Wednesday, October 8th - A Late Afternoon Snack; We Don't Need It ... We're Not Hungry ... But By God We're Gonna Eat Anyway!
With tasty sandwedges digesting in our happy bellies, Jay and I made a decision to head over to the Magic Kingdom for a few hours. This was a bold departure from vacation tradition which dictates that we race each other to Epcot from the Beach Club Villas in order to begin stuffing our faces at the festival booths as soon as humanly possible.
We were a little concerned about what we might find at the Magic Kingdom what with all these strange things we heard about before leaving on our trip. Apparently Disney extended their "free" dining promotion through October 11th (Gawd help us ... will there be enough food for everyone!?); WDW also apparently began offering FL resident discounts to neighboring states (Ummm, isn't that a contradiction?); And there were ominous whispers of some bizarre, mysterious get-together known as "Fall Break."
Bravely we boarded a bus and rumbled off to meet our vacation destiny, taking the first of many self-portraits.
Smile! No matter how crowded the park is, it still beats being stuck in Stinktown!
As an aside ... don't I have a funny nose?
When we arrived at the Magic Kingdom, Main Street was relatively deserted - we took this as a good sign and headed over to Tomorrowland to ride Buzz Lightyear, among other rides ... or so we thought.
All those people we thought weren't at the park ... oh, we found them ... they were everywhere. Space Mountain ... The Laugh Floor ... even The People Mover! There was crying in Fantasyland ... excessive sweating in Frontierland ... circular movements in Liberty Square ... and a noticeable lack of excitement in Adventureland.
Something strange was afoot at the Kingdom M.
There was only one thing to do ... stop at Aloha Isle and try the fabled Dole Whip. Jay likes pineapple and I don't, so it took me a few minutes to decide what to order. And then I shocked the CM by requesting a swirlie.
"I beg your pardon, ma'am?"
"I'd like a chocolate / vanilla swirlie, please."
And then as soon as I heard the words come out of my mouth I wanted to laugh ... a swirlie ... oh my! I suddenly had a mental image of two burly CMs emerging from behind the counter wearing over-sized Mickey hands, fully prepared to drag me off to the nearest bathroom where I'd become intimately acquainted with a well-used toilet.
Yuck!
"May I please have a chocolate / vanilla soft serve combo?"
That did the trick!
Vanilla & Chocolate to the left; Dole Whip to the right!
Jay has the following to say about the Dole Whip: "It was pineapple-y; tasty but a little too sweet."
Overall, the hubba says that he wouldn't go out of his way to have another Dole Whip. If he wanted dessert, Jay said he'd drag our sorry butts back to Raglan Road and request a double serving of bread pudding with a bottle of single malt scotch.
As for the "swirlie" it was fine ... soft serve is as soft serve does. I don't really enjoy eating sweets in hot weather and I hate eating ice cream outdoors because it melts more quickly than I can ingest it, so I didn't even finish mine before it turned to soup. I will say that I thought that both servings were generous portions, especially for $2.89.
Final opinion: by all means give Aloha Isle and the Dole Whip a try if you're curious to find out what all the fuss is about ... you'll never know for sure until you try it yourself. But we feel no need to ever visit them again and think they're entirely over-rated.
I think we would have been happier sharing a Mickey bar.
Good times will be had by all
.... and a frozen margarita (where to get a good one???)
Now if I could only find a way to get the licking marks off of my screen. 
Thanks for coming along on the newest food journey and good news: no one got sick this time! 
