"Can I Get A Hangover Steak, Please?" An Adults-Only, Irma-Rific TR! - NEW PTR Link 4/11

Day 4: Part 4- “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It!”



Hola amigos! Where I last left off, the family was just finishing up our pre-dinner drinks at the Rainforest Cafe in Disney Springs. We had an ADR for Homecoming at 7:30, but we figured that we’d use our extra 30 minutes to stock up on Irma provisions :scared1: We had been hearing lots of “be safe” warnings from CMs, and it was finally starting to feel real that we’d be riding out a hurricane in the next few days!!


We hopped over to Goofy’s Candy Company to pick up some snacks and drinks. We bought a few bottles of water and some snacks like trail mix, chips, pretzels, candy, etc. I also bought a chocolate-covered Mickey rice krispie treat with M&Ms, because I have no self control ::yes::


As we were checking out, my mom gets a phone call from a random number in Orlando, Florida. Assuming its from Disney, she answers it. Turns out, it’s the manager at Homecoming asking where we were... :confused:


It was only about 7:05 at this point, and she told them that our reservation was for 7:30 (it had originally been 9:00, but had been pushed back because of Irma’s arrival). The manager said, “Well, we need you here by 7:15, or else your reservation will be cancelled.”


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WHHHAAT?? Insert: Freakout Mode!! Mom basically shouted this information to my family, and we all started SPRINTING towards Homecoming!


Then, as we arrived, panting like crazy, the hostess made it a point to comment that “You guys were late and you’re lucky we’re still going to seat you.”


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Honestly, it left a really bad taste in all of our mouths. We understood that people were freaking out because of the storm, but our ADR wasn’t until 7:30 (they even changed it in MDE)! It was just very confusing and, well, kind of rude :sad1:


Trying not to let this ruin our time, we took our seats and took a big breath. We had a big round table towards the back of the restaurant, and it was really cute in there!





We had an adorable waitress who was very friendly! She took our drink orders right away. I ordered an Apple Pie A La Mode- Ole Smokey Apple Pie Moonshine, vanilla vodka, apple juice, cinnamon, homemade simple syrup, and a dash of lemon :love: This was so delicious! Although the mention of moonshine scared me, it was not strong tasting at all and tasted exactly like apple pie!!


We were all starving at this point, so we ordered the Jasper Board as an appetizer.





This was yummy and really hit the spot! It was basically a plate of cold cuts, cheese, spreads, and bread/crackers. The best part of this was the Pimento Cheese- it’s a staple in South Carolina and I always eat way too much of it when we’re in HHI :laughing:


When our waitress came with the appetizer, we ordered our main dishes! And… this is where the TR title comes in!! :rotfl:


We had all ordered our food, and Tom was the last one. He wanted a steak, and Homecoming’s signature steak is called the “Hanger Steak.” But, Tom totally read it wrong, and when it was his turn to order, he said, “Ummm, can I get a Hangover Steak please?”


:rotfl2::rotfl2::rotfl2::rotfl2:


Our waitress let out a giggle and said sassily, “Um, I don’t know if I can get you that kind of steak here, but I can get you a Hanger Steak!” We were all laughing soooo hard, Tom felt so silly! A Freudian slip after our afternoon of margaritas, perhaps? :thumbsup2 Needless to say, it was the joke of the night!


After we ordered our main dishes, we sort of came up with a game plan of what to do while at the hotel for two days. Boy- we were never so grateful for choosing a Deluxe resort and one with everything located in one building ::yes:: There was a Green Bay Packers game the next day, so we decided to get together and have a Packer party in my parent’s room :goodvibes We also planned on doing some walking around the resort, participating in AKL’s activities, and eating at Boma at least once!


Our food arrived relatively quickly, which was good because the restaurant was starting to clear out! I ordered the Chopped Pork Barbecue Plate- BBQ pork dressed with HFK sweet and spicy barbeque sauce served with Momma’s mac and cheese and a cheddar drop biscuit.





Meat, cheese, and carbs- what more could a girl ask for? :lovestruc


This was delicious and just what I was craving for. Honestly, this is pretty much all of my favorite foods in one dish, so they really couldn’t go wrong! Tom liked his Hangover Steak ok ( :laughing: ) but was disappointed because his dish came with greens instead of asparagus :charac2:


We tried to eat somewhat quickly, because we were basically the only people left in the restaurant at this point! The CMs were eating delivered pizza and starting to clean up and put chairs away. But, our server did not make us feel rushed and her bubbly personality really made it fun :) For dessert (it was included in the DDP), half of us ordered a bottle of Coca-Cola to go and the other half ordered slices of Hummingbird Cake- yummmmm. These were boxed up of course, we were so stuffed from our rich Southern meals!


So overall, our opinion about Homecoming was mostly good! I would definitely return- the food was great and the atmosphere was really quaint. But, the snafu about “being late” kind of put a damper on the beginning of the meal :sad2: Plus, Tom is still sad about his asparagus :rotfl:That being said, I consider it my favorite Disney Springs restaurant that I have visited so far! I’m a Wisconsin girl through and through, but perhaps in another life I was a Southern Belle :cutie:


We left the restaurant at about 8:40 PM and headed straight for the buses. Believe it or not, I was exhausted from the last few commando touring days and was actually looking forward to having 2 days of forced relaxation!





Disney Springs is so pretty all lit up at night :cloud9:








Mom, Dad, and I outside of Planet Hollywood at (then) Downtown Disney in 2002!


Surprisingly, everyone at Disney Springs and in line seemed very mellow. You’d think it would be a little chaotic with everyone rushing to get food and prepare for Irma, but everyone was so relaxed and chill! A bus came in no time and were were back at AKL at 9:00.


Now, I’m not sure what we were expecting when we got back to the resort, but we arrived to blaring music and games galore!! :eek:








They had all sorts of games like bags, Connect 4, giant Jenga, and ladder ball! They also had stations with coloring pages, dancing, and face painting. It was so cool and made us feel very reassured that we were going to be well taken care of in the next couple days :thumbsup2


Since we were fairly confident that the pool was going to be closed the next few days, Mom, Haley and I decided to head down and take a swim! My dad chose to lay low and watch TV while Tom and Ryan called their families back in the room.


As we got down there, the pool was just starting to close for the night :sad: Boo, I wanted to try the slide at least once! But, the hot tub was open so we joined a few families in there. There was one family from New York and one from England, as well as a lady traveling solo! The family from England was celebrating their daughter’s 16th birthday- they had just spent 14 nights at OKW and moved over to AKL for 3 nights for her birthday surprise :goodvibes THEN, before they came to WDW, they spent a week over at Clearwater Beach!!


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Mom, Haley and I got to chatting with the solo traveler and asked where she was from- turns out she is from Evansville, Indiana (Ryan’s hometown)! Then, I complimented her on her ears and asked if she was a DISer (I could just sense it :earboy2: ) and turns out she was! (but hasn’t been on here in awhile). However, of course, we didn’t get her name :laughing: So, hi DISer at the AKL hot tub from Evansville with the cute Mickey ears!


We spent about 45 minutes just chilling in the hot tub until we decided to head back to the room. But, we had to get a girl’s pic!





As we were taking this picture, another AKL guest walked by and said “Wow, I can’t tell you guys are related at all!” :lmao:


We stopped at the Mara first to get some snacks- Haley got apples and caramel dip while mom and I both got hot chocolates. We got back up to the room and turned on the TV to see this:





:scared1: Booooo and yikes!!!


We enjoyed our snacks while watching the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie! It was super cool- because of Irma, they added a channel to the resort TVs that played all Disney movies 24/7! It was so fun at first, but it became a curse later in the trip… you’ll see why :crazy2:


With visions of Captain Jack Sparrow dancing in our heads, we bid goodnight at about 11:45!


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Coming Soon- Day 5: Part 1- “Sunday Morning, Rain Is Falling!”


 
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We hopped over to Goofy’s Candy Company to pick up some snacks and drinks.

Only the essentials! :rotfl:

The manager said, “Well, we need you here by 7:15, or else your reservation will be cancelled.”

Uh what?

Then, as we arrived, panting like crazy, the hostess made it a point to comment that “You guys were late and you’re lucky we’re still going to seat you.”

UH DOUBLE WHAT? How rude!

“Ummm, can I get a Hangover Steak please?”

:laughing: There's the title!

As we got down there, the pool was just starting to close for the night :sad:

That stinks! The pools close so early!

turns out she is from Evansville, Indiana (Ryan’s hometown)!

Hey, I've been there!
 
Wow, that was really rude of the Homecomin' staff! If they needed you there earlier, then your reservation time should have reflected that! I'm glad the meal ended up being really good though! What you ordered looks absolutely delicious!

Stinks that you couldn't get into the pool! But sounds like a nice time in the Jacuzzi.

Curious to hear how the next 2 hurricane days went for you all!
 
Just caught up on your report - really loving it! I think Disney would be the best place to spend a hurricane.
Just added you to our May Epic TR - if you're interested in writing up a brief bio and a picture to go along with it, let me know and I can add you to our "Intros" section.
Hope you will be able to make it!
 


Wow! How rude of the hostess at Homecomin'! It's a good thing you didn't let it get to you and still enjoyed your meal. It sounds like they were closing the restaurant early.

That's a cute story about the hangar steak! I can't tell you how many times I've done something like that.

It looks like AKL was well prepared to take care of their guests. We were in Jupiter, FL in 1995 for one of our daughter's national softball tournament when Hurricane Erin hit. There wasn't much damage, but I have never saw so much rain in my life as the days following the storm!
 
Honestly, it left a really bad taste in all of our mouths. We understood that people were freaking out because of the storm, but our ADR wasn’t until 7:30 (they even changed it in MDE)! It was just very confusing and, well, kind of rude :sad1:
Wow, that is certainly rude! I mean I get that they need to close up early, but still, not cool.

Our waitress let out a giggle and said sassily, “Um, I don’t know if I can get you that kind of steak here, but I can get you a Hanger Steak!” We were all laughing soooo hard, Tom felt so silly! A Freudian slip after our afternoon of margaritas, perhaps? :thumbsup2 Needless to say, it was the joke of the night!
Hilarious! And I loved how she went along with it!

Surprisingly, everyone at Disney Springs and in line seemed very mellow. You’d think it would be a little chaotic with everyone rushing to get food and prepare for Irma, but everyone was so relaxed and chill! A bus came in no time and were were back at AKL at 9:00.
That's the same way I felt that day. On Friday it was more chaotic, but by Saturday everyone had already made up their minds to stay, so were going to make the most of it!
 
Yes, very busy! I bet you're so excited, you guys will have a blast!! Are you there during Food and Wine??
I think Food & Wine starts a few days after we leave. I've been during Food & Wine before and it's really not a big deal for us. My wife and girls are picky eaters and wouldn't try much anyway. I'm a bit more adventurous and would like to try some things, but I'm still very meat and potatoes.
But we are going to the 2nd Halloween party on the 24th, so we're excited to get that in!

Honestly, it left a really bad taste in all of our mouths. We understood that people were freaking out because of the storm, but our ADR wasn’t until 7:30 (they even changed it in MDE)! It was just very confusing and, well, kind of rude :sad1:
Oh wow, I hope that's not typical of their service. I have an ADR there in August. Since I'm staying at ASMu with free dining, I have the QS meal plan, so we are not doing a lot of ADRs. I wanted at least one old favourite and one new. Homecomin' is my "new ADR" since I heard so many good things about it. It looks like your food was good though.
If you're wondering, I ended up making two "old favourites ADRs" at The Plaza and Via Napoli for my daughter's 11th birthday.
 


I just found your TR today and read through it all (the up-side of having strained my back... lots of down time)! I'm really enjoying hearing about your trip! I was there with my dad for Labor Day week last year and we got out the night before they closed down the Orlando airport for Irma. We lucked out in that it was our original departure date. But.... we were also thinking how fun it would be to stay and enjoy empty parks and all the activities at the resorts! :laughing:

Look forward to reading more!
 
I'm still hanging in here!

Sorry about your experience at Homecomin'. I'm sure there was a lot of stress put on them due to the storm and trying to operate smoothly, but that's no excuse for being rude.
 
We really like Homecoming - the Jasper Board is soooo good! Sorry to hear about the bad attitude of the managers though. I've never heard of a Disney restaurant calling prior to your reservation time to find out where you are!
 
Yay you're back! We were at Disney right after Irma (supposed to fly in that Monday... finally got there on Wednesday) and this TR makes me remember our trip with a smile (though probably glad we weren't actually there for the hurricane). Can't wait to hear more about your June trip too! We're heading back in November and I'm so excited.
 
Hangover steak!!! I've been wondering where the TR title came from, and now I know!

I'm anxiously awaiting your next few installments so I can see how it was riding out a hurricane in WDW. We are tentatively heading down in the beginning of September next year, and our big worry whenever we are there at that time of the year is having a hurricane hit. It'll be nice getting some firsthand knowledge of how they handle that!
 
Well Molly I have been away from the boards for a while as well so just getting caught up this TR. Are you attending the girls only weekend MAy 2019?


Have any of you guys visited Hilton Head Island before (or the DVC resort down there??) Let me know what you thought!
We stayed at a Marriote Time share with friends about 8 yr's ago. I was dissapointed that the beach was so rocky and not smooth sand like FL. It was early MArch and quite chilly so really didn't get to spend much time on the beach or at the pool. We cooked a lot at the resort and found grocery shopping at Piggly Wiggly a lil on the high side. IMO there are many other locations I prefer. My favorite beach town now is Destin FL.




Too funny
 
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YEAH!!! I hope you will do at least a mini review of your trip when you are done with this one. I just booked us 2 nights at the Poly for our next trip. I am soooo excitied! Also, I love your shirt!

Great Picture!

I also bought a chocolate-covered Mickey rice krispie treat with M&Ms, because I have no self control ::yes::
That is requirement!

WHHHAAT?? Insert: Freakout Mode!! Mom basically shouted this information to my family, and we all started SPRINTING towards Homecoming!
Ugh. Why couldn't they have just said they needed you hear earlier... why be jerks about it. Sorry that they were that way. I am sure they were getting anxious themselves.

onestly, it left a really bad taste in all of our mouths. We understood that people were freaking out because of the storm, but our ADR wasn’t until 7:30 (they even changed it in MDE)! It was just very confusing and, well, kind of rude :sad1:
Boo.

We were all starving at this point, so we ordered the Jasper Board as an appetizer.


This look really good. I think I could come here and just eat apps.

Boy- we were never so grateful for choosing a Deluxe resort and one with everything located in one building ::yes::
It def seems like Deluxes are the way to go if you are going to be stuck in a hurricane in Disney.

We also planned on doing some walking around the resort, participating in AKL’s activities, and eating at Boma at least once!
Doesn't sound too bad! Hope it turns out that way.

They had all sorts of games like bags, Connect 4, giant Jenga, and ladder ball! They also had stations with coloring pages, dancing, and face painting. It was so cool and made us feel very reassured that we were going to be well taken care of in the next couple days :thumbsup2
Did the games look brand new? Wonder if they had a closet called Hurricane games? Or did someone have to go out to Toys R Us and buy EVERY game in the store!

The family from England was celebrating their daughter’s 16th birthday- they had just spent 14 nights at OKW and moved over to AKL for 3 nights for her birthday surprise :goodvibes THEN, before they came to WDW, they spent a week over at Clearwater Beach!!
England has the right idea when it comes to vacation!

We spent about 45 minutes just chilling in the hot tub until we decided to head back to the room. But, we had to get a girl’s pic!


Sounded like a great end to the day and a great way to get ready for what was to come.
 
Bringing this thread out of lurkdom to announce that....

History is repeating itself!!!



::yes::


That's right, friends! Tomorrow morning at 7 AM, me, my mom, Haley, Ryan's mom, Carla, and Ryan's sister, Kahla, are flying out to Disney World to have a "girl's trip." We are scheduled to stay until Thursday night. This has been planned for MONTHS!!

Clearly, this aint our first rodeo. :laughing: Please send good vibes that Dorian stays away!!
:scared:
 

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