*Aloha Again*...September 2019...LIVE

[Disney Planning]

Glad you're on the mend. BC does look lovely and that sunset view was perfect.

[Loobylou_82]

Ahh, packing cubes, that must make things a lot easier. Read about them a lot on here, must purchase some myself. Sushi looks good.

[summersun]

following along x

[dixonsontour]

Enjoying your report

[Amybelle88]

I’ve loved your report so far! So sorry you got sick what a nightmare! I hope the rest of the holiday makes up for it a little xx

[Unexpectedpenny]

I’m really enjoying your report so far. Sorry you’ve been poorly, I hope you’re 100% now and having a lovely time.

[sheluk]

All caught up! Loving your report and all these yummy eats. I think my hubby would have a melt down if I was to suggest we move as frequently as you but what a great way to change it up and explore the different resorts.

[onion2803]

It's time to admit I'm never going to catch up - but I am determined to finish this report!

Saturday

Back to sleeping in separate beds since the layout at OKW is the same as the hotels (2 x double beds rather than one bed + one sleeper sofa) poor Bear had to drag me up this morning - I think the beds might be too soft for my back since I’m hobbling about like a prehistoric turtle this morning.

I finally feel myself again though so I must’ve shifted the last of the lurgy now.

We decided to take up the offer of a canal view room in block 46 and switched over early this morning before our brunch reservation in Disney Springs.

The new room is much the same as the previous but has an amazing view of the canal so we’re glad we switched. It’s less ‘Key West’ and more ‘Deep South Bayou’ than we anticipated but we’re loving it! I can keep my beady eyes on all the snakes from our balcony.

We heard about a new brunch offering in DS from the DisneyFoodBlog and thought we’d give it a go - its the Bayou Brunch at House of Blues. It’s on every Saturday and Sunday and costs $33 plus tax and tip.

There’s a full review somewhere on the internet with all the pictures you might want of the actual buffet but I was hobbling about too much to take them today sorry!

I always find the staff at HoB a bit aloof and today was no different but the food was yum - scrambled eggs, candied bacon, andouille sausage, biscuits and gravy, waffles and fried chicken, donuts, pastries, salads, peel & eat shrimp (and we all know how I feel about shrimp), etouffée and rice, tacos, omelettes to order and a carving station with garlic mash and gravy. It had everything we could want to eat and even had bourbon bread pudding to finish.

They offer $15 bottomless mimosas and Bloody Marys, plus offers on beer and wine for less than $4.50 each. Coffee and soft drinks are included in the price so Bear had a coffee and I stuck with iced water.

The food was exceptional - loved the mash and chicken. The andouille sausage and candied bacon were amazing and that’s not usually my thing. We didn’t have an omelette but the ingredients went on for miles and all looked very fresh. Bear is still raving about the etouffée and the carnitas tacos 🤤 and the bourbon bread pudding was phenomenal!

I would definitely recommend for a single TS credit or if you’re really hungry and can manage $33 worth of food! There was a fab jazz/big band playing live too and I’m pretty sure they did the whole Steel Magnolias soundtrack so I was in my element!

Stuffed to the gills, we rolled out of there and headed back to OKW to lie down in a darkened room.

Once we’d fully digested everything and were no longer at risk of seaworld coming to collect us 🐋 we ventured out to the pool. Unfortunately my phone battery was completely dead and the dodgy plug sockets wouldn’t hold our adapter so I haven’t got any pictures from the pool.

We stayed all afternoon and it was super busy which surprised me. It’s a small pool area compared to AK and BC so I think we noticed the crowds more so than usual.

I love the whole feel of OKW and how relaxed it is but all in all, I’m not sure it’s for us. We would stay again no problem as it’s low points but it’s not one of our favourites...don’t let this put you off if you’re thinking about staying though, it really is a lovely place, it’s just not our style.

As we’d had such a big brunch, we decided to stick with some sandwiches for tea and head out to the outlets a bit later on.

Bear made us book Economy Light tickets as we ‘really aren’t going to shop this year’. Pah! He’s a fool. Of course we’re going to shop…some more than others 😒
Bear has so far ended up with a spirit jersey ($10), a WDW jumper ($12.99), a pair of trainers ($59.99), a hoody ($40), a pair of combats ($40) and two tshirts ($10). I have two jumpers ($45 each), two pairs of trainers ($59.99 each) and a Disney apron ($10). I also have a growing make up haul and an undisclosed amount of candles but let’s not get bogged down in the details. Bear has absolutely outshopped me. Oh! I’ve also swindled some Rae Dunn items from Father Christmas too 🎄

I'll post photos of our shopping haul tomorrow - I need to lay it all out nicely!

Total Spent:
Bayou Brunch $82.56


Sunday

We had such a lovely day today - Discovery Cove!

Up at a stupid time, despite not having swim tickets, I needed to get there nice and early for breakfast and flamingos. The flams are new this year, having recently moved in from Seaworld (or Busch…I can’t remember) and take a morning stroll up and down the beach from 9am. They don’t come out later on as it’s too hot for them, so be sure to catch them in the morning!

We arrived to a massive queue, it was out of the lobby and snaking down to the car park. It appeared to be the result of stringent bag checks though and we were through quite quickly. Being carried along the line and fed his breakfast was my spirit animal…the sloth. He was lovely 💕

Once we’d checked in, we made our way through to our preferred loungers, right next to the entrance to the lazy river. We got two loungers under an umbrella (and thank god we did, it was SO HOT!) and headed in for breakfast.

You pretty much get everything served to you, like a school lunch but I was able to say no to the biscuit/gravy monstrosity and to the oatmeal which I’m almost sure was to be slopped right onto the plate next to the scrambled eggs if I’d said yes 🤢

You can self serve when you get to the fruit and pastry section, and there were pots of yogurt and cartons of milk available too, alongside cornflakes and fruit loops. Soda, juice and coffee/tea were available just outside the door and seating is outside although mostly under cover.

I always enjoy the food here to be honest, I think they do a great job of feeding everyone at the same time and providing enough variety in what they offer.

Breakfast finished, we set off to get our wet suit jackets and snorkels. You absolutely have to wear either a jacket or full wet suit when in the water at DC which actually suits us as it means we don’t get burnt in the water or have to do a full body sun cream top up as often - anyone who has been to DC will know about the sun cream situation already but it’s offered for free and is formulated to protect the animals. That being said it is the worst sun cream in the land and I’m convinced its part bathroom emulsion. No amount of rubbing will take the ghostly white gleam from your face. Everyone looks a treat in the water, bobbing along like giant cotton wool balls.

Quick flamingo stop...my life is now complete!

If you’re thinking about doing DC, book those tickets - its such a lovely day and so relaxing. We don’t do dolphin swims so spend most of our time bobbing about the lazy river, which is super lazy in parts and almost rapid like in others! There’s a variety of life jackets and noodles available and most people have one/both to assist as the water can get really deep in parts. The lazy river takes you into the aviary via a waterfall (to prevent winged escapes) and you can hop out to feed the birds if you wish. There’s also a waterway into the otter zone (they’re behind glass but you are essentially swimming up to see them) and around a monkey enclosure. Eventually, this water way leads you into a swim up seating area where you can grab a beer or cocktail and some snacks.

Across the other side of DC is the Grand Reef, also known as Hell Frozen Over. I’m joking…it’s amazing but its icy cold and there’s no preparing you for a stingray perching up next to you. There are so many beautiful fish to see in the reef and this is where you get to use your snorkel gear.

In the far corner, there’s a special section built specifically to give you heart failure. The underwater, behind glass that you can’t tell is glass if you’re also underwater, shark container. I would suggest they put signs up but I think they like to toy with people so instead they allow you to go about your merry business, floating along serenely with the rainbow fishes, when BAM you’ve either gone head first into a wall of glass, or worse, a very obvious shark with very obvious teeth has deliberately brushed up against the glass right in front of you causing you to ink like an octopus. I’ll give you two guesses which version of events happened to me. No one but the shark could hear my screams, but the entire reef got an earful when I finally surfaced.

They’re amazing creatures. From afar.

Deciding we’d had enough of all that excitement for now, we headed over to the restaurant for lunch. It was about 1pm so absolutely rammed and I think we queued for around half an hour. Once at the front you just tell the server’s what you’d like and they plate it up - I had the chicken tenders and fries, plus a helping of mac and cheese. Bear asked for the salmon with island rice and roasted veggies, with an extra helping of jerk chicken. They’re happy to amend the meals on the menu as you’d like.

Once you have your hot food, you can fill your plate up with pasta, salads, wraps, fruit and cake - I got some Caesar salad and seafood pasta and a chocolate cake. Bear’s salmon came with rice and veggies so he just added some fruit and carrot cake. You can get wine and beer or select from the usual soft drinks too.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in the lazy river and we ventured once more in the Grand Reef when the temps got really hot. I was better prepared this time for all the horrors so we actually ended up spending a long time floating about. A lot of the GR is shallow enough to stand up in but there are two really big areas where the depth must be well over 10ft - this is the best area to see the shoals of fish and to snorkel uninterrupted by other peoples feet and flailing limbs.

We took time out to sit at the bar or in the swim up seating area with a nice cold beer and some fresh baked cookies, eventually leaving around 5.15 - it really is quite a full day. I’d heard rumours about the drinks package changing for Brits and saw one militant server asking when people had booked their tickets - if you said pre-May 19, everything was ok. She didn’t ask us though so I can’t comment any further on that.

Stuffed to the gills from all the free food today, we decided to skip tea and head straight out for our first night at Halloween Horror - because I’ve obviously not suffered enough today!

This will be our third year doing HHN so I’m well versed in it now and can deal with the scares a bit better than our first visit (the link is below…2016!) - it changes every year though so never gets old.

I hadn’t realised that my phone was completely dead so I left in the room to charge and obviously wasn’t able to photograph everything (going again tonight though so I’ll take more pics!) so I’ll just quickly run through some thoughts on the evening;

- This year is not actually as frightening as previous years - it’s less slasher movie horror (Halloween, Freddy, Texas Chainsaw, etc) and more monster based. I don’t find that sort of thing AS frightening but I still screamed myself hoarse.
- Ghostbusters is amazing and funny and terrifying and everything you’d want it to be if you were a fan of the movie.
- The original houses (the ones Universal has made up) are the best this year - Yeti is probably the top house.
- Having said that, I miss the houses I know - I found The Shining, Exorcist, American Horror Story etc from previous years way more scary than the originals because I was frightened of the films, if you see what I mean.
- It’s a great way to get on some rides too if you don’t have park tix as they’re all walk ons.
- The atmosphere of HHN is so different…it’s geared to adults, there’s music blasting and lights and sirens and screaming, speciality cocktails and snacks everywhere….it’s a really fun night out and you’ll get caught up in it all.
- The app now gives you wait times on the houses which is a fab update!
- It’s super weird to be ‘behind the scenes’ as you walk or queue for the houses…you sometimes even leave the park boundaries and end up walking past the back offices.
- I would request a room away from the park if you’re staying at Hard Rock Hotel…in some of the queues we could see straight into the hotel rooms. It’s also really loud. I’d be very annoyed if I was given one of those rooms.

We really had a great time. It was super quiet being a Sunday night so we actually managed to get all but 3 houses done plus all the rides. Rip It Rock It, despite being the WORST rollercoaster in existence (those seats, that lapbar &#128560 is amazing at night.

We arrived around 7pm and left at 12.30…shattered and all screamed out for the day but I managed to snag a Voodoo Donut to calm my nerves on the way out!

Total Spent:
Voodoo Donuts $5.76

[onion2803]

Originally Posted by Juliemack

We like to hotel hop too although the most we've done over three weeks is 6. That sushi looks lovely, I've never quite found the right one but they both look so appetising!

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Oh try the sushi here, it's absolutely gorgeous - you can get quite simple rolls too...prawn/crab/salmon and cream cheese or the more adventurous ones with eel and spicy sauce!

Originally Posted by OB1LukeLucas

Really enjoyed catching up with your last few days.

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Ah thank you for following along x

Originally Posted by Disney Planning

Glad you're on the mend. BC does look lovely and that sunset view was perfect.

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BC really surprised me, it's been one of my favourite stays this year x

Originally Posted by Loobylou_82

Ahh, packing cubes, that must make things a lot easier. Read about them a lot on here, must purchase some myself. Sushi looks good.

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They're a game changer for me as I'm a terrible over-packer! I got mine from Groupon and amazon I think and they've lasted a few trips now x

Originally Posted by summersun

following along x

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Thanks for reading along...hope your upcoming trip is fab! x

Originally Posted by dixonsontour

Enjoying your report

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Thank you...I'm addicted to your reports, hope there's another one coming soon! x

Originally Posted by Amybelle88

I’ve loved your report so far! So sorry you got sick what a nightmare! I hope the rest of the holiday makes up for it a little xx

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Ah thank you - so glad it was a relaxing holiday this time and not heavy park days, I'd have been gutted! x

Originally Posted by Unexpectedpenny

I’m really enjoying your report so far. Sorry you’ve been poorly, I hope you’re 100% now and having a lovely time.

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I'm feeling much better now thank you...back has gone but that just means Bear has to carry all the bags

Originally Posted by sheluk

All caught up! Loving your report and all these yummy eats. I think my hubby would have a melt down if I was to suggest we move as frequently as you but what a great way to change it up and explore the different resorts.

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Oh I definitely wouldn't do it if we had park tickets but its been lovely to try all the new places and find some new favourite resorts for our DVC points in future! x

[Rafiki22]

Fab review of DC thank you so much for going into all that detail. We are going in a few weeks and I can't wait!