Trip Report - March 2024

Wow. I admire your dedication to the gym. Just doing Disney is enough for me most days. Your trip is off to a great start!!!
Hi. We’ve become a bit addicted to using the gym. It’s a great way to start your day and you feel a bit better about all the sweets/snacks you eat especially on vacation. I think part of it is also a fear that it’s a very slippery slope of not using the gym a few days becomes weeks becomes months, etc. Even when we’re home, we have a little gym in the house that we use almost daily.
 
Love your reports! We just returned from a trip to the the west coast, driving from Rhode Island. Out thoughts were like yours. Looking at possible retirement spots. I laughed when you mentioned the AAA trip tics! We used it also. We liked having the maps plus we wanted to make sure we avoided the GW bridge. We prefer using the Tappen Zee . Looking forward to the rest of your trip. We will be heading
back for a few days at Boardwalk in May
Thank you
Wow - that sounds like quite the road trip from Rhode Island to the west coast. Did you find any locations you liked? Aren’t those AAA TripTiks such a throwback and fun way to follow along the drive?
LOL - GWB, I crossed that bridge twice a day driving to work in NYC and back home to New Jersey.

I love the Boardwalk; that Keister Coaster (sp?) is so much fun and the location can’t be beat. If you like fruity cocktails I highly recommend Hoodunit’s Punch from Abracadabar. Have a great trip in May.
 
Monday 3/4/24
Scott went to the gym at 5; I went at 5:45. Our usual routine followed of laundry, jacuzzi, showers, and breakfast. While I finished getting ready Scott went to pick up Starbucks for us and bring it back. He went to the regular Starbucks near Publix. The Marketplace (store at Vistana Villages) serves most Starbucks drinks, but not all.

We drove to Hollywood Studios.
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We headed into Toy Story Land.
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Toy Story Mania is always fun. We need to re-read some of the tips we read about this game, but remember that it would give tips on working together to get different things to happen leading to higher scores.

Slinky Dog Dash is another great ride.
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My favorite ride at Hollywood Studios was next…Tower of Terror.
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Cute picture with a character, but I don’t know who she is?
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We walked through Star Wars land and took a few pictures. I’m not a Star Wars person so I don’t know the characters but still enjoy the attractions and the pictures.
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We rode Star Tours. This attraction doesn’t seem very popular anymore, but we still enjoy it.
 
Monday 3/4/24 Continued
We went on Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Train. This is a cute ride.
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I still miss the Great Movie Ride; I know it was past its prime, but it was always enjoyable to see clips of some classic movies. It was also a long ride so maybe that’s part of the changes, shorter rides that can get more people on quickly.

Since we stop for pictures often, we have a lot of the balloon pictures today so we’ve tried slightly different poses for the balloon picture.
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We left the park and drove to Disney Springs. We did some shopping in World of Disney and the Christmas store. We decided to have lunch at Earl of Sandwich. Scott found us a table and got settled with all our bags from shopping while I went in to order.

I ordered an Italian for Scott and an Original (light on the sauce) for me. We had Coke to drink. When I moved to the cashier to pay, I noticed the receipt said Earl Club instead of Original. I went back to the woman I ordered from and she said the cashier will fix it when I pay. I explained it to the cashier who said not to worry, he’ll change it to the Original.

When the buzzer went off that the order was ready, there were 3 sandwiches in the bag (instead of 2). The ones we wanted as well as the Earl Club we didn’t order. I told them and tried to give the Earl Club back but was told to enjoy it.
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My Original was good, but not as good as it’s been in the past. The meat was a bit on the fatty side. I ate a little of it but didn’t enjoy it. Scott said he’ll eat it later so we wrapped it back up.
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Scott loved his Italian
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Since we had the Earl Club I gave it a try. This was very good. We each ended up eating half of this one.
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We stopped at Publix on the way back to the resort.
 


Monday 3/4/24 Continued
Back at the resort, we spent some time on the phone confirming plans with the realtor on where we’ll meet and what we’ll see when we drive over to the west coast of Florida.

Later that evening we drove to the Yacht Club for our dinner reservation at Yachtsman’s Steakhouse. We went a little early to have pre-dinner cocktails at the Crews Cup Lounge (bar next to Yachtsman’s Steakhouse). We didn’t check in at the restaurant yet, just went to the bar.

Scott had Bombay Sapphire straight with Olives. I had a Key Lime Pie Martini. This was great; it really tasted like you were drinking a piece of Key Lime Pie.
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The bartender asked if we were eating at the bar or the restaurant. We told him the restaurant but we didn’t check in yet since we didn’t want to be seated early. He said he can check us in and did so right before our reservation time. The host came to get us at the bar to seat us when it was time for our reservation; this was a nice way to do this.
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The waitress said they were out of Prime Rib which is what we were thinking of ordering. She said they may have an end cut if we wanted that.

The onion pull apart rolls are so good here. Probably my favorite bread from the different Disney restaurants. I like it with butter, but Scott liked the garlic spread too.
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As we usually do, we shared our food.

We ordered two appetizers

Shrimp Cocktail. This was good, the sauce is what makes it really good. I would have preferred the sauce on the side to dip but it still tasted good. Last time we were here the presentation was different and the shrimp weren’t on top of the sauce. It still tasted the same; really good.
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Squash Agnolotti. This was OK. We ate it but probably wouldn’t get it again. Nothing was wrong with it, but it was just OK.
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Monday 3/4/24 Continued
For our entree, we had the Prime Rib; the end cut since that’s what they said they had left. Since we were sharing, they split it in the kitchen for us. This was a huge portion. It was too fatty for me. I ate around the fat as best I could. It was good, but neither of us finished it.
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I love the Yorkshire Pudding (or Popover as I call it). Scott can take it or leave it, so he left the whole popover for me to enjoy.
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We also ordered a side of the truffle macaroni & cheese. Scott enjoyed this more than I did.
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We had a lot of leftovers.

For dessert we ordered the creme brûlée. It was a cute presentation in the closed pot that we opened to reveal the dessert. This was OK but not something we would get again.
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We planned to go back to Hollywood Studios after dinner to watch Fantasmic, but we didn’t finish dinner until after 9 and the show was at 9:30. We wouldn’t have had enough time so we’ll see Fantasmic another night.
 
Love seeing all your food reports. I am not an adventurous eater at all and I don't like fatty meat either. On our first date my husband ordered some kind of seafood platter. I couldn't look at him eating the frog legs. He loves seafood.

Where are you looking on the west coast? We have stayed in Cape Coral for a week the last 2 years to see the Minnesota Twins in spring training. They were still repairing roofs from Hurricane Ian. They had just finished the roof of the house we rented. There were so many beautiful houses for sale and many were on canals. We love it there.
 


Thank you
Wow - that sounds like quite the road trip from Rhode Island to the west coast. Did you find any locations you liked? Aren’t those AAA TripTiks such a throwback and fun way to follow along the drive?
LOL - GWB, I crossed that bridge twice a day driving to work in NYC and back home to New Jersey.

I love the Boardwalk; that Keister Coaster (sp?) is so much fun and the location can’t be beat. If you like fruity cocktails I highly recommend Hoodunit’s Punch from Abracadabar. Have a great trip in May.
We took 3 days to get to west coat of Florida. Visited Venice, Sarasota , Seista Key and Captiva. Loved them all , but decided to hold off any long term commitments and just spend a few weeks every winter there for now.
 
Thank you so much for your reports. I have enjoyed reading them so much, considering that you and I do Disney very differently! (I'm on property and no car.) Maybe it's just fun to see another view?
 
Love seeing all your food reports. I am not an adventurous eater at all and I don't like fatty meat either. On our first date my husband ordered some kind of seafood platter. I couldn't look at him eating the frog legs. He loves seafood.

Where are you looking on the west coast? We have stayed in Cape Coral for a week the last 2 years to see the Minnesota Twins in spring training. They were still repairing roofs from Hurricane Ian. They had just finished the roof of the house we rented. There were so many beautiful houses for sale and many were on canals. We love it there.
Hi. Thank you.
I’ve gotten a bit more adventurous eating over time. I still have food quirks and certain things I won’t eat, but I have definitely been trying more things now than I used to. I would pass on the frog legs though.

We’re just starting to figure out where to look so are open to suggestions. So far in Florida we only looked at Land O Lakes, and San Antonio. I am going to put Cape Coral on the list for our next visit and will check into it online.
 
We took 3 days to get to west coat of Florida. Visited Venice, Sarasota , Seista Key and Captiva. Loved them all , but decided to hold off any long term commitments and just spend a few weeks every winter there for now.
Hi. We just started looking so are open to suggestions. I’ll look into the areas you looked at and maybe try to visit them our next trip. Thank you
 
Thank you so much for your reports. I have enjoyed reading them so much, considering that you and I do Disney very differently! (I'm on property and no car.) Maybe it's just fun to see another view?
Thank you for the kind words. I love reading all the various reports since like you said, there are so many ways to do Disney. I haven’t stayed on property in a while, but have in the past.
 
Tuesday 3/5/24
We went to the gym about 6. Back in the villa we did our normal morning routine of laundry, jacuzzi, showers, and breakfast.

Today and tomorrow are “Good to Go” days at the parks for Annual Passholders so no reservations are needed.

We drove to Animal Kingdom.
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We headed to Pandora for our ride on Navi River. It’s a cute calm slow moving ride, but we would not wait on a long line for it. With Genie+ it was a quick wait.
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We browsed some of the shops and bought a few shirts. We did not buy the big giant stuffed Stitch but I thought it was a cute picture.
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We went on Tough to Be a Bug, then posed for the “Little World” picture that we like.
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It was time for Scott to ride Flight of Passage with his ILL. I can’t ride that; I did once and I was dizzy for over an hour after so now we just find a comfortable rock for me to sit and wait while Scott rides.
 
Tuesday 3/5/24 Continued
It was time for us to go on the safari. This was the best safari we’ve been on. The driver was hysterical, he forgot some of his lines so was making it up as we went, mixed up left and right, but just had such a great attitude and made the whole experience fun.

We saw the lion; I don’t remember the last time that happened so we were super excited to see/take pictures.
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Also the baby elephant - how sweet is that?
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I love when we get a unique/different magic shot. Since we take lots of pictures we end up with many similar ones so this is a nice surprise.
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We went on Dinosaur. We really enjoy Dinosaur and are disappointed it’s being removed. I’m guessing it will be more an an overlay with a new theme but the ride itself will be the same. Kind of like how the Frozen ride is the same as the old Norway ride but now it’s Frozen themed. The overlay made Frozen way more popular than the Norway ride ever was; I’m assuming the same will happen once Dinosaur is overlaid.

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Tuesday 3/5/24 Continued
We played some of carnival games in DinoLand. We like the one where you throw a ball and if it lands on a colored spot you win a prize. Scott won a small prize.
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Scott went on the Single Rider line at Expedition Everest. This is another one I can’t go on anymore, but the single rider line moved very quickly.
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We went to Yak & Yeti for lunch (we had a reservation).
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Scott had Bombay Sapphire with Olives and I had East of Eden.
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The main reason we came here…the Ahi Tuna Nachos. I haven’t had them in years but remember they were really good. We both really enjoyed them.
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We also ordered pot stickers thinking we may want more than the nachos. They were pretty good but similar to regular Chinese take out dumplings.
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We’ve been planning to go to Yak & Yeti for several trips but ended up cancelling for one reason or another. I’m glad we finally got to go.

We walked around the park some more.

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This next picture was kind of a zoom shot - it looks kind of like a postcard but we’re there in front of the tree.
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I am pretty sure we did Gorilla Trail and the Tiger Trail.

We left the park around 5ish and headed back to the resort.
 
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Tuesday 3/5/24 Continued
Later that evening we drove to Disney Springs. We walked around a bit and did some more shopping.

We decided to go to the Hangar Bar.

We had a few shirts to return so I suggested I stop at World of Disney to return the shirts and Scott go to the Hangar Bar to get us seats since it’s first come/first served.

I quickly returned the shirts and headed to the Hangar Bar. Scott was at the bar and had a Jocks Old Fashioned. It wasn’t crowded so we probably didn’t need to have Scott get to the bar to find seats but it worked out fine.
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I tried his drink, liked it, so ordered the same. While Scott liked his drink, he had more Bourbon added since it was too sweet for him. I think that’s why I liked it.
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We shared our food as we often do.

We ordered the sliders. These were OK but a little dry.
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We had the Margherita Flatbread which was OK too. We forgot to ask them to hold the Balsamic; neither of us likes Balsamic. We wiped it off as best we could, but it’s a pretty strong flavor.
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Last time we went to the Hangar Bar we really enjoyed it. This time it was just OK.
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After a bit more wandering/walking around Disney Springs we headed back to the resort and watched some more of Transylvania 2
 
Wednesday 3/6/24
Scott went to the gym at 5:30 and I went at 6. Our normal morning routine of laundry, jacuzzi, showers, and breakfast followed.

We weren’t going to a park today. Instead we were meeting with a realtor on the West Coast of Florida. The realtor spent much of the day with us and showed us model homes and ideas on what we can have built. He showed us two master planned lagoon communities. One was a community called Angeline in Land O Lakes. There is still a lot of construction and the lagoon itself isn’t built yet. The other community he showed us was Mirada in San Antonio; still construction going on but the lagoon is already built. He wanted to show us the various amenities of the different communities. We saw a few model homes we liked. The communities were very nice. We’re still trying to figure out if a community is what we’re really looking for since that’s new to us. We have just started our search looking for potential places to move down the road, but these are definitely staying in consideration.

We drove back towards Disney after our day with the realtor. We cancelled our prior dinner reservation since we didn’t know what time we would get back. While driving back we made a reservation for Sebastian’s Bistro for tonight. We made a stop at Publix and dropped the items off at the resort.

We drove over to Caribbean Beach resort a little early. We went to Banana Cabana for pre-dinner cocktails.
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Scott had Makers Bourbon and I had a Caribbean Smuggler.
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There weren’t any seats at the bar so we took our drinks to a bench near the water and hung out over there. We were standing along the water’s edge and saw a turtle in the water.
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We were seated on time at Sebastian’s Bistro. This was our best meal at Sebastian’s Bistro yet. Everything was really good. It’s a pre-fixed meal. The last few times we were here we did the coconut shrimp add on, but skipped it this time knowing how much food there is.
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They start you off with pull apart rolls with guava butter and caramelized onion jam. These rolls are good but would be excellent if they were heated up.
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The salad is refreshing and we enjoyed it.
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The entree is a “Taste of the Caribbean” and includes chicken, pork, beef, and sustainable fish. You can choose a vegetarian platter if you want but we went with the regular one.
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It’s also served with a platter of sides including rice & beans, vegetable curry, and grilled seasonal vegetables. I don’t normally like Cilantro (it tastes like soap to me) but these rice & beans are great.
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The star of the meal is the Coconut-Pineapple bread pudding. We loved this.
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We had a great meal at Sebastian’s. After dinner we walked around Caribbean Beach resort a bit then headed back to Vistana Villages and continued watching Hotel Transylvania 2.
 
Thursday 3/7/24
Scott went to the gym at 5:30 and I went at 6. After our workout, we did our normal morning routine of laundry, jacuzzi, showers, and breakfast. Scott took a quick ride to get a few items from Publix and to pick up Starbucks while I finished getting ready.

We went to Epcot.
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We went through the Moana: Journey of Water exhibit and are still a bit underwhelmed by it. It’s cute and peaceful and maybe that’s what the intent is. So many of the new attractions are bigger rides maybe a low key attraction is what’s needed too.
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We saw the Awesome Plant show in the Land Pavilion. I don’t remember the last time we watched that.

We went on Soarin which is back to the normal Soarin over the World version. I enjoyed the throwback to seeing Soarin Over California last trip, but enjoy the World version as well.

The Seas with Nemo is a cute peaceful ride and we always enjoy looking at the various fish.
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Spaceship Earth was next and Scott’s face is missing from the picture. We got a laugh out of that. Spaceship Earth stopped several times throughout the ride.
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We rode the Single Rider Line at Test Track and ended up in the same car just a row apart.
 

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