On this episode, we chat about our recent trip to Central Florida, which included our first day at Swan Reserve, a mocktail lounge crawl, Halloween treats, and two nights at the Orlando and former meetup at Universal Orlando Resort. Today's August 16th, 2024, and this episode's 694 of the Main Street Magic Podcast. ♪ Jeremy and Ronda are more than a little pond of Disney World ♪ ♪ So they made this podcast to share it all with you ♪ ♪ Reports and resorts, top ten lists of all sorts ♪ ♪ Main Street Magic's bringing it home for you ♪ Hello and welcome to another episode of Main Street Magic. I'm your host, Jeremy Stein, and as always, I'm joined by my lovely wife, Ronda. Hey, guys! Make sure you check us out on the web at mainstimagic.com, as well as follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @mainstimagic and on TikTok @msmpodcast. If you want to be part of the community and join the conversation, in addition to live streams from the parks and our weekly live show, head to Facebook and search for the Main Street Magic community and ask to join. And don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you can get brand new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Planning a trip to Disneyland or Walt Disney World can be overwhelming and at times just downright frustrating. But don't worry because Bounce Dining removes the frustration of booking Disney dining reservations alerting you when they spot availability for your desired restaurant, date, meal, and time. Visit msmfriends.com to use this free service. So on today's episode, we are talking all about our fun trip that we had. Staying at a new place, eating lots of Halloween food. We did a whole lot. And it all came about very last minute. So we went down, let's see, it would have been what, 8th to 11th, just this past weekend. Yes, right. Before school started here in St. John's County and Duval County, actually. Yeah, so we actually decided that Sunday before, just a couple days before, that we would head down and we were looking around, we booked Swan Reserve. So we'll talk about that. And then some last minute plans came up that we'll talk about. So we ended up staying another night, but we jam packed this trip because we had a lot of things on our list to do. So I'm tired just thinking about it. Oh, I know, right? It was so fun. We're home for two weekends. Kids are all back in school. I know. And then I'm just not the counties. But so I guess this year, good luck with everybody, teachers that we know and students that are back in school. Yeah, here's to here's to a great school year. We got two high schoolers. Yes, we do. Which is absolutely crazy. Yeah. All right, well, let's start and talk about Swan. Yeah, right? Yeah, super excited. It is right across the street from Swan and Dolphin. It is to your left when you're coming in. Beautiful resort. It is right there next to Fantasia Gardens. Yeah, golf course. Actually, if you want to go there, you need to park at the Swan Reserve. Yeah, and they will validate your parking for you. They will. Yeah, they will validate your parking for if you're playing putt putt there. Yes. They will not validate it if you're staying at the resort. Yeah, which is just so weird to me. And we'll include all those numbers. But this is this is one of the newer resorts. This is a Marriott property. And it is part of the Swan and Dolphin family. Gosh, it really opened back in 2021. I did not realize that it had in November will be three years since this open. I really thought it was less than I did too. So it just shows how time flies. Yes, it does. But it took us a little while to get here. Yeah. But you know, we can cross this one off our list. But this is actually on Disney property. Yes, it is. And along with the Swan and Dolphin and like Rhonda said, these are just separated by a street. Honestly, Swan Reserve is just about as close to the Dolphin as the Swan is to the Dolphin. Yes. Like, I think what I didn't realize, we had been over here before just to kind of walk through the lobby, look at it. We've been up to the pool bar before one time we met Cat and Michael and Jessica and Landon and you know, and had some drinks and some food and stuff. But I didn't actually realize how that it really is all this one giant resort property. Yes, Swan, Dolphin, Swan Reserve. I thought it just felt like it was going to be further away. But the only reason it does is because there is a street to cross, right? But it is at a light and then there are street buttons to push. Yeah. So you can go across. Yeah, there's crossing. There's perfect crossing. But just the it's it's all part of this one giant resort, which is really, really cool. Yeah. And one of the best parts is that when you're staying at Swan, when you're staying at Dolphin, when you're staying at Swan Reserve, you can think of those as all one entire resort because all the amenities are shared amongst those three. In fact, if you go to the Swan Reserve restaurant, or I'm sorry, if you go to the Swan Reserve website, when it lists dining, it includes everything at Swan and Dolphin and vice versa. So it really is this giant resort making it one of the largest resorts on Disney property, you know, when you think about it, because this is legit Disney property right there by the boardwalk area. Yes, it is. So I just I absolutely love it. This is considered a deluxe resort. Mm hmm. And we stayed in a standard room. We did. And they do have some suites. And we got a king room. Yes, we did. Which pulls out there's a couch that pulls out to a full bed so they can sleep. You can't. Yeah. So these these standard rooms here about 330 square feet. Pretty nice eyes. They feel bigger. A lot bigger and we'll have you go through the room layout. I think they feel a lot bigger than when you look at this is only 16 square feet larger than the Disney moderate resorts. The room feels bigger than most of the moderate resort rooms. It does. I think based on the way they lay out the decor the all that. Yeah. And then a standard room over at the dolphin even is is 30 square feet bigger at 360. Wow. And if I go back in my memory bank to the last time we stayed at dolphin, which has been a little while and they have that room feels a heck of a lot smaller. They don't just think it's size beds. They do. They don't has queens dolphin has full size. This you can either get two queens or you can get the king and then get the pull out full sofa. So I and I don't think it was just the fact that we had that sofa in our room that made this room feel so much larger. But talk about the layout of the room and the pros and cons because I think we really have what one con maybe two. I'm like, I'll tell you the con if you don't think of it. I'm like, oh, I'm not sure about the con yet. But let's say there's barely any. This is this is one of my favorite rooms on Disney property now. It moves up in the top five. I love this room in our view didn't hurt because you do have oh, yeah, you do have Epcot views and you have other views. Now, most of the other views, depending on what floor you're on, are still going to see some stuff. Yeah. All right. Talk about talk about the room layout. Talk about our view. Okay. Oh, gosh, you got me all kind of twisted up. All right. I'm just excited. I'm excited to talk about this. I loved it. Yes. When you walk into the room, immediately to your left is a barn door with your entire bathroom set toilet, glass shower, and one sink. First con and maybe only con is the individual sink for a deluxe resort. And I think a bathroom of this size needed a little bit and could have been two sinks. But again, or more countertop, more more space because I let my brush fell off and I lost it because I remember it falling off. I didn't pick it up immediately. And I think it fell underneath the sink area. And I forgot about it. But nice stand up shower. Yeah. Very nice. You know, again, you have you have toilet sink and shower all within the same bathroom. You know, we see a lot of splits in those. Yeah. You know, I mean, shoot, even when you get to the values, which sometimes that's nice, but yes. But I think the I would trade the rest of the room size and layout feel to keep this bathroom is one condensed space. Because if you added a second sink or if you separated the toilet and shower, you'd lose you would lose more space in the main living area. Right. So I'm cool with it. But that's just one little con. Well, and then after that, the bathroom, the rest is just large and wide open. You have your king bed. You have under the bed storage. You have some you have a whole long counter space of not only a desk and a chair, because it is a convention. But you have, you know, like your drawers, if you want to unpack your refrigerator and larger, it's a larger mini fridge. There is not any sort of freezer component to it, but it is larger and more of a fridge than the, you know, air quote, beverage coolers that they put into the standard rooms on on Disney own resorts, right? And then it's very, very large TV. And it's the biggest TV I've seen in a room. I didn't measure it. It looks like this one. It's at least 70. This is a 55 in my office that we're staring at. You don't think it was, but you think it was bigger than that? Okay. Oh, God, yeah. It was at least 70. Well, then you have the couch and then you have Ottoman and like a little nice table. And then how do you say it? Floor to ceiling, beautiful windows. Yeah. So that was really, really cool. And I mean, we had a view directly. We're on the eighth floor. We had a view directly looking down into Swan Dolphin. Right beyond that is the boardwalk, Yotten Beach Club, a beautiful view of spaceship earth. Only thing you can't see is cosmic rewind because it's so well hidden in camouflage by the blue paint. Didn't even didn't even see it. It was perfect. And then over to your left when you're staring out that floor to ceiling window is teeny tiny, which is funny because it, where we are, of course, it looks teeny tiny, but is magic kingdom? And you can see the contemporary, you can see space mountain, you already see space mountain, you can see the top of the castle. And it makes you realize not that you didn't already know, but when you have a visual like that, it just makes you realize how huge Walt Disney World is. You know, when you're looking over going, is that the castle? It's like a quarter inch tall. Think about think about the size. And then what is over to your right, of course? Well, we couldn't see it where our room was like in the way, but it is obviously Hollywood studios. So and on the other side, you got animal kingdom. Yep. So we did get a little view on the 15th floor on the top floor. They have an event space, and it's beautiful. They have an indoor event space that has an outdoor deck area as well. And when you are up there, you can see all four parks. As you go from like one side, as you walk around it, it's incredible. It is incredible. And it is literally called the view. VUE though. Yes, but we'll clever, super, super cool. This resort is beautiful. You know, just like Jeremy was saying how it all is one it they each do have their own pools though. So they do have a nice little quiet pool, basically. And then you have the big deluxe pole that is at Dolphin, but you can share and basically it was again, right down, like looking out our window, we just looked straight down and there was the big giant pool. I mean, what was crazy to me, when you look at the big grotto pool, right, the main area that you're talking about, which, you know, we don't include swan, dolphin swan reserve and a lot of our rankings when we talk Disney resorts because they're not owned by Disney. Right. But this, in my opinion, if we were to, probably maybe falls only second behind Storm Along Bay. I agree. Maybe you maybe it goes behind some other, you know, Disney owned resort pools, but not far. It's top five. It's, it's an incredible pool area. And what's amazing if you are on the eighth floor where we were, the time that it will take you to go from your room down the elevator and be at the pool entrance is the exact same amount of time I'm guessing we didn't time it, but it looks like it as it would take you if you were coming from the eighth floor at the swan or the eighth floor at the dolphin, which I thought was really, again, it shows that the pool is so centralized to those three resorts. The way that everything is set up, which I just thought was, was really cool. Well, another awesome part about the swan reserve is it's not ginormous. Like, I feel like swan in dolphin news. No, it's not. But they have so many elevators that we were barely on an elevator with anybody else for one. Once or twice, I think we did twice, once with a guest. And then the second time we did with a cast member, which they still do refer to them as cast members. They do. The, we'll talk about some pricing and a few other things, but I don't want to forget the part of this. The swan reserve to me, tell me feel the same. It definitely feels because it is smaller, because it is newer, because it has this certain decor and vibe. It feels more like a boutique hotel. You know, like, for example, the pool is on the third floor, where most everything is the lobby and all is up there, like restaurants and stuff are up there. It feels much more elegant. It does to me feel more adult driven. For example, the way the pool is, you know, it is on the third floor. It's kind of contained. It's got the bar and all right there. It has some nice outdoor space. It's all ages, but it feels very adult only. I agree. The same way to me that it felt when we went to the Wave Hotel and Lake Nona. Yes, it does. Yes, it does. This hotel feels like they should have the days and every hotel should have the days. Let's, let's be honest with that one. Let's talk about some pricing. Now, this is not included in the current annual passholder discounts. They're included at Swan and Dolphin. They're not offering that here. Again, it is a Marriott resort. So if you have points, you could certainly use those. Of course, you can use our travel advisors. They can book you here. That's what I would recommend. I mean, again, if you have points, that's what you're going to use. But, you know, so think about doing that. But we got very lucky because for the two nights, ours was 585 with taxes and that included the resort fee as well, which will break out in a second. Yes. So that was actually on the very, very low end. Yes. And that was like a rate we could not pass up. Right. Now it's for a Thursday to Saturday. Yes. Now, looking ahead, for example, September 13th to 15th, I just picked that. It's my birthday weekend. I thought, what if we went to the Swan from Friday to Sunday at Swan Reserve, Friday to Sunday, the traditional guest room, two queens with zero view, you know, which is going to be on that opposite side of it. Right. 309 is your base rate. Okay. A night. All right. It's not bad. It's just hard when you're going to, and let's go ahead and talk about the resort fee and your parking. It's not bad. 309 is not bad, especially for all that except you have to add $45 for a resort fee and $36 if you're going to self-park. If you do have some extra money and you want to display, it is $44 for valet. Yeah. So you're looking at $80, add it on. So now you're looking at $389 a night. And again, that's only if you have a vehicle. Correct. But 389 a night, you're still well under the range of most deluxe resorts. In fact, a lot of times now we're looking in the low 300s for a Caribbean beach. Yeah, true. If you want that same room, but you want the view that we had, which is the Epcot view, that's still the two queens, that's 343 a night. And I would highly suggest that. I'd pay the money for the view. Absolutely. Because I think the coolest part is, you know, and again, we're jumping ahead, but you do get to see fireworks from aluminous, is it? Yeah. And then of course, Magic Kingdom. What's really cool is because we are close enough to Epcot, you actually do hear the booms from the fireworks, which I like. Obviously, you do not hear them from Magic Kingdom. No, no, as I said, too far away. Moving out a little bit into just say November, and this was actually going to be the 15th to 17th. And I only picked that because we'll be at Jolly Wood nights that weekend. Okay. What if we were to stay here? It's elegant. And you can walk. You can walk to Hollywood. You're looking at that traditional guest room, two queens with no view for 403. And then you're looking at the traditional Epcot view with that same two queens for 437. Again, I think I'd pay that money. I would too. But we're breaking into the over $500 a night range. Yeah. Because then you still have to add your resort and parking. Yeah. And I will say it is worth every penny. The only reason we bring it up is because A, you need to know there's a resort fee. Oh, 100%. And you need to know that there is a parking fee if you're bringing a car. Yeah. B, we just hate the way that some of the resorts do this. We just, to me, it feels like a bait and switch. Now, when you're looking at, for example, Marriott property, if you were looking on Marriott's website, which there's really no need for you to do because you just contact one of our travel people. But if you were, there is a button that you can click that will show that rate with taxes and fees. Nice. So that you can see, but so you don't get sticker shock when you get to the end, it check out. It won't include parking. That is something that you will pay once you get there. And yeah. So just something to note for that. Again, go through our travel advisors if you are looking because during the week, and I can only assume, because this has been a thing at Swan Reserve, I can only assume because of the convention space. This is the way they do it. They want you to call or they want you to use somebody else like an agent. These rooms show at $1,200 to $3,000 a night. It's really weird. Like, for example, I went and looked at the that same, you know, the weekend is 13th to 15th in September, right? Right. I looked at that Monday through Wednesday and the same room showed at $1,200 a night. Holy moly. The way that it does that. I don't understand, but yeah. If I remember correctly, and I know somebody can correct me because I will be wrong, I'm not going to say if I know I'm wrong, I believe they release more accurate rates right near the time. But I also do wonder if this has something to do with the convention aspect, you know, because I mean, imagine being like, oh, yeah, I'll pay it. I cannot. I mean, for the price, you could get many other things. Right. I cannot. All right. Let's talk about the transportation next. Actually, you know what first? What perks do they get being a deluxe on property resort, even though they're not owned by Disney. Yeah, because this is great. You do get early theme park entry. You also get to buy your lightning lanes seven days. And if there's extended evening theme park hours, you get to go to that. Yeah. So. So when you think, yeah, when you think of the other areas that you know, like Bonnet Creek, right? Or Disney Springs, even you go, oh, man, these are like right by Disney or they're right on Disney property, you know, kind of proper. They don't get a lot of these same perks. Yeah, they get some of them, but not all of them. So those are some big perks for staying on here. You get those regular Disney deluxe ones. All right. Let's talk about transportation. What do you do if you are headed to Epcot or to Hollywood Studios? So again, be prepared for this. Yes, if you are headed to either one, you have to walk. There is no buses. So when you do come out of this one reserve, out of the big beautiful rotating glass, but you let's stop. Can we stop with the rotating glass doors, please? They serve zero functional purpose. They look cool. They look cool. I'll give you that, but they serve zero purpose, especially this one, because it is much smaller than the ones that Swan and Dolphin. Well, I'm thinking specifically of Dolphin has a much larger one with only two. Yeah, it only has two entry points. So they're much wider. This has four. This is broken and this is like a quad. So every time I walk into this dang thing, first off, you have to shuffle your feet because you can't you have to try and balance between the front and the back of the glass, or it's going to stop on you. God, I felt bad for the guy who tried to take a stroller through it. So I just started because they have doors on either side and they have the button depressed, so they open automatically. So that's what I used. But let's stop. Okay, here's two things. I want anybody who's listening, who's in construction or design for hotels, whatever it may be, right? Two things to stop. Let's quit with the frickin rotating doors, right? And let's quit with the hand dryers. They don't work and they just blow poo all over the bathroom. We know that. They've done scientific testing of it. I'm pretty sure it was probably on mythbusters and just poo everywhere. So I just I walk out and I dry on my hands or I go to the nearest place that has like napkins or something to dry off because I'm not trying to blow poo. Right. So I'm just doing my my service there. But yes, you can either walk. Yeah. So anyways, when you come out to your when you're coming out and you go, you turn to your right and go down and follow the sidewalk and then it's covered down around the corner to your right is your buses. And it shows a bus for Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Disney Springs. And at one point, I was like, where's EPCOT and Hollywood? Is it around the corner? And then I was like, Oh my goodness, wait a minute. No, you have to when you come out, you have to turn left to walk down, you know, across the street, down through the boardwalk area and everything like that. You can go to the friendship boats. That is probably your closest, which would be right there at Dolphin. Yeah, you can get on that. And just if you're if you're thinking about going like distance to boats and the boats will take you to EPCOT or to Hollywood Studios. Yes. But if you're if you're wondering like, okay, well, we don't mind walking, right, which we don't, we walked to it from EPCOT one time, we did take the friendship boat. Yes, we did. It is only 0.2 miles down to the friendship boats. Right, which is about a thousand feet. Yeah. If you were looking at walking to International Gateway at EPCOT, you're looking at about 0.8 miles. Okay. And if you're looking at walking to DHS along the waterway there behind boardwalk, you're looking at a mile. So just just something to note. All right, let's talk a little more about the boats then, the friendship boats. Yeah, because you can get on them. And we haven't been on them in a long time. We did go down. We actually passed Dolphin and went down to boardwalk. And when you go down to boardwalk, there's two sides. I'm assuming it's the same as the Dolphin, where you can either go straight to Hollywood or it stops at EPCOT. So I forgot they were air condition like inside and very large and very nice. Yeah, they are. So that was really cool. We did do that. But and that's probably what I would suggest because you can get strollers on there. You can get out of the heat. But if you're staying in the cooler times, it is, I think, personally, a beautiful walk. It's a great walk. We love it. Whether you're going to EPCOT or Hollywood. Now, the boats will run 30 minutes prior to park opening and then one hour after park close. If there is inclement weather, they will provide buses to EPCOT and Hollywood studios, but those are only going to go from Swan and Dolphin, not from Swan Reserve. So you would still need to, with inclement, whether you would still need to walk down to Swan or Dolphin to catch a bus if the boats are not running for anything. So you'd still get wet. Yes, you would. So pack a umbrella and a rain jacket. Of course, all the time when you're coming to Florida, no matter what time of year it is. 100%. What about if you're getting to Magic Kingdom? So we did, we went to Magic Kingdom on the bus. We did not go to Animal or we did not go to Springs, but we did go to Magic. Your bus runs every about 25 to 35 minutes depending. I would say it might be 15. It might, I guess, just the way things are running. The unfortunate part is it does not take you to pretty much the gates. It takes you to TTC. And we saw shades of green drops off there. I think what else did we see? Well, there's a whole bunch. Everything drops off. All resorts that are not Disney buses drop off at TTC. And now the difference is this does have a bus for Magic Kingdom. And it does have a bus for Animal Kingdom. And it does have a bus for Disney Springs. We've talked about in the past some of these that you get out a little bit further. They're going to only drop you off at TTC and then you have to make your way to wherever you else you want on property. This is not that reason. The reason it drops off at TTC is because coming out of the COVID area, I don't know if this was specifically when Swan Reserve was built or what, but whoever the powers that be, whether it's at Marriott or whatever, decided not to pay Disney anymore for use of their buses. Therefore, they went on their own and they're using mirrors buses, which means you're getting coach buses. Which the bus that we got was an old Disney cruise line because they took all the circles off of the windows. But when you got on, and by the way, we had a private bus just Jeremy and I have this giant coach bus that had all every seat was Disney cruise line. The fabric was a Disney cruise line logo and anchors and stuff. So used to be one of those, but super cool. But that's the reason that it's operating this way is that they're paying mirrors instead of Disney. I guess it was cheap to pay mirrors. And that's understandable, but it does drop you off just so you're aware. So you have that extra time. But if you would like to save time in that aspect, and you don't want to take a bus from or a boat, excuse me from TTC or a monorail, you can walk over through to the boardwalk area and get on a Magic Kingdom bus there, and it will take you straight to. Yeah, if you wanted to walk all the way down to boardwalk, you know, and really, if you look at it, the potential time saver between walking to boardwalk and going direct to the front gates of Magic Kingdom, it really could save you time over just going down to the Swan Reserve, and then going to TTC, having to wait for a boat, having to wait for a monorail. For animal kingdom, same thing, buses every 25 to 35. Now this is going to drop off at the rideshare area, which as you're exiting animal kingdom, buses are to the right, rideshares to the left. To be honest, the rideshare is actually a little bit closer. Mm hmm. I was thinking that then the buses. Yeah, right. And then Disney Springs is going to drop you off at the west side over there near House of Blues. Okay. So that is right there, House of Blues, Cirque de Soleil. Yeah, there's rideshare options over there as well on the west side. Yep. It's a pretty good drop off area. You're really losing out there. Nope. Depending on where you want to go. Absolutely. That's usually the side we're visiting anyway. Correct. Now buses are going to run 45 minutes prior to park opening in one hour after park close. Let's talk a little bit about the dining. We're just going to talk about what's specifically available within the Swan Reserve building. Okay. Right. We'll start with Amare, which is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is a Mediterranean inspired signature restaurant. It's casual, but upscale and feature seafood, pastas and petas, as well as an extensive wine list. And we did not eat here yet. We did not. And we'll wrap up the Swan Reserve stuff here in a second. We'll kind of tell you why we didn't eat here probably. They also have grounds, which is in all these, this is basically right next to Amare. Everything is within the lobby area on the third floor. They're all very convenient, very, very close. Yep. This is your grab and go dining location. This is going to do craft coffee, sandwiches, pastries, which we got a craft coffee every single morning. Very, very good. This also has a lot of alcoholic options. If you want that, like a ton of them. I mean, honestly, I'm just sorry I'm laughing because we were straight in there and they had maker's mark, which was to me a smaller bottle for a hundred dollars. You were better off doing the math. They have a bunch of the on the rocks, which are the pre mix like they did old-fashioned espresso martini. They have stuff like that. I want to say they ran about $26 for one of those. Can I get about three good drinks out of it? So it's actually cost effective in that manner. But the stuff is there, right? Yeah. Finally, you got tangerine and stir. These are the pool side bars, tangerine being on the outside, actually, you know, by the pool. Yep. And then it basically backs up with a wall to stir, which is right there inside the lobby. These are quick service dining locations, serving signature drinks and casual fare like burgers and sandwiches. We'll talk more about that in a few. Yep. Let's wrap up our thoughts on Swan Reserve. I love it. It was gorgeous. I look forward to staying here again. It's just hard with that, just like Swan and Dolphin too. Like I love all of them. It's just hard to almost add a hundred dollars every time. Yeah. Because when we do see like, oh sweet, it's $300. Oh wait, no, it's $400. Yeah. That's the only hard part. But it is fantastic. I absolutely love it. I forget I missed this area until we stay here. I mean, the whole boardwalk area is just absolute gold. Let's just say you had an opportunity. All in, let's take parking out of it because a lot of people don't need to pay for the parking. We'll just talk resort fee at Swan Reserve. But let's just say you could stay at Swan Reserve, right? And it was going to come out after the resort fee, taxes, your room rate. It was going to come out to $350 a night. Absolutely. Well, I didn't finish. Or you could stay at moderate level Coronado on Disney property. We're going to say a standard. So we're not going to talk or prefer to the tower. All in for 210 a night, which we've seen. That's hard because I love Coronado. I know. That's not fair. Let's just say this. Do you think, what did I say, what did I say, 350 and 210? Let's just say, okay. Well, let's just say that there is a $100 a night price difference all in between Swan Reserve and a Disney moderate. You choose. It could even be Caribbean. Right. What are you picking? It really depends. I hate to say it like this. It really depends on what I'm doing that weekend. And if we plan on going to Hollywood and Epcot, I might pick Swan because of walking and everything. But it's really hard because if it's $100 cheaper and you can, you're saying I could stay at Caribbean, which is the Skyliner. Yeah, Caribbean is not a fair one. I would stay at Caribbean. If you could save a hundred bucks a night, I would choose Caribbean over Swan Reserve. If you're if you're doing the parks, you don't because simple fact is you can, like you said, you can hop on a Skyliner. You're more convenient to both Epcot and Hollywood studios. And if you want, you can still Skyline to Epcot and then go over to this whole area and enjoy the restaurants and things like that. I would spend the extra hundred a night though to stay here over Port Orleans, Riverside or French Quarter or Coronado, again, dependent on this day. I'm talking more of a blanket hypothetical situation. I'm not breaking down, what are you doing? Who are you going with? What's the plans? Are you how many nights? I'm just saying in generalities, right? I mean, I think my only thing and my only reason I hate so much that we stayed here is that we did not get to enjoy it as much as we would have liked because of the last minute plans that came through that we'll talk about with the Orlando and former meetup, which took a big chunk of our time away from Swan Reserve worth every second. And I'm so glad we did stay here, but it makes me want to go back even more to do to enjoy it properly, right? And to enjoy more than one evening of fireworks from our room or, you know, try out a moray, things like that. So all right, we're talking about Thursday still. So we've only just arrived, but we've given you a full breakdown and low down on Swan Reserve. We did duck into Epcot for that Thursday after we got all settled in. Yes. And Rhonda was starving. I was too. This is around 11 or so. I think at this point, I snagged a cosmic rewind virtual queue that morning. So we thought, what's happened to Epcot? Let's ride cosmic. And then maybe we'll just, you know, fart around a little bit. We'll come back. We can relax before we were doing our little evening crawl. Correct. Where did you want to get something to eat at Epcot, though, festival 29. I wanted the festival favorites, which right now they are serving a cheese stuffed arapa with cilantro, crema, and cojita for 525. But they're also doing the chicken one with avocado crema. Yes, it was. So we got this one instead. And this is 525. Dining, playing meals are not accepted here. This is where sometimes you can get some of your festival beers and stuff. But this was good. I just, I would every single time get the chicken one. Agreed. I didn't dislike it. I liked it. I just, I was very hungry, but I don't know why the chicken to me was so much better. Yeah, I, I agree. It's going to be more filling and more shareable, the chicken one, because it is much larger with that, all the protein of chicken and stuff in there. And there was a good amount that we went. This one, while I did really enjoy, it was to me really heavy on the lime. Okay. Almost a little too much in that lime crema that was almost overpowering. But I still thought this was great. I mean, you still can't go wrong with it. I would just get the one with the chicken. If you're a chicken eater. Yes, if you're not, this one was fantastic. Yeah, it would be vegetarian. Not vegan, of course, because of the cheese and all of that. Of course, we had to get some snacks. Of course, we always do the room from Caramel Cuchet. Yes. What do we get? Because they do have a new item. They do. I was so excited. So, you know, with one with one of a fan favorite. Yeah, I went in and, you know, they now have at some point through the year, whether it be what kind of cookies stuffed with icing filling and a caramel drizzle. But this was the Snickerdoodle cookies with Snickerdoodle icing filling and caramel in the middle for 729. And this is your, you know, were there's original Snickerdoodle sandwich. They have the gingerbread one usually coming out here soon. This is, I know, they had a like whoopie pie, like red velvet. So they kind of come up with these things. So we got that, of course. And they also have, oh, yeah, snickerdoodle one. It's so good. Yeah. They also had, I was like, what is that? But it actually is the Mickey's Werther's original caramel chocolate cookie sandwich. So it kind of looks like the cookie sandwich that is over at Main Street. That is the Mint one. That's not ice cream. So I was very nervous. That's not ice cream either. It is not. I was a little nervous because it is two chocolate cookie sandwich with the Werther's original caramel, salted caramel buttercream frosting and a sprinklesy salt for 779. I was nervous until I tasted it. I really shouldn't have been nervous because it's Werther's original. This thing was fantastic. I was very excited that we got both of them. If it's still there, when you all go, I would totally say, if you want to spend all the money and get both of them, come on, 15 bucks, get both of these. Yes, 100%. This is the consistency and the texture of the icing in this one is so much better and has a better mouth feel. I hate those words together, but it's the way that it's a word. It has a lot better than it does over at the Mint chocolate chip. But if you were only to get one, I think I would have gone with the chocolate cookie. Well, that's great because you can eat the whole thing. I'll get the snickerdoodle. I prefer the snickerdoodle over it. But I did like this better. I still think that as this being an ice cream sandwich, it would take it to a level beyond what anyone would ever know. I just put ice cream in these things, please. But I think the same probably about the snickerdoodle. If that was instead a snickerdoodle ice cream mixed with caramel in the middle, I would just love it so much more. I love ice cream sandwiches though. So just again, something to think about if you're looking for those and you got a sweet tooth. So Thursday night, I had spent the week prior going through pretty much almost every bar and lounge on Disney's property and making a list of their non-alcoholic specialty beverages, their mocktails, their zero proofs. And it's a list that we'll start to work through as we go places. You know, we did the hibiscus henna nomad lounge the other week in which we love, which is their version of the gins tattoo. It's a non-alcoholic zero proof version. It's very good. So I started making this list and found a bunch within these areas. So I thought, well, let's do like for dinner, we'll basically do like a bar or lounge crawl. We'll try some of these non-alcoholic beverages and then we'll eat some stuff. So where did we start? Well, we started at the tangerine pool bar because I think I was hungry. And it's right there. That was the one that was open prior. The earliest, yeah, the earliest. This opens at 11 a.m. and it closes at six. So we had Austin as our cast member. And he was he was great. He was great. He was. I was looking at the menu and there is no non-alcoholic drinks on there, except when it goes to like frozen daiquiris and it said it could be like a watermelon, smooth. We'll call them icy smoothies, whatever you want to call them. And it said it can be all without alcohol. Well, while I see the one that is the pina colada one or whatever one there was, there was a tangerine whip one. And I'm like, well, it's not on here and it doesn't say it, but let me ask. So, unfortunately, I asked him and there was Ramen it. And I was like, oh, man, it was weird that that was the only one that was pre-mixed. It was. But he then was like, are you looking for non-alcoholic? And I was like, I actually am. And he said, I can do and he starts kind of naming stuff. Well, he says a mojito. And I'm like, Oh, that sounds good. Because again, we're sitting outside. It's not cold. It's not like sweltering because we're in the shade and stuff. But it's still like a mojito just sounded amazingly refreshing. So that is what I got. And it was fantastic. It was really good. Really good. Yeah. Those are super easy to make at home. I mean, really, you can use, you know, some soda water. You can use a little bit of like ginger. Well, ginger ale give you more of a mule, but you can use like soda water or you can use lemon lime soda like a Sprite. You use some fresh mint in there, some lime, and it's very, very good. Yes, it was. So yeah, that was great. So one thing I've found, I don't know why, and it's probably just me because I'm weird. I always feel like I have to explain myself. What do you mean? We say, yeah, I'm looking for a non-alcoholic beverage. I'm like, we're sitting at a bar at Disney by the pool. Like, I feel like I need to explain myself. I know I don't. It's just the way that I am. But I almost feel like you have to be like, Oh, we used to drink. I used to drink. We're just, yeah, we're not weird or anything. Like, I don't know why I feel that way. I just do because, you know, when you look around, especially when you're sitting at a bar area, you look around, everybody else is drinking alcoholic beverages. And you're specifically almost making it a hard time by ordering something or finding something off menu. And I'm very glad to see that there are more of these beverages coming. It just started to say they're actually having a lot more where I have now noticed, and one of the things was, which was really funny when we went to the concert, they had them all in clear plastic. And I'm like, you can't tell who's drinking from who. Yeah. They bubbly when we went to those. Right. So if we had that, and if I had a white claw, I mean, you would notice it. You would notice. Look at that. And I've noticed that now, like, especially the night that we did go and crawl around the bar. Yeah. There's a lot more offerings. There is. And I noticed that I'm like, what is that? Is that alcohol? Yeah. So I think, I think it's nice that, and I, I don't think anymore you really would need to explain yourself. No, no, no, you don't. You have no reason to. I'm just weird. So I think it. But another thing that I have noticed, and I was having this conversation on Twitter with somebody about it, was a lot of these places make non-alcoholic beverages for people that have never drank. You know what I mean? Does that make sense? Like for like 16, 17 year old, 19, 20. No, for anyone. For they, okay. They make them for Rachel. Okay. They make them for our friend Rachel, or my friend Drew Hanlon, who's never had alcohol or caffeine, or I think sugar or something weird, but he works out NBA stars. So they make drinks for people who have never drank. There's a big difference when you were a drinker who enjoys the taste of alcoholic beverages, but for some reason, you no longer partake in them, whether you're sober like me, or you are married to someone who's sober like you, or health reasons, you know, whatever it may be, right? So I find that a lot with these is a lot of places go. Okay, that makes sense now. We'll give them a strawberry smoothie. Okay. Well, that's a lot different than getting just say a zero proof margarita or no keto or old fashion or something like that with what we're going to talk about at some of the rest of the places. And with the big list that I made that I'll be happy to share, you're seeing a lot more beverages that appear to be designed by and for people who drink or drink, but aren't that evening, you know, because you could go, all right, this Tangerine pull bar opens at 11 a.m. Okay. Now, six months ago, we would go to the pool of our 11 a.m. and get a drink, right? But people who maybe do drink and enjoy alcohol don't always start drinking at 11 a.m. Even when they're on vacation, right? So it's still understandable, though, that somebody who is a drinker, but doesn't at that time want an alcoholic beverage to have options that still have those does that make sense? Like sometimes you might just want to margarita, right? But you don't want the alcohol, even though you maybe are somebody who on a Friday night at 6 p.m. meets up for happy hour and has alcoholic margaritas. There's sometimes where that's just not you just don't want to do that. Yeah. So I, I, I, we're seeing more crossover. And again, six months ago, I wouldn't have given a crap. Right. I've never even looked at a non alcoholic menu. I was like, what is this? What is this section? I don't have to be children. Just rip it out of here. There's no need. So just one of those things I'm noticing. But we did get something to eat there. We did. Right. What did we get? Uh, the last. So per se, I'm like, how you say that? So this is a flat bread and a super set of torn mozzarella cheese, red onions, and sand marnezzo tomato for $19. Yeah. This was like, I feel like, um, how do you say it? Where you put it in the wood fired, wood fired pizza oven. It was, it was a little burnt on the bottom, which is super weird. I said it's with fired and we'd have to ask anybody who's been to a marne. I've got a couple of people we could ask. Yeah. It was super good because I don't even like burnt things, but this was just fantastic. Cause that's where they're coming out of. Everything is coming out of the marne kitchen. So you're talking about having poolside, flatbreads, salads and burgers that are coming out of a signature restaurant kitchen, right? Third best pizza I've had on property. Number one. And number two, here we go, we can have a full debate and argument over whether it's pizza ponte or via Napoli. And if you ask me, you're not wrong, either way, for me personally, this is the third best pizza I've had on property. It was outstanding. It really wanted to get another pizza. The next day, we should have been doing, yeah, we had so much. And it was like, I can't eat. So I, it was, you ate. Oh, wait till we talk about former, um, I would, again, this is a walk, right? This is a walk. But if it came, now obviously I would try and get reservations and sit down and be in Napoli, right? If you're in Epcot or in that area, if you don't want to do that and you want something a little different, skip right past that, uh, Italy pizza window outside with the stuff there serving and you walk over to swan and you go into either tangerine or stir because they have the exact same menu and you get yourself one of these pizzas. I would like to go back here and try the margarita. Was it the margarita? Because it said there was a ricotta cheese. Yeah, the margarita pizza had a ricotta on it. Yes, which reminds me of, you're still talking about the prompt margaritas. No, no, no, no, the palm, palm, the pizza ponte. Yeah. What is that? Palm cotta. You love the apartment. I love that one. So I want to go back and try this one because I was curious of what it would come out and if it's very similar. And then if I could just come get this one maybe. Oh my god, it was so good. From here, we moved about 20 feet inside to stir. Now, stir doesn't open till 330, but they are open until midnight. Yes, they are. And I will say this, swan, dolphin, swan reserve. If you are somebody who likes late night, we know that a majority of places on Disney property close down at 10 p.m. This is the area to go. Most all of their stuff is open till midnight. Some of them even longer. Yep. Like kimonos over at the swan is open until like 132 in the morning, which is crazy. We've been there. We have been there at 130 in the time. Yeah. All right. Dining plans are not accepted here. They're not accepted out at Tangerine, just so you know. And we started with a little snack because we thought we'd get again, same menu with some modifications because this was not available outside, I don't believe it was not. They have these called Marcona. And they call them bar snacks. There's like, like, I think there was three bar snacks. Yeah, there's the trio of dips, which is like a hummus and a tormola and might have been a baba canoes or something, but there is like a bread service. And then there's a third option. But let's talk about these almonds, man. Seven bucks, you get a bowl full almonds, Marcona almonds are Spanish almonds. They tend to be almost like lighter in flavor and would be the opposite of softer, I guess you would say. Yeah. And they were, I feel like they were naked. Yeah, they didn't have like the almond skin on them. Right. They were white. Yeah. And then of course, dressed in this spice, which kind of. We're trying to find out what it is. We have a friend that works at Swan Reserve with Amare and Food and Beverage and all. She's a wonderful friend and I have tasked her with trying to find out. She said she did not sure if they make them or if they order them from somewhere, if they order these from somewhere, we will be purchasing them. Okay. I don't know. They're really good. Addictive. Yeah, they are. They are. It's almost like they're not real spicy either. No, they're not. It's like perfect. Yeah. God, these were good. These are worth a trip over here. Like, holy crap, they were good. Now they do have one non-alcoholic, zero proof signature style cocktail, which is called the Pace Horse. No ABV, so no alcohol content or anything. This is a unique house blend of lime, ginger, cardamom, and palm sugar infused with turmeric, topped with soda. This is $14. This is where we get to that example of non-alcoholic beverages costing as much as alcoholic beverages because of the process. I actually had, it was funny, I had a TikTok show up that was explaining it. Oh. And it was saying like, you know, hey, you know, making these beverages take all the alcohol isn't the expensive part into drinks. Right. It's the other stuff like maybe the cardamom and palm sugar infused with turmeric. It is the process if it's using a zero proof spirit or a non-alcoholic wine. Like, and in the TikTok specifically, it was saying, you know, a lot of non-alcoholic wine is actually alcohol removed. Right. So they make wine. They make alcoholic wine. Mm hmm. Right. And then they take the alcohol out. So it's actually an extra step. I don't understand that. Which is, which is crazy. Yeah. And I will say all these have wonderful signature cocktails as well. Yeah. We have, we've had in the past and enjoyed. So they're doing a great job of that. I enjoyed this. You know, it's not one that I think I'd like specifically go back for. Yeah. Or one that I'll probably talk about a lot. But it was good. Yeah. And it was refreshing. Yeah. And it was just nice to sit in that lobby bar and just chill. It was. So from here, we decided to go down to Rosa Mexicana over at Dolphin over at the Dolphin. Mm hmm. This is pretty new. It's been open for a little over a year or so. And we have had reservations here before, usually like late night. And we just didn't make it plans changed. We've got lots of friends that have been here and said it is outstanding. Yep. Lucy, my good friend, like a sister to me told me that there is a dish here that she puts on her top five on all of Disney property. I thought you're a crazy person. There's no way. And we're going to talk about it in a minute because of the item. I thought, okay, whatever. Lucy. Okay. But she was right. She was right. Now, this doesn't open until 5 p.m. Right. So up until 11. This open in May of 2023. So yeah, a little over a year about. And I thought, I'm just 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. crazy for dinner. It just seems so short. You know what I mean? Yeah. But they have a wonderful list of zero proof. Yes, they do. Alcoholic beverages. Yes, they do. Along with all your standard margaritas and all kinds of great full bar, handcrafted cocktails, signature drinks, wonderful bar tenders. So you can go nuts here with alcohol if you want. But let's start with their hibiscus pomegranate iced tea, which you got. Yeah. So this is a house made hibiscus grenadine iced tea for $9. And not only does it come in a glass, but it comes in a tiny little pitcher. And he filled up the glass with it. And then there was still quite a bit in the pitcher, which drink did you get a full drink or do you get more than one? I think I got close to more than one because you drank a little bit of it, but it was fantastic. Nine bucks for this. The pitcher reminded me of when you order the half pitcher of sangria over at Haleo is that size. It was very, very good. I really, really enjoyed it. It was outstanding. Did you say what was in it? Yeah, I said hibiscus grenadine. House made hibiscus grenadine and iced tea. And this is like fresh, loose leaf blended iced tea. Like it just you can taste the difference between what if it was the house made hibiscus grenadine that was throwing you off? No, you could taste it in the tea. We used to we went through a period, you know, like like now I think people go through a kombucha period, right? I don't think we're going to go with that. I still don't understand what it is. And all I know is it's very good for your digestive system. I don't need any help there. So I'd be afraid actually to drink it. And but but like that's the I think that's the stage that people go through now. Like it's a very like hipster kind of like, you know, whatever, Gen Z or millennial type thing. Like a decade ago, we went through Tiavana phase, which Starbucks eventually bought. And we would go the had one at the mall when we're living up in Jacksonville and we would go there and we buy all these loose leaf teas and we bought these specialty little like remember ball metal balls that out holes in it. You put the tea in it and dip it in your hot water and you look all fancy. And there is such a difference in flavor between a loose leaf, brewed tea, and the stuff you get, you know, from the grocery store coming from a bag or whatever. Yeah, in a bag. And this stuff is so dang good. Yeah. I opted at first for the mango ginger refresco. This is mango puree lemon chia seed ginger beer. This is for nine dollars. We if I ever want to recreate this at home, I can because for some reason, we just bought a 80 pound bag of chia seeds from Costco. I hope it doesn't go bad. I don't know what anybody's going to do with a bag of chia seeds, but you can't just eat them by like the spoonful. You got to put them in stuff. So there's just chia seeds floating in this water. I know they're good for you, but it looks like it look if you were outside, right? And you walked upon this beverage, you would assume that like two dozen gnats net their fate, right? Because it's sweet. It's got the mango puree it looks like gnats were like, that's sweet. That sounds good. I like mango. And then they drowned in it. And now they're floating all within your drink. Does it not look that way? I guess it does. Tastes delicious. It's so good. And it's not like you're, you know, you don't get you don't know. They're so tiny. I mean, again, they are the size of a net. You have many gnats you've eaten in your life, right? You didn't even notice. I guarantee if you've been outside in Florida, you've eaten gnats. And there's a stat like you'll eat like like several hundred spiders while you sleep in your lifetime. No, it's a fact. No, it's a scientific fact. They crawl in your mouth while you sleep and you eat them. It happens. That's not true. It's on the internet. No, do you don't believe in it? Nothing on the internet has ever been wrong. It's all factual. No. In fact, to make it even more scientific, I think I saw it on TikTok. And we know that that only tells the truth. That's not true. Oh, my God. So I did enjoy this. And it was good. It is not weird. You don't get a texture. It's not like it's not like Boba where you're just you're sucking up Boba balls almost dying like because you're just not you don't know that's coming up. Or it's not like catching a lemon seed. Yeah. Like when they get stuck in your water or something. So I really didn't enjoy it. I also got the blood orange spritzer, which is blood orange, the hibiscus pomegranate syrup, and then women and sparkling water for $9. This was great. This was this. Wait, did you like this one better? I did. And to me, this had much more of that, that feel of like having a cocktail. Okay. Like this, this one would have been really good. Like sitting by the pool, hot day sitting on the beach, something like that. So I really enjoyed this. And then there's several other zero proof drinks on that menu that we can still go back and try. So I was super impressed. We sat at the bar area, which is a great place to sit. Yeah. We got some food. We did not opt for their table side guacamole. We did not, which is $18. And then there's a lot of add-ins you can put there's everything from a thing shrimp to crab to pork to beef to chia seeds. I don't know, they'll throw whatever you want in there for for a pretty good upgrade. Like you can get this with shrimp. And I think it ends up being over $30 guacamole. Oh my gosh. Now. And you said Lacey could make us some table side guacamole. I'm going to get, I'm going to get reamed for this one. Oh, first of all, I'm kind of falling. I don't love avocados as much as I used to. Oh, really? I'm a little tired of them. Why? Like, is it the texture for you? I think they're 15 minutes is up. Like, let's get at something else in here. What else can we move into avocado space? Because now it's just everywhere. Okay. Like, I mean, they're putting it margaritas over at Kava. And it wasn't, in my opinion, it wasn't that good. Right. Like they're putting it everywhere. Now, I understand this is going to be some of the best guacamole you've ever had. Everybody swears by it. And I'm not saying it's not outstanding. But for me, I'd rather my 18 bucks go somewhere else when yes, I can make table side guacamole at home. Lacey does it and it's outstanding. Like what we actually got. Yeah. So what did we start with? I'll say it. Yeah. Camarones diablos. Yes. What is this? This is crispy shrimp. Fire, fiery chili delle bowl sauce. Cool. Avocado ranch for $18. You probably should have. This is on their appetizers. These are nice size shrimp that are cut. Yes. And then lightly fried. So then they are tiny when they're fried. Like they look like boat house shrimp, but they're not because they're all cut up. And so like one might be chunkier because you get this front half. One might be a little smaller because you got the tail. But the taste is not a small shrimp. When you eat a small shrimp, you can tell. Compared to a large shrimp, there's so much more flavor in that large shrimp. I agree with that. There's so much more availability to cook it properly. You know what I mean? These were tender. Yeah. They were flavorful. They had a little bit of kick. They came with some tortilla chips in them. These were so these are like addictive. Yeah. And there's a lot of it for. And so for $18 that it makes me happy that it was $18, but we got a lot of shrimp. I think this would be so much better of a spend than guacamole for the same price. Yeah. Right. So Lacey told me and she's told me this before, right? We were before we thought we were going to Rosa, Mexico, and we ended up canceling. She told me, she said, if you do not get the Mexican fried rice, we're no longer friends. And we did not end up going that night, right? So I wasn't going to disappoint her this night. And we did order the Mexican fried rice. Yes, we did. Now this is actually considered a side. Yes. Right. This is chorizo, fried egg, bacon, corn, black beans, scallions, cilantro, tomato, chilies, tomatoes, and a partridge and a pear tree. This is $13. I'll say it again. 13. Okay. In your mind, you're thinking $13 for a side. That seems like a lot. That's a large side. It's an entry portion. And then it's huge. I wouldn't consider this a side. And for $13, this could have been 18 to 20. I think for the size. Well, you blown away by it only being I when I was doing the notes, I messaged Lucy and said, I'm sorry. This was only $13. And she's like, yeah, can you believe it? Oh, wow. Well, you can make it expensive by adding shrimp for $12 extra dollars, or certified Angus beef New York strip for $15 or lump crab meat for $16. Don't bother. Then there's your over 20 something. Don't bother. If you want shrimp, but it's good, we would. Listen, if you want to listen to me. Oh, my goodness. I'm fired up today because I'm excited about this episode because this is this we had so much. First of all, I will say now, so I don't forget, this is one of my favorite trips we've ever had in my entire life. I don't know why it just was. Okay. First of all, I remember it all, which is really cool because I'm sober now. Second, it was just you and I. It was you and I. Oh, yeah. We love our friends. Yeah. We love our people. Nobody. We love everybody, right? Yeah. But we spent three nights and three and a half days just you and me just kind of just doing our thing and just having the best time. And it was amazing. One of my favorite trips ever, right? This Mexican fried rice, I think there's no need to add anything to it. But it would be good if you did. It would be good. But you didn't let me finish my love. Don't make me regret saying it was one of my favorite trips because it was just you. If you're going to add shrimp for $12, to spend the extra six and get the the appetizer shrimp, you know, and then what put it together? No, just eat them separately. Why don't we have to put anything else in this as it is. Lucy's not kidding. I will agree. It is really good. This is one of my top favorite five food items I've ever had on Disney property. I can't stop thinking about it. I want it again. I would give other things to next time. I actually think the shrimp would go well with it because of the trees. I think the trees are almost like a surf and turf. Oh, beefwood too. But about the love crab meat. I would try that too. But I'm saying as it is, this is unbelievable. There is so much flavor. Okay, when you read that, you're going, guys, you're going to try too hard. You're putting too much into it. No, they're not. That's good. It's really good. Y'all should try it. Y'all should totally try it. Lucy was right. Lucy was very good. That's why I listened to her. That's why the whole thing. She's my younger, air quote, sister, but she's definitely the smarter, the more responsible of the two of us. She's a large portion for my sobriety. So that'll tell you how smart she is. She's been telling me it for years. And I just said, no, I don't think that's the issue. She's like, you're wrong. And she was right. So Lucy, I know she's listening. Shout out, you're right. Thank you. And now you're making her cry. Yeah, don't blame her. I could. All right. So we had a specific plan. And the reason we started early is not because Rhonda's 45 and I'm almost 45. And we were not going for early birds to go out to. We had to wait for stir to open at 330, Rhonda. I was hungry. Back in our room for fireworks. Yes. So we shut down a little early, right? So from here, what you could do, if you were doing a full bar crawl, alcoholic, non alcoholic food, no food, I would roll into this in these areas, I would look at Il Milino. And as I said, come on us late night over at Swan, I would look potentially at the dolphin. There are bars. I know it like a bluzu, chatting with bluzu. There is a bar with a specific menu. Shulis steakhouse is available there as well. Flying fish has a bar. Abracadab bar is right there. You go to Allen compass. You can go cruise cup. So there's a lot of these areas. Now, if you're staying at Swan and reserve or Swan Reserve or Swan and dolphin, I would end there. So if we were if we had been staying out a lot later and making a full night of it, we would have walked down to just say yacht and beach areas started there and worked our way back. If you're staying at a yacht and beach, then I would start over at the Swan reserve and work your way down the way that we did. You know what I mean? But you could add any of those into it. We decided not to, but we did decide to get ice cream from boardwalk ice cream. Well, we asked for talk about this and see if she can make it through the story. Is that doubling over and laughter? Well, first we did ask about dessert at Amari and we wanted ice cream. So I was like, let's walk and let's go to boardwalk ice cream. So this is open from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. and there's no dining plans accepted here. You can get cones, but you can only get a cake cone or a sugar cone. Yeah, no waffle cones. No waffle cones, but I was very surprised by that. These are smaller. So if you know what cake and sugar cones are. They're putting a mouth that fits in a waffle cone on a sugar cone. Yes, they are. Here's the thing. It's great about a waffle cone. It contains the ice cream. Sugar cone does not. No, it doesn't. So you can get a singular devil and we both got a single. It's also feels like 10 outside of 104 degrees at this time, even though it's like 7 p.m. or something, right? And so we have to walk with the ice cream. We don't have to, but we did. We did. How did that work out for me? Well, let's go back to they run from 549 if you're going to get a cake or a single scoop. Single scoops 549 double scoop of 6s. My bad. Yeah, whether you're doing cake or sugar, I believe. Okay. Again, we got the single and this amazing cast member. I don't know. This is how they do them all. Or if she just liked, I believe it was, I think Jeremy were in the hat that was being nice to cast members and she was very grateful and thankful. So. I think we got a double scoop. We got maybe a triple. Do you see like, you see like cartoons, right? Where they're looking ice cream, but usually it's different flavors, colors just to show you. It's like, it's like stacked up, like where it's almost leaning over. Like this was almost cartoon. Like there was so much ice cream. It was so much. And it was great. I got cookies and cream and it was very good and creamy. And I was licking and eating it immediately and we started walking. Jeremy got chocolate mint chocolate chip and. Before you tell the rest of the story, it's good ice cream. It's not salt and straw. Right? Yeah, it's really good. But to me, this tastes like ice cream that you buy a really good like brand ice cream, like the Tilla milk, which we really like, you buy a good ice cream from your grocery store is what this tasted like. To me, it did not taste like a salt and straw handcrafted ice cream, but it still was really good. It was good. I really liked my cookies and cream. It was very, very creamy. Also melt spot really quickly, too. Are you good? It was just so funny because we're walking and trying to eat. And cheers. It's just it's everywhere. I can't even walk properly. I have to hold the cone out far in front of it. So if I want to eat it, I have to bend over to eat it because if I bring it towards my body, it's going to drip all over my clothing. I got a drop on my shoe. I got one on my shirt. And that was minimal. It could have been a lot worse. But we grab no first of all, we grab like I got like two napkins. It was all over your hand. I need a roll of paper towels or some wet naps or a bath. They should offer. They should offer portable, they should offer portable showers on the boardwalk for if you order the ice cream to wash yourself. And then, and then I was I was literally laughing double over trying to eat my ice cream to mine. What did melt? Yeah. And then we run into Matt and meet him. And it was amazing. Wonderful listener. Wonderful. And Matt, it was so great meeting you. And I truly want to apologize because Matt's trying to talk to us. And I just start laughing because I'm still holding ice cream cone. And I don't want to be rude. I don't want to be rude and eat it in front of Matt. And he was so gracious. He's like, he's like, I'm so sorry. I don't want to interrupt you. Like, I know you got I'm like, no, you're good, man. So I'm just holding this ice cream cone out. And we talked to him for a while because he was such a nice guy. You know, we're just asking about this. It was so nice. It was amazing. Yeah, I was so glad we ran into him. It was just hilarious. Because I'm sitting there with the ice cream melting. And Ron has just doubled over and laughed for at me. And she's in after she's like, Oh my God, I feel so bad. I really did. I wasn't like laughing at anything other than just ice cream rolling down your hand. Because going back to the cartoon, you say in that, you know, when you go in the cartoons, have like somebody sweating. And it's just profusely like pouring like, like it's raining out or something. I mean, that is almost what the ice cream looked like too. That was just melting. It was, I was and way you're trying to. It was just, oh, it was amazing and funny. And I hadn't laughed like that. I felt like in a very long time. It was hilarious. It was everywhere. Oh, it was so funny. But but it was worth it. It was very good. At that point, we walked all the way around, which was really nice too, because we were full and we were walking our ice cream and stuff off to go back to the room to watch the fireworks and had a great evening. Oh, it's amazing. And then Friday, well, we called it quits after watching the fireworks. Yes. You know, around 945. I had thought maybe at that point, we would go down to like an ill malino or kimonos or whatever. But we were going to have two very late nights at Orlando and former meet up the next two nights. Right. So we decided just to. And driving from a universal Orlando resort all the way back to Swan Reserve. Oh, my only other con would be that the pillows here were like melted marshmallows. They were the pillows were not my favorite at the Swan Reserve. Yeah. But other than that, love this place and want to go back. So Friday came around, right? Uh huh. We had very specific plans for Friday. I head over to Magic Kingdom. Yes, we did. So I went ahead and secured a Tiana's Bayou adventure virtual queue. Yes, we did. At this time now is what our probably our sixth, seventh ride. We've not waited more than 15 minutes for any previous virtual queue. I think now things are settling. It it's still rarely opens when the park opens, which is open about an hour late this day. We waited about 45 minutes, which is not bad at all. It's not, but it is it is hard when it is so hot out. Yes. It praise God, you know, a lot of shade and area with those trees and the outdoor queue, which is nice. Like I'm glad that all of that stayed put from the splash mountain days. Yeah. They didn't just rip that queue out and try to redesign it and be like, well, there wouldn't be trees at her. No, just put the trees. It's got shade and the giant fans. Yes. And that's nice. But I was going to say, please, please stay hydrated. Please, you know, Disney doesn't care what you bring in to you can bring your big giant stanleys. They don't care what you bring in. Just bring it and stay hydrated. Because, you know, unfortunately, a lot of people get heat stroke and stuff like that. But, so it was very, very hot, but we did ride and that was fun and be nice to cast members. We sat behind. We got stuck at the end right as you're getting ready to pull up. I mean, we're already through the final scene, the final main show scene. And we're pulling up. We're about three, four boats behind from unloading and it stops and it's sitting there for a little while. Music turns off and everything. Yeah. Music turned off. We still had some announcements and all. The guy who was sitting in front of us in the same boat in our same boat, we were in the last rail. He was in front of us wife. I think I had two kids. And this is a family show, so I won't call him what he was. But he was not nice. You know, we're literally only there for about five minutes. And we're undercover. Yes. Inside. Yep. Technically. He is. I mean, you would have thought we were stuck for 30, 45 minutes the way that he was acting. He's yelling, get me off this crappy ride. This isn't saying that word. Yeah, I used a different word than crappy. He's yelling out. You know, we're stuck back here in the fetal position. I want to be like, sir, how are you sitting in this? Yeah, and I want to be like, um, sir, I'm sorry, but you're shorter than my six foot three. How do you think I feel, bud? Um, and then as we pull up and are starting to exit, he's trying to stare at the cast member who's paying no both of them, both of them. So trying to make eye contact with them saying, this is ridiculous. I can't believe it. Like, you can't believe this. How privileged have you been your entire life, dude, that you got stuck on five minutes on a new boat ride in magic kingdom. And, and this is the most ridiculous thing you've ever been a part of. Okay. As we're leaving the gift shop, he goes to the photo op place and said, again, we hear him talking about the fetal position to a gas member. Like, you know, what are you stuck in? He's showing what it looked like. Did you see him bending over? He was doing one of these to the cast member as though he really was stuck in a fetal position. I don't think he knows what the fetal position is. I don't either. Anyway, just that was one of those. You just walk off and you shake your head and Rhonda said something to the cast member, which was hysterical because she doesn't even know what he said. And I was like, okay, good. And then, um, I was like, you know, he just, he needs one of my hats. And she was like, I like your hat. Thank you. Yeah. You know, so, but it was just absurd. It was, but anyways, besides that, we were here for the Halloween. Open all day treats. Yeah, this is a day of Halloween treats. I took all of my Halloween clothes and warm. Yeah. We bought Jeremy's from the crock. I got because I got three pence across some rain. Excuse me. And, um, we bought. Let's see. What else did we buy? Well, I mean, because we ended up going, we ended up hitting the character warehouse on the way home. Um, we picked up some haunted mansion spirit jerseys plus our 20% off. I got some Christmas cracks and I got some winter cracks there. I got the Halloween cracks at full price and creations. But, um, we had already got that was on the boardwalk. Oh, was it? Okay. Um, but we will start with some of the sweet stuff. And then we'll go to savory. Let's start over at anti-gravity's galactic goodies. They have new this year. They've always had the, the, um, candy corn ice cream. But this year, they've got a sweet corn soft serve. Now, this is available during the regular park hours as well as Mickey's not so scary for 779. Mm hmm. This is your candy coin corn, um, soft serve. It is served with a, uh, butterscotch magic shell, which is the stuff that hardens when it gets cold, uh, greatest invention in the world. Yes. It is well above the wheel as far as inventions. Um, and then it has actual candy. Yep. This is fantastic. So good. I recommend this. I highly recommend this. And I would highly recommend probably getting it during the day. Um, and not doing it at the party. There's so much more available at the parties. Yeah. For this to be available all day. Yep. If you do not like candy corn, I think you, there's still potential that you will like the soft serve. I agree. It's overly candy corn. In fact, they're calling it a sweet corn. Um, now if you get the sunday, it is going to have candy corn pieces in it. Mm hmm. You could just not eat those. Absolutely. But the way that the butterscotch hardened and then along with those candy corn in the ice cream gave you this just delicious, creamy, but chewy, just flavor popped bite. I like, I want this again before it's gone. Yeah. The next time we're at Magic Kingdom during the day. Uh, what else do we get over at Fryer's Nook, which is available by mobile order? It is. I would recommend mobile order when you have an opportunity. Yeah. And this is your s'mores cup. This is layers of graham cracker crumbles, chocolate ganache, chocolate pudding, can't, excuse me, chocolate popping candies, milk, chocolate, panicata, and marshmallow cream. Um, this is for $5.99. This is available during the park hours and the party. And again, I would highly recommend to get, um, during the regular hours. Yes. Save your, save your, save your party exclusive treats. Yep. And this is fantastic. Popping candies are really cool and weird, but cool. Um, this was a great, it's not overly like in your face, some more. But I like the chocolate, the chocolate ganache. I really, really like this. It's, it's layered. So it is one where you really want to get your, your spoon down and get all the layers together. Mm hmm. Individually, the layers are fine. They taste good, but together is where you really get more of that s'more flavor and a more like overall roundabout and flavor dessert. So I really did enjoy this. Um, if, if you're there during the day and you only have the choice for one sweet treat out of these two, I would personally pick the sweet corn soft serve. I would do. I agree. Yeah. But this was good. Yes, it was. All right. We're going to talk too. Now, this was down at the boardwalk and the carousel coffee. Um, this is the Halloween, uh, macaroon trio. This is pumpkin spice milk chocolate, a green apple, caramelita chocolate and a blood orange dark chocolate. So you get those three little macarons. Uh, this is new this year for seven ninety nine. Mm hmm. They are packaged. Yep. They've got a little cardboard looking sleeve. Yep. And then they are wrapped in, um, uh, clear plastic, little cellophane, little twist tie. Uh, so we took them back to the room to try them. We try them the next day or so. Yeah. Uh, I thought if you like pumpkin, that one was fantastic. It was amazing. I didn't try the rest. I tried the other two. I wish I would have tried the apple caramel. So I only know what they were now by reading the description. Like when you eat the pumpkin, if you didn't know what it was, you go, this pumpkin. The other two, I don't think had that strong of a flavor profile. Uh, I, if this was something that you could go down and it's not, if you could go down and they had them separate, you could say, I want my trio of, of macarons. Here's the three that I want. Okay. I would get three pumpkin. Yeah. Like I, the 799, the other two were fine. It was worth it for the pumpkin. It was very good. Wow. If you're a pumpkin, if you're a pumpkin person, if you're, you know, if you got to have your PSLs. Yep. Right. Very good. Well, speaking of that, in the carousel coffee, um, place, we each got a coffee and, um, close earlier than I knew because I felt bad. They were closing the doors while we were in there because we were, it was three 30. I think that they close and I didn't know that. I felt bad we were in there making them work at three 20. Well, but we didn't realize and it was fine. But, um, they did have a, um, cinebun frozen coffee that I got. Yeah. And it was really good. Um, I just think maybe I shouldn't have drank it as maybe fast slash walking out in the heat. Set your stomach a little better. Yeah. That's a little, you aren't feeling the best that night. No, but I was really happy that I got an hour to like rest and relax. So, to be fair, that might have just been the straw that broke the camel's back after we partook in the 100 degree weather and the sweet stuff. Plus we went ahead to Casey's corner. Um, not only be nice to cast members, just be nice to guests and be aware of your surroundings. Oh my God. That was crazy. This lady was more oblivious than the two that cut in front of us at salt and straw. I mean, we're around to walked up in the wonderful cast member at the doorway. Saul, you were wearing the be nice to cast member hat at that point. We had a little conversation with her and you said, um, uh, I just, at that point, we just wanted some waters. Yeah. Right. This was a, this was the next day. Yep. But I just thought of it. So, then we'll get to the food portion and we're waiting for waters behind another person. And this lady literally walks up and steps between us and her. Mm hmm. I don't think she did speak English. I don't believe because I understand that, but I water from the cast member and then the, the cast member finally said, Agua. And then she, like they were able to communicate. Yeah, but still, I mean, if somebody's speaking to me in a different language, I would know that and I'd be like, Oh gosh, I'm so sorry. You spoke to her. And I spoke to her two or three times. And I mean, I all but touched her and been like, excuse me lady. I mean, I was, I was very just like, Oh my gosh. And I think that one of the persons behind me kind of was like shocked too. Um, she never even, and I stared at her when she like left to, and she never even looked at me. Like I was literally invisible. I really do feel like I was Harry Potter with the cloak. Yep. Like literally. Oh no. It was anyways. But let's talk about the food. Let's talk about the food. We did. Um, go ahead and order the Chipotle barbecue pork and street corn, um, which you can put on a hot dog. You can put on, um, French fries or you can put on mini corn dogs. And we got many corn dogs because it does come with fries. So this way we were able to basically try both of them. Um, and this is during regular park hours and then not the party. Again, I would totally get during regular park hours and save all the other stuff for the, um, party. Yeah. Um, this was really, really good. The corn dogs, it is just to note it is smaller. Um, there's five corn dogs that come in underneath the Chipotle barbecue, street corn topped. Um, but what's great is once you eat it, um, there was a little bit more left and I just kind of dumped it on top of the fries and it was just fantastic. It was really good. Really good bite altogether. Yeah. With either the French fries or the corn dogs. Um, I loved it. Yeah, I did too. I would get it again. I would too. I think next time I would actually maybe do it on the hot dog and there's a footlong version as well. Okay. Um, I would maybe do it on the hot dog next time because you would still have that side of fries. Correct. My only problem with it in the toppings were great. You know, you've got this fire roasted corn and queso fresco and the barbecue pork. You've got cilantro on there. Um, it almost masked the flavor of the corn dog. Like I didn't get a lot of corn dog flavor as much as I just got all the topping flavor, but it was so good. It was very good. Yeah. But I'm saying, I think you would get more dog flavor. If you put it on a hot dog, you know what I'm saying? Um, but I really did like it. The sweet cast member gave us a, um, they're, they have a baseball fudge brownie dessert. Oh my God. That was, I've never had that. Wonderful. It was fantastic. So if you're brownie icing on top looks like a baseball. It was so good. If you're there and you're like, Oh, you know, I kind of wonder what that's like. If it's good, if it's yes, like literally just get it. Yeah, it might be like five bucks. It's so good. I would get it. It was really good. Yeah. Well, um, we'll end this episode talking about the Orlando and former meetup because we did go Friday and Saturday night and on Friday right now. But let's skip ahead to Saturday because we headed back to Magic Kingdom. Yes, we did. And we had reservations for noon at the Plaza restaurant. Yes, which has Halloween specialties, which are available all day. They're not exclusive just to the party. Yes. They have four items. So we got all four. Yes, we did. And this was the day that we were, so we checked out of the Swan Reserve. We drove to Magic Kingdom and we ate here. And then pretty much, we posted a Tron, I got virtual for Trons. We did Tron as a day before. We ate. And then we drove to the character warehouse and that's when we got our 20% off and stood in a 45 minute line there. Yeah, 45 minutes to get into there. And then from there, we drove over to check in at dot side. Yeah. Oh, going back to Friday, we got the 1PM drop on Tron too. We rode Tron on Friday as well. We were at Tiana's in Tron that same day because we got the 1PM. That's right because I remember you saying I said something because we were going to leave and you were like, well, if we get 1PM, it's not going to be like 205. It was literally like 205. I was only going to get it for testing purposes. I didn't think we'd be able to stick around. And we got to ride it. And it was called like an hour later. And on that day, we pretty much what we walked on from the virtual queue almost. Yes, we did. We walked right into the digit digitization room. We walked right. I think something or something because we were out in the long part underneath where there was no shade. And then it seemed a very quickly fix where then we were under the shade and then we were in the shade the rest of time. And I was fine with that. When I'm in shade, I'm like, I don't care. I'm good. Yes. So let's talk about the plasma. Yeah. And we had here for the first time a couple months ago. Yes, we did. And we were very, very surprised at how much we enjoyed it. We were. You had a Waldorf salad. You even brought leftovers home to our home home two hours away and ate it and it was good. I had a crab cake sandwich that I was pleasantly surprised by with the plaza loaded fries. They actually have some very good, this would have been more than six months ago. They do have some good pre-mixed cocktails that are available there that are actually very good. You know, they're they're not going to pack a big punch. But if you want an alcoholic beverage in the middle of your day at Magic Kingdom, it's really only available to sit sit down. It was very, very good. So what did what are the two savory items here that we went ahead and got? They have a ghoulishly gourmet burger and a Halloween turkey club. The burger is a two all beef patty with pepper jack and Swiss cheese candied bacon, balsamic glazed mushrooms, onion ring, and a truffle buffalo aioli served on a black bun. This is for $25. Your Halloween turkey club is a turkey club with bacon on a black sandwich bread. And there's no mayonnaise or anything on it. You can get this stuff on the side if you'd like, and this is $19. So it was nice because the turkey club was already cut in half. Jeremy cut the burger in half. We each had one. They came with a side and we got fries and mashed potatoes because I wanted to try something other than the fries since we've had them. The mashed potatoes was like a red mashed potato. Yeah, red skin. Thank you. Slide the skin on. Uh huh. And it was fantastic. What a great just little like garlicky mashed potato. I liked it a lot. Yeah. But this Halloween turkey club and this burger was fantastic. I think the turkey club at the time we were eating was fantastically refreshing. Whereas the burger I felt like was outstanding. But I could have seen myself eating it like a little bit later in the day when it's not so hot. But this was holy moly outstanding. I would get both of these again. Yeah. Yeah, I love both of the I couldn't keep a I couldn't concentrate because I keep the two all beef patties. That doesn't immediately make you think of two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. No big back McDonald's commercial. Okay. That late 80s 90s. You don't remember that song. I do. But I'm like, no, I'm okay. I just sung it over my head 30 times while you talked about it. You enjoyed these, correct? No, I, I loved these. I, you know, go back to the Mexican fried rice at Rosa and you look at the description and you go, that's a lot. Like, I think you're putting too much into this. It's going to be too much. This was amazing. I got a taste of the burger, you got a taste of that meat. Um, you know, the, the bacon, the cheese, like everything, this truffle buffalo ale, like all of this is so good. They're using the leftover squid ink from be our guest to make the buns, I suppose, in the black bread. The only downfall is with all of this. And by the time, and I think Jeremy said no matter how long it basically sat for, if they had immediately brought to us, I think it would have still gotten the bottom bun a little soggy. Yeah, that was the only downfall. And then it was almost like you were needing to eat with a knife and fork. Yeah, it really is like we're able to pick it up, but it was pretty hard, especially when you get a mess. It's a mess. And then I ended up kind of dropping it and then finishing with a knife and fork after I wiped all my hands off and everything. But it was fantastic. This, I've been wanting a legit deli style turkey club sandwich for a long time. And this was it. This was like New York deli style. It was as tall as my head. It's a true club sandwich, where it's the bread, all your fillings, another slice of bread, fillings, another slice of bread. And then they have to keep it together. It's not even a toothpick. It's like a giant skewer. It's like a six inch skewer. This thing was five inches tall. It was hard to eat, but it was so good. The turkey tasted like a fresh Thanksgiving roasted turkey that somebody then, you know, then shaved off a bunch of the turkey breast and made the sandwich out of. I absolutely loved it. I would like it to be on the regular menu. I wish they'd gotten a little more inventive for a Halloween menu. You know, they were like, somebody came up with this ghoulish, ghoulishly gourmet burger, right? It's got all this stuff on it and truffle buffalo in a black bun and it's got an onion ring on top and pepper jack cheese. And then there's like onion ring on top. What's there? There was an onion ring on it on the burger on the burger. Not on top. Use it on top. Okay, it was on top of the burgers still on the patties. I thought you were under bun. Okay, under bun. Not like the jalapeno popper. Right. That's when you said that. I'm like, it wasn't on top. Yeah. Okay. So anyway, so we got all done with this. And somebody was like, Greg, I absolutely love the idea you came up with this burger. What else do you have? And he's like a club sandwich. And they're like, okay, how are we going to make it like ghoulish in Halloween? He's like black bread. They're like, okay, what else? That's it. I'm just going to get black bread. That's it. Like, I wish they would have done something more. It was still great. It was great. I would have loved this to be like a, I don't know, like Hades hot turkey club. And had maybe like, um, fried jalapenos on it or a yeah, maybe just something, but I still loved it. And I'm I hope they put this on the regular menu. Yeah, I'll say that. Um, now they have two other additional items. Yes, they do. One. Okay. When do you drink a milkshake during the meal? I would at dessert. So I consider this two desserts that we got, but a lot of people order like a burger fries and a milkshake at the same time. And I don't know why. Some people dip it. Yeah, their fries in the milkshake. Um, it's okay. That, but do people do that outside of Wendy's? I know. Wendy's is the one in the frost. I never did it. Period. Yeah. But, um, so anyway, I think, you know, burger fries, if you get a milkshake at the same time, for some reason, it seems so much worse than if you get a burger fries, you eat the whole thing. And then you order a milkshake. Oh, when I say it out loud, that's much worse because you got through an entire burger and fries. And then you had the, the, the wherewithal to say, you know what, what could I use after devouring two patties and fries? Why don't I add a milkshake to it? Not only is it a milkshake, it comes with a donut on it. You want to read the description? Yeah. So this is called a graveyard milkshake. It is a chocolate milkshake with a dipped graveyard jelly donut, white chocolate tombstone, gummy candy and a haunted mansion straw, which is sad because the haunted mansion straw is not to keep it is paper and it would just bend and break. That should have really been capable. I wish it was because we're going to reuse it. We're not going to go feed it to a turtle. This. So this is $10. Um, I don't know what was in the chocolate milkshake because it does not have in the description, but there was stuff in it. It's just like cookies and cream to me. Like, no, I think there's a granola. I don't know, man. There was some stuff in it. It was good. I hope it was supposed to be. It was like, I don't know, it could have been old. I don't know if somebody dropped something. I don't know if somebody dropped something in there on the accident. That lady was looking for earrings when I come back and think about it. Okay. Uh, it was really good. The milk that, excuse me, the jelly donut was really good. I love a jelly. I do. I love a jelly filled donut like from Duncan. If Kaylin ever brings one home, that's the one I like. Um, but, um, this was good. I just didn't need a ton of it. Um, but what we did get that I was like, I would have eaten this whole thing was the layered pumpkin cake with cream cheese moose for eight dollars and 50 cents. New this year. All this stuff is new this year, by the way. It was so good. It was a, it's a layered cake. So they bring out a slice. And what is that? One, two, three, four layers? Yeah. Where's your photo? I'll look at it when you talk about it. We'll let people know for sure. But it's purple and an orange because it's a pumpkin inside and then purple on the outside. Um, it is beautiful. It is good. Excuse me. Um, I could have eaten this whole thing, but I did have to share it with Jeremy. You are not looking. You were texting. Oh, sorry. I was getting a text planning for. It's another reason I think I'm fired up and excited. We're, um, this will come out on Friday, but we're doing our weekly live stream. Um, all tonight that we do every week and we're going to talk specifically about the 23 parks and resorts announcements and the parks and experience announcements. And we have some cool special guests that are coming on. Oh, and I'm just super excited to chat about it. So I'm in a hyper mood today, but continue with whatever you are. I was done. Oh, were you? Okay. So it has, um, four, you're right. Four layers of cake. I know I was right. Four layers of icing. This is one of the best pumpkin desserts I've had. Yes. And since it's, I wish you could just go and be like, can I get this to go please? Because I probably would. I would skip. Like you said, I would skip the milkshake. Absolutely. And I would, I would save those calories and sweetness for something outside. Like we had talked about the smorkup or about the, um, soft serve, uh, sweet corn, but I would spend the money on this. I was spending it on this. In fact, you know what? I wish they did. I wish that they were, uh, the other availability for milkshake was them taking this and putting it into a milkshake. So you would have a pumpkin milkshake, but they would actually use the cake in the milkshake. Okay. That would be good. Trust me about that. All right. I loved this. Yes. It was this fantastic. You know, I mean, the plaz is very small. Yes, it is. And there's some, um, it looks closed right now, but it is not. Yeah. Cause they're doing the outside facade. Thank you. Um, I would feel bad going in there with the reservation and taking a table to only eat this cheesecake or this pumpkin cake, but I would probably get over it because I would do that. And I would just tip very well. You know what I mean? Like I would just to make it worth you taking up two spaces from a cast member, you know, um, just to eat dessert. Man, this was so good. I'd just be like, here's a $20 bill and we'll get out of your hair as soon as possible. Or I would ask if you could get one to go that I loved this, like one it again. All right. We're going to finish, I promise. I was, I was thinking halfway through if we should break this into two episodes, but we have a lot coming up. Um, and so I don't want to stretch this out. Let's talk about the Orlando and former meetup. Um, first of all, because we're always in transparent and everything we do, uh, we were gifted these tickets. Yes, we were. Um, we did not pay for these. We did not. I have wanted to go to an Orlando and former meetup for a very long time. Uh, we have been exiting universal before, while all the people were coming in, we had sad faces. They had happy faces because they knew what they were about to experience, which I will start off by saying, even though we were lucky enough that we did not have to pay for it, we were gifted these tickets by a friend of ours. Um, it's the best after hours paid experience that I think possibly has and ever will exist. Yeah, it was, it was amazing. I, I can't get over. In fact, if you're thinking of going to this, go, it is expensive. It's, it roughly, they'll, they have a bunch coming up November and December. They have most of the weekends in November and December doing this again. Okay. Um, you're going to, if you do one night, it's Friday and Saturday night. If you do one night, it's going to run you about two 50 a person for one night. If you do both nights, it's going to run you more about four to four 50 per person for the two nights. So about a thousand dollars for two people to go two nights. If you can swing that, highly, highly recommend you do both nights because you can get in at five p.m. and it runs until one 30 a.m. Yeah. Yeah. Now the ones coming up, we have ones Friday, November 15th, 22nd, December 6th and 13th, and then you have them, um, coupled up with Saturdays, November 16th, 23rd, December 7th and 14th. During those ones, now the only difference with ours, you're allowed to get in five p.m. for any of these without a day ticket, annual pass, whatever, right? You're going to go, you're going to check in. Uh, they're going to have where the blue man group right there in front of, um, rip ride rocket, um, uh, over on the studio side is going to be an entry where you used to go to blue man group. Okay. Um, and you're going to walk in and you're actually going to go into a lot of the, um, studios, uh, spaces and set spaces back there. Uh, you're going to walk past where the Grinch, um, hula day, spectacular goes on and you're going to walk into one of these big, I just call them hangers. They look like big hair, airplane hangers. Yeah, they do. Um, in fact, we waited for, this was the cue for one of the, um, Halloween horn night houses before. And so you wait there, you get all checked in, uh, they give you your wristband. That gives you entry and that starts at like three 30. That gives you entry at five p.m. into either of the parks. Correct. For us, the event officially started at nine p.m. and ran to one 30. Right. And the parks did not close until nine p.m. Right. Coming up for November and December on those Fridays, not only will you be able to get it five p.m. But the park will actually close at seven. Mm hmm. It runs till 12 30. Mm hmm. So you gain a little bit more time than we did. And if you look at Saturday, you can get in at five park closes at eight. Mm hmm. And then the event closes at one 30 in the morning. Mm hmm. So again, you get a little extra time for everything. Um, we don't have to spend a ton of time on this. Uh, we kind of gave you some of those details. Uh, food, non-alcoholic beverages are all included. Mm hmm. Attractions are all included with shorter wait times. And by shorter, they mean for the most part zero. Yeah, like right now. And when they say ride now, like, it means you ride literally wait times listed. It says right now, except for Hagrid's, which we waited. The first night was 30, maybe 45, something like that. Yeah. Um, and we rode twice on the first night because it broke down because it broke down. And then the second night also, no, I think the second night was a little shorter, which people found ridiculous. We broke down the first as our first ride on Hagerie. We were around some, we were not happy people. Poopy pants. Uh huh. We were happy. It's our first ride on Hagerie. And probably I'd say over two years. Yeah. Right. And so if you know Hagerie's, uh, the part where you back up before the major, I'll just like spoiler, I won't say what it is in case you have not ridden it. You don't know. There's a part in this ride that I think you could ride it 10 times a day for the rest of your life. And on your dying day, this part, you would still go, how in the heck did they do this? This is amazing. Yep. This, when we're sitting there during this moment, it still gives me those same butterflies that I get going in the tower. It's incredible. Yeah. So we get stuck in this room. And as we're backing into it, the lights are on. Yeah, it was super weird. And we get stuck halfway through to the next point. Um, and we're probably stuck there for again, five or 10 minutes, you know, really not majorly long. And it was neat to me. It was ditto. But we still all of a sudden, you had a train full of people screaming out. This is ridiculous. Some of us have to pee. Something like, guys, come on, man. And cursing. Now I will say the amount of money that these people did spend, I do understand that time is of the essence. I agree. And it's not as though they were speaking these directly to team members. And when we got to the end, team members came up and said, if you would like to ride again, head straight, we had to exit the bike. They said head straight down that hallway. They will put you immediately back on the ride. And they did. And we rode again. Yep. Then we wrote it the second night. But the people that were yelling and we're not happy. They left. They left. And they said, would you like to ride again? She's like, Oh, God, now, like it was going to get stuck again. Like, I don't know what, like, I'm like, if it had gotten stuck again, I'd be like, wait, this is deep. I'm seeing like, behind the scenes stuff. No, it was lit up in that room. And if you know what that room is like, you want to see it lit up. It's super cool. It's like seeing space mountain lit up, right? Yeah, who's super cool. So as Rana said, everything else says ride now, and they're not kidding. Like, to the way is walking from the entrance to get on the right side to the point, most everything we did, yes, including, I've never gotten through security at Velocicoster in the lockers and not stop my feet from moving until I put them on the ride. You know, like, it was unbelievable. We did so much. We rode so much. You ate. All food is included. Okay. And when he says all food, I mean, this is amazing. All food is included at Mickey's very Merry Christmas party, right? You get some treats, right? Some cookies, some hot chocolate. You don't get food. You get treats. You don't get food. Meals. I'll just let me let me just read through a few things from the brochure. There's separate brochures for each night. So let's talk about the food on the first or second night, for example, right? First of all, from 330 to 730 in that big check in area, you get a rival bites. Yeah, that was cool. Right. So you got pretzels, you got egg fried rice, you got vegetable spring rolls, bacon smoked macaroni and cheese cups, outstanding. Oh, yeah, we tried that. Vegan pie, nachos, hot dogs, chili bar, and they're not alcoholic cowboy punch. That was good. There's a guy with a bag of soft pretzels walking around, just handing them out, willy nilly to whoever wants to. Willy nilly. It's amazing. Okay. Most of the dining then is going to open at 10 p.m. Right. The park was closing at 10. They have an hour to convert over, but they have everything ready. But they have two places that open at nine at each studio side and island side. Yes. So for example, over on island side, it was burger digs and Marvel superhero. That opened at nine. Yeah, it opened at nine. And then over on the studio side, we had a Richter's burger company and we had cafe La Bamba. Most every location for dining is open. And it's not as though you're going into, for example, Marvel superhero island in cafe four and you're getting pizza and they're taking a large pizza and cutting it into, I don't know, 36 slices, right? You're a little sliver of pizza. No, you get a full size slice pizza. Yeah. Right. You get a full bowl, just say, a Fettuccine Alfredo, full bread stick. You go into just say, Richter's, they give you a full cardboard boat with burger and fries. Yep. All full size. Yep. Went into thunder false terrace. They had plates with a half chicken, two ribs. I think it had rice that had half an year of corn. You had potatoes all in one plate. And then all your snack carts, like where you can get churros, turkey legs, popcorn, sodas, waters, what's the other things. All of them included. Everything included. And the, oh my gosh, pretzels again. Pretzels again. You could walk by a case, you kiosk, go out and just go. First of all, two, there's not, there's some lines, they're not crazy crazy lines. You could walk by a kiosk, walk up and say, I would like a pretzel in a soda. It's yours. Walk away. It's already. Now what was crazy is it's all paid for and everything, but they were calculating and to see the thousands of thousands of dollars. They're typing in every single order into the register and it's keeping a running total in time. So it's crazy. And it was neat. I think the best thing that was open was Cinebon. This is where the majority of the five pounds that I gained past week past, past week, and I actually did. You did. I had, I had done some work and lost a couple pounds leading up to this. And I gained it all back. I gained five pounds during this trip. Cinebon. And it's not like the many Cine, Cine, or however you say them, they were the full Cinebon. Yeah, would you ever had one or the, or the size of a bean bag? They're not the size. They're pretty close. That's what Jim Gaffigan, he's like, do I sit in it or eat it? Oh, well, anyway, I sit in it and eat it. So the first night we walked away with one and we ate most of it and then threw them away, but they had sin, they were cinnamon, um, donuts basically with cream cheese. And I was like, I'm saving this for the next morning. So we did on Saturday, the next morning I had with my coffee, that, well, when we were leaving Saturday night, I was like, we're going back to Cinebon and we're going to get one and take home on Sunday and, or have it Sunday morning with coffee because we were getting up to come home immediately because the kids had school and we had a lot of things to do on Sunday. So not only did we each get a Cinebon, but we ate a few bites of it, Saturday night, we then took a whole one home, brought it to the girls, cut it in half, they immediately ate it, warmed it up. Okay, you said we ate half of it Saturday night. When did we eat the other half? Oh, the rest of it on the right of the morning. Yeah, Sunday morning. We did. In the car. We got two. Yeah, we did. So it was just, it was fantastic. This was amazing. This is something that, you know, this was our first time. We really didn't know too much about it. Jeremy did, I guess, I get home on a work night and he's standing there, which he never does. And he's like, this is Tuesday, by the way. Yeah. And he's like, leaving on Thursday. Hey, and I'm like, Hey, and I usually always come home and I'm like, Hey, how was your day? And he's like fun. And he doesn't really say much, but he was standing there and he's like, Hey, and I'm like, Hey, and he's like, followed by what do you want? Yeah, I was like, okay, what? And he was like, we have to stay Saturday night. I was like, why? Because the skids were having school and we were just pretty much trying to go for Thursday Friday. And he was like, so we were giving these tickets. And I'm like, Oh, okay. And I'm really glad we did. And this was neat. Because when Jeremy started posting about it, we've seen some people that were like, this is this is the only way to do universal. And they're not wrong. And I know the prices are expensive. But if you think about everything that you get. And like I said, you can take a cinnamon home and eat it the next day or whatever. I mean, there's just so much that you get that it's totally worth the price. And if you still are a drinker, I know there's an alcoholic, but there is plenty of alcohol around the box pop up bars and you have to pay for these, but they do pop up bars, full bars, along with all the regular bars. You could go into a Finnegan's or whatever and get drinks. I don't know if this is a bold statement or not. The Orlando and former meetup is the best paid after hours event you can do in central Florida, probably done them all, but I guarantee it is. In fact, I would say it is one of the top three events that you can probably do. Like, I mean, seriously, yeah, like if you're a theme park enthusiast, Orlando and former meetup is your super bowl. Yeah, this is great. Unbelievable. And, you know, if we if we had paid for the tickets and I bet we will in the future because we will want to do this again, it would have been worth every penny. Yep. If you are the type that is going on your Disney vacation, especially when you're from overseas and you spend a lengthy time here, you have a lot of people that want to split with universal. If an Orlando and former meetup is going on during the time, I would I would potentially look at making that your universal visit. Yeah. You know what I mean? We ended up staying at Doc's side for the Saturday night. You know, 127 bucks for the night is crazy. That was a Florida resident rate. I mean, I just can't get over. You know, I'll go back to some of those times where I've talked about like a California grail, right? You go, well, everybody, you know, because like you said, when I said we were going, people came out of the woodwork going, this is the best thing ever. You're going to love it. It's amazing. And in the back of my head, I'm thinking great. Everybody's blown this thing up so much. There's no way it's that good. It is that good and more. Yep. It is worth every single penny and every single calorie that you are going to consume because you will want to consume all of them. Oh, yeah. Ice cream to it. Ice cream and Harry Potter. Yep. Butterbeer. Oh, yeah. Butterbeer. Butterbeer now. Yeah. I did not like it before because it was way too sweet. And I actually really enjoyed this. We did the frozen one night and we did a regular the other night. Just frozen. Really, really good. But yeah, you again, you just get a butter beer, walk, get in line at Hagards and then boom. There you go. The night is made perfect. Loved it. Great. Highly recommend. Yep. Go out, check the you go to meetup.orlandoinformer.com and get all the information for the ones coming in November and December. I don't know if we'll see you there or not. Maybe. Who knows? But we have a very busy November December. So those ones might not be on the books. But yeah. So that's all I got to say about that. That was it. All right. That was very long. Thank you for hanging out with us. Yes. Thank you. Hopefully, this was still informative, maybe a little entertaining. I had fun with Rhonda did. I always do. She was doing that thing. You know, you put your hand like in circle, like wrap it up, dude. Okay. She was excited. All right. That's it. And if you want to hear, Rhonda doesn't even know this, but we have a special guest on Tuesday. I do for our August journey into imagination. The wonderful John from Love Our Life vlog. And it's we get a little bit more detailed into specifics of content creation and some equipment, things like that. But it is super fascinating. This is my first time talking with John. He was introduced me by our mutual friend, John Self. Nice. And John was like this. This John is a good guy. And so I was like, you know what? Let's have Mon and John is amazing. Hopefully you'll get to meet him in person food and wine weekend because he will be out there. And hopefully we'll get to meet him and his wonderful wife Angie, but there he's super cool. So you got that coming Tuesday. We got a lot of plans coming up. You're going to get reviews of Mickey's not so scary. When we go coming up, Jollywood Knights, we're going to Mickey's very Merry Christmas party. We got Halloween horn Knights coming up here in September that we will be going to. So if you want all that information and more, you can follow us on social at main ST magic. Of course, you can hit that subscribe button and get the brand new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. They are not all as long as this one. We would be thankful though, unless it's something like, Hey, that was too long. If you would leave us a rating and review, because it'll help our show grow. I think that's all we've got. We'll see you real soon. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
Jeremy and Rhonda chat about their recent trip which included their first stay at the Swan Reserve, halloween sweet and savory treats, a Swolphin lounge crawl, and the Orlando Informer Meetup, all while going on multiple tangents about everything in between.
