Trip Report - February 2023

[Noreen411]

Thursday 2/16/23 Continued
We drove back to the resort then went out to the pool. We swam, went on the water slide, and just hung out at the pool for a while. It was nice to do this.

We did a bit more packing before showering and changing for the evening.

We went to Disney Springs.

We went to HomeComing for dinner and sat at the bar.

I had a White Peach Sangria which was very good. Scott had a Woodford Blues (a mixed bourbon drink) that he enjoyed.



We shared the Chicken biscuits. These are listed as an appetizer but we find them pretty filling. They are very good.


Scott ordered the fried pickles which he liked. I don’t like pickles so didn’t eat them.


We also ordered French fries. Can’t go wrong with fries.


We enjoyed our meal at Homecoming and walked around Disney Springs some more.

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 2/16/23 Continued
We walked to Everglazed. We’ve never been and wanted to try them.
We got 6 donuts to go. They were coming back home to New Jersey with us.
We didn’t freeze them, but put them in the fridge. We ended up eating them over the course of the next week or so, sharing one every day or two.
They didn’t have a big box, each one came in it’s own little plastic container.
They were very good and even by the time we ate the last one it still tasted good.

Even though we didn’t eat them right away, I’m going to put the pictures here to show them both the whole donut and the inside.

Strawberry Iced with sprinkles. This was the most simple one we ordered and it ended up being my favorite.



Dulce Le Leche



Peanut Butter Explosion. This was good but you have to really like peanut butter.

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 2/16/23 Continued
The next few of our Everglazed donuts…

Black Raspberry Beret. This was very good, like a good jelly donut with some extra stuff on it. By the time we ate it, the corn flake looking things on top were a bit soggy but they were probably crispy when we first bought the donut.




Nutella Boston Cream


The icing on top was a bit smushed by the time we ate it, but it still tasted very good.



Cookies and Cream





Next trip we will go to Everglazed earlier in the trip to be able to enjoy them while we’re there. We’ll probably also go at the end of the trip to bring some home too.

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 2/16/23 Continued
Even though we just bought half a dozen donuts, we weren’t planning to eat any tonight. We had another dessert in mind…our favorite dessert at Disney

We drove to the Polynesian



And went to the Tambu Lounge.

Scott had a Grand Marnier and I drank water.


And we enjoyed the bread pudding one more time this trip. This is without a doubt our favorite dessert at Disney.




Later we drove back to the resort and finished just about all the packing, except the stuff we’ll need in the morning.

 

[Sacahara]

Wow! All of those donuts looked so good! Are they super sweet?

 

[Noreen411]

Wow! All of those donuts looked so good! Are they super sweet?

Hi. They were very good, but the ones with a lot of stuff on them were super sweet. The cake part itself wasn’t overly sweet. Sharing a donut was perfect since I think eating the whole one would be sugar overload. That’s probably why the simpler frosted one with sprinkles was my favorite, it wasn’t too sweet. Saying that, we really enjoyed them all.

 

[Noreen411]

Friday 2/17/23
We were up about 3:30am to start getting ready to go.
We skipped the gym today to get an earlier start.
We used the jacuzzi, showered, and finished packing up the last of our stuff.

We left about 6

We were in Georgia just before 9. Once again we managed to miss both Peach World‘s.

We were in South Carolina at 10:45

We were in North Carolina about 2. There was a torrential downpour that lasted maybe 10 minutes.

We were making pretty decent time and were in Virginia just after 5. We normally stop in the Carolinas so made it further than we expected. We debated driving straight through but were getting tired so decided to stop for the night.

Around 6 we booked a 1 bedroom suite at the Residence Inn Richmond Chester Virginia when we were about half an hour away.

We checked in about 6:30, and went to our suite #100. This had the same layout as the Residence Inn that we‘ve been to in South Carolina.

We were happy to have a real freezer to put the cookies in to keep them frozen.









We were hungry but had some trouble deciding where to eat dinner. At the hotel they recommended a local place so we drove there, but it just wasn’t our type of place so we left. We passed a Hooters and figured we’d give that a try; but when we went in it was dirty. The floors were sticky, the bar was sticky, the seats were broken. We weren’t comfortable so left.

We passed an Applebees and figured let’s go there. It’s simple but it was clean, we were greeted and felt welcome. We sat at the bar as we often do.



I had a white peach sangria and Scott had bourbon.



We shared our food.

We started with a chicken quesadilla. This was good.



Then we shared the Prime Rib dipper with fries. This was also good.



Sometimes simple comfort food is the right choice.

We were back at the hotel about 10. We watched some TV then went to bed.

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 2/18/23
We were up around 5. We skipped the gym so we can get going earlier.
We just showered and got dressed, packed up our stuff and headed out.
We left about 6:25

We were in Maryland by 8:20

At one of the rest stops in Maryland we got breakfast sandwiches from Wendy’s. We ordered a few different things. They were very slow here.
We tried a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit. I didn’t like this, the egg was a weird consistency. Scott ate this.
Scott also had a sausage and egg sandwich which he said was OK
Scott ordered a chicken croissant no sauce, but I ended up eating this.
One of the sandwiches was ordered as a combo so came with potato barrels
Scott also got a hot dog from Nathan’s as they were just switching to their lunch menu
The food wasn’t that good but we were hungry. I didn’t take pictures of our breakfast food.

We were in Delaware by 10:45; the shortest state we drive through.

We were in New Jersey at 11am, but since we live at the top of New Jersey knew we still had about 2.5 hours to go.
There was some traffic in New Jersey.

We made it home about 1:30. It was nice to be home this early.

The cats were happy to see us. We gave them some extra attention.

We were able to get started on some of the after vacation chores like going through mail, unpacking, etc.

Later that night we ended up ordering pizza for dinner.

 

[Noreen411]

Final Thoughts
This was a great trip. We really enjoy Disney World. It’s our Happy place and the Magic is still there for us.

We appreciate having the timeshare with space to spread out and having some of the comforts of home rather than just a hotel room. It‘s more like a little condo.

We found some new restaurants, and still have our favorites. I’ll continue booking dinners 60 days before our trip but like the flexibility of making changes as we go.

Driving to Florida works for us; we’ve made the road trip part of the vacation.

We enjoy having a bit of a longer trip so we don’t feel like we have to do everything at once. Knowing we’ll be back regularly also makes it easier to just enjoy the trip without rushing.

Having annual passes also helps with the flexibility knowing we’ll be back if we don’t get to everything. Being able to be in pictures together with photopass is great. I especially like the magic shots and the attraction photos.

One thing we’re thinking about doing next trip is trying the 4 parks in 1 day challenge. We’ve started talking about which park to start at, where to end, etc.

If you have any questions, please ask. I love talking about our trips.

Noreen