Disneymoon 2015, a Trip of Firsts: F&WF, V&A, MNSSHP & more! *pic heavy*

[Taraven87]

Hi guys, first time sharing a trip report anywhere, but this past trip was such a doozy I couldn't help but share with you all! The forums were such a huge help as I planned, I wanted to share a bit of the fun I had!

My husband and I are big Disney fans; we actually planned a trip to Disneyland between our 3rd and 4th date! Don't worry, we'd known each other much longer than that by the time the trip actually rolled around... We were pretty confident things would work out. Disney World was a natural choice for our honeymoon. We got married back in June but chose to wait until October for our Honeymoon so we could catch the Food & Wine Festival, and beat some of the heat and humidity. Don't worry, we snuck down to Disneyland for a few days right after the wedding back in June!

We booked the Disneymoon back in 9/14, so I had more than a year to plan. We decided this would be the trip we'd always dreamed of but never thought we'd get to take, and that we'd do all the things we'd always attached a "what if" to. That meant staying longer than we'd ever stayed (2 nights at the Swan and 11 at POR, in addition to 2 nights over at Universal), booking all of the Signature dining we'd been curious about, experiencing the Food & Wine Festival for the first time, Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, and-- the icing on the cake-- an evening at Victoria & Albert's. We weren't sure we'd be able to swing it all, but some very generous friends chose to gift us honeymoon experiences for our Wedding as opposed to traditional gifts, so we were able to really splurge.

Before I dive in, I'll tell you a bit about us! DH and I have been together for 5 years, we met online (as so many couples do these days!). Before we were married, we'd been to Disney World together once, and to Disneyland together 3 times. We live in Northern California, so Disneyland is more convenient than Disney World, but still a bit of a haul when we drive (and we've only flown once). DH had not been to Disneyland in about 20 years before we met, and he tells me as we drove through Anaheim towards Disneyland that first trip, he was asking himself "What am I doing!?" He ended up, much to my relief, loving it nearly as much as I do. I'd lost my mother the previous year, and she had been my Disney partner in crime. I hadn't been in about 4 years before that trip, so it was really meaningful that I'd found someone I loved who was happy to indulge my love of Disney, and who could enjoy it too.

Our first trip to Disney World was less than ideal; we had 3.5 days, skipped AK, and went in the sweltering June heat. DH prefers foggy 50 degree weather, so he was miserable. DH is also a (picky- but he'll deny it!) vegetarian, and really struggled at most of the restaurants we went to. He left that trip of the opinion that Disney World was a dated, watered down version of Disneyland. I love both resorts, and view them as completely different, not at all interchangeable experiences, so I was heartbroken! I vowed to make the Disneymoon the trip where he'd fall in love with Disney World, and he went into it with an open mind; he'd heard me go on and on about what a Disney World trip *could* be so many times, that I think he was eager to be proven wrong. So, I had a year to plan 13 action-packed, magical days at Disney World that would change his mind.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

I'm in!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Joining in - and totally get the idea of pushing back the trip to take advantage of the Food & Wine Festival!

Love the idea of a "what if" trip and great that it worked out with some of your wedding gifts contributing to the trip!

 

[princessnikitaa]

Uugh, I love the idea of a Disneymoon... a girl can dream.... This is the first time I'm actually getting into Trip Reports and I've actually written one. But trip isn't for a while. But I'm so excited to interact with you all and to follow people along their trips while wishing I was there with them!

I'm definitely following along.

 

[Disneymoon09]

I'm in! We did a Disneymoon too!

 

[mommypenguin29]

can't wait to hear more!

 

[MrsSykes2014]

I am in too. We leave for our first EVER trip to Disney world in 11 days. It is also our Disneymoon. We have been married a year and a half. I look forward to the beauty of your Disneymoon

 

[Taraven87]

I'm in!

Yay, thanks for following along!

Joining in - and totally get the idea of pushing back the trip to take advantage of the Food & Wine Festival!

Love the idea of a "what if" trip and great that it worked out with some of your wedding gifts contributing to the trip!

We were so lucky that we have great friends who were as excited about the trip as we were, and wanted to help make it a reality! And I'm so glad we went in October. It was still miserably hot for half the trip, but we got almost no rain, and the other half of the trip was downright pleasant! I'm positive mid-June would not have been as kind.

Uugh, I love the idea of a Disneymoon... a girl can dream....
I'm definitely following along.

I hope you get your Disneymoon! Even if you decide to go with friends, or if you're celebrating a 10 year anniversary, I think it's worth doing a "once in a lifetime" trip!

I'm in! We did a Disneymoon too!

Welcome, fellow Disneymooner

can't wait to hear more!

Thank you for joining in! I'm going to try to be good about updating frequently!

I am in too. We leave for our first EVER trip to Disney world in 11 days. It is also our Disneymoon. We have been married a year and a half. I look forward to the beauty of your Disneymoon

Congratulations! You are going to have so much fun!

 

[SaraJR]

following please post pics lots and lots of pics

 

[Taraven87]

Planning the Disneymoon

Sorry in advance: this is going to be a long post!

So, I warned you guys that I had more than a year to plan this thing... And let's not talk about the months leading up to actually booking it that I was dreaming! I spent so much time researching restaurants and treating the trip like a giant, food-oriented jigsaw puzzle. I was very lucky that DH was pretty much down for anything I suggested. We started off talking about 9 days at Disney and then 2 at Universal. Then we found a great deal through a travel agent, and I emailed her about 11 days at Disney... I thought for sure he'd say that was too long, but he went for it! So we settled on 11 nights at POR with 8 day park hoppers + tickets to MNSSHP. We'd always wanted to stay at the Contemporary (THE MONORAIL DRIVES THROUGH IT; it was one of those things that had struck both of us when we'd visited as kids), but we just couldn't justify the price difference between a Moderate and a Deluxe, especially when we wanted to stay for so long and were planning so many "extras". We decided we'd rather stay longer at a Mod than fewer nights at the Contemporary. Our compromise was to make sure we booked dinner at California Grill so we could explore the hotel a bit; stay tuned for our impression, and whether we were disappointed with our choice not to book there!

Our previous short trip we booked at Pop, and DH hated the over the top decorations, but was just fine with the accommodations. I guess I was spoiled from growing up going to the Mods with my family. I could get past not upgrading to a Deluxe resort, but I found POR so much more relaxing and serene than Pop, and wanted that experience for our Honeymoon. I'd stayed at all of the Moderate resorts as a kid, and while it had been a few years, Port Orleans Riverside had always been my favorite. I also thought it would be DH's favorite of the bunch; he tends to go for clean, modern lines, and as far from "cheesy" as he can get. Even the Arts and Crafts style of the Grand Californian he described as "nice, but not my style". I know POR isn't exactly modern, but it's downright austere and elegant when compared to something like CBR's bright colors and steel drums, or the colorful casitas and the step pyramid pool at Coronado Springs (my close 2nd choice). I'm the planner of the couple, and I took my responsibility to plan a Honeymoon he'd enjoy very seriously!



Originally, we were planning on doing 2 days at Universal to start (Harry Potter fans!) and then go down to Sarasota for two nights to enjoy the Gulf Coast and the Ringling Museum. But we couldn't find a great deal on a rental car, we realized driving down there would be incredibly stressful, and during hurricane season we had no guarantees that the weather for the one full day we'd have there would be nice enough to enjoy the things we wanted to do. So, we made the decision not to leave Orlando for those two days. Which left us with two days to fill... POR didn't have availability to extend our stay, so we ended up booking two nights at the Swan, and buying a one day-one park ticket for Epcot.

We were really on the fence about whether or not we should do Victoria & Albert's. It just seemed so expensive for one meal, especially when DH looks at food more as fuel. He's typically happier making fake-chicken nuggets in the toaster oven at home as he is at a nice restaurant with a really inventive entree. But we'd read so many great things about it, and DH had heard that their vegetarian tasting menu really knocked it out of the park. At our rehearsal dinner, he ended up having this conversation with one of my (Disney loving) bridesmaids, and the next day we saw that she and her bf had gone on our registry and gifted us dinner at Victoria & Albert's. We are so incredibly spoiled by our friends. So, Victoria & Albert's was happening!

Here was our planned itinerary for the trip. Parks and restaurants ended up changing a bit on the fly:

Tuesday: Fly, check in to Cabana Bay
Wednesday: Universal
Thursday: Universal, check in to the Swan, dinner at Jiko
Friday: Epcot
Saturday: Disney Springs, check in to POR
Sunday: Epcot, dinner at Teppan Edo
Monday: Animal Kingdom, early dinner at Sanaa, Magic Kingdom
Tuesday: Magic Kingdom, dinner at California Grill
Wednesday: Hollywood Studios, lunch at Sci-Fi Dine In, dinner at Hollywood Brown Derby
Thursday: Epcot, dinner at Chefs de France
Friday: Magic Kingdom, lunch at Be Our Guest
Saturday: Brunch at Kona Cafe, dinner at Victoria & Albert's
Sunday: Open day for whichever park we want to finish up! (Spoiler alert: we went to Epcot again)
Monday: Relaxing morning, get to Magic Kingdom at 4pm for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, Dinner at Be Our Guest
Tuesday: Epcot, dinner at Le Cellier
Wednesday: Fly home

Can you tell we love Epcot? Well, our actual trip ended up looking a bit different from our plans, but I'll get to that in my day-by-day recap.

We were on the Dining Plan, but had planned on paying out of pocket for a couple of our meals in order to fit in the Signature dining we wanted to do and a couple of the extra Table Service meals. On our first trip to Disney World, DH had done loads of research indicating that the chefs at Disney were happy to adjust meals based on personal taste, so we hadn't worried too much about the restaurants whose only vegetarian options included evil mushrooms and eggplant, and slightly less evil tofu. When we got there, none of the restaurants were accommodating when DH asked if there was any way they could do a different vegetarian dish. Now, we don't expect special treatment, he would never ask for a change at a local restaurant, but we had just read about all of these wonderful experiences other people had, that we went into the trip with the impression that Disney didn't consider special requests like this out of the ordinary. In fact, loads of people said that the chefs they interacted with enjoyed inventing new dishes! We even met a couple this trip who encouraged DH to try again, as they were on a special diet (to lose weight, not for health reasons; they said they made this very clear and were still accommodated and they'd encountered many chefs who were excited at the prospect of creating a new dish for them. This just was not our experience at any point in time. This couple suggested we needed to be a little more forward when we asked, but neither DH nor I are comfortable asking someone to go out of their way to accommodate us to begin with, so we weren't really keen on pressing the issue. This trip, we had more time so we were able to do more resort restaurants, which meant we were able to choose restaurants based solely on their vegetarian dish. It was also my impression that the vegetarian dishes had been improved since our trip 4 years ago.

After what seemed like FOREVER, our departure date finally rolled around, and we were on our way...!

 

[Taraven87]

following please post pics lots and lots of pics

I will try! I took lots of stupid picture (i.e., not many of DH and I) but I'm happy to include those

 

[Taraven87]

Up, Up, and Away!

DH is not a big fan of flying. That might be an understatement. So the prospect of spending 6 hours on a plane to get to Florida was not a welcome one.

Our travel day started off fortuitously; the shuttle to the airport had to be re-routed since ALL the lanes of the freeway leading to the bridge we needed to cross had been closed. Once we finally got to the airport, on our way to our gate, we saw a body bag being wheeled out of a gate. Eek! By this point in time, DH was feeling decidedly unsettled; “maybe they’re not dead, maybe they’re just incapacitated,” he reasoned. “Yeah, they’re just being moved upstate to the farm your childhood dog lives at,” I agreed. If he could have bolted at this point, I’m pretty sure he would have.

Once we got on the plane, we had to wait 45 minutes after our scheduled departure time for the co-pilot to arrive at the aircraft, making my poor hubby endure even more time in the plane! We finally lifted off and settled in, and I have to say, I think he did better during the actual flight than I did! I get so antsy sitting in the cramped airline seats for such a long time.

I was excited and anxious to get to Cabana Bay at Universal Studios. I’d never been to a Universal park, and DH had only been to the Hollywood park once years and years ago. But, like so many other devoted Disney-Goers, we were lured in by the promise of Harry Potter! We didn’t have much connection to the other Universal properties, and aren’t into really intense ride experiences, so we weren’t sure how much time we’d need at the parks or what would appeal to us. That being said, I’d heard so many good things about the direction Universal has been moving in that I was hoping we’d be wowed and have two more exciting parks to add to our Orlando rotation.

Our taxi driver had us figured out almost immediately. He asked us if we were going to Halloween Horror Nights, and we said no. “Ah, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, then?” Yes, we admitted, that was more our speed. He gave us tips on where to get the best candy, and then gave us the run down on his (and his grandkids’) favorite rides at Universal, since it was our first time.

I know you guys are here to read about Disney, not Universal, but for anyone else thinking of taking the plunge and spending a few days over there, I thought I’d include a bit about our time there.

We were incredibly impressed by Cabana Bay. I’d heard it compared to the Value tier of resorts at Disney, but there was no comparing the details at Cabana Bay to what we’d experienced at Pop Century; Cabana Bay wins, hands down! The mid-century detailing and architecture was so fun, and all of the details were overwhelming as we first walked through the lobby and main building to our room.




There were even retro amenities in the room itself!

We were starved, so we headed straight to Bayliner Diner and got some dinner. DH had a veggie burger, which he really enjoyed, and I had the Brazilian Beef Churrasco (since the much-anticipated Tuna Noodle Casserole was notably absent from the menu). I thought the beef was good for a food-court, but certainly not excellent; if I’d been served this dish at a Table Service restaurant, I would have been disappointed. The quality of the beef was so-so, and it was well-done. It was fine, but not something I’d go out of my way to order again. An ongoing issue we had with Bayliner Diner was that, because food was cooked to order, often a main dish would go cold while a side was being prepared, or while it waited for the person in charge of plating ready-made sides to finish taking another order.

Once we finished our dinner, we hopped on the bus and headed down to City Walk. I was excited to get a taste of Universal, and also see how long it would take us to get to the park the next morning.

City Walk was neat, but didn’t have a ton of offerings DH and I were interested in. Lots of bars, clubs, and a few trendy restaurants and shops. We enjoyed people watching, and looking at all of the beautiful neon lights lit up at night. It was exciting just finally being in Florida, on our Honeymoon, after so much time thinking about it. We finally really relaxed as it hit us that we were here. After a romantic stroll around the lake, we headed back to the hotel to get some shut-eye before our first theme park day.

At this point, Disney World still felt like it may as well be a month away, but I was excited to wake up the next morning and experience something new!

 

[SaraJR]

aw we aren't doing universal because their rides are more intense and my partner gets sick to easy so it would be a waste but this makes me want to go so badly!

 

[Taraven87]

aw we aren't doing universal because their rides are more intense and my partner gets sick to easy so it would be a waste but this makes me want to go so badly!

Well... you'll hear plenty about what happens when someone who occasionally gets sick on rides decides to persevere and go anyway! I can do roller coasters but Star Tours messes me up. Turns out nearly all the rides I tried fall under the "Star Tours" category.

 

[Taraven87]

Day 1: Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure (or, In Which Your Friendly Author Gets Really, Really Sick)

Uh oh, foreshadowing! But don’t worry about that for now.

We woke up still pretty beat from our long travel day, but ready to get up and at ‘em. DH had a hearty breakfast of waffles and coffee, I opted for a “make your own yogurt parfait” option with vanilla yogurt, granola, and berries. It hit the spot, as I woke up feeling a bit off and not ready for a big breakfast. This happens when I don’t get enough sleep and am really exhausted, so that wasn’t unusual. I’ve never been one to eat big, hearty breakfasts; I save that for brunch, when I’ve been up for a few hours!

We headed over to Universal Studios first thing. The park had been open about an hour by the time we got there, but you’d never know it; crowds were incredibly light. This would be a theme during our time at Universal; we didn't wait in line more than 20 minutes for anything. Walking through City Walk to get to the parks was a bit of a bummer during the trip, but the bus service was very prompt and the resort was located just a short ride away from the drop-off point at City Walk.

Where are all the people?

Hey, this is looking a little bit like home...
Once in Universal, we headed straight back towards Diagon Alley… And then walked completely past it. We thought we were home free once things started looking like England!

Once things started looking less-British, we realized we must have missed a turn. So we headed back towards the Knight Bus and, after a few minutes of observation, saw a few people (remember, low crowds!) trickling in and out of a non-descript doorway. A-ha! We’d found it. And we didn’t even have to look at a map!


Diagon Alley was really impressive. The theming matches (if not tops) almost everything you’ll see at Disney. Everything, including the merchandise, was in-universe; it felt more like being on a film set than at a theme park. I won’t say I felt like I was actually in the movie, but someone with a more active imagination than mine probably would! If only these parks had existed when I was a child.

We got on Escape from Gringott’s with very little wait, and had a great ride on it. I wasn’t feeling 100% after going on it, but I didn’t feel awful either; there are lots of twists and turns, lots of 3-D effects, and a few disorienting moments. The queue was incredibly detailed; it definitely didn't feel like a theme park! For instance, they had animatronic goblins just doing their work in the bank that you walk past:

We then went over to Olivander’s to pick out our wands—another great wedding gift from a Harry Potter loving friend—and spent a good half hour poking around the shop, opening up boxes to look at wands, and trying to deside which ones were really “us”. I ended up deciding on Fleur Delacour’s, while DH took home Snape’s. Of course we got the interactive ones.

After a few failed attempts trying to cast spells in front of window displays, we wandered off to The Mummy, which DH was really excited for. It was a fun way to do a more interesting roller coaster with some fun twists. If there are any Brendan Frasier fans out there, this is a must.

We figured since we were there for Harry Potter, we should hop over to Hogsmeade before the crowds picked up by way of Platform 9 ¾ . King’s Cross station was really impressive. I’ve never been to the UK, but DH said it looked just like the tube in London. He even sent pictures to his mom, who completely agreed. But man, what a hike to get to the platform! They were planning on large crowds, but didn’t have a Plan B for when there was zero wait. After about five minutes of walking (literally), we boarded the train.

As much as I hate that Universal is suckering guests into buying park-to-park tickets to experience the Hogwarts Express… I think it might be worth it. It was hands down one of my favorite things we did at Universal. I don’t want to spoil the fun for those who haven’t been on it, but the effects were really well done and very imaginative; you really do feel like you’re on an authentic train inhabited by characters from the Harry Potter stories.

Hogsmeade was neat, but less impressive than Diagon Alley. You can tell they took what they learned from Hogsmeade and improved when they built Diagon Alley. You saw roller coaster tracks in Hogsmeade, the snow on the eaves of buildings was beautiful, but a hard sell in 85 degree weather, and it felt more like a theme park layout than the intertwining alleys and roads that make up Diagon Alley.

Hogwarts castle was gorgeous. We headed straight there to go on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. The set up for the mandatory lockers to stash your bags in was insane. I can’t believe a thinking person designed that. But the queue was incredibly immersive and beautiful. It really did feel magical.

The ride, on the other hand… Let’s put it this way: as soon as we got off, I looked at DH and said “That was great! Too bad I’ll never go on it again.” I was SO sick on the ride. By the halfway point I had resigned myself to keeping my eyes shut and slow, deep breathing. I have never been made so ill by a ride. I think it was the combination of the rolling motions of the ride vehicle and the screens showing moving images. It was incredibly disorienting.

We walked back to the front of IoA where I sat down and drank some iced tea. I still felt awful. We decided maybe I needed more food, since I’d had a light breakfast, so we headed out into City Walk for lunch.

We went to Cowfish, which was pretty darn good. I got the Bento Box that came with sweet potato fries, edamame, a small sushi roll, a baby burger, and cucumber salad. DH got a vegetarian roll, and shared some of my edamame and sweet potato fries. Service was just so-so; kind of slow, even though it was nearly empty. Décor was cute, very “Florida”, if that makes sense: colorful, whimsical, and bold. It had a trendy feel to it.

I still felt terrible after lunch and told DH I needed to go back to the room to rest. He loves mid-day napping so was happy to oblige. Just as we’d drifted off… “THIS IS THE FIRE ALARM. PLEASE PROCEED OUT OF THE BUILDING. DO NOT TAKE THE ELEVATORS.” I actually laid in bed until it was repeated a couple of times, hoping it was a mistake, that it was something else. No, the fire alarm had gone off. So, still nauseous and half-awake to boot, I threw on clothes, we pulled together a couple of our valuables, and trudged downstairs. Housekeeping seemed unconcerned, and when we got downstairs there was no staff to direct us. We wandered to the lobby, where there was no fire alarm and it was just business as usual. Must have been a fluke; we headed back upstairs and finished our nap.

We headed back to the parks and walked through the half of Universal Studios we'd missed on the way in. We found some Back to the Future memorabilia which was a fun surprise! I love those movies.

I'm a dork. I don't know why I didn't get a picture in front of the DeLorean...
I was only feeling up to the Men in Black ride. It was really well done, and the queue area was so cute! I liked the conceit that you were at a 1960’s, World’s Fair type presentation that then transitions into a Men in Black training. The theming was really authentic to the feel of the movies. I loved the break room!


We walked back to Diagon Alley and spent the rest of the evening having ice cream from Florian Fortescue’s and wandering through the shops. A cast member taught us the trick to making our wands work (find the sensor and point right at it!), so we spent awhile playing with that. I still wasn’t feeling great, and was happy to have a relatively early night back at the hotel after the park closed at 7. DH got a margarita in City Walk and we spent awhile enjoying the warm evening and people watching before getting back on the bus to Cabana Bay.

Dinner was Bayliner Diner again, where DH got another veggie burger, and I had a beef burger. Mine was cold, but good. Your standard theme park burger. I had taken enough Pepto Bismol at this point in time that I should have been able to eat anything and feel fine.

I ended up feeling nauseous for the next five days or so. I took pepto all day every day, we got late starts and rearranged our schedule since I wasn’t able to sleep, and I am SO glad we had “off” days built into the schedule, and a long trip to boot. I’m convinced I caught a bug and riding Harry Potter & the Forbidden Journey just kicked off my days of nausea; I was already feeling off that morning, I think the ride made me feel sick and the bug just came on around the same time, and continued for the next few days. I’m still never getting on that ride again, though. Star Tours makes me nauseous, and this was that same type of motion x 10. However, I'm not convinced I got motion sickness to such a degree that it stuck with me for the next several days. Under normal circumstances, I probably would have just been put off of any motion-filled rides for the rest of the day. Still, not recommended for those faint of heart (or weak of stomach).

 

[Taraven87]

Day 2: Wrapping Up Universal (or, In Which Your Friendly Author Arrives at Disney World)

DH and I had decided by the end of Day 1 that there wasn’t actually all that much for us at Universal. The theming outside of Harry Potter wasn’t resonating with us, and we aren’t big on motion simulators or big roller coasters. For future trips, we decided that staying on Disney property and taking 1 day at Universal to re-visit the Harry Potter areas would probably do us just fine. So our game plan for our second day, especially considering I still wasn’t feeling well, was to finish walking through the half of IoA we had missed the day before (DH really wanted to see the Jurassic Park area), play with our wands in the Harry Potter sections, ride the Hogwards Express the opposite direction than what we had the day before, and go on Escape from Gringott’s. DH also convinced me that if I was feeling so-so, I could probably handle the Transformers ride. He’d heard it was relatively mild, and a great example of that type of ride at Universal. We rode it, but it definitely wasn't doing my upset stomach any favors.

Gosh, all the Harry Potter themed sections were gorgeous.


Well, we’d finished all that, plus a nice leisurely sit while enjoying some frozen butter beer, by about noon. We decided to just head over to the Swan and get some lunch at Disney.

I still get butterflies in my stomach when I’m on my way to Disney World. I was so excited to head over!

Our check-in to the Swan was about as great as we could have hoped for. I’d read mixed things about the Swan & Dolphin; that they weren’t as “Disney”, that they were like a Deluxe resort, that they were inferior to Disney-operated hotels, etc… We had an overall positive experience. We were welcomed in to the lobby, the woman who checked us in was SO excited we were on our honeymoon, and immediately gave us Happily Ever After pins and certificates for a free drink while we waited for our room to be ready.

I passed over that in favor of spa water, considering I wasn’t feeling well. We headed over to Kimonos for lunch, only to discover it was closed during lunch. So we walked over to the Boardwalk to see what was there!

 

[Taraven87]

Day 2 Continued:

I'd done plenty of research on our food options over at the Boardwalk, and had figured that the Trattoria al Forno was the best option for DH. But that was closed for lunch, too

Boy, the Boardwalk sure is pretty, but we were too hungry to enjoy it. By this time we were starving and panicked, so we hopped on a bus at the Boardwalk to get to Disney Springs. I was not feeling great by the time we got off the bus, so we stumbled into Wolfgang Puck and prayed our food would reach us ASAP. DH got the ravioli, which were amazing, although he felt like the portion was small. In my experience ravioli entrees are often served with only 6-8 raviolis, so I wasn’t too surprised by the size; I think he got 6. I opted for the Roasted Turkey Cobb since I didn’t want to put anything too heavy in my stomach, and it was delicious.

We spent a bit of time meandering Disney Springs. DH had never been and had no idea what the scale would be like; his only point of reference was Disneyland's Downtown Disney, which is much smaller and a very different concept. We just spent a little bit of time in the shops, but we got some ideas for future purchases.

I loved this collection of shops! I forget what it was called, but I took a picture of this sign featuring Mary Poppins' umbrella!

We headed back to the Swan as soon as we got the text that our room was ready so that I could lay down. I felt so bad that I wasn’t able to pack as much into our days as I had planned, but DH was a good sport and was very sympathetic. He was happy to take it slow with me.

Or room was really gorgeous, very soothing colors and a nice modern design. DH went off in search of ginger ale and saltines while I tried to sleep. In reality, I was willing myself to be well enough for our dinner at Jiko that night; it was one of the meals I had been most looking forward to. When we were planning on going to Sarasota it had been scheduled as our first meal, and I so liked the idea of it being our first “Disney” event, that when our schedule changed I changed the reservation to still be our first night on property.

I took more Pepto Bismol than is advisable, got some sleep, and had a few crackers. DH was very unsure when I told him we were still on for Jiko, but I got dressed and we caught a taxi over to Animal Kingdom Lodge.

We got there early enough to wander around the main building for awhile. It was really beautiful, the scale was impressive. We took a walk around the pool area and through the gift shop before checking in for our meal.

The meal was fantastic. It exceeded my expectations, and even though I wasn’t feeling well, I really enjoyed everything I tasted. It remained one of our favorite meals over the course of the trip, and was a great way to kick off the trip. Jiko had a slightly more upscale feel than the Signature restaurants we ended up at in the parks.

Now, every time I had mentioned Jiko during planning, DH would say “Oh, you mean The Cooking Place!” He was so tickled by Jiko’s title of “the Cooking Place” that he couldn’t help but bring it up. It became an (annoying) running joke. So, when the hostess took us to our table and explained that Jiko means The Cooking Place, I was cringing and praying that DH didn’t say anything dumb. I looked over at him and could tell he was dying inside, but trying to remain well behaved. It was taking every ounce of willpower he had to not burst out laughing. I’m very proud of his restraint.

We were brought an amuse bouche to start of fried quinoa (I think it was quinoa) and mushroom on a mango crème fraiche sauce, and it was to die for. Even DH, who hates mushrooms, enjoyed it. For our meals, I had a pork shank that was so tender, as soon as I touched it with a fork the meat just fell off the bone. DH had the vegetable and tofu sambusas (which were a bit like an Indian samosa), and he loved them. I wasn’t messing around with dessert, but they ended up bringing us bite-sized macaroon cookies with a passion fruit sauce. They were amazing as well. It was a really romantic evening, and a great way to kick off the Disney leg of our trip!

DH ended up having a lot of meals on this trip with exotic ingredients he thought would be challenging, and he ended up loving the vast majority of them. I hope it doesn’t sound cheesy since it’s true, but this trip really did introduce him to a ton of new flavors, and has opened the door for us to try new foods back at home, too. I’m very excited!

 

[Sarahh1027]

Aww man I feel so bad that you got sick your first few days That's one of my biggest fears...especially stomach problems. That's always the worse! I'm glad DH was sympathetic and didn't mind the down time! He's a keeper! Dinner sounds amazing and so glad DH kept it together when the hostess explained what Jiko stood for! The Cooking Place...love it! I can't wait to read more!!

 

[Taraven87]

Aww man I feel so bad that you got sick your first few days That's one of my biggest fears...especially stomach problems. That's always the worse! I'm glad DH was sympathetic and didn't mind the down time! He's a keeper! Dinner sounds amazing and so glad DH kept it together when the hostess explained what Jiko stood for! The Cooking Place...love it! I can't wait to read more!!

I know, being sick on vacation is no fun... But I'd rather be sick at Disney than not be at Disney at all! DH is very nurturing when I don't feel well, so he took good care of me throughout!

 

[mamamary]

I'm enjoying your trip report. That's horrible that you are not feeling well. I look forward to reading more!