Lucy & Nick // The Superfan and the Skeptic // Day 3 - AKL, Disney Springs & 'Ohana

[Lucyjane45xxx]

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For Day 2 Click Here

Day 3 - Lazy Morning, Disney Springs & 'Ohana

So apologies in advance but this days report is likely to be quite short and not have all that many photos in it.

Originally the plan was to head to Typhoon Lagoon for the day but after not getting home from Magic Kingdom until late the night before we decided that we would have a lazy morning instead.

We didn't get out of bed until about 10am this morning (we were awake earlier than this but we used the time to message friends/family, reply to emails etc). We donned our swimwear and headed down to the Mara. I had a chocolate chip muffin (nutritious, I know, but it is holiday after all!) and Nick had a danish pastry, which cost us 2 snack credits. We had also taken our refillable mugs down with us. After breakfast we headed to the pool (literally outside the Mara) and found some sun loungers.

I absolutely loved the pool area of AKL, it looked so stunning, and really liked the zero-entry element of it too! We lounged by the pool until about 1.30pm. We did have a swim as well during this time although I have to admit that we did not stay in the water for very long as it was absolutely FREEZING! I couldn't believe it when I climbed in, especially when it was SO HOT outside. (In Texas a few years ago I went to an outdoor pool in similar temperatures and the water was like bath water so I think I expected this to be the same!)

After our relaxing morning we went back to the room, got showered and changed and decided to head to Disney Springs for a late lunch since our evening ADR was not until 9.15pm. We arrived at Disney Springs for 2.45pm and already knew where we were headed - Earl of Sandwich. You can't go wrong with EoS, it is so consistently good! Side note: The house we have bought is in Kent and is near to Bluewater apparently (we have been the area once ever and that was to sign for the house - we are from Manchester) and there is an Earl of Sandwich there. If anyone has ever been, please let me know if it is as good as if it is, a lot of my time will be spent there!

Nick ordered the Hawaiian BBQ, with a cheesecake and diet coke and I ordered the Chipotle Chicken Avocado (no avocado - I can't stand the texture) and had a minute maid lemonade. I also grabbed a brownie chocolate creme (you know the one!) but sadly I picked up one with chocolate creme instead of vanilla creme and it just wasn't as good, wayyy too sickly so it ended up being binned.

We wandered around the shops for a while and headed into the Marketplace Co-Op where I found more prints in the same style as the Haunted Mansion one that we had purchased yesterday. There were quite a few to choose from including Peter Pan, Mr Toad and Pirates of the Caribbean. We decided to buy another 2 and chose Space Mountain and Jungle Cruise. I absolutely love these prints and I can't wait to move into our house so we can put them up!

I also saw the most beautiful print ever and couldn't warrant buying the full sized print, so bought a little postcard sized one that I intend to frame and put somewhere in the house too. It just reminded me so perfectly of me and Nick watching Wishes the night before in Magic Kingdom and just how perfect it had been. The print is called "In Our Happy Place" and it summed how I was feeling up perfectly.

I spent ages looking at all the homeware and could have spent a fortune on it all but sadly the baggage allowance would not allow for it all. I would also be too worried about getting home and some of it being broken!
I had a nosey in the new dress shop and the dresses were absolutely stunning - I really wanted to buy at least one but sadly they had absolutely none in my size and only had larger sizes left.

We then wandered around World of Disney for a bit. I spotted the really popular Walt Disney World Spirit Jersey that everyone has been raving about and made a mental note to pick one up towards the end of the holiday as I still couldn't decide between coral and mint green.

We walked over to Goofy's Candy Co (via Ghirardelli for the obligatory free chocolate) to get a create your own rice krispy treat each. Mine was covered in white chocolate with mini m&ms and a milk chocolate drizzle and Nick's was covered in white chocolate with crushed oreo and a white chocolate drizzle. We decided to save them until we were back at the hotel, although that probably wasn't the best idea as it was boiling and they soon started to melt

After this we headed to the bus stop and got chatting to a couple also staying at AKL but without the dining plan. They were really feeling the cost, especially after a meal at Jiko the night before. It made me so grateful to have DDP and not have to worry about budgeting for meals etc.

We got back to the hotel at 5.30pm and relaxed until about 7.40 when we set off for the Polynesian with a bus arriving at 7.45. I was planning to be at the Poly for about 8.45 latest so that we could watch the last ever Wishes from the beach before heading up for our ADR.
Annoyingly, when we began to get close to MK we got stuck in a huge traffic jam that just was not moving. At first we just thought that it must be traffic for Wishes, but then we saw what appeared to be a crash between a car and one of the Disney buses so this must have been what had caused it. We jumped off the bus and rushed over to the monorail via the new bag check lines.
As we got there a monorail was just pulling out of the station which was incredibly annoying (not to mention typical!). Another one eventually arrived and unloaded, however we were then told that it was going to be setting off empty although we did not get an explanation. There were quite a lot of people trying to get to various places on the monorail loop in time for Wishes so people were quite frustrated by this.
Eventually another came by which point we were really pushing it for time so I was getting ready to watch Wishes from the monorail.
Thankfully we arrived at the Poly dead on 9pm and we ran straight to the window next to 'Ohana and watched Wishes from there instead. At least we had seen it in person the night before and we still managed to get to see it tonight even if it was without the soundtrack.

We then checked in for our 9.15 ADR. There was a woman next to us also trying to check in but she was about 30 minutes late and they were not having any of it and turned her away.
We were taken to our table at about 9.25.

I am sure you all know every part of the 'Ohana menu by now since it is such a popular place, but here are the photos and description anyway!

First up we had the pineapple-coconut bread and butter, which was very nice but also quite sweet. Not to mention I didn't want to fill up on bread when I knew what else was to come! We also had the salad with passionfruit dressing. I am not a salad person, however Nick absolutely loved it and had a couple of servings.

Next up were the noodles, potstickers and chicken wings. This went down really well and we finished pretty much everything. I think the potstickers were probably my favourite, and I really enjoyed the sauces that came with them! I saved the noodles for when the skewers came around.

We both had all three options of the skewers: shrimp, steak and chicken. I really enjoyed the chicken a lot, but the shrimp was both of our favourite, they were just so flavourful - we even ended up asking for more shrimp.
The steak was nice, but not as good as the other two! For some reason I don't see to have any photos of this part of the meal!

I was too full for the dessert (plus I am not a huge bread pudding or banana fan) but Nick was really looking forward to this one. Impressively, even after all the food he had already eaten, he still managed to conquer about 3/4 of the dessert which was actually quite impressive. I did have to roll him home afterwards though He also rated this as the best dessert so far.
I have just asked him now and he says it was his favourite of the holiday that he ordered (his absolute favourite dessert was the cheesecake that I ordered from Narcoossees but he only had about 2 spoonfuls which he is now gutted about !).

We ended up leaving the Poly at 10.30 and was on a bus back to AKL by 11pm. The traffic was absolutely horrific with people leaving after Wishes (probably made worse by the fact it was the last one ever) so it took us much longer than usual to get back. We eventually pulled into AKL at about 11.55pm and headed straight up to bed.

Because it was a bit of a lazy day, I only just managed to make it past the 10,000 step mark!

Thank you all again for reading, your comments have been so great and it is so fun to get to share all of my wonderful memories with you all!

[Zomax25]

Another great day. Thanks for sharing.

[bigplan415]

Hi Lucy, loving your trip report but I have bad news for you - I was at Bluewater about 10 days ago and the Earl of Sandwich there appeared to have closed down! It hadn't even been open a year, really disappointing.

[Lucyjane45xxx]

Originally Posted by Zomax25

Another great day. Thanks for sharing.

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Thank you so much for reading again! It is greatly appreciated!

Originally Posted by bigplan415

Hi Lucy, loving your trip report but I have bad news for you - I was at Bluewater about 10 days ago and the Earl of Sandwich there appeared to have closed down! It hadn't even been open a year, really disappointing.

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Thank you so much, I am glad you are enjoying it and thanks for reading!

Oh no I am so sad about that, we were so excited about having an Earl of Sandwich on our doorstep Can't believe it has closed! Thanks for letting me know!

[duchy]

You still have a proper Krispy Kreme at Bluewater and if you live close you'll soon know to watch out for the red sign that heralds the free samples !

[HFJohnson]

Great report so far!

The EOS was open at Bluewater when I was there a few weeks ago but it didn't look very popular so I'm not surprised if it has closed. TBH it just wasn't the same anyway - it just made me sad that I wasn't in Disney Springs or overlooking the lake at DLP!

[Lucyjane45xxx]

Originally Posted by duchy

You still have a proper Krispy Kreme at Bluewater and if you live close you'll soon know to watch out for the red sign that heralds the free samples !

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I do love Krispy Kreme, it is the only donut I like (except the giant pink simpsons ones at Universal of course!) and free samples sounds pretty amazing! I have no idea how far away we will be from Bluewater neither of us have ever really been to Kent except to our housing development once

Originally Posted by HFJohnson

Great report so far!

The EOS was open at Bluewater when I was there a few weeks ago but it didn't look very popular so I'm not surprised if it has closed. TBH it just wasn't the same anyway - it just made me sad that I wasn't in Disney Springs or overlooking the lake at DLP!

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Yes I guess I do agree. Can't really beat sitting in the sun outside the one in Disney Springs. I have never actually been to the one in Paris thinking about it!

[mick]

Another great day

Joan

[Lucyjane45xxx]

Originally Posted by mick

Another great day

Joan

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Thanks for stopping by Joan!

[Disneygirlxx]

Loving your reports
Ohana s looks great can't wait to try it