Sunday, 9/4 continued: The Fountain, Tambu Lounge, Trader Sam's
First, apologies for the photos in this update. Most were taken on my phone and aren't great. We left off the last installment after lunch during our Keys to the Kingdom tour. Feeling well-fed, we hustled along to finish the tour which included some information about the Haunted Mansion and a back door entrance into the stretching room followed by our time experiencing the Utilidors.
Upon conclusion of our five hour tour (anyone else hearing the Gilligan's Island theme just about now?) we were pretty well exhausted. It had been muggy all morning but by the time our tour concluded it was also HOT and we finished outside in the walkway between Tomorrowland and Main Street that is sometimes open during busy nights. After baking in the Florida sun while we wrapped things up, our only option was to head to the buses and back to the Dolphin for a rest.
Of course, the bus drops off only at the Swan while the Dolphin's bus stop was under construction, so we could not resist the lure of the Fountain for a snack. Plus we had that free ice cream coupon to use! Leslie exchanged it for a mint chocolate chip waffle cone. I ordered the
Jumping for Joy, a seasonal shake based on Almond Joy candy. By the time my shake was made the mint chip cone was mostly gone, so no photo. Sorry about that.
The Jumping for Joy was SO GOOD. It was chocolate and coconut ice cream with slivered almonds and shredded coconut mixed right into the shake, served with skewered almond joy candies on top. This was excellent though I would recommend ordering it without the coconut shreds and almond flakes since when I finished my shake I had about 1/4 of the cup remaining with just coconut and almonds that had sunk to the bottom of the shake. I loved watching them handmake the milkshakes and everything that came out of their take away window looked excellent.
We did actually have a nap this afternoon - we needed it after rising early for our breakfast! Afterward the weather had turned pretty foul - it was pouring buckets and neither of us really wanted to brave that in the parks. After considering our options, we decided to hit the monorail loop for entertainment and dinner. Plus, Leslie had revealed to me that in all our travels she had never been to
I couldn't believe it! So of course a visit to Trader Sam's was definitely in order. We decided it wasn't worth the hassle to do the bus transfers in the rain, so once again we summoned our favorite mode of transport - the Uber! This ride took 13 minutes from the door of the Dolphin to the door of the Poly, and cost $7.09 in UberX. We stayed completely dry and I have to say Uber at Disney is worth every cent. Also, about 98% of the way into the ride I realized that I knew our Uber Driver from here on the Disboards! I felt a bit like a creep but it was also pretty cool running into another Dis-er in real life.
Upon arriving we went to check in at Trader Sam's and due to the downpour it was much busier than I'd seen it on past trips - we were given a pager and told that the wait was an hour. The host told me that our pager would not work upstairs in the Tambu lounge, but we decided to check out the Tambu anyway and figured we'd just head back downstairs with our drinks. The lounge was absolutely MOBBED with people - some waiting on Ohana tables and some just enjoying drinks at the bar. Eventually Leslie found an open spot at the bar and ordered us up a couple of beverages.
Soon two seats opened and we settled in with two of these babies, not caring about our pager reception:
The
backscratcher is my very favorite libation at Disney World, or probably anywhere, for that matter. This is bacardi rum, myer's dark rum, and passionfruit juice topped with jack daniels and garnished with a bamboo backscratcher (what else!). We were relaxed, enjoying conversation with the guests around us, and ready to order another round when miraculously our pager went off.
Upon our return to Trader Sam's, two seats were open at the bar, so we grabbed them.
I wound up with the "sinking" barstool (which was already down when we arrived, so there was no surprise but it did open up a lot of opportunity for puns for me). As soon as I ordered a drink, things were on the up and up
The
Shrunken Zombie Head is Gosling’s 151 Black Seal Rum, Appleton Estate Reserve Rum, Bacardi 8 yr Rum, Tropical Juices, Falernum, and Cinnamon. Google tells me that Falernum is almond, ginger, and lime syrup. This is delicious and strong - my favorite of the drinks at Trader Sam's. I already have the mug so I passed on the souvenir option. Did I mention I love this drink?
Leslie chose the
Krakatoa Punch - Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum, Pyrat XO Reserve Rum, Orgeat (Almond), Sam’s Gorilla Grog, and Hibiscus Grenadine. She liked this very much. I also tasted it and liked it, but not as much as I like the Zombie.
I love the antics in here! You can't really tell in this photo but one of the servers is DIVE DIVE DIVE-ing after a patron ordered a nautilus (I think). The other guests in Trader Sam's were pretty subdued on this evening so it wasn't as much fun as it has been in the past when both the CMs and the customers are really hamming it up. I love corny humor and this place is great - I don't visit every trip but I love coming here with folks who haven't experienced the cheesy humor yet.
We also ordered food, since the ice cream was wearing off by this point - we chose the
Roasted Chicken and Pork Pâte Báhn Mì Sliders (comes with three, I'll let you guess what happened to the third one) and the
Chicken Lettuce Cups with hoisin-ginger sauce
I have had both of these before and neither is bad by any measure, but I also wouldn't go out of my way to eat at Trader Sam's. None of the dishes I've tried has been truly exceptional and, while it's better than peanuts, their "bar food" doesn't do as much for me as Tambu Lounge's offerings upstairs.
After a second round and having polished off the food, it was time to call it a night.
I love Trader Sam's and definitely recommend it for those who have not yet been. The drinks are very good and the food is okay, so to me this is more of a place to get a drink after dinner than a lounge to have a meal in. I would definitely go back, but probably not on my next trip.
After a bit of shopping at the Poly, we took the monorail to the bus and spent our last (sob!) night in our Heavenly Beds.
Up Next: Snacks at Animal Kingdom and Yak & Yeti
Especially the coconut macaroon from SS since I'm a huge coconut fan. More things to add to my list for November!
but it was still just bizarre to see all those pumpkins! Fortunately I had been in the craft stores many times prior to Magic Kingdom and I think they started putting out their fall stuff as soon as they took in Easter so I was prepared... LOL. Good idea on DH's part ordering the Kids meal at BOG - I am not much for breakfast that early so I should have done that. Now give me a brunch at 11:00 when my body is fully awake and hungry and I can do some damage to breakfast!
Guess I'll just have to go back to gather more writing material! only 3 days for me!!!
And the only cure is more 
- on top of our $25 welcome reward on our account she added the birthday credit (even though I had registered it to May, not August) and gave us a cast member 20% discount. So the bill pre-tax came to $41.62, or approximately the price of our drinks (we both ended up having two of the yummy Rickies, so four each at $9.99 would have been close to $40). Major major pixie dust that really helped us end the trip on a high note! 
Have a great time!
