Tuesday – May 3rd
Tuesday was our Disney Springs day. This meant another lazy morning to get up whenever we felt like it. Thankfully everything that got drenched the night before had mostly dried out by the morning and we were good to go on the clothing (and shoe) front. We took it easy getting ready and decided to go to Captain Cook’s for breakfast. I got the platter, DW got some sort of sandwich, and the boys tried the Tonga Toast. I should preface this with the fact that my youngest doesn’t like bananas but loves French toast. (Huh? Who doesn’t like ‘nanners? Apparently this kid. His warranty period is up so I guess we can’t return him.) With that in mind, the little fella had a decision to make and he chose to try the Tonga Toast. They both thought it was passable, but nothing to get worked up about. That’s when dad stepped in and finished most of it for them. I wasn’t about to pass up on some of that action! It was good, but I’m much more of a savory eater at breakfast – sweets seem to wear off too quickly and leave me ready for lunch too early. But I took one for the team and helped them finish.
Bellies full, we headed to the bus stop for a ride to DS. We got there in decent time and headed in to do some shopping with no real goals in mind other than a Christmas tree ornament and a Disney shirt that I’d actually wear in the real world.
I’ll warn you now that when it comes to Downtown Disney/Disney Springs I seem to have some sort of mental block about the layout. I’ve been there 3 times (on 3 trips) and still don’t really know where anything is. Despite the fact that I got us lost the night before and also just admitted that I can’t figure out DS, I still maintain that I’m great with navigation. It’s just something about DS that causes me to have to look at a map pretty often. Maybe it’s the fact that things just keep changing? Yeah… that’s it. I’ll go with that.
We hit the Christmas shop first thing and found a nice silver metal ornament that we wanted to get engraved. We asked about the engraving service and they actually referred us across the walkway to “Disney’s Wonderful World of Memories” where they have an automated engraving machine and also stock this particular ornament. So we headed over there and while we were there my wife discovered a little Orange Bird charm which pretty much made her day. She happens to be quite the Orange Bird fan these days and was on the prowl for anything with his adorable orange face on it so this was a score. Oh, and they engraved the ornament for us right there and we left the shop happy.
From there we kind of wandered over the bridge and checked out the Lego store and World of Disney. I got a t-shirt that I swore would be worn in the real world when I got home (so far it has not made an appearance, but to be fair it’s still not that warm here in beautiful O-H-I-O) and I also displayed my knack for being able to pick the slowest moving line when given a choice. After that we looked in the Marketplace Co-Op and maybe another store before realizing we were hungry.
Today was also the day that we took a break from quick service. We had both agreed that Morimoto Asia looked difference and like a place we’d enjoy. It was only a little after noon and our Morimoto reservation wasn’t until 1 PM but we decided to head that way and see if we could be seated early. We managed to find the place amidst the construction walls and lack of signage and were greeted and seated with no problem despite being early for our reservation. We got a seat on the lower level near the show kitchen, which turned out to be a good location. But then again, that place is such an interesting design that I sincerely doubt there’s actually a bad seat in the house.
My wife and I both went for the Lunch Set. She got (I think) the Orange Chicken, I got the Kung Pao. My youngest got Orange Chicken and my oldest got ribs. I’m no expert in Asian food, but I do know we all enjoyed the meal and the service. The wait staff were all attentive and friendly, the food came out exactly as ordered, and everything tasted fresh. My wife’s more of a sushi fan than I am but we were both very pleased with that aspect of the lunch as well. Overall we were happy with our choice and also with the fact that we went there for lunch instead of dinner. The prices were reasonable for the location and quality and we left happy.
Bellies now full once again, we decided that we’d had about enough of DS. My oldest had some more gift card money burning a hole in his pocket so we stopped again in the Lego store and he got a few things. We began to head back to the entrance and as we were walking back over the bridge it started raining a little. Then a little more. By the time we got by the Rainforest Café it was really pouring so we ducked into the gift shop at Rainforest to wait it out. It let up a bit so we high-tailed it to the bus stop and caught a bus back to the Poly.
Full bellies. Rain. What to do?
Nap time! We closed the blinds to the room, turned off all electronics, and just had the most glorious nap for about an hour and a half. It was just what the doctor ordered. We never do that at home and it helped reset things for the afternoon we had planned… at Hollywood Studios!
This was originally going to be the only day at DHS but actually ended up being our 2nd evening at DHS after we called an audible on Sunday and decided to go there. So we’re the weirdos that decided to go to a half closed park twice in a week. But that’s what you do when you’re trying to be more laid back, right? I had made some FP+ reservations and also a reservation at 50’s Prime Time Café. That was one of our “must repeat” locations from the last trip we made in 2014. My wife and I loved the theming and the interactions we had with our waiter the last time. So we were for sure going back.
We got up from our fantastic nap and I made a coffee run to Captain Cook’s with our dining plan mugs. Funny thing, those mugs. After the first day we adults didn’t use them much for pop, but every day we seemed to make at least one trip to Captain Cook’s for some coffee. While we’re not exactly coffee snobs, I do appreciate a good cup and I’ll say we were both pleasantly surprised with the quality of the coffee from Captain Cook’s.
Rested, caffeinated, and dressed for the park, we headed down to the bus stop again to catch a bus to DHS. If you recall from the monorail snafu that we had on Monday we had 3 bonus FP+ passes that we could use for any attraction at any time, in addition to the 3 FP+ reservations that I’d already made. This was going to be a good night!
We got to the Studios and without delay started having some fun on the rides.
• Toy Story (bonus FP+)
• Rock N’ Roller Coaster (bonus FP+)
• Tower of Terror (existing FP+ but the ride was pretty much a walk on when we got there)
At this point we were kind of warm and a little hungry so we stopped at Hollywood Scoops. My boys got the ice cream sandwich with the fresh cookies. Wow! I was very pleased with this. It’s just vanilla ice cream between two cookies, but the cookies are a little warm and nice and big. Everything with this treat just works so well together. Perfect little snack. Then we pushed on to…
• Indiana Jones
• Star Tours
By this time it was getting close to our 7:25 PM reservation at 50s Prime Time Café. As I was writing that, it struck me as funny to write “7:25 PM” in relation to my family’s dinner time because we are just NOT late eaters. In the real world, we’re very structured as far as dinner times and bed times. Our boys thrive on a good routine and it’s just what we do. So I guess that’s part of the fun of vacations for us – breaking all those “rules” we fall into during the normal week! Instead of our normal 5:30 PM dinner time, we had ice cream sandwiches instead. And that was totally the right thing to do!
I think it was probably around 7 when we got over to 50’s Prime Time Café. We remembered a long wait at lunch on our last trip so we figured getting there early couldn’t hurt. We checked in and managed to get two seats at the bar while we waited. Let me rephrase that – we got two drinks and let our boys sit at the bar. Yep. Because that’s totally acceptable in WDW, right? Well, acceptable or not that’s what we did. Not long after that our table was ready and we headed back.
Let me rewind to 2014 for a moment. We got seated at this little table that had a “kitchen counter” look to it and there’s a TV at one end. It was kind of jutting out at an angle into the room. We loved it! And our server was Loukili. He was just the best. I know that there’s a certain act that the servers at 50’s are supposed to get into, but he really sold it. My boys were 9 and 7 at the time and he walked up and knew their names (Magic band/reservation magic). This made them scratch their heads a little. Then he launched into a story about how he used to babysit for them and he had them convinced that he was their long lost Moroccan babysitter from when they were little. Then he made them go wash their hands in the bathroom. It. Was. Brilliant. I have no idea how but my wife and I managed to keep a relatively straight face while this was going on and it was only sometime later (after we left) that we ever told them the truth. It was just such a fun and memorable part of our vacation and one of those memories that we talked about every once in a while.
Back to present day. Our name gets called and we head to our table. And it’s the SAME table as last time. Freaky. So we sit down and my wife and I start talking about how this was the same table as last time, and our server comes over. And… it wasn’t him. But it’s 2 years later, he’s got to be gone by now. Our server this time was good enough, but you could kind of tell she was playing a part. We ordered and were just hanging out, talking and waiting for the food to arrive.
Then I saw him out of the corner of my eye. Our long-lost Moroccan babysitter Loukili was waiting on a table in the next room over! The boys and my wife didn’t see him, so I made an excuse about needing to go to the bathroom and did my best ninja impression to avoid detection as I darted into the other dining room. I caught him as he was leaving a table and I’m sure I sounded like a nut as I approached him. I managed to get out as much as an “excuse me” and before I could get any further he – without breaking character – said “I didn’t do it!” I explained to him that he had been our waiter 2 years ago and how he convinced the boys that he was their old sitter, everything. I told him their names and asked if he’d be willing to make an appearance. He didn’t disappoint!
5 minutes later, Loukili sidled up to our table. He addressed the boys by name and my youngest had a seriously great “WTF” reaction on his face. I was lucky enough to see him approaching and capture the whole interaction on video so we could relive it later on. My wife and I lost it with laughter and the boys eventually breathed a sigh of relief and got into the fun. This little period of time was one of the highlights of our trip and another memory we will always cherish.
Oh, side note since this is a report about our dining experience I guess I should comment a bit on the actual food – It must have been the constant onslaught of Disney quick service meals for a few days but by this point I was craving something healthy(ish). I got the Caesar salad with Salmon and… Wow! What a treat! The salmon was spice rubbed, kind of a Cajun blend. But the real kicker was the fact that it was cooked right! Nice and flaky without being totally dried out. I can’t believe I went to the 50’s Café and I’m raving about a salmon Caesar salad but it’s the truth. Everyone else enjoyed their meals also, but I can’t quite recall who had what. I know there was meatloaf, fried chicken, and other hearty elements involved but beyond that I think the whole experience sort of warped my brain to the point that the food took a back seat to the fun we had.
We walked out of the 50’s Café and it was getting to be dark. The park closed at 9:00 and by this point it was around 8:20 or so? So we decided it would be a good time to head back for another spin on TSMM. We wandered back to that area of the park, slowly taking in the scenery of all the neon glow coming to life. DHS really is a pretty park after dark! The views after dark combined with the mental high from having just had such a good/fun meal made for a great rest of the evening. We arrived over in Pixar Place and there was actually a CM soliciting people to ride TSMM since there was no wait! They were closing the line at 8:45 for the evening because of fireworks or something so we were some of the last people to ride it for the evening, which was another feather in the cap of that night.
After we got off the ride, we just sort of floated towards the front of the park and out to the bus terminal to catch a ride back. Another successful day was winding down. We got back to the room, got the kids ready for bed, and got cleaned up. Then we had a few more Jai Alais and hit the bed. Tired but very much in a good place.
To be continued…