Tag Archives: Saturdays With Nick

Winnie the Pooh Bank – Flea Market Treasure

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Happy Saturday, Everyone!  This week Nick brings us another envy-inducing piece from his amazing Disneyana collection.  I love this particular item because it reminds me of the first time I ever rode the Magic Kingdom’s Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.  I also love it because it’s perfect and super adorable.  I want one!  Enjoy….

Winnie the Pooh Bank – Flea Market Treasure

We got this great little ceramic Winnie the Pooh bank at the flea market in 2013.

We were drawn to it, like a bear to honey. (Get it? Bear to…moving on.)

Walt Disney Productions is marked on the bottom, which means it was produced before February of 1986.

The gentleman selling it was asking $5. While we really liked it, we felt $5 was high, because it’s missing its stopper and had some chips. I offered $3. As expected, he countered with $4. I was just turning Barbie to ask if she had any single dollar bills, when, to my surprise, the man said, “Okay, 3!” Maybe he assumed we were discussing the price, and were about to walk away? I don’t know, but what I do know is we got a great little bank without breaking the bank.

You can find Nick discussing any and all things Disney in these places:

You can listen to Nick (and Dave and me) talking Disney on The Disney Exchange Podcast.

Disney World Restaurant Review: Narcoossee’s

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It’s finally the weekend!  And you know what that means…Saturday’s With Nick!  I love when Nick does reviews of restaurants I’ve reviewed so I can compare our experiences.  I also love when Nick reviews a Walt Disney World restaurant I’ve not yet tried, or in the case of today’s installment, tried so long ago (25 1/2 years to be exact) that I cannot recall much of anything about our meal – other than we enjoyed it, the service was good, and we ate something with alligator in it.  We are going to give Narcoossee’s another try and have an ADR (advance dining reservation) booked for late December.  I’ll be curious to see if things are as good as we remember and if our experience is similar to Nick and Barbie’s.  I’ll tell you this – If scallops are still on the menu, I’m going to order them!

Disney World Restaurant Review:  Narcoossee’s

by: Nick

Since becoming a blogger, I travel differently, keeping an eye out for interesting topics to write about.
Blogging also influences dining choices at restaurants. I usually try to choose different items than Barbie, so I have at least 2 menu selections to review.  This doesn’t always work out. When we visited the Yak and Yeti Restaurant at Disney’s Animal Kingdom on our trip in October of last year, we both ordered the Chicken Lo Mein. But at least I had other photos from previous trips to write about.
What I’m getting to is this, the review of Narcoossee’s is going to be slim in the food review portion, because we both ordered the exact same thing, and as this was our first visit, there’s nothing else to fall back on.  Also, I apologize for how dark the photos are, the lighting in the evening at Narcoossee’s is pretty intimate.

Narcoossee’s is located on the shores of Seven Seas Lagoon, at the end of the Grand Floridian transportation boat dock.

We gave our names at the podium, and were handed a pager. We decided to have a look at the menu, so headed for the bar area.

On the way, we passed the open kitchen and the wonderful staff. Be sure to say hello!

 
I was impressed with the beer menu, not overwhelming but a nice selection.
 

We asked the bartender for a food suggestion, and he said his favorite was the scallops.

As I perused the beer list, our pager went off. As we were being brought to our table, Barbie spotted a man wearing a vest covered in Disney pins. She approached him, and they spoke at length. He came over to introduce himself and his wife. They were locals, and they also suggested the scallops, as well as the calamari.

If you time it right, and have a table facing Cinderella Castle, you can see Wishes at the Magic Kingdom. I made our advanced dining reservation at 180 days out for 8:00 pm, thinking the fireworks would be at either 8:00 or 9:00 pm. They were at 10:00 pm that evening, and while I could have changed our ADR, we both agreed that was rather late for dinner.

The menu is somewhat limited.

As our bread was being set on the table, we asked our server for an entree suggestion, and weren’t really surprised when she said the scallops.

The bread was very crunchy with a soft center, almost a sourdough. I love butter with salt, and this was course, better yet!

We shared the  Crispy Rhoade Island Calamari with pepperoncini-olive relish and tomato coulis appetizer.

I thought it was very light and crispy yet tender, not chewy. The relish was just the right kick, and the tomato coulis was the perfect acidic addition. Barbie thought they were the best Calamari she’d ever had! With a salad, this could easily be an economical choice for an entrée.

For dinner, we both ordered the Pan-seared Georges Bank Day Boat Scallops with Trofie pasta with Sultana raisins, Marcona almonds, young string beans and herb creme with wild mushrooms, lemon-thyme-mustard au jus and arugula.

We both agreed these were the best scallops we’d ever had. They were perfectly prepared, and as good as they were, the pasta and mushrooms in the lemon-thyme-mustard au jus was even better. Shhhh, if you listen carefully, you can hear my stomach growling now as I write this!

We would have loved dessert, but were too full!

There is no doubt we will return to Narcoossee’s in the future, and we will try to choose different food selections, but it won’t be easy!

Be sure to follow Nick and Barbie on all their adventures (so you won’t miss a thing)!  You can find Disney Musings on your favorite social media sites:  Disney Musings Blog, on Twitter, on Facebook, On Instagram, On Pinterest.

 

 

 

Resort Review: Disney’s Art of Animation

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Hello Weekend!  It’s time for another installment of Saturdays With Nick and this week I’ve got another awesome resort review from Disney Musings with loads of great pictures.  You may recall a couple of months ago, I shared this post about the Cars Suites at Art of Animation.  Today is Nick’s overview of the entire resort.  Whether you’re considering a stay at Art of Animation or you’ve already made it one of your favorite resorts, I know you’re going to love this post.

Resort Review: Disney’s Art of Animation

On our most recent trip to Walt Disney World we stayed at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, and, well, this is now a very strong contender for our favorite resort.

It is certainly the most Disneyesque of all the WDW resorts, featuring sections based on Cars, The Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo, and The Lion King.

The homage to Disney/Pixar animation begins in the fabulous lobby, Animation Hall, which features a very colorful check in area.

Animation sketches from the movies represented in the different sections of the resort adorn the walls.

Even the chandelier features sketch art.

Buses to the parks are located just outside of the Hall. We thought the bus service was fine, perhaps better than at Pop Century.

Disney’s Art of Animation Resort opened in phases through 2012, starting with the Finding Nemo family suites, which are located directly behind Animation Hall.

Family suites include a bedroom with one queen-size bed, one double-size convertible TableBed, one double-size sleeper sofa, living room, 2 bathrooms and a kitchenette.

There are large character sculptures located throughout each area, similar to the Pop and All Star resorts.

This is also where you’ll find the main pool. We loved this pool, which has underwater speakers. You can actually hear the fun soundtrack, which features appropriately aquatic themed music, which can be heard better while submerged! There is also an interactive water play area for kids.

There is also a bridge connecting Art of Animation to the Pop Century resort at the back of this section.

The building exteriors also feature animation art from the film being represented in that section.

There are also trivia and fun facts strewn throughout the resort.

The next section that opened was Cars family suites, which is where we stayed. I’ll have a full report in a future post, but I will say they are fantastic.

Each building in each area has a theme. This building is themed around Tow Maters towing and salvage yard, for instance.

There is a quite pool themed around the Cozy Cone located here, with cones as cabanas.

There are sketchbooks at the ends of buildings, adding to the already wonderful theming.

Next to open were The Lion King family suites. This is the only area not to have a pool of it’s own.

Finally, The Little Mermaid standard rooms opened in late 2012.

The pool is called the Flippin’ Fins Pool, featuring the “Under the Sea Orchestra” conducted by Sebastian.

Back at Animation Hall is where you can find the excellent counter service restaurant, Landscape of Flavors…

…and the Ink and Paint gift shop.

In addition to the aforementioned review of the Cars suites, I’ll have a review of Ink and Paint and Animation Hall, as well as a video walk through of the Cars and Nemo areas in the future, so please stop back.

Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian – Studio

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Happy Weekend!  Today’s installment of Saturdays With Nick is actually Saturday With Nick and Barbie!  Last year, this dynamic Disney duo took a fabulous Walt Disney World vacation that included a stay at the Grand Floridian’s Disney Vacation Club Villas.  This post offers some incredibly beautiful photos and a full description of Nick and Barbie’s studio and the entire Grand Floridian Resort and Spa.  Enjoy!

Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian – Studio

by: Nick and Barbie

First off, we’re going to say that The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian (VGF), the latest Disney Vacation Club property to open at Walt Disney World, is now one of our favorite places to stay on Walt Disney World Property.

To put it in context, we’ve stayed at every resort with the exception of the Polynesian, Contemporary (including Bay Lake Tower), Kidani Village at the Animal Kingdom Lodge (we have stayed at Jambo House), and Caribbean Beach.

But before we tell you why it’s become a favorite, we’re going to tell you what we didn’t like about the Villas, because we had a bumpy start.

Things began well enough. We had stayed one evening at the All Star Movies, and took a cab over to the Grand Floridian, and checked in at about 8:15am.

As soon as we walked into this resort we felt like we were surrounded by luxury.

Our room was not ready, which was expected, as check in for DVC rooms is 4:00pm. We were asked if we would like to receive a text or to be called when our room was ready, and we left a number to get a text. We took our bags over to the Villas building via a covered walkway, and left them with Bell Services.

The Villas lobby is lovely.

The fountain features the penguins from Mary Poppins.

Mary Poppins umbrella as elevator hands.

After checking our bags, we walked back to the GF main building and made our way to the second floor to catch the Monorail to the Magic Kingdom.

We had a great day at the MK, but as 3:30 approached, we wanted to get to the room and shower and rest before dinner. We still hadn’t been notified our room was ready. As we exited the park, we noticed a line for the monorail. We should have taken the boat, but, as we were on the monorail loop for the first time, Nick really wanted to take that mode of transportation.

Big mistake. There was a problem with the train ahead of ours, and each stop had us waiting for 10 minutes. We reached the Ticket and Transportation Center at 4:15, and decided to walk from the there to the Villas.

It was a very nice walk, and we had an opportunity to capture the VGF under perfect light conditions, but by the time we got the the resort, it was after 4:30 and well, Nick was getting a bit cranky.

When we walked in, Nick let the group of Cast Members gathered around the entrance know that we had never been notified that our room was ready. We didn’t receive an apology, just an explanation that they had been having a problem with their text system.
Nick was too tired to ask why they didn’t just call his cel if that was the case, and instead just asked if we could have our bags sent up to our room. We were told it would be about 15 or 20 minutes.

Nick said we would just take our bags up ourselves, we’d been out all day, and waiting that long for bags was unacceptable. At least the Cast Member who gave us our bags refused a tip due to the inconvenience, but, again, no apologies.

As we were lugging our bags to the room, Barbie said she couldn’t understand why Magical Express could pick up our bags at the airport and deliver them to our room at an All Star Resort, but bell services couldn’t have our bags waiting for us in our room here!

Okay, end of complaints! Well, almost. More on that in a bit.

We made our way to the second floor, room 1204. The hallways are very nice, with soothing colors, which is what we needed at that moment!

 
Upon entering the room, we were impressed with the wood floors, but really loved the bathrooms, which are immediately to the right.

Yes, we did say bathrooms. There are two separate rooms that can be closed off from one another, via sliding doors, one containing a shower and a sink with a granite counter top…

…the other, the toilet and a tub with a shower.

We loved the individual shower with the dual shower heads, mosaic marble tile floors, and all the amenities provided. And there is a TV in the mirror!

The kitchenette includes a small refrigerator and microwave.

The living space is beautifully decorated, a very calming color scheme, great after a long day at the park, crown molding, and furnishings that feel more sturdy than what is found at other DVC resorts. It was also much more quiet. We never heard our neighbors the entire stay.

Then there was our view of the Seven Seas Lagoon looking towards the Polynesian. Even the sight of construction vehicles building the soon to be DVC at the Poly couldn’t detract from the beauty. We spent every morning, afternoon break and evening with the sliding doors open, listening to the music, birds, sounds of boats going to and from the Magic Kingdom and even some Magic Kingdom sounds, including the train! It was amazing.

We really felt that this was the most well designed DVC room we’d ever been in.
Until we started to unpack and we discovered there is a rather odd design flaw.

“Where are the drawers?” Nick asked. Maybe here, under the television?

No. That’s right, we’d read about this feature, a pull down bed with a Dumbo theme. How cute.

Let’s see, ah, large drawers under the bed. Except, you can’t really use one whole drawer, as the nightstand is in the way!

We like to unpack when we stay in a room, and not live out of a suitcase. As it’s just the 2 of us, we did find enough storage for the most part, using the nightstand drawers…

…and the spacious closet, after we moved the extra bedding out of the way. We can’t imagine where a family of 5 would store everything and think the only way to accommodate a party of that size would be to live out of their suitcases.

Reading back, it seems like we’ve done an awful lot of complaining and you may wonder, why then is this now a favorite resort?

Well, we loved the atmosphere, the location and ease of access to the Magic Kingdom via a Monorail or boat. The Ticket and Transportation Center (TTC) is a relatively easy walk away, past the Poly which gives you access to Epcot by Monorail.

Nick loved the pool areas, one very close to the Villas.

There is an Alice in Wonderland themed play area next to this.

A little further away is a larger pool area with a hot tub.

And then, there is the Grand Floridian itself. We never got sick of looking at it at all times of the day.

We loved entering the lobby to see and hear, depending on time of day, a pianist, a harpist, or a band playing.

We enjoyed just sitting in the lobby listening to the music and relaxing between park visits.

Wishes at the Magic Kingdom can be seen from several spots around the resort. This is from in front of Gasparilla Island Grill, the counter service restaurant.

Speaking of restaurants, we’ve eaten at them all with the exception of Victoria and Albert’s, and enjoyed our meals at every one. We’ll have reviews of Narcoossee’s, Ctitricos, and the Gasparilla Grill in the future.

Even the bus stop is nicer than at other resorts. Instead of queues, or multiple stops, there is one with rows of benches, and a screen telling approximate arrival times. This last feature is new, and being tested at other resorts around WDW as well.

Finally, we’ll just leave you with a view of the Grand Floridian from a boat heading for the Magic Kingdom. Knowing that we would be returning to this picturesque resort at the end of the day made the trip all that much more enjoyable.

Follow Nick and Barbie on all their adventures!  You can find Disney Musings on all your favorite social media sites:  Disney Musings Blog, on Twitter, on Facebook, On Instagram, On Pinterest.