish they took tables in wonderland. This meal came out to $67.08 plus tip.

On the way back to our room (it was still storming), we grabbed some snacks from Le Petit Cafe:

Bouchon Brownie Bites - these were like a super soft chocolate cake, almost the texture of the cake part of a molten lava cake. They were indulgent and delicious without being heavy. ($6.99 for 5)

Madeleines - $5.99 - I really wanted to love these, but ours were a bit flavorless. I probably won't get them again.

One note that I forgot to make during our room tour post previously - we found this hanging rack near the main entry to be perfect for our masks. As you can see, on this trip we used exclusively cotton masks and just let them air out/dry between uses. This was perfect for that!

(continued in next post)

 

[Jenny Sanders]

we found this hanging rack near the main entry to be perfect for our masks.

HAHA! We did this too at The Riviera!

 

[pepperandchips]

We returned to the pool for a bit before cleaning up for dinner. I had hoped that we would be able to enjoy drinks and burnt end nachos from Whispering Canyon, so we had made an ADR there. That ended up not working out for us - I wasn't comfortable with the distancing measures I saw in place at the time - MIND YOU, this was shortly after resort reopening and I know everyone has different tolerance levels. We are still averse to being indoors maskless for very long with those outside of our little family pod, and Whispering Canyon wasn't using very much of their real estate, so we decided not to dine there that evening. Please do not base your judgement on whether to eat there on my experience.

Nevertheless we were super happy to be "home" at one of our favorite resorts and we enjoyed checking out the nearly empty lobby. One tidbit: this was the first location I remember seeing a cast member correct guest mask wearing. A gentleman was sitting on one of the couches maskless and we saw a CM presumably asking him to put his face covering on.

We decided we'd be more comfortable eating at Geyser Point, and out we went! There was no wait for a table and we were allowed to select between a few. I roamed around to grab a quick picture.

Bay Lake looking toward Contemporary:

It was a gorgeous evening.

I'm a one trick pony here on most occasions, and I went for my tried and true favorite - Huckleberry Punch: 44° North Mountain Huckleberry Vodka, Bols Crème de Cassis, Lemon Juice and Cranberry Juice ($15). I absolutely love the unique huckleberry flavor in this drink, though it is sweeter than my usual preference so after one of these I usually change things up. R went with a beer.

The menu was limited, as was the case with most restaurants we found, at least during this visit. We decided on a couple of small plates as R was not feeling the burger and we started to think about maybe making this a progressive dinner.

We started with the above-pictured shrimp on a wire (with Soy-Lime Vinaigrette, Togarashi, Shishito Peppers, and Chili-Aïoli for $13). This has been on the menu for a while, but we'd never had it. I somehow expected grilled shrimp and this is a chilled shrimp-cocktail type preparation, with a lot of smoky aroma and the slaw-like topping giving some crunch and freshness. It was very tasty.

The Crab Cake grabbed my attention that evening, which was described as "Handcrafted Crab Cake served with our House Spicy Slaw and Crispy Fried Onions" ($14). Oh my goodness the spicy slaw with this was just to die for! It was so delicious pairing the crunch and bite of that slaw with the creamy crab cake. It tasted fresh and was well seasoned - definitely not fishy or tough in any way. I loved this and would return for it specifically.

We enjoyed some live entertainment courtesy of some over-friendly ducks, one of which was nearly man handled by an over excited toddler at a table near us. You better move quickly, ducks!

The ducks were unfazed. We had a fabulous server - Lukas - and we were also checked on periodically by a manager. It was another great visit at Geyser Point - $87.33 plus tip got us appetizers and I think two rounds of cocktails.

On the way back to the car, we stopped to peer in to Roaring Forks for @CruellaNY. It was too hard to tell whether there were any magic cookie bars in there, and weird seeing it so empty.

Roaring Fork - deserted...

For the main course, we found ourselves back at Disney Springs. After some discussion, we knew of a particular restaurant with a certain waterfront patio that we thought would be just perfect for dinner. Here's the view - do you know where we were?

This was the view from our delightful table at Frontera Cocina. We'd dined here once before and were impressed so it was easy to return. We didn't have to wait and were quickly shown to the requested patio seating.

Guess what we ordered first?

R went with their classic margarita, called the Topolo there - and I was making mouse connections based on our resort. Milagro reposado tequila, orange liqueur, house-made limonada, shaken table side ($16). Thankfully, this was not actually shaken table-side. I don't know why, but I prefer both my margaritas and guacamole to be fully assembled out of my view and deposited ready to enjoy

I had a really hard time deciding but went with the Cocina Gin & Tonic - Tanqueray gin, elderflower liqueur, tonic water, fresh lime juice, cucumber ($16). Basically if there is an elderflower cocktail on the menu, I'm going for it. I looooove St. Germain. This was perfectly light and refreshing with an unusual balance of flavors due to the cucumber and elderflower. I highly recommend it if you like St. Germain. It went down easily and wasn't over-sweet.

As our drinks were served, R said... "hey, isn't that the guy from Food Network?" After translating to English and listening for a minute, I realized that R had noticed that David Bromstad, host of "My Lottery Dream Home" and formerly of one of my HGTV favorites, Color Splash, noted designer and artist was seated at the table next to us. He has such a distinctive voice. This basically derailed the rest of the meal as we spent the balance of our dinner evedropping on David Bromstad. I just love him! On our way out I did say hi.

Where were we? Oh, another appetizer. Did you forget we already had an appetizer? We must have too Verde Guacamole - Roasted poblanos, roasted tomatillo, toasted pepitas, cilantro, and onions (contains seeds) paired with smoky chipotle and herby salsa ($12). This was delicious, if fairly standard aside from the pepitas (pumpkin seeds). We were also served both their red and green salsas and had no problem wolfing it all down with the tasty multi-grain type chips. I forgot to take pictures of our entrees, because 1.) I was excited to eat and 2.) David Bromstad. So here are some I lifted from the internet:

Carnitas - Slow-cooked pork shoulder with garlic and lime, black beans refritos with queso fresco, guacamole, pickled red onions, salsa verde, warm corn tortillas ($24)

Carne Asada for Tacos - Grilled steak, poblano rajas, black beans refritos with queso fresco, salsa verde, guacamole, and served with warm corn tortillas ($24)

Both entrees were exceptionally delicious. I would be hard pressed to pick a favorite, and we were stuffed by the time we finished our meals and drinks. The tab came to $99.05 before tip. We returned back "home" to an empty lobby. R went upstairs and I explored a bit, since the Voyagers Lounge had been occupied any time I visited previously.

Riviera Lobby - fabulous CMs every time I passed through.

Voyager Lounge

Topolino Display

Walt Photos - I loved these and spent some time checking them out.

Walt Photos 2

That Walt! He nearly got my ears... I narrowly escaped and headed upstairs for bed.

 

[pepperandchips]

HAHA! We did this too at The Riviera!

It was so convenient, I ended up bringing magnetic hooks for our next stay! I'll get to that... hopefully

What's our countdown now?

 

[Jenny Sanders]

What's our countdown now?

We will be in St Pete in 19 days and Disney 3 weeks from today. Joe and I can't wait to see you!!!!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

elderflower liqueur

Umm, Joe and I love this and just recently added a bottle to our ever-growing COVID liquor cabinet. We have never been so stocked before. LOL!

 

[disneyAndi14]

We love Frontera Cocina! What a fun progressive dinner. I am excited to have a cocktail with Andi (for the first time) at Geyser Point in January!
Cool to see David Bromstad, his laugh is very distinctive and noticeable!
Love the mask hanging idea. I wil, have to do this!