Day 3 (Part 1) - Retail Therapy
After the "busy-ness" of our past two days, I knew we would need a bit of downtime at this point. Initially we'd planned to go offsite to the Premium Outlet Mall, to see what souvenirs we could find at the outlet
Disney store. I didn't even know about the outlet Disney store until I saw a TimTracker video on it ahaha. However we learned that the minimum cab fare would be $20 each way. We'd also planned to go to our favourite offsite dinner (Macaroni Grill) tonight. So that would be $60 minimum or $40 if we didn't eat offsite and just went to the mall and back. And I'd have to make sure I got an accessible cab as well... suddenly it just seemed expensive and stressful aha.
So I ended up booking Paddlefish at Disney Springs for a late lunch and we could just suck it up and shop at Disney prices at Disney Springs lol.
All of this was decided closer to noon because I didn't wake up until after 11 lol.
I've not slept that late since my teen years! But I also haven't stayed up till 3am (the night before) since then lol! Mum had gone for a swim in the quiet pool while I was snoozing so I'm glad she got to do that. Our pool plans did not materialize for the rest of the trip!
We took the morning pretty slow and caught a bus to Disney Springs. The last time we were here, I remember it as being essentially a maze of construction walls, so it was nice to see it all done. I thought it was very beautiful, I love (what I call) "Floridian" architecture, with the tiled roofs and stucco. I'm sure it did not originate in Florida lol but it's the only place I've seen buildings like that! Sadly not a style I see in the Frozen North lol.
I had seen on the Springs map that Paddlefish was on the water and is essentially a giant boat, so I planned to just keep walking towards the water until we saw it. For some reason it was not that easy! We must not have been awake yet, we kept having to stop and look at a map aha.
Nevertheless we made it, turned a corner and then ah giant boat lol. I'd heard that this used to be Fulton's Crab House which I'd never been to. The inside was very modern with a nice view of the water. There were several plaques that said "voted best seafood" (I couldn't see by who) but I was surprised because I haven't heard much about this place. There's a lot of info about the Boathouse (which I also haven't been to yet) which seems similar. I booked Paddlefish because they seemed more focused on fish rather than meat and fish (Boathouse). Also because they had a soup and salad combo which was affordable and just what we felt like having today aha.
This is exactly what mum and I got, and we thought it was good. I'd probably come back because I love seafood and they had lots of options, with a nice setting and view. I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't try anything more substantial, but I can't pass up clam chowder and they let me put shrimp in my salad so I didn't do so bad aha.
We decided to head to the back of the Springs after lunch, where most of the Disney stuff is aha. Unfortunately for us, there's no real benefit to shopping at the "normal" stores, as we'd have to pay exchange on things we could get in Canada. Also we popped into a few of them and I think they might have been like designer versions? Just seemed extremely expensive, even at US prices.
We went past Rainforest Cafe to go to the Art of Disney store as I wanted maybe a poster or something to decorate my new place. We passed an animatronic gator outside the restaurant that freaked mum out because she briefly thought it was real lol. To be fair it was very realistic (and cranky!) looking aha.
They didn't have posters in the Art store but you could look up the options on a screen and they could print it for you. I didn't find a poster but I was able to buy a beautiful print of the castle during fireworks for a reasonable price aha. This is still at my parents house as my mum insisted it be a Christmas present aha. I've put a picture of the original here so you can see.
Next we headed clockwise to a Star Wars store. I was on the hunt for a BB8 t-shirt as he's my favourite! Alas the staff informed me they only make BB8 clothing for children. Children as in juvenile humans or children like 27 year olds who visit Disney for their birthday? Sadly they meant actual juvenile people, not me
However my other desired BB8 souvenir was a magic band! Which I did find in the pin trading place across from the Star Wars store. Hooray!
One amusing thing, in each Star Wars store I went in, they had these small BB8 robots buzzing around. Not sure if they were remote controlled, or used like robot vacuum tech to go on their own? In any case BB8 was obsessed with my chair lol, specifically going underneath it rofl. Some poor CM would come running up to me "BB8 noooo! Bad BB8! And apologetically explain that BB8 was hiding underneath lol.
I was quite disappointed in the Star Wars merch I saw this trip, it seemed exclusively promoting the "Solo" movie and not much else. I'd bought loads of Star Wars things at Disney in the past, before they even owned it! But maybe I am thinking of Star Wars Weekends, which no longer are a thing... overall all of the stores (not just Star Wars) were heavily homogenized and the amount of "stuff" available seemed greatly reduced. Mum and I were wondering if this was the result of the recession? Or just Disney wanting to reduce it's inventory, which makes sense to "accounting hat" me but less so to "consumer hat" me lolol.
We went into Mickey's Pantry next as mum wants me to fill my new place with Disney stuff ahaha, but again I didn't see anything to my liking so we moved on.
I think we went into the Marketplace Co-op building next which had a bunch of stores inside. Didn't get anything from here but I think this was most fun to wander in aha. Lots of neat stuff! I'm not a dress-wearer, just don't find them comfortable to sit in, plus I'm a major tomboy ahaha. But I loved looking at the Cherry Tree Lane dresses, all very beautiful! Mum tried to convince me to get one as she thought these might be "the only dress I'd ever wear" bahaha, but I couldn't do it given the cost and the fact it would be all rumpled underneath me. I'd also heard of like a Tower of Terror dress and I swear I saw a BB8 dress on TimTracker?? But didn't see those ones, saw Orange Bird and Mary Poppins... some others I don't remember sadly aha.
We went into World of Disney next which as usual was very busy. But I found this absolutely amazing park bag! I also found... like a tea steeper thing, those little mesh balls where you put loose leaf tea in to steep it, only this one had Mickey ears ahaha. This will a gift for my brother as he loves his tea and forbid me from getting him any "loud Disney" presents lol. I hope that this will be "simple" enough for him! I don't have a picture of this sadly as I left it at my parents.
We were fading at this point and we'd passed Vivoli Gelato on the way in which was on my "snack list" aha. I've had gelato before but not recently enough that I remembered what it tasted like aha. And I'd seen on the menu that you could get gelato "affogato" which means they pour coffee (espresso?) over it. This sounded amazing and I've never seen this before at any ice cream place I've been to. I also heard that the only other location of Vivoli is in Italy? So seemed like a "try it while you're here" type of thing.
I got cheesecake gelato affogato and mum got a sorbet, I think rasberry, as she wanted something lighter. She said she liked her sorbet and finished it, which means she really liked it, she's not a fan of sweets in general aha. I absolutely LOVED my gelato! Really unique flavour combo, when he first handed it to me it actually felt interesting, hot and cold depending on where I held the cup aha. Then eventually it all melted into essentially coffee ice cream which I have no complaints about. I also have to say the coffee itself tasted amazing, before it combined with the gelato even. I haven't looked it up to confirm if the original shop is in Italy, but based on taste alone I'd believe it! I was thinking I could get another of these later on in the trip but sadly it never came to pass.
We headed towards the front of the Springs now, back towards the buses, but I convinced mum to pop into Uniqlo before we left, again on TimTracker's recommendation aha. Sadly it seemed all the Disney stuff had been majorly picked over. I asked about Star Wars merch but the CM regretfully informed us it usually sells out as soon as they get it, and timing of the next shipment wasn't going to work with our plans.
It was around 5 I think at this point and we were ready for dinner. This was originally to be another quick service night but we would be taking advantage of the club lounge again. Later in the evening we had a fastpass for Fantasmic. Continued in Part 2!