Yes, we had just ate there the night before – but that didn’t stop us from going back again! Originally, our plan was to meet up with Billie, Sarah, Ariane and Steve there, they had a reservation at the exact same time as us. But then we were gifted the amazing present of a VIP tour for that day so plans were changed. We didn’t think we’d have time to actually make it to our reservation (since there were a few options for start times for the tour thrown around), but I decided to hold onto the reservation anyways. We ended up finishing our tour around 3:45 giving us lots of time to get to Disney Springs for a 5pm reservation!

We arrived, checked in and didn’t wait long before receiving the text that our table was ready. As we entered, I did a quick scan of the restaurant – unfortunately no Chef Art Smith in attendance tonight. Also no table by the window, instead we were at the same 2-top table right behind the hostess stand where we’d sat before on a previous trip.

Our waiter came over and asked if this was our first time eating at Homecomin’ ( obviously we told him no) – he then asked when was the last time we had ate there – he laughed when we told him yesterday. I believe his exact comment was something along the lines of “perfect! I don’t need to go over the menu with you guys!”.

Of course the first item to take care of when you’re at Homecomin’ is the drinks! We decided to switch it up from the day before, and Luke ordered The Local – RumHaven coconut water rum, lime, simple syrup and fresh pineapple $12 and I decided to try the Blood Orange Madras – blood orange moonshine, freshly muddled strawberries, pineapple puree and cranberry juice $12.

The Local was nothing really special, but Luke did enjoy it (he really likes pineappley-coconuty tasting things). He probably wouldn’t get it again, just because there’s so many unique, fantastic drinks on the menu at Homecomin’. My drink was delicious though! I believe it’s a limited time offering, but I’m sure it’ll be back again at some point!

We decided to skip the appetizers tonight, and try something different for our main entrees. Luke went for the Fried Chicken Salad – crispy fried chicken over mixed greens, pecan-smoked bacon, egg, heirloom cherry tomatoes, red onion and cucumber tossed with icebox dressing, cheddar biscuit croutons and fresh herbs $18

The icebox dressing was the same as the stuff drizzled on his house-made chips that were served with his Cuban sandwich (so he knew he liked it). Of course the chicken is great, and Luke ate all of this. It’s a great salad for those days when you want to pretend you’re a healthy eater haha….

I decided to cheat on my beloved fried chicken, and ordered the Braised Short Ribs – this fancy “pot roast” is made by slow-cooking boneless beef short ribs until they are fork tender. Served over creamy mashed potatoes with a demi-glace sauce and French green beans $30

This was my short ribs meal #1 of the trip – but definitely not my last! This was very good, but I do think I’ll stick to the chicken when I’m at Homecomin’ from now because I missed it haha. The mashed potatoes are always amazing, but the green beans were just ok – I like mine cooked a bit more than these ones (a little too al dente for my taste). They weren’t lying about the beef being fork tender though, you did not need a knife for it! Delicious!

Luke decided we needed dessert – but we figured we could share one tonight and ordered the giant slice of Hummingbird Cake – the famous pineapple-banana cake with cream cheese frosting from Chef Art’s bestselling book “Back to the Table”. Served with seasonal fruit gastrique and a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream $12

This is a huge serving – I don’t know how one person could eat an entree and this by themselves – but it’s the perfect size for sharing! I don’t even really care for pineapple, but this is good. I’d still put the Pecan Pie as my favourite dessert here, but there’s really not a wrong option…

According to the picture I took of our bill, Luke ordered another Blue Hooch at some point. I didn’t take a picture of it, so enjoy this picture I had from when he ordered one during our meal the night before:

Out total bill came to $96.92 after applying my Annual Pass discount of 10% (before tip), and it was another great experience at our favourite restaurant <3

We had attended a Highway in the Sky event during our wedding trip back in January 2018, and absolutely loved it! We knew it wouldn’t be something that interested my Dad, so we skipped it on our December 2018 trip, but we knew we wanted to do it on this trip. I don’t remember exactly when we booked it, it was not available at the usual 180 day mark, but we just kept checking and as soon as the calendar showed our dates we locked in. You do have to pay in full at the time of booking, and it’s not a cheap option at $179/person – but I really enjoy it.

After we booked Highway in the Sky (I’m just going to abbreviate that to HITS from now on because I’m lazy and don’t want to keep typing out the full thing haha), we realized we had scheduled it for a day when we were moving hotels. We packed our HITS outfits in our backpacks and once arriving at Magic Kingdom for the day, rented a locker to shove everything into. Around 4:30, we went back to the locker and changed in the bathroom just outside the park by guest services. I had a few strange looks as I stood in front of a mirror putting on makeup in a floor-length dress haha. I also had a casualty, and dropped my favourite red lipstick, shattering its glass tube across the floor 🙁

Once we were ready, we re-entered Magic Kingdom to use our third Fastpass of the day – to meet Celebration Mickey & Minnie! I initially planned it this way, so we could meet them while looking fancy! It was such a fantastic meet-and-greet, Mickey was very upset that Luke didn’t have a bowtie on like he did, so he went over and ripped one off the Mickey tuxedo decorating the room. The cast members were doubled over laughing as Mickey proudly held a giant yellow bowtie out for Luke.

After our fantastic meet with the two main mice, we made the quick 10 minute walk over to the Contemporary hotel. Check-in is at the Wave, which is located on the first floor just past the check-in counter. We actually ended up being quite early, and were the first people to arrive. We found a seat in the little alcove to the side of the check-in desk and did what any great millennial couple does – sat side-by-side in complete silence looking at our phones haha. It wasn’t long before other couples began arriving, and the cast members showed up at 5:30 exactly. Luke went up and checked us in, and collected our lanyards and buttons. When you book Highway, you will receive a phone call about a week prior asking about food restrictions, so Luke had let them know I don’t eat seafood of any kind, so they also gave me a piece of paper with this stated on it to give to our server during the entrée portion of our evening. A cast member also took Luke out to bell services at the Contemporary so they could hold onto our park backpacks for the evening. I’ve heard the area where we were sitting referred to as the “blue room” – possibly due to the crazy blue hue my pictures have hahaha

Once everyone had arrived and checked in, a manager from the Wave (or the Contemporary dining team? I honestly don’t remember) greeted us and told us a bit about the hotel/restaurants located in the hotel. She also described the drink and first item we would be tasting on the evening – a pea soup with truffle oil and a drink with gin. I didn’t like the soup at all, but I’ve never liked pea soup. Luke loved it, and gladly ate my serving as well. The drink was delicious though! I wish it was on a regular menu somewhere, but it was a specialty drink just for Highway. It had cucumbers and strawberries, and maybe club soda? I took terrible notes during this meal haha. The most important thing is that the drink was tasty, and my glass was empty way too quickly. Both the drink and the soup were different than what we’d had on our first time doing HITS. (Also, not sure how I was able to get an actual decent picture of our drink, and such a terrible one of the little soup sample…)

While we sat in the Blue Room by the Wave, we started chatting with the couple who had sat on stools in front of us. They were a really lovely couple from New York named Wayne and Karen who had been married over 30 years. We ended up talking to them quite a bit over the course of the evening, and Karen and I are now Facebook friends – which makes sense since this trip was all about friendship and food! (hi Karen!)

Eventually, once of the cast members came around to let us know it was time to leave. We had to go through security at the Contemporary to get onto the monorail, but it was the only time we needed to go through security that evening (which is why wearing the lanyard you received at check-in is important). The cast members are actually in contact with the monorail drivers throughout the night, so it is always sitting there waiting for the Highway in the Sky group (which minimizes the time spent standing around waiting for it). They also hold the entire front car for just the group, so you never have to worry about finding a spot while on this tour.

Our next stop was the Polynesian. I don’t love the location for this, it’s literally just a roped off area just inside the doors from the monorail. They have improved the seating from our last time doing this however – our first time on this tour they only had high-top standing-only square tables. This time they had a mix of high-top and normal tables, but all had chairs/stools to sit on. Each place setting had a lei to wear, and in my opinion the food was better this time. (PS: our 5 year old neighbour found the lei and thought it was the greatest thing in the world, and proudly wore it home from our place haha)

The drink is a standard (but stiff!) Mai-tai (same as last time).

Cheers to a great night!

Since I had no seafood marked for my name, my plate of small bites was slightly different than Luke’s. Starting with Luke’s (the more standard plate), it contained tuna poke , tuna ceviche with a shrimp crisp, and beef filet and roasted potatoes.

My plate had a chicken stir-fry with noodles, a fruit ceviche and the same beef/potatoes Luke had. The noodles were a bit dry, but the stir-fry did have water chestnuts so that made me very excited (I love those so much, even though they don’t really taste like anything, just whatever sauce is on them). The fruit was nice (and it had boba balls!), and the beef and few bites of potatoes were quite good – but it’s difficult to go wrong with potatoes in my eyes!

Again, while our food was being brought around to our table, a manager from the food and beverage division of the Polynesian talked to us about the hotel itself. He mentioned the various restaurants, Trader Sam’s, etc. Luke and I have never stayed at the Poly, but we’re actually quite well versed in the food options there haha.

Eventually, we were given the 5 minute warning and we finished up our small plates and drinks before heading outside again to catch the monorail again.

Our next stop was at the Grand Floridian. We were led over to Citricos, where they had pre-assigned us to tables. The food provided here is meant to serve as your main entrée for the evening, and it always seems to be a surf-and-turf. On this particular night, it was Red Snapper and Beef Short Ribs. Since I had asked for no seafood (and I was far from the only one with this request), they gave me a double serving of beef. There were also mashed potatoes on each plate under the beef, and some green stuff under the fish (or in my case, my second chunk of short ribs haha).

I’ve been on a huge short ribs kick lately, and these ones were so good! Fall-apart with a fork tender, and the sauce on top was delicious. Also – insider tip – if you want to keep me happy, just feed me any variety of potato, I love them all. Luke also really enjoyed his fish. Since it’s something I won’t eat, we rarely have anything like that in our house, so it’s like an extra special treat when he does get properly prepared nice cuts of fish.

While our food was being served, our waiter came around pouring each person a glass of either red or white wine. I’m not much of a wine person, but I didn’t hate the white wine they served me. Luke opted for the red, and thought it was good. We had already drank some before I took this picture- they are conservative with the pours, but not as bad as it looks from this picture.

There was also a basket of bread on each table with some nice soft butter (you can see the butter in the picture with our wine).

Once we finished eating, the cast members with our group directed us downstairs to the Tea Room for our fourth course.

They again had assigned seats with names on each table. This course was a cheese/charcuterie plate and a glass of sparkling wine (I believe it was Fairy Tale Cuvee, which is the most common “champagne” I’ve seen on Disney property, and something which we had at our wedding because it was included with our package). Each person had their own plate of cheese and meats, with a shared plate containing little baguette slices.

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I don’t like pickles or blue cheese, so those were immediately scraped onto Luke’s plate. Same for the mustard seeds, those were pushed off to the side. I really enjoy the honeycomb, and the meats and soft cheese were all decent. I’m honestly not a huge cheese/charcuterie person – give me a slab of plain ‘ol marble cheese and I’m happy 🙂 I did overall enjoy this course though!

Our table was directly beside Wayne and Karen’s, so we took a few pictures for them, and they returned the favour 🙂

Once we finished up, we went back upstairs to wait for the monorail. I pointed out the characters hidden in the floor to a few people, I just love all the little details around the Disney property 💕 I think I might be been feeling the effects of all the alcohol we’d drank already, these pictures were supposed to be of the characters on the floor, but I completely missed them all haha… I guess you can kind of see Goofy on the far left side in the first one?

While we were waiting for the monorail, I noticed that the couple we’d been talking to during the Citricos portion of the night was checking out things at Basin. They were a newly engaged young couple from England, and I immediately knew what they had to buy. I ran in to show George and Jade the bride and groom soap – it smells amazing, and it’s so cute! I had bought a slice of it during our wedding trip, and I still haven’t brought myself to use it haha. Just look how adorable it is:

Once the monorail arrived, we boarded for the last time and headed back to our starting hotel – the Contemporary. They had roped off the left side fourth floor observation deck for our group – which is the side with the permanent benches facing the Magic Kingdom. It’s a really nice location, the monorail goes right overhead, you can see the Castle and Space Mountain all lit up, and they had added some high-top tables for our group.

There was a selection of desserts and drinks to enjoy. Drinks included cans of pop (or soda for you Americans haha), coffee, tea, hot chocolate, etc. and there was an option to add Bailey’s, Frangelico or Kahula. I’m not really into hot drinks (I never drink coffee), so I just grabbed a can of Coke. Luke had a coffee and Baileys – I don’t have a picture since it was just a standard to-go cup and a regular can. There were three desserts – Organic Chocolate Flourless Cake, Key Lime Cheesecake Bar and Florida Strawberry Shortcake ,and of course I had to try all three!

I really liked all three of these! I think my favourite was the chocolate cake – I love the denseness of flourless cake.

It was a beautiful evening, and it was so nice to just enjoy the view and the snacks. About ten minutes after we arrived, the opening notes of Happily Ever After started (yes, they pipe the music in for the 4th floor balcony), and we settled in for the show. The projections obviously are not visible from that far away, but the fireworks are! I’ve seen this show multiple times, and I love it so much <3

After Happily Ever After ended, Karen asked us if we could get some pictures, along with Jade and George and another couple who’s names I forget.

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The cast members brought over our final food item of the night – a small box of chocolate truffles. I ended up not eating mine until we got back to Canada (which is also when I took these pictures of them sitting on my Wall-E cutting board).

It was another amazing experience at Highway in the Sky, and we would absolutely go to this again. I don’t know if it’s something we need to do on every single trip since it is pricey, but it’s such a fun evening!

We decided to extend our evening, and invited George and Jade to join us for a drink at Trader Sam’s, since they had never been.

*Trader Sam’s Review link once complete*

One of the quick service locations we’d talked about trying, but never actually found the time on previous trips was Satu’li Canteen, located in Pandora at Animal Kingdom. Since we didn’t want to waste too much time eating during the VIP tour, we made the group decision to eat here. While we were being transported from Hollywood Studios over to Animal Kingdom, we were instructed to place our order through the Mobile Order option on the MDE app, but to wait on touching the “Prepare My Order” button. Our VIP tour guides instructed us to hit “I’m here, prepare my order” as soon as we got off Flight of Passage. There was a few hiccups since the Wi-Fi signal isn’t great inside that building and the app crashed for a few of us, but we eventually all managed to get our orders placed as we walked towards the restaurant.

As we walked past Pongu Pongu, Luke jumped into line. We hadn’t ordered drinks with our meals at Satu’li, since we knew we’d prefer Pongu Pongu. I headed next door to the restaurant to wait for the notification that our food was ready. Our VIP guides had actually called ahead, and there was a section of the restaurant blocked off just for us – such a nice touch to ensure we all got to sit at adjoining tables!

First up, our drinks from Pongu Pongu. I had the Night Blossom – non-alcoholic mixture of limeade with apple and desert pear flavors topped with passion fruit boba balls, $5.99

I’d tried this for the first time on our December trip, and I loved it! It sounds strange, but it’s so good! I didn’t know I loved boba balls so much haha. I could do without the paper straw though, I hate those things. I’m a very slow eater/drinker, so the straw is always so mushy before I’m even half way through my drink – gross.

Luke went for the Hawkes Grog Ale – green in color with a fruity hop character (a taste of apricot and peach, a hint of wheat on the finish); 22 oz, $10.25

This was also something Luke had bought in December, so clearly he likes it? You can order this at Satu’li as well, but I wanted the Night Blossom which is only available at Pongu Pongu.

And for our food – I ordered the Chopped Wood-Grilled Chicken Bowl – wood-grilled chicken thighs marinated with garlic and olive oil topped with crunchy vegetable slaw and boba balls served with your choice of base and sauce, $12.49. I chose the noodles base and the Creamy Herb Dressing for my sauce.

This was good, but I don’t think I’d order this exact combination again. The noodles are clearly cooked in sesame oil, which I absolutely hate (and is often a trigger food for my Crohn’s disease – it ended up being ok, but it’s been an issue in the past). I don’t typically like chicken thighs, but this was really good! It had a bit of charcoal flavour due to being cooked over a fire, and it wasn’t greasy at all. I also loved the sauce I chose – I would just change my base next time!

Luke also went for the Chopped Wood-Grilled Chicken Bowl – wood-grilled chicken thighs marinated with garlic and olive oil topped with crunchy vegetable slaw and boba balls served with your choice of base and sauce, $12.49. He opted for the Red & Sweet Potato base and the Charred Green Onion Vinaigrette for his sauce.

I definitely preferred my sauce, but I think this would be my choice for a base next time. Luke says he highly recommends going to the men’s bathroom there, the smell of the cooking meat wafted in there and made it actually smell good (his words, not mine haha).

We also had to try the desserts! Luke selected the Blueberry Cream Cheese Mousse – with passion fruit curd, $5.29

This was so good! I even remembered to take a picture of the inside!

The cream cheese mousse was obviously blueberry-flavoured, and the yellow was a custard-type stuff, and the white bit at the top was meringue.

I went for the other dessert option – Chocolate Cake – chocolate cake with a crunchy cookie layer, banana cream and Goji berries, $5.29.

I also took a picture of the inside of this one!

I don’t hear much about this, everyone is always talking about the Blueberry dessert – but this was amazing! I loved it so much! The banana cream was on top with the goji berries, and that is pineapple in the bowl. This was also more of a chocolate mousse than a cake – no complaints from me!

Overall, this was a great meal! It’s definitely one of the better quick service restaurants out there, and it’s nice to have a somewhat healthy meal option.

Our total cost was ~$55 with tax for our food from Satu’li and our drinks at Pongu Pongu – and we will be back to both!

Total food cost: $252

One of our favourite restaurants anywhere is Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’. After falling in love with the place on our 2017 trip, we held our wedding reception there as part of our January 2018 trip. We also really enjoy starting our trip here with supper on our arrival night, and this trip was no exception.

We checked in at the hostess stand outside the restaurant, and we only waited about 5 minutes before I received a text message saying our table was ready and to head inside. As soon as we walked in, I spotted the main man himself – Chef Art Smith! I was fangirling hard, and mentioned to the hostess showing us to our table how excited I was to see him in his restaurant, and how special this place was for us after holding our reception on the patio the day of our wedding. She immediately went over to him and clearly told him that, because the next thing we knew he was making his way over to our table! He was so friendly, and shook our hands and asked if we’d like a picture, and thanked us for coming back to eat again. Eeeeee! I mean, just look at my giant, dorky grin hahaha:

After our famous-person meet and greet, we sat down and started making the difficult decisions about what to order. First decision was drinks!

Since it was our first night and I’d barely slept in days, I decided it was a great time to really overindulge, and ordered a 22-ounce squeeze bottle of Rumshine Punch – Strawberry RumShine, blackberry brandy, banana liqueur, pineapple juice and house-made grenadine, $22.

Look at how adorable this squeeze bottle is! And the drink was extremely delicious, and despite being strong it went down easy. Maybe a little too easy, spoiler alert – I was feeling pretty good by the time this meal was over hahaha. Also – you can take this bottle back and it’s $13 for refills 🙂

Luke’s first drink order was the Florida Crush – Tito’s handmade vodka muddled with orange and strawberries, a splash of fresh squeezed Florida orange juice and agave syrup, $12

Luke had tried this drink here back in December, and he thought that one was mixed a bit better than this one.

Also – we had one of the best tables in the restaurant, along the back wall overlooking the water. It was a perfect way to really kick off our vacation!

We decided to go all out on this meal, and order an appetizer, entree and dessert each. My appetizer wasn’t really exciting, but I was thinking ahead and ordered a basket of Cheddar Cheese Drop Biscuits – $7

I love these so much, and since I knew we had an early start to our day tomorrow these would make a great breakfast. There were 6 in here – we ate three of them and saved three of them for breakfast.

It’s not officially stated on the menu, but you can order a half-order of the Church Lady Deviled Eggs – southern style deviled eggs $12 for 6 eggs ($6 for a half order)

I don’t like eggs, so I’ve never tried these, but Luke has had them a few times and always enjoys them. He really likes putting a bit of the house-made Hot Sauce on them. I also asked for his input, and he called these “Heaven’s Cholesterol Bombs”.

Next up – entrees! We really wanted to try something different, but I didn’t want to change it up too much. I always get the Fried Chicken, so this time I ordered the Fried Chicken & Doughnuts – two pieces of Chef Art Smith’s famous fried chicken served with house-made sugar doughnuts and creamy mashed potatoes, $27.

The only difference from the other chicken dish is doughnuts instead of a biscuit, and I believe the pieces of chicken are smaller with this one (but that’s not based on anything other than the multiple pictures I have of the non-doughnut based chicken dish). The chicken was just as delicious as I remembered. I also ask for a side of their southern gravy every time too, it’s so good on top of the mashed potatoes or used to dip pieces of chicken (or biscuit!) into. The doughnuts were also clearly fresh, and they are served with maple syrup to dip into (or pour over top of them – no judgement). It was really sweet, but such a great contrast to the savoury chicken/potatoes.

Luke really switched it up and decided to try the Cuban Sandwich – house smoked pork, shaved country ham, house made pickles, yellow mustard and Swiss cheese pressed between slices of fresh Cuban bread, served with house-made barbecue chips drizzled with icebox dressing, $18

I didn’t try this (I don’t like mustard), but Luke really enjoyed it! I did steal a few of the chips though, they were nice and fresh and crispy. I really enjoy their icebox dressing as well. In Luke’s words – the bread was toasted to a perfect crispiness, the pulled pork was excellent and complimented well with the ham and mustard. He was also a little apprehensive about ordering it at first because he’s loved all the other things he’s tried here, but he was so happy he took a chance on a new item!

At some point, Luke ordered another drink, Blue Hooch – Blue Flame moonshine, lemon-infused moonshine, blue curacao, house-made simple syrup, fresh lemon juice and a splash of Sprite, $13

This was my favourite of the three drinks we had during this meal, and I might have helped Luke out by drinking half of it… (he did help me with my RunShine Punch too, I’m not that much of a lush hahaha).

Finally, we somehow found room for dessert (ok fine, I packed up half of my mashed potatoes and one piece of my chicken just so I’d have room…). Luke ordered the Shine Cake – Chef Art’s signature dessert. An adult-only butter cake soaked with moonshine syrup, served with seasonal fruit gastrique and a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, $11

This is always great – I mean, who doesn’t love getting drunk on cake?! It’s a large piece (it’s bigger than it looks in the picture), and I definitely helped him with this buttery perfection. It’s also strong enough to keep your buzz going a little longer…

I went for my favourite dessert on the menu – Hamilton County Chocolate Pecan Pie – a 100 year old traditional Smith Family Farm recipe served with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, $11

I know it doesn’t look super impressive from my awesome dark photo, but this is so good! I’m not a huge pie person – but I love this one! It’s served warm so the chocolate is a little melty, and the pecans are nice and salty. I try to avoid ice cream for the most part (dairy seems to be a trigger food for my Crohn’s), so I only ate about half of that scoop, but it pairs perfectly with the pie.

I forgot to take a picture of the receipt, but it was just under $130 with my 10% annual pass discount.

Total food cost: $197