Conorama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2012
Disney Springs ... or the Un-Disney Family venturing closer to actual Big Mouse than ever before.
Since we had effectively skipped lunch, priority 1, before meltdowns (and no, I'm not just talking about Conor) was for more food. We quickly decided on Bongo's Cuban Café as it was different than anything we can get at home (our usual approach to vacation eating, where possible).
We had to wait a bit for our food, which provided time to peruse the HUGE map on my phone, and make a plan. For those who were not aware (as I wasn't) Disney Springs used to be called Downtown Disney, and it's something like an outdoor mall.. if malls were the size of small villages, and they were made by Disney.
We had 3 goals based on pre-cruise research: Lego store , Star Wars store, and Mexican food. Note that very little Disney actually played into our plans, since the men's fandom for Star Wars predates Big Mouse taking it over. Oh, and socks. I was still looking for socks, due to the Big Purple Packing Incident.
The food arrived and YUM. (I do not generally take photos of my food because hungry. There are a few rare exceptions here and there...)
Conor downed his food and was primed to speed off to the Star Wars Galactic Outpost. He refused to consider going in anything else- candy store? Nope. Super heroes? (Withering look.) Starbucks? Nope. STAR WARS.
Oh my. It may be small, but it's full of Star Wars paraphernalia. First stop was the Tsum Tsum section.
For the uninitiated (those who do not yet have Tsum Tsums in their lives, picture a small, gerbil-sized stuffy, that is stackable. It's essential a 3D oval. Back in October during our trip to Stake Canada, we visited a Disney Store and Conor met these evil wee things for the first time. With his money, he purchased an Ewok and I thought we were done. Then, we visited another Disney store after Christmas and he had saved up Christmas money, and he got a few more... made worse by the post-Christmas sales. (2 for 1 .... oh goodie!) Then he got a few as late Christmas gifts (I had to buy the Princess Leia one after Carrie Fisher died... while not a Star Wars fan myself per se, I always loved Leia.) Then, the little critter bred, I'm sure. And got into some engorgement charms or something, as we now have some that are more like cat-sized, and then, horrifyingly, a Stitch one that is bigger than a basketball. Yes, there are hard plastic ones. At our house, we just go for the fuzzy kind.
Anyhow- there was a very happy young man when he found ... wait for it ... a Jawa Tsum Tsum. (You know - when you become a parent, you just don't imagine things like "Jawa Tsum Tsum" coming out of your mouth.) That was a no-brainer that he would use his fancy US money for. We also told him we would get him one thing at the store. Cue ...
Build your own lightsaber.
I thought we would never leave. I started scanning the area for seating ... heck, for a place to nap, as this would go on for ever. This is Conor heaven... contemplating all the different combinations and permutations of colours of blade, handle thingies, gadgets, and the like. His own unique lightsaber was a concept that came close to him achieving perfect happiness. (We did not birth a sheep- Dude is all about being different.) A one of a kind lightsaber!
In case you were worried, we had packed a lightsaber already. One of the 3 we have at home. A blue one, which is HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT ... to people who are not me.
This was not enough though. He wanted a purple one, with lots of thingies and whatchamacallits and thingamabobs. 30 minutes later, we finally extricated him. So we're clear- this is a tiny store ... like what you might find as the gift shop in a hotel, but slightly larger. The lightsaber is very much in frequent use nearly 2 months later (it makes the lightsaber noises, so I know very well that it's used often).
Really- the only way we got the child to move on was to wave the map in front of his face and show him the part marked "Lego Store".
And then, we had more happiness. Not, to my surprise, because of the fact that there are 3 gagillion Lego sets there, but because it had "Make your own Mini-figures" stations. This is Lego genius. You take a bunch of bits and bobs from mini-figures (there are probably 7 million in my basement alone) and put them in a bin ... and let kids make their own ... 3 to a package.
I can't get any photos of Conor's face, because it was always firmly in the Lego bin. However, as we only had to pay $9.99, it was a totally painless trip to the Lego store.
Having achieved goals 1 and 2, we still had about 30 minutes before our dinner reservation. There is this massive Disney store right across from the Lego store, cleverly called World of Disney. This is like some kind of Disney quicksand. We were used to what we had seen in the airport and on-board- small shops, with a lot of merchandise. (I'm told the cool kids call it merch. I am not cool, and merch is not a word I use.)
This was like a maze of interconnected small stores ... for example, the Star Wars Galaxy Outpost was practically replicated as a tiny part of World of Disney.. and that was just a tiny bit. We kept losing one another in this place- it's huge. Fortunately, we had paid our daily roaming rate, so texting kept us from getting too lost... so long as the instructions went like this:
"Where R U? " (I'm a lazy texter.)
"In the Mickey section."
"That means nothing. What else do u see?"
"Stitch?"
"Forget it, I'll meet you outside near the Lego store."
We would reconvene, and, girding our loins, decide to go back in to look for socks. 5 minutes later.
"Where R U? "
"In the section with t-shirts."
"That means nothing. What else do u see?"
"Hoodies?"
"Forget it, I'll meet you outside near the Lego store."
Having done this twice, we finally decided to see if we could eat early, as clearly this was just too Disney for us, and the only socks were ones I would never wear again.
Food from the heavens...
Astute readers will recall that I conned DH into venturing into more Disney than we ever had before because of the food. We perused several options, but he quickly caved to my request (read: desperate pleas) that we go to Frontera Cocina for Rick Bayless' Mexican food. I've had a food crush on RB for years. I live for really good Mexican food, and it's sorely lacking up here in frigid land, except for 2 summers when we were graced with a really good Taco food truck... now disappeared.
It wasn't hard to convince him, so he nabbed reservations. I will go on a bit here - because it is important that I remember this meal.
We were, at this point, exhausted and frankly cranky. (A rime I did not intend to make but I enjoy it.)
However... Rick to the Rescue! OK, no, he wasn't there, but a very nice waiter took care of us. I don't drink much alcohol at all, but an occasional really good Margarita is occasionally required. This was a beyond awesome Margarita. DH tried some beer and Conor opted for his current fancy drink du jour: A Shirley Temple.
We ordered.
First up ... the best guacomole EVER. We worked hard to avoid sticking our faces in the bowl and licking, though it was tempting. Here's Conor who is (sorry about this folks), indulging in his new favourite pastime of horrible puns. This is: "Use the Fork, Luke!"
On the bottom left of the photo, you'll see a bit of our other appetizer - Coctel Rojo- which consisted of some ridiculously happy seafood swimming around (not literally) in incredibly flavourful sauce. DH and I refrained from beating each other off with forks and shared like a big boy and big girl. Conor even nabbed some of the scallops.
The mains came out- and I fell in love with my beef. I am drooling now thinking of it. It was also huge.
From the menu:
Carne Asada
Red chile-marinated Creekstone Natural Black Angus steak, black beans refritos with Cotija cheese, caramelized plantains with crema and queso fresco, tomatillo salsa, warm corn tortillas
The waiter told me how long that steak ages, and I forget, but suffice it to say, it had acquired some wicked flavour through whatever Rick did to it.
DH had some enchiladas which left him speechless. Conor had quesadillas from the kids' menu, but I know the waiter customized them somehow for him - how, I forget, but Conor was very chuffed at this special treatment.
Somewhere in here, I realized I was at risk of falling asleep, (and I would have been happy), but I thought someone else might want to use our seats. While Conor finished up his ice cream, and took photos with my phone of the decor, our waiter helped me lovingly pack up my leftovers (yes, we were going on a cruise the next day - your point?) and we paid the bill, which wasn't too painful, and we judged it well worth it.
We waddled out of the restaurant, and then high-stepped it all the way back to the car (long walk actually) because it was COLD. Like 8 degrees celsius cold with a breeze and the sun had gone down.
Fortunately, the drive back to MCO was traffic-jam-free, and we figured out how to return the rental car.
Were we ready for bed? Yes. Was it only 7:00 p.m.? Yep. And so nope, we had to get to our ultimate destination for the night... which shall be revealed in the next post.
Good night!
Since we had effectively skipped lunch, priority 1, before meltdowns (and no, I'm not just talking about Conor) was for more food. We quickly decided on Bongo's Cuban Café as it was different than anything we can get at home (our usual approach to vacation eating, where possible).
We had to wait a bit for our food, which provided time to peruse the HUGE map on my phone, and make a plan. For those who were not aware (as I wasn't) Disney Springs used to be called Downtown Disney, and it's something like an outdoor mall.. if malls were the size of small villages, and they were made by Disney.
We had 3 goals based on pre-cruise research: Lego store , Star Wars store, and Mexican food. Note that very little Disney actually played into our plans, since the men's fandom for Star Wars predates Big Mouse taking it over. Oh, and socks. I was still looking for socks, due to the Big Purple Packing Incident.
The food arrived and YUM. (I do not generally take photos of my food because hungry. There are a few rare exceptions here and there...)
Conor downed his food and was primed to speed off to the Star Wars Galactic Outpost. He refused to consider going in anything else- candy store? Nope. Super heroes? (Withering look.) Starbucks? Nope. STAR WARS.
Oh my. It may be small, but it's full of Star Wars paraphernalia. First stop was the Tsum Tsum section.
For the uninitiated (those who do not yet have Tsum Tsums in their lives, picture a small, gerbil-sized stuffy, that is stackable. It's essential a 3D oval. Back in October during our trip to Stake Canada, we visited a Disney Store and Conor met these evil wee things for the first time. With his money, he purchased an Ewok and I thought we were done. Then, we visited another Disney store after Christmas and he had saved up Christmas money, and he got a few more... made worse by the post-Christmas sales. (2 for 1 .... oh goodie!) Then he got a few as late Christmas gifts (I had to buy the Princess Leia one after Carrie Fisher died... while not a Star Wars fan myself per se, I always loved Leia.) Then, the little critter bred, I'm sure. And got into some engorgement charms or something, as we now have some that are more like cat-sized, and then, horrifyingly, a Stitch one that is bigger than a basketball. Yes, there are hard plastic ones. At our house, we just go for the fuzzy kind.
Anyhow- there was a very happy young man when he found ... wait for it ... a Jawa Tsum Tsum. (You know - when you become a parent, you just don't imagine things like "Jawa Tsum Tsum" coming out of your mouth.) That was a no-brainer that he would use his fancy US money for. We also told him we would get him one thing at the store. Cue ...
Build your own lightsaber.
I thought we would never leave. I started scanning the area for seating ... heck, for a place to nap, as this would go on for ever. This is Conor heaven... contemplating all the different combinations and permutations of colours of blade, handle thingies, gadgets, and the like. His own unique lightsaber was a concept that came close to him achieving perfect happiness. (We did not birth a sheep- Dude is all about being different.) A one of a kind lightsaber!
In case you were worried, we had packed a lightsaber already. One of the 3 we have at home. A blue one, which is HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT ... to people who are not me.
This was not enough though. He wanted a purple one, with lots of thingies and whatchamacallits and thingamabobs. 30 minutes later, we finally extricated him. So we're clear- this is a tiny store ... like what you might find as the gift shop in a hotel, but slightly larger. The lightsaber is very much in frequent use nearly 2 months later (it makes the lightsaber noises, so I know very well that it's used often).
Really- the only way we got the child to move on was to wave the map in front of his face and show him the part marked "Lego Store".
And then, we had more happiness. Not, to my surprise, because of the fact that there are 3 gagillion Lego sets there, but because it had "Make your own Mini-figures" stations. This is Lego genius. You take a bunch of bits and bobs from mini-figures (there are probably 7 million in my basement alone) and put them in a bin ... and let kids make their own ... 3 to a package.
I can't get any photos of Conor's face, because it was always firmly in the Lego bin. However, as we only had to pay $9.99, it was a totally painless trip to the Lego store.
Having achieved goals 1 and 2, we still had about 30 minutes before our dinner reservation. There is this massive Disney store right across from the Lego store, cleverly called World of Disney. This is like some kind of Disney quicksand. We were used to what we had seen in the airport and on-board- small shops, with a lot of merchandise. (I'm told the cool kids call it merch. I am not cool, and merch is not a word I use.)
This was like a maze of interconnected small stores ... for example, the Star Wars Galaxy Outpost was practically replicated as a tiny part of World of Disney.. and that was just a tiny bit. We kept losing one another in this place- it's huge. Fortunately, we had paid our daily roaming rate, so texting kept us from getting too lost... so long as the instructions went like this:
"Where R U? " (I'm a lazy texter.)
"In the Mickey section."
"That means nothing. What else do u see?"
"Stitch?"
"Forget it, I'll meet you outside near the Lego store."
We would reconvene, and, girding our loins, decide to go back in to look for socks. 5 minutes later.
"Where R U? "
"In the section with t-shirts."
"That means nothing. What else do u see?"
"Hoodies?"
"Forget it, I'll meet you outside near the Lego store."
Having done this twice, we finally decided to see if we could eat early, as clearly this was just too Disney for us, and the only socks were ones I would never wear again.
Food from the heavens...
Astute readers will recall that I conned DH into venturing into more Disney than we ever had before because of the food. We perused several options, but he quickly caved to my request (read: desperate pleas) that we go to Frontera Cocina for Rick Bayless' Mexican food. I've had a food crush on RB for years. I live for really good Mexican food, and it's sorely lacking up here in frigid land, except for 2 summers when we were graced with a really good Taco food truck... now disappeared.
It wasn't hard to convince him, so he nabbed reservations. I will go on a bit here - because it is important that I remember this meal.
We were, at this point, exhausted and frankly cranky. (A rime I did not intend to make but I enjoy it.)
However... Rick to the Rescue! OK, no, he wasn't there, but a very nice waiter took care of us. I don't drink much alcohol at all, but an occasional really good Margarita is occasionally required. This was a beyond awesome Margarita. DH tried some beer and Conor opted for his current fancy drink du jour: A Shirley Temple.
We ordered.
First up ... the best guacomole EVER. We worked hard to avoid sticking our faces in the bowl and licking, though it was tempting. Here's Conor who is (sorry about this folks), indulging in his new favourite pastime of horrible puns. This is: "Use the Fork, Luke!"
On the bottom left of the photo, you'll see a bit of our other appetizer - Coctel Rojo- which consisted of some ridiculously happy seafood swimming around (not literally) in incredibly flavourful sauce. DH and I refrained from beating each other off with forks and shared like a big boy and big girl. Conor even nabbed some of the scallops.
The mains came out- and I fell in love with my beef. I am drooling now thinking of it. It was also huge.
From the menu:
Carne Asada
Red chile-marinated Creekstone Natural Black Angus steak, black beans refritos with Cotija cheese, caramelized plantains with crema and queso fresco, tomatillo salsa, warm corn tortillas
The waiter told me how long that steak ages, and I forget, but suffice it to say, it had acquired some wicked flavour through whatever Rick did to it.
DH had some enchiladas which left him speechless. Conor had quesadillas from the kids' menu, but I know the waiter customized them somehow for him - how, I forget, but Conor was very chuffed at this special treatment.
Somewhere in here, I realized I was at risk of falling asleep, (and I would have been happy), but I thought someone else might want to use our seats. While Conor finished up his ice cream, and took photos with my phone of the decor, our waiter helped me lovingly pack up my leftovers (yes, we were going on a cruise the next day - your point?) and we paid the bill, which wasn't too painful, and we judged it well worth it.
We waddled out of the restaurant, and then high-stepped it all the way back to the car (long walk actually) because it was COLD. Like 8 degrees celsius cold with a breeze and the sun had gone down.
Fortunately, the drive back to MCO was traffic-jam-free, and we figured out how to return the rental car.
Were we ready for bed? Yes. Was it only 7:00 p.m.? Yep. And so nope, we had to get to our ultimate destination for the night... which shall be revealed in the next post.
Good night!
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