Hunky Tuna Tostada - Fall 2017 DR - completed 7/12 - Animal Kingdom Snacks

I'm baaaack! Bachelorette celebrations were amazing, and y'all know I took a ton of food photos so I have plenty more reviews where these came from. I even met another Diser! Samantha if you're out there HELLO! :wave2: I can't have asked for a better trip or a better group of friends. We had so much fun! Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled dining reviews:

December 21, 2017:

Merry Christmas! :santa:

Wait what?! The next time we visited WDW was a short two night stay Dec 21-23. This was basically a bribe for good behavior as it was a stop on the way to my future in-laws' in south Florida for Christmas. :P This trip was just me and R - we stayed at Saratoga Springs in a standard studio. As usual, we left overnight from Atlanta and arrived at Disney in the 7:30ish time frame in the morning. We dropped our car at the resort, freshened up in the bathrooms near the DVC community hall, and headed off to our first park of the trip.

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This sight greeted us by 8:20 or so. I was so excited to be back at the most magical place on earth during one of the most magical times of year.

We didn't have any real plans to speak of this morning, so when we saw the omnibus waiting near the theater, we decided to take a ride!

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This was my first time experiencing the main street vehicles. I love that there is always something new to do!

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It was so cool riding down main street and seeing the castle from a higher vantage!

Next up was my only real must-do in MK:

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Jingle Cruise!

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This joke was a little funnier as we were actually headed to the future in-laws' :laughing:

We had a breakfast reservation coming up later, but were starving after having driven all night. We headed to Joffrey's for caffeine and a snack:

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Unfortunately this is not the standard Disney cheese danish and it was not as good as the ones from the Disney bakeries. The coffee was perfect, however!

We did a few attractions in tomorrowland before heading out to our real breakfast plans. The weather was turning out beautiful!

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As luck would have it, I got another experience of private boat transportation:

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It was still early so no one else boarded the giant water launch with us. It was 10:40 so I guess folks were still heading INTO the magic kingdom.

We arrived shortly thereafter to our destination and checked in for our reservation:

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Trail's End! This is one of R's favorite breakfasts on property so of course it was no problem to oblige his request for another breakfast there.

We had the same table and the same server as our previous experience there, which was fine with us.

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This is R's plate, I usually don't eat eggs on the breakfast buffets.


My plate:

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From 12:00: Tater tots, pulled pork benedict, sausage link, biscuit and gravy, ripe strawberries, waffles with warm pecan topping, waffles with blueberry topping, cinnamon bun in the center

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cheese grits (and a runaway tot! :scared1:)

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Second plate (I think it was mine... not sure. Looks like things I would like seconds of!)

I always love the special toppings that I can put on Mickey waffles at breakfast buffets so those were a favorite, and the southern staples were of course delicious. There is also a huge pastry bar in the center of the buffet setup and I always want to have more of the yummy carby goodness but tend to run out of space first since I am more of a savory breakfast fan, and I can't resist the siren song of Disney tater tots. Once again we had an awesome meal here. The breakfast is $22 per adult, which I think is a great deal at WDW, especially since you can get coffee and juice and soda and anything else you want included in that price. With our TIW discount and tip it was around $45. Can't be beat! We will be back for sure!

After breakfast, we decided to go enjoy the decorations at Wilderness Lodge. I can't come at Christmastime and not see this thing of wonder:

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We also enjoyed these things of wonder:

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From Geyser Point, I had the 44 North Hucklberry Vodka with lemonade (less sweet this way than in the punch, it's SOOO good) and R had their version of a long island iced tea. As usual the bartenders were very friendly and attentive. We were very tired after our drive down from Georgia and while we were hanging out at Geyser Point, we got our room ready text, so we grabbed an uber back to Saratoga Springs for a much-needed nap.

Up next: Pandora at night and bands of two varieties!
 
It was so cool riding down main street and seeing the castle from a higher vantage!
We did this on our last trip, it was a lot of fun! A great way to start the day!

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This is R's plate, I usually don't eat eggs on the breakfast buffets.
His eggs look ok here. The whole plate looks yum

pulled pork benedict,
You had me at Pulled Pork Benedict!!!!

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From 12:00: Tater tots, pulled pork benedict, sausage link, biscuit and gravy, ripe strawberries, waffles with warm pecan topping, waffles with blueberry topping, cinnamon bun in the center
Your plate looks better!
 
Welcome back! Loved seeing all your photos on Facebook. You ladies certainly seemed to be having a great time!

So infinitely jealous of how close you are to Disney and how you can get there with just an over night trip.

Looks like you all had a great breakfast at Trails End. We've done it once and were big fans too. Definitely one of the best Disney deals going.
 
I'm glad you had such a good time for your bachelorette. Disney is a perfect place to celebrate :)

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It was so cool riding down main street and seeing the castle from a higher vantage!
I've never ridden that before, how do you do that exactly? It sounds like fun.

The food looks really good at Trails End, I've never been over there before, I'll have to add it to the list of places to visit. I love Wilderness Lodge at Christmas time, I think it's just so beautiful decorated. Probably my favorite resort during the holidays.
 


My mouth is literally watering over that pulled pork benedict! I've never been to Trail's End but the food looks right up DH's alley. I don't think I can convince him to do any more breakfasts on our next trip though. But I will keep TE in mind for sure!
 
You girls did all look like you were having SO much fun! It's awesome you're so close to Disney that you could have your bachelorette party there

Jingle Cruise!
I can kind of take or leave JUNGLE Cruise but JINGLE Cruise is definitely a must-do!

After breakfast, we decided to go enjoy the decorations at Wilderness Lodge.
Ugh, as my favorite resort I am ashamed we've never managed to see the Christmas decor there. Our stays have never been during the holidays and while we planned to visit twice, never made it. I need to remedy that.

From Geyser Point, I had the 44 North Hucklberry Vodka with lemonade (less sweet this way than in the punch, it's SOOO good) and R had their version of a long island iced tea. As usual the bartenders were very friendly and attentive.
Haven't had those particular drinks there but Geyser Point = fabulous :love:

Your TE breakfast looks great! Steve and I did brunch there a couple years ago and then we all had Thanksgiving dinner there in 2016 and loved both meals. Chris has actually asked for breakfast there but we haven't made it yet :)
 
Ive been off of the boards boycotting because of my canceled trip and totally missed you’re engaged!!!! I’m so happy for you!
 


Hey Melinda!! It’s Samantha! So fun meeting you and I hope you had a great time on your bachelorette trip!
 
Love your update and the breakfast at Trail's End looks fantastic! It may have to go on the list for this summer's trip with my niece! Your wedding must be coming up so quickly now, hope all the planning is going well!
 
Just found and read your entire report in one go! You have had a crazy busy, trip filled year!! How wonderful for you! Thanks for taking the time to provide so many great reviews :)
 
Well, despite my best intentions, the final six weeks prior to the wedding really de-railed my reporting endeavors! I'm happy to report that we are blissfully wed and safely home from our "mini-moon" and hopefully I will return to my updates in a somewhat regular fashion...

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Oh yeah we had one little teeny night's stay at the Poly (!!!) on the tail end of our vacation. Check out that bling on R's left hand!!!

(balloon smooches photo pose idea stolen from @amalone1013 to whom I am now infinitely grateful!)

We haven't gotten all of the photos back yet from either the wedding or the Disney shoot but here's one more sneak peek for those of you who haven't found me on social media yet...

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Our wedding day was amazing and perfect and I am already having Disney withdrawals.

Back to December....

We spent the balance of our park time after our refreshing nap at my favorite park - Animal Kingdom.

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I had not been able to procure Flight of Passage fastpasses for us given the short length of our stay, so we started off with a boat ride to visit the drunken Shaman.

It was a predictably crowded evening at Animal Kingdom given the time of year, but we were mainly there to see my favorite band, so we just took it slow.

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Burudika was fabulous as always. (Band #1)

We used another fastpass to face off with the Yeti:

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And on our way out of the park, we stopped through the gift shops. I loved these Porg mugs!

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Despite predictably slow bus service, we were headed off to Disney Springs for a special errand and band #2... R's wedding band! We'd shopped in Na Hoku on a previous trip but he was ready to pull the trigger this time, so we once again stopped into Disney Springs' premier Hawaiian jeweler so R could pick out the perfect Koa wood band and confirm ring size. He found THE ONE! Success. Since our wedding photos aren't back here is a photo of what he picked out from the Na Hoku website:

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and in action...

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Shopping accomplished, we were off to fill our tummies and check out a restaurant at Disney Springs I'd been hearing about so much... Blaze Pizza! The line was rather long but it constantly moved. The employees here were really nice but we had a bit of a mishap as R's pizza came out really quickly but mine took forever!

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look at the yummy crust and that perfectly browned cheese!

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You can see that we were starving since R was already digging in by the time I took the second photo of his pizza. He was kind enough to share a piece while I waited on mine.

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Sorry for the janky-lit, half-eaten pizza photo. I was ravenous and irritated that I had to wait 9 years on my pizza. (Time stamp says it was more like ten minutes... potato, poh-tah-to :laughing:)

So the verdict?! Very decent pizza at a very reasonable price. The pizza is thin crust and assuming all is moving as it should, the pizza takes only a few minutes to cook. I loved the ability to customize the toppings exactly as you like them, so I believe I got extra cheese, black olives, and onions. R was able to go crazy with meat toppings, and I didn't even have to share! Any pizza place with a shaker of oregano and garlic (pizza sprinkles!!!) is a winner in my book. I didn't get a picture of the receipt but I do recall getting an annual pass discount on the $9.65 build your own pizza price. Is it better than our favorite local pizza place? No. Have I been to the one in Atlanta since this visit? You bet I have! Absolutely would recommend, especially if you are on a budget or not wanting a sit-down meal. Or both!

We ended the night back in bed at Saratoga Springs watching new Mickey cartoon shorts after an uneventful boat ride.

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Up next: we try out the resort quick service and taste our way around the Festival of the Holidays!

Will be back to quote and respond to all the sweet comments you left me in my absence, I promise!!!
 
Congratulations! The wedding picture of you two is gorgeous! It's funny, I was just thinking about you today and was wondering how the wedding went. Can't wait to hear all about it!
 
Congratulations! And great photos of the two of you - even the one you “stole”.
 
Congrats!

So the verdict?! Very decent pizza at a very reasonable price. The pizza is thin crust

I know you can order a thicker crust for an upcharge. We have one around here, but we're not too crazy about it. It is a neat idea to have a pizza place where you can pick the toppings like that though.
 

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