Trip Report - March/April 2025

[Noreen411]

Friday 3/28/25
We went to the gym around 6:15. Our normal morning routine of laundry, jacuzzi, showers, and breakfast followed.

We drove to Hollywood Studios.


Scott loves these little aliens. On our last trip we bought a bunch of the ones that you push a button and they say things. With more than one, when you push the button on one, the others all chime in. I think we have 5 or 6 of them. But he posed with these stuffed ones for me.


Our first attraction was my favorite one at Hollywood Studios…Tower of Terror.


We bought a few more shirts, then stopped to watch One Man’s Dream which was about to start.

We came back to the front of the park to ride Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway train. This is cute, but I still miss the great movie ride. They really should put a ride photo in this ride.





One show we haven’t watched in a while was about to start, Indiana Jones Stunt show. When we’re here in the fall, it’s usually too hot to sit in the outdoor theater for this. The show ran into technical difficulties and the last scene was cancelled. The show was still enjoyable and if you hadn’t seen it before you probably wouldn’t know what you missed, other than they announced it.

We headed into Toy Story Land next. These green army men were walking by so I took a quick picture of them.


We mobile ordered pop tarts from Woody’s Lunchbox - Raspberry and Key Lime. The raspberry is my favorite. We tried a bit of each then wrapped them up, Scott had a little ziploc baggie just for this purpose.



The saucers were our next attraction. We both think this is cute and Scott is always fascinated more by the tracks and how the cars switch tracks than the rest of the ride.


Our next attraction was Toy Story Mania. This is always a favorite and we keep trying to remember to work together to get other screens and effects to open up.

 

[Noreen411]

Friday 3/28/25 Continued
We headed out of Hollywood Studios and took the Skyliner to hop over to Epcot.
Look how crazy my hair looks on the skyliner sticking straight up


We enjoy walking and with nice weather especially love strolling around World Showcase. We stop for different pictures and attractions too.

I don’t remember where exactly this was, but thought it was nice that they had a Muppets topiary knowing that attraction is closing in Hollywood Studios.


I think we did about 2 laps around. Pictures may be out of sequence.








It was time for us to ride Remy. This is cute but I am not a fan of the single rider line on this attraction.

 

[Noreen411]

Friday 3/28/25 Continued
We decided to try the bar at Shula’s tonight. We took the boat to the Dolphin, but when we got to Shula’s the bar was packed. We waited a bit but everyone seemed like they were settled in for a while. We don’t like to hover so figured we would try again another night and pick something else tonight.

We walked around the Boardwalk area and went into Flying Fish and asked if there was any availability at the bar. They were able to seat us immediately. I am definitely preferring this type of set up where they seat you at the bar rather than 1st come/1st served and having to wait around for a seat to open up.


Scott had a Martini and I had an Espresso Martini


For an appetizer we had the Pork Belly BLT; this is an amazing appetizer, we both really enjoyed it.


Their bread is good but we didn’t want to fill up on it.


Scott had the seafood pasta. He loves this dish and gets it every time we’re at Flying Fish.


I try different things and today I went with the potato wrapped snapper. This was very good too. One time I had it and wasn’t thrilled so didn’t try it again for ages. I’m glad I gave it another try since today it was very good.


We enjoyed our meal at Flying Fish but skipped dessert here with something else in mind

 

[Noreen411]

Friday 3/28/25 Continued
We walked over to the Cake Bake Shop to get dessert to go.

Scott loves chocolate chip cookies so we had to try the chocolate chip cookie. Scott was very excited to try it and ate half of it before remembering to pose the cookie for a picture. So this is only less than half the cookie. He liked it.


Since the car was at Hollywood Studios we took the boat back there. Waiting for the boat we started chatting with a nice couple from Indiana where the other Cake Bake shop is; they said they go there often and the carrot cake is their favorite. They said they will often buy a whole carrot cake for birthdays and other celebrations.

We drove back to the resort and tried our desserts from Cake Bake.

We bought the Blueberry Crumb. This was pretty good. We each tried a little piece.



We also bought a piece of Carrot Cake. How funny that the couple on the ferry mentioned this was their favorite. They were right, of the various cakes we’ve tried from Cake Bake, the carrot was our favorite. The part I found odd is that the little flower on the Carrot Cake wasn’t edible. They make pretty frosting flowers on other cakes, I’m surprised they didn’t on the carrot cake too.

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 3/29/25
We went to the gym about 6 this morning. We did our normal morning routine of laundry, jacuzzi, showers, and breakfast before leaving for the park.

We drove to Animal Kingdom.


We always stop for the pictures right by the tree since they almost always will have some magic shots.



Our first attraction was Dinosaur. We are definitely going to miss this one when it’s gone.



We did the Jungle Trek since we wanted to see Bakso, the baby tiger. We saw him sleeping, it’s not the best picture of him but at least we saw him.



We took the train over to Rafiki’s planet watch section and watched the Animal Show with Nelly, the Porcupine. This was interesting, we’ve never seen this before. We liked that it was all up to Nelly what he decides he wants to do.



We went in to the section where they do the drawings and we drew Dot from Bug’s Life. I’m not very artistic so appreciate the way they provide very detailed instructions on how to do this. Scott’s drawing came out much better than mine did.



We took the train back to the regular part of the park.

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 3/29/25 Continued
It was time for us to ride the safari. While we didn’t see the lions this visit, a giraffe tried to get very close to the truck.


We like the unique magic shots like this one where we look like we are walking along with the animals.


Scott was going to ride the single rider line at Everest but it was pretty crowded so he didn’t wait.


We continued taking cute photos


Scott was happy to see his favorite Mickey Mouse shaped chocolate chip cookie with dipped ears. I thought this picture was hysterical since the thing behind him with feathers makes it look like a blond Mohawk.

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 3/29/25 Continued
We left Animal Kingdom and drove to Magic Kingdom.

When going through security the guard wanted everyone to do a Conga Line, it was kind of cute how some people were getting into it. Of course, there are the grumpy ones that ignored him. We did what we call the “Avocado Dance” as we walked through. If you’ve ever been to Stew Leonard’s, which is a quirky grocery store where they have all sorts of animatronics, where they sell Avocados, they have animatronic Avocados that sing to the tune of La Cucaracha, but they sing “We’re Avocado, We’re Avocado”. Once you hear it, it gets in your head. If you have Alexa and ask her to sing the Stew Leonard’s Avocado song you’ll hear what I mean. So we always end up singing it to each other and when we do we move our arms that are pointed up kind of up and down (we’re corny like that) like a little dance.

Continuing going off on this tangent for a minute, you know how sometimes little thoughtful gifts are the best kind of gifts? Scott was picking up a few items at Stew Leonard’s and brought home a cute little gift for me. When you push the button on the hand it sings the Avocado song. This little plush avocado just makes me happy.


Back to our day in Disney, we were just getting to Magic Kingdom



We stopped for several different pictures as we entered the park.


Donald Duck seems to show up in Magic shot pictures recently.

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 3/29/25 Continued
This is always one of the pictures I like since it looks like a postcard, but we’re there on the bottom right side.


It was time for us to ride 7 Dwarves Mine Train. The more we ride this the more we like it. We used to think it was kind of a like a milder Big Thunder Mountain, but now we appreciate it more. I can’t help singing Hi Ho Hi Ho it’s off to work we go when we’re in the mine part of the ride.



We rode Peter Pan and then Small World after Mine Train.

We headed back towards Main Street.


We stopped in the Confectionary and made our own popcorn and also got a cake pop.



We made our way out of the park

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 3/29/25 Continued
We drove to Caribbean Beach Resort for our dinner reservation at Sebastian’s Bistro. We went a little early to have pre-dinner cocktails at Banana Cabana bar.


Scott had a double bourbon and a Coke. I had the Banana Cabana drink.


We were seated on time at Sebastian’s Bistro in the back section; we never sat in this room before.


The food was very good. We had the regular menu but they also have a vegetarian version. It’s a plated All You Care to Eat type place.

The bread is good but would be even better if it was warmed up.


The salad is super fresh and tasty


I like that the meat platter has all the sauces on the side


The sides are good too. I don’t like cilantro normally since it tastes like soap to me, but their cilantro rice and beans are delicious


It’s a lot of food. We didn’t need anymore but everything we had was very good. Sebastian’s Bistro is a hidden gem.

The star of the show is the dessert…pineapple coconut bread pudding. We were too full to eat it so asked if we could have the bread pudding to go so they boxed a piece up for us that we brought back to the resort to eat. I liked how they packed each component separately (the bread pudding, the caramel sauce, and the ice cream) then we put it together.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 3/30/25
Today we broke from our normal routine. We didn’t go to the gym first thing in the morning and we didn’t do laundry. We decided to go out to breakfast. We used the jacuzzi, showered, and got dressed then headed out.

We went to Keke’s Breakfast Cafe on Dr Phillips. This is the first time we’ve gone to this Keke’s but have been to a different one on a past trip. This looked very new and bright.




We gave our name and it was a short wait before we were seated.


Scott had orange juice and coffee, while I drank water and Sprite.


Scott ordered waffles with sides of bacon and sausage.




I ordered stuffed French toast. They have different types and I chose the Apple Cinnamon one. I made it a combo with well done scrambled eggs and well done bacon. This was a lot of food so I gave some to Scott.



We both enjoyed our breakfast. Keke’s is a great little place if you are looking to go offsite.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 3/30/25 Continued
We stopped at Publix for a few items then went back to the resort. We started to get a few things organized and packed up that we won’t need for the rest of the trip.

We went to the gym and it was odd to me to go this late. Scott often varies when he’ll use the gym but I’m pretty consistent with usually working out first thing to start my day. We showered after our workouts.

We decided to do something else that we talk about but never get around to doing… wander around the resort to the different section.

Since we’re staying in the St Augustine section, we’ve used the gym there, the pool, gone to the Marketplace but we don’t often go to the other sections. You can use the facilities at any section of the resort. Maybe if we spent more time at the resort we would spend more time in the other sections. We have on previous trips had to use the gym in the Bella section when there was an AC problem in the gym in the St Augustine section and we have gone to the Bella pool when the St Augustine pool was very crowded. This time we were just wandering and exploring.

We started off in the Bella section. They have a nice pool with a waterfall feature. There is a little shop. There is a small bar/restaurant (not a fancy restaurant more of a poolside place). There is a small gym in this section.




While we didn’t take pictures of the gym in the Bella section since there were people there when we were exploring, I have pictures from our fall 2024 trip of this gym since we had to use it due to an AC issue in the St Augustine gym that trip. I’ll include them here for completeness.





Also - this pool picture of the Bella pool is also from last trip when there were no people there in the morning on the walk back after using the gym.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 3/30/25 Continued
We walked over to the Key West section.

We wanted to see the gym in this section and since there weren’t any people there we took a few pictures.






We walked by the Key West pool area too


There is an area with a sandy beach (not for swimming) with a replica of the Southern Most Point landmark that you see in real Key West FL


They also have cute hammocks. I took pictures as Scott tried to get himself situation in a hammock.



Once he was comfortable in the hammock I joined him. It was nice to swing there for a little bit. The Key West section of the resort is much quieter than St Augustine. Of course, just minutes after we got ourselves comfortable in the hammock it started to drizzle then rain a little harder. We quickly gathered up our stuff and walked fast with little spurts of running through the rain back to our villa.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 3/30/25 Continued
Later that evening we drove to the Grand Floridian for our dinner reservation at Narcoossee’s. We had to park in a different section of the parking lot and take a golf cart shuttle from there back to the resort. I’m guessing it’s some sort of either an overflow lot or maybe a cast lot. It was surprisingly easier than we expected when we were first asked to park there, the golf cart shuttle was right there and quickly took us to the front of the resort.

When we checked in and they took us to our table, people were already sitting there. Of course, we’re amused and joking around with the host about it. We waited a little bit and they brought us to a new table; this table had a great view right at the window.



Scott had a Martini and I had the Salted Mascarpone Espresso Martini. My drink was great, except the weird little cheese cracker that was on the top. I quickly removed the little cracker.


For an appetizer we shared the brisket ricotta tortellini. This was good, we both enjoyed it.


The bread is also good but makes a lot of crumbs. We tried not to fill up on the bread.


We watched the Electric Light parade go by

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 3/30/25 Continued
The Magic Kingdom fireworks were originally scheduled for 8:30 but the waitress mentioned they were delayed until 9.

Scott ordered the Surf & Turf but subbed French fries for the mashed potatoes. He loved his dish.


I ordered the Gulf Shrimp Bucatini. This was the first time I ordered this here and it’s my new go-to dish. It was fantastic.


We ordered a second round of drinks when our entrees arrived. Of course I didn’t get the weird cracker in my drink this time.


We went out on the patio to watch the fireworks at 9; this is a great way to watch them, the music is piped in too so you get the full effect without the crowds. It’s not the same as watching it from Main Street in Magic Kingdom. If it’s the first time seeing them, you need to be in the park for the full effect, but for us, I prefer seeing it like this without the crowds.





After the fireworks we went back to our table. We didn’t finish our entrees and had leftovers to go. That didn’t stop us from ordering dessert. We knew what we were getting, the almond crusted cheesecake. This is delicious. Maybe one day we’ll try another dessert here, but we always enjoyed this one.


Narcoossee’s is a great restaurant, we really enjoy it.

When we walked to the front of the resort, we were pleasantly surprised to see the golf cart shuttle right there. They drove us right to the car in the out of the way lot we had to park in. That whole process was much easier than we expected it to be.

 

[LoveDaisy]

Saturday 3/29/25 Continued
We left Animal Kingdom and drove to Magic Kingdom.

When going through security the guard wanted everyone to do a Conga Line, it was kind of cute how some people were getting into it. Of course, there are the grumpy ones that ignored him. We did what we call the “Avocado Dance” as we walked through. If you’ve ever been to Stew Leonard’s, which is a quirky grocery store where they have all sorts of animatronics, where they sell Avocados, they have animatronic Avocados that sing to the tune of La Cucaracha, but they sing “We’re Avocado, We’re Avocado”. Once you hear it, it gets in your head. If you have Alexa and ask her to sing the Stew Leonard’s Avocado song you’ll hear what I mean. So we always end up singing it to each other and when we do we move our arms that are pointed up kind of up and down (we’re corny like that) like a little dance.

Continuing going off on this tangent for a minute, you know how sometimes little thoughtful gifts are the best kind of gifts? Scott was picking up a few items at Stew Leonard’s and brought home a cute little gift for me. When you push the button on the hand it sings the Avocado song. This little plush avocado just makes me happy.
View attachment 989757
I’ll be singing the avocado sing all night!!

I’ll be singing the avocado song all night!

 

[rdkeim]

Sounds like a good somewhat relaxing day. Both your breakfast and dinner look very good! Great way to watch the fireworks.