2/21/26
I was supposed to be at Beaches Turks and Caicos for a long weekend with some friends. Sadly, that was canceled, and we had to pivot quickly to decide what we wanted to do. Disney World was the perfect answer! Three of us celebrate birthdays in March, and I turn 50.
We booked a 2 bedroom villa at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, and the rest was history!
I had a super early morning flight from Newark. (Also let me say, a surprise snowstorm was supposed to hit the east coast on 2/22-2/23.). The flight was fine and we were on the ground in Orlando by 11:00 a.m. We took a Lyft and were to the resort by noon. Some of our group were already there, as they had flown in the night before. We met them in the main lobby building. To my surprise, our room was ready! I got the text while in the Lyft on the way to the resort.
I have stayed at Saratoga Springs numerous times. I love the 2 bedroom villas here! They are super spacious and clean. One drawback is the resort is HUGE! There are multiple bus stops and transportation times can be longer, so plan that in your travels.
Our section was the Grandstand. This section is right next to the lobby area, about a 10 minute walk to our room. It also has a nice pool and pool bar. I ordered lunch on the mobile app and took it with me to the room.
This was a fun surprise:
This is the living room area looking into the kitchen. In this room there is a pull down twin bed, and a pull down queen bed, sleeping 3 total people. Both are comfortable and NOT sofa beds. Having the fridge was nice because we placed a small grocery order.
This is the king bedroom that sleeps two.
This is the queen bedroom that sleeps 4.
There are two full bathrooms which was also nice, as well as a washer and dryer, and multiple closets.
This was my lunch. It got jostled a little bit while I was carrying it back to the room, but it was really good! (Mobile order at The Artist’s Palette in advance of when you would like your food! Hit I’m here before you actually get there. I found it to be super slow each time I used it. Also go check for it to be ready before you get pinged on the app. One time they forgot to ping me!)
Grilled Chicken and Rice Bowl–$13.49
After doing a little bit of work in the room, we headed down to the pool to get some sun and warmth while waiting for everyone else to arrive. I was actually surprised at how many people were at the pool in the middle of the day and not at a theme park!
It was nice to get out of freezing cold Pennsylvania!
We had dinner reservations at Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’ at 6:00 p.m. We decided to leave the room at 5:00 p.m. and take the boat. The boat goes directly from Saratoga Springs to Disney Springs. This was a longgggg process! We walked to the boat dock, which took probably 10 minutes or so. The line was super long. We weren’t sure we were going to make it on the next boat. However, we were the last ones to make it on and we were a party of 8! One of us had to stand. I haven’t been on the boat post-Covid since they started using them again. There used to be multiple stops at Disney Springs. Now there is only one! And it drops you wayyyyyyy over at the end near the Rainforest Cafe side. Once it drops you, everyone is funneled through security. Then we had to walk allll the way over to Homecomin’ on the clear other side. We got there right at 6:00 p.m.!
Homecomin’ is my favorite restaurant at Disney Springs. They have so many things on the menu that I like and I can never decide what I want!
I opted for the Fried Chicken Salad and split this with a friend so that we could order something else.
This was so good and the perfect amount splitting it with someone. They served it on two separate plates that you can see below which was super nice and I didn’t even ask for them to do that. I just told him we were sharing.
They have some of the best side dishes, and they used to have something on the menu were you could order 3 of them as a sampler. I didn’t see it on the menu but I asked and he said yes! We could still order it. We went with the Momma’s Mac and Cheese, Broccolini, and Creamy Mashed Potatoes.
All of this was SO GOOD! I loved the Broccolini the most. It had the best flavor! The Mac and Cheese was delicious and Mashed Potatoes were super good too. I would order all three again!
Of course we had to order some dessert! It was hard to decide but we got the Hummingbird Cake and it was massive. Definitely big enough to share with multiple people.
This frosting is AMAZING! And the cake was super moist. Delicious dessert that I would definitely get again.
After dinner, we took the bus from Disney Springs to the Polynesian Resort to check out Trader Sam’s. Since we were a large group, the wait was too long, so we sat outside on the deck and had a drink there. A musician was playing some tropical music for us and that was a nice touch. We got to see the Electrical Water Pageant, and the Happily Ever After Fireworks. They pipe the music in. It was the perfect end for our night!
We decided to monorail over to the Grand Floridian and check out the new bar in the lobby.
Sadly it was closed! So we decided to go to the Enchanted Rose. I haven’t had a chance to go here yet, so this was perfect. We were seated outside on the patio. I actually ordered a hot tea because I was starting to lose my voice. This place was packed!
We ended up taking a Lyft back to Saratoga Springs.
I came back to the room to it being decorated! Thank you to my wonderful friends!
That wrapped up our long day. I was super tired. I had been up since 3:00 a.m.
Up next…Disney Part 2!
Taryn Travels 