We've been to Disney three times with the girls since 2004 and have always stayed in a two bed, two bath condo with a full kitchen. On our prior trips, as we would leave the park at the end of the day and make our trek towards the parking lot, we would always wonder where everyone else was disappearing to.
I wonder where they are staying? I wonder what their hotels are like? And by staying in a hotel on the Disney property, does that heighten the level of your vacation? These are questions that we would ponder on the drive back to the condo.
I have the answer to those questions now and when I bring myself to book another Disney vacation, we will resort to our old tried and true and stay at a condo complete with a full kitchen. And this would be for one reason and one reason only, and that reason is not because we did not thoroughly enjoy the hotel.
I mean when you stay in a two bed, two bath condo, you would miss out on going to bed at the same time as your five and eight year old children. You would miss being able to NOT watch television after the lights have been turned out for the fifth time that night. You would miss out on the ability to drop a pin and to have it not be heard, by ANYONE. I mean who would even want that when you are on vacation?
We stayed at the Port Orleans Resort and not only did our hotel resemble the French Quarter, our hotel became the French Quarter for us in that particular time and space. It was magical, relaxing and everything we could have hoped it to be. The lilting romantic trees were everywhere as was the jazz music which played throughout the resort.
Our prior two trips provided us with a working knowledge of the quality and choices of the Disney cuisine. Based on these observations, we would usually limit ourselves to just the Mickey Mouse ice cream. We would eat breakfast at the condo and then pack a lunch for the day and then head home for dinner.
I should probably preface this by saying, we are a particularly healthy bunch who follow a vegetarian diet so that GIANT turkey leg wasn't exactly going to cut it for us. A typical meal for me and my girls is fruit, veggies, yogurts, bread and cheese. They have been known to put a major dent in a Nasoya tofu package in one sitting.
So for those of you that have in fact stayed at a Disney resort, I am sure you can imagine our pain when we would try to eat a meal that had less than 2000 calories AND provided some sort of nutritional value. I knew it was going to be an issue which is why I did stress about it for a couple of weeks before our departure. And it turns out my stress was justified as the food situation was actually worse than I had even anticipated, insert here another quick nod to that GIANT turkey leg.
I am sure there are those of you reading this that are saying to yourselves, "what is she talking about?, I didn't think the food was so bad." And if you are saying that, please leave me a comment and let me know what your favorite place to eat was, or where you did in fact have a pleasurable dining experience and maybe I will try that on my next visit.
We did spend one day at Universal Studios and that at least had a Starbucks. Besides treating ourselves to a decent cup of coffee, this visit also spawned a love affair with Moe's, which I suppose is a sort of Mexican fast food chain. I alone practically devoured an entire order of nachos with the voraciousness of a person with the mind set that edible food may not appear again for a few days so you better stock up.
I will never take a kiwi for granted again. I will never carelessly toss strawberries that have small imperfections into the garbage again. I will cherish each bite that I take of my fruit and veggies and know that one place I will not have access to them is in Disney World.
