How about a couple of EPIC quickies? DRs, that is! update 8/6 - Festival and Territory Lounge

[pepperandchips]

Don't tempt me...Sadly, it's not in the budget giving I just got back today and trips planned for August and September...But I sure do miss you!!!!

Aw man, I hate that we just missed you. When are your August dates?!

Wow this resort is so pretty! So cool to see the Universal hotels.

Portofino is just the ultimate for me. I love it so! Although I would not hesitate to stay at any of the Universal hotels. We've only stayed at Royal Pacific, Portofino, and Hard Rock, but Cabana Bay and Aventura look like a lot of fun!

Wow this struck me in the FEELS. Need to get back to Universal.

Sometimes I feel like it's underappreciated but it's nice to keep the secret under wraps, if only a bit. There are certainly crowds there!

I was just about to comment on that! You've been to New Orleans, yes? The muffuletta sandwich is to die foooor. Especially from Central Grocery Co.

Yes! I just went for the first time in February! Not only was that muffuletta from Central Grocery life-changingly good, but my friend had muffuletta sliders served at her wedding (which was at Napoleon House, one of the Ralph Brennan restaurants - Disney connection!) that were eye-rollingly delicious. I'm a huge fan!

This resort is so beautiful and I can't wait to stay there in Sept!! Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuper looking forward to it, so was eating your update up like candy at Halloween! What a great stay you had for your last couple of days!

Yay! So glad to share the Universal love. I am looking forward to seeing what you all think after your stay too!!

 

[pepperandchips]

"man has a dream, and that's the start... he follows his dream with mind and heart..."

So now we have come to the part of the report I know you've all been eagerly awaiting. A TRAVEL DAY!

Just kidding (well, partly, I mean this does start with a travel day) - we're finally headed back to the Disney part of this crazy dining report. It all started many many moons ago when my beloved Canadian friend @fallonkendra hatched a plan for a girls' trip/meetup. We had many ideas, brainstormed many plans, and they were somehow miraculously pulled together under the stewardship of @chunkymonkey and @LesleyWake. I think it was a great plan - dozens of internet friends slowly trickled into Orlando, did as much of the "group thing" as we individually wished, and then departed as slowly as we'd come, filled with friendship and happy bellies. But that's getting ahead of ourselves.

May 2: the EPICNESS begins

I worked until about 3:00 pm this day before rushing home to join my DH and heading to the airport for our flight, which was allegedly departing at 6:45. When I'd been planning for this trip, only some significant others/friends/family were coming along, and when R offered to come with me, I thought we'd squeeze every minute out of a long weekend by flying as a nice treat. Ordinarily we drive from Atlanta.

As time progressed and more plans evolved, we learned that @ArielSRL and her DH would be on our same flight. We made it to the airport plenty early (I am a nervous flyer due to my motion sickness issues) and I was in a foul mood - I'd not had any lunch as work was absolutely insane that day. DH made some joke about us not being able to eat dinner at Disney Springs later because nothing would be open when we arrived and I was less kind in my response than I should have been. Hanger is real, people. Anyway, once we made it to our terminal I wasted no time grabbing some fast food chicken nuggets to snarf down and once I did that I morphed back into myself.

One of us was way more excited about the plane train than the other...

"caution, doors are closing and will not reopen"

While satiating my hanger I'd noticed a couple of familiar faces at the bar across from our gate. Around the time my nuggets disappeared, I got a notification on my phone that our flight was slightly delayed. I knew a beer was in order following this disappointing news, so we decided to see if Renee and Chad had room for us at their table in the bar. They did! We had some of their signature draft beers and the house made chips. Sorry, I didn't take pictures of the airport food but I did get a picture with Renee!

LOVE Renee's shirt!

Not the most flattering of me, but whatever. We were headed to Disney! All told, our flight ended up being delayed several hours. Maybe 3 or so? By 9:20 we were finally on board and we three especially were READY TO GO

I also took this photo (yes, hard hitting dining reporting right here) as I had never seen still water served in a can before:

It was kinda gross, to tell the truth. I mean it tasted like water but it was weird that it came from a can. Our flight was largely without incident and we finally landed safely at MCO and took our fake-o-rail ride.

Since our flight was so delayed, we missed the magical hours that DME will transport your luggage for you, so we all had to wait on our bags. As luck would have it, we ended up on the same Magical Express bus with Renee and Chad also!

I clearly did not get the memo on funny faces. It's always a treat to take DME since we drive mostly. This photo was time stamped at 11:25, so guess what, R's "joke" that nothing would be open by the time we arrived and could eat was unfortunately TRUE

We were staying at Old Key West and while I would absolutely stay there again, it's not the best resort if you arrive late and you're hungry. The boat to DS was no longer running, the quick service had long since closed, and there wasn't even a vending machine with snacks anywhere near us. We had no choice but to order the dreaded... DUN DUN DUN... in-room pizza delivery.

I reluctantly phoned them up and ordered a large pepperoni pizza and an order of buffalo chicken nuggets - which I was informed would take 90 minutes to arrive. And to add insult to injury, the nearest ice machine was halfway across the resort so I couldn't even reasonably crack into the room booze to ease my pain.

While we were waiting for our pizza to arrive, I noticed this little note amongst the resort literature in our room. After scratching my head for a while I was able to figure out what it said....

"bra outside drying"


Apparently her note was effective - there were no brassieres on our balcony after a very thorough inspection.

It was *reeeeeeallyyyy* late by the time the pizza came so unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. It looked a lot like this:

Photo courtesy of someone I ripped off on the internet

While it didn't look like much, it was piping hot with a soft doughy crust and we were starving so it hit the spot. The buffalo nuggets were likewise satisfying. I thought the pizza was an excellent value since the large pizza was $15.99. The $9.99 nuggets (delivered without the promised side of carrots and celery) was a bit of a rip-off but I was glad to part with $35.55 to have food that night.

I promise it only gets better from here - we were sound asleep in our comfy comfy bed and off to Disney dreamland in no time.

Up next: We return for a favorite breakfast!

 

[pepperandchips]

May 3: "have you ever dreamed the dreams - of the chiiiiiilddreeeennn?"

The next morning was a little overcast, which was a bit of a bummer as we had big outdoor plans for the day, but we thought we'd start the day out on the right foot by visiting a favorite location for breakfast. We packed up and sent our bags with bell services on to our next resort, the Polynesian Villas & Bungalows.

Old Key West truly is a lovely resort. It just feels so relaxed, almost like you're not at Walt Disney World at all (but in a good way). I'd love to do a resort stay there, especially in one of the larger villas.

We put our name in with the hostess at Olivia's Cafe and then took a little meander around the grounds while we waited on our text to return.

The pool looked very inviting and there were plenty of loungers all around.

Before we could get too far, our text came and we returned to the hostess, eager to have more of the delicious breakfast offerings we'd come to love so much on a previous trip.

We had an excellent server and opted to share a few items for breakfast, as is our usual. We started with a press pot of Olivia's very good coffee ($9). We chose a more savory breakfast entree and a sweeter one, of course. First up:

Eggs and Hash ($14) Two Eggs-Any Style served over Potato and Sweet Potato Hash, topped with Key Lime Hollandaise served with Buttermilk Biscuit, Herb-Chimichurri Sauce, and choice of Bacon, Sausage, or Ham

We had our eggs prepared fried over medium. This was delicious and very unusual! The herb chimichurri sauce was delicious and had a nice zip to it to pep up the potato hash. I could have done with a smidge more sauce - there definitely wasn't enough hollandaise but this was still tasty. The potato hash had an interesting flavor lent to it by the sweet potatoes. The biscuit was fresh and fluffy - altogether this dish was an absolute win. Though it's not pictured, I chose sausage as my side and to my delight it was those tiny little perfectly browned sausage links in the way that Disney does best.

We have learned one should not go to Olivia's for breakfast/brunch without ordering this amazing delicacy:

Banana Bread French Toast ($16) Topped with Bahamian Banana-Rum Syrup, Coconut Whipped Cream, and served with your choice of Bacon, Sausage, or Ham

(This is how the chapter got its song homage - as I am looking at this picture of our french toast, the Horizons theme of a perfect future is playing dreamily in my brain)

Oh man is this ever heavenly! The banana bread flavor really comes through and along with that banana-rum syrup, it is like having dessert for breakfast. We loved this again. You MUST get it if you come here, but I would recommend splitting an order amongst two or more people because it is sweet and rich!

I also couldn't pass up getting a side of their creamy, heavenly grits:

A local Atlanta breakfast chain calls theirs "creamy dreamy grits" but these truly are. They did have a few lumps but I'll forgive it. The side was $5 though it was really quite large. In future I could totally see getting a side of grits and a side of biscuits and gravy as a meal. Though the continental breakfast there on another table also looked excellent!

Total including TiW discount and gratuity was $45.41. We left a few extra dollars for exemplary service from Ross before pivoting on to the rest of our day...

Up next: lounging around our tikilicious resort before joining the girls for a dinner of Epic proportions!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Aw man, I hate that we just missed you. When are your August dates?!

That would be 7-11...

Ok, so as you already know, Olivia's is one of our fav places to eat in WDW (especially breakfast). The grits are Joe's must do!!!!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I worked until about 3:00 pm this day before rushing home to join my DH and heading to the airport for our flight, which was allegedly departing at 6:45. When I'd been planning for this trip, only some significant others/friends/family were coming along, and when R offered to come with me, I thought we'd squeeze every minute out of a long weekend by flying as a nice treat. Ordinarily we drive from Atlanta.

Sadly I know how this story goes...

. Hanger is real, people

SO REAL!!!!!

It was kinda gross, to tell the truth. I mean it tasted like water but it was weird that it came from a can. Our flight was largely without incident and we finally landed safely at MCO and took our fake-o-rail ride.

Glad yours was without incident. We had a terrible flight with terrible people on it!

Chad also!

Too funny! And it looks like you guys made the best of the delays!

I reluctantly phoned them up and ordered a large pepperoni pizza and an order of buffalo chicken nuggets - which I was informed would take 90 minutes to arrive. And to add insult to injury, the nearest ice machine was halfway across the resort so I couldn't even reasonably crack into the room booze to ease my pain.

For that long, you could have uber somewhere picked up food and came back!!!

 

[paradesintherain]

I thought we'd squeeze every minute out of a long weekend by flying as a nice treat

The best laid plans... but seriously what a bummer to have been delayed so much!

Apparently her note was effective - there were no brassieres on our balcony after a very thorough inspection

I wish you'd walked out to find a bra on the balcony!

This looks so serene and lovely! Never thought much of OKW, but your pictures are making me rethink that!

We started with a press pot of Olivia's very good coffee ($9)

Press pot coffee is the best!

Uh yum!! Who knew they had such delicious food there? I've been missing out!

 

[kastoney]

I'll forgive your trip to the dark side and just move us along....

anger is real, people. Anyway, once we made it to our terminal I wasted no time grabbing some fast food chicken nuggets to snarf down and once I did that I morphed back into myself.

This is so me everyday after work. As lovely as my physique is you'd be shocked at how little I actually have time to eat at work. By the time I get home I then just consume everything in my path. Except for chicken nuggets. Don't think I've gone near those suckers in 30 years

Sorry, I didn't take pictures of the airport food but I did get a picture with Renee!

Renee is so much better than food!!!

I also took this photo (yes, hard hitting dining reporting right here) as I had never seen still water served in a can before:

Pretty sure deja and water should never be combined as water really only needs to be experienced once. And also should never be blue

I reluctantly phoned them up and ordered a large pepperoni pizza and an order of buffalo chicken nuggets - which I was informed would take 90 minutes to arrive. And to add insult to injury, the nearest ice machine was halfway across the resort so I couldn't even reasonably crack into the room booze to ease my pain.

Yikes!!! 90 minutes for pizza and nuggets. That is ridiculous.

"bra outside drying"

Eggs and Hash ($14) Two Eggs-Any Style served over Potato and Sweet Potato Hash, topped with Key Lime Hollandaise served with Buttermilk Biscuit, Herb-Chimichurri Sauce, and choice of Bacon, Sausage, or Ham

Yum this sounds and looks delicious. Like eggs benedict meets hash meets steak and eggs!!! I'll have to get over to Olivias one of these days

A local Atlanta breakfast chain calls theirs "creamy dreamy grits" but these truly are. They did have a few lumps but I'll forgive it. The side was $5 though it was really quite large. In future I could totally see getting a side of grits and a side of biscuits and gravy as a meal. Though the continental breakfast there on another table also looked excellent!

Oh I could swim in a vat of grits!!! Its hard to get them around here so I rarely eat them unless I make them with shrimp. Though I do love me the lumps. The lumps, the lumps, lovely grity lumps!!!

 

[Steppesister]

I think it was a great plan - dozens of internet friends slowly trickled into Orlando, did as much of the "group thing" as we individually wished, and then departed as slowly as we'd come, filled with friendship and happy bellies. But that's getting ahead of ourselves.

I remember this and felt so badly for you guys. But it looks like you made the best of it!

our flight was slightly delayed

...slighty.

You guys crack me up!


[/QUOTE]

DUN DUN DUN... in-room pizza delivery.

Totally legit.

"bra outside drying"

What a hoot. Glad they remembered it!

Your brekkie looks amazing!! So much goo looking food!

 

[fallonkendra]

It all started many many moons ago when my beloved Canadian friend @fallonkendra hatched a plan for a girls' trip/meetup. We had many ideas, brainstormed many plans, and they were somehow miraculously pulled together under the stewardship of @chunkymonkey and @LesleyWake.

I did get a picture with Renee!

Cuties!

While we were waiting for our pizza to arrive, I noticed this little note amongst the resort literature in our room. After scratching my head for a while I was able to figure out what it said....

"bra outside drying"

I find this so hilarious!

Eggs and Hash ($14) Two Eggs-Any Style served over Potato and Sweet Potato Hash, topped with Key Lime Hollandaise served with Buttermilk Biscuit, Herb-Chimichurri Sauce, and choice of Bacon, Sausage, or Ham

This is Luke's go-to at Olivia's!

We have learned one should not go to Olivia's for breakfast/brunch without ordering this amazing delicacy:

Banana Bread French Toast ($16) Topped with Bahamian Banana-Rum Syrup, Coconut Whipped Cream, and served with your choice of Bacon, Sausage, or Ham

I had this one, but it's soooo sweet! Delicious, but sweet.

 

[Lesley Wake]

I think it was a great plan - dozens of internet friends slowly trickled into Orlando, did as much of the "group thing" as we individually wished, and then departed as slowly as we'd come, filled with friendship and happy bellies. But that's getting ahead of ourselves.

I agree - we had group plans but also individual plans so people could come and go as they pleased!

By 9:20 we were finally on board and we three especially were READY TO GO

R looks overjoyed to be between you two!

While it didn't look like much, it was piping hot with a soft doughy crust and we were starving so it hit the spot. The buffalo nuggets were likewise satisfying. I thought the pizza was an excellent value since the large pizza was $15.99.

Molly ended up ordering one too and I had a slice - I was pleasantly surprised!

 

[Hettie]

Thanks for posting about your Royal Caribbean and Universal foods. I'm always interested in other destinations and foods mostly.

 

[MeghanEmily]

We made it to the airport plenty early (I am a nervous flyer due to my motion sickness issues) and I was in a foul mood

#relatable

We were headed to Disney! All told, our flight ended up being delayed several hours. Maybe 3 or so? By 9:20 we were finally on board and we three especially were READY TO GO

I can't believe the delays you all had! I'm sure you were very ready by the time you took off.

The boat to DS was no longer running, the quick service had long since closed, and there wasn't even a vending machine with snacks anywhere near us. We had no choice but to order the dreaded... DUN DUN DUN... in-room pizza delivery.

"bra outside drying"

I love this so much! The fact that it's on the magical inspirational Disney note cards makes it even better.

We have learned one should not go to Olivia's for breakfast/brunch without ordering this amazing delicacy:

Banana Bread French Toast ($16) Topped with Bahamian Banana-Rum Syrup, Coconut Whipped Cream, and served with your choice of Bacon, Sausage, or Ham

Ooh, that looks pretty amaze! Nathan's not always a french toast kinda guy, but I will definitely recommend this to him! We're going for breakfast for the first time in August.

 

[disneyAndi14]

I got far behind on this, I thought it was in my watched threads but it wasn’t I’m blaming the new Dis update

Andi and I are staying 1 night at Portofino Bay in August, we are going to eat at Sals’s after a little park time.

I love when ET says “Bye Caroline” so cute!

We are staying at OKW in January before our first Disney Cruise

I am enjoying your food travels, including the cruise, looks wonderful!

Congrats on the new home!!

 

[buzzrelly]

I'll have to come back and finish reading the update above…I didn't realize how far behind I got!

Somehow I got my replies out of order so I am really sorry if I missed anyone. In real life news, we have been looking for a house and we found one this week and are under contract!

Yay! Congratulations!

Next, we headed into the Odyssey to try an item we were too full for on the previous day, and were surprised to see how empty it was on Sunday afternoon compared to Saturday.

Wow! It doesn't look anything like it did that day we took cover from the storm in there!

At some point I did come to my senses and put the Ollo Clip back on to document the beautiful day

Beautiful pics! I'll have to look into that Ollo Clip??

or you could go with the BEST OPTION and have Ample Hills scoop you up a flight...

Like so... ($10.64 including tax) R says I should mention this is the best $10 you will ever spend at Disney. I totally agree.

I don't remember exactly which flavors we had but every visit's must do flavors include Nonna D's Oatmeal Lace (my favorite, remember, fancy grandma?), the ooey gooey butter cake, the dark chocolate, and I can see that at least one of these is a cookies and cream. Of course, all the flavors were amazingly delicious and this ice cream is such high quality goodness, I always love visiting!

'sho nuff.

Yum. I always forget about this place

This is seriously such a beautiful picture of you. I love your wind-blown hair and how the sun is shining behind you. So pretty

Looks like you had a great cruise. One of these days, I would like to get to Key West.

Cause shrimp are best enjoyed with the actual Steve

OMG! I love this!

Our neighbors in the next booth, however, were a couple of Universal team members who were loudly complaining about work stuff - they appeared to be management types and I was frankly shocked by the loud kvetching in easy earshot of guests all around.

Wow! Not cool at all

 

[pepperandchips]

Welcome to our tropical hideaway, you lucky people, you!

May 3: Continued

After we finished our super delicious breakfast, we grabbed an Uber to head over to the Polynesian.

We had gotten spoiled on our pool day expectations after reserving an Oasis Pool Patio after our wedding last year, so when we got this trip on the books, one of my first calls was to WDW-PLAY to reserve a patio again. I know it’s not *exactly* dining, but here’s a brief review...

We paid $74.55 for the full day, which fluctuates seasonally. For that price, you get a reserved shade structure and an abundance of towels someone else has fetched for you, plus a ceiling fan (that is really too far up to do anything) and a power outlet. That’s it. In my anecdotal experience, the poolside servers also seem to pay more attention to you. We had great service this day and our drinks kept coming. Come on, you can’t say you’re surprised.

The cancellation policy is 24 hours in advance for full refund unless there is inclement weather and then you can cancel day-of. Perhaps our neighbors to one side had taken advantage of that flexibility as one patio remained vacant all day.

It was particularly worthwhile to me to have the power outlet this day as I had a couple of work projects I had to complete. Boo, right??

Hey, if you gotta work on vacation, this is the way to do it. After I concluded my projects we had some dranks.

Pago Pago painkiller - $11.50 - Myer's Original Dark Rum, Orange Juice, Pineapple Juice and Cream of Coconut served over Crushed Ice

The Pago Pago pain killer is amazing but kinda sweet so we switched to Cuba libres (rum and - in our case - Coke Zero). Our server was a sweetheart as we found out he was actually getting the Coke Zero from the mug refill station. When my last drink was WAY strong I ended up finding out that station wasn’t actually RFID enabled...

One pool bar bill and giant tip later, we went to go check out our room. I’d requested Tokelau, but we got assigned a room in Moorea. I actually ended up liking our room location just fine as it was super convenient to the TTC, so we could easily walk there to catch the monorail to Epcot. I would highly recommend it during any Epcot festival!

We got our bags delivered from bell services and got changed for dinner, which, as you may already know, was to be at Ohana that night.

I was so excited and overwhelmed to meet so many of my friends from the Boards in real life that I totally fell down on the job and didn’t take any food pictures at all. Fortunately for me others did and I also shamelessly swiped some food photos from a competitor site to the Dis review. (Editor’s note: I had put the site name but it’s not allowed so it looked like I was cursing! )


As further background, I was super nervous about this dinner. I get nervous with dismeets sometimes. Even if I “know” people from the internet fairly well, somehow it still feels like a first date to me. Will I make too many nervous jokes? Will I have spinach in my teeth? Will I go full Kenneth Parcell?

I also wasn’t sure whether we’d like the food and Ohana is not an inexpensive meal. So naturally my anxiety suggested that we avoid this discomfort by cancelling on the group. But I didn’t! And everyone ended up being absolutely wonderful. We got to sit next to @Chrystmasangel and @Steppesister and our old pals (that we’d met in real life the day before ) Renee and Chad. We were accomodated at these huge tables in the middle of the dining room :

(photo courtesy of @Lesley Wake)

The meal starts with bread and salad.

Bread and salad are for rookies. I was saving my tummy space for MEATZ!

Next up were noodles, veggies, potstickers and sticky wings.

Oh my sweet, sweet sticky wings. I ended up asking for more potstickers and sticky wings and so did someone at the other end of the table - I think we managed to polish off all of them. The wings are crispy with a sweet honey glaze and a delicious “brown” umami flavor that usually only comes through in Asian dishes. They’re amazing! And I don’t know how to describe the potstickers. They are crispy, satisfying little flavor pockets. Delish. We were off to a great start!

Next came skewers. This is sort of where dinner went off the rails. The chicken was MUCH better than I was expecting with a great smoky flavor, and since I had dark meat, the chicken was still very moist and not over cooked. I also accepted some steak, which, despite looking properly medium, was extremely tough and didn’t have a great flavor.

I did not accept any shrimp because the ones that came to our table were an off-putting grey color. Likely this was just from being cooked over coals, but you do eat with your eyes first and nothing that looks like that is going into my mouth. Others near me had accepted plenty of shrimp and all agreed they were fairly flavorless. I continued snarfing down wings and potstickers.

Finally, we had dessert. I had a good portion of bread pudding and ice cream with caramel sauce since a lot of people at our table passed. This is one of my favorite WDW desserts! I am usually not a bread pudding person but I love the addition of tropical flavors in Ohana’s version, and adding all you can eat caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream just elevates the whole sweet treat to pure excellence. And, to compliment the bread pudding perfectly, I also had a small slice of @docsoliday1's lengendary cheesecake. Holy whoa! I’m not always that excited about traditional cheesecake but this was an absolute treat. The crust especially was SO good and flavorful. DH and I were in dessert heaven!

We were able to use TIW and we each had an adult beverage, so the total including our discount and gratuity was $130.82. I will probably not be returning to Ohana and wouldn’t recommend it at that price - I can order wings and bread pudding in the adjacent lounge at a fraction of the price and be just as happy. However, it was definitely a great meal for a group and we were not rushed at all. The servers were great with us and wonderful about handling 9 billion separate checks. Overall, one thumb up. And one hand doing that weird so-so motion.

After dinner, we headed to the MK boat launch to make our way over to join the rest of our group. We got a little flavor of fireworks cruise as Happily Ever After was going on as we sailed from Seven Seas Lagoon over to Bay Lake

We had a couple of transportation setbacks but finally made it over to the Wilderness Lodge to meet up with the WL wild bunch, and I think we may have overwhelmed our poor server at Geyser Point! As usual we enjoyed our drinks there and we had a wonderful time just chatting with our friends @Jenny Sanders and Joe, @ariane37 and Steve, and finally getting to meet @buzzrelly and @kastoney

I took this last photo at 11:49 pm, when we finally called it a night.

Next up: slushies and face paint and Terry, OH MY!

 

[pepperandchips]

Real life update: we closed on our house on Friday! Yay! So we are packing and moving in the next couple of weeks, followed by a short trip to WDW over the Fourth. So please pardon any delays in my reporting (or replying, I know I owe a bunch of replies!)

Here's our house!

The first thing I will be doing is painting the front door red! One of our favorite things about the house is that there is a wildflower park and a free little lending library across the street

Have a great weekend, all!

 

[Steppesister]

Perfection on a patio!

It was particularly worthwhile to me to have the power outlet this day as I had a couple of work projects I had to complete. Boo, right??

I'd do that!

When my last drink was WAY strong I ended up finding out that station wasn’t actually RFID enabled...

Oohhhh! Good inside intel!

One pool bar bill and giant tip later, we went to go check out our room. I’d requested Tokelau, but we got assigned a room in Moorea. I actually ended up liking our room location just fine as it was super convenient to the TTC, so we could easily walk there to catch the monorail to Epcot. I would highly recommend it during any Epcot festival!

THANKS! My kiddos and I are staying at Poly for 2 nights soon and now I know which bldg to ask for.

I was so excited and overwhelmed to meet so many of my friends from the Boards in real life that I totally fell down on the job and didn’t take any food pictures at all. Fortunately for me others did and I also shamelessly swiped some food photos from a ***** review.

Yeah, I lost ALL of my photos due a phone dunking. I'll be stealing as well. :/

I also wasn’t sure whether we’d like the food and Ohana is not an inexpensive meal. So naturally my anxiety suggested that we avoid this discomfort by cancelling on the group. But I didn’t! And everyone ended up being absolutely wonderful. We got to sit next to @Chrystmasangel and @Steppesister and our old pals (that we’d met in real life the day before ) Renee and Chad. We were accomodated at these huge tables in the middle of the dining room :

I LOVED sitting with you guys and getting to laugh and get to know you a little. What a fun bunch (and silly) we were!

I will probably not be returning to Ohana and wouldn’t recommend it at that price - I can order wings and bread pudding in the adjacent lounge at a fraction of the price and be just as happy

Yeah, $$$$ for the same food you can get at the Lounge. Better value. Actually, the kids and I are going to get 2 feasts from room service for $40, making it an $80 meal. SAme food and we can take it down to the pool.

 

[Steppesister]

Aww, it's lovely!! Congrats again!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

we had a wonderful time just chatting with our friends @Jenny Sanders and Joe, @ariane37 and Steve, and finally getting to meet @buzzrelly and @kastoney

We had a wonderful time with you too. I was so looking forward to reconnecting with you and R, since we last saw you in October.

Your new home is adorable!!! I hope you are extremely happy there and what a perfect location!!!!

 

[suse66]

As time progressed and more plans evolved, we learned that @ArielSRL and her DH would be on our same flight. We made it to the airport plenty early (I am a nervous flyer due to my motion sickness issues) and I was in a foul mood - I'd not had any lunch as work was absolutely insane that day. DH made some joke about us not being able to eat dinner at Disney Springs later because nothing would be open when we arrived and I was less kind in my response than I should have been. Hanger is real, people. Anyway, once we made it to our terminal I wasted no time grabbing some fast food chicken nuggets to snarf down and once I did that I morphed back into myself.

Hanger totally is real

Not the most flattering of me, but whatever. We were headed to Disney! All told, our flight ended up being delayed several hours. Maybe 3 or so? By 9:20 we were finally on board and we three especially were READY TO GO

Super cute of you both! I can't stand airline delays....when I am travelling I just want to get there!!!

I reluctantly phoned them up and ordered a large pepperoni pizza and an order of buffalo chicken nuggets - which I was informed would take 90 minutes to arrive. And to add insult to injury, the nearest ice machine was halfway across the resort so I couldn't even reasonably crack into the room booze to ease my pain.

That's the worst!

While it didn't look like much, it was piping hot with a soft doughy crust and we were starving so it hit the spot. The buffalo nuggets were likewise satisfying. I thought the pizza was an excellent value since the large pizza was $15.99. The $9.99 nuggets (delivered without the promised side of carrots and celery) was a bit of a rip-off but I was glad to part with $35.55 to have food that night.

Nothing better than something hot and yummy when you are so hungry!

The next morning was a little overcast, which was a bit of a bummer as we had big outdoor plans for the day, but we thought we'd start the day out on the right foot by visiting a favorite location for breakfast. We packed up and sent our bags with bell services on to our next resort, the Polynesian Villas & Bungalows.

Nice! Did you stay at the Poly the rest of the trip?

Eggs and Hash ($14) Two Eggs-Any Style served over Potato and Sweet Potato Hash, topped with Key Lime Hollandaise served with Buttermilk Biscuit, Herb-Chimichurri Sauce, and choice of Bacon, Sausage, or Ham

I would love this!

Banana Bread French Toast ($16) Topped with Bahamian Banana-Rum Syrup, Coconut Whipped Cream, and served with your choice of Bacon, Sausage, or Ham

And this too! Both sound amazing!

We paid $74.55 for the full day, which fluctuates seasonally. For that price, you get a reserved shade structure and an abundance of towels someone else has fetched for you, plus a ceiling fan (that is really too far up to do anything) and a power outlet. That’s it. In my anecdotal experience, the poolside servers also seem to pay more attention to you. We had great service this day and our drinks kept coming. Come on, you can’t say you’re surprised.

Love the Oasis pool. I spent many happy hours there last August.

One pool bar bill and giant tip later, we went to go check out our room. I’d requested Tokelau, but we got assigned a room in Moorea. I actually ended up liking our room location just fine as it was super convenient to the TTC, so we could easily walk there to catch the monorail to Epcot. I would highly recommend it during any Epcot festival!

I love your room!

I also wasn’t sure whether we’d like the food and Ohana is not an inexpensive meal. So naturally my anxiety suggested that we avoid this discomfort by cancelling on the group. But I didn’t! And everyone ended up being absolutely wonderful. We got to sit next to @Chrystmasangel and @Steppesister and our old pals (that we’d met in real life the day before ) Renee and Chad. We were accomodated at these huge tables in the middle of the dining room :

I can be overwhelming meeting so many people all at once. It looks like everyone got along really well though.

We had a couple of transportation setbacks but finally made it over to the Wilderness Lodge to meet up with the WL wild bunch, and I think we may have overwhelmed our poor server at Geyser Point! As usual we enjoyed our drinks there and we had a wonderful time just chatting with our friends @Jenny Sanders and Joe, @ariane37 and Steve, and finally getting to meet @buzzrelly and @kastoney

Sweet! I am sure there were some great memories made that night!

Real life update: we closed on our house on Friday! Yay! So we are packing and moving in the next couple of weeks, followed by a short trip to WDW over the Fourth. So please pardon any delays in my reporting (or replying, I know I owe a bunch of replies!)

Hurray! Oh my, your house is adorable. I love how big your yard is and all those gorgeous trees. It is a lovely property. So you guys are going to WDW for the 4th? We are there July 2-6 at AKL and 6-11 at Copper Creek for our 20th anniversary trip. Maybe we will have some overlap and a chance to say hi! Let me know where you are at.