Quick Whirlwind Shades of Green and Epcot Day (part 1)
I'm behind in reading trip reports (I enjoy it when work is slow and I can slack off here on the Cot) but never the less I thought I would post a quick write up of our short Disney stay last week.
We drove down on Wednesday leaving our house an hour north of Atlanta around 5:45am to beat traffic. We stopped for gas and "pit stops" only and we were at Chuy's for lunch by I think 12:30? (Thanks Christine W for the recommendation.) We had an appointment to look at a retirement community at 2:30 but we were a little early. The homes were stunning and it was only 6 miles from the MK but we had some concerns about the neighborhood so we will probably scratch that one off the list.
We made the super quick drive to Shades of Green (love the new flyover ramp) and parked in the parking garage and carried our small bags to check in. Super speedy, room was ready. 4th floor in the new section. Slightly smaller rooms but a nice view of the fountains etc. I hadn't stayed here since it was Disney Inn (maybe 30 years ago?) I still love the quiet vibe of the resort even without the outward Disney theme-ing. I wish we had the chance to stay here more often than just Jan and Sept.
We fixed some cocktails from our cooler we brought with us and had a quick walk around the property to check things out. It was pretty chilly. We headed back to the room for another cocktail ;) and bundled up for a tour of the MK resorts.
We walked over to the Poly and hopped on the monorail to Grand Floridan for a quick pin check. No LE pins at the whole resort for sale (huh?) but the Christmas tree was still up so that was kind of nice (and odd at the same time.) Oh I forgot to mention we had a monorail car to ourselves on the first and second legs of our journey which was very unusual. Can't tell you last time that happened. We then rode around to the Contemporary and grabbed a really tasty cocktail at Outer Rim, very well made, fresh lime juice, no mixers. Almost no LE pins here either. We walked around a bit, checked out the shops and walked outside towards the boat docks for just a bit before hurrying back in out of the wind and cold. Back on the monorail to Poly.
We had 8:45 reservations at Ohana (my favorite) and we were pretty early so we grabbed a drink from Tambu Lounge (not nearly as good at the previous drink from Outer Rim) and headed to the boat dock. We had just enough time to board the boat for a RT fireworks cruise :) free fireworks cruises are my favorite. Even if it was really chilly.
Back to the Poly for dinner at Ohana. Now...I hate to write this but it was just ok. We had been up a long time and we were really tired and it was really late so that might have influenced things but it was very rushed (they literally brought ALL the food at once) and it was so expensive. I mean I'm used to Disney expensive but 2 adults, no drinks including tip was $130. We can eat off that for a week. They did let me take my noodles and pot stickers back to-go (they brought way too much) and I popped them in our fridge after we walked back to Shades of Green.
(This is getting longer than I thought.) Stay tuned for part 2.
