Awesome...Wow! A Disney and Universal Food Report April 2018 - COMPLETE!

[Megandllsmum]

Brilliant report so far, you are getting lots done but at such a leisurely pace... Food looks amazing as do the cocktails.
My daughters friend was there same time as you and they got a soft opening of fast and furious and like you she didn't rate it 🤐

[smedley]

Fab report so far, enjoying reading along

[Jedi Princess]

Great report, looking forward to your updates.

[Saldisney18]

Enjoying the read! Thanks 😊

[Zomax25]

Really enjoyed reading this so far, thanks!

[Floridaagogo]

Just caught up on this ❤️❤️❤️

[mouselover22]

Loving all the yummy food The HRH is our favourite hotel for cocktails and food round the pool

[LadyDebs86]

Day 3

We had a non-park day planned today, we were moving from the HRH to the Polynesian, Universal to Disney! We decided to nip out for breakfast at our favourite place from last time, Keke's.

Last year we went there with our friends and we over ordered quite drastically. I made a vow not to do that again however it ended up being cheaper to get the combos than just the pancakes!

I had a Florida pancake (covered with bananas, strawberries and blueberries), breakfast potatoes and sausage. Same as last time!

Chris got eggs over easy, bacon, breakfast potatoes and toast, with a fruit cup.

This was amazing again! The pancakes are SO huge and dense though, its so hard to get through even one although I had a good try The fruit was so lovely and fresh and the breakfast potatoes were to die for. Its definitely not the cheapest breakfast but it's so worth it. More reasonable than a Disney breakfast

We headed back to the Hard Rock, packed up the last of our things and made our way to the car. We'd absolutely loved it at the Hard Rock again, and having 3 nights there meant I really felt we'd made the most of being there. Whilst my heart will always belong to Disney, the Universal onsite experience is so much more laid back and relaxed, you feel like you can just do whatever you want and aren't tied to any kind of schedule. I was so excited to get to the Poly but I was really sad to leave the Hard Rock.

Check in wasn't until 3pm, so we decided to have a trip to the Florida Mall and do some shopping. After a few purchases were made, we stopped for a drink at a French bakery in the food court called La Madeleine Country French Cafe. Chris had a coffee and I had a raspberry lemonade.

This was good, Chris tried it and his face screwed up massively because it was so tart, I don't think he enjoyed it. We didn't fancy anything to eat in the Mall so we decided to drive to Crossroads and try out Sweet Tomatos.

We'd never been here before but I knew Chris would love it as he often gets antsy at the lack of available green stuff in Florida. I had signed up to their email club so I had a birthday voucher - a free meal for me and 25% off a meal for anyone else I was dining with.

You walk in, grab a tray, fill a plate with loads of yummy salad (there is such a great selection) then pay at a till. This was definitely our best value meal, it cost us about $13 for both of us and we ate so much!

After you pay, there are other buffet stations with baked potatoes, a selection of soups, bread, focaccia pizza, pasta and assorted bakery items, as well as drinks, desserts and a soft serve ice cream machine. Here's some of our plates:

We are fully converted to this place! Chris was completely obsessed and wanted to come back every day. The mushroom soup was my favourite, it was so good. Everything was really fresh and lovely, and even without the voucher it would have been really reasonable.

Then it was time to head to the Poly! This is our DVC home resort and it was our first time staying. We'd visited once a few years ago for a meal at Kona Cafe, but that was at night and I don't really feel like we took it all in.

We checked in at about 2pm so I wasn't expecting the room to be ready, but it was! We were staying in a standard view DVC studio (didn't have enough points for a lake view), so I had sent in a Touring Plans room request as there are a few classified as standard view which have a partial view of the castle. I had asked for Tokelau room 3914, so when she wrote down Tokelau 3912 I was ecstatic! 1 room away and I was pretty sure it was still the view I was after, but I didn't want to get my hopes up too much...

We left the bags with bell services to bring and walked over to our room, the Poly is made up of several buildings (known as 'longhouses') along with the Great Ceremonial House - where the lobby is located along with Ohana, Kona Cafe and the monorail station. Tokelau is about 3 minutes walk from the GCH. The resort is absolutely beautiful, it's so deeply themed and it really is like being transported to another world. I loved how our longhouse was decorated inside and I was starting to fall in love...

So imagine my delight when I went onto the balcony to see this...!

I could see the castle from my room! Gorgeous. The room was also absolutely stunning. Here's some pics if you're interested!

It's hard to tell from the pictures but it's such a spacious room. The main sell of the Polynesian studios though is this - the extra half bathroom:

I cannot say enough about this shower. I don't know if it's just us but we find all showers and baths in the States are hopeless, the showers never have any power and the baths are ridiculously shallow. Obviously that's extra annoying when you spend all day sweating, and covered in suncream and chlorine. In this shower you actually felt clean afterwards. It was heaven.

Anyway, those things aren't food.

We had an afternoon checking out the resorts, including a visit to both pools. The quiet pool was right next to our longhouse, we hung out there for a bit and I had a 'Frosty Pineapple' - "Pineapple DOLE WHIP® blended with Captain Morgan Private Stock Rum"

Yes that's right. Dole Whip. This was amazing and I just felt so happy and chilled at this point. I felt like I was home this was also the picture I shared on social media to make people super jealous!

We then went to the main Lava pool which has a splash pad and slide running through a mini volcano. I just had a soft drink here so not worth a mention.

We got freshened up and pretty and made a trip back to the Great Ceremonial House to check out the famous Trader Sams!

On arrival, we expected to have to add our names to a waiting list so I was surprised when we were told to head on in! We sat on the table in the middle, this had quite a few seats so we had a few different tablemates throughout the evening!

Trader Sams is AWESOME. It's utterly filled to the brim with classic Disney theming, you could spend hours just looking at all the details. A number of the drinks on the menu come with 'antics' when you order them, I won't give too much away but some have catchphrases you're all expected to join in with, some have sound and visual effects...the cast members are awesome and get so into it. Chris ordered a Kona beer flight and I went for the Tahitian Torch - "ByeJoe Dragon Fire Spirit, Tropical Juices, Passion Fruit, and fresh Lime Juice"

(Sorry for the terrible pictures, it's really dark inside and I didn't want to put the flash on)

Mine was gorgeous, so fresh and fruity, but that Dragon Fire Spirit is SPICY. Yikes. Something to bear in mind if you don't like that kind of thing! Chris enjoyed all his beers and got a pint of one of them after.

We were a bit peckish so we ordered the pork tacos:

These were Chris' choice and not something I'd normally choose but I loved them! They were quite juicy though so not something to try and eat if you're wearing white

Chris got his beer and I went for one of the drinks that came with added shenanigans, the Krakatoa Punch - "Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum, Pyrat XO Reserve Rum, Orgeat (Almond), Sam’s Gorilla Grog, and Hibiscus Grenadine. Served in a souvenir Tiki Mug"

Really I just wanted the mug and the fuss but it was lovely, although I don't think I'd have it again.

Continuing our resort tour, we made our way upstairs to the Tambu Lounge and sat at the bar playing cards for a bit. Chris had another beer and I had a mojito:

Always a favourite of mine, this was great. Having tried, and regretted, a Lapu Lapu in the past I wasn't tempted to repeat the experience...!

We decided to call it a night but popped into Captain Cook's on the way to pick up a refillable mug and a flatbread to share, this was the Hawaiian - "Marinara, Pineapple, Onions, Ham, Mozzarella, and Parmesan"

We were served by the most adorable cast member, he asked us where we were from and when we answered he said we must have travelled there using pixie dust! I loved him. He was always stood at the same register every time we went to Captain Cook's, day or night, that boy works hard! We took the flatbread back to eat in the room and it was so yummy. Loved the addition of onions to the normal Hawaiian, it really worked.

Another great day and finally back in Disney

Thanks for reading!

[JellyEllieBean]

Loving this report, really varied with lots of ideas to try xx

[derenstar]

Another fab report, thank you and please keep them coming!

We still haven’t done Sweet Tomatoes yet but it’s definitely on our list to try next time. I can see why you both liked it, the food looks really fresh and tasty. The Poly looks as amazing as I expected it would, the rooms are absolutley gorgeous and I do love the look of that shower! I have also added a note to my ever growing list to try that Dole whip with rum as well, as that really looked lush! 😋