Trip Report Florida Fresh Spring March 2018

Hello all and welcome to my trip report! I've been back for about a week but I've been slow to upload pictures and I actually caught a pretty nasty cold that has had me down the last couple of days.

So here's the intro:

Who: Me (Amy) and my husband (Brad)
Where are we from?: Northern Wisconsin (So were were definitely in need of some Florida sun.)
When: March 10-17, 2018
Resort: All Star Sports (we stay value because it is the cheapest and we can use that extra $$ for good food and drinks)

Start of the journey:

We actually started our trip on Friday March 9 and drove up to Minneapolis and stayed at a hotel near the airport. Our flight was leaving early in the morning and we didn't want to have drive early in the morning to the airport. So we relaxed at the Hilton by the airport and had a nice dinner at the Mall of America. We did have a crazy experience at the pool area here...we were just getting into the pool and we saw a pre-teen girl get out of the hot tub and was walking quickly (not running) towards the pool and she slipped and her head banged like a basketball on the pool area floor. It was pretty horrifying. I was about to get out of the pool and go help her but her parents were there and helped her and got medical help. So that put a little bit of a damper on what turned out to be our only pool time of the trip but I'm sure the girl had a worse time of it then we did.

Me with my first beer of the trip at the Mall of America. It was a Surly Furious, a local brew.

Relaxing at the Hilton with a drink. A fancy rum and Coke for hubs and a Grain Belt (another Minnesota beer) for me. This was at about 7:30-8pm and we were basically falling asleep.

At the airport bright and early for our flight! The Caribou coffee place wasn't open yet, but I like their coffee so much better than Dunkin', Starbucks, or even McDonald's so I waited about 15 minutes for it to open before heading to the gate.

All aboard! We splurge a little bit and always get the big front seat when we fly with Spirit, it is almost like first class but without the booze and the meal.

Bye bye!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

The flight went fine and we landed about 30 minutes early, so that is always ALRIGHT with me!

We usually enter the airport on the side of the Earport but we were over by the other WDW store and there was a heavy load of people around us so I only got this blurry shot.

Magical Express wasn't insane at all. I thought it would be super crowded on a Saturday in spring break season but we ended up waiting less than 10 minutes to get on a bus and left shortly after boarding.

We always take these nerdy shots in the ME area.

I was going to watch the video but shortly after Gus gave his safety announcements the feed cut so I pulled out a book. My husband thought it was super geeky that I was reading a book about the Haunted Mansion on the way to WDW. But hey, that is me...super geeky.

Soon I could see paradise in the front window....

And then we were there! Hurrah!

We had done online check-in and had not gotten a notice about our room. There wasn't anyone in line when we walked in so we checked in and made a request about our room location and I put some gift cards on our account. They also offered us the deal for not taking housekeeping. I know it is a little controversial on here about taking it vs not taking it, but we decided to take money and run. We are fairly neat people and don't tend to make a mess so the $60 we got was used for food at Flower and Garden. It worked out fine for us. We called the third day in and got a more towels and soap (they brought a big bag of shampoos and soap). I plan to do this again when we go in July. However we will be there longer so we will probably schedule a couple days for our room to have a good clean.

So with that all taken care of we made our way to the bus stop and to our first park.

 

[Bullseye1967]

Following along. Great start!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Our first park this time was Animal Kingdom. Before we could get into the park we had to get Brad's AP settled, the date written on my AP card was wrong so that had to get fixed, and we decided to purchase Tables in Wonderland. So we had a little bit of business to do at Guest Relations.

With that all taken care of we used our first fast pass at Navi River Journey. This ride was better than I remembered but I'm glad we basically walked right on to it. I think the stand by was over 90 minutes. No thanks!

We had been busy taking care of business and just had some cheese and salami on the plane so we were famished. We had to be careful though because we didn't want to eat so much that we wouldn't enjoy the dinner we had planned for the night. So we went to the Nomad Lounge. We really love this place it is so relaxing with a good vibe and a sense of adventure.

Instead of beer I had a fruity drink. Usually I don't have a lot of fruity drinks but this one was really good. I'm pretty sure this was the Leaping Lizard. Here's the description taken from the WDW menu page: Malibu Pineapple Rum and Augusta Cachaça with Orange, Passion Fruit, and Mango Juices

The server warned me that this was so good but packed a hidden punch. I laughed at the time but it did hit me a little when we left.

Banana beer sounds okay, but no thanks on the live scorpions!

And this is hub's drink.
Lamu Libation
Starr African Rum, Cruzan Banana Rum, Guava Purée, with Orange, Lime, and Pineapple Juices topped with Gosling's 151 Rum

Notice the layer of rum. He was quite excited about this, he likes rum!

And to nosh on we got the chicken satay and the ribs. Both were really good, I would give the edge to the satay this time though.

After this relaxing start we head (a little buzzed) to our next fast pass of the safari.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Following along. Great start!

Thanks for following!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

We had a pretty good safari. The drive gave a good spiel but not too many jokes. The last safari driver I had was part safari driver and part jungle cruise skipper, it was fantastic!

I do like the wild dogs, and I can rarely get a good picture of them but they were just lounging today. The way this one was sitting reminded me of my dog and made me miss her.

Some lions just lyin' around!

Made it back to the wardens post!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

After the safari we wandered to Expedition Everest.

Found this cute picture of a good pal.

Brad fought through the children to play the drums.

Had a nice ride on Everest. We did wonder though if there is a name for the Yeti? The Matterhorn's yeti is Harold, but does AK's yeti have a name? If not we should name him.

Then we made our way out of the park and did a tree selfie.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Oh before we headed out of AK we did cruise through the one of the stores and I took some pictures of merchandise I liked but wasn't necessarily going to buy. It is so much cheaper this way! Especially since I like so much of it!!! We were also on the look out for the aunt of a friend of ours, she works in this store so we were going to say hi, but she wasn't working that day.

This might be my new Friday post picture on Facebook!

Gotta love the tea cups!

Seeing this made me sad because I took this in the few days Disney decided to get rid of the Citrus Swirl, which I love. I thought I would have to eat that new orange/vanilla concoction. Luckily the real citrus swirl came back!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

We left Animal Kingdom park and went over to Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner. We were eating at Jiko that night and since it is nice place we had brought nicer clothes to change into, Brad carried them with in a backpack.

But first we enjoyed a little of the savannah there.

And we also stopped at the Victoria's Falls Lounge for a drink.

These are the two drinks we got. I got the Falls mist, except I asked them to use Club soda instead of Sprite. I really enjoyed the taste of it and could have had 10 of them! Hubs got the Nyami Nyami and it was nummy!

Mine was green his was white.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

It was time to check into Jiko for our dinner. I had heard a lot of good things about this place but hubs never wanted to try it, well this trip I just booked it and told him we were going. And this place made us so sad, that is so sad we hadn't gone here before! It was fantastic!

My African beer from Namibia

The view from our table.

A peek at the menu

For appetizers we ordered the bread service and the wild boar tenderloin. I can't tell you how the wild boar was because we never got it. We didn't realize it until our entrees came, it was kind of funny. But in the end we didn't miss it we left stuffed and couldn't even get dessert!

Here is the regular bread that comes with the meal.

And our bread service. One of the best things is hidden which is goat butter. Oh so good! The only spread we could have done without was the mango, it was too sweet for us.

This was my meal:

Snake River Farms Wagyu Strip Loin
Bobotie Macaroni and Cheese, Grilled Delta Asparagus, Kachumbari, South African Red Wine Sauce

Brad's meal:
Botswana Seswaa-style Beef Short Rib
Cassava-Potato Purée, Sambal, Mushrooms

We liked it all but I think Brad's short rib was a little better than my entree.

A blurry look at the wine rack as we rolled out of there.

Bye Jiko! We will be back!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

After dinner we went back to Animal Kingdom. The plan was to find a stand-by spot for Rivers of Light and then jump in line for Flights of Passage.

Well we got to the park and Rivers of Light was standing room only so we decided to try the seating area of the Flame Tree. We did find a seat but ended up still standing but at least we got to lean against a rail for the show. The show was okay from there. We couldn't see the projections or the drummer people on the boats but the floats were still nice. There were some interesting reflections on Everest though. I wouldn't make that a go to spot, but it was good enough.

Here are some shots of the backside of Rivers of Light.

By the time the show ended we were starting to feel the toll of getting up early, excitement, and eating. In short we were becoming exhausted. So we decided to head out. We did stop in a store quick to get a passholder shirt we saw earlier. When we entered the shop we felt a couple of rain drops and by the time we made it to the bus stop we were in a nice rain, except the wind was up and it was cold! Luckily the bus came quick and even though we had to stand it was a short ride to the Sports. We got to our room and unpacked and headed to bed. It was early for us I think it was 9:30 when we settled into bed but we needed the sleep!

Up next....our first full day! It's anyone's guess as to what we did, literally. I really can't remember right now I'll have to look at my notes and pictures!

 

[Tick Tock]

We were eating at Jiko that night and since it is nice place we had brought nicer clothes to change into, Brad carried them with in a backpack.

Though he deserves kudos for that retro 70's Star Wars shirt.

Great report so far!

 

[LisaBelle]

So happy you have another TR! I always enjoy your reports! What a busy first day! Loved several of the shirts you photogrphed.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Though he deserves kudos for that retro 70's Star Wars shirt.

Great report so far!

Thanks! He does love his Star Wars, you'll be seeing quite a few Star Wars shirts.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

So happy you have another TR! I always enjoy your reports! What a busy first day! Loved several of the shirts you photogrphed.

Thanks, it's nice to have to along again. Disney makes so many cool shirts, if I was a millionaire I would buy them all!

 

[krisri18]

Rivers of Light with Everest in the background looks so pretty!

 

[draybook]

Too bad we never ran into you guys. We got here on the 9th and we're leaving tomorrow morning.

 

[Figgy1]

I'm in. Nomad

 

[*Flynnderella*]

Great start to your trip report! Looking forward to hearing the rest

 

[MinnieM123]

Always enjoy your TRs! By the way, your first-night airport Hilton looked very nice inside there. Glad the flight went well, too.

The photo of Brad playing the drums made me giggle. Good for him!

Glad they're finally getting in some better designs for the t-shirts. I love the blue one with the collage of all the parks.

Great Nomad Lounge photos and explanation of drinks and food. (Do you know if they serve food up at the bar or just at tables?) Actually, I can't tell if there are tables--is it just bar seating only? Nomad is fairly new, so I'm not familiar with it.

Jiko looked outstanding--actually, I've never read a bad review of that restaurant.