Dole Whips & Disney Shopping

Hiya! I'm here with a random life check-in, and some VERY IMPORTANT UPDATES.

Firstly, I got two more phone cases:

... and I can stop any time I want.

I just don't want to.

Next an update to my antique finds post: remember the one thing John reeeeeallly wanted?

Woohoo!

After John read my post he zoomed off to the antique mall, and came home with a big brown bag and an even bigger grin. I can't remember the last time a purchase made him this happy, y'all. He's wanted a stained glass lamp for years.

Not the best pic, but here's where it ended up in our Steampunk room:

We have it on a timer so it clicks on every night at dusk, and the golden glow looks magical with all the Edison lights.

And my final important life update: my hedge-butt intro to the art post last week turned into more of a side-track than I expected:

BEHOLD! My art.

This may be my new hobby. What.

This one weirded enough folks out that I finally stopped. For now.


K, now, FINALLY, I will move on to the fun Disney Stuff promised in the title.

We had some FOE friends in town last week, so we all met at Disney Springs just in time to get drenched by a flash flood of Florida "sunshine," plus do a little browsing.

Whoever came up with this new packaging idea is a GENIUS.

Really I just want Maximus, I love him and his grumpy face, bahaha.

For anyone keeping track, I still want those shorts. Next time!


They have a whole Cruella line to go with the new movie:

Plus a bunch of colorful Pride merch, though this was the only stand-out for me:

These earrings look more Halloween than Pride, but super cute either way:

And we're not done yet!

 

After dinner we realized we had just enough time to dash over to the Polynesian Resort for Dole Whips. This is something John and I never think to do, but most of the Disney resorts will usually let you park and wander around for free, which is an awesome, cheap way to spend time with friends. The resorts give you a taste of Disney and are filled with comfy conversation areas, plus there are shops to browse and counter-serve restaurants for snacks.

We worried they wouldn't let us in because it was so late, but the guard happily waved us right through. Then we saw why the Poly isn't in particularly high demand right now:

YIKES. You can't even see the hotel; it's surrounded by mountains of scaffolding and loud construction equipment!

Then a monorail came speeding out. o.0 There's something you don't see everyday.

The detoured path led us around to the back of the Great Hall, which happily is construction-free inside and as gorgeous as ever:



It was also a ghost-town; we had this entire enormous lobby to ourselves; there weren't even CMs behind the check-in counters, since they've moved guest services to another building. Amazing.

We got to the Dole Whip counter on the back patio with 15 minutes to spare; they serve until 10PM.

The servers behind the counter were so nice; they suggested we try any new flavors first, and even brought out the mixture bags so I could check the ingredients. (Fun Fact: the non-vanilla Dole Whips are dairy free, gluten-free, AND Low FODMAP.)

I thought I would love the lime, but it's a little on the chalky side for me. The lemon is very good, though not as sweet as the pineapple, so John and I got both and kept swapping:

I always forget how huge Dole Whips are; for $5 this is a bargain Disney treat, y'all. We brought our Whips back into the empty lobby atrium with our friends Melody & Rob, found some comfy couches, and had a lovely visit.

I'm still not re-acclimated to this whole leaving-the-house and actually Doing Things thing; it feels special every time. I'm trying to hold onto that as long as I can. I even wore a Dole Whip yellow dress for the occasion:



I swapped the necklace for a rainbow, though; it fit my mood better. :)


After our Dole Whips I took more pictures:



I can't get enough of these colorful lanterns:

And here's a cute shop sign, though by then all the shops were closed:

We ended the night by wandering the resort grounds, which were mostly deserted. We explored the kids' pool areas, and spent some time back by this pretty waterfall: 

The Polynesian sits on Bay Lake, so from some angles you can see across the water to Cinderella's castle and Space Mountain. This would be a great spot during fireworks!

(The castle and Space Mountain are off to the right, just behind those palm trees.)

I hope you enjoyed meandering though my week and the Polynesian with me!

Also if you're a fellow DizGeek you'll want to check back for my next post: last week John and I also visited the exclusive Cast Connection at WDW. This is an enormous shopping warehouse available only to cast members and their guests, and oh. my. GOLLY. I was like a kid in a candy store, and after getting permission, I took allll the photos. Did you know Disney sells groceries? And stores enormous park-used displays and fiberglass figures alongside bins of bargain goodies?

HEAVEN.

If you follow my Stories on Facebook or Instagram you've already seen one of my scores from that day:

::supersonic screeching::

And now that I'm back to my new phone case, I've brought this post full circle. Huzzah.

Next time I'll share all my pics from the warehouse and show you what else I bought. Stay tuned!

******

One last Disney thing: this weekend on the Epbot Discord we're watching Lilo & Stitch! If you're free, come say hi and meet some of your fellow weirdos. I promise our badness levels are much lower than most. ;)

We'll be streaming Friday night at 8:30 Eastern and again Sunday afternoon at 3:30 for the matinee showing. The chat is text-only, and lurkers are always welcome. If you're new to Discord, the newbie channel includes a handy intro to get you started - but it's basically a big chat room, so I promise it's not too scary!