DukeStreetKing
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2004
- Messages
- 2,644
Finally, part 3 of our quest to eat at every WDW sit-down restaurant has arrived! GF and I left Palm Harbor at 3:30 and headed up to Orlando. Had an uneventful drive, except for a tornado warning. Dont know if a twister ever showed but something took out the antenna for the radio station we were listening to; Real radio 104.1.
We stopped for gas at the Hess station across from DTD, $1.79/gallon for regular, and then drove to the Boardwalk. For those that might not know, there is a parking lot across the street from the main entrance to the Boardwalk resort. Its fairly large and only a short walk to the Boardwalk. It was my turn to pick the restaurant, so I decided on Spoodles. This eatery is named after a sailing vessel that sunk in the Mediterranean Sea, I think. Supposedly the ship was laden with gold and neither it, nor the gold, was ever found.
We didnt have PS reservations but it didnt matter. We arrived at about 6:00 PM and were seated within minutes. Our server, Onsy, arrived, welcomed us and gave us our menus and chatted a few minutes. I ordered a Cyprus Sunrise and GF ordered a Spoodle-Ade. I thought these drinks were supposed to be made table-side but they werent. Oh, well, not a big deal but kind of a disappointment. We ordered the Mediterranean Dips for an appetizer. This course consisted of pieces of flat bread with a tray hummus, tzatziki, baby ganoush and other sauces. It also had some marinated green and Kalamata olives. This is a wonderful appetizer and pretty filling, too. After we finished the apps, GF ordered Gazpacho soup and we decided to split the Spoodles Sampler. This sampler included two of each of the following: lamb cigars, lamb skewers, seafood empanada and spicy potato cakes. There was so much to choose from on the menu, but we were already kind of full and we had no way to keep any leftovers properly stored until we got home, so we decided on the second appetizer as our meal. It was a wise choice. We barely managed to finish the platter without exploding. We decided against dessert, paid our bill ($43.20), thanked Onsy, along with a proper tip and headed out to the Boardwalk.
The Boardwalk was great! I dont remember ever really going there during the summer but it is a lot more active than during the other times of year. There was a man riding a bike with a piano/organ attached to it, playing tunes. A man name Marlo was balancing golf clubs on his chin and finished by balancing a sword by its tip on the tip of a knife that was held in his mouth. Wow!! We walked around the lake, stopping at the Beach Club, where we saw a beautiful snake enjoying the resort too, and walked through the Yacht Club, which was looking good as usual.
We left the Boardwalk area and headed for DTD. The parking lot behind the House of Blues is where we usually park. There are always spots here and so much less of a hassle than the other lots. Tonight, there were quite a few more cars than usual. I found out later that Heart was playing at the HOB. Hmm, wish I would have known. PI was free to enter, again, and lots of people were there, although it wasnt really too crowded. The throng was moving around quite well. The West End stage had a group named the 80z Allstars playing. These guys were awesome!! The 80z Allstars is quartet of guitar, bass, drums and lead singer playing all your favorites from the 80s. How cool is that? The bassist was named Devo Mike and he was appropriately dressed as a member of Devo, complete with red pyramid hat. Motley Who? cranked out the lead guitar while wearing blonde 80s hair, The Karate Kid wonderfully kept the big beat going on drums and Nigel, wearing many different 80s hair pieces, handled the lead lyrics. We stayed through 2 sets and had a blast, as did everyone else at the West End. I would highly recommend checking these guys out. They have a website for anyone interested.
We did some shopping at DTD and then walked over to Saratoga Springs, our home resort. The walk from the West Side to the resort took less than 10 minutes but the path takes you to the Spa and Sales Center. The resort lobby/check-in area is closer to the Village Marketplace side of DTD. This resort is HUGE!!! It was also fairly deserted, although seeing as it was 11:30 or so, that might have had something to do with it. There were a few people at the pool, but that was about it. GF needed to use a restroom, but without a resort ID, we couldnt get in to any of them in the common areas. They were all locked and required an ID. All of the public buildings were closed for the evening and it was closer to walk back to DTD than it was to walk to the main lobby. We are VERY excited about this resort and cant wait to stay there for our New Years trip!
Well, after a quick bathroom break, we headed for home, making it back in a very quick hour and fifteen minutes. We got home at 2:30, extremely tired but very satisfied and looking forward to our next dinner excursion to the World.
Stay tuned for more
We stopped for gas at the Hess station across from DTD, $1.79/gallon for regular, and then drove to the Boardwalk. For those that might not know, there is a parking lot across the street from the main entrance to the Boardwalk resort. Its fairly large and only a short walk to the Boardwalk. It was my turn to pick the restaurant, so I decided on Spoodles. This eatery is named after a sailing vessel that sunk in the Mediterranean Sea, I think. Supposedly the ship was laden with gold and neither it, nor the gold, was ever found.
We didnt have PS reservations but it didnt matter. We arrived at about 6:00 PM and were seated within minutes. Our server, Onsy, arrived, welcomed us and gave us our menus and chatted a few minutes. I ordered a Cyprus Sunrise and GF ordered a Spoodle-Ade. I thought these drinks were supposed to be made table-side but they werent. Oh, well, not a big deal but kind of a disappointment. We ordered the Mediterranean Dips for an appetizer. This course consisted of pieces of flat bread with a tray hummus, tzatziki, baby ganoush and other sauces. It also had some marinated green and Kalamata olives. This is a wonderful appetizer and pretty filling, too. After we finished the apps, GF ordered Gazpacho soup and we decided to split the Spoodles Sampler. This sampler included two of each of the following: lamb cigars, lamb skewers, seafood empanada and spicy potato cakes. There was so much to choose from on the menu, but we were already kind of full and we had no way to keep any leftovers properly stored until we got home, so we decided on the second appetizer as our meal. It was a wise choice. We barely managed to finish the platter without exploding. We decided against dessert, paid our bill ($43.20), thanked Onsy, along with a proper tip and headed out to the Boardwalk.
The Boardwalk was great! I dont remember ever really going there during the summer but it is a lot more active than during the other times of year. There was a man riding a bike with a piano/organ attached to it, playing tunes. A man name Marlo was balancing golf clubs on his chin and finished by balancing a sword by its tip on the tip of a knife that was held in his mouth. Wow!! We walked around the lake, stopping at the Beach Club, where we saw a beautiful snake enjoying the resort too, and walked through the Yacht Club, which was looking good as usual.
We left the Boardwalk area and headed for DTD. The parking lot behind the House of Blues is where we usually park. There are always spots here and so much less of a hassle than the other lots. Tonight, there were quite a few more cars than usual. I found out later that Heart was playing at the HOB. Hmm, wish I would have known. PI was free to enter, again, and lots of people were there, although it wasnt really too crowded. The throng was moving around quite well. The West End stage had a group named the 80z Allstars playing. These guys were awesome!! The 80z Allstars is quartet of guitar, bass, drums and lead singer playing all your favorites from the 80s. How cool is that? The bassist was named Devo Mike and he was appropriately dressed as a member of Devo, complete with red pyramid hat. Motley Who? cranked out the lead guitar while wearing blonde 80s hair, The Karate Kid wonderfully kept the big beat going on drums and Nigel, wearing many different 80s hair pieces, handled the lead lyrics. We stayed through 2 sets and had a blast, as did everyone else at the West End. I would highly recommend checking these guys out. They have a website for anyone interested.
We did some shopping at DTD and then walked over to Saratoga Springs, our home resort. The walk from the West Side to the resort took less than 10 minutes but the path takes you to the Spa and Sales Center. The resort lobby/check-in area is closer to the Village Marketplace side of DTD. This resort is HUGE!!! It was also fairly deserted, although seeing as it was 11:30 or so, that might have had something to do with it. There were a few people at the pool, but that was about it. GF needed to use a restroom, but without a resort ID, we couldnt get in to any of them in the common areas. They were all locked and required an ID. All of the public buildings were closed for the evening and it was closer to walk back to DTD than it was to walk to the main lobby. We are VERY excited about this resort and cant wait to stay there for our New Years trip!
Well, after a quick bathroom break, we headed for home, making it back in a very quick hour and fifteen minutes. We got home at 2:30, extremely tired but very satisfied and looking forward to our next dinner excursion to the World.
Stay tuned for more
