Trip Report "Lets Begin By Taking a Smallish Nap or Two" - A May 2024 Trip Report *COMPLETED*

We got back from our vacation May 18th and I'm still trying to mentally process this trip I debated whether to even do a trip report but decided to do a quick one since it's not like I'll ever be able to forget it LOL. For those of you who don't know, this trip had been postponed many times because of my elderly dog Pippy. We weren't sure whether we would be able to take the May trip but I had to make the difficult decision to euthanize a couple weeks before we were scheduled to leave. He was my soul mate dog and I still feel his absence every day. His loss is incredibly painful and something that I still can't talk about without ugly crying. The change of scenery at Disney helped a little but it didn't last long. If any of you have followed my previous trip reports, you wouldn't be surprised to know that drama usually follows us to WDW and this trip was no exception - but not how I could've predicted. It wasn't family this time!!!!!

When: May 10-18, 2024
Why: originally longest anniversary, then changed to my bday, then our wedding anniversary, then my husband's bday, then a just because
Where: Coronado Springs Resort
Who: Me (L) and the husband (R)

Despite all my careful planning, we couldn't have predicted the unusually hot May weather (one local news station called it "historic") and what was to follow. We hated the effects of Genie+ on the parks. This trip, even my normally oblivious husband noticed the negative changes and commented on it. We still love WDW but it's not the same as it used to be and that breaks my Disney loving heart. This trip was full of firsts, full of surprises, full of tears, and definitely full of memories We didn't have a theme song this trip but a quote I saw on a pin when trading summed up this trip pretty dang well LOL - "Let's begin by taking a smallish nap or two" ~ Winnie the Pooh

 

[Minnie1986]

Very excited to read about your trip; and my sincerest condolences for your loss

 

[LeighM]

Saturday, May 11th - Boma and Disney Springs

As some might remember from my previous trip reports, Boma breakfast and dinner has been on my bucket list for years but something (usually my husband getting sick) has caused me to cancel my reservations. I had Boma breakfast scheduled for this trip and Boma dinner on Thursday after my Animal Kingdom day. After giving it more thought, I decided to change my Boma dinner last minute to Sunday. I was taking no chances this trip!!! [Foreshadowing lol]

We slept in since we only had a 10:10AM ADR at Boma. This was how close our room was to the first bus stop in Casitas. We love it when our room is so close to the bus stop!!! It was quiet in this part of the building even with its proximity to the (not so) quiet pool and laundry room.

We hopped onto the first park bus that came along so we could make the transfer to AKL. Neither of us even remember which park that was either!

We got to AKL with plenty of time to look at the artifacts/exhibits and the animals around their main pool. We had a nice, short chat with one of the men stationed next to the savannah close to the pool.

We checked in early with Boma hoping that we could be seated earlier but it wasn't meant to be.

It was around this time that a DVS sales rep made eye contact with me. My husband and I had discussed buying DVC years ago, and I came close in 2015 before all of the major changes with buying resale, but life kept throwing other things in our direction. We told the rep that we were going to be looking for a forever house after with finished with vacation. (We had been waiting the last couple of years to be pet free since we didn't feel comfortable moving Pippy away from his safe space. He had been slowly losing his vision and he knew the layout of our house, food/water location, etc. We didn't feel right making a major move with an old, sick dog.) The rep said it was only 30 minutes, it would allow us to get updated numbers, and they were giving us a $200 gift card for our time. Well we can't say no to a free $200 for just 30 minutes of our time especially when we had nothing else planned until our Boathouse dinner. So we scheduled an appointment for after our breakfast was finished, which I think was 11:30AM. We soon got a text that it was time to eat so downstairs we went.

I was so excited to finally be here even if it was just for breakfast. Usually I'm not a huge breakfast person and I don't typically get hungry until late afternoon but I was still a little hungry from the day before. R, who usually eats a lot for breakfast, only had 1 plate, while I went multiple times. Go figure.

I tried most of the African dishes and loved everything I had. That coconut oatmeal was almost life changing yall I got to figure out how to make that because I don't ever want plain oatmeal again LOL.

This was everything R ate this morning.

I forgot to take pictures of my subsequent plates. But trust me when I said that I ate way too much, could barely move afterwards, and was glad that our talk with the DVC agent took longer than 30 minutes (most of it not even talking about DVC).

Up next - Disney Springs and the first signs that things weren't quite right...

 

[Disstevefan1]

That coconut oatmeal was almost life changing yall I got to figure out how to make that because I don't ever want plain oatmeal again LOL.

Oh boy, we never did breakfast, We gotta try just for the oatmeal!!!

We did dinner many years ago and they had some GREAT Coconut curry soup that if I had a straw .....

 

[LeighM]

Oh boy, we never did breakfast, We gotta try just for the oatmeal!!!

We did dinner many years ago and they had some GREAT Coconut curry soup that if I had a straw .....

I reached out to see if they could send the recipe for the coconut rice and the oatmeal. I looked for something official online and in all of my Disney cookbook (I collect them) but didn't see either. I think Boma breakfast has been my fav Disney breakfast so far. I'm not a big breakfast meat eater as I'm not a huge fan of pork or overly sweet things first thing in the morning. Boma dinner was my favorite of the two though.

 

[LeighM]

I'll start up my trip report again soon. I had to wait for the husband to finish giving me pictures during the trip I couldn't get the Memory Maker pictures to download.

 

[LeighM]

Saturday, May 11th - continued

After finishing up with the DVC agent and $200 richer, we got on the bus to Disney Springs. The first thing on our list was the Coca Cola store to see if R's beloved drink, Bibo, was back after the importation issues during covid. However, we got districted on the way by a couple of stores. R wanted to check out the overpriced blingy stuff in the jewelry store so he did that while I went to sample perfume at Jo Malone. I wish I had gotten the employee's name but we had a great conversation talking about everything from peri-menopause, changing society, and family dynamics. She was fantastic!! I tried a different perfume spray on each arm to test and see how they would do on me. After I finished in Jo Malone, I went to drag my husband away from the watch counter. Then we were on our way to Coca Cola.

Luckily, I didn't like much of their merchandise this trip so there were no temptations. The polar bear wasn't taking pictures yet, which was a disappointment, but we continued on the rooftop bar. Where R was to discover there was no Bibo left on Disney property. Broke his heart, man. However, he did find another drink that he absolutely loved and I wish I had the name and picture of it. That was my bad because I was too busy sniffing each arms. I can only imagine what other's thought. But I did get a picture of their rooftop garden

I had a bottle of cold water, he had his sugary beverage, and we were off to do some really important recognizance - check to make sure the steak and cheese sandwich, the Pepito de Ternera, was still on the menu at Pepe's (not to be confused with the burger in the image LOL). Glad to report that it was!!! We couldn't have this today because we had dinner at The Boathouse but this was on Sunday's itinerary.

We walked along the water and was just relaxing away from the crowds in the main path. The balloon wasn't operating because of winds, which was strange because it was on Sunday when it was windier.

I got distracted by Savannah Bee Company so we went in for some free honey samples. A few of their meads interested me. My husband LOVES mead and used to make his own but I knew he would say no about the mead tasting. So I chose the one I was more interested in, I think it was between $9-10, can't remember now and I just threw away the receipts. These were our favorites:

We both prefer sweet wines and meads and these were right up our alley. Unlike the majority of meads, you can really taste the honey in these. R tasted the blueberries more than I did but I definitely got the key lime.

We wandered into some other stores making our way to our destination of World of Disney. We can also never resist taking pictures of the Lego statues. And speaking of Legos - when did the line to enter the store start wrapping around the building exterior???

Anna is looking a little sassy

Up next - things start to go wrong and dinner at The Boathouse

 

[LeighM]

After walking past the Lego store, we had stopped to refill my water bottle and reapply sunscreen. It was really hot and humid but we were surprisingly not have issues. Our tactic of hydrating and spending time in AC shops had been working. We were both feeling comfortable and weren't pushing ourselves. At this point, we had only been at Disney Springs for maybe 2 hours. We got to World of Disney and I was ready to getting my shopping on. However, less than 5 minutes into the store, I got really lightheaded and hot. I was trying to find a quiet corner out of the way but they don't make those anymore, apparently. I asked a CM if there was a place I could safely sit out of the way until it passed. He brought me out an office chair and some cold water. It all got attention from management. Within a few minutes, I was living one of my nightmares being center of attention in a public space. I kept telling them I was fine and I only needed a few minutes until the dizziness passed. I wasn't dehydrated or anything but I needed to be cool. And the AC in the World of Disney wasn't really working well that day. And the CM told me later that they still haven't fixed their roof that leaks and they continue to rely on buckets when it rains. Around this same time, another man was asking for cold water and was sitting down on his walker seat because he was starting to feel dizzy too. The manager seemed to really not like me sitting in a good office chair or something and kept telling me they would bring me out a courtesy chair. With other people in the store starting to have problems, I told them that we had to leave anyway to go check in for our dining reservation at the Boathouse. Which wasn't a lie but we still had some time and if I wasn't the center of attention in a busy store, I probably would've stayed there longer.

R and I walked slowly to the restaurant to see if they could seat us early, which they could not. Because it was so hot, no one was choosing to sit outside so it was making the waits inside be longer. And the lobby area was getting to be overcrowded because no one wanted to wait outside. While we were waiting in the now busy giftshop, we started talking about what possibly could've happened. The only thing we could think of is that one of my new medications was making me sensitive to the heat and maybe I was low on electrolytes. So that little hiccup made me change up my dinner plans. Because my core had gotten overheated while I was waiting for dinner and I did not want to eat anything that would make me hotter. And I was trying to be GF as much as possible so that I could enjoy Pepe's and 'Ohana later in my trip. They would be my cheat meals. The Boathouse has been on my bucket list for the past few trips and what did I end up having to eat?

A boring, overdressed salad. But I did get sodium from it and that was starting to help (in addition to the pickle slice from R's plate) LOL. I broke down and tried one of their rolls, which was really good. The Boathouse doesn't have a GF menu but the manager said they could put these shrimp (blackened? Can't remember now) on their garden salad, which doesn't come with croutons. I had a great conversation with him and it was a highlight.

R ordered the club sandwich was was very shocked to see how much meat they put on it.

He wasn't able to finish it all since we were saving room for dessert. I think all of their desserts have gluten and I wanted to try all of them especially their strawberry shortcake, which just sounded delicious. But I was (trying) to be good and went with the something that R agreed to share with me. This generous slice of their wonderful blackberry cheesecake. I would come back here just for their desserts!

Sorry that we forgot to take a picture before digging in LOL. We couldn't help ourselves once we saw it We could get a 10% discount here using the Disney Magical Extras card, which saved us $5.55. I feel like we have to come back here one more time to truly experience it on a day I'm not feeling off. I can't judge it based on this one dinner. We were getting tired and overheated so we went back to the resort. We got off at the Casitas bus stop so close to our room to pick up our refillable mugs. When we entered the room we say they had changed the welcome screen on our TV to reflect both of our last names. My husband and I don't share last names as I kept my maiden on after getting married because no one back home could pronounce his last name. Mine is very common. But I'm the one who always plans Disney trips so it was always my name on everything and not his. So this year, I called reservations and asked if it was possible to have the name on the welcome screen be my husband's so that he wouldn't be left out on our anniversary trip. I thought the welcome screen with both our first names was going to be all so coming back to the room today and seeing the last names was a nice surprise.

Took some pictures on our way to the lobby.

This has to be one of the prettiest bougainvillea plants that I've ever seen.

I didn't notice this during previous trips but they have a hidden Mickey using the coins in the lobby fountain.

Another couple asked if we could take their photo and they returned the favor by taking ours.



We got our mugs refilled and went back to our room to relax (and R wanted to continue reading that book he brought with him last minute). Some more pictures of the resort:

And our room was in this building. The quiet pool is on the left. If you go straight towards to back of the building, our room was to the left facing the bus stop. It was a great location!!

When it got dark, I started to get hungry. So we made our way to the food court. But before I could go get food, I had to go to the main lobby to complain about the overwhelming strong smell of pot that someone was smoking on the path by the lake on the way to the lobby. This really angered me because it was one of the things we were trying to escape from our house. And it's one of the reasons we want to move so bad. We weren't expecting it to happen at a Disney resort. The CM at the front desk was horrified and immediately called security. Now I could go get food LOL. It was very different than the last we stayed here and I was a little disappointed to be honest. But I didn't want or need anything substantial and my body felt like it needed salt so I got the pre-prepped nachos. I didn't want any of the toppings that go with it that were available in the fridge next to the station - one, because I don't like soggy nachos and two, R doesn't like all the toppings.

This set up was better for us because I liked the cheese dip and R preferred the beef. So we just dipped individual chips in our preferred cup LOL. I also got the side of Mexican street esquites, which I really liked!

This was such a basic snack to eat but it turned out to be exactly what we both needed. It was now after 10PM and we were exhausted. We got back to the room and went to sleep. Until I woke up overheated again with an awful headache. The room was 66 but I guess the episode earlier in the day made a reappearance. Luckily, the headache and everything else was gone by morning but I had an awful night's sleep. But luckily, the next day was Sunday and we had nothing set in stone until Boma dinner. We had talked about going to Typhoon Lagoon, which I was uber excited to experience for the first time, but R didn't feel comfortable risking it after what happened to me on Saturday (but I later found out he was nervous to try something new and he used me as the excuse LOL). But that's fine, we pivoted and decided to do Disney Springs again, lunch at Pepe, then whatever until Boma dinner. Oh! We also found out that the pool slide was going to be closed for unexpected repairs so that was changing our plans a little bit. We wanted to try their pool slide before it closed for the rest of the week. Could we make it happen?

Mileage walked - only 7.08 miles

Up next - Sunday, May 12th - more Disney Springs and Boma dinner

 

[pkkurz]

After walking past the Lego store, we had stopped to refill my water bottle and reapply sunscreen. It was really hot and humid but we were surprisingly not have issues. Our tactic of hydrating and spending time in AC shops had been working. We were both feeling comfortable and weren't pushing ourselves. At this point, we had only been at Disney Springs for maybe 2 hours. We got to World of Disney and I was ready to getting my shopping on. However, less than 5 minutes into the store, I got really lightheaded and hot. I was trying to find a quiet corner out of the way but they don't make those anymore, apparently. I asked a CM if there was a place I could safely sit out of the way until it passed. He brought me out an office chair and some cold water. It all got attention from management. Within a few minutes, I was living one of my nightmares being center of attention in a public space. I kept telling them I was fine and I only needed a few minutes until the dizziness passed. I wasn't dehydrated or anything but I needed to be cool. And the AC in the World of Disney wasn't really working well that day. And the CM told me later that they still haven't fixed their roof that leaks and they continue to rely on buckets when it rains. Around this same time, another man was asking for cold water and was sitting down on his walker seat because he was starting to feel dizzy too. The manager seemed to really not like me sitting in a good office chair or something and kept telling me they would bring me out a courtesy chair. With other people in the store starting to have problems, I told them that we had to leave anyway to go check in for our dining reservation at the Boathouse. Which wasn't a lie but we still had some time and if I wasn't the center of attention in a busy store, I probably would've stayed there longer.

R and I walked slowly to the restaurant to see if they could seat us early, which they could not. Because it was so hot, no one was choosing to sit outside so it was making the waits inside be longer. And the lobby area was getting to be overcrowded because no one wanted to wait outside. While we were waiting in the now busy giftshop, we started talking about what possibly could've happened. The only thing we could think of is that one of my new medications was making me sensitive to the heat and maybe I was low on electrolytes. So that little hiccup made me change up my dinner plans. Because my core had gotten overheated while I was waiting for dinner and I did not want to eat anything that would make me hotter. And I was trying to be GF as much as possible so that I could enjoy Pepe's and 'Ohana later in my trip. They would be my cheat meals. The Boathouse has been on my bucket list for the past few trips and what did I end up having to eat?

A boring, overdressed salad. But I did get sodium from it and that was starting to help (in addition to the pickle slice from R's plate) LOL. I broke down and tried one of their rolls, which was really good. The Boathouse doesn't have a GF menu but the manager said they could put these shrimp (blackened? Can't remember now) on their garden salad, which doesn't come with croutons. I had a great conversation with him and it was a highlight.

View attachment 788442

R ordered the club sandwich was was very shocked to see how much meat they put on it.

View attachment 788458

He wasn't able to finish it all since we were saving room for dessert. I think all of their desserts have gluten and I wanted to try all of them especially their strawberry shortcake, which just sounded delicious. But I was (trying) to be good and went with the something that R agreed to share with me. This generous slice of their wonderful blackberry cheesecake. I would come back here just for their desserts!

View attachment 788443

Sorry that we forgot to take a picture before digging in LOL. We couldn't help ourselves once we saw it We could get a 10% discount here using the Disney Magical Extras card, which saved us $5.55. I feel like we have to come back here one more time to truly experience it on a day I'm not feeling off. I can't judge it based on this one dinner. We were getting tired and overheated so we went back to the resort. We got off at the Casitas bus stop so close to our room to pick up our refillable mugs. When we entered the room we say they had changed the welcome screen on our TV to reflect both of our last names. My husband and I don't share last names as I kept my maiden on after getting married because no one back home could pronounce his last name. Mine is very common. But I'm the one who always plans Disney trips so it was always my name on everything and not his. So this year, I called reservations and asked if it was possible to have the name on the welcome screen be my husband's so that he wouldn't be left out on our anniversary trip. I thought the welcome screen with both our first names was going to be all so coming back to the room today and seeing the last names was a nice surprise.

Took some pictures on our way to the lobby.

This has to be one of the prettiest bougainvillea plants that I've ever seen.

View attachment 788445

I didn't notice this during previous trips but they have a hidden Mickey using the coins in the lobby fountain.

View attachment 788446

Another couple asked if we could take their photo and they returned the favor by taking ours.

View attachment 788464

We got our mugs refilled and went back to our room to relax (and R wanted to continue reading that book he brought with him last minute). Some more pictures of the resort:

View attachment 788447

And our room was in this building. The quiet pool is on the left. If you go straight towards to back of the building, our room was to the left facing the bus stop. It was a great location!!

View attachment 788451

When it got dark, I started to get hungry. So we made our way to the food court. But before I could go get food, I had to go to the main lobby to complain about the overwhelming strong smell of pot that someone was smoking on the path by the lake on the way to the lobby. This really angered me because it was one of the things we were trying to escape from our house. And it's one of the reasons we want to move so bad. We weren't expecting it to happen at a Disney resort. The CM at the front desk was horrified and immediately called security. Now I could go get food LOL. It was very different than the last we stayed here and I was a little disappointed to be honest. But I didn't want or need anything substantial and my body felt like it needed salt so I got the pre-prepped nachos. I didn't want any of the toppings that go with it that were available in the fridge next to the station - one, because I don't like soggy nachos and two, R doesn't like all the toppings.

View attachment 788462

This set up was better for us because I liked the cheese dip and R preferred the beef. So we just dipped individual chips in our preferred cup LOL. I also got the side of Mexican street esquites, which I really liked!

View attachment 788450

This was such a basic snack to eat but it turned out to be exactly what we both needed. It was now after 10PM and we were exhausted. We got back to the room and went to sleep. Until I woke up overheated again with an awful headache. The room was 66 but I guess the episode earlier in the day made a reappearance. Luckily, the headache and everything else was gone by morning but I had an awful night's sleep. But luckily, the next day was Sunday and we had nothing set in stone until Boma dinner. We had talked about going to Typhoon Lagoon, which I was uber excited to experience for the first time, but R didn't feel comfortable risking it after what happened to me on Saturday (but I later found out he was nervous to try something new and he used me as the excuse LOL). But that's fine, we pivoted and decided to do Disney Springs again, lunch at Pepe, then whatever until Boma dinner. Oh! We also found out that the pool slide was going to be closed for unexpected repairs so that was changing our plans a little bit. We wanted to try their pool slide before it closed for the rest of the week. Could we make it happen?

Mileage walked - only 7.08 miles

Up next - Sunday, May 12th - more Disney Springs and Boma dinner

The boathouse has a brunch menu on Saturday & Sunday from 10-2. @brifraz clued us in on that a few years ago. It’s a must do now. My wife is not a seafood person so it works well for us.

 

[Tiki Traveler]

But I’m here now and so glad you’re doing a trip report! Thank you!

 

[LeighM]

The boathouse has a brunch menu on Saturday & Sunday from 10-2. @brifraz clued us in on that a few years ago. It’s a must do now. My wife is not a seafood person so it works well for us.

I love seafood and had so many hopes and dreams LOL. But I'll try again next time. Lessons were learned this trip.

 

[LeighM]

But I’m here now and so glad you’re doing a trip report! Thank you!

Much like my actual vacation, the trip report will be making a pivot on Tuesday

 

[LeighM]

Sunday, May 12th - Whatever we wanted and Boma dinner

I was glad we didn't have anything early on Sunday because I had gotten really sick on Saturday night. My earlier episode with the heat came back with a vengeance. But we both slept in and woke up well rested. R read a little bit more of his book. We discussed going to Typhoon Lagoon since the weather was nice but he didn't want to risk it. So back to Disney Springs we went. I stopped at Jo Malone to try 2 more perfumes since the 2 on Saturday didn't have much lasting power on me. After saying hello to my favorite employee, we made our way to Pepe. We ordered our food, sat at their bar table and people watched. And, oh boy, did we see some people this trip! The way some of these youngsters dressed made me feel like solidly middle aged person that I am LOL. There's so much I could say but I'm going to channel Flower and say "if you have nothing nice to say, its better to say nothing at all." But my gosh people, learn how to dress!!

R was disappointed Pepe no longer had the Spanish ice cream so we didn't order dessert. And he didn't want to share a sandwich and so we each got our own.

The cristal bread they use makes this sandwich, yall. I know I shouldn't be eating gluten but I will make an exception for this sandwich (and Ohana) for as long as my body will let me. I crave this sandwich when I'm at home. We took our time and continued our people watching (and judging). We thought about going into the M&M store but we had watched a steady stream of people go in so we decided to skip it. We never buy anything there anyway.

And now that I'm looking at our pictures, I think this was the day we did the mead tasting. I can't remember now and all the Disney Springs days are starting to blend together. I wanted my usual go to picture of the Springs but so did everyone else, apparently. These were all we were able to take and we felt rushed doing that!

And this is all I remember us doing on Sunday. Like I said, we had a very lazy day and late start. Usually we are always on the go so this was a different pace for us. Keep this is mind for later in the trip when things start to go sideways off track LOL.

We decided to go to AKL early and finish exploring the resort and watching the animals. That never gets boring. Boma dinner was originally supposed to be Thursday after our Animal Kingdom park day but moved it up to Sunday at 5PM, when I saw one become available. We don't have luck with Boma at the end of our trips (we've had to cancel every one for the last several years) and this year I wasn't going to take any chances! We do mobile check in for our ADR and go downstairs to take a couple of quick pictures of the empty area.

How did I never notice the water feature before????

We made our way back upstairs to do some pin trading at the gift shop. I answered the CM's question correctly so I was able to see his hidden "special" pins and I chose Miss Piggy. No individual picture of that. We went outside and talked to some of the CMs about the animals on the savanna.

We managed to see the caretakers feeding the animals, where they put the food in the fallen "tree."

We went back inside since the sun was hot at that angle and found a couple of rocking chairs outside off the lobby. Time seemed to fly by while we were outside and soon we were being called into our dinner reservation. To say I was excited was a massive understatement.

Up next - Boma and back to Disney Springs

 

[LeighM]

I haven't forgotten the trip report but life has gotten crazy lately between medical, insurance, crazy a$$ neighbors, and house hunting.

 

[LeighM]

Continued - Boma dinner and Disney Springs

I'm going to forget everything about my trip before I can finish this trip report because my notes and minimal and my memory has gotten hazy LOL.

They took us to a great table location near the main buffet line. Boma dinner has now become my second favorite table service location, right behind Ohana. I LOVED everything about Boma (except for maybe the price LOL). It does qualify for 10% Disney Visa discount so any little bit saved in Disney is a plus in my eyes.

I'm not even ashamed to say that I made a glutton of myself there that night. I was miserably full after I left but I would do it all again tomorrow if given the chance and not have any regrets LOL.

I can't remember everything on my plate (pictured below) but the butternut squash bisque was the BEST that I've ever had. R wanted to try it because he had never had it anywhere before so he had some of mine and he fell in love with it. Their mashed potatoes are nothing spectacular. Especially when compared to mine When my family was living and we would do the big holiday dinners, making the mashed potatoes became my contribution. The chicken was fall of the bone tender and I had a hard time getting it to my plate because it kept falling apart with the tongs. The coconut rice was FANTASTIC! My husband is Puerto Rican and he was like "where has rice like this been all my life?!" It was just as good as the coconut oatmeal they had a breakfast.

My husband's first and only plate. I told him we should've shared a sandwich at Pepe!

My second plate with the salad options along with their chicken and corn chowder. The chowder was very good but not like that bisque!

After eating all of this, I had a big decision to make. Do I get another bowl of their gumbo, which was calling me name? Or do I save room for the desserts? I decided to treat myself to a small plate of gluten filled goodies!! R had the bread puddings and different sauces for his dessert but he apparently forgot to take a picture of it

This was my first time having the regular Zebra Domes. In a previous trip, I had the gluten free ones and thought they were just okay. But the original, regular gluten ones are sooooooo much better! They didn't even taste the same to me. I can't remember what the mousse tarts were but I know they were tropical, light, and delicious. The apple pie tartlet was good too but those little fluffy desserts were where it's at. I still wanted the bowl of gumbo but I still had a long bus ride to Disney Springs so I decided to not do it.

And I was thankful for that once we got to the bus stop and all food hit my stomach at once LOL. Once we got to Disney Springs, I tried to get into Sephora to try their perfume selections but it was a madhouse and quickly left. We went to Columbia and R bought a couple of cooling t-shirts. Went to the Tea and Spice Exchange. Listened a little to the band that was playing. Made our way back to the World of Disney for a redo from the previous day's mishap.

We kinda wished we had changed our park plans to go to one of them this day (Sunday) but we didn't want to affect the dining we had reserved (the laugh would be on me later for that!).

While in the store, I fell in love with this weighted Lotso bear.

I really liked this one and Eeyore but knew I couldn't fit them on the plane. We were getting tired so we went back to the bus stop. But while on the bus, I started to get hungry again How, I don't even know. We got back to the room, picked up our mugs, and rushed to the food court before they closed for the night. I got their last order of chicken tenders. R wasn't hungry so he only ate some of my fries. I was too hungry to even think to take a picture but they were surprisingly good!!! We only walked 6.15 miles because we were taking it easy after the issue I had on Saturday and we wanted to be in good shape for the parks coming up.

Up next - Disney Springs afternoon and Magic Kingdom After Hours party

 

[Swissmiss]

I’m still a bit disappointed that we didn’t cross paths that day at AKL

We loved our meal at Boma as well (and I had only booked it as we were driving down that day.)

 

[LeighM]

I’m still a bit disappointed that we didn’t cross paths that day at AKL

We loved our meal at Boma as well (and I had only booked it as we were driving down that day.)

Right?! I'm glad you enjoyed Boma, as well. I hope you enjoyed your trip. The last few weeks have been so hectic that I have totally forgotten if we ever talked about your trip!

 

[LeighM]

Monday, May 13th - Disney Springs and Magic Kingdom After Hours

We ended up sleeping in real late this morning since we were going to be up late for the After Hours. By the time we got ready, we knew we (meaning R) wanted Polite Pig for lunch. We didn't have to wait long for a Disney Springs bus and we had Shirley status.

This was one of the new buses where you have to pull those seats down if you want to use them. These are also the buses that have chargers at the seats. I have to say, that this design looks to be much easier on the bus drivers when they load handicapped onto the bus and it saves a lot of time. We have a quick ride to DS and, of course, I have to first stop at Jo Malone to try other perfumes After a couple spritzes and a quick chat with my fav employee in the whole of DS, off we go to Gideon's. However, the wait was 45 minutes and the hubby was starving. We decided to come back late after having lunch so we made our way to Polite Pig. R craves this place when we're back home so of course we have to go.

It wasn't very busy when we arrived and picked seats at the window to people watch (since we enjoyed it so much at Pepe's). Plus, it was in AC and no one was close around us. It was setting up to be a real scorcher today and we were hoping we weren't going to be rained out of the event. Soon they brought us our food.

Yeah none of this was GF for me but it wasn't as bad as I could've been LOL. R had the chicken (which is absolute fav), cole slaw, Mexican street corn, brussel sprouts, and I had the BBQ meatballs with grits and fried onion rings. I wasn't very hungry yet (and I was saving space for dinner again at 3 Bridges) so I just got that from the appetizer menu. Which was the perfect portion for me. We ate everything and it was delicious!

We go back to Gideon's and the wait was only 30 minutes so we got into the line. And we saw even more crazier dressed people. One female was waiting too short and tight shorts, with a black lace bra as top with a mesh shirt tied underneath to highlight the fancy bra she was wearing. It was soooo not Disney appropriate. And, dare I say, very unflattering to her figure lol.

This was R's first time seeing the inside of the store and he was impressed.

We don't particularly like their chocolate chip cookies so we knew we weren't going to get one of them again. However, when my eyes saw their cakes my GF diet flew right out the danged window.

We ended up getting a slice of their chocolate cake with marshmallow icing, their coffee cake cookie and I think cookies and cream, and one I've totally forgotten. Here are close ups taken when we got back to our room

.

We would have a whole week in order to eat these giant cookies and cake slice It was looking like it was about to rain so we went back to Coronado Springs so that R could continue reading his book and I could stay in AC longer. My body was still doing weird things in the heat, which was very strange. I still thought it was probably the addition of one of my new medications making me more sensitive to heat.

Oh! And this reminds me of something else. On Saturday, I realized that I had forgotten to pack a few items we needed and R wanted me to order one of the rechargeable neck fans. I talked to the staff at Bell Services to find out how Amazon delivery worked at the resort. After finding out that certain sized boxes would be held at Bell Services and other sized boxes would go to their Business Center, I placed the order. While on the bus back, I got notice from Amazon that my items had been delivered. We went to Bell Services who told us it was taken to the Business Center. While in the lobby, we saw a few characters like Chip, Dale, and Daisy. R took my picture with Daisy but being R being R had to take the worst possible picture of me so I can't share it. We did get PhotoPass with one of the chipmunks (Dale?). This was a great interaction because he tried to steal our bag of Gideon's cookies to see how long it would take R to notice. But he never did and almost walked off without getting our bag back. Me and the chipmunk had a great laugh about that

And yet again, R's hat had to find a way to appear in the picture. This hat ruined many a good photo during previous trips

Now we made our way to the Business Center. The CM working the office said they had just put my package into a locker and I should be receiving the code any second. Sure enough, as soon as he said that, I got a text with the locker code. He told us where the lockers were so we off we went on a new to us journey. We found it easily enough. We entered the code and the door with our package popped open.

The process was as easy as could be. So next time, I will just have things like sunscreen, contact solution and disinfectant, etc shipped to the resort to be waiting for us when we arrive. It will definitely help us with carry on liquids! After stopping but to refill our mugs, we got back to our room just as the rain started.

Up next - resort time and MK After Hours

 

[Swissmiss]

After stopping but to refill our mugs, we got back to our room just as the rain started.

Oh I remember that downpour on Monday. We made it to Disney Springs as it finished, but it started up again at some point, didn’t it? I hope it didn’t ruin your After Hours event!

 

[LeighM]

Oh I remember that downpour on Monday. We made it to Disney Springs as it finished, but it started up again at some point, didn’t it? I hope it didn’t ruin your After Hours event!

It did start back up briefly but it didn't last that long. The earlier downpour helped clear out the crowds so no complaints. Not like the rain on Tuesday early afternoon that created a human soup atmosphere. I think the memories of Tuesday is what is slowing down my trip report LOL.

 

[LeighM]

The plans were to eat dinner at Three Bridges when they opened and then leave for the parks around 6PM so that we could get into the park at 7PM. I started to get hungry and I asked R if he was ready to go eat. However, he was too into that dang book and didn't want to eat anything. I thought about placing a to go order and eat it in our room but two things stopped me - I didn't want the smell of the food lingering in my room and I didn't want to get full when I knew it was just a matter of time until the husband got hungry. So I decided to eat the gigantic slice of cake to hold me over. But I soon discovered a problem. I needed milk. Milk was all the way in the lobby and there was a storm happening. But the need for milk won out so I geared up and took the long way through the Casitas staying under cover. I finally got my milk (which I hoped wouldn't make me sick later because it wasn't as cold as I'm used to) and made my way back to the room, stopping to take pretty Casita pictures along the way since no one else was out.

The fountain closest to the old lobby....

Same fountain but different angle.

Water fountain in the Casita atrium....

The fountain closest to the bus stop. You can kinda see the raindrops in this one....

I made it back to our room (still dry) with my milk just as the thunder and lightning started. I finished my cake, took a nap, and R still wasn't hungry. But the rain had stopped, it was time to leave, and R still wasn't hungry. We had a near empty bus ride to Magic Kingdom. The lines to get into the event weren't bad and I think we waited maybe 20 minutes before they let us in for our wristbands. While we were waiting, however, I couldn't help but notice the number of teens and children that were sitting in line. I understand it's hot and humid and WDW is exhausting. But when I was their age, there was no sitting like that LOL. Once you're old enough to not need a stroller you were expected to stand with the adults. On transportation, children were expected to give up their seat to an adult. I don't remember any of us kids needing to sit down as much as I saw children doing this trip It's been a loooooong time ago for me, but I remember the ages of 8-15 being one of a lot of energy and endurance LOL.

I do need to apologize in advance because this section will probably be choppy because of a faulty short term memory However, what is VERY clear in my mind was how happy I was to be back in MK and I loved this being the first park of the trip. We didn't have very many plans for the hours between 7-9PM except just enjoy the atmosphere but now we had to think of dinner in my least favorite park to eat. The only thing I really wanted to do during this time was see Happily Ever After from Main Street. We took some pictures as we made our way down Main Street.

We were matching in our Pirates wear

R said he still wasn't hungry so we got into line for the spring rolls that were one of my must have items. When did the line for this get crazy long???? The husband decided that despite not being hungry he could have some spring rolls until we had dinner but he didn't want to share mine. Then he corrected me on how I was going to order and told me he was going to do it but instead he ended up totally confusing the CM and I had to translate what R meant and he was like "ooohhhh." The CM even gave him a hard time for how unnecessarily complicated he made it LOL. Usually, I would've been surprised at this coming from a Disney CM but the husband and his mansplaining were beginning to annoy me so I actually enjoyed the snark this time

We got the cheeseburger rolls and the pepperoni pizza rolls. Both of them were fantastic!!

I was going to get the coconut soft serve in Adventureland but forgot by the time we got there.

I can't remember what we rode during those 2 hours since we didn't have Genie+ and the lines were crazy long. I asked R if he wanted dinner at Columbia Harbor House but he wasn't ready to eat yet. I reminded him about park dining hours but I don't think he was listening to me. We made our way back to Main Street so I could be close to my fireworks watching spot.

I love the view from the train station.

We got to the train station but R didn't want to wait there until fireworks so we went into some shops.