We had opted to pick up a rental car from the Car Care Center (CCC). I was able to snag a deal on a mini-van for $325 for 8 days.
Pro tip- if you’re going to get a rental car, compare the price of airport pick up/drop off to the car care center. If I had gotten the van at the airport it was over $700. Airport pick up has so many fees. It would been even cheaper if I returned to the CCC, but we were finishing our trip up at Universal so we couldn’t take the Magical Express.
We also thought taking busses with reduced capacity could be problematic, plus our own car is way easier to social distance.
With current regulations the Alamo shuttle will pick up only one person and that was me, he picked me up right on time and drove me to get the van. Very simple!
The Alamo representative told me to pick a color and sent me on my way. I chose dark gray like my van at home.
Then this happened
They obviously had to come shuffle some cars for me. The van also had minimal gas
but a quick phone call and they updated their system to reflect I didn’t start with a full tank. (I don’t think I was supposed to pick gray
)
Pretty soon I was headed back to grab Eric from BLT and saw this beauty! The lack of traffic was awesome!
Eric and I quickly ran to the closest Walmart and grabbed a few snacks and a ton of beverages. Unlike at home Walmart had 100% mask compliance so while it was busy, I felt pretty safe.
We headed back to the hotel, stocked the fridge and headed out to Disney Springs, we had a date with Oprah’s favorite chef!
Having our own car was great, we drove straight to Lime Garage and soon enough we checked in for our Homecomin’ lunch reservation. It was raining pretty steadily, but they seated us 10 minutes early, so that was nice.
We were quickly seated in a booth near the bar. The bar itself is closed for seating, so to my side it was wide open spaces. You’ll also notice that the booths are surrounded on 3 sides by plexiglass. They didn’t leave empty booths, but the plexi glass definitely kept you separated from others.
We all ordered drinks and Eric had a Rumshine punch. Described like this on the menu:
Rumshine Punch - 22 oz Jumbo Squeeze Bottle
Strawberry Rumshine, Blackberry Brandy, Banana Liqueur, Pineapple Juice and House-Made Grenadine. It was delicious, I don’t drink much and had a few sips of this throughout lunch, and now at home I drink my iced tea from the squeeze bottle
The food arrived quickly, it was all delicious. I’ll attach menu descriptions of our selections.
I had:
Fried Chicken Salad
Crispy Fried Chicken over Mixed Greens, Pecan-Smoked Bacon, Egg, Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes, Red Onion and Cucumber tossed with Icebox Dressing, Cheddar Biscuit Croutons and Fresh Herbs | $18.00 |
I took off the onions. It was very fresh, the chicken was awesome, perfectly moist, but also crispy. I wasn’t sure about “ice box dressing” It’s not quite ranch, but I’m not really sure how else to describe it. The biscuit croutons were a bit odd, they weren‘t bad, they tasted good but weren't crunchy like a regular crouton. I would totally order this again.
Lydia chose :
Fried Chicken Sandwich
Buttermilk-Brined for 24 hours, Double Battered, Dressed with Hot Sauce Aioli, Iceberg Lettuce, Tomato and Bread and Butter Pickles, Served with House-Made Barbecue Chips, Drizzled with Icebox Dressing
She left off the aiolI and ice box dressing. They sent it out with dressing on the chips, but the waitress caught it and quickly brought her chips without dressing.
She really enjoyed the sandwich and finished it. She ate some of the chips, they actually had a bit of a spicy kick.
Lindsay chose :
Kitchen Plate
A Sampling of Three Different House-Made Sides | $19.00 |
She’s a carbivore, her sides were biscuits, sweet potatoes and Mac and cheese.
I love sides so I stole a bite of her items, the Mac and cheese was AMAZING! Not as good as California Grill Mac and cheese but really good.
Grandma ordered from the appetizer menu and picked :
Thigh High Chicken Biscuits
Three Biscuits topped with Chef Art's Famous Fried Chicken Thighs and Bread and Butter Pickles. Drizzled with Hot Honey
It’s definitely a large enough portion for an entree, she ended up finishing all the chicken, but left some of the biscuits behind, it was too much bread for her. She and Eric loved the hot honey.
Eric picked the signature dish of Homecomin’.
$18.00 |
Art's Famous Fried Chicken
Buttermilk-Brined for 24 Hours, Then Perfectly Fried, Served with Creamy Mashed Potatoes and A Cheddar Drop Biscuit |
This was very good, same chicken as my salad. They debone it almost all the way which makes it nice for cutting, I’m weird and don’t eat food on a bone so this would have appealed to me.
We’d definitely eat here again, the only issue is that there are so many places to try at DS.
After lunch we masked up, said goodbye to Homecomin‘ and went to see the sites of DS. Don’t let the weather worry you, it was beautiful when we were done eating.
We stopped by the Coca-Cola store, we’d never been there before and I was surprised by its size.
After Coke, we hit up UniQlo and
LEGO, Lydia had a gift card she’d been saving and her own money for a shopping spree. (repacking on day 8 was super fun
)
We didn’t buy this beauty yet, but it’s her dream. (psst it might be my dream too)
The socially distant line is right next to this mural, but it was short enough we could grab a pic.
Lindsay had fun at UniQlo, they had adorable and affordable Disney shirts. Lindsay wanted her pic by the wall of socks . She bought some shirts by her favorite artists, Keith Haring was one.
We looked around World of Disney but it was chaos, and we noped out of there, we just didn’t feel safe.
Disney Masks were on our must buy list, our hotel had some but not too many. At this time they had them in only one store
, and to get in line you had to go the weirdest route.
You had to go to the front of the store to learn that you had to backtrack and circle the big building to get in line.
You were limited to 4 masks per person, we bought 8 since Lydia was with me. They made the perfect souvenir for her friends back home. Definitely go large. Lydia was able to wear a medium in a print she loved but could not find in a large.
We finished up our shopping with plans to return on Tuesday. It was hot and busy so we headed back to swim.
Of the three parks and DS that we went to DS was where we felt social distancing lacked. They tried but it’s so busy.
Next up: Pool time and a Poly visit