For my 60th birthday, my wife and I drove from West Tennessee to South Florida to stay with my best friend. But then we drove the four hours back up to WDW's POFQ for five nights. Driving under the welcome arch was magical, as always. We arrived around 9:30am and our room was ready when we went to check in with no waiting. Something I really like about the moderate resorts is the ability to park close to our room/building. Since it was a Friday morning, the parking lot wasn't anywhere near full and I got a close end spot. Yay! We brought our luggage to our second floor room ourselves (I like this ore than at, as an example, at the Wilderness Lodge or AK Lodge, where you really have to have a juggle porter help bring you stuff up to your room and it takes forever to walk to the room...which is always, for me, at the very end of a long hallway.
We had a corner room overlooking the Sassagoula River and it was just gorgeous with TWO big windows on the corner affording fantastic views. The room was plenty spacious for just the two of us. Since we were so early, we changed into our swimsuits and took the bus to Typhoon Lagoon for our free first day waterpark. Face value entrance is $75 each so we weren't going to pass up the $150 savings and we love Typhoon Lagoon. Our first trip to WDW was in 2002 and that was (where did the time go?) 23 years ago when I was a young 37. I watched people face the big wave and laughed as always as they underestimated its power. But I didn't face it myself. My wife and I went around the lazy river for 3 hours! The last 1 1/2 hours was in the half tubes that are more like chairs than the usual tubes. It was wonderful. We took the bus back to POFQ and showered and enjoyed chicken parmesan (her) and a burger topped with fried shrimp at the Sassagoula Floatworks. We bought refillable mugs and loved the Coke Freestyle machines there during our entire trip.
We shared three Mickey Beignets for dessert with the salted caramel dip and they were AMAZING! Ahhh, Port Orleans! It's fun to see people coming from luxury resorts just for the Beignets!
Breakfast the next morning was the Mickey waffle and scrambled eggs meal at SF and it was delicious. The price is only $1 more than our local diner back home so I was happy.
But let me mention that this entire trip was on our Disney VISA Rewards card. All five nights and all food and entertainment. We didn't go to the parks, but we also didn't spend a penny the entire 6 days. Such a deal! And we did things we wouldn't have done if this trip wasn't basically free.
We were at the pool when it opened at 10 am and enjoyed a Mickey pretzel and cheese at noon, along with a strong Hurricane. I had to dilute it a bit with my Fanto Zero Orange in my refillable mug. But it was good!
My wife recently had surgery on her neck and her incision was healing nicely. But she was instructed not to get it wet. She's 5'3" and I'm 6'4" so I carried her on my back through the deeper parts of the pool as we chased the shade and moved to no get splashed by frolicking kids. It was fun!
In the evening we took the water taxi (which I just love!) to Disney Springs. This is one of the many reasons we love POFQ. The water taxi is fun and quick and comfy and reliable. We had dinner at The Edison and loved everything about it. Service was top notch. The theming is incredible and really cool. We were early so there wasn't any live music, but our blue crab dip appetizer was delicious. The flat bread used to dip is great because you can really press it into the cast iron pan the dip comes in to get every last drop of dip! We split the Edison burger because we just weren't all that hungry. It's a big burger and...dare I say...the best dang burger I've ever had! Early in the day, they mix up sirloin, rib meat, and brisket and grind it all together for hamburger. It holds together on the burger and then bites apart perfectly with a flavor and consistency that is making any other burger pale in comparison. There is a smoky flavor from the smoked brisket and, of course, bacon and cheese makes it perfection.
We roasted marshmallows back at POFQ and, despite having done this at Vero Beach, Hilton Head, Fort Wilderness and the Wilderness, I always forget that there is a charge for the graham crackers and chocolate. We were fine with just the marshmallows.
The next day's breakfast was the same and then we went to Disney Springs and had lunch at Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar. How did I not realize that Jock is the pilot at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark? My DW had the Phantom dumplings and I had the Alien Nashville Hot chicken sandwiches. Halloween was the theme and everyone was enjoying the food with Halloween style.
We had the float tray of eight Cokes with vanilla ice cream at the Coke store for dessert and it was perfect!
We had a corner room overlooking the Sassagoula River and it was just gorgeous with TWO big windows on the corner affording fantastic views. The room was plenty spacious for just the two of us. Since we were so early, we changed into our swimsuits and took the bus to Typhoon Lagoon for our free first day waterpark. Face value entrance is $75 each so we weren't going to pass up the $150 savings and we love Typhoon Lagoon. Our first trip to WDW was in 2002 and that was (where did the time go?) 23 years ago when I was a young 37. I watched people face the big wave and laughed as always as they underestimated its power. But I didn't face it myself. My wife and I went around the lazy river for 3 hours! The last 1 1/2 hours was in the half tubes that are more like chairs than the usual tubes. It was wonderful. We took the bus back to POFQ and showered and enjoyed chicken parmesan (her) and a burger topped with fried shrimp at the Sassagoula Floatworks. We bought refillable mugs and loved the Coke Freestyle machines there during our entire trip.
We shared three Mickey Beignets for dessert with the salted caramel dip and they were AMAZING! Ahhh, Port Orleans! It's fun to see people coming from luxury resorts just for the Beignets!
Breakfast the next morning was the Mickey waffle and scrambled eggs meal at SF and it was delicious. The price is only $1 more than our local diner back home so I was happy.
But let me mention that this entire trip was on our Disney VISA Rewards card. All five nights and all food and entertainment. We didn't go to the parks, but we also didn't spend a penny the entire 6 days. Such a deal! And we did things we wouldn't have done if this trip wasn't basically free.
We were at the pool when it opened at 10 am and enjoyed a Mickey pretzel and cheese at noon, along with a strong Hurricane. I had to dilute it a bit with my Fanto Zero Orange in my refillable mug. But it was good!
My wife recently had surgery on her neck and her incision was healing nicely. But she was instructed not to get it wet. She's 5'3" and I'm 6'4" so I carried her on my back through the deeper parts of the pool as we chased the shade and moved to no get splashed by frolicking kids. It was fun!
In the evening we took the water taxi (which I just love!) to Disney Springs. This is one of the many reasons we love POFQ. The water taxi is fun and quick and comfy and reliable. We had dinner at The Edison and loved everything about it. Service was top notch. The theming is incredible and really cool. We were early so there wasn't any live music, but our blue crab dip appetizer was delicious. The flat bread used to dip is great because you can really press it into the cast iron pan the dip comes in to get every last drop of dip! We split the Edison burger because we just weren't all that hungry. It's a big burger and...dare I say...the best dang burger I've ever had! Early in the day, they mix up sirloin, rib meat, and brisket and grind it all together for hamburger. It holds together on the burger and then bites apart perfectly with a flavor and consistency that is making any other burger pale in comparison. There is a smoky flavor from the smoked brisket and, of course, bacon and cheese makes it perfection.
We roasted marshmallows back at POFQ and, despite having done this at Vero Beach, Hilton Head, Fort Wilderness and the Wilderness, I always forget that there is a charge for the graham crackers and chocolate. We were fine with just the marshmallows.
The next day's breakfast was the same and then we went to Disney Springs and had lunch at Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar. How did I not realize that Jock is the pilot at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark? My DW had the Phantom dumplings and I had the Alien Nashville Hot chicken sandwiches. Halloween was the theme and everyone was enjoying the food with Halloween style.
We had the float tray of eight Cokes with vanilla ice cream at the Coke store for dessert and it was perfect!
