Disney World. Day 1. This plane doesn’t even have a phalange!
Tzvi’s alarm went off at 6:20. Too early.
We quickly got up, got Hallie ready, called an Uber, and the four of us were headed to the airport.
[For those who don’t know, the fourth member of our party is Ofek, our au pair from Israel. Coincidentally her last name is Kaplan also, so she fits in well.]
We flew out of LaGuardia because the flight times worked better. There was a lot of traffic and it took us 45 minutes to get there. I know they’re redoing LaGuardia, but I think JetBlue was moved into the old Delta terminal, so it’s pretty dumpy. We all had pre-check, but we still had to wait on regular lines since there was only one TSA agent stamping tickets (at least we didn’t have to take our shoes off and we went through metal detectors only). As we were going through, we took Hallie’s water cup out of her bag and asked if it needed to be in a bin. The TSA agent said yes. Then when we got through the metal detector, a different agent said Hallie was too old to carry water on the plane and we needed to go back outside of security to spill it out. That’s right, we couldn’t spill out the water on this side of the metal detector. The agent took Tzvi through a door and said when he was ready he could come back. What she didn’t say was that in order to come back he needed to go back outside the terminal and then go through security all over again. Apparently Tzvi ran through the terminal cursing loudly, but there wasn’t actually anyone around to hear him.
Past security was pretty schvach. There was a Dunkin Donuts, a restaurant, and a newsstand that only sold seven different magazines. Boarding time (9:03 AM) came and went without an announcement, and finally at 9:15 they announced that the plane want ready and they would update us in 20 to 30 minutes. Twenty minutes later they announced that they were “missing a part” for the plane, but that they were bringing another one from JFK and it would be there in 45 minutes. I don’t understand how they don’t have parts in their own airport, and have to bring one in from elsewhere.
I think we boarded around 11 and then sat on the runway for what felt like forever, and then finally took off a little before 12. Pretty terrible. I entertained Hallie during the entire ordeal and then at least half of the flight while Tzvi worked and watched an episode of The Spy.
The flight was actually pretty good though. Hallie did pretty well and watched her tablet a lot. We landed around 2, then sat on the runway some more waiting for a gate. Then we parked and sat for five minutes waiting for them to open the door.
Oy.
Our luck picked up when our bags were among the first to come down at baggage claim, and our Uber showed up earlier than what the app said. We drove about 40 minutes to the hotel and thankfully Hallie got in a little nap.
For this trip we’re staying at the Four Seasons, which is on Disney property, but feels pretty remote. The hotel is beautiful. We checked in and then took a walk around and met up with my parents who got here yesterday and spent today at the pool (which we would’ve done had we arrived on time). There are multiple pools, including two gorgeous infinity pools overlooking a lake (although it looks a little like a swamp), water slides, a kids club, and an adult pool. I’m really looking forward to spending the day here on Thursday.
After that we showered and changed. They brought Hallie a kiddie bathrobe, which came with a tutu, wand and tiara. Then we took the house car, which I think was a Cadillac Escalade, and headed to Disney Springs where we walked around a little and then had dinner at Jaleo, a new Jose Andres tapas restaurant.
Dinner was fine. I think I ate bread and some potatoes and some frittata. I don’t need to go back there.
Tzvi: Dinner was interesting, but great. I just ordered everything for the table:
Pan de cristal con tomate: Toasted slices of uniquely crispy and ethereal bread brushed with fresh tomato
Cheese platter with five different cheese and lots of interesting accompaniments like quince paste and fig jam and compressed pears
Cono De Queso De Cabra Con Mermelada De Tomate: Tomato Marmalade and Goat Cheese Cone
Cono De Salmon Crudo Con Huevas De Trucha: Salmon Tartare and Trout Roe Cone
Ensalada verde: Mixed greens with cherry tomatoes, onions and olives with a sherry dressing
Ensaladilla rusa: The ultimate Spanish tapa: potato salad with imported conserved tuna, carrots, peas and mayonnaise
Tortilla de patatas clásica: Spanish omelette with potatoes and onions
Pisto manchego con huevo frito: Stewed vegetables with fried egg
Buñuelos de bacalao: Fried cod and potato fritters with honey alioli
Patatas bravas: A Jaleo favorite: fried potatoes with spicy tomato sauce and alioli
Salmon con pisto: Seared Atlantic salmon with traditional stewed vegetables
Here are all of the dishes (click a photo to enlarge):
All was delicious. Some things were weird, but all was delicious.
Steph: Dinner took about an hour. Hallie was jumping around a lot, but Ofek took Hallie outside to play toward the end so we had some respite. After dinner we walked to the other side of Disney Springs for dessert. As we walked Hallie saw a man selling balloons and said she wanted it. We asked her which color she wanted and she said, “No, i want all of them!” She got one. It was very expensive for a balloon.
We went to Ghiradelli, where we ordered one salted caramel brownie sundae with chocolate and vanilla ice cream, chocolate brownies, caramel sauce, sea salt and hot fudge topped with whipped cream, caramel sauce and chocolate sauce, and one cookie bits sundae with three scoops of ice cream (cookies 'n cream, cookie dough and coffee), hot fudge, whipped cream, chocolate chip cookie crumbles and Ghirardelli milk chocolate caramel minis. Hallie had her own cup of chocolate and strawberry ice cream with hot fudge, “but no whipped cream!” I think she just wanted strawberry ice cream because it’s pink. She ate a little bit of it. Needless to say the sundaes left nothing to complain about.
After that it was late so we Ubered back to the hotel and put Hallie to bed. For 10 extra dollars we had the Uber with a car seat. Hallie is sharing a room with Ofek. We’ll see how that goes.
Tomorrow we go to the parks.