Disney World. October 2021. Day 6. The Worst Salmon Ever.
Happy Friday.
Today was supposed to be a “pool” day that didn’t involve any pool time (well, aside for pop pop). We got up as usual and attempted to get out, except for some reason we just couldn’t move. Probably because we were exhausted. Instead of room service, today we opted to eat breakfast at the Lobby café called “Lickety Split.” Tzvi and I were supposed to share avocado toast, except they put tomato on it, which ruined it (which is weird, because tomato rarely ruins things – it’s never good, but I can usually just pull it off). Madeleine got cheerios and Hallie had a bagel with cream cheese.
We finally got ready to go and tried to get an Uber… for a half hour. We called an Uber XL, but the car that showed up was too small to fit all of us and the stroller, so we cancelled and called another. Except the same driver kept accepting our ride. After six or seven attempts, we finally gave up and used Lyft.
Finally we arrived at Disney Springs… on the West Side. This is the total opposite end (near the Cirque De Soleil), which was fine and where I actually wanted to be, except the Uber drop off there is really far from the entrance. On this side there was an actual security check, but that didn’t open until 11am and it was 10:51. One guy told us we would have to walk all the way around a parking lot, but that would’ve taken ten minutes anyway, so we just walked over to the security check to wait and they ended up just letting us in early. It’s so dumb because the stores had been open for an hour already.
Anyway, our first stop was the M&M store! We all (not Tzvi) made a little variety bag of M&Ms. It was cute. In the meantime, Tzvi walked off to find a bathroom. We didn’t see him for a while. [Tzvi: To be clear, I did not spend “a while” in the bathroom – I just didn’t feel like walking back to go to the M&M Store or the donut shop, where there was nothing for me, so instead I spent a half hour trying to reprogram the FaceID on my phone to work when I was wearing a mask. It didn’t work.] After the M&M Store we hit Everglazed, a donut shot. They have outrageous donuts. We got the 50th anniversary one to share and it was delicious. The girls were more focused on their M&Ms.
We met back up with Tzvi and did some shopping at Ugg and Sperry, then had lunch at Raglan Road, the Irish place with the great bread pudding. We love the place and go every time, but it was kind of a weird visit. First, we usually go at night when there’s live music and dancers doing an Irish jig. They don’t have entertainment during the day though, so it almost didn’t even feel like they were open. I ordered a Bailey’s shake (ice cream, Bailey’s and coffee liqueur), except when the server brought it he told me they made it without chocolate syrup and asked whether I wanted him to look for syrup. Huh? I don’t know if he was expecting me to say no, but obviously I told him yes. Why did he even bring it? Anyway, eventually they brought me a new one with chocolate syrup and Tzvi drank the one without. I also had the worst bite of salmon I’ve ever had in my life. Tzvi ordered the Florida Key Lime Salmon – the menu said “whiskey cured and lightly smoked Atlantic salmon, Florida key lime & herb crushed potatoes, peas, shaved horseradish and crispy salmon skins. Well, I didn’t read that and didn’t realize it was like cured and smoked. Once it was in my mouth there was no going back. I will forever remember that bite of salmon. Anyway, Tzvi also had a beer flight, and I ordered a vegan shepherds pie which was interesting. The bread pudding was delicious, as was the Guinness dipping sauce they bring with the Irish soda bread.
After that we found some way to spend several more hours shopping. Tzvi and the girls rode the little train ride, and then Madeleine slept in the stroller while Tzvi and Hallie went to ride the carousel. Three times. First they road on the horses, and then Hallie noticed there was a single teacup on the carousel – that’s right, you could spin around fast while spinning on the carousel. Hallie made Tzvi do that twice; after the second time Tzvi had to sit for a while to keep from vomiting.
Somehow it was around 4pm when we left. We got back to the hotel and Tzvi and I went into the hot tub for about 15 minutes. Then we headed back up and got ready for dinner!
Dinner tonight was at Ravello, the Italian restaurant at the hotel. Unfortunately we have no photos because it was Shabbos when we sat down, but I think this was our best meal of the trip. To start we had two pizzas – a margherita and a white pizza with ricotta, mushrooms, arugula and truffle oil. We also had a couple of other appetizers with eggplant and artichokes. For the main I had spaghetti and Tzvi had a moon shaped pasta with cream sauce and artichokes, spinach and peas. For dessert we had the Italian chocolate cake, tiramisu and a Stracciatella cake. Everything was so delicious. All of the meals we’ve had on this trip have been pretty good, but this was more of a gourmet meal than anything else we’ve had this week.
After dinner we put the girls to bed, and then Tzvi and I and my parents went up to the rooftop to watch the EPCOT fire works. Then Tzvi and I sat at the bar and had cocktails – I had some kind of mojito with an interesting whipped passion fruit on top and Tzvi had some whiskey drink that came out of a barrel.
Then we went to bed. Good night.