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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Bye bye!
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ajrwdwgirl

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
After the outlets and hanging out at the room a little we headed over to Disney Springs for dinner. Brad has wanted to eat at the Boathouse for quite awhile. He really likes seafood and I do not. But I finally gave in and decided to give it a shot.

When we checked in it was quite busy, it was also very windy outside and chilly so despite the huge outdoor eating space not many people wanted to eat out there (understandably) so inside was busy. I'm glad we had a reservation, walk ups were told it would be about a 40 minute wait unless they wanted to sit outside.
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We did have to wait for a little bit, about 5 minutes. There were some comfy chairs outside and they were fairly sheltered from the wind.
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A look at a couple of the shirts in the gift shop.
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And a look inside.
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ajrwdwgirl

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Ok time to go and test the food!

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We were seated by the stage. It was actually a good spot to people watching. I might not have liked it if a musician was playing because it might have been too loud to sit right there but we were leaving when the musician did start. Speaking of music, there was a nice blend of music in the background with oldies pop, new music, and sometimes some 40's and Frank Sinatra type music. Plus it wasn't very loud music, so you could hear it but still have a conversation with someone.
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First up drinks! The first beer I ordered they ran out of but that was fine, I enjoyed the one I did get.
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Plus it was a beer that would pair well with ice cream. Beer and ice cream? Love them both but I don't think I want to eat them at the same time.


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Maybe I was enjoying my beer too much!
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First up: some dinner rolls. Don't deceived by appearances....these were awesome! There was some sort of glaze on top, a little sweet but not too much. And they were served warm, and they were soft. Simple and delicious. The lady at the table behind us kept asking for more about 4 times, and for a center section from the pan. We asked for seconds too (but not 4 times).
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We also got the truffle fries to share. Oh my, so good! It came with some sort of aoli. We missed the aoli part of the description and thought it was some sort of cheese sauce until we asked. It was good, but the fries themselves was the star.
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Brad had a few options that he wanted to go with but ultimately settled on the spicy tuna. He loved it.
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I got the BBQ burger. I was a little hestitant on it because I had a burger earlier that day and because I'm not a huge fan of a lot of BBQ taste. I hate when I get BBQ things and it just dripping in sauce. I think this might have been one of the best burgers I've ever had. The bacon was perfectly crispy, the BBQ spice and the sauce was enough to flavor but not over power, and the pimento cheese just complemented so well and made the burger a little messy but good messy. The burger patty itself was cooked perfectly and was moist but not greasy. The side of mac and cheese I got with it was fine but out of all we ate here it would come in last. I only got that because we already had the truffle fries. Brad ended up eating most of it because I was getting full from the burger. We ended up putting a little of their house seasoning that was available on the table on the mac and cheese and that amped it up.
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There was definitely no room for dessert, we were stuffed. I was happy that I had given in and let Brad eat there and he was glad to be right. We will be eating there again someday that is for sure!
 
ajrwdwgirl

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
After dinner we walked around the Springs for a bit.

I saw this cute little Easter basket photo op, so maybe Brad take a dorky picture of me.
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We looked around the Marketplace area and I thought these shirt designs were cool. I think it was in the Wonderland Gallery.
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I also loved this print in the Wonderland Gallery. Sadly they did not have a postcard of it like they do of most of the other prints. The cast member there told me that they weren't going to make any postcards of that one. I was actually very sad about it, I love old school Epcot and this was just the best of all the imagery I love about Epcot. Anyway, a quick spoiler....a couple days I decided to go into the Art of Disney in Epcot and as I walked into the store and looked to my left a display with a postcard of this print was there on display. I think I probably sprinted over to it. A postcard that is under $5 if better than a couple hundred! I just love it!
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This small world some was super cute too.
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Next up...a trip to BASIN!! I stocked up on some bath bombs, a couple bars of soap, and some shampoo bars.
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Hubs browsed in the Star Wars store and I browsed the pin shop. I thought these were cute but I didn't purchase. I might have had Flynn Rider been on the pack.
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The last stop before we headed back to the resort was Stance, the sock store. Hubs used to hate patterned socks but then I bought him a pair of Christmas socks. He realized how fun it is to wear funky socks so now he buys them. He likes this brand and the 28 and Main socks a lot. He got the Goofy ones.
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ajrwdwgirl

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Tuesday March 13!
Today we were going to visit my dad for lunch but first we had some time for breakfast and a little time to play at the Magic Kingdom!

Breakfast today was at Kona Cafe. When I first booked this the MK was slated to open at 9am so a 7:30am ADR would work out great with getting there at park open. But sure enough the MK open changed to 8 am, but we decided to keep our breakfast and just show up to the MK after park open. We had some fast passes and it did work out fine. It was very handy having the rental car to get there early in the morning, and we had a great parking spot.

So a look around the Poly in the morning.
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And a peek inside Kona Cafe.
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Shortly after we were seated we ordered quickly because we already knew what we wanted. Someone was happy for breakfast!
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I on the other hand needed to wake up.
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The coffee arrived.
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And now I was awake!
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We both got the locco mocco. I have had this here before and when we have visited Hawaii we enjoyed this type of dish. We also got the spiced ham. When we ordered the waitress asked us if we knew what it was and we said yes. We do enjoy SPAM, although here it was served grilled I usually fry it so it is crispy.

I think I also shocked the waitress when I asked for soy sauce. In Hawaii locco mocco was always served with soy sauce on the side and when I ate at Kona the last time I wished I had asked for it. But she looked a little taken by surprise when I asked and repeated it twice. The soy does enhance the savory flavor I think.

Anyway I got mine with a fried egg and hubs got his with scrambled. We both enjoyed the meal. By the way it is rice, Portuguese sausage gravy, hamburger patty, and egg. They top it with a little fresh pico de gallo.
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After breakfast it was time to head to the MK. Oh and I didn't finish all my press pot, so they gave me a to go cup for it.
 
ajrwdwgirl

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
krause said:
Your Boathouse meal looks yum! Weird question but did it smell fishy in there? I don’t like seafood either and I hesitate going to restaurants like that because even though they always have non-fish options, I’m afraid the whole place will smell fishy and ruin it :joyfull:
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Good question. I don't remember the place smelling like fish and I am pretty sensitive to smells. I think fish smell would have been something I would have noticed. We were at Skipper Canteen and a person at the next table ordered the whole fish and when it was delivered to their table I smelled it and was thankful Brad hadn't ordered it because then my meal would have been tough to eat. So maybe at the Boathouse you might catch whiffs but I don't remember anything overpowering or memorable.
 
ELeigh

ELeigh

Well-Known Member
ajrwdwgirl said:
We also got the truffle fries to share. Oh my, so good! It came with some sort of aoli. We missed the aoli part of the description and thought it was some sort of cheese sauce until we asked. It was good, but the fries themselves was the star.
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Just got some serious food envy over these fries! I almost ordered them when I went to the Boathouse for some drinks on my last trip but the bartender closed out our check before I got the chance :/. I might have to make a trip back for these!
 

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