Jen Ring
The Gabber Goes to Walt Disney World
I’ve been hearing people shout, “I’m going to Disney World” my whole life. That’s what happens when you grow up in Central Florida in the 1980s.
1987
Sportscaster: “Phil Simms, you’ve just won the Super Bowl. What are you doin’ next?”
Phil Simms: “I’m gonna go to Disney World.”
1994
“Nancy Kerrigan, you’ve won the hearts of the world. What are you going to do next?”
“I’m going to Disney World.”
2021
“Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski, you and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers just won the Super Bowl. What are you going to do next?”
Brady and Gronk: “We’re going to Disney World!”
2022
Disney paid Phil Simms $75,000 to utter the phrase after winning the Super Bowl in 1987. But now it’s so iconic, people say it just because.
I survived a deadly pandemic. I’m going to Disney World.
Here’s what to expect at the new Swan Reserve at the Walt Disney World Resort [Slideshow]
In 2021, Epcot expanded its France pavilion to include a new ride, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and a new restaurant, La Crêperie de Paris. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Epcot’s first roller coaster, followed in May 2022. The Epcot International Festival of the Arts is up next.
I’m going to Disney World to experience, and write about, the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin resort.
Michael Graves started designing the Swan and Dolphin resorts in the late 1980s, just as the “I’m going to Disney World” ad campaign was getting started.
According to Disney Historian Jim Korkis, Graves pictured the Swan and Dolphin resorts as their own tropical island, which explains the dolphin statues, waves, and tropical landscaping. The Swan and Dolphin so fully embrace Florida’s tropical paradise aesthetic that their water/tropical island theme often goes unnoticed. Florida, in general, is full of palm trees and waterscapes. The Swan and Dolphin just take it up a notch.
Why visit now? The Swan and Dolphin aren’t exactly new, but they made a major change during the pandemic, gaining a third building, the Swan Reserve in 2021.
Designed by Gensler architects, the Swan Reserve combines Graves’ tropical look with a modern boutique hotel aesthetic. It also added two bars and a Mediterranean restaurant to the Swan and Dolphin resort complex.
With the Swan and Dolphin Food & Wine Classic in November, I look forward to eating and drinking on property, which boasts 22 restaurants, lounges, and dining outlets. I plan to try as many as I can during my two-night stay.
Checking in at the Swan
Jen Ring
It’s been three years since I last checked into a hotel, and I have no idea what I’m doing. Instead of inspiring awe, the 12-story building towering above me inspires deer-in-the-headlights confusion. As someone with chronic lung issues, perhaps I over hunkered down during the pandemic. Now I can’t decide how to get our luggage into our room.
The Swan bellhop stands ready to load our things onto a luggage rack and take them up to our room.
I stand ready to self-park, come back for the luggage rack, load everything onto it myself, walk it up to the room with me, then return the cart to the lobby.
Can someone please go back in time and tell me the Swan is not a Holiday Inn Express?
Finally, my bestie makes the decision for me. The bellhop will load our luggage onto the cart and it will sit in the lobby while I park my car. Walking from the parking lot back to the Swan, I feel the need to explain myself.
“It’s kind of intimidating,” I say to my friend, staring at the teal waves of paint lapping up the front of the Swan’s pink façade.
“Is it the swans?” she asks.
The namesake statues sitting atop the Swan are huge — each one is 47-feet tall and weighs 60,000 pounds.
“I refused to enter hotels with large statues when I was a kid because of the gargoyles in Ghostbusters,” my friend volunteers.
But it’s not the swans. It’s me.
For a month at least, the pandemic reduced the size of everyone’s world to the size of their house. But for me, the isolation was even more severe. Because of my risk level, I self-quarantined until a vaccine became available almost a year later.
Despite having dodged COVID-19, my pre-existing lung disease progressed as expected. My oxygen needs increased throughout 2021. With each increase, my time outside decreased. Eventually, I required too much oxygen to go out at all, and I established semi-permanent residence at Tampa General Hospital. Here I waited in a hospital room two months for a new pair of lungs.
I hooked an Amazon Firestick and a Nintendo Switch up to the hospital TV, I turned my window ledge into a bookshelf, I ordered a 360-degree Bluetooth speaker off Amazon for music and movie nights, and I traded my paints in for more hospital-friendly markers. For those two months, and the additional two weeks I spent in recovery post-transplant, that hospital room was my world. As time passed and my lung capacity grew, my world slowly expanded.
Three months post-transplant, my incision healed and I started driving again. I could go anywhere, but I stayed relatively close to home. My first big trip was to visit my friend in Orlando for a weekend.
Two months later, I’m back in Orlando with the same friend, feeling overwhelmed at Disney World.
It’s not until I reduced my world back to a single room — my hotel room — that I can finally relax. I step out onto the balcony at twilight and view the Swan and Dolphin as they are meant to be viewed — from above, not below. And in that moment, all is right with the world.
A Taste of NYC Italian at the Swan
Jen Ring
After checking in at the Swan, we go to Il Mulino New York Trattoria for a late dinner.
The Swan’s signature Italian restaurant is actually a New York City import. The original Il Mulino opened in New York City’s Greenwich Village in 1981. Zagat’s rated the fine dining establishment Manhattan’s best Italian restaurant for two decades.
Capitalizing upon its success in NYC, Il Mulino expanded beyond New York in the early 2000s, opening Il Mulinos and Il Mulino trattorias in hotels and resorts across the U.S. Il Mulino New York Trattoria, one of Il Mulino’s first casual dining outposts, opened in the Swan in 2007.
The Orlando Sentinel sent their restaurant critic Scott Joseph to try it. Joseph said it was a good Italian restaurant, but he also said that it doesn’t compare to the original.
From the moment I walk in, I realize there’s at least one thing that hasn’t changed since 2007 — the place is noisy. This is great for families with kids, who don’t have to worry about their child’s outside voice killing the restaurant’s atmosphere. Here every voice blends together, becoming indistinguishable in the constant din. I practically have to shout for the waiter to hear my food and drink order over all the noise.
This isn’t a quiet place to sit and relax after a long day in the park. This is a place to quickly eat some good Italian food before running back to your hotel room to relax. The fast service suggests that the trattoria and I are on the same page here. I’d rather be talking to my friend right now, but I’ll settle for staring at her while stuffing my face with focaccia bread. She prefers the crusty bread with eggplant caponata.
Jen Ring
For dinner, I order the Ravioli Cacio e Pepe. My dining companion orders the Pollo Scarpariello. I take a bite of my dish, then a bite of hers, and immediately realize she’s made the better choice. While I was in the mood for a simple pasta dish, the Ravioli Cacio e Pepe tastes slightly bland to me, especially compared with the flavors in Il Mulino’s Pollo Scarpariello. The Ravioli Cacio e Pepe, unlike the Pollo Scarpariello, needs more pepe. I should have known better than to order a Roman dish at a restaurant known for its Abruzzo cuisine.
Jen Ring
Being relatively isolated from the rest of Italy by mountains, Italy’s Abruzzo region is known for its independent culinary traditions, including its creative use of truffles, mushrooms, and hot chili peppers in their dishes. The Pollo Scarpariello, although technically an Italian-American dish, fits right in with its wild mushrooms and spicy cherry peppers.
The Abruzzo region is also known for its desserts, and here Il Mulino doesn’t disappoint. There are seven desserts, from multiple areas of Italy, on Il Mulino’s menu. I ordered the Tartufo – of Calabrian origin – per our waiter’s recommendation.
Jen Ring
By the end of our meal, the families with kids have gone back to their rooms. Around 9:30 p.m., when the waiter delivers my dessert, Il Mulino is mercifully silent. I slowly savor the hazelnut, cherry, and chocolate flavors in my perfectly plated dessert, enjoying the tasty dollop of zabaglione (an Italian form of whipped cream made with eggs, cream, sugar, and marsala wine) with berries on the side.
For someone who was practically trapped in their home for a year, then literally stuck in a hospital for 77 days, Disney is impossibly loud and chaotic. Then there are these brief quiet moments when the manufactured magic is real, and I’m reminded of why I love this place. I do my best to dismiss the thought that I’ve become an old curmudgeon who doesn’t know how to enjoy Disney anymore. Everything will be fine tomorrow.
Overcaffeinated Writer Seeks Coffee and Cupcakes
Jen Ring
On our first morning at the Swan, I wake around 8:30 a.m. Last night’s summer rains are long gone, so I throw some clothes on and go in search of coffee and pastries. I start at the Swan’s front desk, where, of course, they recommend their own coffee joint, Java. They have plenty of espresso and coffee options, but I want something a little more….Disney. Besides, it’s too beautiful a morning to stay inside, so I take a stroll along Disney’s Boardwalk in search of Boardwalk Bakery, which I soon discover is now Boardwalk Deli.
Despite the new name, Boardwalk Deli’s display case contains more baked goods than deli items, which is exactly how I want it. I have no interest in a Pastrami Reuben this morning. I want Mickey-shaped sweets, and Boardwalk Deli has several, from Mickey cinnamon rolls to Mickey-shaped brownies and Mickey-eared cupcakes.
It’s bustling, hectic, and uncomfortably crowded for pandemic times. Parents funnel in to get their grab-and-go breakfast before heading into the parks with their kids. I couldn’t have chosen a more Disney place to go for breakfast.
I feel myself slowly acclimating to Disney culture – the kids are more cute than annoying today. My anticipation builds as I advance in line, closer and closer to the display case. I select the most photogenic dessert, a 50th Anniversary cupcake with elaborately-piped, lavender-colored frosting, topped with Disney sprinkles and a Mickey-shaped chocolate topper.
According to The Disney Food Blog, cupcakes like these are a Disney specialty.
“We’ve seen cupcake-topped milkshakes, turkey cupcakes [?!], boozy cupcakes, even fudge-filled cupcakes! But since the start of the 50th Anniversary Celebration, we’ve seen a SPREE of dazzling new frosted desserts to feast upon!” Matt Kirouac wrote in a Dec. 2021 DFB blog post. Some of the best 50th Anniversary cupcakes are tucked within Disney Resorts like Boardwalk Inn.
A more responsible person might suggest having a cupcake in the afternoon for dessert, or staying away from cupcakes in general. But if you like to start your day with coffee and a sweet, you can’t find a better combination than Joffrey’s coffee and a Disney cupcake. It’s worth the walk.
Day Drinking at the Swan Reserve
Jen Ring
My first priority at the Swan and Dolphin is to stuff my face, but I also have a burning desire to check out the Swan Reserve hotel, the latest addition to the Swan and Dolphin complex.
Although the Swan and Dolphin and the Swan Reserve share a common tropical-water theme, Gensler’s interpretation of the theme is quite different from Michael Graves’ interpretation.
Graves’ style is almost ridiculously ostentatious compared to Gensler’s. Instead of reflecting the area’s natural beauty, Grave’s built upon it. The result is a sort of dream-like, video-game version of the tropics with oversized waterbirds and mythical dolphins, unimaginably large murals, and nine-story-tall fountains that remind me of Super Mario Brothers’ Giant Land.
Jen Ring
By comparison, the Swan Reserve is remarkably subtle, blending into the landscape where the Swan and Dolphin stand out.
Looking for a place to relax and sample more food, we make our way to the Swan Reserve’s pool bar, Tangerine. Tangerine is one of four new dining options that opened with the Swan Reserve in 2021, and perhaps my new favorite way to experience the Swan and Dolphin.
There’s something comfortingly familiar about the Swan Reserve’s pool deck — the patio furniture, the potted palms and citrus trees, the hanging plants. They’re reminiscent of every Florida patio but taken up a notch. The patio plants are about five times more numerous and healthier than what you’d see on most Florida patios, even at popular restaurants.
Jen Ring
In the middle of the afternoon, we’re two of maybe a dozen people at the Swan Reserve’s pool area. The exclusive nature of the place provides a sense of ownership that you just can’t get at the more well-known Swan and Dolphin.
We plop down in a couple of comfortable patio chairs and order Tangerine Whips. With ingredients like tangerine elixir and oat milk, this vodka-based cocktail is the most unique of seven frozen drinks on Tangerine’s menu (13 if you count nonalcoholic drinks).
It’s too early in the day to drink cocktails without having anything in my stomach to soak them up, so I order La Amare flatbread. It’s one of three flatbreads on Tangerine’s menu, which also includes three different salads, sandwiches, and appetizers.
Jen Ring
We are thoroughly enjoying our first taste of the Swan Reserve when summer rains force us inside. Not interested in walking back to our room at the original Swan in the rain, we do what any good Floridian would do. We sit at the lobby bar, order another round of drinks, and wait for the rain to pass.
Stir offers 10 cocktails, including one nonalcoholic cocktail. Every drink is a classic cocktail with a tropical twist. It’s the most original, exciting cocktail menu I’ve seen in a while. There’s not a single drink on this menu that I don’t want to try.
Jen Ring
In the gin realm, Stir’s riff on the classic bee’s knees cocktail adds orange juice to the classic gin-honey-lemon juice combo for a “Florida Beehive.”
Bourbon drinkers have their choice of a bitter pineapple old fashioned or a Banana Hands — a chocolate-banana flavored whiskey drink that could be considered another interesting riff on an old fashioned. I’m kind of upset that I have to choose between the two, but I’m already exceeding my one drink limit with this cocktail.
Jen Ring
While I sip on my Banana Hands, the bartender delivers a Casa Effect to a woman at the other end of the bar. A large bubble rises from the top of the martini glass. The bartender pours butterfly pea flower tea-infused Casamigos Blanco tequila from a small flask onto its surface, magically transforming the bubble into a cloud of smoke.
“I feel so extra right now,” the woman says to her companions, watching the smoke rise from her drink.
I turn to my friend and say, “We need to come back so I can get that drink.”
Under the Sea at Todd English’s bluezoo
Jen Ring
No foodie trip to Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin resorts is complete without a stop at Todd English’s bluezoo.
English is one of a handful of James Beard award-winning chefs represented on Disney property. The celebrity chef, known for his interpretation of rustic Mediterranean cuisine, owns and operates eleven restaurants around the world. The most popular – Figs, Olives, and bluezoo – have multiple locations. While Figs is known for its pizza and handmade pastas, and Olives for its Mediterranean dishes, bluezoo is all about the seafood.
English opened bluezoo in the Dolphin in December 2003 to showcase classic seafood dishes like clam chowder and grilled fish, which English roasts on a spinning rotisserie over an open fire pit.
What’s most striking about bluezoo, we notice as we walk in, is its faithfulness to the Swan and Dolphin’s water theme. From the ocean blue floor to the bubble chandeliers on the ceiling, New York-based architect Jeffrey Beers designed the space to provide the illusion that one is dining underwater.
The host leads us to a booth on the fringe of the dining room where we can have some privacy. Our table is bathed in a blue romantic glow. Like most Swan and Dolphin signature restaurants, bluezoo has an exciting menu full of creative cocktails.
The press guide recommends we try the Burnt Orange cocktail, a combination of brûléed orange-infused tequila, agave, Grand Marnier and orange juice topped with a flaming orange. The Burnt Orange sounds amazing, and the Stranger Things-inspired Veckna looks fun, but I can’t stomach another cocktail, so our meal begins with another complimentary bread basket.
Jen Ring
Coincidentally, we chose to dine at bluezoo during Visit Orlando’s 2022 Magical Dining Month, when select Orlando area restaurants offer discounted three-course, prix-fixe dinners. The goal of the event is for Orlando residents to get a taste of what their local restaurants do best. Lucky for us, bluezoo is one of the participating restaurants and they’re Magical Dining menu directed us straight to English’s signature dishes.
Jen Ring
Given that English is originally from Boston, it makes sense that he’s known for his New England-style clam chowder. What I love about this dish, and every dish that comes after it, is that English has taken something incredibly common and turned it into something special.
Like most soups, English’s clam chowder doesn’t look particularly special when it arrives at our table. It’s just a bowl of liquid with a few crackers floating on top. Most of the good stuff – the bacon and clam – has sunk down to the bottom of the bowl.
It’s easy to make a New England-style clam chowder that is too rich, too creamy, too salty, and too chunky. English’s clam chowder is none of these things. It may look thin upon arrival, but it contains just the right amount of clam and bacon in a light broth that’s easy on the stomach. The perfect balance of flavors sets me up for the main course – simply fish.
Here, English’s commitment to excellence comes in the form of a Dancing Fish open fire grill at the end of the bar. Instead of cooking fish on a traditional grill, flipping it halfway through its cook time, English roasts his fish on a spinning rotisserie over an open fire pit. The result is total perfection.
I love the title of this dish, because it highlights what most Floridians already know about fish. If you play with it too much you can ruin it. The best fish is fresh, lightly seasoned, and cooked to perfection. Anyone who can nail these three things can make great fish. But then there’s a select group of chefs who are able to further elevate the dish by adding the perfect sauce. English is one of these chefs.
Jen Ring
Another thing that makes a fish dinner stand out are the sides that come with it. Bluezoo serves their fish with fresh vegetables and a creamy risotto. None of the items on my plate are particularly unique. English isn’t the first chef to grill fish, make risotto, or prepare seasonal vegetables. What makes this meal special is the time and dedication it takes to do these things better than most professional chefs and to do them all at once. Then there’s the challenge of having them not just taste perfect, but also look perfect. Here again, bluezoo gets it right.
For dessert we have our choice of warm chocolate molten cake or a root beer float – two American classics. Technically, a French chef invented chocolate molten cake in the 1980s, but it became one of America’s hottest desserts in the 1990s. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve had a chocolate molten cake since the 1990s, or at least the early 2000s.
Jen Ring
From the beginning of the meal to the end, I enjoy English’s elevated takes on American classics. But the real reason you must visit bluezoo, beyond the great food, is the idea of the place itself. At how many places can you eat superb seafood in a dining room that places you in the ocean with the fish you’re about to eat?
Finding Your Tropical Oasis at the Swan and Dolphin
Jen Ring
After staying at Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin for two nights, I realize exactly what I like most about the place: the various tropical oases scattered throughout the property.
I experienced the first of these oases standing on my balcony looking out over Crescent Lake at twilight on my first night at the Swan. The second came poolside at the Swan Reserve. And the third, a true foodie oasis, dining in the ocean at Todd English’s bluezoo. I wasn’t looking for tropical oases when I found these places, which made me wonder, “How many tropical oases could I find on Swan and Dolphin property if I actually looked for them?”
On Day 3, camera in hand, I set out to find, experience, and photograph as many of these tropical oases as I could on Swan and Dolphin property, and there were many. From courtyards to poolside cabanas to indoor reading nooks, here are all the tropical oases we discovered on Swan and Dolphin property.
Jen Ring
Greek, Italian, French, Spanish, and Turkish Cuisine Come Together
at the Swan Reserve’s Amare
Jen Ring
We wrap up three days of drinking and dining at Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin resorts with a trip to Amare – the Swan Reserve’s signature restaurant. And, not to be cliché, but coincidentally, we really did save the best for last.
Amare means “to love,” in Italian. And from the first time I see Amare’s menu, I am ready to love it. First off, I love Mediterranean food. Second, they have a Tarpon Springs Greek salad on the menu. Having grown up in the Tampa Bay area, I have no interest in eating Greek salad without potato salad at the bottom.
Third, I love the idea of a pan-Mediterranean restaurant. Usually, when eating Mediterranean cuisine in Florida, you’re either dining at a Greek restaurant, an Italian restaurant, a French restaurant, or a Spanish restaurant. Good luck getting all three under one roof. Unless you’re dining at Amare.
I experience Amare as a culinary grand tour of the Mediterranean, starting with their signature flight, the “Grand Tour of the Mediterranean.”
Jen Ring
All of the sparkling wines included in the flight are delicious and very drinkable, but for the most part, this flight tells me what I already know: When it comes to sparkling wine, I prefer Champagne and prosecco.
My dining companion suggests I pair the Greek brut with olives, so I spread some olive hummus onto a slice of complimentary sesame-crusted bread. This is an improvement, but it’s still in third place for me.
Jen Ring
One of the joys of eating at a Mediterranean restaurant are the tapas, and Amare has six listed under the appetizer heading on their menu. We choose polpetti, which are Italian meatballs with tomato sauce. But the way Amare serves their lamb and beef meatballs with crispy potatoes feels more Spanish, like albondigas with a side of patatas bravas.
Jen Ring
For my main dish, I choose the closest thing to a Greek sampler platter – the chicken souvlaki with hummus and warm pita bread. My dining companion goes Italian with the chicken Romanesco. Other Italian main dish options are Seabass Al Cartoccio, Tonnarelli Alle Vongole, and Bistecca All “Fiorentina.” The menu also features Turkish lamb dumplings (manti).
Jen Ring
At the end of our meal, our waitress brings us each a cordial glass filled with orange liquid – orangecello. I enjoy the sweet Italian after-dinner drink and order cannoli to go for when I inevitably got hungry later (we had an early dinner).
Jen Ring
Later, when I crack open my to-go box, I was surprised to discover that my cannoli were somehow perfectly plated within their styrofoam box. Each long tube is kept in place with a dab of cream on either end. On opposite corners of the box, the chef has artfully piped additional dollops of filling and topped them with orange slices and hazelnuts. As with the souvlaki, Amari’s cannoli are the best I’ve ever tasted – their citrus flavor (a fixture of eating/drinking at the Swan Reserve) is absolutely divine.
Sometimes it’s a combination of little things that make a restaurant special – an unwavering attention to detail that is usually only noticed when it’s absent. This attention to detail is present at every stage of our Amare experience, from the curated wine flights to the perfect table settings and onto every perfectly prepared dish.
Jen Ring
Taken by themselves, the dishes we enjoyed at Amare were all excellent, but what makes the place special are the variety of Mediterranean dishes they serve. It’s the fact that you can start your meal with wine from any part, or multiple parts, of the Mediterranean. You can have a Spanish appetizer followed by a Greek main course followed by an Italian dessert. You can have pesto instead of tzatziki sauce on top of your souvlaki, or eat Italian-style meatballs with Spanish-style potatoes. Ordering a three-course meal at Amare is like partaking in a high class Mediterranean buffet. And, like with any great buffet, I leave stuffed but still wanting more.
This content is not sponsored, however Walt Disney World Swan Reserve provided Jen Ring’s room.
