*Tent on Wheels at DISNEY* Disney Springs

The slogan is "Happily Whatever You're After!" and with all the shops, restaurants, and fun things to do, you really COULD find just bout anything you want in this outdoor shopping center.  Accessible by Disney transportation from the resorts and the parks, there's also ample parking for cars and no need to park for parking OR admission! It's no wonder this is a great "to-do" item on visitor's non-park days.  

RDB and I attempted to come across on Disney transportation, but decided to bring the truck across instead.  Once we were parked we started walking thru the stores and shops, still looking for a pair of souvenir earrings for this trip.  

Along the way, we stopped into The Ganachery.  Mostly just to look around (RDB doesn't each milk/dark chocolate because of the caffeine in it) because I have found that handmade chocolate can be like works of art. 

The women behind the glass were hand-painting those chocolates!  Like I said, works of art!  I was drawn to give one a try so I ask the shop clerk which was her favorite.  Ya'll - I bought an orange dark chocolate square that came "with instructions on how to eat it" and "is so good, you just might need a cigarette after you're done." :-0 It was delicious! 

We were waiting for my friend and colleague DJ-Hot-T and her son, Dom, to come over and join us for dinner.  They were in town for a mother-son vacation with a few other friends and going to Universal Studios for the weekend.  While they got settled into their hotel, we walked over to Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar for a few beers. You could play "I Spy" for hours in this bar!

We struck up a conversation with Craig behind the bar, and decided to grab an appetizer to go with our local brews. He recommended the loaded pretzel - and WOW, y'all!!  This was perhaps the best snack we had our entire trip to Disney!!

We devoured that pretzel and all the goodies that came with it!

We were planning to have dinner at The Boathouse but couldn't snag a reservation for our party of four in advance.  The other option was to walk-up and hope for a table.  Well, we were in luck, because after RDB and I finished off that pretzel next door, we were able to walk right in and get seated at a table for four in the bar; that in turn lead to another round of drinks while we waited to DJ-Hot-T and Dom, which lead me down this road:

That's the duck duck buzz drink, and our waiter, Matthew, encouraged me to name the duck - with her big eyelashes, settled in on the top of my (very sweet) martini, she just had to be a Victoria.  Our friends arrived shortly thereafter, another round of drinks ordered, and somewhere along the way we decided to scratch another item off the bucket list and ordered a round of... oysters!  I'd never eaten an oyster before, and I suppose the beers and duck-duck-buzz gave me the liquid courage to give them a try!

Down the hatch they went! And, no they're not that bad, but also, no, I wouldn't order them again!  While we waited for dinner to arrive Dom kept us all entertained with rounds of quizzes about dinosaurs (there is literally a dinosaur for every letter of the alphabet!)  They even brought a card game for us to play after dinner (What is something that starts with a T and "it flies"? - TIME!  When you're having fun with friends on vacation!)

We had an alternative for meeting DJ-Hot-T and Dom at The Boathouse for dinner and it was the after-activity of taking a ride on an Amphicar!  We got a few pictures, our Caption, Jakob willing snapping a few with our iPhone  and then we loaded up to take a drive... in the water!!

No, Dom, you are not the Captain.  This guy is: 

Ok, maybe we should have let Dom drive?  All kidding aside, though, Captain Jakob has the best job at Disney, hands down! We got a discount on the price of the ride thanks to our dinner at The Boathouse, and the photos were linked to our PhotoPass account since it's a Disney property.  Score!

It was about a 20 minute drive around the lake, we did water donuts, and even Dom got a chance to steer for a bit.  The car itself is pretty cool - this model was a 770: 7 knots on the water and 70 MPH on dry land. 

We did stroll around a bit, checking out the shops and other distractions, there's a Lego store and several life-sized creations around both the store and in the lake, as well as the World of Disney store for all your shopping needs; forget the Midas touch, here it's the Mouse's touch! everything you could ever imagine, branded in Disney. 

Photo Bombed by the Domasaur!

Disney Springs is definitely fun, a great distraction with an awesome night life, and they are the place of "Happily Whatever You're After" but I still haven't found a pair of souvenir earrings.....

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*Tent on Wheels at DISNEY* Rest Days

Sooo, why do you need rest days?  Because this is what it looks like after going to the parks three days in a row:

But aside from giving yourself a break from the go-go-go of being at the park, rest days gives you the chance to do so much more around the Disney area that still gives you the 'magic' feeling without requiring park admission.

Just a few ideas here that we enjoyed during our down time at Disney:

Take a golf cart and go looping around Fort Wilderness!

We debated about renting a golf cart for our stay as the campground has plenty of onsite transportation, but after finding the Original Fort Wilderness Scavenger Hunt Facebook page and knowing we'd love this just as much as we loved hiding ducks on our cruises!  So, we were late to the reservations game but our vacation planner Heather @DreamBigVacations was able to get us a reservation for several days of our trip.

And to be honest? One of the most fun things you can do is rent a cart and then decorate it!

As soon as we got onto property and settled into our campsite, we went down and picked up our golf cart, brought it back, put on a few quick decorations, and then off we went! "Looping" is just riding along thru the campground checking out the other sites and drop off scavenger hunt items, or go find scavenger hunt items. 

It's a great way to enjoy a day waving at other campers, spreading a little Pixie Dust, and enjoying the lush beauty of Fort Wilderness.

Do Laundry!

Ok, so that may not sound like the best way to spend a rest day on your vacation, but Disney has really put the magic in even the mundane tasks.  Each loop at the Fort has a Comfort Station (bathrooms with showers and laundry facilities) and RDB and I got a real kick out of the automation  - you can use a website to see what machines are available AND have your machine text you a message when your load of laundry is done!

Which meant we had more time to go looping around and place items in the scavenger hunt!

Go resort hopping on the Monorail and Skyliner!

We're avid campers, so for us, staying at the campground at Fort Wilderness is an absolute dream; however, we've also been know to enjoy a fine hotel on a trip or two. Spending an afternoon using Disney transportation to hop from one resort to another was a great way to see what Disney had to offer for the next time we come back!

Monorail first: there are a few different monorail loops - each runs through the Travel and Ticket Center and then to either the resorts (Contemporary, Grand Floridian, and Polynesian) and Magic Kingdom, or Epcot and Magic Kingdom. 

I had a small ulterior motive for riding the monorail over to the reports, too: a stop at the Polynesian to enjoy a Dole Whip! Last time I had one was visiting Big Bro M while he and the family were stationed in Hawaii and we went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. This one came "enlightened" with a bit of coconut rum inside! Yum!

Riding past SpaceShip Earth on the Epcot loop is also really cool!

And on to the Skyliner: You can jump onto the SkyLiner at two parks (Hollywood Studios, Epcot) and off you go to another set of resorts (Art of Animation, Caribbean Beach, Pop Century, and the Rivera Resort). Starting at Epcot means that you can take a 'straight' line ride to AoA and Pop, and as long as you don't mind missing Hollywood Studios, you can just ride right back to where you started again with Epcot!

It was fun to jump off at Art of Animation and look around. This one definitely sings 'Disney' in the crazy way that they've created the atmosphere around the grounds.  

You could easily spend a day just traveling around the Disney parks and resorts on the monorail and Skyliner! So much fun with no ticket required!

Play MiniGolf at Winter Summerland!

The story goes something like this:

Late one Christmas Eve, as Santa was flying back to the North Pole, he discovered snow in Florida. After surveying the strange sight, he decided to build a vacation destination for his off-duty elves, a Winter Summerland.

Seeing that the only thing Winter Summerland lacked was a golf course, Santa and his elves divided into 2 camps, one that enjoyed the warm Florida sun and another that preferred the snow and cold of the North Pole. The elves then built 2 distinctly different 18-hole golf experiences: a sand course named "Summer" and a snow course named "Winter."

On the day that Mr Polo was flying back to NYC we drove over to Blizzard Beach (which is closed for refurbishment... which meant the parking lot was easy to navigate!) to enjoy a round of mini golf.

We had a set of tickets from our park package, but the cost really isn't bad for a full 18 holes of mini golf ($14).  We really enjoyed the creativity of the set designs.  I was giggling at all the "Elf-stream" campers that were parked around the course.

Golfing in Florida? Now that's a perfect spring vacation!

Go Shopping and Dining at Disney Springs...

There was SO MUCH to do at Disney Springs, and we had such a great time hanging out with my friend DJ-Hot-T and her son, Dom, that I wrote a post just for it!  Check it out here.  But even if you don't go to shop and dine, if you do go to Disney Springs, then you have to 

...take a Ride in an Antique Amphicar!

I left this one for last because it might have been my favorite! If you've ever been on a duckboat tour, this is a similar concept.  I'm not sure what it is about them, but these amphibious cars are so cool!  It was the perfect end of the evening with DJ-Hot-T and Dom after a great dinner at the Boathouse Restaurant, and taking the ride at night just added to the MAGIC of the experience! 

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Be sure to check out our other posts from Tent On Wheels at DISNEY!