A week ago Friday (has it really been that long?!?) Asa and I headed out to Disney for our annual anniversary trip. We always go to Disney for our anniversary in part because it's super customizable and not at all something I have to plan every detail of. You know, vacations in the typical -pack your bags, get on an airplane, rent a car, get to hotel, research all your activities- fashion isn't exactly relaxing for me. But Disney, well, that's easy. Theres so much to do- including things we've never done before, and I can mostly (sans reservations you have to get ahead of time) fly by the seat of my pants.
Thursday was our actual anniversary. Usually it's one of our last days there. But, this year we left home on our anniversary morning in time to arrive to Disney Springs for our lunch reservation at noon. Wine Bar George has been on my bucket list for years, and it is much easier to snag a reservation here if you go through open table instead of Disney. And if you can't score any reservations, you can always go to 'The Basket at Wine Bar George'. It's just a little take out window, and you can't get everything on the menu. But, the crispy mac & cheese bites are available there, and they are delicious. (Can you tell I've been to The Basket many times?)
Wine Bar George itself has plenty of indoor seating, and a little outdoor patio. Where possible, we ate outdoors. Covid is, again, everywhere here. So, we did our best to mitigate our "pile" or exposure this trip. (You'll see later there was one indoor dining experience I couldn't let go of, though!). We got seated on the balcony with a delightful view of Disney Springs.
After we sat down, we both knew immediately what we were ordering. We were there on a mission. I got the Dole Whip Frozcato. Aka a grown up dole whip. And it was amazing. Dangerous (there was no alcohol taste to this one), but delicious. Especially these days, when its about 9-bajillion-degrees outside.
Next up we got the Saganaki ON FIRE. Legit, that's what it's called on the menu. The waiter brings the cheese out on this tray...
And then SETS THE CHEESE ON FIRE! Ok, ok, I realize you can't really see it in this picture (I admit it would have been better at night- or indoors for that matter), but it was pretty cool in person. He finished it off with a bit of lemon.
And then set the whole thing down in front of us, with a few crostini to scoop it onto.
Now, I get it. You're paying $16 (or like $14.40 with your passholder discount) for six crostini and some fried cheese. But I'm telling you, this is totally worth it. We cut the cheese up into six peices to put on the crostini, but you can also enjoy this with a fork. It's buttery and lemony and the right amont of crispy and gooey. And it might have been my favorite thing I ate this entire trip. It's certainly up there with my favorite foods at Disney.
Next up, we ordered off the lunch menu. Some of those items are ONLY available at lunch, which is only availble Monday thru Friday noon to 3pm. So, to say it's a small window is an understatement. I hear brunch here on the weekends rivals Homecomin, but the item I wanted wasn't on the brunch menu. No, I was there for the lunch exclusive Steak Frites. Steak Frites is probably my favorite food. It's the two best foods married together in one dish: steak and fries! This one had a caramelized onion aoili on top. This too was delicious, although shockingly I think I liked the cheese more. Still, you cannot ever go wrong with steak frites. Now that I've had it, though, going to Wine Bar George for Brunch is 100% on my Disney Dining Bucket List.
After our lunch we walked over to the Hangar Bar for some more drinks and dessert. They brought back the Bacon of Doom as a Father's Day exclusive. This one isn't just all in the presentation (although the release of all the smoke when they pull off the glass dome is impressive). The bacon is nice, thick cut, deliciously salty strips, dipped in milk chocolate straight from The Ganachery (another great Disney Springs spot that focuses on all things chocolate). It's then topped with more bacon crumbles and some chipotle ganache. This was a little spicier than I remembered. But, still delicious. The whole thing is served around a cocktail (a Hanger Bar Old Fashioned), which I usually have very little of, and Asa has a lot of.
I'm usually there for the cherry. But, they swapped out some dark cherry goodness for a regular old marashino. Lame. In addition I ordered a Teddy's Tea. It's green tea with mint and tangerine. Originally they served me a poison dart, which is lime and soda water and I was like 'what the heck happened to the Teddy's Tea', but Asa took a sip and was like 'nope, this is the wrong drink' and got it all taken care of for me. What a guy.
We sat there for awhile out on the boat seating, watching the amphicars come and go from the Boathouse. It might be hot (like super hot) this time of year, but at least the humidity isn't 1000% yet, which can make sitting near water, in the shade, realitively pleasant. (And you know it's summer when the feels like stays barely under 100 and you're like 'hey, it's not too bad out here).
After our drinks and bacon and the Hangar Bar, we noticed the line to Gideon's Bakehouse wasn't really all that long. So, we waited to nab ourselves some iced coffee and a piece of giant cake to take with us to our room for later.
It only took about five minutes in line, and if you know anything about Gideon's, you know that's nothing.
Before we left Disney Springs, we also made a stop at Everglazed for a Nutella Boston Cream Donut for later too. Everglazed might be one of the most underrated Donut places in Florida. If I could pick between this and Voodoo Donuts, this place would win, hands down, every time.
Lightyear came out on our anniversary, too, so there was a lot of promotional signs and such around Disney Springs, especially by AMC. It's not getting the best of reviews, but we probably would have waited until it comes out on Disney Plus anyway. It'll make for a good movie night later.
By then our room was ready over at Saratoga Springs Resort. So, originally we had planned to stay three nights at Coronado Springs. On a passholder discount. And, it was still going to be over $300 a night after taxes and fees and parking and all that nonsense. For Coronado Springs! A "moderate" resort! On a passholder discount! If you don't know Disney, by now you should know I'm saying all this because it's unusal. Usually, passholders have a promo code for "up to 40% off". But, since demand for everything has skyrocketed since Covid, this "early summer offer" was for "up to 25% off", and pathetically the same offer given to Florida Residents and Disney Plus Subscribers. So, basically passholders were getting a whole lot of nothing special. Which, sucked.
So, I started seeking out other options. And, I decided to give renting DVC (Disney Vacation Club) points a try. Now, by the time I thought of this, our only option was to rent "confrimed reservations". Basically what that means is some DVC member made reservations with their points and then couldn't use them. So, they were selling their confirmed reservation. Lots of websites do this, but this go around we used David's Vacation Rentals, one of the OG in DVC rental points. I stalked the website for days- weeks even- waiting for something affordable for around our days to come up. And eventually someone was selling two nights at Saratoga Springs for just over $200 a night. The awesome thing here was 1. DVC members don't have to pay the ridiculous parking fees 2. There's no tax or other fees on the price. What you see is what you get.
So, we put in for the points, and got them! Score. We changed to the confirmed reservation of two nights at Saratoga, and went down to two nights at Coronado Springs. An extra night and it hardly cost us! Awesome.
Now, you can't be that picky about the resort. And you have to pay the whole thing upfront. But, I was happy to try out the DVC Saratoga Springs Resort. We've only every stayed here when we went to the Treehouses for Asa's Master's Graduation, but we hadn't ever stayed in a normal room. They've all recently been redone too, so we knew they would be nice. And the whole place is walking distance to Disney Springs. Some people complain it's too big of a resort- too spread out- and feels a lot like a glorified apartment complex. For a deluxe resort, I guess I get those complaints. But, as someone who is used to Moderate Resorts- who people complain about the exact same thing- it was a total upgrade! As a bonus, there are outside hallways. So, no having to take your mask on and off to get to your room- and you can park your car really close to your room!
We ended up in the Paddock Section, in room 6212. Close to the Paddock pool, not too far from Disney Springs, a good location.
Another bonus of a DVC room is the mini kitchens that come in your room. Normal Disney rooms do not have these. You get a mini fridge (but it's really more of a cooler- no freezer section, and it doesn't get that cold), but that's it. Here you get a microwave, a toaster, and a full sized coffee pot. Plus a little sink for kitchen items, some paper plates, plastic utencils, and paper towels. They even give you a little dish soap. I'm telling you, this whole area is under appreciated.
We had a nice, redone bathroom. Nothing terribly special, though the shower head was really nice.
And a re-done room with the queen bed, and another pull down murphy bed if you needed it. If not, you have a nice little couch and seating area.
Theres plenty of storage in the dresser, and as a fun added bonus, the coffee table plus up so you can sit on the couch and eat.
We also got a balcony, something you don't get at moderate resorts. While we didn't have any sort of amazing view, it was nice and peaceful.
After unpacking, we decided to walk around and check things out. It is very spread out, much like Carribbean Beach, or Port Orleans, but the walking paths are lovely. Real talk though, I felt terrible this day. So, I know it's not something we talk about, but periods suck. I have like two days a month that I just feel like complete ass. I have cramps, my stomach is upset, I'm super bloated. And, I was so upset that our anniversary was one of these days. But, my amazing husband was so cool about it, because he always is. We started out to explore, and I was trying so hard to power through, and he was like 'we don't have to do this', and encouraged me to just go back, put on some comfy clothes and relax.
But before I did that, I wanted to take a picture of us in our matching anniversary shirts. You'll see, we have a couple of these, but if you zoom in, you can see this one has our anniversary date on it. Cute, right?
When I realized Friday was going to be one of my "bad" days, Asa offered to call and switch our Friday night plans to Saturday night. We had tickets to see the Cirque Du Soleil show 'Drawn to Life', and they say they are not refundable or even exchangable. But, Asa called and they were happy to move us from Friday to Saturday, when I knew I'd feel better.
We decided for dinner we would get take out at Polite Pig over in Disney Springs. It's a favorite, and you can mobile order before 6pm on the weekends. So, we placed a pick up order and drove over to pick it up.
I brought along our picnic stuff: our glasses, plates, napkins. So, we added a bottle of wine and had a fancy-ish take out dinner for our 12th anniversary.
I mean, you can't go wrong with Mickey cartoons and bbq, right? Somehow this felt fitting for our 12 years of marriage. Always making the best of not-so-best situations. It's one of my favorite things about us, and over the last 12 years we've only gotten better at it.
There is one thing I won't compromise on, though. Our anniversary picture-in-picture has to take place ON our anniversary. So, I got myself together and we went out to find a good background for this year's picture in picture. We started off at the Grandstand Pool. But, we couldn't find a good angle for the phone tripod, and one lady took our picture off-center, with a huge amount of glare on the picture. We decided the grandstand pool wasn't for us, so we continued on.
The resort is so big, and as we discussed, I was not feeling great, so we took the car to drive around and try and find a better spot. Up behind all the sports courts there was a lovely view of the lake and Disney Springs, so we tried a picture there. Not too bad!
But, here's the reality of these pictures some years: we take it in strange places. We put the tripod on weird places (in this case it was on that lightpost there). In fact, there was a bunch of cheez-its on the ground and a ton of birds trying to eat them. And, we got yelled at by a boat captain for being too close to the water (I am a Floridian, I checked for gators and we weren't THAT close!)
It wasn't a bad place for a picture, but we also usually try a couple locations before we settle on one. So, we continued on.
And made our way to more acceptable area over by the Congress Park pool.
The nearest thing to put our tripod on? The trash can! Easily moveable.
Here we came up with about 20 pictures that all look something like this. And, then you have to decide on the final one to blow up for the next year (I think we're going with the one on the left, even though my hair looks frizzy. Humidity, guys!) I will say, this year we took it later in the day, and had virtually no glare problem after the lady at the pool. This might be the clearest you ever see the picture in picture. (Fun fact: except for the first picture, and a year I rode piggy-back, we're always on the same sides. We never planned it that way, it just ended up that way!)
There is one other tradition we try to do on our anniversary. For those of you who were at our wedding, you probaly remember at the end of the night, much of the wedding party (and friends), including Asa and I, jumped into the pool at the hotel in our wedding attire. Every year since we've tried to jump in some body of water. It's been the gulf. In one year in a desperation move it was in a fountain at Disney (they closed all the pools for lightning). It was even in our neighbors pool during Covid when Disney was closed.
This year it was the in the Congress Park Pool at Saratoga Springs. 
Tradition alive!
After walking back to the room and drying off, we shared some of our piece of cake from Gideon's. People rave about the cookies. But, I'm telling you, the cake is better. But, it is big. And rich. And there's a ton of frosting. It took us days to finish it. We finally called it when it was just a bunch of frosting left.
So, that's it for our anniversary. But, we still had four nights left at Disney!
Up Next: Drawn to Life
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