Disney World. Day 1. And so it begins.
Hello from Orlando!
I should address the elephant in the room. Is it weird to be in Disney when the whole Jewish world is grieving? Yes. Was this trip booked almost a year ago? Also yes. Will we miss a historic march on Tuesday? I certainly hope so. Am Yisrael Chai.
Now let’s begin.
As some of you may know, I grew up going to Disney annually, staying at our timeshare at the Sheraton Vistana Resort in Orlando. Ever since Tzvi came into my life, we have taken additional trips, staying at other hotels. Well, I have returned to my roots. We are spending this week at Vistana, with us in one unit and my parents and Avery and Gabriella in another. Austin and Rachel aren’t here, which is sad.
Our flight was at 12pm today, which meant we didn’t have to leave the house until 10am. Thank God we didn’t have to wake up super early, because after last night’s rager (read: Jesselson engagement party), it wouldn’t have happened. After Tzvi’s usual panicked sweep through the house, we were out by 10:15. We ordered two Ubers, one XL and one regular, because usually the XL doesn’t fit all of us and all of our many bags. Well, when the XL got here the driver said no problem and that he could fit everyone and everything. The XL driver told the other Uber driver that we would give him some cash and pay the cancellation fee, which he seemed okay with. The XL driver told us to get $10 cash, which we did, but then when we gave it to the other driver he wasn’t happy. It was like no one understood what anyone was saying.
Check in was a breeze. We are Mosaic so we get infinite bags with a 70 lb weight limit each. We took advantage. For some reason Hallie didn’t get pre-check (we think her Global Entry renewal just didn’t kick in yet), so she went with Inbar on the Even More Speed line while the rest of us when through Precheck. If by speed they meant take a half hour, they nailed it. The rest of us got some coffee, snacks, and headed to the gate. They made it to us before boarding.
Of course boarding announcements always bring out the best in people. Another flight to San Juan starts announcing Group A, and a whole bunch of people on our flight get up, try to board, and our crew asks them why they are there and to sit down. Then they got all angry yelling “You called group A!” People just need to listen. I have no patience. Anyway, they started boarding us and we got on with our Mosaic level, right behind a family who had a young daughter named Madeleine.
The flight was uneventful, but very bumpy. Flying time was under 2.5 hours. I love flying here. We walked the long walk in the new terminal, no longer getting to say that the Orlando tram is the “first ride of the trip.” We got two Ubers (this time we took both) and headed to Vistana!
Check in was in the “Lakes VIP Area” except it didn’t feel very VIP. They made us shlep all of our luggage inside, only to make us shlep it back out so they could bring us to our room on a shuttle. While we were checking in, a woman (she must have been 70) with blue eyeshadow and huge fake eyelashes, came over and started talking to us about how much luggage we had and how she just couldn’t believe it! It was weird.
Usually when we do Vistana trips we do a Publix shopping to buy food for the week. This time we opted for Instacart, and Avery got the whole order before we even arrived. While I usually enjoy filling up two carts at Publix, there was just no time, and this was way easier.
The rooms in Vistana are two bedroom apartment type rooms. It’s a great setup. A master bedroom with a bathroom, a bedroom with two queens and its own bathroom, a kitchen, living room, and a dining room table set for 6. It’s our first time staying at Vistana with me and Tzvi in the master bedroom. When I was a senior in high school and came with friends for winter break (yes, my senior winter break trip was to Disney and I have zero regrets), I was in the master, but not since then! No more living room couches for us! The girls are sharing the second bedroom with Inbar. The couch does open in the living room though if we needed to fit more people! I’m telling you, it may not be a Four Seasons, but I was able to unpack everything we brought. That’s a win. [Tzvi: It’s definitely not a Four Seasons.]
We settled in, the girls bathed, and we headed out for dinner. We rented a car from the Turo app, a luxurious seven passenger 2021 Chrysler Town and Country. It was delivered to our hotel and waiting for us when we got there.
Now, normally we would have a Disney Springs dinner, but we opted to check out the Orlando Kosher scene at Kosher Grill. [Tzvi: When we visit “Orlando” I like to stay within the 25,000 well manicured and family friendly acres of Disney World. Kosher Grill is in real central Florida, in a strip mall with six shuttered stores with paper over the window and six gun shops within a 1 mile radius.]
The restaurant is comprised of two big rooms. The first was pretty full, and our table was in the second, which was entirely empty. Always love a room to ourselves. The food was a mix of Israeli and American. Large Jewish communities can support multiple kosher restaurants with different cuisines – Israeli restaurants, a hamburger shop, a chicken place, a Chinese restaurant, a sushi bar, etc. But when you get to smaller communities, like Orlando, there’s just kosher food, which is usually a mix of American and Israeli meat food. That was okay, because some of us were really in the mood for schwarma, except when we sat down they told us they ran out of shawarma.
The food was delicious. I really thought I’d get sick from it, but so far so good. We started with a few appetizers – hummus, felafel, fried cauliflower and some weird eggplant thing. Tzvi and I shared two dishes – a burger with pulled beef on it, and a makluba, which was basically a mixture of rice, schnitzel, mushrooms, caramelized onions, sweet chili and garlic pesto sauce. It was actually delicious. For dessert Hallie ordered chocolate cake, which we all shared. It was okay.
We got back to Vistana and realized we had no toothbrush for Madeleine. Tzvi said he was going to Walgreens and my mother started rattling off a shopping list that consisted of mustard, cottage cheese and some pots and pans. He came back with a toothbrush and a can of cold brew for himself for tomorrow morning.
The girls never went to sleep. Madeleine kept Hallie up and Hallie was upset. I think they fell asleep around ten, which will be great for tomorrow when they have an 8am princess makeover.
We watched the Jets lose, and went to bed.
Good first day.