4/25 Back to Orlando!
We checked out of our Bradenton VRBO, sadly never having used the pool that I paid extra for. It did look quite nice too but we were always just so busy exploring that we never made the time to swim.
We checked Waze for the best route from Bradenton back to Orlando and we were shocked to see that there was no good way to get there. The estimated travel times were over an hour longer than when we traveled out to Bradenton. So, we made the best of it and hit the road as early as we could. Since this part of our trip was unexpected bonus time in Orlando, we hadn’t made much in the way of plans. I asked DH what he wanted to do first and of course the answer was “get some beignets”. We decided to park at Disney Springs and take the boat over to Port Orleans French Quarter.
We arrived at the Orange Garage a little before 10:00 am. As we walked past Gideon’s, the owner of Gideon’s was standing against the side of the building surrounded by people with cameras and he was sharing his story with the onlookers. We looked over to see there was no line at all to go into the bakehouse. I asked a CM if there really was no line and he said “Nope. You can head on in.” We actually had no plans to stop by Gideon’s but honestly, how do you miss this opportunity?
I ordered a Peanut Butter Cold Brew but I actually received a Cookies & Cream Cold Brew. There were ground up oreo cookie crumbs all over the top and I tasted no peanut butter.
It was extremely sweet. I think I prefer the peanut butter cold brew but I guess it was a chance to try something new.
We took this opportunity to purchase a few treats for later in the trip, since this was likely our last stop at Gideon’s for a while. We ate everything over the next few days, but I’ll add the photos and our reviews here.
First we picked up a bag of Gideon’s Bites. That day the bites were made with the dark coffee cake cookie. I was pretty excited as we’ve never been able to buy the dark coffee cake cookie so it was a chance to finally try it in "bite" form.
DH loved this. He’s not a fan of the cookies as he prefers them a little more baked but he loves the bites. I liked it but found it a little too sweet. I preferred the bites made with the pistachio toffee chocolate chip cookie as it had more of a salty/sweet contrast.
We also purchased a slice of the PB&J cake. We’ve never tried this one before.
The peanut butter frosting with the jelly was delicious. The cake unfortunately was a little too dry.
It definitely tasted like a PB&J sandwich though. We probably won’t order this one again, as the other ones we’ve tried are much better.
Lastly we purchased a slice of the Chocolate Crumb cake. DH’s favorite cake is the Pipistrello Cake and this looked a lot like that even though it had a different name. Turns out this is the Pipistrello Cake, they call it Chocolate Crumb now for clarity, I guess.
This cake was phenomenal as always. The chocolate cake was rich and moist and the cinnamon buttercream contrasted so well. The streusel added a nice crunch. So good! It actually secured the top spot in our rankings of desserts. I just tried to reproduce this cake for my DS-26’s birthday and I got pretty close, but not quite…
DH brought our goodies back to the car to be stored in our cooler and then we finally made our way along the Sassagoula river to POFQ for our long awaited “breakfast”.
In the interest of saving stomach space for later, we only ordered 3 beignets.
Hot, fresh and delicious as always.
Oh, and just to even it up a little, we also got one cinnamon beignet.
This was really good too. I think we still prefer the original but the cinnamon one is a close second. After our mid-morning snack, we walked around Port Orleans for a bit and then headed back to Disney Springs.
We stopped by the stage area and enjoyed a concert by some elementary school children. It's always fun to see the kids perform. We headed to Pizza Ponte for a mid-afernoon snack and shared two slices of pizza. The Big Roman (cheese pizza).
and the Pepperoni.
These slices were huge as evidenced by the two 9” paper plates beneath them. We really enjoy the pizza at Pizza Ponte. It’s not as good as Via Napoli but still a respectable slice of pizza. The key is to order the Big Roman or the Pepperoni since those are the most popular and you’re always guaranteed a fresh slice. We think the other flavors tend to sit out a while and sometimes aren’t as fresh. Overall, it was a tasty lunch.
After lunch, we walked over to Saratoga Springs for a look around the resort and then took the boat back to Disney Springs to await our dinner reservation at The Boathouse.
Up next…our first dinner at The Boathouse.
I can’t remember the last time we ate there it wasn’t that long ago- maybe last year. ???
