So much to do (and eat) we need to go twice! A food-focused trip report. COMPLETE 7/28/22

mickey916

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 14, 2009
Background:

Our core travel party usually consists of me-54, my DH-55, and our two sons, DS-25 and DS-23. Our first family trip was in 2006 and then again in 2010. It had been my plan to go every four years, but high school activities followed by college and internships foiled those family plans. Finally in 2019 we scheduled our next trip for May 2020 (and we all know how that turned out). We rescheduled to August 2020, May 2021, and then ultimately May 2022.

And then…my DH surprised me by inviting me to tag along on his business trip scheduled for the first week in April. We decided to spend 11 days on a couples-only trip, and it was truly magical! It was definitely different as our focus was primarily on exploring and food as opposed to the theme-park commando style we usually have with the boys. I hope you join me as I recap our couples’ trip and then continue our report after our family trip. Lots of food and adventures included!
 
Table of Contents (blue text are links to completed posts):

Part 1:

Part 2 Plans:
 
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Arrival day 3/31: First stop...Gideons!

In order to maximize our time, we took the earliest flight possible, leaving at 5:10 am. We landed just after 8 am, picked up our rental car, and headed straight to Disney Springs for priority #1 Gideon's cookies! We got there around 9:20 and the line wasn't too bad. My DH got us a spot in line and then I went to Ticket Services to activate my Annual Pass.

We didn't have much of a wait once the store opened and purchased our long awaited six cookies and peanut butter cold brew. We ate one right away...the coffee cake cookie. It was soft and delicious and full of cinnamon-goodness! Tasted just like a slice of coffee cake. I loved the taste of the cold brew but it didn't seem to have a strong peanut butter taste. It was sweet and delicious but not what I expected. Might have to get another one on our May trip just for scientific purposes.

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Here's the rest of the cookies we bought that morning and we ate throughout the week:
Original Chocolate Chip

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March special Coffee Toffee Chocolate Chip (very strong coffee flavor)
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Peanut Butter Crunch
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Apparently I didn't take a picture of the cookies & cream or triple chocolate chip cookies. Overall we really liked all of them. My DH wished they were a little more cooked. We ended up getting cake and the April cookie as well later in the week. Our thoughts on those then...
 


Having successfully completed task one, we hopped on a boat and headed to our next destination...Port Orleans French QuarterIMG_3927.JPG for the next item on the bucket list...Beignets from the Scat Cat Cafe!
IMG_3930.JPGThese were warm, airy and absolutely delicious! We got them with chocolate sauce and caramel sauce. We loved the beignets plain and with the caramel sauce, but the best bites were those dunked in the chocolate sauce. Definitely worth the trip!

After our nutritious morning of cookies and beignets, we decided it was probably a good idea to go for a walk. We had a great walk along the Sassagoula as we walked down to Port Orleans Riverside, explored around that resort and then returned to the French Quarter for our boat ride back to Disney Springs.
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Sounds like you had lots of delicious treats so far. Can't wait to hear about the rest. Gideons is a must do for my oldest. Last December we drove down, so was able to stop by Gideons first store. Just a tiny, tiny place and rather a pain toget to. But.... they had a walnut, chocolate chip cookie that was to die for. He didn't like their February cookie. Threw it away before I had a chance to try it. 🤦‍♀️ Hopefully May's cookie will be good.
 


Sounds like you had lots of delicious treats so far. Can't wait to hear about the rest. Gideons is a must do for my oldest. Last December we drove down, so was able to stop by Gideons first store. Just a tiny, tiny place and rather a pain toget to. But.... they had a walnut, chocolate chip cookie that was to die for. He didn't like their February cookie. Threw it away before I had a chance to try it. 🤦‍♀️ Hopefully May's cookie will be good.
We're looking forward to the May cookie too! So far we liked the April cookie better than the March one.
 
Following too. Our Disney trips literally revolve around food so I’m excited to hear about the rest of your trip!
 
After walking off our treats, we caught the boat back to Disney Springs and headed over to Polite Pig for lunch. The line looked really long but actually moved quite quickly. Our original plan was to share some sides and the slider trio. But upon doing the math, we realized that the Butcher Board was a much more economical plan (especially when we learned from watching Paging Mr. Morrow that we could sub out the sausage and get turkey instead). So we shared the butcher board with pulled pork, chicken, brisket and turkey, with brussels sprouts and sweet potato tots as our chosen sides. The butcher board also comes with coleslaw, corn bread, and pickles. After placing the order we were instructed to find a table and they would bring us our food. It was a great way to have a "quick service" meal without playing table roulette. We quickly found a high top table and our meal was promptly brought to us.IMG_3946.JPGHere's our thoughts: the turkey was the best meat on the platter tender and flavorful but all the meats were very good. We enjoyed the brussels sprouts and sweet potato tots a lot but not as much as we imagined we would. We did eat ALL of the sprouts and most of the tots though, so we definitely enjoyed them. Neither of us cared for the coleslaw, we felt it was just okay. The pickles were surprisingly good and the corn muffins were moist and tasty. We were very happy with our lunch choice and very full.

We then walked around Disney Springs for a bit, taking in the sights and I got this cool action photo of the amphicar.
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We headed to the rooftop of the Coca-Cola store to check out the view and discovered we could see our hotel clearly from there....Orlando World Center Marriott, and yes it's massive!
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Next up...checking in to the Gigantuan hotel...
 
Following! I was going to like your table of contents—can’t wait to read about your delicious trip. Our kids are almost the same age as yours. We started going on couples trips for DH’s 50th and then went to DL as a consolation after dropping our youngest off at college. Next fall, my brother and sister-in-law will be going with us to WDW after they drop off their youngest at college. They agreed that it was a good plan!
 
Following! I was going to like your table of contents—can’t wait to read about your delicious trip. Our kids are almost the same age as yours. We started going on couples trips for DH’s 50th and then went to DL as a consolation after dropping our youngest off at college. Next fall, my brother and sister-in-law will be going with us to WDW after they drop off their youngest at college. They agreed that it was a good plan!
Welcome! At some point I plan on figuring out how to make the table of contents link to each review. This is my first trip report so I'm figuring it out as I go along. I've enjoyed reading yours in the past!
 
Our Hotel - Orlando World Center Marriott

After exploring Disney Springs we headed to Orlando World Center Marriott to check in a little before 4 pm. My husband's company changed this year from the Tampa Marriott to this hotel for their annual convention and of course, I needed to tag along!

As we pulled in we saw a sign for self-parking in the garage so we headed there. After parking the car we saw there was a shuttle bus pulling up at the garage. Wait, what? A shuttle bus FROM the parking garage just to get to the main lobby?...oh boy. We rode the shuttle and arrived in the lobby to see a long counter with about six hosts behind it for check-in and approximately 50 or 60 people ahead of us in line! I attempted to check in with the Bonvoy app but since we now had a parking garage ticket that we had to exchange for a room key, we had no choice but to join the hordes in line.

We stood there for a good 30 minutes and my husband observed that the same six customers were still at the counter waiting for their room assignments...NO ONE was being checked in and the line was snaking through the lobby. We hadn't moved at all. Occasionally a hotel employee would wander through the line only to be pelted with questions such as: "Is there a separate VIP line or Bonvoy line? (no) Is this really the check-in line? (yes)" etc...so we waited and waited and waited....our guess is that they are short-staffed like elsewhere and there were no clean rooms to send people to.


After about 40 minutes, the lines started to move. When it was our turn the host had a LOT of trouble finding a room available for 11 days (despite us having our reservation booked since last October). We just stood and waited silently as she clicked away. Finally she handed us our room keys and said "here you go" and that's it. No instructions about how to find our room, options for housekeeping, welcome to the resort, nothing, also since we were there for a conference we were supposed to receive a welcome packet of sorts but received no such packet....so we asked, "Where is our room?" "West wing sixth floor room 030806" and "how do we get there?" "Down that corridor". So we wandered aimlessly dragging all our luggage searching for the elevators and some guest came by and said "Do you need help?" and then nicely took us through the maze to the West Wing elevators. This place is HUGE and confusing (but we got the hang of it eventually). I commented to my DH that it feels like a cruise ship and a few days later I overheard another guest saying the same thing to her husband.

Our room was very nice with a balcony overlooking the complex.
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The pros: It was very quiet and comfortable. We never heard any neighbors above or next to us. (Although one night we did hear a group of cheerleaders screaming and running up and down the hallways, but not much you can do about that). The bed was very comfortable. Also, it was a very easy commute to the parks without having to go on I-4.

The cons: Did I mention this place is enormous? We found a route we could walk to the parking garage instead of waiting for the ONE shuttle bus they had (that only held about 10 people per trip). So each morning we began with a brisk 10 minute walk through the entire complex to get to our car. The place is also understaffed. Calls to the front desk and/or chats in the app were greeted with "we are busy helping others" and VERY long wait times. We found housekeeping was spotty at best. We usually got our trash emptied, water bottles replaced, and fresh towels on most days. We never saw any sign of actual cleaning and our bed was never touched. We had no showergel when we arrived and after two days we finally found a spot in the app to request a refill and it was filled the next day. Also, this is first and foremost a convention center so our first weekend was PACKED with cheerleading groups and the second weekend was packed with some sort of youth who study sports medicine. Other than the occasional screaming and running down the halls late at night they were all fine though. But, the lobby was often very crowded and lines long at the Starbucks.

Would we stay again? Maybe, if we found a good rate (or if my husband has another convention). We slept great and it was a perfect location to get easily to/from the parks.
 
Day 1 Dinner...Three Bridges

So after settling into our room, we decided to head out for a quick bite to eat. We got in the elevator, selected 1 on the panel (since that's what had a big star next to it so we assumed it led to the lobby) and got off on floor 1. Again, we were completely lost. Turns out the lobby is actually on floor 2 so then we had to take an escalator up to get to the lobby to take a shuttle to our car. To be honest, our patience was getting a little thin...but things turned around with dinner.

We drove to Coronado Springs and as we approached the resort I checked the app for the walk-up waitlist for the Three Bridges Bar & Grill. We put our names on the list and got a response that there was a fifteen minute wait. As we approached the guard to be let into the lot, we told him we were trying to go to eat at Three Bridges. He asked if we joined the waitlist and we said yes and there's a 15 minute wait. His response: "No Way! It's usually a couple hours at this time of night! You two got lucky!" So we parked the car and walked around for a few minutes before we were notified our seat was ready. We got a table right against the water with a beautiful view of the Gran Destino Tower.
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We were still a bit full from our big lunch so decided to just share a couple apps and each got a non-alcoholic beverage. I got the berry mint smash.

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It had a weird taste, a bit tart, but it grew on me as I drank it and I ended up enjoying it.

My DH got the Prickly Pear Limonada. He thought this was excellent!
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For apps, we shared Roasted corn dip...
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and the Warm Manchego Cheese dip...

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We enjoyed both dips a lot! The corn dip was sweet and the cheese dip was savory so they complemented each other very well. We both felt if we just had all of one or the other, it may have been "too much" of a good thing so we were happy to be able to alternate between them.

After our dinner, we toured around the Gran Destino Tower. It is stunningly beautiful! I had originally planned on ending the evening at the Dahlia Lounge. But, considering we had been awake since 2:45 am, we decided to make an early evening of it so we could rope drop Epcot in the morning. Spoiler alert: our hotel had other plans for us that next morning...
 
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